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Micro Adventures with Mr. Sparkle

Tbonegrower

Member
Teas are legit. I ran them in all of my grows up until my divorce.

Do you happen to have any other local sources of biodiversity?
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

Teas are legit. I ran them in all of my grows up until my divorce.

Do you happen to have any other local sources of biodiversity?

just composts, ewc, and natural forming stuff, would have to hunt further for add ins which are most likely available but the teas and reused mix should be enough, just needed to let the mix sit for a bit where as this test i didn't so oh well. Worse come to worse i go back to maxibloom and gro, was just looking for a simpler solution from an already simple solution
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

Chapter 23 "The Purge"

Or that's what this post title should be lol, so as you can see i did a clean out of both boxes, don't know if ill keep those two auto's in the second case or move them to the first just to shut down the other case or put new stuff in it don't really know what ill be doing next, and haven't thought about it, or whether i maybe just go straight auto for the next while or run some photos i still have, but side note any of the plants i keep will have to be fed for the next 3-4 weeks anyways.

Both cases were showing nitrogen deficiencies as they focused on throwing their lack of stored nutrients to their buds now that the flowering stage is in full swing, i defoliated all the yellow leaves just because.

2kkzrW7.jpg

lbMVFAF.jpg



Something to note this was the difference between a 1.0 and 2.0 in my organic amendment test i was trying, also note that i plucked the fan leaves just to show the difference better with the bud formation before they got the chop.

FNgocxQ.jpg



Also the newer pots are better and i have noticed keep things a bit wetter on average but still air prune but also drive roots out and down which was my goal so thumbs up on that, here is a shaken out "de-soiled" root system from one of the DD 4 week old plants, would definitely say its getting maxed out, just comes out as a solid cylinder from the pot.

5jdTc5z.jpg
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

Moved some things around and started some new seeds.

So Bogan will be getting the new seedlings for the first while then they will get transferred to the other case as all of these are photo periods, so if they all grow i'll have a Luther Dogman from CH9, Purple TrainWreck from Humboldt seeds, two blueberry x dark devil crosses, and 2 past crosses of my own called Mr.E, i might start two more seeds as well of some other photo periods but i also have two clones one each of the KC33 and Leda Uno that might be used to fill the space but i want to see a bit further with the ones currently flowering if they look promising or not to run again.

This will probably be my last photo period run for awhile as honestly the auto's out perform photo periods in cycle time to harvest and final yield when your not concerned with the extra electricity input which just makes them even when factoring in that aspect, but i like that ability to run greater yielding plants in less time.

Also have some more new auto strains on the way, but i don't like to count my chickens before they hatch so once they get here i'll share and start a couple.

Oh and Ashla is currently running all the leftovers on a 12/12 cycle, which isn't ideal for the two autos but whatever they will finish if i let them all go to harvest.

vPKvURG.jpg


EXbB9KP.jpg
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

This post should be probably Labeled "Rebirth" , so i was contemplating it but decided to ditch it all and retire the one case till probably winter, two reasons for that first that organic mix i was building up well yeah looked like possibly some root aphids got into it from my best guest at what the larva looked like, which makes me question if it was indeed fungus gnats in the first place but the larva matched at that time but i never bothered looking close up at any of the adults, so i just tossed it.

Second reason even though i was starting a new photo period round is that i've been thinking about this for a bit and was throwing around a couple calculations but have come to the greater realization that for myself and how i like to grow Auto's are just better overall for my application that photo periods and they aren't worth my time for my own goals.

Now im not saying Photo periods don't have their place, as their obvious advantage is you can run clones of the same thing over and over and or reveg a plant if you liked it, but for myself once you factor in the extra space and energy needed to keep a dedicated veg chamber that may be half filled with yielding autos and having to run photo periods for 2.5-3 week longer comparably, and the lower yield in the end it just doesn't add up for myself and how i like to grow.

As here's a quick break down from past results on a time vs energy vs yield stand point

With photo periods i have to run them for 2.5-3 weeks initially in a 18/6 veg cycle then they will finish out in 8-10 weeks under 12/12 yielding roughly 5-7g per plant in that time, with running up to 8 plants in my smaller Black case "Bogan" which runs at 65 W
So breaking it down that's between 64-79 kWh over 10.5-13 weeks with a yield of 40-56 g

Now with Auto's running on a solid 18/6 schedule they finish in 8-9.5 weeks with a yield of 8-9 g per plant
So again 65.5-78 kWh over 8-9.5 weeks with a total yield of 64-72 g

Even at a 20/4 schedule it would be between 73-86.5 kWh and my yield is still greater percentage wise vs the energy difference used vs photo periods

So for myself with how i like to grow from seed to harvest with multiple plants and genetics and making and running my own crosses or mashups that i get to play around with and hunt for those mixes that i really enjoy, i can say Auto's fit my bill quite a bit better in those regards as i get more yield in less time with a tiny bit more energy use, and not to mention the whole reason i had two cases in the first place was specifically for that dedicated veg and flower chambers that i've been doing for years so i guess you can now label me as a full auto convert.

So retired Ashla for now, and we have an empty Bogan, so i need to decided on some autos to run, i also have some genetics on the way from a recent sale that happened or should say Illuminauto drop but till i have them in hand no sense in talking about them.

Here's and empty case that needs a clean lol

wErwS37.jpg
 

psyphish

Well-known member
Veteran
Definitely Mephisto Genetics for autos, I've ran Sweet Seeds, Dutch Passion, Humboldt Seeds Organization, Joint Doctor, Auto Seeds, FastBuds and Bomb Seeds. If I were to run autos again I'd go for more mephisto. Only autos that had a decent high.
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

Definitely Mephisto Genetics for autos, I've ran Sweet Seeds, Dutch Passion, Humboldt Seeds Organization, Joint Doctor, Auto Seeds, FastBuds and Bomb Seeds. If I were to run autos again I'd go for more mephisto. Only autos that had a decent high.

Yeah will be trying three of theirs or so shortly hopefully, i was gonna pick up the sour stomper and the grape crinkle, but i'm pretty sure Mitch and the crew were running them on opposite cycles, as whenever one was available the other wouldn't be, so i just picked up a couple crosses from their latest drop that interested me the most and give me a decent spectrum of their stuff and what to expect.

Sweet Seeds i have plenty of seeds from them from some contests i won but they have impressed me, dutch passion i've only tried their auto mazars, and think different, but the mazars were duds of just not good, and the think different i didn't like by themselves but i have one cross where i mixed them with some sweet seeds Dark Devil's that came out pretty nice. Still need to try a lot of other brands was gonna give Fast Buds a chance but i don't like how they are just cashing in on the bigger strain names when they aren't actually running those genetics aka GG and GSC, so id rather go to some company that isn't BS'ing their customers.
 

Tbonegrower

Member
I like direction you're going. Having a stable of seeds that you made to pick through is always the best, and your math makes total sense.

:good:
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

F*%& you Bogan, why you treat me so bad.......

Lol alright well haven't thrown up an update in awhile for the PC case's one i wast growing and two i did some changes that seemed to cause a curse to descend so here's the run down.

Decided about a week and a bit ago that i was gonna try and implement a small water pump and distribution lines to top feed plants in this case just like in the bucket, so went ahead and made a mini manifold and started to hook things up.

Well short of it on the first try i ended up killing an arduino then in subsequent fixing killed another arduino, over fed a pump, but was having the arduino freeze where the pump would stay on and everything would lock, so rebuilt and rewired everything at least three times due to the pinouts of different arduinos and moved everything to the back of the case now, also swapped out many relay modules, tried different power supplies, added in separate power supplies, filtering capacitors, optisolation and the works to try and solve this lock up issue that doesn't happen in the bucket, which finally led me to the issue of the I2C communication with the LCD that now due to the distance from my arduino is the cause of the lockup due to the communication dropping and the arduino hanging up looking for that communication, oh and to top it off i lit my first distribution manifold on fire and melted it and gave myself a burn blister "don't ask".

The lcd communication i still need to fix but it runs fine so long as its not hooked up which is fine for now.

So need less to say i completely rebuilt Bogan and even stole the the vero18's out of Ashla to swap into this case, which btw Ashla is now just a empty shell with nothing on in except its hardmounted internal circulation fan, so it may get tossed in a metal recycling bin, or get rebuilt down the road.

Oh and to the end of it my distribution hose is a little to stiff IMO, and due to the manifold layout the pressure between different outputs is different which i expected but will need some tuning.


Anyways have a couple of plants going, the one on the left is a Cream Manderine that im trying to reverse for pollen, but my CS may of been old or degraded so i made a new batch yesterday.

iKecvIH.jpg
 

doams

Member
I like how you made that tubing its something I wanted to do
got some tube leftovers from water cooling pc setup..
hm what exactly is that part where those black drippers /tubes/ are connected to? another tube?
is it possible to connect those black dripper tubes directly to that transparent tube skipping /that part/?

sry for bad english.
thx.
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

I like how you made that tubing its something I wanted to do
got some tube leftovers from water cooling pc setup..
hm what exactly is that part where those black drippers /tubes/ are connected to? another tube?
is it possible to connect those black dripper tubes directly to that transparent tube skipping /that part/?

sry for bad english.
thx.

its a manifold i made from 1/2" pvc and 1/4" 2 way connectors that were cut drilled and glued into the pipe, it would be harder to have them go directly into the soft tubing and stay put but could be done, but if i didn't need up to 8 hose ends i would just run a bunch of splitters/t's off the end of the hose as with say 3 splitters you can have 4 outputs, or i may just run a ring with tees feeding the plants, but that's something i will need to play around with a bit to see what works best for me.
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

Manifold wasn't quite working out so i ordered some stuff that should be better once built but it will be awhile before it gets here. Also we will see if the amount of CS ive sprayed on the one plant will be enough to make it change on its own as it wont get sprayed over the next week as ill be away, i'm not confident it will be enough but we will see.

Lets see if they survive, which the setup that still has issues which i need to rebuild Again....

YMN53v9.jpg
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

I guess its been three weeks since my last update.

Well when i was away the I2C communication locked up and caused the pump to lock on, so flooded the plants but they all survived but weren't doing great, and due to the overly wet situation all the pots were developing algae, fungus, mold, and some springtails and potworms flourished because of it, how they got in there no idea, but tried sterilizing the coco afterwards and the last treatment round seemed to work decent but the damage had already been done so i tossed pretty much all the plants except the cream mandarine i was reversing i chopped it back and sprayed a bit more CS as it needing a little bit more, its doing decent now and has some seeds in the works so sweet.

Also i also noticed the plants that i had just started in my bucket also had springtails, so they got moved over to the case as i wasn;t worried about cross contamination anymore, but they got a basic diy soil treatment once they were moved over and it looks like it worked decent.

The lockup issues were somewhat resolved with pull up resistors on the data and clock line for the lcd, apparently my I2C backpack doesn't have them even though i thought they did, still will be looking for a different library that doesn't cause hangups though.

But today i finally got around to finishing some of the upgrades, went with a different watering layout where the pressure is more equalized, ordered the couple fittings from china but wasn't expecting them for months but they came in a couple weeks so bonus on that, Also swapped out my reservoir for a Ikea klamtare container which is now underneath my pc case instead of on top like my gravity feed setup for anti auto suction and drainage reasons, the bonus is it raises up the case which makes the plants more view able and easier to work with while sitting on the floor.

oh and Ashla is no more she got scrapped so i only have the one pc case and one bucket now

Anyways here's a picture.

5UhwWPP.jpg
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

Another 5 days, the couple of seeds that were forming are starting to finish out but it will still be probably two more weeks before ill chop the Cream Mandarine for them, as for the other plants they are doing alright, a bit sluggish probably from my earlier whitetail treatment i did which i haven't seen any since, but one of the Dark Devils F1's threw some balls which is either due to some random over spray of the CS treatment of the Cream Mandarine or i stressed them out but high likely hood of the former we will see how the plant behave over the next week or so, if still sluggish i'll just toss them.

OYozLQG.jpg
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

4 days later, the one dark devil bolted which is rather odd, but could possibly be a seed mix up as i had two varieties with my f1's with one being a taller lankier version which i don't prefer but possibly got into this round, also moved over a mutant Auto Blues from the bucket , to one give the other plants more room and two it would of been overgrown if it stayed it the bucket.

Really this case is just acting as a hold over for everything at the moment, i'm not too concerned to have things run ideally, so i'll just run everything out as is and may chop various plants as they progress, but will eventually migrate to a completely empty case and start a fresh cycle now that things are a bit more squared away after the updates.

Kexgx6I.jpg
 

Soulrebel239

Active member
Mr. Sparkle can you post some close up pictures of the new water set up. I'm into the PC grow boxes and been following your work from the beginning.
 

psyphish

Well-known member
Veteran
Your plants usually seem really light green with a slight yellow tinge? Is it just the lights or are you still dialing in the feeds?
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

Mr. Sparkle can you post some close up pictures of the new water set up. I'm into the PC grow boxes and been following your work from the beginning.

Its pretty basic i can post pics if needed, but it's just composed of a 3-6v micro pump off ebay/wherever and its connected to some 3/8" hose that feeds into the case then into a basic three way splitter so one side is the intake and the other two sides are outputs but the outputs i connect into a loop to equalize pressure on all the outlets that are connected in between, the outlet are just cheap ebay 4 way splitters where you have two 3/8" connectors and two 1/8" connectors, the 3/8" sides are all connected into that loop, with the 1/8" going off to feed my pots, but i have 4 of those in the loop as due to my pot size i only ever want to run 8 pots max, so that leaves a single 1/8" output for each pot.

To make things easier i should of went with black harder walled tubing for the loop with 90 degree corner pieces, as it would of kept things a bit more level and doesn't allow light to get into the tube where algae and such will form otherwise.

But we will see how the new setup works out, oh and it still goes off my old arduino watering sensor for when to water, its just everything connected to how the water is delivered is new.



Your plants usually seem really light green with a slight yellow tinge? Is it just the lights or are you still dialing in the feeds?

It's a combination of things in this case and the plants in there at the moment, had a rough start with watering issues that happened a couple times due to the new setup hanging up my arduino code, so the plants got flooded a couple times and stayed way too wet which allowed algae, fungus, and springtails to exploded, which they weren't there before so i had to deal with that, and been feeding light till things became more stable.

Its more of a if they survive they survive type thing now, would of probably already tossed the lot and started fresh if i wasn't allowing the one plant to finish up with its seeds its making, which is fully in senescence right now so it consuming itself anyways.

So everything is just kinda limping along.
 
M

Mr. Sparkle

So the one plant hit the roof 2 days later when i next looked at the case so it got the chop, picked off a few seeds from the cream mandarine but will wait till the ones from the second pollination are done before removing it.
Things are going alright, but not great should swap out the feed water shortly to more flower based mix.

MKrbysC.jpg
 

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