The growing large plants, outdoors, thread...

[planty]

That is 1" line coming off the manifold to 3/4" headers to 1/4" spaghetti line.

One zone is fully complete, That is the one I tested and it worked very well... all the other zones have the main(1") and sub headers(3/4") ran and I just need to punch holes in the sub headers and plug them in. but only one zone fully complete and that one works the way I had envisioned.

I can turn zones on or off if i'm losing flow over the whole yard...I really hope I don't have to do that but even turning the valves is better than hand watering. I saw this cool toy that is a sonar tank level so I can just watch the digital read out and switch the valves as each zone gets the right amount of water for each water cycle.

Hopefully it works out that I can just adjust the pressure regulator to the point that theres enough juice coming from the pump to handle all 240 sites...

I think you're just disappointed in me that I didn't slave over it and use the barbed fittys with clamps like I'm supposed to and went the easy way out...

 

[planty]

The plan is to hook that up tomorrow. I've already hooked the sprayers transfer barb and line up and the headers are hooked up to the 1" main lines...Where did you see 1/2" line and 3/8" ?? Maybe it's my crappy pics...I'm going to remember my DSLR next time I'm down in town..I may switch to the big disc filter if the 100 micron screen is what is keeping me from doing all 240 sites at once...There wasn't an issue with 40 sites going off at once, but that is a lot less than 240...My pump is a beast though and I used 1" and 3/4" line so hopefully everything is in place for it to work!! Pray for me T!!

 

[Tom Hill]

Sorry Planty, I did not see 1/2 line I was just guessing by looking at it. One inch ID is much better -almost 3 times the capacity of 1/2, but still a bit light prolly especially considering many connections will drop down below that 1in ID -the filter for example doesn't look to be 1inch ID, or that gray manifold pipe (3/4?) if those are 3/4 leaving the system to the garden. 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 on everything before those 3/4's leaving to the garden is about what the math calls for I think. This is no huge deal, all I am saying is you may have to go to 6 sprayers per after you get all hooked-up and you won't know until it's all hooked up. Those sprinklers may only throw half that 3.5ft dia when all is fired-up, no biggy, better than my low pressure systems no doubt, lol. ^^ Jealous. It will work one way or the other bro, for sure. -T

 

[planty]

It's all 1" piping everywhere and 1" main line and 3/4" risers and headers to the beds. Theres no 1/2" in my garden

I used a little over 1K ft of 1" and a bit over 500 ft of 3/4" to do my risers and headers for my beds.

T, thanks for always helping me to strive for the ideal and accepting nothing less.

I know you and our buddy both use 6 sprayers on your 6 ft beds...Maybe I'll end up doing the same.

 

[localhero]

Localhero,

I'd be willing to bet that there were many more environmental differences in the homes of those two plants both pre, and post transplant besides MH vs HPS. The plant on the right grew in a more humid environment with less intense lighting it looks to me. Then what are the differences in their current environments? There may be more going on not sure, but this is basically what I was speaking of in my previous reply to Nomaad. The plant on the left is having too much asked of it right now, and will take some time to adjust. If I was to try anything, it might be to increase the humidity of its current environment (I'm speaking of the air, not soil, overwatering will make it worse), and perhaps lessen lighting intensity. Got any scrap shade cloth lying around? If it's in a greenhouse, might try to wet the floor down some. I wouldn't stress out too much over it or try anything too drastic though, it will turn around, roots will grab hold, and the plant will once again be in balance. I'll post up some similar examples over the next few days so that you will have some company Respect for having the balls to post those pics amigo, got a feeling pics will be fairly scarce over the next couple weeks as many folks (including me at some locals I fear) will be dealing with this same exact shit. For future reference, I very much doubt that breaking roots up (pretty much always a bad call imo), or adding B1 did anything but exasperate the problem. -T

the difference between the two rooms are this:

right plant - air coolded 1000w mh the super mh the bomb ass eye hort $220 bulb that rocks and makes the plants under the 1000w eiko mh lean towards it. humidity from 40 to 60 depending. that room just sucks air through it through the fan connected to the lights.

left plant - a 10x 14 room with hanging bare hps bulbs. imagine a crusty/freedom bucket light set up. 6 600w hp on the outside and 2 1000w enhanced spec eye hort hps in the center. that room has 2 one ton mini split ac units. to replace all that water taken out of the air by the ac's i have a professional humidifier. humidity in that room was 50. night time air venting. temp around 75.

that was the only difference between those two plants, cloned the same time fed the same time until the hps room plants started sucking up waterings.

fed this tea every third watering and upped the amounts at the end as they got larger: mexican bat guano/seabird guano/seaweed extract/molasses/humboldt honey es (which i swear is just expensive molasses) humic acid/fulvic acid/great white myco/every 2 weeks silica blast/a dab of voodoo juice/worm castings/ a few drops of microbe lift bmc every few weeks to kill possible pm spores in the soil. sometime azatrol/spinosad and that ed rosenthal brand insecticide.


anyways i cant think of anything else that was different between them. i came up with my style of indoor from the krusty people. its a modded version of their set up. differences are: i veg in a seperate room and then bring in plants to the grow room. I grow in org soil in 55 gal plastic barrels cut in half with holes in the side and bottom.

freedom bucket/ krusty bucket people use that room in a hydro setup. the bucket is hydro. im in soil. the krusty bucket method starts and finishes in those rooms with hps lights just changing to 12 12 when they go to flower. thats why i thought i could veg with hps. i guess u cant get root bound with hydro lol.

 

[Tom Hill]

Planty, I got it now, I thought I was looking at 3/4 inch gray manifold trying to feed 6 3/4 inch lines above in the pic on the left - but it's all 1inch stuff.

Regarding the sonar tank level device. You can also just hook-up a hose bib at the tank exit then attach a clear tube running up the tank along the gallons reading to measure exact levels of the tank this way (tired of knocking on tanks to check approx levels guys?). Then say 60 x 30 gallons = 1800 per normal watering. Time how long it takes to empty 1800 gallons. Then time out your waterings from then on.

I'm not disappointed you're not using barbed fitty's and clamps, I've just seen those others blow often and it's always way down the friggen hill, so I don't trust em. Not much wrong with them in your type of set-up though, all laid out before you. I'd be dissapointed if you were using your fingers to punch in those barbed straights for your 1/4 spaghetti line though, instead of the backside of that punch tool as it's meant to be used. I had blisters on my fingers for years before I figured out how to use that stinken tool, lol. -T

 

[planty]

Dude you use that one? I have a better one for you bro. It's 2010.

http://www.dripworksusa.com/store/punches.php

"miracle punch" & "insert punch"

Slip the blue bushing out for 3/4 tube!! Drop the 14TB in to the Insert Punch and put your 1/4" and squeeze, DONE! Take your sprayer, gently put it in to the other end, into the insert punch again all the way in and squeeze, DONE...240 times...It was fun.

I have a 2" inlet in to my pump and a 1" outlet 1" main pipe 3/4" servicing 1/4" spaghetti tubes off EZ Loc 1"-3/4" reducing Ts with 3/4" EZ-Loc elbows and I even used EZ Loc end caps.........I'm pretty sure my math was close enough to good ...I know what you mean about the added pressure from the down hill slope...luckily my garden is basically flat. I didn't even have to use dynamite to make it that way

Check this link T:

http://www.liquidlevel.com/products_indicators_ultrasonic.asp

Would you rather do that or the clear tube? I want ultrasonic!!
Yes! Total waste of $500!

 

[hogan400]

nomaad, i wouldnt stress the smartpot roots slowing up. "indoors" in my program i go from 2's to 10's. simply stacking my 2s right on top, burying the sides some, since starting this about 2 yrs ago my numbers jumped nicely! i knew this was a advertised advantage of the smart pot. "bog" wrote of his double potting method yrs ago. just stacking one on top of the other.....he also talked of doing the same outdoors. last yr several of my buddies did this, outdoors of course and had great results with smartys.

i keep my plants growing as fast as i can, besides breathability, and being able to push the plants harder, the biggest thing i stress to my friends about smartys is never having transplant shock. soon as i see em get a little hungry i know the roots need more eats so its time to stack. i also thought about the roots maybe not developing through the material. when i decided to clean some 2's when i was too lazy to hit the store one night, i couldnt even pull em out. i got pissed, cut it apart with a shovel and the root masses wire "inches" around through the material in several spots. my 2's were toast but its a small price to pay for the bonus. i used to cut the bottoms off my plastic grow bags and transplant 3/4's of the way down the sides but even then saw shock.

breathabilty, kinda sounds good to me.

also i would like to thank all of you, even the new growers because without questions there wouldnt be knowledge shared.

and this is the big plant thread and im about to post my pics for our 30x64 cold frame sooooon! were in 100 gal smartys......24 of em, does that constitute a big plant here, or am i kinda in a grey area? this yrs biggest will also be next yrs smallest i believe!

 

[planty]

I'm not using any water cycle timers. I like being able to control when they get water. Some times it's better to him em earlier than you'd think because it'll be hot as fuck or wait because they just don't need it...The timer can't tell whats happening really

 

[theJointedOne]

I'm not using any water cycle timers. I like being able to control when they get water. Some times it's better to him em earlier than you'd think because it'll be hot as fuck or wait because they just don't need it...The timer can't tell whats happening really

it would be tight to have a timer which was "smart" and could determine your soil moisture levels for each bed differently and then water accordingly....hahaha yeah that would be tight

 

[nomaad]

nomaad, i wouldnt stress the smartpot roots slowing up. "indoors" in my program i go from 2's to 10's. simply stacking my 2s right on top, burying the sides some, since starting this about 2 yrs ago my numbers jumped nicely! i knew this was a advertised advantage of the smart pot. "bog" wrote of his double potting method yrs ago. just stacking one on top of the other.....he also talked of doing the same outdoors. last yr several of my buddies did this, outdoors of course and had great results with smartys.

i keep my plants growing as fast as i can, besides breathability, and being able to push the plants harder, the biggest thing i stress to my friends about smartys is never having transplant shock. soon as i see em get a little hungry i know the roots need more eats so its time to stack. i also thought about the roots maybe not developing through the material. when i decided to clean some 2's when i was too lazy to hit the store one night, i couldnt even pull em out. i got pissed, cut it apart with a shovel and the root masses wire "inches" around through the material in several spots. my 2's were toast but its a small price to pay for the bonus. i used to cut the bottoms off my plastic grow bags and transplant 3/4's of the way down the sides but even then saw shock.

breathabilty, kinda sounds good to me.

also i would like to thank all of you, even the new growers because without questions there wouldnt be knowledge shared.

and this is the big plant thread and im about to post my pics for our 30x64 cold frame sooooon! were in 100 gal smartys......24 of em, does that constitute a big plant here, or am i kinda in a grey area? this yrs biggest will also be next yrs smallest i believe!

Right on. You give me hope. If this method has comparable results to the bottomless smartie and the transplanted-out-of-smartie plants, it will be slightly revolutionary. At least for this grower. Thanks for the input.

My homegirl pulled down 4 from a 100 gallon smartie...while this may not be the monster of all monsters... I wouldn't sneeze at such a plant and for sure not at a garden with 24 of them. Good luck this year. Start a thread if you haven't already.

 

[nomaad]

it would be tight to have a timer which was "smart" and could determine your soil moisture levels for each bed differently and then water accordingly....hahaha yeah that would be tight

such a thing could be rigged. i'd say a laptop might be required to run it, but it could be done.

 

[planty]

There's no way for me to water beds individually. The least amount I can do at once is 10. Yes that does sound like a cool system though

Nomaad what would you use to set something like that up?

 

[localhero]

low tech water level as mentioned:

ive always wanted to pipe up a fish tank with clear pvc. have it running all around, back lit with black lighting or something. would make a nice addition to hash bar at a club or co-op.

 

[Feb2006er]

nomaad, i wouldnt stress the smartpot roots slowing up. "indoors" in my program i go from 2's to 10's. simply stacking my 2s right on top, burying the sides some, since starting this about 2 yrs ago my numbers jumped nicely! i knew this was a advertised advantage of the smart pot. "bog" wrote of his double potting method yrs ago. just stacking one on top of the other.....he also talked of doing the same outdoors. last yr several of my buddies did this, outdoors of course and had great results with smartys.

i keep my plants growing as fast as i can, besides breathability, and being able to push the plants harder, the biggest thing i stress to my friends about smartys is never having transplant shock. soon as i see em get a little hungry i know the roots need more eats so its time to stack. i also thought about the roots maybe not developing through the material. when i decided to clean some 2's when i was too lazy to hit the store one night, i couldnt even pull em out. i got pissed, cut it apart with a shovel and the root masses wire "inches" around through the material in several spots. my 2's were toast but its a small price to pay for the bonus. i used to cut the bottoms off my plastic grow bags and transplant 3/4's of the way down the sides but even then saw shock.

breathabilty, kinda sounds good to me.

also i would like to thank all of you, even the new growers because without questions there wouldnt be knowledge shared.

and this is the big plant thread and im about to post my pics for our 30x64 cold frame sooooon! were in 100 gal smartys......24 of em, does that constitute a big plant here, or am i kinda in a grey area? this yrs biggest will also be next yrs smallest i believe!

Do you ever take the first watering after transplant and add some olivias rooting solution to the pure water? I have found that if the roots around the top on the outside are loosened and olyvias added to the first water that the plants start to take off more rapidly and seem to grow across the top of the new pot faster. Without loosening the roots and without rooting supplement it would leave spaces that the plant seemed like it was never going to grow into. This was very apparent with 5gal bags indoors after transplant. When I was emptying them out I found pockets of unused soil and clumps of rootboundness attached to the previous planters rootball.

 

[nomaad]

is this out of a smartpot? or a plastic planting bag?

 

[BotanicalBill]

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[BotanicalBill]

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[localhero]

Holy crap Botanical Bill!

a fully automated watering system. I had no idea hvac was that intense. are those watering meters ok to be left permanently in the ground? so the meters sense that the soil is dry and triggers a waterring? watering amount predetermined by your progam.

 

[mister c]

I thought i read that adding myco's to the mix will just create a battlezone for the dominant microbes and mess up the natural biology of the mix? True or False?

I just have one of the big ass jars of great white and would like to use it! But dont want to disturb any native microbes.

Thanks ya'll!