Super Congo

[OZZ_]

Super Congos are flipped and today is day 1 of 11/13.

Cannot wait to see how these do, hope I don’t mess up things with the new DTW system but so far it seems relatively simple. In autopots the required PH range is extremely narrow and staying in that range can be tough. With DTW so far Im not seeing any sort of issues at all as long as you are within 5.5-6.0 they are happy happy

 

[dubi]

So glad to hear that @OZZ_ All the best for the flowering stage!

 

[OZZ_]

Thanks Dubi they are looking pretty so far and dangerously vigorous for this setup lol.

Either way the race has begun

 

[OZZ_]

SUPER CONGOOOOOOOO

 

[PlasmaTube]

Definitely watching

 

[Legalcdn]

Ozz,

Regarding the floraflex caps, how long are you watering?

Is the cap firmly in contact with soil/coco to slow the water flowing down?

I have them but i found with watering they have too much flow and not all corners get watered if they are not pushed down hard and even on the surface. Capillary mat underneath?

 

[OZZ_]

Ozz,

Regarding the floraflex caps, how long are you watering?

Is the cap firmly in contact with soil/coco to slow the water flowing down?

I have them but i found with watering they have too much flow and not all corners get watered if they are not pushed down hard and even on the surface. Capillary mat underneath?

Sorry for the slow reply. Great insight, I am dealing with this as we speak. I am still in the process of fine tuning things for sure this is my first run in them. Right now I have the timer running for 12 minutes 3x a week Mon-wed-Fri with the 2 gph regulator. I get about 10% runoff with this, but I am noticing the same thing…. Uneven watering and it floods only one side of the pot and drain through.

I have been brain storming trying to figure out a workaround, I was going to try swapping out to the 6 gph regulator because then it would flood the lid more resulting in all the drain holes receiving runoff equally…. Thus more even watering even though it would be a much faster flood rather than a slow soak. It would probably be closer to handwatering this way rather than having it just drip slowly on one side of the lid. At least that’s my thinking…. Will try it next week and probably cut the timer back to like 3 - 4 minutes then.

I do have the lids sealed in the pots but I think there’s space underneath there…. Maybe I just needed to add more coco…. Or as you say a capillary mat could work too. I think I’m gonna just try going with the higher flow regulator first and see how it plays out then go from there if that doesn’t work.

 

[OZZ_]

Here’s the súper Congos at Day 10 11/13. Starting to stretch, but I was preparing for haze type stretch so it doesn’t look like these guys are going to be that bad unless they are really long flowering and stretch through to week 6 or something.

I’m getting a little clawing. Currently at 1.4 EC …. No tip burn just clawing. So I cut the current nute solutions nitrogen content by about 50% while saying at the same EC by charging the nutrient ratio. We will see if the clawing subsides over the next 5 days or so and if not I’ll cut it by 50% again

 

[OZZ_]

Not a fan at all of this flora flex system I’m using on the súper Congos. They have all these fancy lids and regulators and all these gadgets and the drippers don’t even saturate the coco evenly …. At all. It just runs straight through on only one side of the pot never fully saturating or flushing the medium. I ripped it all out and am now hand watering the coco

They aren’t very happy right now but I’m thinking the handwatering and full flushing of the medium should help.

I might simply look for a ring dripper to evenly water the coco, not sure but I’m definitely going to have to look for a different option because this system isn’t going to cut it

 

[goingrey]

Not a fan at all of this flora flex system I’m using on the súper Congos. They have all these fancy lids and regulators and all these gadgets and the drippers don’t even saturate the coco evenly …. At all. It just runs straight through on only one side of the pot never fully saturating or flushing the medium. I ripped it all out and am now hand watering the coco

They aren’t very happy right now but I’m thinking the handwatering and full flushing of the medium should help.

I might simply look for a ring dripper to evenly water the coco, not sure but I’m definitely going to have to look for a different option because this system isn’t going to cut it

Is the bottom so raised off the tray or how come the water isn't wicked around more evenly?

 

[OZZ_]

Is the bottom so raised off the tray or how come the water isn't wicked around more evenly?

The pots are elevated out of the tray, but that’s a positive thing to enhance airflow and drainage so the medium isn’t in contact with the runoff.

I’m not sure what the problem is …. Other than they simply don’t work the way they are supposed to. The lid is a very nice design, it’s got all these openings distributed around the surface to evenly drip the water down over the medium.. but with the 1 gallon pots I can only use the 2 GPH manifold so the water drips out of the hoses but it isn’t enough volume to cover the entire lid. Instead…. The water just finds the closest hole in the lid, drips down saturating only that one spot…. And then draining out the bottom in that one spot leaving the surrounding medium dry…. Very uneven watering and no real runoff effect which will allow buildup in the medium.

I am happy to report though that the súper Congos bounced back today after their hefty hand watering with good runoff.

I’ll keep looking for a better solution, I’m eyeballing those ring drip emitters…. But until then I’ll hand water these ladies

 

[goingrey]

The pots are elevated out of the tray, but that’s a positive thing to enhance airflow and drainage so the medium isn’t in contact with the runoff.

I’m not sure what the problem is …. Other than they simply don’t work the way they are supposed to. The lid is a very nice design, it’s got all these openings distributed around the surface to evenly drip the water down over the medium.. but with the 1 gallon pots I can only use the 2 GPH manifold so the water drips out of the hoses but it isn’t enough volume to cover the entire lid. Instead…. The water just finds the closest hole in the lid, drips down saturating only that one spot…. And then draining out the bottom in that one spot leaving the surrounding medium dry…. Very uneven watering and no real runoff effect which will allow buildup in the medium.

I am happy to report though that the súper Congos bounced back today after their hefty hand watering with good runoff.

I’ll keep looking for a better solution, I’m eyeballing those ring drip emitters…. But until then I’ll hand water these ladies

Good airflow underneath or the ability to only water at small spot at the top, I think it's a "choose on" kind of deal. Except maybe with like sphagnum moss. Worth trying those rings for sure.

Lucky plants to have a grower that is on top of it though!

 

[Legalcdn]

The pots are elevated out of the tray, but that’s a positive thing to enhance airflow and drainage so the medium isn’t in contact with the runoff.

I’m not sure what the problem is …. Other than they simply don’t work the way they are supposed to. The lid is a very nice design, it’s got all these openings distributed around the surface to evenly drip the water down over the medium.. but with the 1 gallon pots I can only use the 2 GPH manifold so the water drips out of the hoses but it isn’t enough volume to cover the entire lid. Instead…. The water just finds the closest hole in the lid, drips down saturating only that one spot…. And then draining out the bottom in that one spot leaving the surrounding medium dry…. Very uneven watering and no real runoff effect which will allow buildup in the medium.

I am happy to report though that the súper Congos bounced back today after their hefty hand watering with good runoff.

I’ll keep looking for a better solution, I’m eyeballing those ring drip emitters…. But until then I’ll hand water these ladies

I gave up on the floraflex caps also. I was watering 1 min (1.5 liters) x 3 times a day, 2 drippers attached to tray and I still could not saturate the tray. I will circle back at some point to introduce something to distribute water more evenly.

Perhaps a cap under tray to wick the water: rockwool, peat, coco mat, capillary.

Floraflex has some drain trays that can be plumbed to remove excess runoff. I lift my grow floor a couple inches for drainage to outside pan.

 

[OZZ_]

I’m going to try and return all the floraflex stuff, and instead just rig up my own simple system using regular fittings and emitters.

K.I.S.S. Style lol. I’m just trying to replace hand watering on 4 - 1 gallon pots no need to get fancy lmao

Just ordered these emitters and some 1/2” to 1/4” Tees

The tops of those emitters screw down or up to adjust flow, it’s only four pots I’ll just tweak them accordingly to simply adjust the flow rate to where I want it. Easy peasy.

Also I’m going to pull the Super Congos out of those flora flex pots and transplant them into different pots I have already since they clearly aren’t going to outstretch me like I thought. Their elongated internode distances made me think they were going to go bonkers but **so far** stretch isn’t bad.

 

[OZZ_]

Good airflow underneath or the ability to only water at small spot at the top, I think it's a "choose on" kind of deal. Except maybe with like sphagnum moss. Worth trying those rings for sure.

Lucky plants to have a grower that is on top of it though!

Appreciate it. Can’t let these beauties get the short end of the stick while I’m fiddling around with drippers. It’s only four plants lol.

I think the much more simple emitters and pump system I posted above will work much better. I have pot elevator stands that keep the pots elevated about an inch out of the runoff so that will work just fine

I gave up on the floraflex caps also. I was watering 1 min (1.5 liters) x 3 times a day, 2 drippers attached to tray and I still could not saturate the tray. I will circle back at some point to introduce something to distribute water more evenly.

Perhaps a cap under tray to wick the water: rockwool, peat, coco mat, capillary.

Floraflex has some drain trays that can be plumbed to remove excess runoff. I lift my grow floor a couple inches for drainage to outside pan.

Yeah not a good first impression at all. Hopefully I can return everything

 

[Legalcdn]

I use open ended irrigation tube on a T to prevent clogging. All the lines are equal coming from a Orbit 8 port adjustable manifold.

 

[OZZ_]

I use open ended irrigation tube on a T to prevent clogging. All the lines are equal coming from a Orbit 8 port adjustable manifold.

Definitely many ways to skin a cat. I’d like to achieve even saturation as much as possible but clogging definitely might prove to be an issue with these emitters… We will see how it goes and tweak from there. The different pots will definitely help the flora flex ones are completely wide open on the bottom with only a plastic grid, which is great for airflow but water just flows right through it instead of saturating.

Will update next week when all the parts come in… until then I’ll simply hand-water these girls

 

[OZZ_]

Day 14 of 11/13

1.4 EC 5.7 PH 79F 45% RH 1.87 kPa

Staying very manageable

 

[flower~power]

I basically spend my life watering by hand

 

[OZZ_]

I basically spend my life watering by hand

We do lots of weekend trips and things so some form of automation is helpful. No worries, I’ll keep playing around with different setups until I find one that works. Fit now hand watering is fine. The emitters and Tees arrive on Monday so I’ll setup the simple pump and emitter system then and see how it goes. I’m not sure if the emitters will clog or not, we will find out though lol

The clawing has improved from cutting nitrogen back but a few leaves here and there still are slightly turned downwards, so when this res is empty after the next watering I’ll cut nitrogen in the mixture by another 50%