wtfn's 4000w legal medical soil food web organic grow show

[bobblehead]

I've been meaning to ask you this... I know you're a die hard fan of the digital blu mats and you have the experience to back it up, but blu mat doesn't make a digital controller, right? You're hand-watering then, right? And you prefer that over automated waterings? Is it all in the precision that the blu mat digitals provide? Seems really counter-intuitive.

Also, I really don't think my plants are as stressed as you make them out to be. They got a little tip burn when I was heavily foliar feeding in the first two weeks of flower, but I cut that out when I noticed the burn, and they just haven't had the new growth to replace it. They got a little splotchy while I was overwatering for a while but other than some yellow leaf edges (a K def pattern), mostly directly under the lights, things seem to be moving along very well. All of the lower foliage has retained its full color and turgidity, and only the leaves directly under the lights have any kind of severe damage. The SSHxBD seems to have done a little better overall, with very minimal damage except to the tallest of tops.

I'm just too lazy to get the trop-f blumats set up in my room. I have every intention of automating my feeds with blumats and using the blumat digital to dial in the drips and check that they're working correctly. I think that all of my issues with blumats before came from mixing notes in the water and wild temperature and humidity fluctuations. I don't have those problems anymore.... so when I find the time I'm gonna soak all my trop-f's, knock the air out, and plumb my room for them.

As for your plant health... I don't think you're plants are that awful myself. .. but a heavily stressed plant will never grow the way an unstressed plant grows. I'm going through it myself with my current crop. It's just good enough imo. When the plants are in perfect health, you can see them respond to foliars and teas much faster. The growth is just so much better than what I'm seeing right now. Those first few weeks determine how the crop is going to finish.

 

[whythefnot]

I think that all of my issues with blumats before came from mixing notes in the water and wild temperature and humidity fluctuations.

That's really good to know -- I don't have any of those issues. I'd like a little more swing in temp, actually. I have a 12-pack of blu mats I was planning to spread out in here. You think that's enough in these beds or should I double up? I would think that you could get away with as few as 1 pr 2 per bed provided you take good care of them, not that you'd want to...
Edit: I still plan to get a blu mat digital so I don't have any problems again. As the beds settled in they started drying out on top a little more quickly which kind of tripped me up and had me watering a little too much every day for almost 2 weeks.

Those first few weeks determine how the crop is going to finish.

I remember you stressing this point to me, and I was very pleased to make it well into week 5 before I started seeing any more damage than just a little bit of tip burn, which you have so dutifully noted
Like I said, I'm really not sweating it -- they should start cannibalizing themselves pretty soon anyway, so a little bit of yellowing just means I have some room for improvement. They are chunking right up.

 

[whythefnot]

Hrm, I have a bad cap in one ballast (at least one -- when I switch bulbs I think I'll swap out my caps too). Hopefully the LHS won't ream me on a new one. Really wishing I had a few spares on hand, but beggars can't be prepared for everything. Now to pick which section I leave in the dark tonight...Eeenie, meeenie, meiny mo...

 

[surfguitar]

Gotta agree with bobble, foliars and nute teas can be detrimental if plants aren't in great health. I don't think straight compost teas are ever bad tho.

Are you doing sprouted seed teas? Some members have alluded to the enzymes really making the frost pack on and that is my experience. I like nothing but seed teas the last 3-2 weeks.

 

[whythefnot]

Gotta agree with bobble, foliars and nute teas can be detrimental if plants aren't in great health. I don't think straight compost teas are ever bad tho.

All I've brewed is castings and molasses, with an occasional Tbsp of kelp extract. No foliars in a month or more.

Are you doing sprouted seed teas? Some members have alluded to the enzymes really making the frost pack on and that is my experience. I like nothing but seed teas the last 3-2 weeks.

Never even heard of 'em. I'll be sure to do some reading on that today, thanks!

 

[thewhitelotus]

how much castings and molasses are you using on each brew? Was curious because i just built a quick little vortex brewer and have both castings and unsulphured blackstrap molasses at my disposable

hope ya dont mind a few pics

i made some modifications after the last pic....put a lid on it and changed how the air enters, but its been creating a great vortex

 

[surfguitar]

I like a recipe of 2c castings and 1/4c molasses per 5 gallon

 

[thewhitelotus]

thanks surf!

 

[whythefnot]

how much castings and molasses are you using on each brew? Was curious because i just built a quick little vortex brewer and have both castings and unsulphured blackstrap molasses at my disposable

Nicely done! I'm a little jealous ... for now

I follow microbeman's recommendations of 2.38% castings and .5% molasses, by volume. I make about a 4-gallon brew, using 400ml (~1.7 cups) castings and 75ml (~.32 cups, or ~2.5 oz) molasses, but the recommendations that surfguitar gave you will work very well also. This is certainly not an exact science, and I urge you to experiment with your own rig and ingredients using these numbers as a guideline. Good luck, and keep us posted!

 

[thewhitelotus]

thanks buddy! ive got a parts list for that brewer and some pics of the finishing product....after the modifications if you are interested just shoot me a PM.

Sounds like you already have the airpump which was the most expensive part!

 

[whythefnot]

thanks buddy! ive got a parts list for that brewer and some pics of the finishing product....after the modifications if you are interested just shoot me a PM.

Sounds like you already have the airpump which was the most expensive part!

I'd love to see it, feel free to post it here - I'm sure I'll glean something from it. I was planning a 30-gal cone-bottom tank setup just as I ran out of money two months ago, but it's near the top of my list of things to do in here, just after getting new bulbs, new therm/hygs, some decent-quality wall-mount oscillating fans, and new CAPs for the other 3 ballasts. 30gal is probably overkill for 2 4x8 beds, and I'm only planning 20gal brews max given the size of my air pump, but I want to have the option in case I decide to get a bigger air pump. I have a 1/2in line running from the room to a flowerbed outside that I can always use to drain it to my veggie garden, which is pretty dead atm.

You think your design is capable of pushing enough water to properly oxygenate a 20 - 25gal brew? In terms of pvc diameter, that is.

 

[thewhitelotus]

I used 1 inch PVC, as thats what i had lying around the house. I believe in the bigger setups like MicrobeMans he uses 1 1/4 or even 1 1/2. I use an ecoplus 1 for my small little 5 gallon but i believe a ecoplus 3 or 5 would be perfect for that. Im guessing youve checked out the tea brewer thread as theres everything from 2 gal up to 50 gallon designs in there.....good info for sure

 

[whythefnot]

Im guessing youve checked out the tea brewer thread as theres everything from 2 gal up to 50 gallon designs in there.....good info for sure

I'm sure I've looked through it at some point, and seen many plans around online, but haven't really concentrated my energy on building a good one except to shop around for decent shipping on a cone-bottom tank (which doesn't exist in California, btw).

Am I reading this right, that the ecoplus 1 is pushing 600 gph? And the 5 is 1100+? This pump is the second-to-biggest air pump that SunLeaves makes and it's just 600gph - I think their largest was 900...maybe. I did the math and I can realistically get the DO up to 6 - 8 ppm with an airlift/vortex making a 20gal brew with this pump, provided it is rated fairly.

 

[whythefnot]

I was very wrong about that, SunLeaves does make a much bigger pump, like this. The pamphlet that came with my pump only lists up to their 900gph model. I guess I need to think bigger if I want overkill. Thanks for making me aware of that.

 

[whythefnot]

I think I'm gonna try something new this next run ... I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to implement it at the moment, but I think I'm going to try to cover the outside edge of my grow space vertically using relatively untrained, tall plants around the edge, supported by a second tier of pvc, and more sparsely-spaced, heavily-trained plants in the middle, in order to make better use of the light I'm losing. Kind of a bowl shape, if you can picture that. I'll call it a compromise since I don't think this space, with its low ceiling height, can support a decent-sized vertical anything. If I can pull this off and I'm satisfied with the results I'll consider swapping out my hoods for some vertizontals when I can finally afford a mini split.

I'm sure it'll be a mess the first time around, but I see a lot of light being wasted around the sides and I wouldn't mind bringing home an extra lb or half per harvest. The SSHxBD is a perfect candidate for that, with its long, lanky branches and big stretch at the beginning of flower.

Am I making sense to you guys or do you think some reflective wrap would have the same end result?

 

[whythefnot]

That tea must be pretty fungal. I brewed a batch yesterday and gave just a spritz to each of the clones last night, which are in solo cups right now. This morning, each cup has a well-defined white fungal patch on the surface where I poured the stuff in.

 

[whythefnot]

I went ahead and cracked the 9 Blue Cheese x Purp Plat seeds I have. I want that blue cheese back in my life.

 

[whythefnot]

Day 50

Update time!!

Mmmm-kaaayyy...
7 weeks down, 2 to go. I'm going to pull the whole room around 9 weeks no matter what happens this time. I need the money; I'm starting to get pretty far behind on bills, and my electric has been sky-high.

Everything's looking nice and chunky, getting some good frost now. I accidentally kicked the power strip that my humidifier is plugged into and it was off for an unknown amount of time. I'm thinking about 24 hours is most likely. Whoops. I think we're all ok over here, just the slightest bit of extra yellowing on some of the sensitive tops. Again, the blue bubba got it worse than SSHxBD (hereafter referred to as super silver dream ... I guess, shit I don't know... ).

My cam batteries went dead before I got all the shots I wanted but here are the goods:

Blue Bubba:

 

[whythefnot]

SSD:

 

[whythefnot]

I culled most of the Blue Bubba clones. I kept a few, but I really like this SSD and I think the BCxPP will be a nice counterpart.