passive plant killer

[oldone]

the micro-fiber towels may have static electricity charge in them, that may affect nutrient solution. as nutrient solution is full of electrical charges/conductivity (ec).
maybe, tfictiously try many wicks... cheapo nylon rope seem work best. the microfibre material may hold too much water, instead of being conduit for water, like nylon/polyester...
if try nylon rope, maybe not marine type, which may have lead coating. regular nylon braided rope. maybe wash/soak, rinse & wring 1st... maybe micro-fibre work, but maybe try & went back to cheapo nyl0n 5/8".

Hi mistress,

I tried a side by side test suspending these micro fiber wicks along with plain cotton fabric and a fine poly rope. I found the MF wicked the highest above that water level. This test happened some months ago when I made a perlite cloner. These wicks kept the cloner nicely moist throughout the 6" depth.

I have since read that MF may require some mechanical force to release its wicked water but that does not seen to be the case yet. Its keeping a 4" depth of coco moist right to the top. I have not seen any drying of the top surface.

Since I just harvested a crop I can take the time to play around with this and do some experiments. I like what I see so far...

Thanks,
OO

 

[delta9nxs]

morning!

the key to microfiber as a wick is that it is extremely hydrophillic and doesn't want to release liquids. this is easily overcome though by having the lower end immersed in a body of water. sort of the wick being wicked as in the ppk. hydraulic conductivity again. the hook up.

 

[oldone]

Hi D9,

Can you have too many cloth wicks in a given container?

I have been playing with my seed/veg ppk and I think the bottom 1" is too wet. It fails your squeeze test.

Thanks,
OO

 

[delta9nxs]

i think you can, especially in coco. what's the volume of your containers? in my wick cloners i use a single piece of polyester batting that's 1" x 4". the volume of turface is exactly 3 cups. this roots the cut and is more than enough to get it to transplant at 8". lately i've been thinking about flowering out my excess cuts right in these things. i think that the single wick would feed adequately throughout the grow.

 

[oldone]

My seed/veg container is 17 x 8.5 x 4 deep = 578 cu in = .33 cu ft = 9 liters. Can increase to 6" deep if necessary.

Right now the rez has a 2" water depth with 1" air gap. Inside are 8 - 1" x 6" microfiber strips.

My plan is to grow 2 seedlings in 3" netpots then transplant to 6" netpots both still in the same seed/veg ppk.

For flowering I will transplant to 2 gal ppks.

Thanks for the advise,
OO

 

[delta9nxs]

can you drop your water level any further? another 1/2" even would help. also can you remove at least half those wicks?

the wicks only need to extend about 1.5-2" up into the medium. to the top of your pwt.

 

[oldone]

I can remove them, but they are laying on the bottom of the mPPK with the coco on top.

Is dropping the water level so that the airgap increases?

 

[delta9nxs]

can you pull them out of the bottom? and yes, increasing air gap decreases moisture in the medium.

 

[Carl Carlson]

I keep harping on the price, but to achieve similar nutrient ratios, the Jacks hydro + calcinit costs about 1/8th of what the least expensive, best qualifying (by ratios) liquid nute costs around here. My bottles of FloraNova are almost empty!

 

[Carl Carlson]

FYI: http://www.hydro-gardens.com/51126.htm

D9, are you familiar with the name Tom Ericsson?

http://web1.msue.msu.edu/mastergard...newsletters/2006-11-Midland-TheGreenScene.pdf

http://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics...mula-recipe-scratch-really-3.html#post3725421

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg0313391729338.html

D9 and others, you should totally check out fatman's thread on nutrient ratios - the RIU link above. That guy is a resource!

 

[oldone]

Hi D9,

I pulled all but 3 wicks out and left it overnight. This morning there does not seem to be any difference.

I found and carefully re-read your moisture test:

Ideal moisture content in coco as stated by an australian greenhouse vegetable grower is when you can grab a handful of coco from the top, squeeze it in your fist, and water shows between your fingers. If you don't get some water it is too dry. Any time you try.

Maybe I'm making too big a deal of this. When I squeeze a small fistful I get a few drops running out. I dump 4 liters of water in the PPK and almost instantly its starts draining into the rez.

I have read where its supposed to be impossible to overwater coco. Is this literally true for any grade of coco? I really have no idea what the "good stuff" looks like.

Thanks D9,
OO

 

[*mistress*]

 

[delta9nxs]

Carl, fatman is dead on. I read it real fast the first time and just now revisited.

So ultimately, because of research in the last year or so, he likes 3-1-4 over 3-1-2. He likes a calcium/nitrogen ratio of .8-1. He likes a cal/mag ratio of 2/1.

Here's Jack's mixed with calcium nitrate at their recommended starting point.

150-52-215-116-63

Very close to 3- 1- 4

Calcium/nitrate ratio .77/1 very close

Almost 2/1 cal/mag again ,very close


somebody down at the old lab has been doing their homework. jrpeterslab tech told me that it was based on recent plant tissue analysis. And it was specifically developed for “small indoor gardeners” using high out put lighting. Yep, that's grandma alright.

 

[delta9nxs]

here's a couple of shots of jack's buds, still 2 full weeks from whacking. they are filthy with trikes.

 

[Carl Carlson]

I think we can add in Biksa's article. The wording in that thing is so over-the-top ambiguous, similar to what the jrpeters tech told you, that he either slipped a fast one past the editors or they all had a big laugh about it.

And not that I'll be going back to bottled nutrients, but check out Botanicare with four, one part bottles that are either 3-1-2 or 3-1-4. CNS17 Hydro grow (3-1-4 with 2.8% Ca) is the closest to the formulation we're looking for.

 

[delta9nxs]

the truly amazing thing about this is that it's aggressively growing plants in 16 stages of life at the same dose and ph. the only things i'm using now are ro water, jack's, and calcium nitrate.

the buds you see are hard, heavy, and dense. at least the equal of flora nova bloom, which is famous for producing tight nugs.

since 3/15 there has been no solution change outs except for 6-9 gals a week that i dump when a plant comes out of it's area. total system volume is approx. 150 gals so this is negligible.

there has been no overflow or drain to waste allowed.

there has been no salt buildup. in fact the readings are always lower than the input. this means the nutrients are being presented at nearly the plant's uptake rate.

ph is totally stable and this is in ro water with no adjusters.

the plants are all beautiful.

my last plant went 10.44. it was the first plant in flower to be fed jack's throughout flower.

we have about 7 weeks i think to see one that has been on it for life.

d9

 

[Carl Carlson]

ok, a question for you. Here the floor space is limited and I couldn't possibly veg plants even in the smaller PPK.

Even though you haven't done it, do you have an opinion on veg growth in a regular 1 gallon round, coco, dtw and than transplanting into the coco PPK for flowering?

there has been no salt buildup. in fact the readings are always lower than the input. this means the nutrients are being presented at nearly the plant's uptake rate.

I wonder if this also means that in a purely top fed grow, the waste can be reduced to near zero with no salt buildup.

 

[delta9nxs]

yeah, the lab tech said everything but "it's for ganja, mon!"


jesus, i am fried! i just misspelled it "ganga".

 

[delta9nxs]

"Even though you haven't done it, do you have an opinion on veg growth in a regular 1 gallon round, coco, dtw and than transplanting into the coco PPK for flowering?"

i don't know if that's the right point to transplant as most root growth will be slowing down at that juncture. if i vegged in a one gal i would be inclined to flower in it also. maybe go to a 2 gal to take advantage of stretch. get a little bit more root mass.

i transplant mine as 8" clones into the 5 gal buckets. by the flip that bucket is full of roots.

"I wonder if this also means that in a purely top fed grow, the waste can be reduced to near zero with no salt buildup."

i think this could be done drain to waste with a cloth wick and a 8-9" inch air gap so it functioned as a drain only. this would keep the medium from accumulating badly. you could use a small kitty litter pan or something with an inch of any kind of water in it. water to slight run off, catch it in the tray, where it should evaporate pretty fast while leaving the salts behind. at the end of the grow you could properly dispose of them in dry form or remix them back to working strength and dump them on your garden or other plants, getting the max use from them.

 

[Carl Carlson]

good point about the root growth and again about the PWT.