Can Air Pumps be Replaced and Other Cool Ideas to Supercharge Your Hydro Grow

PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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Just 7 days from last pics BOOM

Been using a scope on the little gal hiding behind the big girl. She's got about 5% dark trichs, so a couple more days at most

Changed nutes out earlier today

The clones were only getting EH veg nutes ~ 450ppm, now getting Emerald Harvest Bloom Nutes, as was/is the big girl and shorty in the back. Unfortunately, the clones were taken too late and started budding
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PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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Grow Lighting Masterclass with Professor Erik Runkle of Michigan State University = GREEN IS GOOD
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•Dec 21, 2019

 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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I harvested the small donkey dick plant at lights out last night

The big girl is taking her sweet time to finish. I check her every day with a scope

3 clones doing really well, but all 3 have only single blade leafs

I changed the clones nutes this morning
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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I chopped the big plant 2 days ago and began breaking down the SWC (shallow water culture) set up for my DIY F & D, which makes monitoring the rez a million times easier.

One of the main lessons I learned from this F & D DIY set up is I never should have put the F & D plug on the side the totes, but I did so in order to simplify the feed side, not realizing how much of the nutes stays in the totes (hense the steep tilt angle). The Oxygen Pots I will be replacing these with might still allow for bottom feed and drain due to the bottom of the pots being recessed, BUT, they are much taller, though I expect to figure that out so that the Oxygen Pots sit on the floor

See GrowAce if you are interested
 

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PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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Within 24 hours of transferring from the SWC to the F & D, the biggest plant, with largest root system wilted like a mofo. The roots were lying on the rocks but not getting sufficient nutrients even though I was flooding every hour. I pushed the rocks to the sides in order to create a cupped area and moved the roots to it, but they were really dried out.

I decided to switch places with the smallest clone which was in the coffee container (mini bubbler) in between the 2 totes. It was not doing well, so I decided to add a small amount of NPK RAW Aminos and NPK Enzymes (have both on hand) and crossed my fingers. She did not respond before lights out, but the next morning she had perked up ~ 90%!

With that success noted, I just added both to the F & D rez
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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The roots on solo plant that wilted are too tough, not making root hairs, so I decided to chop the crap out of them, hoping to force new root growth. Of course this caused the whole plant to wilt. And it may not recover, but it wasn't doing anything anyway, so...

Plants are fine, but not growing, so I replaced the flower nutes with V + B nutes + Silica + Zone (also need to add some Enzymes and/or NPK RAW veg Microbes)

Today's task: Making a rack for the totes to sit on, with open space so I can use the new totes which have feed/drain plug on the bottom. Unfortunately, these totes only have one flat are (in the center) so I won't be able to angle the totes for max drain

Pics later
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

Active Member
Helpful video on which uvB bulb for your grows

UV Grow light comparison | UV grow light guide | Solacure Philips Agomax

 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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Whew

Yesterday I cobbled together an open frame (using wood I had on hand) for the totes to sit on. This allowed me to move the feed/drains to the bottom. Alas, I had to put the feed/drain bulkheads in the center as that is the only flat spot in the bottom. This means some nutes will stay trapped between feeds

Today I put it back together

These totes are larger, which means the water level inside each tote is a good 1.5" lower. I have to fix that ASAP. Thinking to add 1 paver brick. Just not sure whether they will change the pH. I am soaking them in 40% H2O2 to kill any organics before inserting them. Test run perfect. Now just need to monitor pH, which I do daily anyway

The roots look good, but dryer than they should be. Yesterday, I mixed some NPK RAW kelp and veg microbes and poured them directly into the net pots of each, so the pics look like the dreaded RR, but it's not

The pic of the small net pot inside the larger is not actual, as the small net pot fits in the lid, probably 4" between them

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Skunkle Justin

Skunkle Justin

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Greenthumbskunk said:
I used a RDWC set up using a higher pressure waterfall type of setup.
I had a larger water pump and pumped water that would spray a stream of water into the 27 gal containers i was using forcefully. Wasnt a waterfall but a pentrating spray causing churning of the water. This top feed into the containers was fed back through using 3" pipe.
Worked fine for adding oxygen. Ran into 2 problems, first was the roots didnt stay bunched up in a ball like airstones and they liked to get blinto the pipes. That was just added maintence which wasnt a biggie until i was growing some 1.5lb plants and was too heavy to lift. The other which was a killer literally was where i live the power goes out quite a bit and the power went off and all my roots drowned. Ruined it. Did it again 6 months later in a ice storm ruined that grow.

Switched back over to airtones, power goes off i have some small solar panels and batteries that i use to power them. Cant do it with that big waterpump.

If u live in an area where the power never goes off then the forced pressure works really good.

Also catfish farms around here use drums that spin and the action causes oxygen to be mixed in. Just the simple action of disturbing the surface tension adds oxygen.
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If you tend to have a lot of issues with power going out with a DWC system, you can just keep the water level at about halfway up the roots. Then if the power goes out the roots can still get air like a Kratky setup. This will only work with well established plants though. Just a thought
 
Greenthumbskunk

Greenthumbskunk

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Skunkle Justin said:
If you tend to have a lot of issues with power going out with a DWC system, you can just keep the water level at about halfway up the roots. Then if the power goes out the roots can still get air like a Kratky setup. This will only work with well established plants though. Just a thought
Click to expand...

Ya ive grown several plants in the kratky method. And i did try lowering the water level down. Problem was the roots would travel down the pipes very quick.
I had 3" pipe and and would stop them up no problem.
Had 3 rows of 27 gal totes and you come in and 1 row is full to the brim..overflowing water while other 2 is dry with no water in the totes.

Thats why i went to a different system. And back to airstones again.
 
Skunkle Justin

Skunkle Justin

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Greenthumbskunk said:
Ya ive grown several plants in the kratky method. And i did try lowering the water level down. Problem was the roots would travel down the pipes very quick.
I had 3" pipe and and would stop them up no problem.
Had 3 rows of 27 gal totes and you come in and 1 row is full to the brim..overflowing water while other 2 is dry with no water in the totes.

Thats why i went to a different system. And back to airstones again.
Click to expand...
Those damn roots do get ridiculous. The only fool proof ways I can think of keeping roots at bay in a recirculating system is to keep your res or buckets MUCH bigger than the root ball by having giant ass buckets or small plants and normal buckets. I’ve been wanting to put together a double Dutch bucket system like people do in greenhouses. I’m assuming this would work for cannabis plants too and in theory it would keep roots from crawling around and clogging shit up, as well as keep your roots from drowning in a power outage. I haven’t tried that yet but I think that could work too. There’s so much I want to do “on my next run” like everyone else but never get to it. Thoughts??
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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Sorry I haven't responded...

Just when I was dialing my F & D in, I noticed the plant on the left wilting, so I lifted both lids, ran a cycle and did a comparison of flood levels into both totes. Even though the tubes are virtually identical the tote on the right was getting TWICE the nutes. Consequently, the plant on the left was suffering

I corrected this by adding in line adjustable shut off valves. But before I could fine tune the valves I rolled my ankle big time (Tuesday night past) and haven't been able to walk let alone attend to my girls. Yes alcohol was involved.

Although I will likely be on crutches for a couple more days, or longer, I was able to slightly close the valve on the right. Now the left one is 'perking' up, but... And the one on the right is plumping up

This was more to set the stage for my next grow, which will be Hindu Kush seeds

Pictures in a couple days
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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This morning I saw a YouTube video with a side by side comparing Kratky to Aero. Sorry, I didn't save the link, but you can search for it. Spoiler Alert: Aero wins big time, at least when the elec doesn't get shut off
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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Plant roots have taken to their new flood set up. What little bud there is continues to develop and smells wonderful

Today I virtually replaced 100% of the nutes, maybe shy of one quart. Anyway...

I still have sufficient Emerald Harvest Bloom 2 part + Emerald Goddess. I start with EH CaMg > Bloom 2 part >DM Silica> NPK RAW Aminos>Bloom Microbes (they offer both)> DM Zone

Here's very good video on how various spectrums affect plant development

Toward an Optimal Spectral Quality for Plant Growth and Development
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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Ive been in flower mode for ~ 5 weeks with very slow bud development. About 5 days ago I dropped my light schedule by 15 minutes, then 2 days ago another 15 minutes

One of the clones has responded quite positively, shooting out quite a few more pistils

hth
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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Both plants are doing as well as can be expected. The girl on the right had a bigger rootball resulting in much bigger buds

I had been feeding every 60 minutes, but decided to see what more floods will do, so late yesterday I increased by flooding to every 45 minutes, a 25% increase per day. Be interesting to see what happens in 7-10 days.
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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Thought it time to post a picture of the 'bigger' of the 2 females

The 45 minute flood certainly hasn't hurt. Both plants seem to respond well to it

The buds are tight and very stinky
 

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PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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Smaller leafs are getting oily, a very good sign

pH has been dropping from ~ 6.0 to ~ 5.7 daily. Also a good sign as this means the plant is dumping the equivalent of poop from all the bud sites
 
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