3rd run, 8 plant mom hunt - indoor top fed DTW with rockwool
learninforburnin PRO
Grow Timeline (37 updates)
today I put together these reservoirs with a 3.5 inch pvc pipe via some bulk head fittings. I used a 600 pound clamp to get it through the second container. While it was a PITA, it means I won't need to get under the table this round. I plan to wrap the res in insulation foil tape to block the light, and may add a chiller on an angle bracket shelve above the reservoirs. We shall see!
for now, now that I can recirculate the table and system and then drain to waste, I am cleaning ahead of gathering the last needed materials and starting my beans. we are starting with a vinegar solution flush/scrub. I'll then drain, replace with a water flush for 1-2 rounds. then it will be type for hydrogen peroxide solution, then water flush as needed to clear. from there I will prep the room by conditioning the environment for the seedlings. for there, full speed ahead!
over the past few days I have set up a new light, calibrated and mounted the bluelabs guardian, and started testing room controls and their effect on the res in its new configuration.
Later this evening I will drop the water currently in the res to 5.5 PH to be used to start our seeds soaking, as well as to some expirements to determine water capacity and initial water times for the 4x4 cubes, slabs, and possibly 3 gal pots.
For now, everything is resting/ warming up as we get the room up to temperature and see how our res takes the heat. the equipment for the seedlings is warming up as well. So far all is on track. Stay tuned!
1st seedling looks super happy. I am preparing to swap the current plain ph water solution with a 15-20% solution of my veg regimen. the 4x4 cubes are ready for traplant, and our second seed still has yet to come up. we are one day or so away from transplant at this point, so if the second doesn't come up we will swap it with a clone from a friend. apart from that, so far so good. gotta love watching the seedlings sprout their first full leaves
today we gave 200ml or so of the last 1/4 strength solution, and mixed the 1/2 strength res in preparation for the next feeding in a day or two. once we see roots just peeking through the bottom of the cube we will up pot into the 3 gal and get the automated watering going
the kosher cookies seedling seems to be loving the new pot. it's really started to take off. we have fed the same formula as as our last update, and are now starting the automated watering at approximately 1500ml per day across 8 irrigation periods. I'm going to let this run as is for the next few days to see how everything goes, adjusting only the light and ph if necessary. I also started very light training by tucking the fan leaves a bit to expose the nodes inside to encourage some early bushing. we'll see how she goes!
howβs it going any updates?
new update is finally up! got a little distracted with unrelated stuff but we are back on track
πͺ nice!
as of tonight we are swapping to 65% solution. I have also tweaked the solution to give a bit more cal/mag and less nitrogen as I was having some toxicity issues. apart from that I have continued my top bending (without tieing it down) and the side branches have just about caught up to the top, so I tied the top down tonight.
we also did a bit of light defoliation on the inside of the canopy to let the nodes get light. the plan is to veg another 1-3 week while taking some of the inner nodes as clones, then flowering out.
BTW, for the curious, here is the updated regimen:
it ends up 1.4ec, 5.8ph for my tap with ~40gal water
[ ] Armor si .25 teaspoon a gal: 100ml, 1/2 strength
[ ] Jacks part A: 2.34-2.85g a gal, 93.6g 2.34, 114g 2.85g
[ ] Epsom salt: 1.04g a gal, 41.6g
[ ] Jacks Part b: 1.09g a gal 43.6g
[ ] Calimagic: 1.82-2 08ml/g so 72.8ml @ 1.82 and 83.2ml@ 2.08ml
[ ] Cannazym: 12fl oz
[ ] Vitamino: 4ml gal rec, 160ml
[ ] Hydroguard: 2ml/gal 80ml
* photos taken after a leaf tucking and flush. I'll try to post another set in a day or two to share how it all goes
dam i would hit those with a living tea
I hear ya. I am interested in starting to work with more foliars and teas but haven't dipped my toes in yet. I'll have to hit the books
pretty good video : https://youtu.be/whE2F72P8Tg?si=TRFIhlq9MleCLkpX
thankya! I appreciate it. I'll check this out
π teas are where itβs at for sure. happy growing!
any tea βοΈ recommendations?
you can build your own wich takes a few things and ends up being costly..i run Worm castings,organic compost,fish emoulsion,kelp,rock dust,mycos,if you have oaks trees arround dig 4 inches past the compost layer and you should see a white webbing thats mycilum i add a couple hand fulls.depending on bud ir veg a run some bat high nitrogen for bud or high phosurus for nug..then u need add all that to a mesh bag and brew it in a garbage can with an fish stone for 2 to 3 days..the easyiest way for a begginer is grab some vital tea mix..they even sell a small brewing kit..makes shit simpke
thankya much! I appreciate you dropping this knowledge. time for me to find a tote/garbage can and get this rolling!
no problem..personally ive been running teas for 20 years...i make large batches so i use a bigger air pump..but oxygen imporatnt to makeing the tea living..the bigger the air pump the better...if the water temp is more of bot supper cold it will brew quicker as well.
look up living organism teas for plants and get the idea of what teas do for you..i use them to feed by adding,bats,seabird, fish guanos and stuff like that..
nice
the photos include a before and after of the training today, and the current stem thickness
all i did today was tuck the large fan leaves back under the new growth, and lightly bend the new growth away from the center of the plant in all directions. I also lightly supercropped the main stem and bit above and below where the tie is currently holding the level.
apart from that I it is looking like it really likes the adjusted regiment so I'm going to let it rock as it within a range of 5.8-6.2ph for the next few days. here's to hoping she keeps taking off and I can take clones in the next few days.
the road map is roughly as follows:
- in a few days to a week or so we'll take clones by cleaning the plant up once it hits the level for the first net
- well then continue to train into the first net for 1-2 weeks or so, then flip. taking new clones in the middle and lengthening the veg if needed based on growth/ plant health.
cheers!
today I just went in to adjust the res ph back to 5.9 from 6.3, re train the plant, and record the 2nd day of reaction to the new formula. I can say without a doubt this is the happiest I have ever seen this plant. can't wait to see what this week brings! so far I'll keep this regimen until I adjust it from 65% to 85% feed next feeding. to also keep with the road map from the last update, I will also be bringing the ppfd up. today we went from 400 to 500. I'll closely monitor it throughout the day to see if we get too much light stress. that said, the goal is to shoot for enough ppfd to hit 40dli or so by the end of veg. late veg I'm hoping to hit 50. fingers crossed...
to getchya up to current, the plant has been very happy following the nutrient regimen change last weekend. Two days ago i removed some of the fan leaves blocking new nodes, and was possibly a bit overzealous. I'm happy with the state of the inside of the canopy, but feel I could have left the large fans on the outer perimeter. apart from that I have performed the usual lst-ish training with some light supecropping one a day, then left it alone. i also brought the light strength down slightly, after noticing some light stress the first "morning" after defol.
apart from that, we increased the watering today and will check in later to see how it goes. I am also considering raising the feed rate a bit early. we'll see how she looks tomorrow or the next day to be sure
I have included some before and after photos. she seemed to like the 85% solution just fine, so I performed my defoliation (taking all interior canopy leaves below growing nodes with their own leaves, leaving some on the far outside edge) , supercropping (more extreme today, mostly down every arm and more on the main stem, then tied the main stem more), and lst bends today. apart from that, trying to start raising vpd slowly from .9-1kpa to 1.1-1.4kpa.
looks great
thankya very much!!
today's changes:
cut some clones, then cleaned up the rest of the excess foliage and node growth in a bit of a more aggressive defoliation. the goal was to focus the growth on the newly exposed inner nodes i n the open space, to encourage those to grow out as introduce a net and keep lst training into a scrog
we are trying the one part clone feed from jacks, at 6g ish into a 4 gallon mix. we'll see how they go!
nice π
Hola! not much of an update today. Just wanted to log that we introduced the net, and have loved the canopy around it as of two days ago. she seems to be taking to it well. we have mostly left her alone, just moving the tops a bit as needed. the goal now is to keep everything happy for the next week or so, tucking to fill out the net just a bit more. then we will defol/take clones and flip to flower. exciting times!
today we are taking a few more clones. apart from that we re tucked the growth bending and lightly supercropping to move everything throughout the net. so far I'll am still thinking one more week or so of veg before flip, but time will tell.
this is my first grow with scrog..have any tips?
Hola! sure thing. i just checked out your last few posts. your plant looks really happy! the structure looks great too. my 2c below: personally, I would have flipped yesterday so to speak. it looks like your net is very full, which can make it more difficult to move/ weave the branches around through the first few weeks of stretch. I would also recommend cleaning up everything from the top of the soil/ grow medium up to the net. I personally like to clean up all the way to the top of each flower site (I'll post an update in about 1hr showing what I mean, I just did this 2 nights ago and I'm going to flip tonight), leaving some main fan leaves but trying to eliminate any growth below the full top of the canopy before flower. I would recommend doing this over a period of time instead of all at once if possible. Ideally maybe a max of 30% of the plant at once, then letting it rest for a day or so before more high stress training. I like to try to time it with the flip so by the time you want to go all is cleaned up. generally you need to clean up again week 3-4 of flower, and maybe again before the end. you'll find that varies with your preference and plants themselves. all that said, best of luck with your grow! I'll keep an eye out for it on the logs!
today we are flipping to flower. it's been a few days since the major cleanup, and everything has been really happy. this update part includes the before photos, and some photos showing the defoliation amount/ underside, and the clones taken a little while back. next update part will be the water swap, and aftert the lst, light supercropping, and re sorting in the net. clones are definitely in need of some love, but have all rooted! the two creme of white seeds sprouted as well!
update, turns out I cannot post twice in one day. I will post again tomorrow to add the training pics from today. I have also turned out the lights, and will turn them back on after about 24hrs of darkness to head into flower!
today I prepped a 27gal tote to Soak the rockwool for the creme of white seedlings and kosher cookies clones with a 5.6ph .9 ec solution that is actually super close to my transitional feeding. they each moved to a new 1 gallon pot, filling the veg tent out nicely! after that I tucked a ton of the major fans on the flowering mother plant, and will otherwise leave it alone. we are definitely seeing a start to the stretch, and some small signs of sex. so far so good!
Shes def coming along.looking good π
Thankya Caperrob!! I'll keep the updates coming
today we cleaned up more underneath the net, re sorted the upper side, replaced the nutrient solution matching the transition feed for a second week, lowered the light 6inch and then adjusted to 775ish ppfd across the canopy. i must admit i don't like removing so much this early, but it was necessary to stop creating moisture pockets and it wouldn't get light anymore so it had to go. we'll see how everything looks tomorrow!
everything was looking great today! all I needed to do was pull down and move todays tallest branches, leave tuck, and check the light strength. they Grew up tall enough to get over 850ppfd last night! i have since adjusted and got it back down and bit for this stretch phase after the tucking/ work today lol. that said, so far so good! I'll keep leave tucking, trying to avoid arm moving unless necessary as we move through week 2. I am hoping we get another week or so of stretch but time will tell
the pics today are before and afters of the training, and a farther away shot
today we made a diluted feed for the seedlings and clones, and fed them. then we tucked the leaves again, but no moving branches today. all was pretty even! apart from that. tons of early flower growth has popped up throughout the canopy!
This plant gets 6.00ph 1.9ec at about 2,800ml a day (of the transitional feed posted in another post). I just lowered the light down to 750ppfd after finding some light stress. Apart from that, really happy with the stacking so far, just trying to keep the vpd right and humidity in check until it gets a bit easier after the defoliation later this week. wish me luck X'D. So far so good!
ps. forgot to mention the mutation! I haven't seen anything like this in person. the "top" of this arm topped itself, seemingly twice as it appears to be growing two bud sites on the top of the wider/more flat branch. should be fun to see what happens there!
today I swapped to a more flower centric feeding. i will share it in the next update lest I hit the character limit this go around. apart from that, I cleanup the middle and and below the canopy, removing sucker branches i missed the first go around and some large fan leaves blocking sites, that survived the major defol 3 days ago. apart from that we are set to cruise into flower. I have been working my temps and humidity down to keep vpd, and will keep going that direction while giving the plant a few days to recover before doing anything much. here's to hoping it's just about time to let her rock for a few weeks so I can focus on getting the drying situation going, and taking some time to rebuild the veg tent. I may make a log for the perpetual veg tent as well as that starts. stay tuned!
* undercarriage shots color and lighting edited to help show the structure
obsessed with 2nd canopy shot π how long have you vegged for? love that training you did. πππ
thankya very much! I really appreciate that! this has been my favorite scrog so far! this plant was vegged 2 days shy of 7 weeks. for some added context i also count veg from transplant from seediling/sprout box to its first full medium. this one got a 4x4" rockwool cube for about a week, before getting up potted again into the final 3gal pot :D
oooff that is some patience I don't possess.... I get too antsy to see what pheno the flower will have lol I can't wait to see it in full flower.
I feel that! it's always so fun to see how they will be. the impatience gets to me in flower more than veg lol
They Look Esqusite. Excellent shot with the perspective also.
Thankya much! I appreciate the feedback :D
so far so good! here is the week 4 nutrient schedule as promised:
β’ Armor Si (Silica): 0.25 tsp/gal (~0.5ml/L) β Same as before - 75ml shit fed almost 100ml
β’ Jacks Part A (5-12-26): Increase to ~3.5g/gal (more PK for flower) 140g
β’ Epsom Salt (MgSOβ): Maintain at 1.36g/gal (supports terpene & resin production) 54.4g
β’ Jacks Part B (15-0-0): Reduce slightly to ~1.2g/gal (less N, prevent excess foliage) 48g
β’ CaliMagic: Slight increase to 2.5-2.8ml/gal (supports bud structure) 112ml
β’ Cannazym (Enzymes): Maintain 0.3 fl oz/gal (breaks down root waste) 12oz
β’ Vitamino (Amino Acids): Reduce to ~3ml/gal (slight decrease to match reduced nitrogen) 120ml
β’ Hydroguard: Maintain 2ml/gal (root health) 80ml
Add 140ml-150 or so ph down before mixing nutrients, so ph down then Silica, then rest for 30min-1hr, then continue
apart from that, really happy with the stacking and frost/trichome growth filling in en masses over the sugar leaves. and even some water leaves with stems! so far so good. for now, apart from another light defoliation to keep the canopy open i haven't don't much but steadily adjust the environment to bring temp and humidity down a while keeping to my goal vpd. so far so good! stay tuned. I'll through up another update in about few days as we get closer to week 5, and it's res swap. I'll be introducing a fun expirment
I noticed you're using jacks and mentioned upping A to 3.5. what was your original starting point? I always ran in at 3.79, b at 2.52, Epsom at 1.
the veg feed i ended up at this run is below. I ended up going 3.02g/gal-ish for about a week before making the heavier dose in the list at 3.22g/gal. in the first few weeks of flower i bumped to 3.4g/gal, then brought it up a bit every feeding and am now at that 3.5g/gal. iirc I'll go as high as 3.6g but stop there. this is the first time I've tried jacks this way, last time I ran slightly modified koots meds mix. well see how it goes X'D how did you like jacks BTW? 85% usual strength veg feed: [ ] Armor si .25 teaspoon a gal? .5ml per l: 76ml, 100% strength [ ] Jacks part A: 3.05-3.22g a gal, 122g 3.05, g 128.8g [ ] Epsom salt: 1.36g a gal, 54.4g [ ] Jacks Part b: 1.43g a gal 58.4g [ ] Calimagic: 2.32-2.72ml/g so 92.8ml@ 2.32 and 108.8ml@ 2.72ml [ ] Cannazym: .3fl oz a gallon 100%: 12fl oz [ ] Vitamino: 4ml gal rec, 160ml [ ] Hydroguard: 2ml/gal 80ml
I started w a small 2# bag when I was running coco drain to waste. ended up buying a 25# bag of A. 25# of b and a 20#bag of agriculture grade Epsom. so now I didn't have much choice lol. I do like it though. if you follow their feed schedule it definitely runs hot. if I recall in coco I was running 3/4 strength. in hydro about the same. I'll drop b 50-60% always started showing signs of N overload if I didn't. few times cut it out all together and just used Cal mag. 1.2-1.4 EC veg and 1.4-1.8 EC in flower is what I shoot for. I don't really push nutes too hard. veg: flower: A-3.79. A-3.79 B-2.52. B-1.25-1.5 e-1. E-1
I'm in a very similar boat lmao. I started with the tester kit thing they had, and when I needed more I grabbed the big one X'D thank you for your insight! I will give your's a shot and report back! i may knock down the ec a bit for the rest of this run... i am just about at my max feeding atm. i must admit, i'm curious to finish this out to compare against the clones, but am getting slight tip burn right now... i think I'll start the veg with the clones tonight, and see how the flowering plant does with the feed in the most recent update for ~5days before adjusting. should be interesting to see how it goes!
also forgot to add: if I may ask, what is your water like / what is the water source?
I just use city water. I have a 30 gallon bucket/tote I fill and bubbling to dissipate the chlorine. I let it sit for 2-3 days before I use it. about 150 us/Cm. I can't remember the pH of it. makes me wonder if my hydro guard is doing anything, if any of the city water treatment is still in there but I don't want to deal w RO water. just seems wasteful and I did get the hydroguard free. roots look fine as of yet. who knows.
gotchya gotchya! thankya for the reference! I'm on city as well. usually comes out at 6.8ish ph and .3ec from the tap. no chlorine here though. instead they use an alternative that is more difficult to remove so I'm kinda stuck. I still use the hydroguard and the cannazyme together either way, and haven't had issues so far (knock on wood lol)
while checking everything out today I found i may be running a bit hot. I'm going to test my current runoff, clear it out, then light flush w/ runoff test before next watering to check it out. we'll see what we find!
Looking good overall, really nice canopy π
thankya much!! i look forward to sharing more as we go along!
sweet!
so far so good! I also have to report an accidental major flush. I left the wrong pump connected to the wrong thing and ran almost 40gal of solution through the plant. The runoff today is 2.3ec 6.0ph. I replaced the solution with this feed. I may adjust it a bit further for the next one... def looking for feedback! here is the current feed:
[ ] Silica 75ml
[ ] Calimagic 112ml
[ ] Jacks a 144g
[ ] Epsom 54.4g
[ ] Jacks b 48g
[ ] Cannazyme 12fl oz
[ ] Vitamino 120ml
[ ] Hydroguard 80ml
2.0 ec or so target
unfortunately i will be unable to post for the next week or so, but I'll have some help in the meantime. the room has been prepped as best possible. in the meantime, the plants look great. the flowering plant is continuing to bulk, and looks happier after the watering adjustment following the mistake last week. the clones and seedlings also look very happy with the new feeding mix from @Glitch ! woot woot!
π I'm jealous of your canopy!!!!
what he said ^ lol π π
thankya both!! so far so good!!
overall I came back to a happy plant, though runoff ph is still lower than i would like. I will continue slowly bringing my feed up to try to drive this... but am worried about bringing it up too quickly. apart from that i also noticed some clawing in the undercanopy, but it's not super consistent. after looking through the upper canopy more I am thinking maybe some light stress? to test, I will lower the light from the current 770-880ppfd range (from lower canopy to tops) to maybe a max of like 790-800 and check back after a few days!
there were not too many changes today, I'm waiting to change the solution till tomorrow. today I just adjusted temp and humidity goals a bit to better hit room and leaf temp/vpd targets. this is mostly an excuse to start posting nugshots lmao. things are looking frosty!
excuse me sir, I think you spilled your sugar on your plants while you were taking pictures....... π how she smelling?
rofl, I'll have to set up a camera to catch the culprit X'D. could be a jekyll and Hyde situation lmao. smells are very sweet dank lemon ish gassy!
decided to celebrate cloning day with some macros. today i made more clones of this dna genetics kosher cookies plant, as well as some first clones of the cream of white bag seed. can't wait to flip one of those and see what we have lol.
apart from that, I did a nutrient swap for the flowering plant, hitting 6.29ph and 1.7ec for the feed this round. I also picked up a couple of toys... one is a surprise for later. the first one blew my mind though. til vpd thermometers exist!
also loving the trichomes on this girl so far! @ Glitch i think i found who's been putting the sugar on lmao
can't wait to see the surprise toy!!! is it a vacuum to clean up the sugar you keep spilling? π
rofl, that would be a wild new solventless method wouldnt it? that said, i cant kill the suspense yet lol. surprise toy will be revealed in a week or two as well closer to the week 8/9 (projected) chop though, stay tuned π€π§ββοΈ
chainsaw!!!!!! I knew I should have went with my gut. I was gonna guess that the first time. good grab, you're gonna need it for them thick ladies π
Hola! here we are breaking into week 7! the flowering plant has been going very well, and the ph adjustment seems to be making a difference
in the land of the clones/ veg plants i found a few spots that kinda look like sepitora so I'm going to neem everything tonight. apart from that they are looking great (I only found three leaves in the tent, here's to hoping i can get ahead of it). all that said, here are some macros, nugshots, and canopy shots i took during this evenings checkup!
nicely done
Thankya much @Pauliephonic !!
all jokes aside I'm excited to say I'm going to start integrating pulse equipment into my grow. i have a few more sensors to hook up, but so far have got both the tent and flower running, as well as all sensors calibrated to the pulse equipment. while i wait for the ec sensor, I'm in the process of learning more about the opensprinkler and pulse systems, figuring out if i want to add any other sensors, diving thrown the rabbit hole that is more complete data driven irrigation, and working with the current data and equipment to adjust my system. it's such a blast diving into this, I'm sure it will help the next few weeks go by lol. apart from that enjoy the nugshots and stay tuned! also for the curious, this was not the aforementioned harvest time toy.... that's still coming!
so far so good. we have continued to slowly lower temp and humidity. I have also been fitzing with the watering amounts and timings to bring in more dryback while keeping safe tvwc. I think i need to move my sensor though... I max out at like 47% and tvwc and I can't tell if I have bad placement or my rockwool was heavily affected by previous overly aggressive dryback... apart from that she is getting her last day or so of the week 7 feed before I dilute it down a bit for week 8. I'll also start lowering the ppfd/ light to help lower temps more and signal the end starting in a few days. gradually tapering to like 750 or so by end of next week
over the past few days I have continued to lower the temps and maintain 40-35% humidity to keep my vpd target. I've also started bringing the light down slowly from ~850ppfd to ~750ppfd. nutrient and ph wise, I diluted my remaining feed (topping off epsom cannayme hydrogaurd in the solution) to make a 1.3 ec 6.3-6.4ph solution for week 8 to start dripping the nutrients slowly as well. so far so good! we are now in the home stretch. I can find a handful of amber, with mostly cloudy and a small amount of clear heads. here's to hoping 1-2 more weeks for a more ideal 10-15% maybe 20% amber
about a day ago, through the night and very early morning I chopped my flowering kosher cookies plant. I broke her down, wet trimmed each branch, and bucked down to run her through the new toy, a Cannatrol!
I'm really excited to run this thing. we'll see how it goes! I did a function test with the nug I pulled a few weeks ago and it went great, so to expirement a little bit I plugged in some 10 day dry/cure settings I found through U/Riest (present on reddit and some other growing forums). this breaks down to 5 days to dry down, and 5 more to cure down slowly to jar/long term stable. I look forward to sharing how it goes! I'll check in a few days on this one
stay tuned also for a new log documenting the change to opensprinkler and pulse sensor controlled drip irrigation, and the next run of 4 kosher cookies clones! I plan to share my journey learning environmental and irrigation crop steering, and adjusting to a more synganic regimen! exciting times folks!
Congrats on the pull. Also, thanks for sharing. This is awesome!
happy to share! it's been a blast doing so, and meeting so many awesome people here. thankya for your support through this! I'll keep the updates coming!
π
just to check in, the dry down has been going well. so far so good! we are almost through the initial dry and ready for a longer cure. sometime tomorrow I will be transferring all flower from the trays into hemp/paper bag to store and continue to cure inside the cool cure for the next few weeks. I may also have to break out my old cam, I am struggling to get a decent photo of this flower with the phone cam...
all that said, initial squish and smoke tests are pointing towards an epic finish! we'll be wrapping this one up in the next few days.
lookin tasty π
so far so good on that front! I temps are gassy, Lemon peel, and fruit candy!
hell ya!
thankya!
that's a pretty nice diy setup for a flood and drain setup. I am deciding between a 5x5 or 4x8 for my next tent. I am really leaning towards a couple of flood and drain tables in whichever I choose to finally purchase. Just gotta wait for the wife and MIL to finish going through 50 years of collections down in the basement. my garage is too cramped already with a 2x4 and all my tools for car tinkering and whatnot... Any advice you can lend on that diy setup would be awesome! π
thankya Sir! it's been an interesting adventure! Best of luck with getting your project rolling, it sounds like it will be a blast! I gotta say though, so far i have only used the table for true flood and drain style runs twice. I then switched to drip to expirement. I've since been rolling around a plan to switch back and run a nft/flood and drain hybrid kind of thing but we'll get to that later lol in the end, I ended up sticking with 4x4 growdan rockwool cubes through to harvest, with 6 plants to the table, and ended up with some good 3ish ft tall plants and with a solid amount of flower after 2wk veg, 8 wk flower. i did experience budrot for the first time in some, and lost maybe an 8th of the crop due to my poor humidity control but overall I would do it again now for sure. i ran pretty low ec feed, 7 feeds a day at peak with one at night (due to timer limits, night was for dryback control) maxing at like 1.6ec, 5.8-6.5ph, no added c02, light mix shown set to about 600-800ppfd, nothing too crazy. I used a 40gal res for my 4x4 table, and that would usually give me enough water to feed the plants for 1-2wk before the water level dropped to low to fill. I would also need to top off and re pH to avoid concentration and major drift due to the recirculation between the res and the table. I would do that for a week or so and then replace the solution. In hindsight I should/could have learned too of solution making then, and maybe that would be better. YMMV PT 1
overall I would say if switching to flood and drain / hydro i would recommend: - plan your drain first. Ideally something scalable with check and ball valves and a good slope so you can easily flush and clean. also include emergency water removal. I've dumped 10's of gallons at a time in my space (10x13 room ish) and it sucks every time - if you water more often for more, you may need lower ec. Opposite is also true - prepare for res fluxation. Getting a range of ph is good, but getting too far outside our range could be bad just like our other mediums, only your plant and mediun will react to change much faster. While I haven't added a ph down dripper yet I've been tempted ... that said, if you can data log your ph and ec (and ideally also volume, at least with a mark line) in a recirculating system it will give you invaluable info about how your plants are feeding/ drinking so you can react as needed. - oxygenated and mix your res. A small pump is perfect for circulation, and won't add much heat. I would add 2-4 airstones depending on size to a 40gal, more air for larger. - prepare for extra humidity, possibly overall and in large spikes when flooding the table. may also need more AC due to the dehu. same game as usual we are just adding alot more water lol PT 2
- If your water temps get much above 74f you may have issues. I have had as high as 80 for short periods without issues but it's kinda scary so I may add a chiller lol. Ideally active temp control would be best do you can keep it safe and healthy, with more oxygen, and lower it more during the last few weeks if you want more cold stress. Only downside being more hardware making more heat - choose your media (and size) for dryback control and root stress potential. great possibilities on these fronts with flood and drain. Alternatively you can also get larger rootmass and larger pots, just work longer drybacks if needed - carefully with the dryback too too far though if using rockwool. It can become hydrophobic and channel again and it's difficult or impossible to get it back up to full water content after that - I would recommend fixing panda film over the table with cross cuts to place your blocks, and flaps to allow maintenance access. This traps humidity and blocks light allowing your roots to grow out over the table over time Pt 3
While I haven't tried larger tables myself I would look into older forums and maybe newer ones like furure4200 (commercial focused) for possible insight into the res sizes others use at your table size This channel has a wealth of knowledge on this style of grow: https://youtu.be/UxB3TJtngN4?si=8KQaWs_Xz9el7yrj . Not too many videos, but they pack alot of detail, I've learned alot, and will try their method again at some point I have for sure missed stuff here. There is so much to this process lol. That said, I hope these help, and I look forward to checking out your project! PT 4
Super sorry for the delay... I have been doing a lot of thinking on the Flood and Drain project. I will definitely be staying with soil, as that's my thing, I really love playing in the dirt π€ͺ I was thinking like a 2x4.5 or 5 maybe x 3 in a 5x10 tent. I did some measuring with the space I am looking at while my friend was looking at a possible hidden entrance, for the nostalgia/cool factor. I am looking at a 12x18ish room when all is said and done. Floor drain with sump pump in the corner for basement peace of mind and oopsies, and a laundry sink with an RO setup on it, until we get the whole house setup done. We plan on adding rainwater catchment for the outdoor gardens, and it's a real possibility to run a tap down to the basement as the corner my room will be in is also the side of the house that the rainwater catchment will be hidden. I saw on one of the cana grow shows on YouTube with a commercial facility out in maybe Nevada or Arizona with the soil Flood and Drain tables. I really wish I could find that episode ..
no worries! your plan sounds well thought out! definitely have the right pieces in place for an epic start!!