Al B. FAQt

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yah well Mr Smart Guy u cant tell me it dont work ay!

u just got to use a lot of bullits. Little ones like a 22 work dam good but u hit mor natts with a shotgun.

like my daddy always told me, never pound witha big rench wen u can use a small wun.
 
Hey Al, great to see you back. I just noticed you came back, cause Im not on as often as I used to. Hey Al, what do you think of Hempy Buckets, and SOGing in Hempys?
 
Hempy evangelists swear they don't rot roots, but they do keep roots submerged without added aeration, a recipe for root rot.

If you need a simple system that can can run unattended or with low maintenance, I prefer wick systems.

wicksys2.gif


Image from SimplyHydro.

Same can be accomplished with two nested, common 88 cent plastic 9 litre buckets, a brick to space them and a few 150mm pieces of 16mm nylon rope as wicks. Air pump is optional, I'm a bit iffy on whether added oxygen would be lost in the motion through the wick. Perlite is a good medium for wick systems. They benefit from H2O2 50% grade @ 1ml/L in the nutes every 3-4 days, keeps them funk free.

You could raise 3-4 SoG pruned plants in each bucket based wick system.
 
How much to you think it would take to build a table. ? And the roots are openly exposed to light in the tray? Do you have an overhead pic of one of your tables?
 
oh, and... when first starting a new wick system, soak the media for 24h before putting plants in it. The media's got to be wet to start the wicking action.
 
I do intend on running tables just like your op. Money is my biggest problem. The wick is the same thing, minus the pump right?
 
Kaosisglobal said:
How much to you think it would take to build a table. ? And the roots are openly exposed to light in the tray? Do you have an overhead pic of one of your tables?
Click to expand...

I have tried and failed dismally to DIY some flood trays, thinking it would save some dough. I've built frames of 2x4 timbers with a plywood floor and lined it with plastic, put plumbing fittings in one corner and blocked it up so water drained to the corner. Problem is the plastic tends to pinhole with use, moving pots around and whatnot. Leaks and wood construction don't mix well, neither do leaks and non-resilient floors/coverings.

I use commercially available vacuformed plastic trays, 900mm x 900mm. They are on stands made from ~25mm square aluminium (never steel) tubing, fitted together with Qubelok plastic connectors.



The tubing & Qubeloks are available at Ye Olde Gargantuan Hardewarre Shoppe. Trays come from most any hydro supplier. The commercially made plastic tray is simply the best tool for the job, but even good ones eventually crack. Keep a tube of silicone sealant handy. ;)

edit: Most trays are sold without holes for fill & drain fittings drilled. I USED to use a hole saw and a drill to make these openings. I now use a homemade hot knife (a 60W soldering iron with the tip pounded flat) to melt the holes, clean them up with a bit of sandpaper on a dowel rod. Prevents future cracking around the holes.
 
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Kaosisglobal said:
I do intend on running tables just like your op. Money is my biggest problem. The wick is the same thing, minus the pump right?
Click to expand...

Pretty much. You do have to reckon that pumps are pretty cheap, I think I pay about $11 for 400L Chinese cheapos.

You still need pH & ppm metering for a wick system.

Downside to wicks is that you're not moving as much oxygenated nute soln through the roots and speed/productivity suffers. Upside is they're noobie proof- impossible to overwater.
 
I will eventually be doing floods, and you will be like the first to see them. So I'm clear on everything but one. The roots stay exposed to lights? Im sorry, I just don't see them in the pic neither, lol.
 
kudos for truth on cooltubes and tap water.

I'm working out a modular wick system. The beauty of wicking - as I see it - is that the soil is never so wet as to choke out the air content. As you mentioned, top-watering your wicked pots to start gets the juices flowing, so to speak. My houseplants and tomatoes are running on prototypes and love the shit ...

I DO lose patience with willfully dumb people who insist that wives' tales or outright misinformation trump replicatable science.
Click to expand...

I could not agree more.
 
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Kaosisglobal said:
I will eventually be doing floods, and you will be like the first to see them. So I'm clear on everything but one. The roots stay exposed to lights? Im sorry, I just don't see them in the pic neither, lol.
Click to expand...

The plants are in pots and so are the roots. Roots need to be shielded from light.
 
Al, i just read many many pages, i like your approach (keeping it simple), it was nice to read.... even if you did write a "recipe" i'm sure it would sell ;)
 
Hey Al B. If i want to recreate your op in a more hobbyist style for my personal use. I'm going to have 2 micro setups with fluorescents, 1-2 mothers in one cabinet/drawer and another drawer for rooting my clones. My flowering room will be a closet with 4 plants flowering 1 due every 2 weeks under a 400w hps. My question is: Since I am only growing 4 plants at a time and they will have more space than your op, and ventilation should not be a problem, should i still prune the bottom third of the plant for the center cola buds or would i be able to leave the bottom 1/3 and lollipop it for a better yield?
 
reefcouple said:
Al, i just read many many pages, i like your approach (keeping it simple), it was nice to read.... even if you did write a "recipe" i'm sure it would sell ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks. :)

Rodlan said:
My question is: Since I am only growing 4 plants at a time and they will have more space than your op, and ventilation should not be a problem, should i still prune the bottom third of the plant for the center cola buds or would i be able to leave the bottom 1/3 and lollipop it for a better yield?
Click to expand...

Cannabis plants don't produce evenly across all stems & branches. The lower on the plant, the less productive. Manicuring the little lower stuff is a pain, but the worst of it is that if you grow branchy plants, you are using valuable lighted space to produce bumfluff buds- that you could be using for more budstalks, which will make big, hard, dense nugs.

So.. grow more lollipopped plants, not fewer branchy ones. This is the whole point of SoG.

You can fit as many as 4 SoG plants per sq ft if you prune them properly, everything off the bottom 1/3. A 400 can raise as many as 32 SoG plants in 8sf. I only do 2.6 plants per sf (46 in 16.2sf) with my 1000s, though.
 
Al B. Fuct said:
no net pots, never have said I use them. Just plants in pots in a flood tray.
Click to expand...

Regular soil type pots? Dope, lol, I assumed they were in there. I'm going to go back to the old thread and read up. If you don't mention there, what is flytocel. Sorry for being so stupid. I do well with what I do. I just don't know the rest.
 
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