Olddog Newtrick's Seedsman, Banana Jealousy, SIP/Quadline Comparative Grow

[MedScientist]

WooHoo! I Appreciate You!

I hope you don't mind me following along? I brought snacks!

 

[Olddog Newtrick]

Welcome!
I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing so, if you have opinions or observations please feel free to chime in!
Glad to have ya here!

 

[Azimuth]

Seems like the girls have adapted to the sip and are drinking well. The limp sogginess has improved dramatically and the res dropped significantly today. I’ll feed em and top of the res again tomorrow. They are growing good!

That's what happens when they "catch." Now it starts getting really fun as growth mode really kicks in.

I’ve run out of room to spread them out so, I’ve either gotta extend some supports out past the rim of the bucket, or start letting them grow up.
Ideally, I’d like em to be a bit wider to fill the 2x4.

I use fishing weights in three different sizes to keep the limbs level, but you could lay a bamboo stake across the top of the pot to extend the tie down points out further from the rim. You can tape a couple of chopsticks together if they're not long enough on their own.

 

[Olddog Newtrick]

That's what happens when they "catch." Now it starts getting really fun as growth mode really kicks in.


I use fishing weights in three different sizes to keep the limbs level, but you could lay a bamboo stake across the top of the pot to extend the tie down points out further from the rim. You can tape a couple of chopsticks together if they're not long enough on their own.

Yeah I have some more of those big dollar store skewers. I’ll go that route. Gonna dedicate a big part of today to the grow room. A little feed a little defoliation some harvesting. Rearranging tents and hopefully dropping a couple more seeds.
Happy 420!

 

[MedScientist]

That’s what I’ve been doing all along exactly. Ph 6.3, my water is an R.O. Unit that fills a 5 gallon bucket under the sink in a basement. It’s a steady 66-67 (the basement never sees above 74) degrees. I add cal mag to any water that goes in, without being a feed mix. I guess I’m going to add it to the feed mixes now as well. Now that I think of it, the initial fill of the sip may not have had cal mag but, the half gallon top water I did at the same time definitely did..
The plan is to do smaller feedings more often once I get the plants drinking well. I’m gonna do maybe a half gallon mix tonight on each and try to bump the nitrogen a bit more. I’ll add some cal mag directly to the sip res.

WooHoo! I Believe that things are gonna work out now that you are SIP'n!

I did recognize that ALL your leaf problems were due to Overwatering. Bloated weird looking fans, purpling edges, tacoing.... most likely started when the solo cups where sitting in water, which raised your perched water table too high. The air gap in your SIP is very important!

Also, be careful with the Cal/Mag! I threw mine out years ago. Your nutes have Everything you need! If you see multiple deficiencies, it is usually ph related.

 

[Olddog Newtrick]

These girls are looking good this morning!

They seem to have found their stride in the sip and have so far accepted the feed regimen.

Ran out of room to tie them down and had to add some bamboo outriggers so, growth is good. I’m just trying to keep them tamed and even at this point. At this rate, they are going to skip past the veg tent and go straight to the flower tent when it opens up, (which I hope is next week because they are filling this one fast!)

@MedScientist mentioned ph and I assumed I had no problems because I always ph everything to 6.3 but, I decided to check the res. (My res design makes this simple and painless with the turn of a valve.) My res ph was at 8. Normally I don’t concern myself with runoff ph but, in a sip, whatever is in the res is what they are taking in.
I added water at 5.5 to the res and got it down to 6.1. This morning it had risen to 7.2.
So, now with each res top off I’ll try to offset it and get it down.

All of this is critical to the bigger plan of having these sips fed directly from my water source.
Initially I planned on an external mix res with a ph monitor and doser but this calls that possibility into question. I can’t have two strains in two tents with different ph needs fed from a single source unless I can get ph levels stable.
Sounds like a fun challenge!
Enough of my psychotic raving.. here’s some pics!

 

[MedScientist]

Welcome!
I’m still trying to figure out what I’m doing so, if you have opinions or observations please feel free to chime in!
Glad to have ya here!

WooHoo! You DID say to chime in if...

After seeing your last post about your nutes, I don't see them mention you need to add Cal/Mag. Being a reputable Co, with ALOT of successful grows under their belt, I would think they know?

Since Cal/Mag is known to raise ph, and your ph is not stable, I would assume it is the culprit? Full dose in res put ph up to 8.0, half dose put ph to 7.1+.

Your approach of leaving it, and lowering it with each feed is allowing it to stay out of range most of the time? When things get out of wack, I usually Reset immediately.

Since everything we do is a learning experience, could I propose that you Reset one plant without Cal/Mag?

 

[Azimuth]

@MedScientist mentioned ph and I assumed I had no problems because I always ph everything to 6.3 but, I decided to check the res. (My res design makes this simple and painless with the turn of a valve.) My res ph was at 8. Normally I don’t concern myself with runoff ph but, in a sip, whatever is in the res is what they are taking in.
I added water at 5.5 to the res and got it down to 6.1. This morning it had risen to 7.2.
So, now with each res top off I’ll try to offset it and get it down.

That's a tactic that @NickHardy uses from time to time with good success.

 

[NickHardy]

That's a tactic that @NickHardy uses from time to time with good success.

Sort of?

I do a lot of different things from time to time, I say you mention this earlier in SIP Club Azi?

The optimal Ph range for nutrient uptake?

I have a “ Favourite Graph”

Look big proviso - I’m a hydro/coco grower not a soil grower,

Not sure if this is the Soil or hydro version, looks like soil to me - but they don’t differ too much. But if you start thinking about your Ph and some approximation of that graph than its probably helpful.

I ‘m happy to let my Ph drift a bit, especially when we’re watering multiple times a day, our Ph drifts up generally after we Ph it down.

So rhey might dine out on Phosphorus, Manganese and other Micro nutrients in the morning and get more of the base Macro nutrients for supper.

But I reiterate we’re coco/hydro and feeding more frequently than most.

But a read around “optimal nutrient uptake ph” Cannabis would probably set you thinking.

I a couple of times have done something I coined as “The Big Smash Ph Switcheroo” or something. If you realised either by in my case human error or just reading the plants rhe Ph is too high?

Yeah smash it lower than target by a long way.

I’m 2/2 on it fixing the problem. They get the micro butriets they’ve been missing super quickly.

But, umm don’t blame me it doesn’t work out!

Worth some study though!

Nick

 

[Olddog Newtrick]

WooHoo! You DID say to chime in if...

After seeing your last post about your nutes, I don't see them mention you need to add Cal/Mag. Being a reputable Co, with ALOT of successful grows under their belt, I would think they know?

Since Cal/Mag is known to raise ph, and your ph is not stable, I would assume it is the culprit? Full dose in res put ph up to 8.0, half dose put ph to 7.1+.

Your approach of leaving it, and lowering it with each feed is allowing it to stay out of range most of the time? When things get out of wack, I usually Reset immediately.

Since everything we do is a learning experience, could I propose that you Reset one plant without Cal/Mag?

I’ll stop adding cal mag to the res.
I’m still hesitant to cut it completely as there have been a couple people growing this strain that have had the deficiency and these girls clearly had it early on. BUT, I know that could have been ph related. I did just add it before seeing this but I’ll stop and keep an eye on em

I did recognize that ALL your leaf problems were due to Overwatering. Bloated weird looking fans, purpling edges, tacoing.... most likely started when the solo cups where sitting in water, which raised your perched water table too high.

Just for clarification, they never sat in standing water. I was bottom watering a specific amount that they were uptaking completely within 30 minutes. And I was weighing them before watering again.The cal mag def started then. The overwatering was totally my fault at up pot combined with trying to add cal mag..

Realistically they should be going to flower shortly and I shouldn’t need cal mag anyway, but all of this is being noted and will be applied as I’ll be dropping seed for the next run soon.

 

[Olddog Newtrick]

So far, I’m absolutely loving the Sip, seems the girls are too!

 

[Lady Cannafan]

So far, I’m absolutely loving the Sip, seems the girls are too!

Woo Hoo! They look great today! Nice job Daddy-O Babysittin' is not an easy job. LOL

 

[MedScientist]

I’ll stop adding cal mag to the res.
I’m still hesitant to cut it completely as there have been a couple people growing this strain that have had the deficiency and these girls clearly had it early on. BUT, I know that could have been ph related. I did just add it before seeing this but I’ll stop and keep an eye on em

Just for clarification, they never sat in standing water. I was bottom watering a specific amount that they were uptaking completely within 30 minutes. And I was weighing them before watering again.The cal mag def started then. The overwatering was totally my fault at up pot combined with trying to add cal mag..

Realistically they should be going to flower shortly and I shouldn’t need cal mag anyway, but all of this is being noted and will be applied as I’ll be dropping seed for the next run soon.

WooHoo! At the rate they are growing, you may need to get a bigger tent!

Where did you come up with your Bucket design? It is Brilliant!

 

[Olddog Newtrick]

WooHoo! At the rate they are growing, you may need to get a bigger tent!

Where did you come up with your Bucket design? It is Brilliant!

They aren’t even supposed to be in this tent anymore.. lol
They are in a 20x36 and I now have a 2x4 veg tent open and another 2x4 flower tent will be soon .
They are so close I think I’m gonna put em straight into the flower tent.

The bucket design I kinda took the basic principle from the sip thread and combined ideas I liked with some features I wanted along with advice from @Azimuth and a couple other members. Then combined it all into what we have here.

 

[Olddog Newtrick]

Well, now I’m officially confused.. lol .. not hard to do!
The ph out of the tap is 8+, I have my R.O. Filter set up to auto top off a 5 gallon bucket under the sink. It’s normally right around 7.
I had been ph ‘n everything at 6.3.
I mixed the top off water this morning at 5.5 to offset my res and tonight it was back up over 7.
I had a gallon left over and checked it and it was at 7.. no nutes, no cal mag just ph down and RO water. That tells me my last two grows were probably way off on ph but, I don’t know why.
I ph’d the same water back down to 5 ill
Check in the morning and see if it goes up again. And also recalibrate my meter. Gonna have to run some expensive and see if I can pinpoint the problem and find a work around.
Theybthe first step in solving a problem is to realize you have one… that explains a lot about the last grow.

 

[Olddog Newtrick]

The veg and flower tents are finally empty!
Today I’ll be swapping around lights and rearranging the tents to accommodate the external sip res tank. My ph monitor and doser will arrive today so I’m gonna try to get that all set up by the end of the weekend.
The banana girls will finally get into the veg tent, if only for a week. I can then get em spread out and do one last training and a good defoliation.
Mine aren’t as full and luscious as @Lady Cannafan ’s but I know the difference a week can make.
The girls are thirsty! This sip is really blowing me away. They are drinking 3x as much as when I was in cloth pots and no waiting for dry back means I can feed smaller amounts more often.
I’m officially adopting this as my standard method of operation.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

The veg and flower tents are finally empty!
Today I’ll be swapping around lights and rearranging the tents to accommodate the external sip res tank. My ph monitor and doser will arrive today so I’m gonna try to get that all set up by the end of the weekend.
The banana girls will finally get into the veg tent, if only for a week. I can then get em spread out and do one last training and a good defoliation.
Mine aren’t as full and luscious as @Lady Cannafan ’s but I know the difference a week can make.
The girls are thirsty! This sip is really blowing me away. They are drinking 3x as much as when I was in cloth pots and no waiting for dry back means I can feed smaller amounts more often.
I’m officially adopting this as my standard method of operation.

I appreciate the thumbs up. ;-) You are going full swing, I think they look full right now. Think of how far you've come!
Once you get your modus operandi dialed in, there will be no stopping you or those girls.

 

[Azimuth]

The girls are thirsty! This sip is really blowing me away. They are drinking 3x as much as when I was in cloth pots and no waiting for dry back means I can feed smaller amounts more often.
I’m officially adopting this as my standard method of operation.

Yeah, kinda fun, eh?

 

[Olddog Newtrick]

Spent all day reorganizing and getting the girls in the veg tent finally. But somehow I screwed up and my light didn’t come on this morning.
They had 11 hours of dark and since this is my first photo grow, I don’t know if I should go ahead and flip to 12/12 or if they will be ok going back to 18/6. What do you all think?

Went ahead and trained em out to fit the new space, topped up the res, gave em another quart of feed, did some very light defoliation of the undercarriage.
The light coloration has greened up nice and dark and the ph seems to have settled down. It’s still creeping up but, not so bad of a swing. Around a half point.
The ph monitor and doser came in and once I get that set up, ph and watering will be hands off so, I’m happy with where we are. I just need to know whether to flip or not.

 

[Lady Cannafan]

Spent all day reorganizing and getting the girls in the veg tent finally. But somehow I screwed up and my light didn’t come on this morning.
They had 11 hours of dark and since this is my first photo grow, I don’t know if I should go ahead and flip to 12/12 or if they will be ok going back to 18/6. What do you all think?

Went ahead and trained em out to fit the new space, topped up the res, gave em another quart of feed, did some very light defoliation of the undercarriage.
The light coloration has greened up nice and dark and the ph seems to have settled down. It’s still creeping up but, not so bad of a swing. Around a half point.
The ph monitor and doser came in and once I get that set up, ph and watering will be hands off so, I’m happy with where we are. I just need to know whether to flip or not.

I don't think a one time interruption in schedule will hurt them. Continuous, like I had with power outages on my last grow, will stress them for sure.