Ruwtz Maneuver Vol 1

Wisher2

Well-Known Member
looks like just males...not herms

I never trust fem seeds

hopefully everything pulls through to the finish line though
 

OneHitDone

Well-Known Member
Looking to deal with what is already mounting cost of nutes in this e&f system, especially with aiming for a weekly res change. Been reading up on Jack's Professional line of hydro salts (jrpeters.com) and I like what I see. I would have no problem swapping out my res every week if its costing cents instead of dollars to toss that water out, and Jack's products come highly rated and cheap.

It'll be future runs as i'm paid in now with GH, but looks like Jack's is my man.

Anyone want to talk DIY N-P-K ratios, city water reports and homemade bennies??
I'm gonna throw this out and expect a lot of kick back from the "All Nutrients are the same" crowd
You are running way too much shit.
Dry Salts are OK and I've grown with them for years.
Flora Nova - simple, stable, cost effective run by itself or in conjunction with Floralicious Plus
Even Better - Ionic - Super Clean, Super Stable. I run 14+ days on Ionic and No problems, ph is very stable. Ionic Grow / Europonic Silicate in Veg - Ionic Bloom / Europonic Silicate in Bloom with PK Boost in the middle weeks. I am on tap water of about 100ppm and no Cal-mag needed. 15ml per gallon on the base ec 1.4-1.5
Keep all the organic shit out of your res and you will have way less problemo's with the exception of Fulic Acid should you desire
 

ruwtz

Well-Known Member
looks like just males...not herms

I never trust fem seeds

hopefully everything pulls through to the finish line though
I hear fem seeds are 99.99% reliable, so this seems more likely a result of environment stress, although recessive genetic traits could also play a role.

I'm pretty certain of hermies: there's pistils as well as sacs on most of the branch tops.

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I've removed them from my room, and its such a shame to lose three mature and good looking plants. I'm tempted to keep them on the other side of the garden and let them mature; either to self pollinate or pollen harvest. I know the pollen/seeds from hermies cannot be trusted 100%, but i'm interested in finding out for myself save for wasting these healthy plants.

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Mostly i'm amazed at how quickly these f*cked up bud parts showed themselves: I was only gone for 4 days and it all happened!

Not happy today. But must carry on.
 
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Wisher2

Well-Known Member
I hear fem seeds are 99.99% reliable, so this seems more likely a result of environment stress, although recessive genetic traits could also play a role.

I'm pretty certain of hermies: there's pistils as well as sacs on most of the branch tops.

View attachment 3808904 View attachment 3808905

I've removed them from the garden, and its such a shame to lose three mature and good looking plants. I'm tempted to keep them on the other side of the garden and let them mature; either to self pollinate or pollen harvest. I know the pollen/seeds from hermies cannot be trusted 100%, but i'm interested in finding out for myself save for wasting these healthy plants.

View attachment 3808908 View attachment 3808909

Mostly i'm amazed at how quickly these f*cked up bud parts showed themselves: I was only gone for 4 days and it all happened!

Not happy today. But must carry on.
yeah looks like males to me
"herms" would have a fem flower with a few male flowers per site
not branches of male flowers

to me that looks like bad fem practices
nothing you did......unstable genetics

that also shows how shitty the breeding of said seeds are
the few moms I have......I have ran the gauntlet of stresses on......not 1 banna ever
wouldnt be able to self if I wanted to
I even sprayed CS on my cookies x blue dream......wouldnt pop a nanner

your experience is the experience of many fem seed purchasers

just happens

but.....at least you have some ladies left
and many clones


if you have clones of those plants....you can grow those out and see what they give
 
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ruwtz

Well-Known Member
Oh well. Best foot forward. To make up for this shortfall I've decided to screw the calendar and flip my other strains into flower ASAP, so the Blackjack and the Larry OG's are on the move this weekend.

In order to do this i've had to save some serious space in my cramped flower room, and I built this rolling cab to hold a pair of reservoirs for my table.

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A very simple timber frame on casters I had lying around.

Here it is in position next to the tables:

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As you can see, working space is very tight and I have a path of 16" to move in the room now.

Its gonna be tough seeing to those girls at the back but it is what it is.

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There's a 32gal trash can set up to reclaim from the dehu and I've dropped a pump in there so I can run fresh water out as needed.

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I've built a second cab for the other tables on the opposite side of the room and it fits snug behind the door.

A couple of shelves for nutes and this room is just about as full as it could be!

After the male mishap this week I just feel better making something from nothing. Onwards we go...
 

ruwtz

Well-Known Member
One table of x5 Larry OG's and one table of x6 Blackjack's have been flipped over into flower today.

Larry's are back left, Blackjack front left.

Larry's are lanky and expected to stretch a lot too. Blackjacks are short and bushy and typically don't stretch much. With six plants this canopy is already thick and will be a challenge to get even coverage once I put the scrog in next week.

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So that's four strains barely two weeks apart, each under a light in flower with a dedicated res for bespoke feeding.

I have clones of everything backing up in veg so I will be working towards finding mom's over 2-3 cycles.

We're fully loaded at this point. Wish me luck!

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ruwtz

Well-Known Member
Quick update for the week:

IN VEG:

First gen of clones are doing fine in veg. The Blackjack really does like to stack short and bushy with tight internoding. Responds well to topping, much better than the Larry OG. I also LST'd the first run but it led to very dense foliage that I was constantly pruning back, so might just do 3-4 tops instead this time. Have plenty of veg time so recovery is fine.

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First gen of clones for Gorilla Glue and 24K Gold also doing well in solo cups / SiP tray, although I threw out a bunch of the 24K as we now know their parents were males.

Will top these before moving to veg.

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Got my DIY bubble cloners going in the nursery too, running a 1000GPH pump to two 6" Air Discs per tub, 1 min on / 4 mins off.

On the top shelf you can see the domed tray has clones in plugs which works fine except I'm always checking on moisture content of the plugs and bumping the humidity. With the bubble cloner hopefully this is all automated and I won't have to worry so long as the shoots don't mind sharing the veg room humidity of mid 50's. Lets see how this goes.

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Shopping tip: black storage bins can be a little tough to find but Walmart has a bunch in various sizes. These low profile ones are perfect for DIY cloning machines.

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* * * *

IN FLOWER:

My system of stacked reservoirs feeding each table with drip dtw is working well. Each table drains to a bin so I can check runoff EC before pumping outside to feed the patio plants.

Strangely, two of four reservoirs seem to run down noticeably quicker than the others, so either I have a leak or the halos aren't feeding all the same. Haven't figured out what kind of sorcery is going on here but need to sort it out.

I use the runoff EC as a baseline for res reloads/topups, and since each table is a different strain I can calibrate nute strength and irrigation timings separately. Its a little bit of a headache getting used to this but my constant notes and records are helpful.

I would like more than the one Bluelab for taking measurements with but i'm outta money at this point.

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Table of 24K Gold is down to 2 after pulling out 3 males last week and hence struggling to fill the scrog. I backed off on CaMg to see if I really did need to be adding so much and you can see here they are quickly hungry for it so i've just added that back.

These went over to bloom nutes just over a week ago.
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The Gorilla Glue continued to stretch throughout the 3rd week so I kept her on transition nutes. These are easily my fav plants in this garden: thick, lush foliage, praying to the lights, budsites formed so fast and are stinking.

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Unfortunately 1 of 5 has shown some balls lower down on stems and so is hermie. I've been picking them off and watching closely. Not a total surprise since these were all from bagseed, and hopefully something I can stay on top of. Other 4 seem clean, and so I will be keeping their clones only.

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Blackjack (near left in pic below) is nearing 2 weeks in flower and barely seems to have stretched at all. I haven't gotten around to building a scrog for this second half of the room either, and for the sake of simply seeing how things go / side by side, I might just not bother for this run.

The Larry OG (far left) are the same age as the Blackjack and were flipped together, and they've stretched the best part of 1ft although I expected more. Maybe they will continue as did the GG's.

These Larry's were pretty hungry in veg, and i've just bumped their feed duration. All tables started at 4x1min drip feeds but already the Larry's are feeding more than any other strain in this room. I hope it shows in yield.

Neither the Blackjack nor the Larry have started to show any flower sites just yet. All have been pruned in the lower third and I'm constantly pinching off new shoots down there.

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The Quest 105 dehu is the star of this flower room setup, humming away quietly above my head and keeping the humidity right on the nose at 52-55% around the clock. She's not pulling as much moisture from the room as I expected - evident in the reclaim levels which I run back into the reservoirs - although I expect this to increase soon as the plants ramp up.

The AC does an ok job of holding temps at 81-83F, although it does mean cooling is set as low as 65F and unless I manually adjust up at lights-off it has been getting a little too chilly in there at night; i've recorded min temps down at 61F. I am not able to program separate day/night temps, even though the condenser has a heat pump as well as cooling.

I really don't want to have problems with condensation/mold or plant shock or worse from it being too cold and/or too big a day/night differential, so I'm going to experiment with the AC's on-off timer and see if the room can hold a higher ambient temp during lights-off (which is our day time anyways, so I'm hopeful this will work).

Other solution might be to add a space heater, but I really don't want the cost or to have to make room for one.

If you read this far, you're cool & thank you! If you have any comments/recommendations then as ever I am all ears.

Nice one growers --

R
 
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ruwtz

Well-Known Member
Well, 6hrs into lights off and the ambient flower room temps haven't dropped below 80F with no AC. I guess with the Dehu working overtime and adding heat there is nowhere for it to dissipate.

AC is now back on and I will need to find a happy balance in a single setting for day & night. Currently set for 70F which typically gives 84F under the lights during the day this time of year. I can live with that I suppose.
 

ruwtz

Well-Known Member
So hard to do most of the time. A lot easier during winter months. Are you against dumping the room at lights off to bring temps down? With a damper of course.
I did a heap of room tests with gear only before plants so I can estimate that the added heat is from the dehu, and obviously that has to run at lights-off. I could dump the heat from the lights but I still have the added heat from running the dehu for 12hrs.

Looking into thermostat controller for the AC so I can program separate day/night temps. These mini splits have cool & heat functions so surely it's just a matter of finding control over that??
 

a mongo frog

Well-Known Member
Looking into thermostat controller for the AC so I can program separate day/night temps. These mini splits have cool & heat functions so surely it's just a matter of finding control over that??
Let me know when you find something. I would love to have a programable thermostat that goes to the setting i want at the times i want. I haven't seen one yet for a split system.
 

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
I did a heap of room tests with gear only before plants so I can estimate that the added heat is from the dehu, and obviously that has to run at lights-off. I could dump the heat from the lights but I still have the added heat from running the dehu for 12hrs.

Looking into thermostat controller for the AC so I can program separate day/night temps. These mini splits have cool & heat functions so surely it's just a matter of finding control over that??
You know that lots of people swear by negative temperature differential? That is, warmer temperatures overnight than during the day cycle. So I wouldn't sweat it.
 

ruwtz

Well-Known Member
FLOWER:

- - AC managing temps fine, room around 77F and canopy 81-82F.
- - Lights-off drops to around 64F.
- - Leaf temps anywhere from 69-74F.

Somehow the right side of the room stays cooler by 2F than the left, even though the mini split hangs exactly in the middle and the warm dehu is on the right.

- - Daytime humidity 47-52%, night time up to 65-68%.

The Quest 105 dehu maintained RH steady around the clock when I had just the 8 plants in here; now we're up to 18 it doesn't hold as well at night. I could easily dial it down but as with AC i'd have to do it manually every day and its just not practical. Better to keep things steady I reckon; I don't foresee issues with this RH at night.

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GORILLA GLUE, starting week 5 and finally done stretching. Upping P + K and reducing to 1ml/gal CalMag in favor of epsom for the sulfate.

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Top leaves are all praying to the lights which typically is known as a good sign except its fairly drastic in places - like almost vertical. This with the dark leaf color leads me to think the N may still be too high. I've cut out the GH Gro completely as Micro has plenty N, so the current NPK should be something like 10-25-24** (measuring out GH bottle ratios of 4 parts Micro to Gro 0 to 5 parts Bloom), so N should be fine right??

Calimagic has NPK of 1-0-0 and also i'm backing it off some, so I don't think thats contributing.

The occasional small brown spotting has appeared on some of the large middle fan leaves and red stems are a plenty, but neither seems like much to worry about except I may have ran transition nutes a little too long as I was going according to the stretch.

**calculated by taking bottle NPK, multiplying by measurement ratio added then dividing by 2 for number of bottles used - am I doing it right?!

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I've been onto some good reading from @Uncle Ben about maintaining a hearty level of N through flower, contrary to widespread opinion, so I probably have nothing to worry about here. Plants are happy and so am I.

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* * *


24K GOLD, also approaching flower week 5.

Scrog is thin due to losing 3 plants as males - down to 2 girls and I moved over a weak Gorilla Glue to enjoy the spare room.

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Didn't stretch much and upped P + K earlier than the Gorilla Glue. Healthy perky foliage and nicely set flowers that frosted up quickly. Lovely grapefruit scent from these girls.

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The 25gal res for this table runs down much faster than the others and I can't figure out why. I'm lucky if 25gal lasts 3 days, and most of it is runoff so I know they're not drinking it all. Same pump, same timer settings, no leaks found in the hose or halos, and is actually positioned further from the reservoirs so its not pump head capacity. Only thing I could think was the holes in the halos could have been drilled larger and hence allow for bigger flow rate, but I drilled them all the same time so that is unlikely.

Any ideas??

No signs of problems from the plants so i'm not really bothered, its just a waste of water/nutes and more work to do.


* * *

BLACKJACK, starting flower week 3, slow in stretching but has been going this week.

Going by runoff I haven't jumped the feed up over 16EC yet and plants are healthy, if a little overwatered (drooping leaves). This res also runs down quickly, mostly as runoff, and can't figure out why. Set to 4 x 3min feeds, lights-on only.

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These are incredibly lush plants with thick foliage and take a lot of pruning in the lower third, popcorn branches and overlapping fans catching zero light in the middle.

Bud sites are starting to set and i've not scrogged this half of the room as a little side-by-side experiment.

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* * *


LARRY OG, week 3 flower as of tmrw, easily the tallest in stretch and also the heaviest feeder at 2.1EC, still on transition nutes.

As with the others I will change up when the stretch stops and some flower sites start to show.

Some minor leaf cupping / curling serrations at the top of plants suggest it may be too hot and dry for them but its suits the other girls so keeping as is.

Foliage is much thicker than in veg but I think I had the feed wrong for a long time. Doing better now.

Again, no scrog on this side although I may regret it with these 4ft lanky Larry's - those tops are all kinds of heights. These guys have the coolest leaf temps by far at 68-69F despite being closest to the lamps. Weird huh?

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Don't really understand how to apply VPD just yet, especially in a multi-strain room but I am making notes and calculations just to keep track. If you feel like throwing me a bone I will kiss your knuckles for sure.
 

ruwtz

Well-Known Member
Second gen of all these plants are doing well in veg. They all share the same E&F table so tweaking feeds is difficult, although I am developing some foliar spray ideas for the Larry's in particular to make up for it.

I may yet split this table into two so I can run clones of different ages with specific feeds, although not much room for another res under the table as I was planning on drying there.

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Everything potted in coco with landscaping fabric in the pot bases keeping it from spilling into the table.

I picked up a bunch of Rootmaker 1gal square pots but pricey at $4 a go and I have since found some no-name knock-offs for less than a dollar that do just as well, and actually are taller/narrower so fit the table better.

I've removed the hydroton layer from the table and the roots air prune back nicely now. Hopefully the pot design is helping to build a massive rootball inside rather than out onto the table as I had with the fabric pots!

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* * *


Third gen clones are coming through after 10 days or so in the bubble cloner. It seemed to be taking forever until I added a dash of the Clonex liquid solution (see pic below) - works a treat and got nubs in 48hrs. Will keep this up for sure.

Now I have roots i've added 0.2EC of base nutes and GH Rapid Start. Already have some floaties in the tank though so will have to see if they're evil ones or not.

Under a 4ft 4 bulb T5 but only running 1 bulb.

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I reckon I was losing around 20% of clones to wilting and more than likely due to the low RH in this veg room (50-55%) which I can do nothing about. I picked up an anti-wilt product by Vita Grow (also pic below) and was recommended to dunk the whole cutting top into this to form a protective coating over the foliage which is supposedly good for a week, by which time the clone should be hardy on its own.

Well, it didn't work and the wilting persists and they die off. In my search for perfection this is bothering me, so any ideas what is going on??

I should add that the size of the clone or its leaves doesn't seem to correspond to whether it survives or not, so its not a case of too many leaves or a weak cutting. Seems totally random.

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...AND FINALLY
I was growing out a single freebie seed of Girl Scout Cookies just for shits and chopped some clones before putting her outside to flower this week. 6 of 8 clones wilted and died even after the Vita Grow dunk. Not really interested in f*cking with another strain right now but still no fun seeing clones snuff it like this.
 
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Wisher2

Well-Known Member
to reduce runoff
you should try to time your feeds as the first wets the pot
the second completely saturates
and the 3rd gets about 10% runoff

I run 1 gal geopots
my feeds are
2min
1min
2min
3rd week of bloom

other than that.....everything is lookin great

by the way

I researched Canna coco line nutrients

which is basically a grow formula

and you just up the base as the flowers develop
many people have great success with this
as well as Jacks Hydro with cal nit is basically a grow formula

so I am running the nutes that I run with just grow
and I have to say my plants are lookin better than any I have run hydroponically
 

ruwtz

Well-Known Member
to reduce runoff
you should try to time your feeds as the first wets the pot
the second completely saturates
and the 3rd gets about 10% runoff

I run 1 gal geopots
my feeds are
2min
1min
2min
3rd week of bloom

other than that.....everything is lookin great

by the way

I researched Canna coco line nutrients

which is basically a grow formula

and you just up the base as the flowers develop
many people have great success with this
as well as Jacks Hydro with cal nit is basically a grow formula

so I am running the nutes that I run with just grow
and I have to say my plants are lookin better than any I have run hydroponically
Great to hear from you @Wisher2! Hope all is good your end.

Yeah the runoff situation has me stumped. Before any plants went in I tested the drip lines to get my flow rate, and from this I set the baseline for the timers.

All things being equal every plant should be getting 1gal per day from 12mins total run time, but clearly not everything is equal as the reservoirs empty at different rates. This is not relative to plant size or apparent consumption levels, and I can see no leaks anywhere.

The table furthest from the res and with the least number of plants - the 24K Gold - has the most runoff, but I think stoppering the unused halo lines after kicking out those males means the same water volume is running to fewer plants (3 instead of 5) and most of it is just running right through. I can't reduce the flow on the pump so I have just rolled back the feed time a little.

Opposite from the 24K and also furthest from its res is the Larry OG, which has almost no runoff whatsoever, not in 2 weeks since flip, and this 25gal res pumps out the slowest (i've refilled once a week instead of every 3 days). These 5 Larry's are heavy feeding plants that have stretched the most despite being the youngest in the room, foliage is lush and perky and bud sites are forming (nearing wk3 flower).

Dipping into the top of the coco I can tell it is damp but not moist, the pots feel light and there is no moisture in the table / hydroton layer. Those roots through the smart pots have dried back also.

On the face of it I would say they are not getting enough water, except the plants seem happy. What gives?? :confused:

Should I up this timer and therefore water volume?? Perhaps not every halo is the same based on water pressure physics?

* * *

Tell me a little more about your setup: how big are they at third week? How much water do you average per plant per day?

* * *

Oh and about nutes: i'm nearly out of the GH Flora Series and although it has been fine I just know I don't have to crap around with three bottles multiple times a week. Working out my feeds every time is fussy and time consuming. I'm going to finish these runs and switch to either Peters' dry salts if I can decide on the NPK, or I read excellent things about DynaGrow's Foliage Pro and Bloom: single bottles, apparently cheaper, and run straight through.
 
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