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Diary PCBuds mini-grow

SuperBadGrower

SuperBadGrower

Active member
Yep it's good stuff! I've got lights on a 4ch, appliances on s26s and some shit on th16. At those prices they're just a step up from regular timers and it can make life really easy. Got to have them on a 2.4G network though, most of mine don't work on 5G.
 
PCBuds

PCBuds

Well-known member
I did some math on my closet, and I do have quite a bit of volume.











I've got 8' ceilings with an opening at the top and bottom of the closet.

Convection is doing a pretty good job of pulling in fresh air.

I have my circulation fan running, and I opened up the input a bit to help with the airflow.









 
Sampas92

Sampas92

Just newbin
PCBuds

PCBuds

Well-known member
My closet plant is turning a darker green color, but It's hard to tell in the pictures.














I don't know exactly why it's darker?
I added heat to the closet, reduced my lights on time from 20/4 to 17/7, and also increased the nutrients, but that was just a couple of days ago, and I don't know if it could darken up that fast?

She's really thirsty now. She's drinking almost 3 liters a day.
She is probably transpiring a lot more because the closet is much warmer.
I can smell the plant in the house now.
 
PCBuds

PCBuds

Well-known member
The window plants are 30" tall.









They're pretty cold and dry but they seem to be okay with it.
It is quite a bit warmer towards the ceiling though.




 
Sampas92

Sampas92

Just newbin
PCBuds said:
My closet plant is turning a darker green color, but It's hard to tell in the pictures.




[URL=https://i.postimg.cc/DwNxZzNh/20201204-105813.jpg]View Image[/url]




[URL=https://i.postimg.cc/bwr6pn3L/20201204-105830.jpg]View Image[/url]




I don't know exactly why it's darker?
I added heat to the closet, reduced my lights on time from 20/4 to 17/7, and also increased the nutrients, but that was just a couple of days ago, and I don't know if it could darken up that fast?

She's really thirsty now. She's drinking almost 3 liters a day.
She is probably transpiring a lot more because the closet is much warmer.
I can smell the plant in the house now.
Click to expand...

So your house, how it smells now?
 
PCBuds

PCBuds

Well-known member
Sampas92 said:
So your house, how it smells now?
Click to expand...

I'm not too good at being descriptive but you can tell that it's the smell of marijuana.

It's not that strong of a smell but the warmer closet seems to have brought the smell out.

I remember some other strain I grew years ago that had a really strong smell that stunk up the whole house.
 
PCBuds

PCBuds

Well-known member
I finally got off my ass and installed my RO filter.


https://www.icmag.com/ic/showpost.php?p=8935770&postcount=1609



Chevy cHaze said:
I've been looking at the same thing!
How'd the installation go?
I couldn't eben figure out where the water goes in and out looking at the pics hahaha
CC
Click to expand...



The installation was a PITA, that's why I put it off for 5 months. Lol

I needed to buy a bunch of plumbing parts and they didn't all fit together.
Some pipe threads are tapered and some aren't.

I had the guy at the hardware store trying to screw some connectors to my valve, and some fit and others wouldn't.

The kit didn't come with connectors for regular copper pipe or PEX pipe and the drain connector was for 3/4" threaded metal pipe.

I've never seen a 3/4" threaded metal drainpipe?




It's a pretty tacky install, but it works.



 
PCBuds

PCBuds

Well-known member
SuperBadGrower said:
good stuff!
You know, I see plenty of people creating imaginary problems when they go this route. Endlessly chasing PH this PH that, EC this n that. Oh no, the runoff is 0.3 PH lower, let me take immediate action. good way to fuck it all up. Even Canna warns people against this lol. People start tinkering, think they know better than the plant, they put doubts to a hydroponic nutrient recipe (and method) which is not only almost universal but also has been in use for decades.

Religiously measuring runoff (edit: in a non-recirculating system, lol) is a good way to waste time in my book. Learn to set your inputs correctly and drain that mother well. you should never have issues. Learn your water and your products... eventually you'll only need to measure to check yourself. Because you'll already know that (X) ml/gal of PH down decreases the PH by (Y) when you have a nutrient mix of (Z) EC in the tank. Just some 2c

If I have a DTW setup, in week 5, the plants looking fantastic. Input is 5.7-6.1 PH... but the runoff is 6.4? Well guess what, I don't give a damn, hell I don't even measure it. Thats why it is drain to waste. It's a system so simple that if you just do what the name says (drain it to waste) you can hardly fuck it up. Online you will find bro science written by people who think they can explain exactly what happens in the medium when the runoff PH or EC is 0.2 lower.

Another one, plants appreciate consistency. So if you have a small amount of plants and you make new water every day, or every 2-3 days, it's not going to help if you are undisciplined. "My plants look like they need X. I gave them X" then 2 days later "they look like they need Z, I gave them Z" It doesnt work like that. You give them X and Z, and also A through Y, every time you water. You never have to play Guess The Deficiency with the online bro scientists when your plant gets everything it needs all the time.
A good way to approach this is, if your grow uses 4 gallons of water per week, make 4 gallons of water. Then you can only mess with it once every week. You'll force yourself to try to do it right. You dont want to be the guy dropping 4ml of A&B in a stupid jug of water every day, that gets real old real fast.
Of course 4 gal warms up to room temperature quite a big quicker than, say, 30 gals.

Feel like I wrote this before, getting a Deja vu feeling
Click to expand...



I just found this post again.

It's some pretty good advice.

I'm going to have to check and adjust my numbers again now that I've got RO water.

My tap water is reading 120 PPM so it's nice to not have that unknown stuff in my nute solution.


My RO filter is pretty slow.
It took 6 minutes to get 2 liters of water.
 
PCBuds

PCBuds

Well-known member
My trays on the window sill had a film floating on top of the solution, so I dumped them, cleaned them, and refilled them from the top of the soil at the root stalk.









I think it was just crystals or salts forming on top.
It didn't stink and the brown color is from the runoff of the coco coir and my brown CalMag.

The roots in the solution don't look too bad.
They were really slimy the last plant when I had molasses in the solution.

I don't think that they are rotting. There are still some white roots.
Roots grow in dirt. They are used to being dirty. Lol

I didn't rinse the sides of the pots because I didn't want to damage the roots.


The plants aren't showing any signs of problems.




 
ReikoX

ReikoX

Knight of the BlackSvn
Next time, try filling those trays with perlite first, then put the fabric pots on them and fill with nutrients. The nutrients will still wick up into the soil. Do a Google search for "swick cannabis" and you should see a bunch of examples of what I'm suggesting.
 
PCBuds

PCBuds

Well-known member
ReikoX said:
Next time, try filling those trays with perlite first, then put the fabric pots on them and fill with nutrients. The nutrients will still wick up into the soil. Do a Google search for "swick cannabis" and you should see a bunch of examples of what I'm suggesting.
Click to expand...


I think what I'm doing is sorta the same difference, but instead of a fabric pot standing on perlite, I've got my media standing on clay pellets that are on the bottom of my pots holding my media above the waterline.


I like creating my own method.
It's like a cross between a SIP, a Wick, a DTW, and a recirculating setup. Lol


I remember reading about the wick system and a lot of people struggled with algae.

I don't want to throw out or try to clean my perlite.
I can just lift out my pot and clean my tray.


As far as I know, in a wick system, the waterline relative to the bottom of the fabric pot is critical.
1/4" too high and your media is too wet, 1/4" too low and the media runs dry.

The roots are trapped inside the bag except for a few fine hairs that manage to grow through the bag.

I've got decently sized roots running right into the drink. They can take an inch of waterline level variation.



My media is inert (coco & perlite) so I think I need to keep an eye on my PH.

With my setup, I can water with 5.7 PH nutes from the top and flush out the salts and lower the PH through the media and into the tray where those roots can get water and nutes, but I can dump it as it gets salty and hits a PH of over 7.1, which is out of range for both soil and hydro.

I think it was you that spoke of the rhizosphere microorganisms that adjust the PH and nutrient uptake for you, but I don't know how much of that I have happening in my sterile environment?

So top watering and flushing in fresh nutes and lower PH might be a good thing?



SuperBadGrower mentioned in the post above that he was putting in a solution of 5.7-6.1 and the runoff was 6.4.

With my closet plant, I was putting in a solution of 5.4 and the runoff was 7.3

My closest is semi-organic, but those numbers weren't good.

I think it was the flush I did with the PH'ed nute solution (it was as low as a 4.3 going in and still coming out at 7. +), that helped my plant turn around and go green again.


After I drained the trays on the window sill, the solution went in at the stalk at 5.7 PH and drained through the plant to come out at 6.5.

So at least it was still in range for soil.



When I look at these pictures again, I don't think I'm seeing mold.












I'm seeing fine root hairs seeking either water vapor from the air or oxygen to feed the submerged roots.

The roots in the liquid don't have any fine hairs but I think that they are just sucking up liquid and they don't need to be long or fuzzy to do that.

They are thin and can be supported by the oxygenated roots above the waterline.






I'm kinda stoned and don't like to think outside of the box.

I like to think at a different elevation above the orb. Lol
 
PCBuds

PCBuds

Well-known member
I tried some new lighting to take better pictures of my closet plant.

I went old-school 100 Watt incandescent.

















It's amazing how dull that bulb is.
I can look straight at it.

My closet is only 300 Watts, but it seems a 100 times brighter.
 
PCBuds

PCBuds

Well-known member
ReikoX's window girls...




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