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passive plant killer

ImaginaryFriend

Fuck Entropy.
Veteran
Here is a current vertical stack, with the base of a CANFAN50 pulled by a 220 CFM inline fan (out of tent). The filters are accompanied by the recommendation for CFMs... two complete room change-outs per minute is on the top side of good, and if it is replaced with fresh air, guarantees adequate CO2. (Remember to figure out a way to get air into the tent to replace the air leaving.) 220 CFM is closer to the bottom size of this can's recommendation, but matches the internal dimensions of the tent rather nicely. (That's a silly way of saying that the filter is over-sized.) I picked the filter for it's dimensions with regard to the ducting and matching where I think I want the light to hit the plants.

picture.php
 
with only 90cu ft I was looking at a 190CFM with filter 4" ($110 for the set) with a 6" inline fan 240fcm on the 6" cooltubes and an 80CFM pumping air into the tent ... and i have a fan speed controller and thermostatically controlled outlet adapter so I can set the vent out/in fans to it to prevent a meltdown and have the cooltubes massive 240cfm on a 15min on 15 min off cycle all the on time and adjust as needed...

and that pic helps me a LOT for now I plan on using the 4x4 for flowering after my first run gets my cycles going and maybe having the 2'7"x4' closet for cloning/veg runs and training I'm doing my best to stay within 215 guidelines yet yield monsters and also go perpetual with it...
 
S

SCROG McDuck

Scrog:

My understanding is that the effort to minimize the evaporation was a means of keeping salts in solution in a stable concentration; that is, a concept related to reducing salt build up in the upper portion of the media as the bottom fed coco evaporated off the top, leaving salts behind. The other effort, in closing up the bottom reservoir, was to to keep the feed solution stable.

This concept predated the pulse approach--which help keep salts in the system by flushing them back into the media.

The holes were initially an idea to generate root pruning and change the root distribution within the media; D9 later noted is suspicion that favorable growth was resulting from more O2 exchange within the media.

Yes, evaporation = salt concentrations and higher rez, EC, and Ph fluctuations... <NG.

and perforated, you are useing the word, 'perforated' because you do not 'drill' holes in the sides of continers but use ??? what? a router? but holes in the bottom of the container led me to roots in the rez. They were the nicest, very fine and white roots, for what that is worth.


Dagger:

This is a posibility that I have entertained. If my intent is to use the pulse to move the salts that tend to accumulate at the top of the media by way of evaporation down and back into the system, why not use a RO pulse?

Alternatively, why drop the whole system's EC down a little bit so that I hit target goals in the media in a manner that takes into account the increased salt content of the pulse feed as it reintegrates consolidated salts.

Six of one...

A straight RO feed demands a little bit of extra plumbing from the RO source... Maybe? I guess it depends on the setup

What do you think about a second 'pulse' sysetem running straight RO for flushing for 10days or so before the cut.
Drain the rez, and effectivly run a top water (RO) system for 10 days for flushing/finishing. Wattayathink?

I'm reading alot of different stuff, now that I'm not pondering/reacting to EC and Ph any longer....

I've never run a flushing stage but may try..
just to have 1st hand knowledge for the flush/don't flush delema.
 
Oddly I was thinking that same idea a week ago when I started this new build... but you may not get that golden effect on the trichs as D9 said he was getting, but you know I'll try it for about 5 days at least, just gonna have to examine the trichomes a lot closer as this will be my first run with all these genes...

and what RO filter system should I get? Ive found a nice 4 stage and a nice 5 stage, both make 75 gallons a day but dunno which I should look into more...


And I hope D9 is feeling a bit better, or will get better soon... so he can come back out and play with the other kids... and aliens lol
 

ImaginaryFriend

Fuck Entropy.
Veteran
and perforated, you are using the word, 'perforated' because you do not 'drill' holes in the sides of containers but use ??? what? a router?
Yeah... drilling sucks.

This is my current effort:

picture.php


Trying to maximize O2 benefits, continue to air-prune-roots, and minimize evaporation... but mostly not spending ten hours with a damnable drill in my hands.

But look out Timmy, you'll shoot your eye out.

but holes in the bottom of the container led me to roots in the rez. They were the nicest, very fine and white roots, for what that is worth.
My first grow ever had a container with a little reservoir built in. It was square and had a little view portal to the reservoir level, and a perforated bottom tray that allowed the media to be separate from the mini res. I pulled a rare seed from a lethal skunk strain, and it cracked. and was female, and she got this retardedly expensive pot all to herself.

So I started cutting the tops off of two liter soda bottles, flipping them over inside themselves. Much fucking cheaper. I would water until there was an inch of feed in the bottoms, and let the girls suck that up before feeding again.

That somehow evolved into net pots and twenty gallon totes. So I guess I've been growing versions of DWC/SWC since the beginning. And it worked well for years.

Then there was a plague upon my houses.

I don't know why (well that fucking N-G-W.com hose was involved), but it set me back immeasurably. Resulting in unreasonable fear. So now: ROOTS DO NOT GO IN THE FEED SOLUTION! Totally irrational. But comforting. And PPKs do that for me.

---

As for flushing... I've had that same idea. But I don't know how much merit it holds. Or doesn't. I've spent 6.3 gagillion dollars to get enough float valves to run each bottom reservoir independently if I get the ambition. Heath Robinson is quoted as running EC of 1.2-1.4 on all grows all the time. On the thread he started, there's some graphs suggesting that there's a range of acceptable EC that maximizes growth... i.e. there's too little nutes, there's a range where the plant will grow fine, and then it gets toxic. I'm not sure if the graph is something someone drew up on a smart phone over drinks, or if there's science behind it, but I'm using the idea of less is more right now--my baseline approach is low EC until I see hints of N deficiency on the deepest, oldest inner foliage, then add a little more food. If we minimize nutes in the system, we minimize the possibility of build up... and then we minimize need to flush.

Don't we?

I don't fucking know.

Over a long enough time line, doing EC samples of finished media might give us insight, accompanied by smoke reports/ash observation. My default to low EC is based on the idea that it is supported by community members that I respect, and it also means that I don't have to get more nutes quite as soon.

That said, if cheats me out of a jar at the end of harvest, I'm a retard for being so damn lazy.

Save two dollars on salts, spend hundreds on replacing what I didn't grow.

Yeah, that's definitely retarded.
 

DevilWeed

Member
Hey guys. I'm doing some tests with flushing vs. no flushing with my stuff. So far, the only noticable difference I'm seeing is buds seem to taste better quicker...if that makes sense. Unflushed buds tasted fine after a week dry + a week cure. Flushed buds tasted better after just the week dry. I'll contine on and report back. FYI - to "flush", I disconnect the bottom line, dump the bucket, and top feed with a hose. For the first flush I run 4 or 5 gallons through. Then just enough to keep her happy.
 

oldone

Member
Hey guys. I'm doing some tests with flushing vs. no flushing with my stuff. So far, the only noticable difference I'm seeing is buds seems to taste better quicket...if that makes sense. Unflushed buds tasted fine after a week dry + a week cure. Flushed buds tasted better after just the week dry. I'll contine on and report back. FYI - to "flush", I disconnect the bottom line, dump the bucket, and top feed with a hose. For the first flush I run 4 or 5 gallons through. Then just enough to keep her happy.
Hi DevilWeed,

Are you keeping track of your EC/PPM after flushing? It would be interesting to see how much the coco was "holding".

OO
 

DevilWeed

Member
Hi DevilWeed,

Are you keeping track of your EC/PPM after flushing? It would be interesting to see how much the coco was "holding".

OO

I haven't so far, but it sounds like a good idea. I'll catch the runoff for the next one daily and see how it tracks. :tiphat:
 
sweet! but in the same maybe it could be strain dependent ... ether way playing around and testing and most def sampling and more sampling is the only way to find out for sure
 
S

SCROG McDuck

Hey guys. I'm doing some tests with flushing vs. no flushing with my stuff. So far, the only noticable difference I'm seeing is buds seem to taste better quicker...if that makes sense. Unflushed buds tasted fine after a week dry + a week cure. Flushed buds tasted better after just the week dry. I'll contine on and report back. FYI - to "flush", I disconnect the bottom line, dump the bucket, and top feed with a hose. For the first flush I run 4 or 5 gallons through. Then just enough to keep her happy.

Hummm..??
I'm OK with disconnecting the bottom feed line and drain,
but if you are running ppks, that are stacked and drilled for air pruning, and you flush with a hose, doesnt the water run out the sides?

I was thinking pulsing straight RO at 8-10 oz/2-3 hours and let the empty rez build up with flushed juice until cut.
 

DevilWeed

Member
Hummm..??
I'm OK with disconnecting the bottom feed line and drain,
but if you are running ppks, that are stacked and drilled for air pruning, and you flush with a hose, doesn't the water run out the sides?

I was thinking pulsing straight RO at 8-10 oz/2-3 hours and let the empty rez build up with flushed juice until cut.

Hey Scrog, the water that comes out of the holes drains down through the lid. I found that the grey Lowes lids are shaped in such a way that water will run to the center when a heavy PPK is on top. As long as I don't flush too fast, it stays pretty clean. The black lids do not do this, for me at least.

Good segway into another tidbit... I started using my shop vac to aid in flushing (mostly pre-PPK). Plants get too big to move, and getting the water out of a tray under them is a PITA unless you have it all elevated. Sooo...I just dump gallons through a plant and stand there with the shop vac for a few minutes sucking up anything that comes out. Works great and is much easier. Just make sure you empty the shop vac each time. I didn't...gross. Vacuumed up about 1000 seeds, coco, dirt, trash, etc... Finally took the cover off yesterday...my germination rate was at least 70%...in the vacuum! :D:D:D It looked like someone filled my vacuum with bean sprouts!
 

ImaginaryFriend

Fuck Entropy.
Veteran
Vacuumed up about 1000 seeds

Server fund listing: "DevilWeeds Shopvac Collected Open Polenation of Everything x Everything"

my germination rate was at least 70%...in the vacuum! It looked like someone filled my vacuum with bean sprouts!

Imagine getting charged with 700 plants germinated in the vacuum.

That said, I think your vacuum has I higher germ rate than any method I've tried.
 

DevilWeed

Member
Server fund listing: "DevilWeeds Shopvac Collected Open Polenation of Everything x Everything"
Hahaha... Hmmm...this could be lucrative! :snap out of it:

Imagine getting charged with 700 plants germinated in the vacuum.

That said, I think your vacuum has I higher germ rate than any method I've tried.

Tell me about it. If I knew it was that easy I wouldn't have wasted so much time trying other things. Just suck 'em up and wait 2 weeks. :D

BTW, that vacuum sat for 2 weeks @ 50F or so. Some of the "sprouts" were about 5" long, all white. Amazing plant. I was too disgusted to take pics, as the sprouts weren't the only thing growing in there. Dumb move, it was epic.
 
lol I could see em doing that if you were in jOklahoma cause seriously they tried saying my basil, thyme, oregano, strawberry plants, cherry tomato plants, and many other basic things were Mary Jane and added 25 plants to what they found in my closet ... stupid stuff man

:laughing:
 
what type of Calc Nit do you guys use? I mean like Yara but 15.5-0-0 or one of the weird things Ive found overloading myself on google... man I need a new hobby
 
man I had to find a Lowes and nearest one to me was an hour away thanks to home depot not having 3.5 gal buckets and online places wanting 90+$ for shipping alone... so I guess it was worth the drive... but 5$ a bucket...


any news on D9...? :watchplant::watchplant:
 
sorry it cut off that post... it said is it the stuff that has "filler" in it and use equal gram to gram weights like mentioned earlier in this thread or was that a different one? sorry again
 

ImaginaryFriend

Fuck Entropy.
Veteran
The instructions that came with the Jacks have you add equal volumes of Jacks and Cal-Nit, but that is the cal-Nit that Peter's supplies.

This thread has the PPM ratios you need to hit, but I don't have time to look right now. Somewhere, D9 has you add Jacks to such and such a target ppm, then Cal-Nit the rest of the way.

If Peter's is distributing yara or not, I do not know.

Not a helpful post, and I'm tired.

Sorry.
 

delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
howdy, folks!

finally got rid of the infection and trying to stabilize weight. i'm 20 lbs under weight and very weak.

i got all off schedule growing so it's all a mess. it's going to take me a few months to get it all back in order. clones off timing, plants not properly prepped for flower and moved late, creating uncontrolled growth.

also plants not harvested on time.

this has delayed progress seriously.

i was beginning a new vegging scheme that i will describe later. fascinating possibilities there. i will begin a fresh plant on it in a few days.

reading back through the thread i see where there has been quite a bit of discussion about salt build up.

i have been running ec 1.2 for months and producing huge plants. my philosophy on this is that i know that salts tend to accumulate anyway. knowing this, why not limit input to a level that noticeably produces produces lush, high speed vegetative growth yet does not aggravate build up?

i've noticed very little build up in veg anyway. it seems to occur in flower by the end of stretch and progressively rises. as we don't do a lot of change outs in these type devices it is smart to limit input early. Look for it by the end of the fourth week. By anticipating you are limiting.

It is much more difficult to flush a medium than most think. Better off keeping it right all along.

If you do desire to flush, just pinch off the feed line from the control bucket, drain the plant res and pour ro water through it.

so what if, during late flower ec goes up to say 2 or 2.4 or so? the funny thing about the way the ppk operates is that it does allow different plants reservoirs to vary in concentration significantly, yet is continuously limiting the spread as the re-blending of solution occurs. it's obvious each plant is taking up nutrients at it's own pace. good reason to run your pulse system from your control bucket. i think those thinking about running a ro pulse are going to run into problems with several things. the first is solution stability and the second is that there is an inherent physical problem with feeding these things from two different sources.

there is also the principle of mass balance here. this simply states, that, in a closed system, all nutrients added over the life of the plant are still in the system somewhere. in the solution, medium, or plant itself. the plants take up what they need.

while the pulse equipped ppk is not truly a closed system as there is some solution turnover occurring, it is close to being closed.

one of the advantages of this modular bucket approach controlled by a float valve fed container connected to a pure solution supply (volume tanks) is that it has a very limited volume of solution in the floor or “contaminated” part of the system. I used to think of this as something of a drawback and thought larger plant reservoirs were the answer.

further thinking indicates that the smaller the solution volume under each plant the better. To a point. the smaller the volume the faster that volume is exchanged. venturi principle at work. you should have enough for redundancy in case you are not there to top off the volume tanks, but anything beyond that is superfluous.

since going to a 5 week veg including the control and pump buckets I have seven buckets in the veg system at around 2.5 gals each. 17.5 gals. not much.

this more rapid turnover can only help nutrient balance.

about calcinit, it is all, no matter what brand, 15.5-0-0-19 with 19 being the calcium. the only thing to look for is greenhouse grade, which means that it will go instantly into solution and won't clog injectors.

everybody should just mix with a meter, it is by far the easiest and most accurate way to do it.

well, I have just put my plants through several months of neglect during which I didn't even track ec or ph, just fed ec 1.2. I did not do my regular safety checks for leaks or flow problems. I have plant material burned and broken all over the place from not tying up branches.

yet, I have not lost a plant. they exhibit no signs of deficiencies. they are heavy with huge buds. i will harvest every fucking one of them.

reliability?

later on, d9
 
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