2nd time around as a grower, this time with way more money, skills, and equipment...

Dee_Nugs said:

Id love to incorporate some SBC’s into my next grow. Have you used microcontrollers as well, there are so many sensors that could be useful for growing.

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So I actually have a bunch (6) of Raspberry Pis deployes around my house, in rooms, garage, basement, furnace room, etc.,, that have an Arduino nano hung off them to manage MQ5, MQ7, MQ135, and MQ2 analog sensors for watching various air quality stuff because the Pis can't do analog sensors without an A2D converter. That is why I'm thinking I'm going to add on PH and TDS sensors eventually. I may even add CO2 and get sensors for that, but they are significantly more expensive, and I'm not sure my grow is big enough to need them, based on current ridiculously awesome results... That being said, I may add it anyway, because I love coding stuff. I also think it might be incredibly cool to code up a stepper motor and sonar distance sensor to auto adjust light height...

The current iteration for environmental controls is specific to the hardware, specifically the Digital Loggers Web Power switch, and it doesn't have a lot of error handling yet, but as that develops, I am definitely planning to open source it all.

April 8th - The only maintenance today was to pinch off both Jack Herer plant's main growing tip. The smaller Jack has gained tremendous ground on the bigger one in the last few days, and I think it is currently less than a day behind the biggest plant now. Both plants have a similar secondary branch structure and I believe that pinching them both today puts them both on even footing as far as secondary branch growth, so it made sense to pinch them at the same time. They both have 8 internodes now, and the secondary branches should make for 6 or 8 main growing tips each, we shall see within a couple days. Pinching them both off also should slow vertical growth a little and let the Critical plant to catch up in height before I pinch it in a couple days also.

saint0192 said:

So I actually have a bunch (6) of Raspberry Pis deployes around my house, in rooms, garage, basement, furnace room, etc.,, that have an Arduino nano hung off them to manage MQ5, MQ7, MQ135, and MQ2 analog sensors for watching various air quality stuff because the Pis can't do analog sensors without an A2D converter. That is why I'm thinking I'm going to add on PH and TDS sensors eventually. I may even add CO2 and get sensors for that, but they are significantly more expensive, and I'm not sure my grow is big enough to need them, based on current ridiculously awesome results... That being said, I may add it anyway, because I love coding stuff. I also think it might be incredibly cool to code up a stepper motor and sonar distance sensor to auto adjust light height...

The current iteration for environmental controls is specific to the hardware, specifically the Digital Loggers Web Power switch, and it doesn't have a lot of error handling yet, but as that develops, I am definitely planning to open source it all.

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Very cool. I've worked with them before, but mostly for installation/sculpture work. But I'd love to have some running constantly in my house, even just reporting temp and humidity. Have you used the photon before? Its a sort of all in one weather shield microcontroller that you can upload code to via wifi, pretty cool. plants are looking gorg. btw!

Dee_Nugs said:

Very cool. I've worked with them before, but mostly for installation/sculpture work. But I'd love to have some running constantly in my house, even just reporting temp and humidity. Have you used the photon before? Its a sort of all in one weather shield microcontroller that you can upload code to via wifi, pretty cool. plants are looking gorg. btw!

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I'll definitely check out the photon - I like the idea of wireless updates

Check this out - I snipped the tops last night a couple hours before night so they could rest after, and a bunch of the secondary branches popped out of the canopy overnight on the two plants I snipped.

saint0192 said:

I'll definitely check out the photon - I like the idea of wireless updates

Check this out - I snipped the tops last night a couple hours before night so they could rest after, and a bunch of the secondary branches popped out of the canopy overnight on the two plants I snipped.

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looking good !are you gonna tie those new main branches down once they really start coming in to open her up a bit?

Dee_Nugs said:

looking good !are you gonna tie those new main branches down once they really start coming in to open her up a bit?

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Yeah, I'm planning to splay them out a bit in a day or so and trim a couple of the shade leaves to expose them a bit more, and then splay them out a little more once I get them in the big tent for flowering where there's a lot more room.

I'm not going full SCRoG though, cuz I'm hoping for some lollipop cola glamour centerfold pics from this first grow.

April 9th - no maintenance other than to give the 2 Jack Herer plants a little haircut (about 6 leaves shading growing tips each) to further expose the secondary branches and get a bunch of good growing tips ready for cloning and flowering. The biggest of the leaves I clipped was almost five inches longer than my hand. Those Jack Herer plants are absolute beasts. I did that around midday to give them some time to grow and fill in a little today and heal tonight. They look great and haven't skipped a beat, those secondary branches all started putting on size as today went on. The one Critical plant still looks good and I still plan to pinch the tip tomorrow and haircut a day later probably.

April 10th - Maintenance day - the smallest plant, CRIT#1 drank about 1/2 liter of water since last reservoir change, the smaller Jack Herer plant, JH#2 drank about 3/4 of a liter of water in the same time, and the biggest plant, JH#1 drank 2 liters of water in that time. The disparity is still obvious there, but in size, JH#2 is closer to JH#1 than ever - they all look great, no issues, standing up straight and tall, and roots look excellent. The portion of the roots that is now above the water level in the reservoir is now a solid trunk of twined roots, slight darker than the pearly white roots that are actually in the water. The difference in color worried me, but they feel matte and very solid, not slimy, and the plants look great, so not worried. In the pics below, they look darker than they are because of the intense backlighting.

I topped off the reservoirs and adjusted them all back up to approximately 850ppm. For CRIT#1 that took just a small dose of Micro, for JH#2 it took 1ml of Grow and 1ml of Micro, and for JH#2 it took about 1.75ml each of Grow and Micro. PH balanced all to approximately 5.8 and back in they go. I also pinched the top of CRIT#1 and plan to give her a big girl haircut tomorrow to expose some growing tips.

April 11th - I trimmed the smaller critical plant and cut some 12-15" pieces of 14 gauge wire to gorilla tape down to the top of the bucket lids. I v-bent the end that was taped to provide a solid pivot point so I can force some branches sideways as well as outward from the center to spread out the growth and get some good clone and growing tip material from them all. I also trimmed a few more leaves if they were shading growing tips. No reservoir maintenance was done today. Oh! One of the pics below shows that the big plant has produced 11-bladed leaves now.

April 12th - Quick reservoir maintenance on the big girl, topped off water and added 1ml each of Grow, Micro, and Bloom, PH balanced down to ~5.7 and trimmed another couple small leaves that tried to shade good growing tips. Then the big girl JH#1 and the slightly smaller JH#2 went into the big tent with a lot more room to veg for a bit on 18:6 lighting before I pull clones and flower. The smallest plant, CRIT#1, has the smaller tent all to herself now and sits dead center under that light. I also trimmed a couple more leaves on JH#2 and CRIT#1 to continue to let the growing tips get all the light. On all three plants I adjusted wires to continue forcing the blanches out horizontally and sideways to fill in all the spaces that are bare. They all look a little smaller, but super healthy and I expect another explosion in size this week with all the room and the continual adjustment of bent wires to continue to tease branches outward daily.

The last picture is of a chocolate mint Clif bar I almost accidentally opened this morning for a snack. Yuck! WTF, Clif Bar, mint doesn't belong in chocolate granola bars!

April 13th - I pretty much left the plants alone today, only opening up the tents to inspect them and adjust a few branches to continue to spread the branches out. Some decent pics of my bent wire branch training system, it is working really well, especially the ability to pull branches sideways to fill in empty spots.

April 14th - light maintenance today, I had to trim some lower and inner shaded foliage to concentrate growth on the canopy - pics below. I figured it was a good time to make a test run with my homemade bubble cloners. I did not trim any clone branches from CRIT#1, only the much bigger JH#1 and JH#2 plants. The clones from JH#1 were the right length and the stems were slightly woody/solid. The clones from JH#2 were a little short and not as woody/solid, so not sure they'll last long. In either case, not sure they'll last because I didn't flush the plants for a couple days like I used to, so not sure how they'll react. This was really just about seeing how the conditions are in the bubble cloners anyway, I can take more in a week or so after flushing. After trimming the clones and cutting with a clean exacto blade, I dipped them in Clonex gel for about 10 seconds and placed them carefully in the orange cloner collars, lightly misted them with filtered water, and packed them away on my cloning shelf, about 6" from the florescent light. The closet they're in is always 72 degrees..

April 15th - maintenance day, reservoirs topped off with filtered water, adjusted to approximately 850ppm and adjusted PH. I feel like my PH meter is off by a bit, I'll be getting some distilled water to perform a calibration tomorrow. The plants look great, no issues. The properly sized bigger clones taken from JH#1 look good still, zero signs of stress, the smaller clones from JH#2 are stressing and don't look as good, but not terrible, just mildly stressed. The pics of each plant show my hand in the edge of all pics for some sense of scale. I took a top down pic of each plant and then a pic from underneath to show the undercarriage cleaning I did to get rid of all the life sucking little branches below the canopy where there isn't much light. The big Jack Herer plant, JH#1, is 24" across with 13 good growing tips, the smaller Jack Herer plant, JH#2 is 16" across with 13 good growing tips, and the Critical plant, CRIT#1 is about 13" across with 10 growing tips.

April 16th - I calibrated my 2 PH meters today, they were off by .5 or more, not good. I then did a quick reservoir maintenance because all 3 plants were at approximately PH 6.4-6.5. All the plants looked great today still, but they showed no burst of growth like they typically do the day after a maintenance, probably the PH, not worried, it is corrected now.

I remembered to take a couple quick pics of the clones today The bigger clones from JH#1 still look great, 2 of the smaller clones from JH#2 are starting to look not as good, but I expected that because they were significantly smaller than the ones I normally cut, like I did for JH#1, and they still don't look terrible, just a little stressed. If they make it another day or two they will most likely survive and be viable for the next crop, if not, I'm still planning to cut 4 more properly sized clones from each plant next week after a good flush anyway. The end result is gonna be many more clones than I need, and I plan to give a few away to some friends

Edit: forgot to add the fact that I drilled another hole in the lid of each reservoir and added a second air line and air stone to each plant, I don't the slight brown to the roots even though they are not slimy or anything, it makes me think more air to the roots will help. If it does not, I'll have some H2O2 to add to the reservoir soon.

April 17th - the plants are still growing, but appear to have slowed. It is hard to tell if it is because of the recent trimming which left the plant with so many growing tips fully exposed to light, or because I increased the PPM this past week from approximately 800ppm to 850ppm, or if it is because of the slight brown color to the roots. The roots are not matted or slimy, just slightly brown. I added a second air stone to each reservoir the day before yesterday, and starting today I will be only adjusting nutrient PPM once per week, and in the alternating maintenance window between weekly nutrient level adjustment I will just add PH adjusted water and ensure reservoir PH is within boundary. I will also be not taking root pics and exposing them to light anymore as a precaution. My reading in between has left me believing the stronger nutrient mix may be just staining the roots a little and possibly slowing growth. I also ordered some Hydroguard for use in a few days if the problems persist. I'm not super worried yet because there is no slimy feel and the roots look otherwise healthy for now.

So for today's maintenance I added approximately 1 liter of PH adjusted water to each plant and made a few small adjustments to branch spacing using my wire system, which is still working brilliantly. In the process I added a few more wires to each lid to control more branches. Each plant now has about 8 wires attached to the lid with gorilla tape to bend and support branches. The plants have all grown, the smallest plant, CRIT#1 is now about 16" across with 12 good growing tips fully exposed to light, the slightly larger JH#1 is now 20" across with 13 good growing tips, and the biggest plant, JH#1 is 26" across with 13 good growing tips.

The JH#1 clones look great, still no signs of stress, or very visible root bumps yet. If you enhance the image you can see lots of little hairs which may be the beginning though. 2 of the smaller JH#2 clones look rough but are still holding on, and the other 2 look good still. You can see in the pics that the bigger JH#1 clones have significantly longer and slightly thicker stems, they were the perfect size for clones in a bubble cloner, and the JH#2 clones have slight thinner and shorter stems, and that is why they are having a harder time. The thicker and longer stems provide more water and food for the clones until they sprout roots, so the clones do better throughout the process. I still would not be surprised if the JH#2 clones all survive, another day or two should see root bumps and at that point they may perk up.

April 18th - No maintenance today, just quick observations. I did peek in the reservoir of the two bigger plants, and noted that white root was showing everywhere amidst the brown - the additional airstone and/or lower PPM have positively affected the root system positively. I noted both because I also noted today that a few leaf tips here and there are showing the beginning of nutrient burn, most likely from the reservoir being at approximately 850ppm this past week. Again, I am reaffirming that 700-750ppm is the safe point right now. I also raised the lights a few inches this morning, the vertical growth has leveled off. Over the course the the day vertical growth is noticeable already.

All plants look good, the pics show an overall shot of each tent as well as a few of the leaf tips showing nutrient burn. That little bit of nutrient burn is a sweet point for any grower, showing that you have reached peak nutrition for the plant based on all other environmental factors. I am also happy that I already backed down to a weaker solution yesterday when I topped off with only PH adjusted filtered water. Most of the burnt leaf tips were on the smaller Jack Herer plant, JH#2.

The JH#1 clones still look great, the JH#2 clones still look sad, but no worse than yesterday.

2 more pics from last post

April 19th - maintenance day. I like the results of the additional airstones, but decided to play safe and add the hydroguard also. The reservoirs were replaced today with:
2.5 gallons of water (approximate)
5ml Armor Si
5ml CaliMagic
15ml Micro
10ml Grow
5ml Bloom
5ml Hydroguard
Added water to normalize at 750ppm
PH balanced to 5.6-5.7
All plants look great an actually showed noticeable gains today, they definitely are happier having more air at the roots and the weaker nutrient solution. Today's new solution set to 750ppm should be spot on.

Later in the day I trimmed more clones from each of the Jack Herer plants. Most of last week's clones (5 days old!) still look viable, so I just removed 2 of the small JH#2 clones and replaced with 2 new smaller 'hail mary' clones of about the same size. The 4 JH#1 clones from last week still look good, but no roots showing yet, just hairs. 4 more good sized clones from JH#2 were placed in another bubble cloner, and 7 more JH#1 clones were placed into a slightly bigger bubble cloner, a few of them are smaller 'hail mary' clones also. The 2 new cloners were given 1/2 gallon of filtered water with equal amounts of Micro, Grow, and Bloom, normalized to 150ppm, very weak. 3 drops of hydroguard added to each cloner, including the existing ones, and all PH balanced to 5.8. Total clones: 8 x JH#2 clones and 11 x JH#1 clones (I really love that plant!)

April 20th - no maintenance, just spritzed the clones with filtered water and left the big plants to recover for a day from more pruning and cloning - all looks good and the browning of the roots has stopped, with fresh white roots bursting everywhere.