Experimental DIY Run

The flowering plant is about 10weeks old. The others are about 2-3weeks and one of them has just today been topped. The 2 with darker looking coco were just transplanted today, the other 2 look dry on top because they are bottom fed, just the nature of the system.

They are all various genetics, im not 100% sure whats what, like I said these are being grown simple to test the efficacy of the system. Some are ethos, some are twenty20, some may be others who knows.

All of the plants except 1 are currently on wicking bases, and the last one will get one tomorrow. As I receive my parts in the mail I will begin work on the auto refill system and I will continue to update this as I do.

A quick note, the flowering plant looks a little clawed right now cause silly me poured some solution from the top before I left for the weekend to make sure it wouldn't dry out... bottom watering guys know thats a no no. Live and learn I guess. It wasn't too bad and I've simply reduced the feed for a little while until it can chew through it. Its getting 55-70k lux depending where you measure and is currently being fed 500ppm solution.

The ones in veg have been in suboptimal conditions, but they are doing much better now that ive got them transplanted and in the veg tent. Expect all 4 to show some awesome growth over the next few weeks!

I have built the water level control box (manifold). I will of course have to make the outlet(s), alas, I am still waiting on my grommets to finish the job. I have assembled the float valve and inlet shutoff, and tested the functionality under pressure. No leaks, works as expected. I will have to fine tune the float height once I have the grommets to see how high my hole placement will have to be.

Plants are doing fine, big girl is still trying to chew through that accidental overdose. Fed plain water yesterday to lower the concentration at the root zone, may do that again tomorrow if it hasn't stopped clawing.

Veg tent is doing its thing, one of the transplants isn't very happy but it'll get over it.

Side note and question for those that care to respond, any experience with mono potassium phosphate, mkp? I have been using jacks 321 full cycles and I know there are many others who do that as well, however I feel its too nitrogen heavy for flower. Bonus points if you know anything about using it in conjunction with jacks. I have a pretty solid plan, just wanna see how others use it!

No plant pics today, but I got my parts and finished phase 1 of the build. Maiden voyage worked out as expected, no leaks. Water travels to the base perfectly and stops at the level designated by the float valve.

Today is water only to try and lower the nute concentration at the root zone due to a watering oopsie. Tomorrow I'm starting back with jacks and MKP at approx 1.5ec.

I will be keeping the setup like this until the current plant finishes, then I will be adding 3 more bases for when I transition the 4 that I currently have in veg to the flower tent. Now that the manifold is done, adding extra pots should be a simple matter.

System has been working perfectly, no leaks at all and the base stays constantly filled. Next step will be to add 3 more bases when the 4 that are currently in veg are ready to flip.

Flowering plant is in the middle of week 4. She had a post stretch flush, which is why some of the leaves show slight deficiency. Right now she's getting a 1.5ec solution of jacks 321+MKP.

The plants in veg were all started at different times, but will be getting flipped together. The 2 smallest ones are recovering from transplant shock (and unbuffered coco, my bad there) the middle child was topped a few days ago, though one branch seems to be quite obviously outpacing the other. I guess we will see how that turns out. The largest one is growing exactly as expected, and was just topped for the second time and trained sideways today. Whe will be the largest one for sure and will likely get half of the bloom tent to herself. They are all getting jacks 321 at 1.1ec

Both tents are currently around 78F and 55-60rh during the day, with the flower tent having cooler night temps. (Veg are on 24/0)

I will eventually be making a second autofill rig for the veg tent, but that isn't as much of a priority because they drink much slower and they are easier to move around.

I have updated the grow timeline to reflect the flowering plants dates, and this will be the last post on this journal to include the veg plants, which will be placed on a separate journal when I next update.

The flowering plant is looking amazing, still seeing a bit of deficiency signs from the flush I had to do but otherwise the buds are stacking a a few pistils have turned orange. Nice and frosty and starting to put on weight.

Begging plants are doing good, the older one especially. The 2 recent transplants have finally quit bitchin and are showing some good growth now. The small one that was recently topped is growing well, but is favoring one side and seems to have a bit of mutation going on. Im not worried about it as these plants will be plenty big enough to fill a 4x8 by the time the other is finished.

Since I added the dates retroactively the age calculation is wrong. The plant is middle of week 5 of flower, and is looking like another 4 to 5 weeks at least before it will be finished.

The buds are swelling nicely, and the pistils are starting to turn orange.

Some leaves show a little deficiency, but that's likely from when I flushed a few weeks ago and reset the medium ec. It is now being fed a 1.6ec mix of jacks 321 with some mkp as a bloom booster.

65k lux at the highest, 35k at the lowest. 77F, 60rh

She's getting 1.45ec 6.0 ph, jacks 321 + mkp. 78f, 55rh. 65k lux+ at tops, ~35k at bottoms.

System has been phenomenal, can't wait to drop the next 4 plants into it.

She smells like dank fruit in the room, sour skittles on stem rub.

Can't wait to see how she bulks over the next week or two.

Buds are swelling nicely and pretty dang frosty. Super excited to see how this run turns out, almost more excited to get the next ones set up!

I wanted to add, and compare, the cost of materials for building this system vs something like autopot.

To start, just the materials for the actively used system seen in this log;
20gal Tote $20
25' 3/8 tubing $15
4x wicking bases $30
Plastic ammo box $8
25 pack of grommets $14
4 pack Inline valves $8
4pack stainless filters $8
6pack 3/8 barb tees $9
2pack float valves $10
3/8 sharkbite > 1/2npt $5
6pk ac inf fabric pots $25
Total: $152

This is for the parts to build a 4 plant system with extra bits and pieces. For about another 100, maybe less, you could add an additional 4 plant system to have 1 for veg and 1 for bloom, which is what I'm doing long term. 2 separate reservoirs, 8 total plant sites. All fully automatic, just fill the reservoir and monitor.

In comparison, for the 4 plant autopot geopot setup, its $300 for the 13gal res, and $320 for the 25gal res version. With that you get 1 res, and 4 plant bases with 4 fabric pots, and just enough tubing to piss you off. To have a comparable system from auto pots with 2 res and 8 plant sites, you'd have to spend easily $600+, and for what is in my opinion an inferior system in the first place.

So there you have it, about $250 total, possibly less vs $600 or more for a similar setup. At this point I'm going to go ahead and label the concept as proven haha.

She's right on track. Still swelling up a little but should be just about ready to start ripening. I have reduced the ec of the res to 1.0 to allow the accumulated salts in the medium to naturally reduce over time. Starting tomorrow, I will be dialing the light back by 5% each day, until I get to about 35-40k lux throughout the canopy.

Sitting at 77f and 51% during the day. The goal is to have the temp down closer to 74 in the day by the final week, dropping even further to 70-72 for the final days to preserve terps.

Things are going well, plant is right on track and should be ready for harvest within the next week to week and a half.

Everything has gone right according to plan, ec still low, light tapered down to 40k lux, tenp down to 73-74ish, and humidity im working on but its sitting between 50-60% right now. Plenty of airflow and checking trichromes every few days.

The only thing that went wrong over the last week is that my light dimmer quit working. I checked my plant the other day and the light was way dimmer than it should have been, and it seemed as though the uper 50% of the power was crammed into the last 10% of of the knob. I found a sweet spot at about 95% that allowed me to temporarily keep it at 40k, but have just today replaced the dimmer knob entirely and it is working great so far.

Sorry about the late update, I chopped almost a week ago. Included are pictures of my ac infinity chart showing an hour of time on the 30th. As you can see the temp is super tight, and the humidity max is a little high, but its not a concern. Looking at the histogram those high peaks are only comprising about 5-10% of the day while the majority of the day is spent basically 61/61. Also the humidity was higher first coupla days. Its evened out and my current low has dropped to 59 (for both) and is more consistent. I know the chart looks like crazy ups and downs but keep in mind the difference between the highest and lowest point is just a few degrees. The picture of the little untrimmed nug in my hand is from today. Its been about 6 days from cut, so I snagged a baby nugget as a sample. Smells awesome but I know its still so fresh that its not gonna translate yet. Waiting is one of the hardest parts!