Micro Adventures with Mr. Sparkle

[Mr. Sparkle]

Swapped out the nutrient feed today and chopped of the top of the Cream Mandarin as only the bottom of it has seeds still left to develop on it. Also pollinated a couple of the lowers on the center plant just for fun.

 

[plantahumana]

hi mr sparkle
I want to congratulate you on the clean and functional process! very good!

Is your soil in all pots the same mixture of perlite and coconut?

I have a very bad English and I use the online translation to read your diary, but some words do not make much sense with the automatic translation.

I set up some vases with felts for my mini cultivation, I'm going to do this test.

Since the first week, did you use the EC in 1.2?

I am looking for a regime to feed my plants, I am collecting rainwater and my EC meter leaves at 00 and I would like to leave at least 0.3 to feed.

Sorry for the first visit already bring so many questions, but the content seen here is very good and any tip coming from the responsible so it should be worth a lot!

I hope you continue the great work!

greetings.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

@plantahumana currently im just running straight coco coir and yes it the same in all pots.

First week or two i feed at around 0.6-0.7ec till i see that the plants need more and to not over saturate the pots right away, then i increase the feed for the rest of the cycle to around 1.0-1.2ec

As for felt or fabric pots i have found they work a lot better for root growth verse plastic pots


i'll also include my update in this post as well

A few more days and they are doing fine, the darkdevil f1 on the right i should mention is running in one of my older smaller different fabric pots, but its doing nicely, i just wanted to compare root growth.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

end of week update, the thinkdifferent x darkdevil in the center is starting to pack on flowers, the others are doing alright, and the mutant auto blues is pulling through.

 

[Soulrebel239]

What happened with the white pc ? Did you sale it. I need a carbon scrubber like the ones you use for my server tower.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

What happened with the white pc ? Did you sale it. I need a carbon scrubber like the ones you use for my server tower.

Salvaged and reused some of the parts from it to rebuild the black case and then i tossed the case, tray, and empty filter in the metal bin after i flattened them, so the white case is no more, sad i know but i didn't need two cases with the bucket going as well and i was more partial too the black case as it ran better and was smaller by about 20% height and area wise which i liked.

As for the scrubbers they can be made relatively easy, just have to plan it out and think about how it will go together, mine were just made out of cheap galvanized tin "joist panning" and some metal mesh and were riveted together, with all the fold of the metal being done over a hard edge and some very light hammering to get the sharp angles and everything was cut with aviation snips.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Update: the think different x dark devil is starting to pack on the buds and trichomes and is starting to take on a purple tingle due to the darkdevil side of it, and the others are doing alright, the springtail's are back in full force but they can do their own thing till the end, i don't care anymore. Oh and the Auto Blue freebie is starting to flower after powering through its stunted mutated start.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

A few more days, moved some things around and swapped the main exhaust fan for a quieter one that im running at full, and ill probably remove the circulation fan on the top right and throw in a 40mm fan down in the back corner as ive started to look more heavily into airflow characteristics and even with the circulation fan everything that would be under the canopy is pretty stagnate with the tray being dead which would make sense for the bacteria and algae growth i see on the pots, the pc definitely isn't as nice for airflow compared to what i can do with a bucket, so i'll be playing around.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Starting to pack out but the springtail issue is prolific now, its all gonna get a sterilization cleaning in a couple weeks anyways so just letting them do there thing for now.

Also i'll say i've been consistently impressed with the Think Different x Dark Devil cross ive been running since i made the seeds a ways back which is the plant in the center back in the photo, i didn't enjoy the Think Different by itself so didn't expect much but in the cross it definitely added to things in a positive note, so im gonna probably do a seed run to make some f2's shortly as i only have a 6-7 seeds left, but beign that they will be f2's they should be more diverse in there make up so after running a bunch i'll know what plants to look for i order to cross back to each other to make more consistent f3's if the f2's are worthy.

 

[Xanode]

awsome awsome thread Mr. Sparkle, just want to ask your advice on topping and flowering, how long do you wait after topping to induce flowering? And do you do it during flowering?

cheers.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

awsome awsome thread Mr. Sparkle, just want to ask your advice on topping and flowering, how long do you wait after topping to induce flowering? And do you do it during flowering?

cheers.

Typically i don't top if i don't need too and i try to limit my plant size by limiting their root space.

Now if i do top its typically done as a reactionary response than planned beforehand but is done within the first 2-3 weeks of flower as by then you know if the plant is gonna be unruly or not.

But if the goal was to bush out a plant for multiple tops or filling an area then the sooner the better and i would be comfortable topping between 1-1.5weeks before and after flowering, but it all come down to what your goal is

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Update time things are still moving along, running a bit wet but i swapped the sensor to another pot which reads wetter so that should easily fix things. will be trying some diatomaceous earth for the springtails once things get a bit drier as currently its a tad too wet, either way wont matter much longer once the plants are done but doesn't hurt to see if the stuff works while i have a chance too before it all gets cleaned and turfed.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Tuesday update: Hooked the internal fan back up for now, gonna switch to a 40mm fan tucked up in the corner beside the carbon filter once things are done as its just easier to work on things when you don't have to juggle plants, but they are looking good and putting on mass, also moved a few of the plants around obviously.

 

[noknees]

when its needed, id prefer not to pluck them, but it either before going into flower or the first couple weeks that way they can recover, but usually what happens is i figure they will be alright but then they out grow each other and then because they sense less light due to so many leaves and they start to reach to try and get past the other plants, kinda like a pine tree forest, so i usually have to hack then to try to keep things under control.

Some plants definitely do not working doing this, while others you may only see slow down for a day or two.

cool thread. any recommendations for plants that rend to recover from such defoliation--that i can buy from seed?

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

@noknees plants that are more sativa leaning tend to work better as they have few fan leave to begin with.


But update as i'm back from my absence so here's a couple of pics first is before i left and the next was after i was back also decided to chop all the plants two days ago except the Auto Blues which will run out the week, leaving me with no plants currently on the go in all my grow spaces.

Dark Devil F1 in a small pot, Red Poison, Think Different X Dark Devil

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

The final plant in the case being an Auto Blues got chopped earlier tonight so in currently running nothing at the moment, might do a seed run next but time for some tweaks, cleaning and building a new bucket as well before starting anything.

 

[jonhova]

Nice pictures mr sparkle does your carbon scrubber work well for you?

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Nice pictures mr sparkle does your carbon scrubber work well for you?

100% no, but it does work at cutting the smell out, its the later stages of flower such as the last 2-3 weeks that the carbon gets over powered for me, but in comparison to not running a filter its night and day different, like holy crap i need to open up some windows and turn some fans on, vs hmmm its a little funky that a little bit of air spray can handle.

But i will say i do run an electronic air purifier it the same room as my space anyways, one as it cleans the air of normal house hold dust which is beneficial for me, but it also does help with cutting down any extra smell that gets past my filters.

Also the plants genetics come into play as well, as some are fruity or floral or earthy or produce little smell to some i've run with diesel leaning genetics or others that no matter what you do its gonna be hard to kill the smell, needless to say those don't stay around for long and i have found typically don't give me the effect i want anyways.

 

[je'rome]

Hey, love this post!! Is it possible to see the arduino code for the box?

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

posted back at post #370, but here it is

https://github.com/MrSparkleCA/MrSparkle-ArduinoGrowController