40+ lbs with 12 Plants in 2 Rooms on a Flip

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WolfieLee

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Wow! Some Set-up! I was curious. Have you tried the Hortilux Blue Daylight spectrum bulb? It is touted as great for the whole grow... And it has some sort of the LEC or similar new tech. Would love to here from experience on it...
 

Renfro

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Wow! Some Set-up! I was curious. Have you tried the Hortilux Blue Daylight spectrum bulb? It is touted as great for the whole grow... And it has some sort of the LEC or similar new tech. Would love to here from experience on it...
Pretty sure they don't make those in DE. Never used one, they are pricey. I have run metal halide DE's as finishing bulbs and they do very well. Running more blue and less red to ripen will increase bud density and the added UV promotes extra resin production. Running them for the last 10 - 14 days maybe even 3 weeks will really up your quality game. You could run them the whole cycle but yields will suffer by around 25% from my experience. I have settled on the Philips DE bulb as my go to, tried hortilux and they are nice but the Philips is definitely better.
 

WolfieLee

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Thanks for the response. You are correct, I have looked...No DE, Just regular and only in 1000W, also... I was looking once for a 600 to fit my ballast... I will take that to heart. If I recall they had been proud there was plenty in the red spec. I think a side by side would be called for with the yield issue you are suspecting would occur... Good food for thought.
 

Renfro

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So i made a cover for my tent tray, this round its no hydroton. The bends on the long sides keep the cover centered on the tray and make the top ridgid so it wont sag. I was considering using a dimple die on the holes but its already so ridgid there was no need.
 

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Keesje

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So i made a cover for my tent tray, this round its no hydroton. The bends on the long sides keep the cover centered on the tray and make the top ridgid so it wont sag. I was considering using a dimple die on the holes but its already so ridgid there was no need.
What kind of material is this?

You say 'no hydroton'. Is there any other medium, or is it no medium at all?
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
What kind of material is this?

You say 'no hydroton'. Is there any other medium, or is it no medium at all?
Just water and roots in the tray. It's 1/8" aluminum. Coulda went with stainless but the aluminum is lighter and easier to manage so I paid up for that.
 

Renfro

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Testing this for my commercial operation because dealing with medium of any kind when you have 3500 plants to pot is a pain in the ass lol. At most I will toss a coco mat in the tray bottom.
 

Keesje

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I think it is polyester most of the time, yes.
It is only to give some support and to keep some water in the tray all the time.
I doubt you need it. So if you do some test, also look at 'without any mat'.

If you buy it in large quantities, it will be cheap.
If it is useless, you can always start with a new hobby: Making Quilts!

Here is a pic of KLX who is growing mediumless. This is all what is left when he is cleaning his tray.

1573126587819.png
 

Renfro

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The plants in flower, in 10 gallon buckets of coco are thirsty every 12 hours smh lol. cant let the coco get too dry and they are sucking it down fast.

I should note, last run that I really didn't document much due to life happening ended up yielding just over 54 pounds dry with a little less than 5 pounds of larf. I really wanna hit 60 consistently without including the larf of course. I think its definitely doable with a little more supplement lighting, using LED to replace the HPS on the row ends and adding some more autocbos in dead spots.
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
I think it is polyester most of the time, yes.
It is only to give some support and to keep some water in the tray all the time.
I doubt you need it. So if you do some test, also look at 'without any mat'.

If you buy it in large quantities, it will be cheap.
If it is useless, you can always start with a new hobby: Making Quilts!

Here is a pic of KLX who is growing mediumless. This is all what is left when he is cleaning his tray.

View attachment 4417639
Yeah I don't think a mat is needed, if the tray is level a tiny amount of water sits in the channels and causes issues so I tilt the tray to drain that. Probably best to not have any standing water between floods.
 

Keesje

Well-Known Member
If it is just a little bit, why would it be a problem?
It is not the same water, as every cycle it will get refreshed.
Some water in the channels will even give the roots something to absorb in between cycles.
If they do not absorb it, also no problem. Kratky showed us that roots develop also in still standing water.
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
If it is just a little bit, why would it be a problem?
It is not the same water, as every cycle it will get refreshed.
Some water in the channels will even give the roots something to absorb in between cycles.
If they do not absorb it, also no problem. Kratky showed us that roots develop also in still standing water.
Yeah I know about that, the roots currently grow out of my pots and lay in those channels but later in flower they get brown so I just wanna fully drain the tray.
 

Renfro

Well-Known Member
I was bored one night while my girl was watching a chick flick so I made a little spreadsheet to track my coco watering times. This will be handy for future implementation of an auto watering system.

It also makes it so I don't have to think much (mental math is not my strong suit) about when the next watering should be. It uses the interval between the last watering to calculate and estimated time for the next watering. Of course I know that the plants will change if I drop the humidity for example I need to check a little early. I also know the plants will increase drink at certain point and suddenly slow down at some point and I watch for that and adjust timing accordingly. The log allows me to track the room average with multiple strains. Then in the future my auto watering schedule can be setup to match the predicted plant needs. Of course I will have to build some sorta project like an audrino or something to handle that I suppose.

Contrary to common belief coco can be over watered. It doesn't stay over saturated as long as soil and shouldn't be allowed to dry out as much as soil but it does need to dry out some. You don't have to be nearly as precise with watering coco when you err on the side of not letting it dry out but when the plants suddenly slow down on drink, usually somewhere around day 52 of 12/12, you can get root rot if you keep watering at the same frequency that you were when the plants were in thirsty mode. Opposite can be said earlier in flower when they suddenly speed up on drink. Strains vary of course but knowing that it will happen around a certain time allows you to watch for it and be ready to adjust your timing.

Anyways here is my little spreadsheet.

watertimelog.PNG

I just enter when I water in the "Watered column" and it does the math. I can make a chart with the watering interval numbers. I can put notes when things happen like if daylight savings time happens or if I notice the plants are speeding up or slowing down on drink... I also have a column for my RH% setting because changing that has an effect on watering frequency. Honestly I added columns for pH and feed mix too lol. It calculates the flower day too. I even used some "IF" statements so it wouldn't show bogus numbers below the row data has been input. Has a sheet for room A and room B.

Gotta love excel, probably the most handy program for growers (other than a web browser lol).
 

HURLOW

New Member
I made my first trellis from pvc. 1/2" pvc! Lol! Never again.
Is that emt (conduit), or iron pipe, galvanzied, like what is the actual product. Because I'm assuming you didn't have to thread any ends for fittings, which means you didn't have to cut it either?
CAn you tell me is this company good to order from I'm new to it. Thanks
 

2com

Well-Known Member
i like it. good looking out. i may try half and half, inspect roots at harvest to see what they like. thats polyester right?
There was a guy on youtube using that in his trays. Polyester batting, or maybe even felt batting. As long as it's inert and won't break down. It works pretty good.

Oh - there's this new "hemp mat" stuff too you could check out, but that's gonna decompose pretty quick from the one usage example I've seen on youtube.
 
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