Cap'n Style Top-Fed Simple Hydroponics With Grow Chunks

[jamthe3]

Hi jamthe3.

I'm gonna follow along if you don't mind..

Don't have much to contribute but i'm planning a grow very similar to this one,
so i'm hoping to learn as much as i can before everything is in place.

cheers

Glad to have ya; feel free to contribute as much as you like on anything you like as I have so much to learn still, even if I can only grab it in tiny chunks at a time I'll still be way further along than I was a week ago.

 

[Light Addict]

Hope there's still room for a little one here my friend and looking forward to the fun!

 

[s1ingblade]

High There Jam,
Sorry I'm late. Feel free to solicit members on my thread the more the merrier
the URLs in your Sig will help
So to be honest I haven't had the pleasure of growing in "Chunks" only cubes and blocks.
I'm almost positive it would work fine as long as you don't have huge empty spaces in between them.
If you do cut them up try not to compress them or smash them too much and wear gloves. If your anything like me you'll get it all over your face and have a "fiberglass insulation" type reaction
Keep it Green and sticky Jam
just to let all ya'll know I've done ALOT of seed popping in cubes straight outa the paper towels and into the "Croutons"

 

[jamthe3]

Hope there's still room for a little one here my friend and looking forward to the fun!

Honored LA, I think I mentioned it before but really feeling like I might try your technique on the Carmel Ice while also learning this medium and style.

 

[jamthe3]

High There Jam,
Sorry I'm late. Feel free to solicit members on my thread the more the merrier
the URLs in your Sig will help
So to be honest I haven't had the pleasure of growing in "Chunks" only cubes and blocks.
I'm almost positive it would work fine as long as you don't have huge empty spaces in between them.
If you do cut them up try not to compress them or smash them too much and wear gloves. If your anything like me you'll get it all over your face and have a "fiberglass insulation" type reaction
Keep it Green and sticky Jam
just to let all ya'll know I've done ALOT of seed popping in cubes straight outa the paper towels and into the "Croutons"

Phew, was hoping I'd lure you in (sigh of relief.) Good & stress relieving day so far as two of the main four I was hoping to arrive and guide have shown up...only need your BFAM, the guru of Coco & the Captain of the Seas now and the experience from this thread will be a success for me whether the plants actually are or not.

Yeah, I cut some in half diagonally, some horizontally & some just pulled apart. I read about not compressing them on Grodan's site...wish I'd read about the gloves before having to take a second shower, lmfao.

 

[CCOiler]

Subscribed jamthe3, I to will be growing "capn style/s1ingblade's way" since I have not grown yet I will be hanging out and watching. Good luck jamthe3 and have some starter Reps on me.

 

[kimmy]

Looks good in here...
Subbed !
Followed you over from Slings thread. Those three fingered leaves on that 8 ball look so different than anything...

How close is the light on your seedlings ? I also use CFL's on my babies. I use the 13 watters and keep them real close to keep them from stretching.

 

[jamthe3]

Subscribed jamthe3, I to will be growing "capn style/s1ingblade's way" since I have not grown yet I will be hanging out and watching. Good luck jamthe3 and have some starter Reps on me.

Thx and glad you joined us; we frequent alot of the same threads and I definately look forward to interacting w/you.

 

[Light Addict]

Buddy I really hope you do go with a flux, done Capn style a flux would rocket along and do extremely well in my opinion. Next run for me will be mini Rockwool cubes, full hydro, so im watching with interest!

 

[jamthe3]

Looks good in here...
Subbed !
Followed you over from Slings thread. Those three fingered leaves on that 8 ball look so different than anything...

How close is the light on your seedlings ? I also use CFL's on my babies. I use the 13 watters and keep them real close to keep them from stretching.

The 8-Ball was a crappy seed to begin with. I'm only growing out these last few clones because my seed order from March never made it and had to be reshipped so they only just arrived a couple weeks ago. Needed to fill space and it makes dynamite hash anyways, so I figured better that than dead floor space. Real picky frick'in pheno. Hates light (thats why she & her other 2 sisters are in 3 gal pots as opposed to the Blue Rhinos which I have in 5 gal ones...just to get that much more distance from the light,) needs extra humidity hates everything but Nitrogen and then freaks out and burns if you give her even 400 ppms. I threw the humidifier in there today and will green her back up Friday to get ready for flower, but I honestly don't care what she does...wouldn't even be here if the seeds had come on time.

2 27 watt cfl's 3" above and a 65 watter occassionally on a bit higher...they're only 2" tall & been that height for 2-3 days. The pic just makes it look taller.

 

[TrysHard]

Subbed, I'll follow along to see what you learn. I plan on going with Rockwool on the next grow. So it will be good to follow along.

Looks very nice so far, you sure have a lot of balls in the air!

 

[jamthe3]

Subbed, I'll follow along to see what you learn. I plan on going with Rockwool on the next grow. So it will be good to follow along.

Looks very nice so far, you sure have a lot of balls in the air!

Welcome aboard! Lol, hopefully I'll knock at least one of 'em outa the park!

 

[Skybound]

Hi Jam, I also spilled over from S1ing's journal. I too grew Capn' style for my last grow which happened to be my first harvested plant and though I made so many mistakes, I was fortunate enough to have The Capn, s1ingblade and African Grower on board to assist. I followed The Capn's recipe nearly to the letter with great results, and I understand s1ing uses Advanced Nutes with great results too. Aside from the simplicity of the system itself, I think the other major factor that warrants notability is the use of Heisenberg's Tea which keeps the root system very clean and vigorous. I noticed you use a plethora of nutes that I have little to no exposure to, but if they are gonna do your gals any justice, I must insist that you acquire the products used to make the tea which is dosed weekly. They consist of Aqua Shield, Mycorrhizae (I use Great White), Ancient Forest and Molasses brewed for 36-48 hours in either distilled water or RO water. Add this component and trust your girl will love you that much more come harvest time.

Another comment I had is that in your pics, it could have been that they were taken just before a watering, but the blocks your seedlings were in looked a bit on the dry side. I have found out the hard way that seedlings and clones like a nice moist/damp warm media until a good root mass is formed. Perhaps a slightly dry environment is slowing that 8ball down a bit? Just a thought. I am a noob so please double check my suggestions before committing to action.

I am in the process of building a couple rooms at a new location for me. Once complete I will be germing a Dinafem OG Kush (maybe 2), a Cherry Bomb and maybe something else that I already have that might lend to working toward a perpetual harvest over time. I will also be going another round Capn Style save for the fact that I also have a bag of chunks to start with. If I am able to get a bag of mini cubes, I will probably mix the 2 and proceed.

Got Tea?

 

[jamthe3]

Thanks Skybound welcome aboard, I'll look into the teas although not a real fan of molasses and I'll probably order some more dyna-grow products...really like their stuff but am almost out so will just wing it carefully for now until I order more & it arrives. Trust me, was just a bad seed and pheno ta boot. I've grown 8-Ball many times before, usually a pretty easy let it be strain although to be fair, it never did seem to like a lot of training.

Yeah, I've never started seedlings in Rockwool before and its a tad nerve racking wondering if its to moist or to dry; I've been bending over backwards not to over water them as like the Cap'n says more or less in one of his blog posts "over messing with things is often people's biggest mistake." I tend to agree with you I probably could keep the starter cubes more saturated, but the good news is I'm planting them in the cut in half chunks currently (got two done so far) so hopefully it won't be an issue/worry any longer anyways. When pre-soaking the starter cubes and grow chunks I was really surprised at how long the Rockwool held the water, had only used it for cloning previously.

 

[Lady Vadalon]

Thought I would pop in and let you know I am still hanging out

 

[TrysHard]

Hi Jam, I also spilled over from S1ing's journal. I too grew Capn' style for my last grow which happened to be my first harvested plant and though I made so many mistakes, I was fortunate enough to have The Capn, s1ingblade and African Grower on board to assist. I followed The Capn's recipe nearly to the letter with great results, and I understand s1ing uses Advanced Nutes with great results too. Aside from the simplicity of the system itself, I think the other major factor that warrants notability is the use of Heisenberg's Tea which keeps the root system very clean and vigorous. I noticed you use a plethora of nutes that I have little to no exposure to, but if they are gonna do your gals any justice, I must insist that you acquire the products used to make the tea which is dosed weekly. They consist of Aqua Shield, Mycorrhizae (I use Great White), Ancient Forest and Molasses brewed for 36-48 hours in either distilled water or RO water. Add this component and trust your girl will love you that much more come harvest time.

Another comment I had is that in your pics, it could have been that they were taken just before a watering, but the blocks your seedlings were in looked a bit on the dry side. I have found out the hard way that seedlings and clones like a nice moist/damp warm media until a good root mass is formed. Perhaps a slightly dry environment is slowing that 8ball down a bit? Just a thought. I am a noob so please double check my suggestions before committing to action.

I am in the process of building a couple rooms at a new location for me. Once complete I will be germing a Dinafem OG Kush (maybe 2), a Cherry Bomb and maybe something else that I already have that might lend to working toward a perpetual harvest over time. I will also be going another round Capn Style save for the fact that I also have a bag of chunks to start with. If I am able to get a bag of mini cubes, I will probably mix the 2 and proceed.

Got Tea?

Reps to you skybound for the Tea Tip! I have been using it and I have notice a substantial uptake in the nutrients, which I'm sure is due to more and healthier roots from the tea.

 

[jamthe3]

Reps to you skybound for the Tea Tip! I have been using it and I have notice a substantial uptake in the nutrients, which I'm sure is due to more and healthier roots from the tea.

So, do you & Skybound think it would be better using a tea instead of Dyna-Gro's K-L-N (which is supposed to do basically the same thing?) If you have a link handy to a recipe I'd be appreciative...preferably one w/o molasses, lol.

 

[TrysHard]

So, do you & Skybound think it would be better using a tea instead of Dyna-Gro's K-L-N (which is supposed to do basically the same thing?) If you have a link handy to a recipe I'd be appreciative...preferably one w/o molasses, lol.

Heisenberg Tea

You should read this post very informative.

 

[jamthe3]

Thank you TrysHard!

Okay, had all the seedlings potted into their first homes yesterday but wanted to wait until today (we're gonna go w/Tuesday the 29th as 1 week old for the bunch even though the Critical Hog's a day older) for pics since there's not a ton to really show and I was gonna take the ones in my flower room out to water tonight and thought they'd at least provide something to look at. Did them first and the batteries started dying on the camera so not very good pics of the seedlings...will put some more up tommorrow after a trip to Wally's, lol.

I burried the 2" starter cubes a little so that the 3 healthy ones are all 1" above the surface and I'll be hand feeding them nothing but ph'd water for now...maybe once or twice a day, I'm still kinda shocked at how long the Rockwool holds moisture and am paranoid of over watering. One of the Jack Herer's doesn't look like its gonna pull through; think I must've snapped the tap root when I seated it. Gonna give it a little time before scrapping it as it doesn't really hurt anything other than my eyes to leave it be for now.

Group photo

Carmel Ice

Jack Herer

Critical Hog

and the soon to no longer exist Jack Herer

Sorry for the quality. Its a combination of many things: an inexpensive camera; batteries constantly turning it off; an inexperienced photographer; a lack of patience and an abundance of frustration, lmfao! Anyhoots, here's the one's in the flower closet:

Bag seed put in on the 24th

8-ball Kush from clone, about a month 'till harvest

and a Blue Rhino from clone about 2 weeks out

 

[Skybound]

The use of molasses in the tea is to feed the micorrhizas bacteria colony (Great White & Aqua Shield) and get them active. Once the good bacterial army is ready to march (36-48 hours), the tea (molasses is mostly consumed) is added to the media bed to feed the roots which injects the myco army to kill any traces of bad bacteria which then leaves the root mass platinum white, especially in the RW. I completely comprehend your insistent desire to stay away from molasses as I share the same practice, however, because it is used in a separate brew to aerate for 36-48 hours, I now know the myco colony will consume most or all of that, and by that time, they're just getting started so any other possible bacterial growth in my root mass will not stand a chance, and because I/we do this once weekly, nothing but a beneficial bacterial root mass will be what our gals stand on and eat from.