CAP ebb&Flow using the Lucas formula | Only 3 pots with 400 Watts

MuckyDucky

MuckyDucky

Well-Known Member
This will be my 3rd ebb&flo grow. The other 2 were very successful so I am going to use the same techniques except for a few tweaks. The big difference this time is an added CAP ebb&flo controller system instead of the flood&drain table I previously used.

I have some freebee seeds I am going to use from Humbolt Seeds, train wreck, green crack, lost coast diesel, Amherst sour diesel and Desert diesel.

My Setup
  • 2x4 ft tent
  • 400w MH&HPS
  • 3 three gal CAP pots
  • CAP controller
  • 20 Gal. Res.
  • WO water
  • GH Micro, bloom & Cool Bloom (following Lucas percentages)
Pots hooked up in tent
pots1.jpg

Bucket insert with rocks added
rocks-dry.jpg

Controller opened
CAP-control-open.jpg

Hooked to Res. and running
Hooked-to-res.jpg

Wet rocks and no leaks!
Rocks-wet.jpg
 
MuckyDucky

MuckyDucky

Well-Known Member
I will give detailed updates throughout the complete grow. I still have to sprout the seeds so this journal will start out slow. Questions, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Happy Growing everyone!
:peace:
 
horribleherk

horribleherk

Well-Known Member
that set up the way youve set it up looks like a perfect match for that tent the 20 gal res. for only 3 plants should ensure a good growth rate i use gh- 3 part flora series but ive never tried the lucas formula good luck on your grow ill be checking it out
 
duudical

duudical

Well-Known Member
Looks like an awesome setup! If you are interested, I have some of the same strains going. My Desert Diesel and Green Crack are in flower and the ASD is getting pretty large in veg. All of them have been super easy to grow and have produced great plants. Every Green Crack seed I have popped has outpaced all the other seedlings with it every time.

Here is the Desert Diesel in flower....I didn't top or train her at all just to see what it looks like :) She's at day 34.

IMG_8169.jpg IMG_8277.jpg IMG_8278.jpg
 
MuckyDucky

MuckyDucky

Well-Known Member
duudical said:
Looks like an awesome setup! If you are interested, I have some of the same strains going. My Desert Diesel and Green Crack are in flower and the ASD is getting pretty large in veg. All of them have been super easy to grow and have produced great plants. Every Green Crack seed I have popped has outpaced all the other seedlings with it every time.

Here is the Desert Diesel in flower....I didn't top or train her at all just to see what it looks like :) She's at day 34.

View attachment 3197186 View attachment 3197184 View attachment 3197185
Click to expand...
I like your Desert Diesel. It is shaped like a tree! Nice job. The CAP controller I got was refurbished and I didn’t trust it so I installed an emergency cutoff on it so if something goes wrong it can’t dump the whole res on the floor. I decided to try some strains that were more indica this time and popped the following seeds, Bubba kush and Desert diesel from HUMBOLT SEED and Blue rhino and Caramel ice from POSITRONICS SEEDS. I can only plant 3 but I’m not sure what to throw away. I know I’m using the Desert Diesel. Did you try the Bubba Kush? That is my last choice because I don't like the name.:bigjoint:
 
duudical

duudical

Well-Known Member
MuckyDucky said:
I like your Desert Diesel. It is shaped like a tree! Nice job. The CAP controller I got was refurbished and I didn’t trust it so I installed an emergency cutoff on it so if something goes wrong it can’t dump the whole res on the floor. I decided to try some strains that were more indica this time and popped the following seeds, Bubba kush and Desert diesel from HUMBOLT SEED and Blue rhino and Caramel ice from POSITRONICS SEEDS. I can only plant 3 but I’m not sure what to throw away. I know I’m using the Desert Diesel. Did you try the Bubba Kush? That is my last choice because I don't like the name.:bigjoint:
Click to expand...
Yeah...I have three flowering right now and three more waiting in veg. Here are my clones in veg

IMG_8239.JPG

And here are the three that are flowering. They are under a Mars II 900w LED. I pulled one out so you can see it under normal light. I have had nothing but positive experiences with Humboldt Seeds so far. I have only flowered the one Bubba Kush that I grew from seed and she had some issues at the end so not sure she it her true potential. But I can tell you the buds were very dense - a lot more weight than you would think by looking at the buds. One strange thing you may notice is that the pistils will go completely orange in like week 3 - never had a plant do that.

IMG_8288.jpg IMG_8289.jpg IMG_8293.jpg IMG_8292.jpg IMG_8295.jpg IMG_8296.jpg
 
MuckyDucky

MuckyDucky

Well-Known Member
07/13/14

Today I finished setting up the system and planted 3 small sprouts. I am running a very weak 400PPM solution, and the 400W MH is set over 2 feet above the little plants.

Blue Rhino
blue rhino.jpg

Bubba Kush
bubba kush.jpg

Desert Diesel
desert diesel.jpg

CAP-ready to grow.jpg
 
MuckyDucky

MuckyDucky

Well-Known Member
The seedlings have been in the pots for 3 days. All looks good so far. I have raised the PPM to 800 and lowered the lights to around 18".

Before /After pictures

Blue-Rhino.jpg bubba-kush.jpg desert-diesel.jpg
 
MuckyDucky

MuckyDucky

Well-Known Member
9 Days growth.

This system is a lot easier to manage than my dyi ebb&flow table was. I was always adding water and balancing my nutes every 2 or 3 days with the table because of evaporation. With this CAP system it has only used 1 gal of nutes in 9 days! The plants are are growing fast and look very healthy.

This is at 9 days. I have raise the PPM to 1280 @.7.... Check the previous shots for comparisons.

full-pic.jpg

blue-rhino.jpg bubba-kush.jpg desert-diesel.jpg
 
MuckyDucky

MuckyDucky

Well-Known Member
I have used my 400W for several years in my 2ft x 4ft tent which is 50w per sq ft... plenty of light IMHO. I am using an electronic 400w ballast so when I switch to flower I only have to exchange my MH bulb for an HPS. The plants are really growing fast now. I'll do an update in a few more days.

Whatcha growin Hashsmoke? ....you growin in soil or hydro?
 
HashSmoke420

HashSmoke420

Active Member
Soil, it's unmetered one from the back yard of a friend. My 400W MH has a magnetic ballast which I'm yet tweaking to my liking, it's some ancient stuff. I don't even yet have a grow tent, 'cause everything ran on me very rapidly and unexpectedly, I ended up not so prepared. Nonetheless today I'm going to build my tent!
Also, I'm doing this grow with only limited resources, but I'm most eager to also experiment a few. I'm gonna use my MH for the whole grow, I have 2 CFL's of warm white which I'm going to adapt into the grow tent to boost some when flowering is done and I'm going to perhaps get an additional UV light supplier. I want to push the limits on quality of the material. Also prove for myself and anyone else who is on the same endeavor as me, whether UV light really increases potency or not.

I'm growing a very interesting not feminized varieties, it's Blueberry x Lemon Haze x Skunk 1 - 2 plants, 5 plants Sour Diesel and 3 unknown strains, so far they grow good and look as just as any other weed, but I got these from a real hard dope, so hoping for something great! They all are mostly Sativa dominant.

Though the BBxLHxS1 has 40 - 45 days of flowering - which is just stunning, in addition to how strong this mix appears to be. Mate, I know it ain't best of me asking this here but, should I start a grow journal? I feel very tempted, but I'm also confused about it.
 
MuckyDucky

MuckyDucky

Well-Known Member
SpaaaceCowboy said:
Those plants are McLovin' that new setup of yours ! Nice job bro !
Click to expand...
Hey yea Spaaacie! This is automation at its best. The only thing I have really had to do to them in their 18 growing days was to bump the PPM in the res up one time to maximum levels. Other than that I forget its there. So far it only used 4 gal out of my 18 gal res and the PPM and PH is staying in range. This is so much better than my dyi ebb&flo table. I was constantly adding water because of evaporation I guess, and re balancing the PPM. It has only been 4 days since my last picture post but they have really grown. I will update again soon.
 
MuckyDucky

MuckyDucky

Well-Known Member
HashSmoke420 said:
Soil, it's unmetered one from the back yard of a friend. My 400W MH has a magnetic ballast which I'm yet tweaking to my liking, it's some ancient stuff. I don't even yet have a grow tent, 'cause everything ran on me very rapidly and unexpectedly, I ended up not so prepared. Nonetheless today I'm going to build my tent!
Also, I'm doing this grow with only limited resources, but I'm most eager to also experiment a few. I'm gonna use my MH for the whole grow, I have 2 CFL's of warm white which I'm going to adapt into the grow tent to boost some when flowering is done and I'm going to perhaps get an additional UV light supplier. I want to push the limits on quality of the material. Also prove for myself and anyone else who is on the same endeavor as me, whether UV light really increases potency or not.

I'm growing a very interesting not feminized varieties, it's Blueberry x Lemon Haze x Skunk 1 - 2 plants, 5 plants Sour Diesel and 3 unknown strains, so far they grow good and look as just as any other weed, but I got these from a real hard dope, so hoping for something great! They all are mostly Sativa dominant.

Though the BBxLHxS1 has 40 - 45 days of flowering - which is just stunning, in addition to how strong this mix appears to be. Mate, I know it ain't best of me asking this here but, should I start a grow journal? I feel very tempted, but I'm also confused about it.
Click to expand...
Hi Hashsmoke. I have never tried using a MH in flower but I'm sure having some warm cfl's mixed in would be helpful. You may want to check out SpaaaceCowboys grow, https://www.rollitup.org/t/c99-power-flower-voyage-ii-of-the-space-cab.833265/page-3. He has been working with cfls and has been doing a lot of dyi building.
In the past I have always tried to grow sativa dom strains but this time I decided to use use up some of the indica freebe seed I had laying around.... seems like everyone prefers sativa... I wonder why so many indica dom strains are produced... Oh well, too much thinking hurts my head. I need another toke.
 
SeedHo

SeedHo

Well-Known Member
mucky which lucas formula are you using?
i like the setup........what size are the buckets 3 or 5 gallon.
 
HashSmoke420

HashSmoke420

Active Member
MuckyDucky, I got these from a friend, I think the three unknown plants I'm growing are indica dominant, they keep very compact comparing to my others. I guess it's the world's influence of Sativa high-heads in comparison to couch-lockers. And yeah, I'm hoping to have some spare buck to perhaps advance with a 400w HPS, in conjunction with the MH and 2 CLFs and perhaps some UV light for this grow or the next grows certainly I would make some killer bud!

I just fixed up my light, so I feel like making a grow journal myself. :) I'll make sure to check out SpaaceCowboy's grow too!
 
MuckyDucky

MuckyDucky

Well-Known Member
SeedHo said:
mucky which lucas formula are you using?
i like the setup........what size are the buckets 3 or 5 gallon.
Click to expand...
Hey there SeedHo! Thanks for stopping by! I am using the 3 gal CAP buckets with a refurb CAP controller I picked up on the cheap. For my setup 5 gal buckets in a 2x4' tent with a 400w hps would have been overkill. I am going to top the plants later to even out the canopy and maximize my lighting.

For the nutes I will be using 8 part GH micro and 16 parts GH Bloom throughout the grow. When I switch to flower I plan to add 10 parts of GH Cool Bloom to the mix. I will keep my total PPM around 1325 @.7 but it can fluctuate up to 1420 or so. You noticed I used the term part instead of ML . I use a calculator to determine the exact amount but the ratio will always be 8 micro, 16 bloom and 10 Cool bloom.

I think I'll get off of my lazy butt and post some more pictures in a few minutes.
:bigjoint:
 
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