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passive plant killer
- Thread starter delta9nxs
- Start date
D
disciple
catman, thank you for the drawing.
that would be a good pattern except that my drawing is to scale on everything but the plants.
this is the same drawing showing the size of the plants roughly to scale.
i literally have to turn sideways to get through the room and i'm still touching plants and lights. plants touch each other side to side and sometimes touch the opposite plant also. they are over my head in height now, and i expect them to end up about a foot taller depending on strain.
it's really tight in there.
also, your aspect ratio is approx 2/1 length to width for room size. which would be a .50 factor.
my room is 37/13 using .5 as a common denominator (18.5' x 6.5'), or a .35 factor.
again, thank you for the drawing. i wish i had drawn the first one better for you to work with.
that would be a good pattern except that my drawing is to scale on everything but the plants.
this is the same drawing showing the size of the plants roughly to scale.
i literally have to turn sideways to get through the room and i'm still touching plants and lights. plants touch each other side to side and sometimes touch the opposite plant also. they are over my head in height now, and i expect them to end up about a foot taller depending on strain.
it's really tight in there.
also, your aspect ratio is approx 2/1 length to width for room size. which would be a .50 factor.
my room is 37/13 using .5 as a common denominator (18.5' x 6.5'), or a .35 factor.
again, thank you for the drawing. i wish i had drawn the first one better for you to work with.
disciple, i have never used a digital ballast and so don't know much about them. but i do know that none of your electrical fittings or connections are supposed to run too hot to touch or even feel hot in your hand.
i walk around touching everything all the time checking for heat. resistance causes heat. bad connections, failing parts, poorly built parts, overloaded circuits, and so forth. it could just be too much stuff on one circuit. especially if it is intermittent.
i'm not an electrician either and all my wiring is a mess. but it all runs cool.
when i move though i'm getting a pro to wire up my "work shop".
i walk around touching everything all the time checking for heat. resistance causes heat. bad connections, failing parts, poorly built parts, overloaded circuits, and so forth. it could just be too much stuff on one circuit. especially if it is intermittent.
i'm not an electrician either and all my wiring is a mess. but it all runs cool.
when i move though i'm getting a pro to wire up my "work shop".
D
disciple
Hey D9.
Getting ready to pop some seeds and wanted to try out the cloning machines for the start before transplant to ppk. I know you started your recent seeds in the sterilite cloners, can you explain your protocol? (ie nutrient concentrations, lids on/off).
Also, in the beginning of the thread you seemed to have good success with the addition of worm castings to the medium. Any reason you stopped using them? Ever considered bringing them back?
Getting ready to pop some seeds and wanted to try out the cloning machines for the start before transplant to ppk. I know you started your recent seeds in the sterilite cloners, can you explain your protocol? (ie nutrient concentrations, lids on/off).
Also, in the beginning of the thread you seemed to have good success with the addition of worm castings to the medium. Any reason you stopped using them? Ever considered bringing them back?
hey! i germinate them on a plate with paper towels. 2 layers below and 2 layers above. kept moist. a piece of plastic wrap over them. i try to keep temps around 75-80 and in the dark most of the time. when they pop i move them to the cloner set up just like i do for clones. 300 ppm flora nova bloom. 3/8 to 1/2" hole in the medium with the emerging root down and the seed covered with turface. lid on. when they come up i keep the seed cap or shell wet with a dropper and the lid on until they throw the shell. after that the lid comes off. that's it.
i recently started a whole bunch of seeds in solo cups with a clear lid. all i was trying to do was get them to cloning size. it takes much longer to grow them to 8-10" in the cups than in the cloners.
i stopped using the WC indoors as it did not seem to accomplish much. it did not get me bigger plants or better bud.
later
Delta are familar with " wick cloning"? If so have you ever applied it on a larger scale as a "passive" system? If so what were your results?
hmm, thanks for the info on starting seeds. I've started some seeds in turface lately and the first 1-3 sets of leaves get ?burnt? most of the time with 250ppm. I was going to try feeding a few RO until they grow a bit, hoping the 250ppm soak would be enough. The clones have been rooting great though"i recently started a whole bunch of seeds in solo cups with a clear lid. all i was trying to do was get them to cloning size. it takes much longer to grow them to 8-10" in the cups than in the cloners"
Why do you think the solo cups couldn't keep up? - Depth/volume of turface? Were they fed w/ wicks?
edit- Noticed that there is Thermolam Plus Sew-In and Fusible Thermolam Plus which has an adhesive on one side
First time poster here, and I'd like to start off by giving a HUGE thanks to delta9, as well as everyone else who has contributed to this phenomenal thread.
So my journey begins...I'm going to be setting up a 12-unit PPK in a 10x10 room, running 4K Hortilux's. I've only had two moderately successful micro closet soil grows a few years back, but with the help of my knowledgeable brother and this forum, as well as his plethora of equipment, I'm ready for this exciting challenge. I'm going to be following your design as close as I can, in order to hope to achieve half of the success you are with your ladies. So, I've read through basically the whole thread, have everything planned out, and am about ready to start buying all my supplies online. I do have a few questions first though, if you wouldn't mind answering, or anyone else who could potentially help me out.
I've seen mentioned several times that a lot of people are just using straight tap water, and to NOT use RO water. I live in Vegas where the water is particularly awful, giving me a reading of just over 400ppm. I obviously need to use RO in that case, correct?
I was going to go with Atami Coco, per your recommendation, but I noticed lately you've been all about the Turface/Rice Hull combo. I found a store right down the street that sells the Atami, but the Turface I'm having trouble locating. Do you think the benefits of the Turface mix are greater than the ease of the Atami/Perlite 3/1 mix? How do you prep the coco for use, and also, what medium are you using for cloning?
I've read through the wick sections over and over, and still am having trouble pinpointing exactly what you're using as wick material, and how you are using it. Any chance you could clarify for me?
I saw you mentioned that you were using a Cyclestat timer, and that you wish you had gotten a Cap Controller instead? Would you mind pointing me in the right direction of which specific repeat cycle timer I should be using?
How do you feel about increasing the size of the drip line to the pulse terminal? You've done so, and you said you haven't noticed much as far as results, besides being able to pump more water through per pulse? You said your biggest plant to date was still off the standard 1/4" line, correct? And your only issue with this was that it started to clog after around a year or so? So currently, all of your drip line is the 1/4" ID, 3/8" OD, and the connectors are 5/16" black latex, with .625 tire valves?
And last, but not least. I saw you recently mentioned to stagehand about instead of using your pulse terminal, to just go ahead and use T's instead. Are you no longer using that H design made from the John Guest fitting and pvc? If not, which T's would you recommend? And is the John Guest fitting necessary, or would a standard fitting religiously wrapped in Teflon be sufficient?
Sorry for the long list of questions, I just really want to get everything squared away before I start my build. Thanks again for everyone's amazing input to the thread, and hopefully soon I can share my experiences to those that have helped me so much.
So my journey begins...I'm going to be setting up a 12-unit PPK in a 10x10 room, running 4K Hortilux's. I've only had two moderately successful micro closet soil grows a few years back, but with the help of my knowledgeable brother and this forum, as well as his plethora of equipment, I'm ready for this exciting challenge. I'm going to be following your design as close as I can, in order to hope to achieve half of the success you are with your ladies. So, I've read through basically the whole thread, have everything planned out, and am about ready to start buying all my supplies online. I do have a few questions first though, if you wouldn't mind answering, or anyone else who could potentially help me out.
I've seen mentioned several times that a lot of people are just using straight tap water, and to NOT use RO water. I live in Vegas where the water is particularly awful, giving me a reading of just over 400ppm. I obviously need to use RO in that case, correct?
I was going to go with Atami Coco, per your recommendation, but I noticed lately you've been all about the Turface/Rice Hull combo. I found a store right down the street that sells the Atami, but the Turface I'm having trouble locating. Do you think the benefits of the Turface mix are greater than the ease of the Atami/Perlite 3/1 mix? How do you prep the coco for use, and also, what medium are you using for cloning?
I've read through the wick sections over and over, and still am having trouble pinpointing exactly what you're using as wick material, and how you are using it. Any chance you could clarify for me?
I saw you mentioned that you were using a Cyclestat timer, and that you wish you had gotten a Cap Controller instead? Would you mind pointing me in the right direction of which specific repeat cycle timer I should be using?
How do you feel about increasing the size of the drip line to the pulse terminal? You've done so, and you said you haven't noticed much as far as results, besides being able to pump more water through per pulse? You said your biggest plant to date was still off the standard 1/4" line, correct? And your only issue with this was that it started to clog after around a year or so? So currently, all of your drip line is the 1/4" ID, 3/8" OD, and the connectors are 5/16" black latex, with .625 tire valves?
And last, but not least. I saw you recently mentioned to stagehand about instead of using your pulse terminal, to just go ahead and use T's instead. Are you no longer using that H design made from the John Guest fitting and pvc? If not, which T's would you recommend? And is the John Guest fitting necessary, or would a standard fitting religiously wrapped in Teflon be sufficient?
Sorry for the long list of questions, I just really want to get everything squared away before I start my build. Thanks again for everyone's amazing input to the thread, and hopefully soon I can share my experiences to those that have helped me so much.
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hi, bluenote! yes, i have tried "wick cloning" and used those same principles applied "on a larger scale as a passive system".
i guess you could say the results were pretty good.
"i recently started a whole bunch of seeds in solo cups with a clear lid. all i was trying to do was get them to cloning size. it takes much longer to grow them to 8-10" in the cups than in the cloners"
Why do you think the solo cups couldn't keep up? - Depth/volume of turface? Were they fed w/ wicks?
edit- Noticed that there is Thermolam Plus Sew-In and Fusible Thermolam Plus which has an adhesive on one side
hey mcfly! are you using flora nova bloom? i don't get any burn type symptoms at all at 300 ppm. but definitely drop it down a little if you are getting symptoms. it could be strain related.
on the solo cups, there were no wicks and i think the plants develop more root mass in the cloners in the same time frame.
a 16-18 oz cup versus 1.5 quarts of media. with clones i get 8-10" plants in 3 weeks from cutting with a heavy root mass.
don't use the fusible thermolam. it doesn't seem to hurt plants but why take chances.
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disciple
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disciple
Slimm
Member
That reminds me. Has anyone here experimented with rock dust, azomite, or something similar as a supplement in a ppk? I know it's recommended that the turface be rinsed to minimize clogging. Have not worked with turface so I'm not sure how similar it is, in clogging properties, to rock dust or azomite. I use these products in my hempy buckets and would like to continue in ppks. Any thoughts on this?
D
disciple
Chuckle...........you saw right where I was headed. I think I'll keep it simple and just do a three gallon with like four wicks in a mix of chunky and regular perlites.........Jacks Classic, Camag , molasses and silica.........
What do you think?
I wick clone on a pretty good scale compared to some folks and the thought had crossed my mind to attempt it on a larger scale.
How many wicks are you usually running for say a three gallon pot? Will four spaced at 90 degree intervals around the radius of the pot suffice? Seems like the potential for an entirely passive system that requires little maintenance is there.
