Everything has been going like clockwork. The system is fully dialed at this point, so all I do is plant management: taking care of my moms, cutting clones on time, and training in the flower room. I cannot recommend the fertilizer dosers enough! Not needing to manage a rez is worth its weight in gold. Easily pays for itself if you have at least ~1500W. After doing a fan leaf thinning and canopy session on day ~18 of flower, I can literally leave this room alone for three weeks with no worries. This past run, I went on an 18 day vacation out of the country, and everything was peachy when I got back. Here is the simple recipe for a safe and self supporting indoor garden:
- In-line fertilizer dosers. These completely erase the need for a res. You hook them up to a sprinkler timer and connect directly to your water supply, they mix the fertilizer inline directly from a bottle of nutes. I switched to soil and now I just use a one-part nutrient (botanicare CNS), so only one doser is needed. Additional pH control is not needed, especially with soil.
- Automatic drainage. I use a Little Giant condensate pump to funnel my runoff into a drain. You may need more than one to have the right capacity for your garden. My single pump just keeps up with my 3KW garden. It of course depends on your irrigation
- Don't mess with hydro. I started in Rockwool, then went back to coco, then back to soil. Soil results are my best ever and plants super healthy. Best flavor too. Can't beat the inherent microbiological buffers in a good bag of soil IMO.
- A garden area that is easy to keep clean. A clean garden means you don't need to worry about bugs, mildew, or PM. Likewise, a space that is easy to clean will be far quicker to recover if you do have an issue.
- Adequate AC and dehumidifcation. This keeps your climate under control and ensures that you will not have PM issues.
- Telemetry. I use a NetAtmo Weatherstation to keep tabs on my garden remotely. With an app on my phone I can instantly read my temp, humidity, and CO2 levels. This is crucial to being able to leave the garden unattended for up to weeks at a time. Peace of mind at a glance, and useful tracking over time to see areas to improve. Is your AC keeping up? Is your dehumidifer keeping up? Are your CO2 levels on the money? This kit will keep it clear.
- Failsafes. I have a high temperature shutoff that cuts all power if the temp goes above 90. I also have backup pumps everywhere in case on fails, to avoid a leak.
Based on these techniques, I have gotten my workload down to less than 24 hours per cycle. I do the following things each run, and this is all I do:
- Clean the room, put in new soil, change to new bulbs, transplant teens: ~6 hours
- Top plants twice: ~1 hour total
- Lollipop and clean up some suckers at the back before flipping: ~1 hour
- Train through my vert screens during first 18 days of flip: ~2 hours total
- Defoliation and plant training session at day 21 of flower: ~3 hours
- 2nd defoliation and training at day 40: ~3 hours
- Harvest: ~6 hours
I switched strains to Do-Si-Do. Smaller, tighter buds than the GG, but overall yield is the same and quality is better. The tight nugs of the Dosi and the longer internodal space works well for the vertical garden -- it's easy to get light to the rear of the canopy, and keep the density under control. This last run has been the best ever from this room stellar quality. It's drying up now:
- In-line fertilizer dosers. These completely erase the need for a res. You hook them up to a sprinkler timer and connect directly to your water supply, they mix the fertilizer inline directly from a bottle of nutes. I switched to soil and now I just use a one-part nutrient (botanicare CNS), so only one doser is needed. Additional pH control is not needed, especially with soil.
- Automatic drainage. I use a Little Giant condensate pump to funnel my runoff into a drain. You may need more than one to have the right capacity for your garden. My single pump just keeps up with my 3KW garden. It of course depends on your irrigation
- Don't mess with hydro. I started in Rockwool, then went back to coco, then back to soil. Soil results are my best ever and plants super healthy. Best flavor too. Can't beat the inherent microbiological buffers in a good bag of soil IMO.
- A garden area that is easy to keep clean. A clean garden means you don't need to worry about bugs, mildew, or PM. Likewise, a space that is easy to clean will be far quicker to recover if you do have an issue.
- Adequate AC and dehumidifcation. This keeps your climate under control and ensures that you will not have PM issues.
- Telemetry. I use a NetAtmo Weatherstation to keep tabs on my garden remotely. With an app on my phone I can instantly read my temp, humidity, and CO2 levels. This is crucial to being able to leave the garden unattended for up to weeks at a time. Peace of mind at a glance, and useful tracking over time to see areas to improve. Is your AC keeping up? Is your dehumidifer keeping up? Are your CO2 levels on the money? This kit will keep it clear.
- Failsafes. I have a high temperature shutoff that cuts all power if the temp goes above 90. I also have backup pumps everywhere in case on fails, to avoid a leak.
Based on these techniques, I have gotten my workload down to less than 24 hours per cycle. I do the following things each run, and this is all I do:
- Clean the room, put in new soil, change to new bulbs, transplant teens: ~6 hours
- Top plants twice: ~1 hour total
- Lollipop and clean up some suckers at the back before flipping: ~1 hour
- Train through my vert screens during first 18 days of flip: ~2 hours total
- Defoliation and plant training session at day 21 of flower: ~3 hours
- 2nd defoliation and training at day 40: ~3 hours
- Harvest: ~6 hours
I switched strains to Do-Si-Do. Smaller, tighter buds than the GG, but overall yield is the same and quality is better. The tight nugs of the Dosi and the longer internodal space works well for the vertical garden -- it's easy to get light to the rear of the canopy, and keep the density under control. This last run has been the best ever from this room stellar quality. It's drying up now:
Keep up the good work!
