Hey Everyone!
The plants begin week 3 of Flower tomorrow and are looking great.
I have been defoliating like crazy for weeks, but they keep packing on the leaves. I'm just starting to see more stretch and the hints of bud formation, as these are all around 10 week flowering strains.
They've been fully on double strength week 6 GH trio mix going in at 2 gallons a day trying to keep my PPM in the 700's. They are drinking and eating like crazy with no signs of deficiencies or nutrient burn and my PH drifts up barely a tenth each week. I'm very happy with the growth although l'm itchy to see more bud formation.
I've had no issues with root clogs and I made a somewhat sloppy, but effective fix for the ripping net pot that will prevent it from falling through.
I'm really happy with how this grow is progressing and can't wait to use these buckets for a nice 8+week veg and then flower monsters in the new setup. This system will easily fill up my 4x8 Tent over the flowering period of my 8x8 tent giving me a nice harvest every 2 and a half months or so. I'm also really interested in running some of my favorite auto strains simulateously at some point.
I also revised my 27 gallon Totes design using everyones' advice and picked up most of the supplies needed for it as well. I removed several of the elbows in the piping and decided to build a little kneeling platform over the piping in my way. I also lengthened the pipe headed to the main circulation pump considerably. Considering how much water the plants are consuming at this size, I've decided to add a large external fill tank with a float valve that will sit above the control rez so it's more hands off.
I'm also considering picking up a few more lights. I built a bunch more of DIY 7 Bulb fixtures using 3000k 14watt household LED bulbs, but I'm thinking I might need a bit more power due to the lower effiency of these over the LM301B boards.
Measuring the planned grow space in CAD calls for 1236watts at 30watts/sqft. Between my 4 QBs at max and my DIY Fixtures I'll be about 1500watts. I kinda feel like it would be better to have more and run the QBs at a lower setting, but I'm not sure I want to commit to more garden expenses yet.
Thanks for following along!