My Perpetual Ebb & Flow Cabinets

[imnotcrazy]

Time2Unite: Interlock several rubberbands, stretch them tight and tie the 2 ends. The way I do it now, the band still doesn't hold that tight and if you bend too much at once, the plant will pull slack. Bend a lil each day or so and it's like putty in your hands.

Mibri: As far as flowering one full tray at a time, I smoke alot and like a variety and with a 400W bulb I bet I yeild what a 600 or 1000W could do with the same tray over 2 months or at least damn close to it. I average 12-20 ounces in a month with good producers, Pulling 3-5 ounces/week with 3-5 plants at a time. Once its going full perpetual with selected strains that is. We'll see where that's headed in the next couple of months. If you wanted to try something like this I'd set up the 2 trays for different nute strengths so you could run girls with more varying needs. This is where my concern with the PBP nutes is. I do use Lucas formula to a point but I let the girls show me what they need and fix straight away by adding individual components of the Micro and Bloom and adding CaMgPlus. Being that the PBP is one part I don't know if it will suit me as well. Only a test wil show, if I have to trade off a few more rez changes per year for better tasting "organic" buds It'll be worth it.

 

[Guest423]

Time2Unite: Interlock several rubberbands, stretch them tight and tie the 2 ends. The way I do it now, the band still doesn't hold that tight and if you bend too much at once, the plant will pull slack. Bend a lil each day or so and it's like putty in your hands.

nice i'll definatly give that a try....sounds pretty fool proof to me just how i like it...later man....keep up the nice work

 

[imnotcrazy]

Forgot to mention as far as the clear pots are concerned ,with the canopy provided, i don't see too much algae or other problems as moms are thick and under fluoros and the clones in flower are so tight together and hydroton to top of container not much light gets down below pot level.

 

[imnotcrazy]

Bump

 

[imnotcrazy]

UPDATE

UPDATE



Most of the seedlings in this RW has shown head above ground.

If anyone is reading along in -VT-'s threads I do seedlings much like him, letting the taproot get from 1/2-1" long before going into starting medium. That way I know if the seed just pops and fails quickly. Easier to keep an eye on them this way and you don't waste starting materials on them.




5of 7 Super Silver Haze have cracked or popped but I'll let them be in the paper towel until tomorrow.

At this point, all SD IBLs and Wonder Haze have popped (nice work so far Rez and from what I've see only good things to come.... hopin for a Willam's Wonder pheno) All but 2 SWT#3s have popped, all Blockhead have cracked, and some of the Jack Herer have cracked (hopefully I can get a nice female for a mom so I don't have to buy another pack of these)

Probably going to do a rez change to PBP before the weekend is out. BTW has anyone ever heard that when using GH and PBP nutes you calibrate the meter 2 different ways? I have a Milwaukee SM801 PH/EC?TDS meter that uses a .68 conversion for EC to TDS and was using Milwaukee Calibration sachets of 4.01 and 7.01 PH and 1413 and the guy at the hydro shop told me this and gave me a bottle of Dutch Master 1400 calibration solution. My meter needed calibration last night so I figured why not test the difference now. So I calibrated the normal way using the milwaukee calib fluids and when I checked the DM calib Fluid it was reading like 1800ppm and 2.57u in ec. My question is, Being that all I'm taking is a base figure what would be the difference whether 1400u is calibrated at one point or the other? If I mix up a gallon of Lucas Formula 0-8-16 and mix up a gallon of PBP @ 1 or 1 1/4 ounce/gallon and either way the meter was calibrated you'd know what reading you should get in the rez for fresh flowering nutes, say for example when I calib w/Milwaukee fluid i read 1300ppm on the Lucas and 1800ppm on 1 1/4 ounce of PBP with the DM calib fluid I might read 800 on the Lucas and 1300 on the PBP. Correct me if I'm wrong and the guy at the shop just doesn't want to sell me more products.

 

[-VT-]

I didn't let my taproots get long enough this last seed run lol....but I am gonna be ruthless about selecting those with vigor and culling runts and weaklings, as they have all turned out to be males just about....I think the stress has to have an effect....in my seed grows (new to this...very new), I have found that the most vigorous and healthiest from the start usually is a female lol....(Grandaddy Purple got me kinda in a trance ...sorry for rambling)

Too high to opine with any clarity...but here goes I feel the conductivity reading you get (basleine) is just a reference point to gauge what the plants need....for you to monitor....ultimately we read the plants anyways....I just don't see what difference it really makes....I dunno...maybe others have some intelligent input on that....never heard of the different calibrations for each respective nute though....good info

peace

 

[Mibri]

Time2Unite: Interlock several rubberbands, stretch them tight and tie the 2 ends. The way I do it now, the band still doesn't hold that tight and if you bend too much at once, the plant will pull slack. Bend a lil each day or so and it's like putty in your hands.

Mibri: As far as flowering one full tray at a time, I smoke alot and like a variety and with a 400W bulb I bet I yeild what a 600 or 1000W could do with the same tray over 2 months or at least damn close to it. I average 12-20 ounces in a month with good producers, Pulling 3-5 ounces/week with 3-5 plants at a time. Once its going full perpetual with selected strains that is. We'll see where that's headed in the next couple of months. If you wanted to try something like this I'd set up the 2 trays for different nute strengths so you could run girls with more varying needs. This is where my concern with the PBP nutes is. I do use Lucas formula to a point but I let the girls show me what they need and fix straight away by adding individual components of the Micro and Bloom and adding CaMgPlus. Being that the PBP is one part I don't know if it will suit me as well. Only a test wil show, if I have to trade off a few more rez changes per year for better tasting "organic" buds It'll be worth it.

Hi Imnot. That surely sounds attractive. I'll try and grow perpetual after a couple of training grows. This is my first time growing indoors in rockwool so we just need to get each other to know. I would love to be able to just harvest a little bit once in a while, because i've tried sometimes from outdoor grows that it would actually be hard labour to harvest. My girlfriend hates it. Would be nice to sit down in front of the tv, with a nice joint(still use vapour, just like the sound of a nice joint) And just trim a couple of nice plants. My original plan was to fill the leca stones right in the trays, but i can see it could be pretty easy to put them in their pots. I would think without pots would be a bit more efficient with more rooting space, but it would be soo much easier to move them with pots. Seems more clean too. I just saw some movie with mr. green and he put the medium right in there. hmmm.

 

[imnotcrazy]

-VT-: I agree, Calibration is just a baseline for your readings. I figure if you knew the nutes well enough (like me I've been using Lucas Formula for several years) you could mix up a gallon of the baseline mix for flower fert and set to a round number. For example, take the PBP bottle instructions. The mix amounts for onset of flower and heavy fruiting are 1 and 1 1/4 ounce/gallon respectively. If you took the 1 ounce/gallon mix and mixed in 1 gallon of the water you are using (whether tap or RO) and set the calibration point to lets say 2.0ms. The only thing it would screw up would be anyone trying to follow your nute regemin I would think. But you would have to KNOW the nutes pretty well too. So I plan on just calibrating with the Milwaukee stuff for now and I'll use up the DM at a later point in time. And I'll just mix up one gallon of each: 0-5-10 and 0-8-16 Lucas veg and flower; 1 ounce/gallon and 1 1/4 ounce/gallon PBP and take readings with a freshly calibrated meter. Also, I think this would/should bring up the point that you SHOULD advertise what the meter was calibrated to (what solution(s) were used) because my 0-8-16 will read different than yours if I use Milwaukee and you use Dutch Master.

Mibri: Pots are definatly the best way to go IMHO. If there ever was a problem plant, it makes it much easier to contain if the problem can be contained quickly by removing said problem while at the same time not damaging roots which WILL become entangled without some form of a boarder. Netpots are no good for this either, you would need the square/round pots with several holes where the bottom meets the sides. There is no guarentee that if you use pots that roots will not become entangled, but it does lessen the likelyhood of it happening and makes it much easier than to not have. If roots become entangled between several pots, I just snip off the roots where they come out of the pot. Much less damage than a fully entangled root mat trust me

As for things on my end, looking on the up and up. Again 5 for 5 on the SD IBL, 4 for 5 on the Wonder Haze, 4 for 5 on the SWT#3 are all in RW cubes and 0 for 5 on the Blockhead and 0 for 9 on the Jack Herer Some have cracked and the JH is old anyway. Some more clones will be added to the flowering tray tonight and the next harvest is in 2.5 weeks or so. The cab isn't up to a weekly harvest just yet, but damn close. Clones that all finish @ 60 days went in on 10/3(Blue Mystic-B & NLights tester-C But I mixed up the clones in the cloner so I don't know exactly which is which, they grow fairly similar and I'm not too familiar with either one yet), 10/5(finally rooted Ice tester-C, was supposed to go in on the 3rd), 10/9(White Rhino keeper & Blue Mystic-A), 10/15(Ice tester-B) then skips to 11/2, 11/9(NYCD tester-C & White Rhino Keeper). Not sure what goes in tonight have to look and see what clones are ready and I'll get some close-ups of the flowering girls later, the NYCD-C is starting to show off a bit @ 5 days

 

[Guest]

looking real sweet !!! pulling up a chair for my new favorite thread! glad we can be pals!

 

[Mibri]

Hi Crazy. I made the pots today using 5 l. buckets (1,3 gallon). Just drilled heaps of holes where the sides meet bottom, and then some in the middle. Cut some mesh for bottoms to keep leca rocks (and roots) inside bucket. Spraypainted black. shouldn't those bucket be an okay size?

 

[Mibri]

woops, forgot - how large are those candy buckets of yours. I can see they support a female about the size im gonna grow?

 

[imnotcrazy]

Probably @ a quart/liter. Got lucky with them actually. Went out back at work for a cigarette and the company that empties the garbage had dropped another container full of those buckets, which happened to be brand new, while they were dumping our container. Got lucky and scored @ 200 pots for free. All I had to do was sit there with a soldering iron and punch holes (tried a drill and broke 20 pots or so) for several hours. But it saved me @ $100.
Mibri: If you are going to Paint the outside of the tray you made and run pot spacing similar to mine I wouldn't worry about container color too much. As you can see mine are clear and I have MINIMAL algae problems because my pot spacing limits the light to the root zone. Bonus for me is that I can keep a close eye on root development. I'll get pics of the pots in a few.

PS: If I state that I will post pics, I may not do it exactly when I say it will be done. But it will be done. I have to work around the roomie as he has a 6 month old and would rather me not "show the goods" so to speak.

 

[Mibri]

Really? 1/4 liter? That is really small - like the smallest coke bottle available? They look a little bigger, or am i reading it wrong?
My buckets are white, and i just have one black spray paint leftover from painting the trays, so ill just give them a spray each. I uploadet pics of it. Nice catch! Mine a from a restaurant - free as well.
Hehe you need a larger cabinet for those 200 buckets )
In a couple of days i'll have my flowering room completely done. Shouldnt i just veg the widows in there for a week or so for faster growth than fluorsc. What u think?

 

[Mibri]

Is your flowering cabinet just wood by the way? You could get way more bud from bottom branches if painting white (cheap white paint is lime or chalk) They use it for painting churches and stuff - get very bright and almost free. (we like the free stuff, right)

 

[imnotcrazy]

No they are a somewhere @ a quart or liter, I have pics and will post w/ measurements in a little bit along with today's update.

 

[Guest]

INGENIOUS!!!

 

[imnotcrazy]

UPDATE 11/15

UPDATE 11/15

Mibri: here's a couple pics of the pots I made





They stand 5 1/4" tall and are @ 4 1/2" in diameter at the top and @ 3 1/2" at the base. I made all of them with the same hold pattern and used a soldering iron to do so. As for your questions, I'll eventually get to painting the interior of the cab white but for now it'll have to do (It is finished birch and quite reflective but already have the paint from leftover job @ work, free just too busy reaping the latest rewards ). Just wanted to get back up and running after a hectic year (dealing with previous roomie and problems he caused involving LEO, this roomie is FAMILY), and it feels soooo good to have gotten out of that slump Also, wanting to use the extra paint good, using on the pots not so good IMO, unless *POSSIBLY* if it was non toxic. Either way unless I KNOW its is INERT, it won't be found in my root zone.


The seedlings are taking off, for the most part




All of the Wonder Haze (last 2 are seeing RW cubes tonight) and Sour Diesel (all are Seedlings), 4 of 6 SWT#3 (of the 2 left 1 was "mutant" (wrinkled shell) and still waiting on the other and still have ?4-6 left, no complaints on the SWT bulk purchase from me) And I'm still waiting 5 of 5 on the Blockhead (probably older stock, but I asked DG for a special on it, it was cheap enough and I love me some Blockhead) and have 10 seeds left so even *IF* they don't pop no biggie. But I'm most upset with the Jack Herer. Although I've had this pack for a WHILE, I know how to store seeds. (I DID NOT purchase from SBAY OR BOUTIQUE but I will not name the vendor. I will however say that I was also unimpressed with the other vendor's "stealth" shipping and will stick with SBay and Boutique from here on out.) I tried 7 of the 16 beans earlier this year and this 9 are giving me the same result, crack and fail. Maybe with the name surrounding JH (?notoriously difficult to grow? and pricetag) they would sit on the shelf longer than Nirvana beans for sure, but not one taproot, nothing. The Blockhead is a different story as I knew what I was getting into.


The moms are getting alot bushier after the "haircut" 3 1/2 days ago



And on a good note I added 3 more White Rhino clones today, next weeks three will fill all pots on the table for the first time since getting this show back on the road

The 3 new clones are in the middle of this shot (hard to get from the sides because the youngest ones go under the light for a day or two to catch up and not be caught in the shadows)



And a side view



These 3 hit the fluoros and didn't make the cut



Last Weeks Clones (from left: White Rhino, NYCD)

 

[Weed_Seed]

reallyreally nice set up, like wat your doing! Keep it up I want to come back to this thread n see some nice new nugs ps the white rhino looks a little premo? true?

 

[imnotcrazy]

On a side note, Mibri, If those holes in your buckets are behind the lip at the bottom they will not fill and/or drain properly. Maybe I can't see in your pics, but you need to have the outermost set of holes on the edge where the sides meet the bottom. That way even if the bucket is sitting in a way where the bottom if flush/almost flush with the bottom of the tray the holes on the side/bottom would still allow nute mix/water to E&F in the pot. Another reason why I suggest/use the eggcrate material. Premade E&F trays have the gutters built into them so it really doesnt matter where the holes are, some will be exposed because it's designed for this purpose. Our trays however need to be modified a bit in order to do this. The eggcrate is an easy fix at @ $10 USD for a 2' x 4' panel or you could make something but again use inert materials. Or try that coco mat some people use in E&F, if it doesn't get soggy/soft it may support the weight of each plant w/pot.

 

[imnotcrazy]

Weed_Seed: They are premie for sure @ 1week 12/12 after 24/0veg lol, just showing pistils and starting to stretch. When they went in they were @ 5-6" tall and I removed them from the cab for a better pic now @ 12-18". All of the more mature plants are on the sides of the tray to allow the clones to "catch up and not be caught in the shadows" for a day or so. the 400W Hortilux in the Cooltube looks/will perform much better than the old hood and bulb no?