Al B. FAQt

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Return of the Spork

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Oh cool, I was looking at the online store area, yeah that is much cheaper. Looks like you get a 25% discount if you buy 4 gallons at once. I will call her up next week.
 

WoldofWeedcraft

Well-Known Member
Hey Al, I have an old cupboard I need to get rid of, and I was thinking of turning it into a little grow cabinet that's kind of a micro scale of your set up. The thing is, it's got two main shelves (One for flower and one for veg). But the flower shelf is only 30" wide x 16" deep x 37" tall. I could fit 8 6" pots in there, but would I have enough height for HPS with 37"? If not, I'd have to break that shelf into just one main cabinet to get a few more feet, and not have the veg box attached. Also what light would be appropriate for that small of a cabinet? I was thinking 400-600 watt HPS with cool tubes.
 

Return of the Spork

Well-Known Member
Hey Al, I have read around the forums a bit that if you harvest earlier you get more of an "up" high, whereas if you harvest later you get more of a couchlock high.

Is that true?

If it is would it be reasonable that if I harvested half early and half late I would get two batches that smoked differently than eachother?
 

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
My question is it ok to to put them under flouresccent lighting @ 12/12 to get them to show sex?
Yep, that will do fine. Have your flowering area with HPS lighting set up, tested (without plants in it, for a week or so, keeping an eye on your peak-mem thermo so you know the temps will be right) and ready to fly in case the cuttings are female. They can be your first crop.

Al B. I am going to go hydro on my next grow which will be in about 9 weeks give or take.
what i am thinking as my plan is to get a 30 site EZ clone and a 3' X 3' econo 1 ebb and flow setup.
Sounds good :)

as well a 24 site insert for the ebb and flow table as seen here Netwell Insert for 3’ x 3’ Trays Accepts 24 - 5½'' Heavy Duty Net Pots
I don't think the insert is terribly necessary in a flood op, but it'll keep your pots from tipping over if you use a lightweight medium with a tendency to float like Fytocell.

since i will be cloning with only neoprene collars am i right to assume that i can then use only hydroton or similar in my 5.5 diameter net pots ?
there by eliminating the need for rockwool or equivalent helping avoid overwatering ?
Yep, good plan.

or do you recommend using some rockwool like substance to help retain water ?
and if you recommend rockwool or some equivalent, do you recommend i use it in the cloning process as well as in the ebb and flow tray?
I have always had better results from cloning in RW cubes as opposed to an aerocloner, but if you can make an aerocloner work well, more power to you. Yes, medialess cloning can be preferable if you intend to raise your plants in pellets. You will get the same result from medialess and RW cubes nested in the pellets, as long as the RW cube is nested so it is 1/2" above the flood line. With plants cloned in a medialess method, the roots can be placed right at or below the flood line. Don't put them too terribly deep in the pots; roots seek downward. If you put them in too deep, not much of the media will be filled with roots.
thanks in advance Al. you rock

PS tried to +rep you in advance but apparently i was stoned off my ass and did it before cuz it says i need to spread the love before i +rep you again.
lol i know you dont play the +rep game alot as you say but you deserve it ... only wish i could +rep you for every great bit of advice ive taken from you.
heh, thanks. :)

Thanx for the measurements. This one is going to by 760mm wide and 610mm across. I bought a piece of aluminum angle with the holes already in it and attached that to the 's' strips a few adjustments will still have to be made, it is taking shape. VV
dynamite, looks great. :) If you haven't made plans to do so, the ref will need a couple-three coats of a good quality hi-temp flat white exhaust header paint on the reflector side. Alternatively, you can get out your alloy polishing kit and polish the holy bejesus out of the reflection surface and then protect it with a layer or three of hi-temp clearcoat. The surface will otherwise oxidise. Aluminum oxide isn't the best reflecting stuff.

My yeild question-Does that mean .5g/total watts in flower room or .5g per watt over the harvested tray.
A good first harvest would be .5g/W based on a single 1kW, presuming you are harvesting everything under that 1kW light. Since you'll be doing a SoG op, harvesting more often than the standard 8 weeks for a single light op, you'll base your figures on the last light in your chain.

If you are using that last 1000 to raise 2 trays at a time but only harvesting from 1 tray, divide the lamp power by 2 and calculate on that basis, since that harvested tray was only using half the light from that lamp.

If you harvested the whole room at once, you'd calculate the entire harvest wt against the total flowering area watts.


What are the pitfalls i face that will imact yeild so severely? What can I be doing now to ensure i don't end up with 1/3rd the efficiency per watt that you are seeing? Would you mind if posting your recipes for your flower room resevoirs when you have enough time?
Errors accumulate and are recorded in the total performance of the grow. The trick is to make as few errors as possible. Make sure the nute strength & pH are always right, tanks are dosed with H2O2 per schedule, temps are right, nothing's overwatered, etc etc.

All 4 of my flowering area tanks run Canna Flores, 1400ppm @ 5.8 except for wk 6, where I add about 50ml of Canna's PK 13-14 in addition to the usual 450ml A + 450ml B in 125L tanks. I'm getting kinda annoyed with the PK stuff as it seems that when I use it, I get a passel of yellowing leaves by harvest time, probably K toxicity. the PK bumps up the nute strength to about 1700. I may back down tank 4 to perhaps 1000 -1100ppm tocompensate.

Hydroguard-Yes indeed is right on the hydroguard, not h202. i have spoken to the hydro shop i use about 350km from here and indeed it is what they offer as a sub.
wow, and I thought my 200km round trip to the hydro shop was bad. :D

Obviously, Hydroguard isn't an acceptable sub for H2O2.

I do have 2 airstones in each res and it is a top drip system using hydroton (expanded clay pellets) for the medium and is on a 2hr on 2hr off timer for the drip.
Sounds good, but you know I have no love lost on drip systems due to the potential for dried nute salts clogging the drippers unless they're cleaned frequently.

Will those methods and the use of airstones assist in oxiginating my roots?
Is that sufficient till i source the h2o2?
Airstones will deal with oxygenation but won't do anything for pathogen control. Let's hope the competing bacteria sauce will keep you out of dutch until you get some H2O2.

As to the magic saucey factor of the fulvic acid-i agree, it would seem the hard science is missing and while i do not like that from a control perspective i am a believer in a little mother nature luv-and figure it can't hurt. I have seen it in the recipes of some large ops and it is not cost prohibitive to use on a regular basis. I will run a batch without to see if there is any discernable difference.
Yeah, I started worrying when I saw some new-agey website spruiking fulvic acid for human health, with a number of scienceless superlatives. Buncha tree-huggin' hippie crap. :lol: May as well hang some crystals & pyramids over your head and hope for the goddesses to bless thee. Every once in a while, I'm tempted to drop in on 'fully organic' grow threads and leave comments like 'Blessed be' cos I'm really a chemical loving dickhead at heart. :lol: Thankfully, I usually stop myself at the last second.

A truer test would be to run parallel, simultaneous control plants against your test plants. Might be difficult as you'd need separate watering systems to do it.

Do you use a proxy server that specializes in privacy and anonimity for your communications on here or similar threads? Or do you just roll straight up. Before i post any pics or such i wwould like to know more about the safety of such open forums.
I haven't used proxies much because they slow me way down. Bear in mind that I'm posting to a board located outside of my country of residence and I never, ever buy or sell any plant matter (not even seeds) via cannabis boards. I'd like to see RIU add https (secure protocol) as an option. That way, there's no snooping between you & the server running the RIU forum. LEO would have to be looking at the plaintext after decryption and would need to be 'inside' the RIU server (or your computer) with spyware. We can only depend on the security practises of the RIU board operators, whether you use a proxy or not. Your security practises are much more important. Don't give away specifics about your location, make sure there's nothing identifiable in the background of images you post. I'm actually more concerned about nosy neighbours who notice fan noise & scents. Silence is paramount, both out of your grow and your yap.

In any case, I've been using cannabis boards since about 1995, mostly without proxies, with no hassles. Either I'm a very small fish or no one is checking up on me. If I was selling buds online, I bet I would have attracted some attention by now.

But the flower shelf is only 30" wide x 16" deep x 37" tall. I could fit 8 6" pots in there, but would I have enough height for HPS with 37"?
Your cabinet is about the size of my clonebox. You'll need 1m for plants, 300mm lamp-leaf spacing, then room for the watering system below the flood tray, at least another 300mm. Sorry, it's just got to be bigger. You need something a little closer to 1.8m tall. Think freestanding wardrobe-sized, about 1.8m H x 1m wide x 600mm deep or in that general area. Your old cupboard may make a good clonebox, tho.

Hey Al, I have read around the forums a bit that if you harvest earlier you get more of an "up" high, whereas if you harvest later you get more of a couchlock high.

Is that true?
Δ9-THC can be broken down into non-psychoactive or less psychoactive cannabinoids by exposing buds to temps above 29C. Δ9-THC is converted into cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabidinol (CBN), which either are not psychoactive alone but moderate the psychoactive effects of Δ9-THC or induce lethargy.

When you hear stuff like this, you have to wonder about the conds in the grow. Hot grows are much more common than properly functioning ones. I can see the Δ9-THC being converted as a result of excessively high temps in the grow. If your temps are under control (24-26C) and your drying procedures are cool (literally), your Δ9-THC should remain Δ9-THC until you roll it up.
 

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
On the topic of 'up' vs 'couchlock' highs, there's more than a bit of anecdotal evidence that primarily indica dominant strains tend to produce the couchlock but are better for pain control for med users. Primarily sativa strains are reputed for cerebral, light buzzes.

Most growers run primarily indica hybrids because they are much faster, heavier producers than sativas. Also, a lot of smokers prefer the heavy, couchlock buzz and just don't appreciate an 'up' headbuzz.

As such, it's nice to have a sativa mum around and flower a few copies from time to time just for a bit of variety, but if you need to pound the ounces out of the op, indicas are the way to go.
 

Return of the Spork

Well-Known Member
So just to clarify because we are all stoners afterall, the couchlock effect is essentially caused by the breakdown of the Δ9-THC into CBD and CBN? (Well the strain too obviously but we are talking about the different states of the Δ9-THC molecule)

So the more the bud's Δ9-THC molecules break down, the more lethargic the weed should essentially make you?

Would it then be safe to assume that older weed has had the opportunity to degredate more? Because I am at the end of a batch that wasn't stored super well, I would say so-so storage method and while it was the same plant, it is definitely before bed smokage.

Definitely prefer the up high

-Spork
 

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
After looking at Mr Green's YT vid, I thought I should make mention of how to properly drip feed a pot of pellets.

Don't use single-point emitter drippers. There's only one aperture to clog and if you don't clean them with a toothbrush frequently, you can be a fucked bunny. You'll wind up with a narrow column of wet pellets and the roots will form mainly there instead of throughout your pellets.

You need to buy or make one of these:



Just a tee fitting with some flexible tubing which has some 2mm holes on the underside. This will evenly wet the pot of pellets to encourage root formation throughout the pot, has numerous holes so 1-2 clogs don't stop the show and will keep RW cubes if used from being saturated.
 

Old in the Way

Well-Known Member
All Great stuff Al-Thanks.

Made a few adjustments after your post with the ph info-running a straight 5.8 as of this morning. Should have my h2o2 by first of the week.

For nute strength-I am preparing to take them to 1100ppm for day7-14 of veg up from the 700ppm for day 1-6. Its ok??

Will continue the use of crystals and hippie-dippie magic at least until its gone (friggin long-hairs at them hydro shops) and then run with nothing but the scientifically engineered products for my resevoirs.

On security related issues-i figured it is all pretty chill since as you said we are all VERY small fish in the grand scheme. Just figure good coomon sense and my stealth lifestyle will serve me as well here as it does in the real world. Those being the two main reasons i decided to start this up-not to mention the 6-7k a yr i was spending with my dear friends at the grow-op the same 350km away as the friggin hippie-hydro store. Oh and i made the mistake of retiring 20 yrs early just to watch the us economy fall to shit. I'll be damned if I am going back to the rat-race. Had to work almost 5 hrs this week, I thought it was going to kill me. Puts a damper on my tennis and golf schedule-which before you laugh....is grueling. (tennis is a bitch for us old farts after a wake and bake with Soma's NYCDiesel-does help with the joint pain though)

Lastly,
Saw your post in regards to the aeroclonre v. rockwool for cloning. I am an experienced propagator (no canna exp. but a shitload of woody ornamentals) and saw the aerocloner as a way to save some time and headaches but at 400usd I wonder if I made a mistake in the purchase. You have not seen the "foolproof ease" they claim to offer?? Or just personal preference for you and the rw?

Thanks again for the input.
-O. Way
 

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
So just to clarify because we are all stoners afterall, the couchlock effect is essentially caused by the breakdown of the Δ9-THC into CBD and CBN? (Well the strain too obviously but we are talking about the different states of the Δ9-THC molecule)
Spot on. :)
So the more the bud's Δ9-THC molecules break down, the more lethargic the weed should essentially make you?
Yep, that's the hypothesis.

Would it then be safe to assume that older weed has had the opportunity to degredate more? Because I am at the end of a batch that wasn't stored super well, I would say so-so storage method and while it was the same plant, it is definitely before bed smokage.
Yes, poor storage is a primary cause of Δ9-THC degradation. Ideal storage conds are 10-21C, in darkness. Freezing isn't recommended as it drives water out of buds (like freezing a loaf of bread) and can make them harsh to smoke. Storage in the fridge may cause some condensation in the container of the 1-2% normal water content of properly smokably dry buds. Light exposure is also anecdotally implicated in THC degradation, but I don't know how that jibes with light exposure while the buds are still on the plant. If light exposure were a strong cause of degradation, you wouldn't get any Δ9-THC, it'd all be CBD or CBN by harvest time.

The anti-drug & LEO community have used Δ9-THC degradation in storage toward their own nefarious ends. As part of the 'Not Your Father's Marijuana' lie, data acquired from analysing old seized cannabis samples, which invariably test artifically low in Δ9-THC are compared to recently harvested seized samples. A 10 year old sample may be 1% Δ9-THC due to conversion of most of the Δ9-THC to CBD & CBN (which conveniently are not tested for); a sample which is a month or so old which has been stored well might have 10-15%, so the cops & nutjobs instantly figure someone has invented some new 1000-1500% stronger superweed. In anti-drug parlance, 'drugs are baaaaaaad,' so they also figure that more THC means 'more dangerous!!!', not figuring on the self-titrating nature of cannabis. If buds have more Δ9-THC, the user will smoke less, reducing the harm from inhaled burning vegetable matter smoke.

Can't count on the anti-drug wowsers or the cops for commonsense as they have a vested interest in perpetuating the drug war. In other words, figures lie and liars figure. There's a good reason why proper peer-reviewed scholarly research into cannbis is routinely blocked by drug law enforcement authorities and zero-tolerance wowsers. The truth would put them out of a job, simple as that.
 

gvega187

Well-Known Member
hey al, got some 3x3 trays. Do you prefer the fittings in the middle of the tray for any reason? Or or they to the sides? (plumbing)

just want 2 make sure 2 do it rite the 1st time when drilling. ty
 

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
hey al, got some 3x3 trays. Do you prefer the fittings in the middle of the tray for any reason? Or or they to the sides? (plumbing)
The weight of plants, pots & wet media will cause the tray to bow. The lowest point will be in the very middle. Put your fittings there.

Some plastics are not very drill/holesaw friendly. They'll crack if the bit bites in. Use an old soldering iron to melt the holes and clean them up with a fine file or sandpaper to avoid cracking the tray.
 

archie6214

Active Member
Hey Al, I had a quick question for ya. I purchased this meter about 10 days ago and calibrated it when I got it home. I just checked it tonight and the calibraion was like .7 off I think when dipped into 7.0 calibration solution. Is this normal? How often should you calibrate your meters? It has me a little concerned b/c my nutrient solution has been at 5.2 when I thought it was at 5.8? Also it says 2 part calibration 7.0 and/or 4.0, can I just calibrate it at 7.0 or do I need to do both 7.0 and 4.0? Thanks again for all your help.
 

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Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
Hey Al, I had a quick question for ya. I purchased this meter about 10 days ago and calibrated it when I got it home.
Most pH meter instructions (which I KNOW you read. ;)) direct you to soak the meter electrode in water for somewhere between an hour and a day before use. The electrode tip must also ALWAYS be kept damp by keeping a bit of wet sponge in the meter cap. Failure to perform these steps will result in a wandering reading while testing or big errors when calibrating.

can I just calibrate it at 7.0 or do I need to do both 7.0 and 4.0?
You'll need to calibrate to both values, usually 7 first, then dip in plain water to clean off the electrode, then dip the 4.0 soln. Rinse the tip in water again, then dip the 7 soln again to verify it's calibrated. Rinse and dip 4, verifying the meter reads correctly.

The reason for this procedure is to set the gain of an amplifier circuit which converts the very small electrical signal from the glass bulb electrode into a signal large enough to be processed further in the rest of the metering circuits. You are setting the linearity, making sure the meter has the same sensitivity across the range 4.0-7.0.

Is it a pain to do? You bet it is. Unfortunately, this is how all pH meters work. You should calibrate your meter before each use.

Did you shoot low the other day? It's possible, but if you calibrated immediately before testing the nute soln, it should have been right. If it was stored dry, the error probably occurred after the fact.

Does your inst booklet specify keeping the probe wet & soaking for a spell before use? If so, do those and try the meter again after a day. I bet it's closer to right.

But then again, it could be a Hanna... :lol:
 

archie6214

Active Member
Yeah the instructions suggest to keep a little of the calibration solution in the protective cap for storage. So you're saying to just cut a little piece of sponge and place in the cap and keep it moist with water? Calibrate before every use!! I didn't know that, glad I asked now, thought once every 2-3 weeks would suffice!!

Oh yeah is it alright to just dip the meter in the bottle of calibration solution, or should I pour it out into a second container to calibrate, and then dispose of it?
 

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
yep, a tiny bit cut off a clean, new kitchen sponge will keep the soln in the cap and the probe suitably dampened.

Do calibrate your meter before each use unless and until you can be confident after some weeks of using it that it doesn't wander much.

You should still calibrate frequently, if not every time, because you'll forget when you last did it.
 

archie6214

Active Member
Thanks again AL for the quick reply. I must say you have to be the biggest asset for this online community. Much respect for you bro.
 
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