Hello I'm new to the forum. I have been doing a drip feeder system in 6x6 Hugo Rockwool Cubes, using Growlink irrigation and substrate sensors for about 2 years now. I would love to discuss with others using this method/setup your experiences, your feeding schedules, your drybacks, etc.,and nerd out over charts. I will post my chart for the last 7 days to get the conversation started. This chart is week 6 of flower. I'm in the bulking phase, so this chart is basically how I feed during vegetative steering from week 5 through week 7 of flower to achieve more bulk. Feel free to ask questions, and share your knowledge.
Crop steering in Rockwool
- Thread starter CJchronic
- Start date
russ0r
The russ0r
Your chart there is amazing. Kudos. I still haven't gone into too much technology. But it looks awesome.
Your about as high as I ever like to go as far as ec so you are doing something very right, I love all the data. Especially the moisture levels. If your plants are doing well you look like you are dialed in. Rockwool is fun to grow in , are they just in 6x6 Cubes or do you have the Cubes on a slab?
Thanks for the positive feedback! The 6x6 Hugo are all that is needed. I start well rooted 1" cubes into them, veg for about 2 weeks (strain dependent) then flip them over into flower. Those EC levels are substrate levels not feed levels. During this phase of growth (week 6 of flower 12/12 the vegetative/bulking stage) I generally try to maintain my substrate EC around 2 points higher than my feed input at this stage which is around 2.6EC. For those of you unfamiliar with crop steering terminology, Vegetative, and Generative are both steering methods that can be used regardless of what light cycle you are on. You can steer vegetative even during 12/12 light cycle and vice versa. Vegetative is just refering to tricking the plant into increasing root, stem, and leaf production during your 18/6 phase, or increasing bud swell during 12/12 through irrigation events along with specific environmental factors. Generative focuses on controlling plant height, and stacking bud sites during the first 4 weeks of stretch. Then again in the last 2-3 weeks to help ripening. So during that first 4 weeks of flower I am using a Generative irrigation strategy, which means I'm shooting for 50% drybacks and a 6.0 substrate EC and (even higher for some strains) with an input feed of around 2.8-3.0ec. This stresses the plant into not stretching as much and creating extra bud sites. As a legacy grower who has tried about everything, crop steering has upped my game and has renewed my passion to grow. It is not for your casual grower, or beginner, but if you want to push the limits of what you can get out of your plants crop steering is the way.
russ0r
The russ0r
Your passion is awesome. Respect the hustle, a little jealous that I feel like I went the opposite way. I stopped trying to max limits a while ago and have become more docile to take the path of least resistance. You entice me, your approach sounds extremely sound.
Well that was me. Been doing this for almost 30 years and was just going through the motions of what I knew, and what worked for me. Going from a F&D guy my whole life to using whip systems and irrigation software. Trying to dial in all the variables while learning how to properly crop steer has lit a new spark in me. Even though I'm coming up on 2 years using crop steering, I am still learning, and each cultivar has it own preferences. There are definitly pros and cons to using a system like this, but for me it has been a game changer.
Wastei
Well-Known Member
It would help to see the actual plants.
First impression is you're feeding to high feeding strength and not frequent enough. That curve should be more like a stable sinus wave IMO.
It's better to feed more often at a lower strength than to feed at a higher strength less often growing in soilless/hydro. You want pH and EC to ideally stay as stagnant and as stable as possible and you won't achieve that by feeding at a higher strength less often.
You want to feed as often as possible in hydro and working towards the lower optimal in terms of nutrient strength. Feeding excess nutrients will only worsen nutrient transport channels and the mineral ratios.
First impression is you're feeding to high feeding strength and not frequent enough. That curve should be more like a stable sinus wave IMO.
It's better to feed more often at a lower strength than to feed at a higher strength less often growing in soilless/hydro. You want pH and EC to ideally stay as stagnant and as stable as possible and you won't achieve that by feeding at a higher strength less often.
You want to feed as often as possible in hydro and working towards the lower optimal in terms of nutrient strength. Feeding excess nutrients will only worsen nutrient transport channels and the mineral ratios.
russ0r
The russ0r
Like I said I respect your hustle. Be careful of people on this forum that think they know everything. Don't let them dissuade you. Testing is most of the fun for a lot of people. There is no ONE WAY to do this.
driver77
Well-Known Member
What's the typical yield from a 4x4 with all this?
Have you ever crop steered before? Do you know how to read the graph? I'm asking because nothing you said sounds like you know anything about how to crop steer or how it even works. You said not feeding frequent enough. There are 12 -13 irrigations during the lights on period on that graph. How many do you think I should be doing? Anyway, I'm feeding at a 2.7EC max during the first 4 weeks of stretch. What you are seeing on the chart is substrate EC (not feed EC), and this chart is showing week 6 of flower in a "vegetative" steer. In crop steering you purposely "stack" your EC during the first 4 weeks of stretch. The cultivar I'm using now likes about a 6.0 substrate EC. max. (others you can push higher) I know others that go as high as 10.0 Substrate EC. This first 4 weeks are also when I'm steering "Generatively". So I'm looking for 50% drybacks, Giving longer, but less frequent irrigations causing stress to the plant, which causes the plant to not stretch as much and produce more bud sites. Then week 5-7starts the bulking phase. This is when we start "steering" more "Vegetatively". We start to lower our feed EC slightly, and flush down to about a 4.0 substrate EC. We start to give smaller, but more frequent irrigations, and we only dryback around 40%. The idea is to not stress the plant at this stage and put it into fattening the buds mode. The graph I posted is actually almost a perfect example of how it should look during this bulking/vegetative stage. If you notice the EC rises as I'm giving irrigations (2.4 feed EC). The EC hit it's peak of around 4.0-4.2 "substrate" EC at what is called "field capacity". That's when the rockwool cube has reached it's saturation point before runoff. Then you notice the EC drops after each irrigation until it hits around 2.8 substrate EC. That is because the cube is saturated and now the irrigations are leachin/flushing the nutes back down. That is the cycle you want to repeat. I will post a graph from Athenas crop steering handbook which you can download online. I highly recommend to read it if you want a more in depth understanding. You will see what a proper graph should look like for both veg and gen steer. One other thing is this isn't a system where you flood your medium every irrigation. The irrigations are small controlled irrigations using drippers and crop steering hardware/software that opens and closes automatic valves run by pumps, that are specifically timed and metered. Maybe I will post some pics of my setup. As far as pics of the plants, you can't tell the differences that crop steering makes from a photo. It's not like it looks different or makes some kind of magical monster buds lol. It's more like taking something you have and taking it to the next level. All the big guys and pros are doing it for a reason.
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I been doing this to long to be dissuaded lol. I'm actually pretty well versed in crop steering, but was hoping there were others here with experience to nerd out with. If not I'm happy to help beginners. I didn't actually start the thread looking for help per se. I just wanted to talk about something that I"m enthusiastic about, and hopefully find others that are doing it too.
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Depends on the cultivar, but if I get less than 2lbs from a 4x4 I'm bummed. I've had some strains do close to 4lbs, but it wasn't the quality I wanted. I'm all about the terps. FYI, I'm using 1000w Gavita double enders still.
Mustbetrue
Member
I do good to steer my car. But nice.
Hahaha I hear you. It can seem intimidating and over complicated at first. I'm 52 and and even though I have been doing hydroponics with Rockwool since the mid 90's, I had always done the standard Flood and Drain into custom tables with 4" cubes on slabs. I mean it works great and it's easy. I just personally lost some of my passion after 20+ years and was just going through the motions. So when a friend of mine started doing crop steering, and turned me on to it, it was like learning to grow again in a way, and wanting to try and perfect it and get better at it keeps my interest level high. Plus the weight gains, and the trichrom and terp production are notable. If you can steer a car, you can steer your crops lol.