Let's Grow A Pound

[Retired One]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

"Way off the reservation"... yup. I see that as a bleaching process (chlorine... bleaching agent). I wonder if a weak solution of bleach would have done the same? Bleach is often used to clean various growing stuff... from algea to fungi.

Happy it worked out!

Cheers

Tead, somehow or another I missed your post and question. I really can't say if using a bleach solution would be better or worse than pool water, it was just an idea that popped into my head and I ran with it. I would think that it probably would accomplish the same thing, however, I don't want to suggest it, simply because I don't know. Keep in mind that this was a "Hail Mary" and that I really had nothing to lose. You might also be interested in knowing that I recieved a couple of pm's inquiring as to whether or not I had sustained a severe head injury in the recent past. I get that alot...lol. Desperation breeds actions that, under other circumstances, would be unthinkable. My best idea on the subject is to not get algea in the first place.

 

[Tead]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

No worries... apparently bleach is a bad alternative... then again, I'm sure everyone would have told you the same about pool water.

I had another thought about the algea tho.... doesn't a low PH kill algea? I don't recall the post... I think it may have been the venerable Ms. Fox that put that info out. If low ph does inhibit algea growth, I wonder if a low PH treatment for a day or two would have done the same.

Just random thoughts...

Cheers!

 

[tgadfgadgf]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

Southern weed I know how you feel I just got back from vacation hoping all is good when I got back and when I did most up my upper plant leaves were crunchy like lays potatoe chips (lol). Dude I just wanted to rip them all out of the aero system and say f@#k it. But I realized I learned something when I got back. As growers we all learn as we grow wether it's are own personal experience or someone elses. We can only learn from our mistakes and get better. Good luck man. I know you'll suceed on your pound of "oh so sticky icky."

 

[Retired One]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

I'm going back to my roots, so to speak. I decided to grow two of Barney's Farm's finest, and two White Widows...in soil. I also have a Roadrunner in soil, but it is more of a curiousity than anything else. It finishes in 60 days so I figured, why not. I've still got the SLH and UH in the buckets, and I'm not giving up on hydro, far from it. I just decided in the interest of being an all around grower, I ought to try an indoor soil grow. I've got the outdoor thing down cold, but I won't be able to do that again until next season and even then it will be on a much smaller scale than what I am used to. My choice for soil was a no-brainer...it'll be Fox Farm Ocean Forest mixed 70-30 with perlite. Nutes will be Technaflora Pura Vida Grow and Bloom. My man at the hydro shop said he has had good results with it and it fits in nicely with the all organic plan. There may be supplemental nutes added along the way, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. So I guess this has become sort of a combination journal...something for everyone. Hope y'all enjoy!

Thought I'd post up some pics of the goodies. Not pictured is a set of small planters and a greenhouse. If anyone's interested, the total cost was less than 100usd.

That's about it for today...should have them planted tomorrow. One of the Barney's has cracked and is starting to push a taproot, the rest look like they could open anytime.

 

[Retired One]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

Morning update. Got 2 Barney's finest and 2 White Widow in the planters. Roadrunner has popped out of the soil and is on her way. UH and SLH continue to improve, adding a new set of leaves every 2-3 days. Them sativas start slow, especially if they are stunted by algea, but once they get moving it goes fast. I'll get some pics up when the lights go out this evening.

Hope y'all have a great day!

 

[Retired One]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

Good morning one and all. I have good news and bad news, perhaps I can get a pointer or two to help with a serious problem. First the good news. I completed the last three pods yesterday, and no have the space to really run a top flight grow without ever having to worry about space issues. The bad news is when I bring up all the lighting, the temps get way out of control. First, I'll tell you about the pods. They are 5'x5'x8', wood framed and covered with 5/8" drywall inside and out. I know that was overkill, but I had planned to only sheet the inside, but it looked awful and I decided to sheet up the outside as well. The interiors are completely covered with mylar and I'm using 2- 265 cfm fans on each pod for ventilation. Each pod has 1-1000w mh/hps light with a quantum digital dimmable ballast mouted outside the pod. Because I currently only have 4 plants going in buckets, I dialed back the lights to 50% power figuring that I didn't need to use all the power for a small amount of plants. With one pod in operation, the temps were ok, around 75f or so. Last night I brought up all the lighting at 50% power and ventilation for a test of the system as a whole, and the problems began. Within 2 hours the temps in the pod in use had made it to 90f, and was still climbing, finally leveling out at 95f. Because the basemet of my house is below ground the ambient temp of the basement stays pretty steady at 66-68 degrees, but then the temp down there started to rise. It got up to 86 degrees. I had thought that, due to the size of my basement, that I could directly vent my exhaust into it, through a set of carbon filters and a rudimentary heat exchanger, but it seems now that I won't be able to do that. I have considered tapping into my hvac system and running ac directly into the pods. I know I could buy seperate ac untis for each pod, but I would very much like to stop pouring money into this, it's become quite expensive. And this problem is at 50% power, god help me if I were to try and go balls to the wall. So since I have no direct access to the outside to vent the exhaust, what should I do? I'm very hesitant to tap direcly into the ac, from the outside of the pods, it looks like I've just built an office space, there is only one door leading in and out of the pods, the rest are connected through interior openings, and if I have four ac lines running ito what appears to be a 20'x20'x8' space, someone may ask questions that I don't want to answer. I had initially thought about building in a co2 system, but chilled on the idea after seeing the cost of automating an enviromental control system. Now I'm beginning to wonder if it may not be the cheapest way out, leave the temps where they are and flood the system with 1500ppm co2, aside from the plants being able to handle much higher temps, it would be giving them something they need anyhow. So there it is, help a fella out.

 

[Janx]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

Whoa man....chill out. I just saw an advertiser for ....Target? I think it was anyway, but the point is that they had some nifty lil stand-alone ac's for under $90. I'm definately going to be snapping a couple up myself.

 

[Janx]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

Oh....if your lights are air-cooled, vent them directly out of the room. Instead of venting the whole room to get the heat. If not...buy some replacement reflectors. $30-50?

 

[Retired One]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

Whoa man....chill out. I just saw an advertiser for ....Target? I think it was anyway, but the point is that they had some nifty lil stand-alone ac's for under $90. I'm definately going to be snapping a couple up myself.

Thats intersting, I'll keep my eye out for them. The cheapest ones I've found run about $170, and I just didn't want to spend that much more, when for just a couple hundred more I could set up a co2 system. But you have provided a half price option I need to get busy cheking out.

Oh....if your lights are air-cooled, vent them directly out of the room. Instead of venting the whole room to get the heat. If not...buy some replacement reflectors. $30-50?

Oh my lord yes, they are air-cooled, otherwise it'd be like freakin Death Valley down there...lol.

 

[Tead]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

I've seen some "evaporative air coolers" for sale lately... remember Swamp Coolers?
Here's alink.... Newegg.com - Sunpentown SF-610 Evaporative Air Cooler with Ionizer White - Air Conditioners
They're really cheap, and very small. Sure, you gotta fill them with water every now and then, but I have to do that to my plants too ;-)
If your humidity seems to be low, I'd think these would bump it up a bit as well (maybe not, depends on your venting system).

Cheers!

 

[Janx]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

Run them in series with double the fans inline?

 

[Retired One]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

Run them in series with double the fans inline?

Because of the location and layout of the lights, thats not very practical, but it's not an impossible idea either.

 

[Munki]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

lmao...you may be on to somthing there. I had a minor algea outbreak in my first grow, but nothing like this. I used some rather unorthodox techniques to rid the roots and rockwool of the algea this time. If they make it through, and it looks like they will, I'll post it up.

Right on. If they do pull through, then maybe some of what you learned can be transcribed to the "Problems, Pests & Disease Control" section of the grow room. That way, some good comes out of it and we can learn from your troubles.

 

[stully]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

I've seen some "evaporative air coolers" for sale lately... remember Swamp Coolers?
Here's alink.... Newegg.com - Sunpentown SF-610 Evaporative Air Cooler with Ionizer White - Air Conditioners
They're really cheap, and very small. Sure, you gotta fill them with water every now and then, but I have to do that to my plants too ;-)
If your humidity seems to be low, I'd think these would bump it up a bit as well (maybe not, depends on your venting system).

Cheers!

have you ever talked to anybody who has actually used these things? They seem too good to be true. I love the theory behind it though and if they do work, I would personally benefit. Good eyes finding this+rep

 

[Tead]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

I lived in Kileen TX for a while MANY moons ago, in a COMPLETLY (OH SO COMPLETLY!) different life, and we had a swamp cooler instead of AC. It worked quite well.
A swamp cooler (or "evaporative cooler") works by blowing air over a water coated medium. It was used for many years before AC became popular.
The major factor in an evaporative cooler seems to be air flow... the more air flow the better it works.
I've been considering building my own swamp cooler with a fan and a water pump.

Cheers!

 

[tricome]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

Swamp cooler? Sounds interesting, I'll check it out.
I know what you mean about high temps. My room is topping out at 83.
Good luck!

 

[dfw-guy]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

You can make one yourself that will probably work much better. Check out this article Build a DIY Portable Air Conditioner - Summer - Lifehacker
It basically runs cold water threw a small radiator with a fan blowing the cold air generated. The people in the article made it for $30

 

[Tead]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

That's actually a different concept than swamp coolers. Swamp coolers are an open system that create cool air by evaporation of water running over a media. The AC unit you mention passes air over a closed cooling system coil rather than using evaporation.
I actually tried something similar. I ran the water from a hydro grow tank thru the very chilled water of a home water cooler. I did work fairly well, but I was trying to grow in an outdoor shed in the southern US. It simply didn't provide enough cooling.

Cheers!

edit -> I should note that my "radiator" in the above mentioned system was a simple coil of plastic tubing... perhaps somewhat less than efficient.

 

[Retired One]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

Well, after a somewhat bumpy start to the morning, I've got some good news to share. One of Barney's finest has popped up out of the soil and there is evidence that the other three may well poke their heads up today as well. That's comforting. The Roadrunner is trying to grow it's first real set of leaves, so I'll be keeping an eye on here today as well.

I want to thank everyone who's posted suggestions on the heat issue. The "rudimentary" heat exchanger I had built was my own clumsy attempt at an evaporative cooler, but it seems that I didn't quite get it right. I'm keeping my eye out for some small ac units, but I'm leaning towards the CO2 system. I'll keep you all posted.

 

[Janx]

Re: SouthernWeed's Second...Let's Grow A Pound

Sorry man, but you and I both know that CO2 alone is nowhere near enough for that kind of heat. That won't even get you to 90F without damage.