Get a Harvest Every 2 Weeks

[Al B. Fuct]

just a few questions...

~u get about 3/4 of an ounce per plant on avg?

Yep, doing better lately, more like 1z per plant.

~how deep do you flood a table? is there a specific method to figuring it out depending on the numbers of plants?

Floods to the height of the overflow tube included with the flood tray (approx 70mm), no calculations at all.

~will a 1000watt HPS light be fine for 2 4'x5' tables? seems like overkill on the lumens. then again, im probably doing the calculations wrong.

No, you would need one 1000 per each 4'x5' (20sq ft) tray. You're looking for 50W/sq ft.

~i can fit 4 plants per square foot right? so that means around 80 plants on a 4x5 table?

Yep.

~how do i figure the number of mums needed to provide the number of cuttings i need for those size tables?

Figure you need to cut about 10-20% more clones than you intend to flower. I get 30 cuttings every 2 weeks from 8-10 mother plants, intending to flower about 23 of them. Spares become replacement mums or compost.

~i got the exhaust set for full air exchange every 2-3 minutes. but what about air intake for fresh air?

Not sure I understand what you mean. What goes in is what goes out. If your exhaust blower can shift the room air volume out in 2-3 minutes, it's got to come back in from somewhere- or you have a vacuum! Make sure your exhaust air can not be sucked right back into the op.

If you use passive intake (no intake blower), the intake duct must be 2x the size of the exhaust for reasonably efficient operation. If you use intake blower/s, the rate of intake should not be more than about 80-90% of the exhaust rate so the room remains at slightly negative pressure. This aids in scent control- all air leaving the room goes through the exhaust duct. If the intake blower can put more air into the room than the exhaust blower can remove, the room will be at a slightly positive pressure relative to atmosphere. Scents will leak out from any small air gaps.

 

[GoodFriend]

I've seen aircooled hoods which, by absence of a sheet of glass over the lamp, require that you put the fan in the warm airstream. Really poor design. These hoods will eat exhaust fans. A proper aircooled hood should be sealed up so you can force air into it and just connect a duct from a warm air output port to dispose of the hot stuff, without running it through another fan.

... i need to reconfigure my cooltube fan placement.... THANK YOU!

this might help a lot

besides overheating the fan... are fans better at pushing than pulling? j/w

 

[Al B. Fuct]

are fans better at pushing than pulling? j/w

If you're moving air from free airspace into a duct, it's better to push air into the duct, with the blower at the head end of the duct. If you pull air through a duct, there will be a tendency for the fan blades to 'cavitate' at standard operating RPM, something like an airplane wing stalling. This occurs due to the reduced air pressure in the duct you're trying to draw air through.

Axials are more prone to this phenomenon than are centrifugals, but centrifs also work more efficiently pushing into a duct than pulling from one.

 

[rita]

impressed and well done, but I dont know enough yet to tackle hydro babes, still struggling with 1st attempt but heartened by reading the posts here, thanks

 

[gvega187]

damnit you just know everything about everything dont you. I just read your clones thread and learned a crap-ton...and to think i called my cuttings clones... neways wonderin if your gonna keep us posted on your next cycle?

 

[OhYesTheDopeMan]

Hey Al B, its me again, the one with your setup but with soil. Im considering converting to a flood system but I notice you say the floc you use is not reusable, this makes me draw the conclusion that you have just as much labor involved with getting the floc in and disposing of it afterwards, similarly to soil. Whats the logic in this?

 

[OhYesTheDopeMan]

Oh and thought I'd mention this- with my soil setup Im harvesting the same amount as you but you are right soil is a little messy, but so is floc! Im considering pellets...

 

[Al B. Fuct]

damnit you just know everything about everything dont you. I just read your clones thread and learned a crap-ton...and to think i called my cuttings clones... neways wonderin if your gonna keep us posted on your next cycle?

Nah, I hardly know 'everything.' I do know a little bit about science tho, inclusive of aerodynamics. A fan will push better than it can pull because free air pressure is higher and air is thus denser than that inside a duct you're evacuating with a blower. Blower fan blades are contoured for operation at standard atmospheric pressure, probably sea level.

I probably won't do a running grow diary. It'd be like photographing my breakfast every day. I'm more apt to post something when I have something new or improved going on.

Hey Al B, its me again, the one with your setup but with soil. Im considering converting to a flood system but I notice you say the floc you use is not reusable, this makes me draw the conclusion that you have just as much labor involved with getting the floc in and disposing of it afterwards, similarly to soil. Whats the logic in this?

Rockwool floc is roughly 1/20 the weight of potting soil. A 175mm x 200mm pot of the stuff weighs about 100g. An equivalent amt of dry soil would weigh about 2kg. I can carry a (bit more than a) month's supply of media, a 100L bag of Fytocell, enough to fill 60 pots, with one hand. Try that with soil. Got the logic now?

If you're harvesting the same as I am out of your soil op, you're a very lucky person. It's a lot harder to get O2 to the roots in soil than in hydro systems, of any arrangement.

Oh and thought I'd mention this- with my soil setup Im harvesting the same amount as you but you are right soil is a little messy, but so is floc! Im considering pellets...

Floc is hardly messy at all- it clumps together, making it very easy to handle. I'm only using about 50mm of floc in the bottom of each pot these days, just enough to plug the drain holes. The remainder is filled with Fytocell flake, which itself weighs only about 1/2 of what floc does. Unfortunately, Fytocell doesn't clump- and makes a mess if spilled.

Pellets are a major pain in the ass. Drop a handful and you will chase them around the room and crunch them underfoot. They are technically reusable but nearly impossible to clean totally free of old root material. They're roughly 2x the weight of floc and 4x the weight of Fytocell.

 

[OhYesTheDopeMan]

where do you find floc and fytocell? Since yours is submerged flood, what do you do for the first week or two before roots are long enough? Yup same amount as you mentioned in the first few pages, took me a try or two but it works! I also don't trim lower branches, they made up for about 1/5 of total dry weight and ones with no lower branches just yielded less

 

[Al B. Fuct]

where do you find floc and fytocell?

ye olde hydro shoppe.

Since yours is submerged flood, what do you do for the first week or two before roots are long enough?

Floc and Fytocell both wick enough water to supply roots immediately. Fytocell requires being wetted fully from the top (I use a spare pump and a length of garden hose) before plugging clones in. Floc can simply be flooded normally- and in fact should not be saturated by top-watering before plugging in clones.

Yup same amount as you mentioned in the first few pages, took me a try or two but it works! I also don't trim lower branches, they made up for about 1/5 of total dry weight and ones with no lower branches just yielded less

Amazing. :/ Got pics?

 

[infamouse21]

i like the pushing air through the system better, makes total cents.
my only problem is the fan makes a little noise so i keep it at the tail end so i dont hear it much.
but ill go check it out mid day tomorrow & see what temp comes out of it

 

[Al B. Fuct]

i like the pushing air through the system better, makes total cents.
my only problem is the fan makes a little noise so i keep it at the tail end so i dont hear it much.
but ill go check it out mid day tomorrow & see what temp comes out of it

Yep, having a bit of duct on the inlet will quieten it a lot.

The old cardboard box trick works OK too- a large packing carton (several times the size of the duct) fitted over the inlet to the fan, with a quantity of 2-3" dia holes cut in the box, makes a sorta-effective muffler on the quick & dirty cheap. Anything which interrupts a direct line from fan to ear will reduce noise.

Odorsoks and carbon filters make pretty good free-flowing mufflers if you can spend some money.

If you must, and have the excess fan capacity to get away with it, put a motor speed controller on the fan. A fan at 80% of rated speed makes a lot less than 80% of usual noise.

However, if your grow has only one ventilation blower, it should be on the exhaust, placed high in the room and forcing air into a duct leading to some place where the warm, moist, CO2 depleted air will not be immediately sucked back in the room.

 

[GoodFriend]

However, if your grow has only one ventilation blower, it should be on the exhaust, placed high in the room and forcing air into a duct leading to some place where the warm, moist, CO2 depleted air will not be immediately sucked back in the room.

thats a very important point for smaller grows where space is real confined... you don't want your exhaust to be half the air that comes into the grow..

i tried repping ya but i gotta spread the love more... you've been making a lot of sense to me =] (i recently found out of your past duties on another now defunct site, so its not too shocking)

 

[TheGardenMan]

hey lumberjack is the rep system working again?

 

[infamouse21]

just got a 6in odorsok, lol. havent used it yet hopefully it works good. also good point it should slow the fan down a little & help with the noise, where can u get a speed control?
we use the fan we got now just to cool the hood & that air comes from outside the room & leaves the room thats it for venting. also put a few small holes in the vent so it pulls some air from i nthe room.
thinking about getting another small one on a timer to suck air out the room a few times a day.

 

[TheGardenMan]

just got a 6in odorsok, lol. havent used it yet hopefully it works good. also good point it should slow the fan down a little & help with the noise, where can u get a speed control?
we use the fan we got now just to cool the hood & that air comes from outside the room & leaves the room thats it for venting. also put a few small holes in the vent so it pulls some air from i nthe room.
thinking about getting another small one on a timer to suck air out the room a few times a day.

I read your post and saw you were looking for a fan speed controller, so i googled a bit and found one so here you go. Hope it works for you.

Electronic Fan Speed Controllers

 

[Al B. Fuct]

thats a very important point for smaller grows where space is real confined... you don't want your exhaust to be half the air that comes into the grow..

i tried repping ya but i gotta spread the love more... you've been making a lot of sense to me =] (i recently found out of your past duties on another now defunct site, so its not too shocking)

heh, thanks. Yes, I was once a Mentor on Overgrow. I bailed off OG about a year before the Canadian govt went mad and decided to allow the US DEA to enforce US drug laws (or at least the will of King George) in Canada.

just got a 6in odorsok, lol. havent used it yet hopefully it works good. also good point it should slow the fan down a little & help with the noise, where can u get a speed control?
we use the fan we got now just to cool the hood & that air comes from outside the room & leaves the room thats it for venting. also put a few small holes in the vent so it pulls some air from i nthe room.
thinking about getting another small one on a timer to suck air out the room a few times a day.

I'm not quite sure what you're up to, but poking holes in your duct line doesn't sound like the way forward.

The exhaust fan should run on a thermostat, not a timer.

I read your post and saw you were looking for a fan speed controller, so i googled a bit and found one so here you go. Hope it works for you.

Electronic Fan Speed Controllers

Your friendly local hdwe store has fan motor speed controllers. I recently bought a 300W unit for about $35 and also saw 500W units, handy for wind-tunnels.

They will also have thermostat units. My favorite thermostat comes from here.

Battery operated, has both normally open and normally closed terminals so it can be used to control either heaters or cooling fans.

A thermostat can combine with a motor speed controller to create an automatic 2-speed fan with 24 hour ventilation, with high speed on temp demand. Just put the MSC in parallel with the thermostat.



When the temp is above the tstat setpoint, the fan motor will run on full normal speed. When the tstat shuts off, the MSC will keep current flowing to the fan motor so the room is ventilated at all times, but you set the MSC to run the fan motor at about 1/2 speed. This arrangement is particularly useful when you are running a carbon filter or Odorsok; air is constantly pushed thru the filter instead of scents escaping the grow room via air gaps when the fan shuts off.

 

[OhYesTheDopeMan]

Not many, but over here https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/40912-fdd2blk-plant-reminded-you.html
theres a pic of the sea of skunk. I was really surprised too, the first 2 times I got a fraction of that but since learning how to water soiless mix properly yours and my numbers are the same. I also veg longer than you I believe. Its amazing how quick you get your shit to root, it takes me 14-20 days before I can expose mine to more powerful lighting. I went from a vermiculite method, to a bubble cloner now to oasis material and they all equally suck for me, though I've cloned successfully with all 3. Basically I put out 10-15 plants that are usually about 10" and go to about 20" by the time they're done stretching. And again I don't remove lower branching. And also, when they are leaning over because the top cola is so heavy, I let them sit like that for as long as possible so they grow horizontally for a few weeks giving all the lower branches some quality production time.

 

[Altair Everex]

i dont mean question ur experience, but several other sites say that 4 per sqft is crowding the plant, true? just asking to be certain before i get to that point

 

[potroast]

When I've grown many plants in a small space, I've tried it each way. I've had 4 plants/sqft, and 3, and 2, and 1 in a sqft. It all depends on your setup, and how you want to grow your plants. FWIW at that time I settled on 2 plants/sqft as being the best for me.

I guess it also depends on the strains that you are growing.

HTH