New Room, New Bed, New Lights, Old Genetics

[trichrider]

i've been intrigued by DankFrank and his indoor bed for quite some time.
we know plants grow better when they have room for roots to hunt what they require, so i went about finding a 'bed' deep enough and of a functional size for this room, but building a 'bed' that i couldn't move disturbed me. the can is 24'' deep, 20'' wide, and 56'' long... and i guess it hold about 1/2 yard of soil.
it sits on a dolly i built out of plywood and castor wheels so i could move it.

i labored years wondering how i could have a mobile 'bed' with a depth satisfactory enough, and this is what i came up with.
i also used some ideas from thailer and flylowgethigh in their discussion of SIP and SWICK respectively, to put a reservoir in the bottom by using 3'' drainage pipe.

the angled cuts when glued together make a 90* elbow on each end.
placed in the bottom and covered with 4'' of perlite it will be easy to fill with water and when the water level goes down oxygen can reach the roots.
you can see the ends of the pipe poking up through the soil at each end.

the lights are new also.
Mars Hydro SP 3000 x 2

https://www.mars-hydro.com/led-grow-...led-grow-light

the plants are GSC x SSSDH from OJD

 

[eyesdownchronic]

looks promising! ill pull up my bucket .

 

[Lester Beans]

Wow that's very cool! I can't wait to see the results! Sub'd

 

[flylowgethigh]

Hi Tricrider. Don't hate on me for pointing out a few things I have figured out in the last year. I will go through a post-run turn around on my SWICK system, and show why I think bags on a wick bed are a much better technique than soil on a wick bed with no cloth barrier. Why don't you mentally go trough the end-of-run process, which you will need to do at the end of the run, using the method you are about to try? I like to recharge and recycle my soil. Bags make transport so much easier for a lazy old stoner. A bed would not be this handy.

The aftermath of spent bags still on the beds after a run. This is in the self-watering "big tent":

Plants removed
Not a very big stem. I have seen them 30mm or so in 10 gallons. This was fast OHSK

Put a container on the floor and lift the bag up and set it in the container. The roots have penetrated the bag and perlite clings to them. The tub avoids a lot of mess in my house, and the plastic runner in front of the tents helps.

Nice perlite bed ready to clean old leaves and add material if needed. Vermeculite doesn't get as green. Repeat for all the tubs. Take the bags to the recycle tub, dump them out, toss the root ball. Amend and compost for another run. Fill new bags with freshly amended soil recycled from the last run, take the fresh bags back and put them on the bed. Ready for the next run. Make new water for the reservoir, transplant in from dixie cups, and you're off on the next run..

With the bags out I can vacuum the tent floor, unhook one side of the light and put it aside. The filter and cover are accessable and can be cleaned. If I had a plug between the inside and the outside of the SIP water height control bucket, it would pump all the water from the tubs back into the reservoir. The reservoir is then dumped on the garden. This gets rid of all the nasty water that has run off the bags when top water/feeding the soil.

Unhook one side and the lights lay to the side.
This filter cover should be white.

The water is pumped from the reservoir to the outer part of this - that is the water inlet hose hanging down. The outside of the waterfall is connected to the tubs, and water seeks it's own height in them. They communicate via the water also. Inside the inner bucket is the pump that returns the water to the reservoir when the outer part flows into the inner part. This is my SIP height control mechanism. Somehow the line from the reservoir has become automatic, and the SIP control stays full as long as the reservoir has water.

I need to do this: It there was a temporary hole between the inner bucket and the outer area, the tubs would drain and the old water would pump out back to the rez. I need to get a cork to use for a plug so I can make that change. Cleaning and changing the water is part of the cycle.

Maybe the bed doesn't need the soil re-amended. Redbud made beds with "termite tech" logs in their soil. Good luck pulling root balls from there. I just unroll the bag from the ball, and shake off the soil.

 

[flylowgethigh]

Tricrider, if you don't hate me yet, I have to say something about the support pipes. That is what they are - hollow support. The holes should be small, otherwise they will fill with perlite. I used the slotted drain pipe that is like an accordian, and will slip over itself to make a loop.

 

[trichrider]

eyesdownchronic are you making the promise? lol there will be a result, but no promises. this is a first for me.
thanks for visiting and don't be shy about coming back around, i'll keep a bucket open for you.

Lester Beans , heya brother bean. happy to have you along on my maiden voyage.
i hope it turns out your interest is justified!

flylowgethigh . dude, i ain't gonna hate on you for making suggestions, that's absurd.
but as you might know, this is going to be as close to ROLS as i can get and probably closer to NOTILL.
i don't anticipate removing the soil as long as i can re-amend.
i don't want to remove the rootballs either as they potentially have stored nutrients and biology that is easily broken down and is then recycled as food for the next iteration, at least that's the hypothesis. stick around, we'll see.
oh, and thanks for taking the time to present your observations, i take them into account, even if they are counter to what i'm trying to achieve.

be well.
.

 

[trichrider]

mobility was a priority.

adjustable light height, with daisychained dimmer.
these lights are incredibly bright and early test showed a need for distance between them and the canopy.
they were bleaching the fan leaves at close proximity.
adjusting the distance instead of dimming resulted in being able to run them at capacity.
they are also much cooler than the magnetic ballasts and dropped the ambient temps by 10* F...it's winter damnit, this room on previous runs with 1Kw lamp was spot on 75*, perfect temps, now i may need to provide heat.

here are pics of the amazing growth.
i pinched the tops after one week in dirt and i've started training them to get the lowers light.

that's all for now. i'm ready for another block party. have a great weekend.

 

[gizmo666]

that tub is gonna fill out to a whole lotta plants
its gonna look amazing in a few weeks

 

[flylowgethigh]

When I transplant from the Dixie cups to the 10 gallon bags, I top water until they spread out roots far enough to get into the wick. And I also try not to run the lights harder than the roots can take, as they develop. It is hard to over water, especially since you can see down into the water tube and judge the water level. If you can get a bluemat digital, the stand alone meter, you will see readings that are pretty wet. Microbes love it, and don't forget them when top watering/feeding.

I like to scratch in some BAS 12 clover cover crop to get root activity going at the surface. Your plants are about at the right size, if you ever wanted to try and do that. Most of the clover will die in the tent when the canopy starves the bottom of light, but by then the roots are well into the bed and scatterred in the soil. Your tub may keep it alive, and you might need to mow the grass. A few worms won't hurt either if they will stay in there.

I thought about a bed in the tent.

 

[eyesdownchronic]

Its really not too much of an issue to remove the main rootball mass for each plant and just plant a new plant in each hole at harvest. And you can just toss some amendments in the hole or top dress.
Looking great so far. Word of personal advice. trigger to flower sooner than you otherwise would because plants will grow like fucking crazy when they have that much root space.
maybe a week more of veg and id say its time.

 

[Rodehazrd]

I'm pulling up a seat for this, Nice tub.

 

[Creeperpark]

What kind of potting mix are you using?

 

[trichrider]

Creeperpark
FF Ocean Forest, four bags
Oly Mountain Fish Compost, three bags
a layer of homemade compost on top of 4'' of perlite
additional amendments include kelp meal, alfalfa meal, bone meal, and Mykos
watered in with a concoction of fish hydrosolate and molasses.
pull up a stool...

Rodehazrd
thanks for the compliment. i invite you to return anytime!

eyesdownchronic
thanks brother, they are looking more incredible by the day. certainly doing much better than the last run in plastic pots.
i can't say it's the depth of space available, since this is only the second week in dirt.
...but the lights are already timed to flower so we'll need to wait until next sequence to tell a difference.
thanks for the visit.

flylowgethigh
i wanted to grow green beans because nitrogen...gbeans sequester nitrogen.
i didn't have time to plant cover, the girls went into the tub as soon as i finished filling it.
i'd love to have worms, but i'm afraid they would not like the medium, there is but little real dirt in there for them to graze on.
i'm thinking of adding another tub and making it hugelkultur, worms might then be an option.
stick around!

gizmo666
hell yeah! that's the plan my good man!
i've pinned them down so they can spread and get light and it won't be long before they fill that space.
i'm seeing impressive growth already, so your prediction is self fulfilling...you can feel i'm smiling.
i have some old buckets around.

 

[Creeperpark]

Thank you, Friend.

 

[trichrider]

looking at two two weeks growth.
i gotta say, the LEDs have impressive penetration.
the nodal distance has improved, stems bulkier, even the lowers which usually yellow early have retained green growth.

hope you had a green St Patty's day,
see yas next week.

 

[Cactus Squatter]

Sweet setup!
As far as adding worms… Worms will like that mix just fine if you want to add them to it. They’ll thrive in that. Plenty of compost for food and enough grit to not have issues. Nothing but benefits to adding them.

 

[trichrider]

Cactus Squatter
welp i was going to try anyway, just right now it's hard to find them. thanks for the encouragement.
i've got a battery and some spikes, but am lacking jumper cables.
the recent rains have saturated the soil and i've been seeing their little piles of castings in the grass, so it's prime time to try and gather some.
there are plenty of buckets left from converting to this tub, so grab a bucket, torch one up and pass to the right.

 

[Cactus Squatter]

Cactus Squatter
welp i was going to try anyway, just right now it's hard to find them. thanks for the encouragement.
i've got a battery and some spikes, but am lacking jumper cables.
the recent rains have saturated the soil and i've been seeing their little piles of castings in the grass, so it's prime time to try and gather some.
there are plenty of buckets left from converting to this tub, so grab a bucket, torch one up and pass to the right.

If all else fails in catching enough there’s always night crawlers wherever you can buy fishing gear. They’ll multiply like crazy in that mix you have. It’s similar to what I’m running and mine are going bonkers reproducing. Plants have never been happier.

I ended up ordering 5lbs of worms to amend my entire garden and all my bags due to local desert soil not having enough worms to make catching them worthwhile.

 

[trichrider]

April 1, day thirty at 11/13. 45 days from start.

 

[Creeperpark]

Those plants are kicking ass now, they really look happy!