12/12 From Seed Experiment - 21 Strains
- Thread starter Hot Diggity Sog
- Start date
hayrolld
Well-Known Member
Hot Diggity Sog
Well-Known Member
Pretty cool indeed!
hayrolld
Well-Known Member
Glad you like it. It works way better than ebb and flow (for me). I had three totes under each light, so I think with a 600 watt bulb set vertically, you could have four or five totes in a ring around the bulb and get good yields. You might want to set them out in the store to figure out how big a circle you want so they are close enough to the light. The only other thing I would say, is with hydroton,grow stones, and probably the perlite too, you will need to run the pumps more often than in those instructions to keep them from drying out compared to using rockwool.
Hot Diggity Sog
Well-Known Member
For sure. I figure anywhere between 4 and 24 times a day for the watering. Growstone arrived today and wow...it looks really cool.
Hot Diggity Sog
Well-Known Member
Chapter 3 Update
Day 27
Many of the rockwool cubes are pretty much bone dry so I will be keeping very close eye on them. The plants look fine so this should tell me if they are drawing enough water up unassisted.
Several of them look to be about ready to take off. First sighting of pistols is expected in about 1 week. Unfortunately, there are still many that simply have not reached the water. I've begun taking some of these and putting them into my experimental containers. The octagon was intended to hold 100 plants. It's probably going to only end up with between 50 and 60. Also, I over-estimated the vertical coverage of the light. I think only 3 rows will be able to be adequately lit and not the 4 rows so, while 2 of the strains have plants in the 4th row, I probably won't be adding any more.
My grow stone arrived yesterday and I really like what I see. It is a little dusty like perlite but does not seem to gum up a container at the bottom at all. It also does not get air borne like perlite and tends to just stay on your hands or whatever it comes in contact with. Probably should be washed prior to use but may not be necessary.
I've got a bunch of supplies coming soon...multiple containers and various things related to automated watering...more on that as they come in.
Out of the 5 strains, Sour Blueberry and Blueberry Headband are definitely doing the best in the octagon. Blue Dream is next followed by C99 with Chronic Thunder doing the worst.
Day 27
Many of the rockwool cubes are pretty much bone dry so I will be keeping very close eye on them. The plants look fine so this should tell me if they are drawing enough water up unassisted.
Several of them look to be about ready to take off. First sighting of pistols is expected in about 1 week. Unfortunately, there are still many that simply have not reached the water. I've begun taking some of these and putting them into my experimental containers. The octagon was intended to hold 100 plants. It's probably going to only end up with between 50 and 60. Also, I over-estimated the vertical coverage of the light. I think only 3 rows will be able to be adequately lit and not the 4 rows so, while 2 of the strains have plants in the 4th row, I probably won't be adding any more.
My grow stone arrived yesterday and I really like what I see. It is a little dusty like perlite but does not seem to gum up a container at the bottom at all. It also does not get air borne like perlite and tends to just stay on your hands or whatever it comes in contact with. Probably should be washed prior to use but may not be necessary.
I've got a bunch of supplies coming soon...multiple containers and various things related to automated watering...more on that as they come in.
Out of the 5 strains, Sour Blueberry and Blueberry Headband are definitely doing the best in the octagon. Blue Dream is next followed by C99 with Chronic Thunder doing the worst.
akhiymjames
Well-Known Member
Great update bro. Kinda surprised a few of them haven't touched the water yet. You would think by now all of them would be but that could be contributed to the rockwool holding access moisture. They're dry now so your not top feeding anymore right? I don't really see any plants that look horrible. They all look green and healthy.
I see what you mean tho about the 4th row and not enough light. Maybe if there was some type of reflective material above the light would help reflect it back down on top of them. I think you have enough light but with this basically being in the open you may be losing lots of light to the plants. I think this would be great in a all white room. Maybe surround it with white poly with a zipper added to it to close it up. I'm just throwing stuff out there but they look great bro. I cant wait to see them flower bro gonna be very nice
I see what you mean tho about the 4th row and not enough light. Maybe if there was some type of reflective material above the light would help reflect it back down on top of them. I think you have enough light but with this basically being in the open you may be losing lots of light to the plants. I think this would be great in a all white room. Maybe surround it with white poly with a zipper added to it to close it up. I'm just throwing stuff out there but they look great bro. I cant wait to see them flower bro gonna be very nice
Hot Diggity Sog
Well-Known Member
Yeah...I'll take some pictures that illustrate why. Basically, if I put a net pot into the tube...even if it has a ton of roots sticking out...if they don't actually touch the water, it's a 50/50 proposition. They might make it, they might not. Had I to start over, they would be in the net pots and surrounded with hydroton and left that way for prolly 2 weeks or until there were a lot of roots and at least 2 inches long.
akhiymjames
Well-Known Member
Yea I see what your saying. I think I saw someone mention it earlier your system would be best for established clones that way you out them in and they're already touching. yea next run for sure with it do it that way with the net pots and establishing roots. Shouldn't have that problem no more. Still looking great tho bro
hayrolld
Well-Known Member
Well, considering they are rockwool cubes, you could cut the bottom out of the net pots and push the cube closer to the water for the ones that are struggling. As soon as roots hit that flowing water they will get longer fast. The plants look good, I think the whole group will take off soon.
Sativied
Well-Known Member
Nice, they are starting to look vigorous indeed.
The issue of the roots not being able to reach the water yet is sort of inherent to NFT in a tube. The water concentrates in a narrow stream at the bottom. Hence flooded tubes. I used the same adapter pvc end cap piece (end cap with a hole offset from center) Heath used in his system to raise the water level i.e. as a dam. The tubes aren't actually completely flooded, less than half actually. Raising the water level just half an inch already widens it a lot in a pipe. In your case that would require a dam at every level. There's another way to achieve that, rotating an elbow at the end of each row slightly upwards.
The issue of the roots not being able to reach the water yet is sort of inherent to NFT in a tube. The water concentrates in a narrow stream at the bottom. Hence flooded tubes. I used the same adapter pvc end cap piece (end cap with a hole offset from center) Heath used in his system to raise the water level i.e. as a dam. The tubes aren't actually completely flooded, less than half actually. Raising the water level just half an inch already widens it a lot in a pipe. In your case that would require a dam at every level. There's another way to achieve that, rotating an elbow at the end of each row slightly upwards.
akhiymjames
Well-Known Member
Great info right there bro. That's why I love this site cus if you live where cannabis is frowned upon your gonna have a hard time finding someone who you can trust to give you great tips and info. I used to only use this site for info purposes only until couple years ago when I got back to growing. I'm hooked now lol
Hot Diggity Sog
Well-Known Member
Yeah...I really understand now about the dams. The water is only about an inch deep in most places...its not perfectly level so some spots its deeper but there is still a considerable gap between the bottom of the pot and water. The dams elevate the water which reduces that gap. I have no dams 
.
.
Hot Diggity Sog
Well-Known Member
All in all I really have nothing to complain about. I keep checking my journal and I compare how far along these are to my earlier runs and these are further developed than even in the 1st chapter which for the most part ran without a hitch in near ideal conditions.
Sativied
Well-Known Member
I had to 'experience' the effect of not having dams in my tubes too before adding them. I didn't actually buy those endcaps for damns, just to easily connect 40mm pvc drain to rez. Even had my tubes slightly tilted to keep it low. All I had to do was rotate the end cap (which fortunately was not glued) cause the hole was offset. My issue was slightly different, I started mine with roots submerged in dwc, then they barely reached the flow in the tubes after transplanting. This thread was from slightly before that, contains a pic of the dam piece too.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/drooping-after-transplant-from-dwc-to-nft.636245/
You're doing great though, it's just the dialing in part a system like that requires. Once you got it full tuned in...
Only reason I don't grow in my tubes is because it's not handy for breeding, but to produce high quality and quantity mj in as little time as possible it's imo the best way to grow. Noticeably fast in veg and I do get the impression that carries on in flowering.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/flooded-tubes-is-the-best.706564/ didn't even mention the highly efficient nutrient usage there, and the reduced waste at the end, just roots and plants. The roots dry out fast and can then be compacted to a fraction of their size. I don't want to sound lazy but it's nice not having to drag with bags of soil/coco/perlite in and out the house especially with 4-5 runs a year.
Anyway, like we determined earlier, the roots will fill up the bottom of the tubes too which should raise the level a bit, nice and gradually too.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/drooping-after-transplant-from-dwc-to-nft.636245/
You're doing great though, it's just the dialing in part a system like that requires. Once you got it full tuned in...
Only reason I don't grow in my tubes is because it's not handy for breeding, but to produce high quality and quantity mj in as little time as possible it's imo the best way to grow. Noticeably fast in veg and I do get the impression that carries on in flowering.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/flooded-tubes-is-the-best.706564/ didn't even mention the highly efficient nutrient usage there, and the reduced waste at the end, just roots and plants. The roots dry out fast and can then be compacted to a fraction of their size. I don't want to sound lazy but it's nice not having to drag with bags of soil/coco/perlite in and out the house especially with 4-5 runs a year.
Anyway, like we determined earlier, the roots will fill up the bottom of the tubes too which should raise the level a bit, nice and gradually too.
Hot Diggity Sog
Well-Known Member
As they start to take off it will be interesting to see how the roots impact the tubes. One of the big motivations was as you said...minimal disposal at the end. As you scale up, disposing of medium becomes a serious issue.
akhiymjames
Well-Known Member
Sativied is putting it on us today. You make me feel so bad thatbinhave to get all this soil over and over and over and mixing it up hand watering shit gets very tiring but there's no better taste than soil grown. Plus I just reuse my soil so I don't have to dispose of much except for plant material but this is def a great way to grow tho and I would prolly do more hydro if I didn't like to grow so much variety. Still gonna always do a hydro plant or two to cus the growth is amazing and end products is very close to soil. Keep coming with the info bro and you might turn me into a NFT man lol
glockdoc
Well-Known Member
i hear ya.
he makes me want to do an aeroponic run.
i think you should next run diggity...same set up just grab a short cycle timer and some fine misting nozzels and you could flip them ladies now and get the results ur aiming for.
Sativied
Well-Known Member
The hand watering of more than a handful of pots gets tiring indeed. Makes the blumat tropf so appealing and good chance I'll buy them some day sooner or later. I think cannabis can reach its max genetic potential taste-wise on both soil and hydro and any other difference is a matter of taste
Taste is a phenotype, as in genetic+environment. Hydro or soil is a pretty big difference in the environment so differences are possible, up to missing terpenes. But that works both ways. Some strains work out better on hydro (or whatever environment the breeder selected in).That was a major concern for me too, even with 6 plants I wanted to grow 2 or 3 strains to have some variety. First few runs I noticed there was always one plant that could use some more nutes and one that could use less (too dark or burned tips). The solution turned out to be lowering the ppm by topping off more often. So instead of dumping all the nutrients for one week in the rez at the start of the week, I added a bit every two or 3 days to prevent the ppm from dropping too far and to prevent starting out higher than necessary.
Although it takes some time to set up and dial in and get it running smooth, once that's done it's imo the easiest way to grow and despite the high-tech look fits in keeping it simple. It really made me realize plants grow themselves, all you have to do is provide a good environment and cannabis thrives in a good hydro setup. It's a rather boring way to grow eventually. Change rez occasionally (done that twice last run on tubes during entire cycle) and keep ppm and ph 'roughly' within a range. Apart from that it's just a matter of observing the plants. I miss my tubes
glockdoc
Well-Known Member
i agree with ya on behalf of missing some terpens or not. i grew hawkeye from redeyedgenetics 1 in promix 1 perlite verm hempy , with no variation in taste between them.. its all in the pheno.The hand watering of more than a handful of pots gets tiring indeed. Makes the blumat tropf so appealing and good chance I'll buy them some day sooner or later. I think cannabis can reach its max genetic potential taste-wise on both soil and hydro and any other difference is a matter of taste
That was a major concern for me too, even with 6 plants I wanted to grow 2 or 3 strains to have some variety. First few runs I noticed there was always one plant that could use some more nutes and one that could use less (too dark or burned tips). The solution turned out to be lowering the ppm by topping off more often. So instead of dumping all the nutrients for one week in the rez at the start of the week, I added a bit every two or 3 days to prevent the ppm from dropping too far and to prevent starting out higher than necessary.
and i couldnt agree anymore with how you go about watering and feeding. some techniques should be kept traditional, but when dealing with something that is constantly evolving, shouldnt some techniques evolve too??!?