Diary PCBuds mini-grow

[goingrey]

I had HUGE problems with watering before I switched to coco.
I just couldn't get the hang of it and I would either have muck or it would be powder dry.

Sounds like a drainage issue. I like to mix a lot of LECA in my soil because of that reason. Hard to say how much exactly, depends on the soil and I go by feel, maybe a third of the volume.

Coco is great for indoors though. Nice and clean. More efficient use of the space available for roots.

 

[PCBuds]

She's a thirsty girl then. Combined with a small pot that means a lot of watering. But need huge windowsills to fit a big pot... Oh the realities of reality. More perlite in the mix might help.

I fixed it,.. lol

I've got the same liter of solution in the container but the water is less than inch deep.
Now I can mix up 2 liters of solution at a time, like I'm used to doing without worrying about the clay pellets being submerged.
I think that I'm still going to have to flush and PH the planter though.
Perhaps the PH won't fluctuate as fast with double the amount of solution?

Speaking of your mix I think it had lime added to raise the pH? So it seems like it's got the exact wrong amendment in it... Not sure what would be good for adjusting in the other direction. My mom is always recommending used coffee grounds but I have my reservations on using them in a soilless mix.

The window plant is 50/50 mix of coco and perlite (and a half a cup of "soil" from my closet plant to transfer some bennies.)

The closet plant had a 6"X6" hole dug in the top that was filled with a 50/50 mix of seedling starting mix and perlite.
The seedling starting mix is 70% peat and it had lime added to adjust the PH.

Perhaps that gallon or so of starting mix is what's keeping my PH stable for now until the plant uses it up and grows into the rest of the planter?

Personally I use Advanced Nutrients Sensi Coco pH Perfect as the fertilizer which has some kind of proprietary pH buffer and don't even measure. But it's a rather "different" (noob) approach. Would be going backwards for you.

Hmm,...
I wanna find out what that proprietary pH buffer is.
I want some. lol

Switching nutes wouldn't be a step backwards, just a different direction for me.
But I do have a ton of nutes already and I kinda got the hang of using them.

I guess that my PH down adjusts the PH, but it isn't buffered so it can easily drift up higher again?


I'm still very much a noob and I do like to keep things as simple as possible.
I've only learned things when I ran into problems and had to try to figure them out.

I kinda just stumbled in to my SIP container or DWC or Hydroponics or whatever the hell it is that I've got going on. lol

It's working well for me except for the PH issues right now that are a new problem.

It's a good thing I've got proper PH and EC meters now, because I have to use them all the time now.

 

[PCBuds]

Sounds like a drainage issue.

Yeah, I think that was the problem with the window plant.

The coco/perlite was touching the water directly and getting saturated.

Now with the new container and only an inch of solution in the bottom, the coco can drain through the clay pellets.

It's got an air gap now.

 

[goingrey]

Not worried about algae with the well-lit rez?

 

[PCBuds]

Not worried about algae with the well-lit rez?

I did have algae before with a previous grow, and I did drain and wash the container a few times.

I had roots growing in the container at the time and the algae didn't seem to choke out the roots.
The roots just kept growing.

I think that the roots may have been fed oxygen from the air space in the clay pellets?
I managed to have healthy roots growing in the reservoir without having a bubbler, so I don't really know why that was happening?

I was planning on using peroxide with my current plant to see if it kills the algae and feeds O2 to the roots, but that experiment never happened.


I'm just going to finish off this plant and not worry about trying to grow roots, but perhaps they will grow back now that I've got drainage and the roots in the planter can breathe again?

 

[goingrey]

Coco/peat hold oxygen too even when the media is saturated with water.

Some algae is worse than others, and some attract other pests/pathogens. Seems risky to keep it unchecked, even if I am a big proponent of reading the plants for issues and nothing might be showing.

 

[PCBuds]

Some algae is worse than others, and some attract other pests/pathogens. Seems risky to keep it unchecked, even if I am a big proponent of reading the plants for issues and nothing might be showing.

I will keep an eye on it.
I don't want to grow toxic green mush in my reservoir. lol

Right now, and for the entire life of this plant so far, I've had no algae.

 

[PCBuds]

In your closet with led lights on, you have to set ISO to the minimum (probably 80 or 100), and exposure time to minimum (1/1000 or 1/2000 or something like that). Flower icon means macro focus, but I guess you were just joking.

White balance is always the best with manual WB (the icon with the two triangles, and one square (or spot) "between" them), point to something white (a paper tissue for example) in the same lighting conditions with the plants (closely next to them), and "set WB". While setting WB the white thing has to cover the screen (so LCD screen all white). Once you set all theese parameters, you can save as profile to C1 or C2, and next time you can worry about the focus only. With a few Youtube tutorials, it should require 1-2 hours, not weeks. It's just an old bridge, not so complicated as it seems at first.

I watched a few 15 minute YouTube tutorials and got pretty confused.
I need to learn the basics of photography to adjust my camera manually.
I need to balance photo equations. lol

I tried to set the camera to automatic mode for everything except focus, but it doesn't seem to work.
I think that I need to set everything when I'm in manual mode?

The owners manual doesn't say anything about how to operate the camera. I didn't know how to work the zoom until I watched one of the videos.

There is another 1 hour YouTube video I'm going to watch that covers all the Canon SX series cameras.
That video covers the basics of taking pictures.


I need to get a new button battery for the camera too (CR1220) so it can save my settings and date when the batteries are removed.

 

[PCBuds]

My closet plant is looking good and starting to stretch.

I've started her on 50/50 mix of Maxibloom and Maxigro and started with KoolBloom.

 

[PCBuds]

My fricken power supply isn't giving out equal amps again and my plant is growing crooked,..

I wired in a 2 foot length of copper bell telephone wire in series.

It was just enough with two strands of wire to add enough resistance to the circuit to reduce the current flow,..

I had no idea that it would take only 2 feet of 2 wires to make that much of a difference.
I originally hooked up about 50 feet of wire and the current dropped to 1.8 amps.

 

[PCBuds]

 

[PCBuds]

 

[f-e]

Windows plants looking pretty chonky

 

[PCBuds]

Windows plants looking pretty chonky

I had to Google that..

 

[f-e]

Someone been to the all you can eat buffet.

It's the trunk on that window plant I like.




I didn't know dogging was English.
People make out in cars, and flash the interior light and headlights as a sign you can approach. If they roll down the window, that's an invite to touch. If they open the door for you, well you can guess. Often couples are over the bonnet with spectators tossing off like it was an adult cinema. It's generally done in beauty spot car parks, after dark. Lists of locations can be found on the internet. My local adult club has over 40 themed rooms. One has a car in there, and camo net on the walls to hide behind. You know... because it's cold outside.
I have to admit, the live porn show is interesting. The venue's look popular to. I have not stopped though. They are a menace to anybody just looking for a remote bin to use.

 

[PCBuds]

Someone been to the all you can eat buffet.

That is one Huge cat !! lol

My cat only weighs 10 pounds,..

It's the trunk on that window plant I like.

I got the order of the pictures mixed up.
This is the trunk of the window plant,..

This is the trunk of my closet plant ,..

This is my closet plant right now,..

I have turned up my lights to almost maximum and she is flaking out pretty hard before lights out, so I set the lights to turn off half an hour earlier.
She now gets 7.5 hours of sleep.

I'm not going to worry about her flaking out.
I'm pretty sure that she will get used to the bright lights and adjust to it.

 

[PCBuds]

The PH keeps drifting higher,..

 

[PCBuds]

I rotated the closet plant and adjusted the fan to blow more upward and squarely in the closet.

I had to add about a foot of wires to get the power supply outputs the same,..

I'm really digging how Stupid Simple it was to just add a bit of wire to even up the current output.
I was thinking of all kinds of circuitry and complicating things to balance out the power supply.

I didn't even turn off my power supply to cut and extend my wires.

It's only 20 volts DC,..

 

[PCBuds]

The closet plant ,..

 

[PCBuds]

I nay be getting my hopes up a bit too early, but i think I may be growing a 2 liter pop bottle sized main cola,.??