Vertical Scrog

[EvilCartman]

How much is the cannon power shot, do you know?

IIRC it was ~$100, with a memory card and a spare battery w/charger. I'm pretty happy with it. 12 megapixels, it only has a 4X optical zoom, but for close in shooting it works great.

If your looking for a more multipurpose camera, you might want something with more zoom. The powershot has a 16X *digital* zoom, but the pics suck using *that*!

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Ok now here is the blumat set up.

The left most large pipe with the black hose is my return from the nute feed bucket on the shelf above(not in picture). The center pipe coming out of the tote is from my pump to my feed bucket above. It is used to top off the feed bucket and to minimize pressure fluctuations in my feed lines. The pipe coming out of the wall with the hose going into the tote on the far right is from my mixing area out side of the flower room. The black hoses are just washing machine hoses. I added a extra washer to get them to stop leaking where they connect to the pvc pipe fittings. They were about a dollar for ten.

This is my feed bucket.It is very important that you don't stick you head in it. So I left the warning visible and placed it close to the ceiling. Now if you look at it you will see a 1 1/4 inch pipe coming out at the bottom with a valve. This reduces to 3/4 of a inch pipe. It is the supply line to the blumats. I used a GH 1 1/4 inch ring to seal it. The top 1 1/4 pipe has a tee fitting on it. This is my overflow line and dumps back into the tote on the far left in the first picture. The black line coming into the top of the tee is my supply line from the tote below. The tee holds it in place. Every pipe here has a flexible hose on it so I can take this apart for maintenance.

Here are the how the 3mm line connects to the pvc pipe. I have a Kent Systems 3/32 inch union placed in a cap. I used a 1/8 inch drill bit to make a hole and shoved it in. Hopefully this will not leak. I put it into a cap with a valve before it so I can change it if I need to later should it break or get clogged up.

My supply lines split and form two different runs and have a valve and threads so I can purge any air in my system. Every run I installed should allow any air to get out by simple doing what air does, rise in water. This can be seen in the next picture where the take offs are for each blumats.

You can also see that I angled the valve out from the wall slightly. This is so I can get the cap on and off if need be. It will also prevent the 3mm line from kinking at the 3/32 inch fitting. In the corner you can also see my passive 8 inch fresh air vent.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Here is a picture off the screens in place. In the back ground you can see the 8 inch air supply as well as the valve for the blumats pictured in the above post. Also off to the the left is the tote used as my overflow reservoir.

This is the basic lay out of the screens in the room.

Tomorrow I will go over how the screens are built.

 

[Arminius]

Here is a picture off the screens in place. In the back ground you can see the 8 inch air supply as well as the valve for the blumats pictured in the above post. Also off to the the left is the tote used as my overflow reservoir.

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This is the basic lay out of the screens in the room.

View Image

Tomorrow I will go over how the screens are built.

Looks awesome! I had looked at the pictures earlier and had some questions, and you answered most of them.
Since you recently ordered the blumats, I was wondering how your experience with ordering them went. What extra parts, etc...
I have been contemplating exactly what you have done, from other threads. I really like how Lazyman has his set up. My concerns are nutrients and R/O top offs.
What I would like to do is to top off the overflow res from my R/O supply tank. Setting a timer on the pump will maintain feed bucket pressure, but what about dilution from the R/O, and nutrient add backs?
One thing I was considering, was to not do the top off with R/O, and just mix my nutrients filling up both overflow and feeder bucket. As long as the overflow is large enough, it should last about a week. Each week I would dump whats left, and mix a new batch. Recirculating systems scare me after fucking with RDWC for the last year...

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Not sure how lazyman has his set up so I can't comment on his.

I have not run this system yet. I have been doing hand watering of coco to this point.

What I have is a 27 gallon holding tank on the floor (yellow lidded tote) that tops off the 5.75 gallon bucket above it. My best run with six plants tied to this type off screen used only about 4 gallons a day. Since my top off tank is 27 gallon and I have a 5.75 gallon bucket above my max amount in my reservoirs is 33 gallons with the 1/3 gallon in the pipes (yes i did calculate how much is in the pipes 0.026 gallons per foot). So I have about 8 days worth of nutes in my lines max. I plan to mix as I go and pump it to the yellow lidded tote as needed. Since I have not run this this is a trial run.

In October I plan on going on vacation for a few days so I have till then to work out the bugs and set it up on my other 4 weed wheels. The last time I left I had a friend water and I came back to spider mites, so I hope to prevent that from happening again.

As far as dumping what is left I don't think that is necessary. Just dilute as you go for the nute change over and flush.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Since you recently ordered the blumats, I was wondering how your experience with ordering them went. What extra parts, etc...

I ordered 30 meters of 3mm line from sustainable village, and the 50 pack of sensors from them as well. I got them in about a week with no hassles at all.

I also ordered (100) 3/32 inch unions from Kent Systems as well. They also came in about a week with no problems.

Since I ran as much 3/4 inch pvc to hopefully reduce air bubbles I didn't need that much of the 3mm line as I would have thought. Still I figure if I use 2 feet per sensor I will use all of the 30 meters of 3mm line.

Sorry I didn't answer this earlier. I forgot to answer it and just remembered.

 

[Grizz]

bring it mr crane, got to say the flower room is to damn clean and way to professional looking, need to throw some dirt or coco around, some old stems and leaves in a corner and so on.

 

[NorCalGanjanetX]

Super clean setup Ichabod im excited to see it filled up and in high gear. keep up the good work!

 

[Ichabod Crane]

bring it mr crane, got to say the flower room is to damn clean and way to professional looking, need to throw some dirt or coco around, some old stems and leaves in a corner and so on.

Soon my friend as my vegging plants are way to big. That and next week I have to start chopping 10 plants. I don't know when my (2) 600 watt ballast are going to get here so I may just throw a 1000 watter in.

In other news I bought a cannon power shot SX260 tonight. Will take me a bit to learn how to load pictures and such.

NorCalGanjanetX I plan to load it soon. Not sure what strains yet, I have so many to chose from. I am sure a strain whore.

 

[megayields]

Excellent work IC..I just wish I wasn't so tired so I couold study your design's more carefully, but I have to get to sleep..to do it all over again tomorrow.

I have the GSC ....not a huge yielder but it's supposed to be the new shit strain out here!

You never know it "might" show up in your area somehow.........

 

[Bonzo]

 

[NorCalGanjanetX]

I am sure a strain whore.

more like big pimpin bro can't wait to see what you choose

 

[Ichabod Crane]

more like big pimpin bro can't wait to see what you choose

That sounds so much better. I guess I am just a weed pimp.

Mega there is not much to my design, just a pump and blumats. Get some sleep and you will see it clearly. Well maybe not, if you have the GSC strain.

Hello Bonzo

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Here is how I build my screens.

The base is made with the following pieces:

4 elbows
2 tees
4 pieces of 1 1/2 inch pvc pipe
2 pieces 22 inch pvc pipe
2 pieces 15 1/2 inch pvc pipe (up right piece varies with pot height)

All pipe is 3/4 inch pvc pipe. The 15 1/2 inch pipe can be adjusted up or down for your pot height. Mine fit a 5 gallon dirt bag.

Here is how the base looks when put together.

Next I assemble the screen supports.

You will need the following parts:

4 tees
2 pieces of 22 inch pvc pipe
2 pieces of 46 inch pvc pipe

Again all parts are 3/4 inch pvc. Take this and connect it to the base like this.

In order to add stability to the screens they are connected at the top like the next photo shows.

The parts for this are:

2 elbows
2 pieces of 1 1/2 inch pvc pipe
1 piece of 4 inch pvc pipe ( can vary)

The 4 inch piece can vary if you want to move your plants away from the light some.

Here is the picture of this piece installed to the screen tops.

Now the finishing touches.

I use 2 X 4 inch rubber coated screen on the back to tie to. On the back of this screen I run reflectix insulation. The screen is attached with zip ties at 2 per side. The foil insulation is connected with pipe cleaners I picked up at Walmart. I use the twist ties at the top only so I can get to the back of my plant and trim later after stretch is over.

The parts for this last step are:

1 piece of 2 X 4 inch screen 24 inches by 48 inches
8 zip ties
2 pipe cleaners
1 piece of 24 inch by 48 inch reflectix

This is how this looks.

Two additional things are to not tie the pipe cleaners but just wrap them around the top piece of pipe and twist around the screen top. I take the reflectix off when I harvest so that I can untie the plant. If they are just twisted I can unwrap them quickly and reuse the tie. To connect this twist tie I just poke a hole in the reflectix about 1.5 inches from the 48 inch long side near the top.

Save the pipe cleaners as they can be used to tie your plant to the screen to train it to grow where you want it to. I find that the white pipe cleaners are the easiest to see when it comes time to remove the plant from the screen.

 

[Marlo]

Tagged

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Hello Marlo nice to have you. Learned and am still learning a lot from your grows.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

Ok so I took two more pictures of my blumat system.

They are of my reservoir system. I have a float valve hooked up to my RO unit so it tops off a reservoir for the blumats. I intend to mix and then let gravity run it to my flower room by opening a valve. Here is a picture of that set up.

The valve in the back is the one for the flower room. The reservoir in the front is were I get water for my other plants. I am hand watering the rest of my plants. I will eventually get them on blumats as well when time permits, and I have worked a little more with them.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

So I thought it would be good to post up my nutes. Here is what I use to feed my plants

Yara brand Calcium Nitrate
Jacks Professional 5-12-26
Monopotassium Phosphate (MKP)
Sterosal
Potassium Silicate
H&G Drip Clean

https://www.icmag.com/ic/picture.php?albumid=38856&pictureid=918840

So I guess you want to know what the heck I am using milkstone remover for huh? It is food grade phosphoric acid with a wetting agent. I use about 1.5 ml per 5 gallons to bring my PH down about a half point. In other words it is a very strong PH down and only $13 for a gallon at Tractor Supply.

Up to this point I have been hand watering my plants. I have mixed my own concentrates to mix with. My concentrates are the following.

880 grams 5-12-26 per gallon
644 grams Calcium Nitrate per gallon
792 grams MKP per gallon

Basically I take the above and put it in a gallon jug and top off with RO water. I shake this and let it set till I finish the jug I am using. I dump some from the gallon jug into a smaller 1 quart container to make it easier to measure.

Now here is how I use these to feed my plants:

Veg and week 1-5 of flower
1 ml Drip Clean per gallon
1 ml Potassium Silicate per gallon
10 ml 5-12-26 concentrate per gallon
10 ml Calcium Nitrate concentrate per gallon
PH down with the Sterosal to 5.8

Week 6 flower
1 ml Drip Clean per gallon
1 ml Potassium Silicate per gallon
10 ml 5-12-26 concentrate per gallon
5 ml Calcium Nitrate concentrate per gallon
5 ml MKP per gallon
PH down with the Sterosal to 5.8

Week 7 flower
1 ml Drip Clean per gallon
1 ml Potassium Silicate per gallon
10 ml 5-12-26 concentrate per gallon
10 ml MKP concentrate per gallon
PH down with the Sterosal to 5.8

Week 8 flower
1 ml Drip Clean per gallon
1 ml Potassium Silicate per gallon
20 ml MKP per gallon
PH down with the Sterosal to 5.8

Week 9 flower
flush with RO water

If I have a 8 week strain I remove week 5 and move everything up a week after that.

If I have a ten week strain I repeat week 6 and move everthing after that back one week.

The above will come out at a EC close to 1.5 or about 750 PPM.

I get my MKP and Potassium Silicate from Hydro Gardens in Colorado springs Colorado. Be aware that the boxes are not discrete and come marked Hydro-Gardens.

I have not run the blumats yet and will have to work on this formula some. My goal is to follow the above the best that I can by reducing my main reservoir in the flower room and topping with a new batch.

Any questions just ask.

 

[Ichabod Crane]

I gues I should have mentioned above that my ration for the Jack's to Calcium Nitrate is off. I run at about 1:0.75 which is higher on the calcium nitrate then jacks recommends. They recommend 1:0.66. I did this because the coco I run in gives off Potassium, I add Potassium with the Potassium Silicate and I also add Potassium and Phosphate with the drip clean. It does not seem to bother my plants and I don't get any burn on my leaf tips.

And Bobblehead says my stuff smokes some what OK.

 

[Sqydro]

very informative and sweet set up il be watching closely mate as im hoping to assemble something similar in the next few days but with HGO's dripper coco dtw kinda set up, but i wanna use screens like your self for max plant yield and plus the chiesel outgrows the kali and agent o i use so il need to it down some!!