Scrog Waterfarm Grow

[therootsofpositivity]

I don't think using salts has to be complicated at all. I am basically using a three part solution. Part A 5-11-31 with micros; Part B is Calcium Nitrate: Part C is Mono-potassium phosphate. To this I add Epsom Salt if I feel I need more Mg. To me it is just as simple as Liquid fertilizer. Now I know for someone that looks like they don't agree with additives I have a lot. One of the Med users I grow for was growing their own and gave me all their stuff. I have Floralicious Plus, Koolbloom, floranova, pure blend pro and overdrive. I will be adding these till they run out. I am not one to let anything go to waste. That being said once this stuff runs out I think I will only be buying pure blend pro, kelp, and fulvic acid. I like organics. I think there is more to organics than it getting converted to plant usable chemicals. I base this on a study that showed in wheat different genes get turned on when the wheat was grown conventionally compared to organically. I would assume that this is true in Canabis and like many other crops explains why consistently people and animals perfer the taste of organics over conventionally grown food.

 

[therootsofpositivity]

This will get us all up-to-date.

As you can see they are already touching! I think if I tried to scrog them now it would just be a mess! That being said I think having them under the screen for the length of time I did really turned them into nice bushes! I am going to do some tying do to try and keep the canopy as even as possible.

 

[therootsofpositivity]

Oh forgot to post pics of my dipper debacle. So first the dripline that dripped even after trying to glue it then teflon tape it (worked the best).

Now the proper hardware!

This is the air pump I am using. It is running an air stone in all sixteen buckets and two air stones in each of my two reservoirs for a total of 20 air stones. It isn't the quite and it gets warm even with having the intake hose sucking in outside air that is well below freezing! That being said it sure works well! I will get a shot of the roots up they are looking healthy!

 

[therootsofpositivity]

Okay the pics above do not show the development in the plant as they are not in order. I decided today to snap a few quick pics just some people can see what the girls look like as of today.

They are shiny because I sprayed them with neem before I took the pics.

 

[therootsofpositivity]

Just a quick update. Well came home to water on the floor. Always a scary experience! I have down a liner but I don't trust it at all. So to see water on the floor made my heart skip a beat! The top fitting of the waterfarm had cracked and the ring popped out and let water run onto the floor! I am thinking of just switching to standard drip lines. Any thoughts? Modifying the waterfarm has been been interesting and scary to say the least. Another thing I did not anticipate was the siphoning action caused by the lines run up and over the edge of the table. There is water in the bottom of each bucket and from time to time it will totally siphon dry which greatly increases the water to the reservoir. I am very careful now to keep the reservoir about half full to prevent it from over flowing due to this effect. I am still worried about the drainage in the buckets becoming plugged and having one of the buckets overflow. I will be purchasing flood and drain tables and putting the buckets in that so if there is any overflowing it will just flow into the table then to the reservoir.

Another thing interesting I came across is advanced nutrients "phosphors myth". It is a pdf talking about how we give our plants to much phosphors. I have been wondering about this as all the research I have come across shows that you get a big increase in flowering when going from a very low phosphors level to a higher level. I wonder if this is another example of showing that if you compare a totally deficient plant to one that is properly fertilized there will be a huge difference. Wish there was more research in this area. I would think that plants in hydroponics, coco coir, soilless mix, and dirt would all require different levels of nutrients. Just like for other crops I wish there was strong evidence for the requirements of medical marijuana.

Well the girls are really looking good. Get some more pics up in the next few days. I will try and get some before just before the lights turn on and with a ruler so you can get a better sense of the dimensions. Well that is all for now.

 

[Propa Gator]

I love your full, lush growth but expected no less
Drip emitters could replace your old drip rings
Hydroponic greenthumbs do hydraulic engineering
For siphon missbehavior bear no tolerance

I hear much noise about brand name choise
'Nutes' are just the right salts in the water
Comparison grows are the best way to know
Published science studies offer starters

 

[therootsofpositivity]

Hey Propa Gator. I agree comparison grows are the only way to know and hope to be doing some so we can all learn. I am really enjoying watching Setting Sun's LED comparison. Can't wait to see the outcome.

Well grab some pics today before lights out. I know that I have been posting a lot but haven't had any measurements to give scale so I broke out the trusty tape measure so you can see how everything is progressing.

Okay couple of pics before lights went out. This is day ten and flowers are becoming evident! From here on in things are going to get crazy!

Here is before I started cleaning out the girls. Need to do some trimming too. Lot of little branches. Don't want the girls wasting energy on little popcorn buds.

Now some pics without the orange from the HPS:

Here is the reservoir numbers:

I grab some pics of the slit fitting the caused the top ring to pop out and flood the floor. This is the second one that popped off while I was cleaning up all the water on the floor.

And the solution:

Okay for salt fertilizer I am mixing:

3.5 grams 7-11-27
3.5 grams Calcium nitrate
1.5 grams Epson Salt

per 10L

I am not using mono-potassium-phosphate in my top up mix as I am occasionally using Floranova which I feel has more than enough phosphors. I usually put in two 10 L buckets of water every few days with one bucket with my salt mix and the other Pure Blend Pro Flower formula at 15ml per 10L bucket.

Well that is my update for now. Hope everyone is having a great day.



RW

 

[onthe420train]

Hi therootsofwis can you explain the nutrients reading 090? what are the units of that measurement?
Those shrubs sure are getting big. Nice update, the only thing I want to say (I'm sure you know this) and I mean it in the kindest way, your parabolic shades are some of the least efficient designs around.
Also used to use 1000w and I had to get a glass tube for it or it was unbearable. Nothing like 4000w though.
600 is perfect for me.
One more question why don't you just go all Floranova?

 

[therootsofpositivity]

Hi onthe420train. The 090 is ppm but it an old nutradip meter so you have to mulitple it by 10. So that is actually 900ppm. My Hana pen that is more accurate says the ppm is about 840ppm. I know the parabolic aren't that efficient but I like them over bat wings for this setup. Right now in winter I can get away with exposed bulbs and just went cheap. A buddy had them and gave them pretty much for free. 4000w covering such a small area I feel the girls are getting enough light. Hopefully soon I can start replacing them with air cool tubes. If you look at the reflector on the right closest to the door I don't even know if it is doing anything! lol It is just a sheet of metal above the bulb (think it is called a china hat reflector). Oh well can't beat free.

I think Floranova is alright. I don't like their bloom formula I think it has way to much P and not enough N. With the different salts I am using I can match all the other nutrient companies formulas at a fraction of the cost. That is why I am going with salt fertilizers. For organics I really like pure blend pro hydroponic bloom formula that is 2.5 - 2 - 5. Again I think a lot of nutrient companies over exaggerate studies to try and sell products. In the horticultural industry we do not using any of these products. In the greenhouses I worked in (I have worked with cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers) the only thing we used was salt fertilizers and appropriate pesticides when needed. I really want to do a head to head with my salt mix vs advanced and GH nutrients. I think this will be the first head to head grow I will do. With a brake down of the cost to use each product. Again this is in terms of yield. I would not argue for one second that this produces the best aroma and taste. For that I put my money on organics.

 

[onthe420train]

Ya they certainly aren't industrial fertilizers they are more like hobby ferts - I am really interested to see the cost comparison of the two. and how much you yield with 4,000 watts.
So floranova recommends a ppm of 1500. 66% higher than what you run in chems - is that because of the organics and acids they put into it?

 

[therootsofpositivity]

Cindy99 just doesn't seem to like strong nutrients. In veg they I got tip burn at around 700ppm. I am slowly upping my ppm adding stronger nutrients as it progresses through flower. They just look really healthy so I figure they are getting enough for now. Organics does through a kink in ppm reading as organics don't read as accurately as salts but I am only using half strength Pureblend when I use it to top up.

Okay here is the cost I get per 10L of solution at approximately 1200ppm. I don't know about Advanced ppm but I am going off the label of 4ml per liter each A and B. I used the price form Advanced site for the 23L bottle and a local stores price for the 4L bottle of FloraNova.

My formula with Mono Potassium Phosphate which I am questioning I need in such large amounts comes out to a whooping 9 cents.

Connoiseur A and B $1.46 and FloraNova at 2.5ml/L $0.69.

Hopefully my math is correct.

 

[Charon187]

my god man the size of your girls!! O.O


then i look at mine >.<

cheers !!

 

[therootsofpositivity]

Thanks Charon. I can't deny I have a way with the ladies

Okay well I have more updates for day 16 of flower.

First off this is Sweet Island Skunk that got moved into the room to finish its flowering.

My ppm were dropping like mad so I can tell the girls want to eat over the last few days I have bumped up the ppm to 1300. I have not used FloraNova in awhile. I have been using my salt mix and Pureblend to bump up my ppm. I will keep it at this till week 5 then I will start to drop it through week 5,6,7 and just use tap water for week 8. I have read that Cindy99 can be harvested in 6 weeks but I plan to go 8 weeks. I have finished foliar spraying with kelp and fulvic acid last night and Neem tonight. Other than that nothing new to report.

 

[Hashy]

Excellent! Nice to see those sexy Cindy's in bloom! Great job man, I dont know how you kept them from getting too hot, but you did. I would've been goin nuts trying to keep it cool in there lol. I have a ducted hps. So was heat ever an issue with those reflectors and bulbs like that?

Best of luck to your grow man, hope they leave you with a bountiful harvest!

 

[Sungod]

Did I miss something? What happened to the screen??

 

[mendoman]

Great looking grow! I was curious about the SCROG screen too...

 

[therootsofpositivity]

Hashy

No heat has not been an issue yet. Since I only got my permit recently I have not experience high outside temperatures. I have been able to maintain temps easy as I am drawing in below freezing air from outside. I know in another few months I am either going to have to invest in air cooled hoods or stop for the summer.


Sungod and mendoman thanks for the complements and checking out my thread.

First off great screen Sundog! Everyone interested in scrog should check it out! I had the screen up for a bit but as I had not finished my veg room (or the flower room that the Cindy99 are in), I needed somewhere to veg my Purple Kush. I decided since I was using the flower room as a veg room I might as well veg the Purple Kush with the Cindys. I took the screen off to setup the system to accommodate the PK. I was hoping to have the PK out of there in a few days and was going to put the screen back on at that point. However, it took longer to get the veg room up and running than I had anticipated and the Cindy 99 out grew the screen. I was unable to get the screen back on without damaging the girls so figured I would just to go ahead and flower them without it.

I did have the screen on long enough that the girls really held their shape almost a weird LST method. Since the time I realized I would be unable to put the screen back on I have been tying the girls down to fill in any unused space. It actually as worked out pretty well and I have ended up with a solid, fairly uniform canopy.

The one thing I have noticed is differences in the hoods. I have two that are the same, one that extends down really covering up the bulb and then the china hat one. The one that really extends down below the bottom of the bulb definitely is giving the girls more light. The plants under it are a lot more vigorous and have more bud sites. The worst is the china hat one. I can tell they are not going to produce nearly as well. I will get some pics up in a few days.

 

[Green Utopia]

This will get us all up-to-date.
As you can see they are already touching! I think if I tried to scrog them now it would just be a mess! That being said I think having them under the screen for the length of time I did really turned them into nice bushes! I am going to do some tying do to try and keep the canopy as even as possible.

The plants look awesome! I recently did the same thing removing a scrog. I too am thrilled with the results. Are your stems nice and thick from it? Mine need no support. I'm seriously considering using that technique again right now. In fact... as medicated as I am.... I feel a project brewing

+Reps for awesome healthy plants and doing what's best for them.

 

[therootsofpositivity]

Papa Green and thanks for the complements. I'm trying my best to keep them as happy as I can.

Yes my stems are nice and thick from the screens. I don't know if I am going to need to support the branches. I have been told that Cindy99 is notorious for being really floppy. I was hoping the screen was going to help with this. Now with no screen I am interested to see what happens.

Can't wait to see what project you have brewing. Just started to read your thread and with 24 pages it is going to take me a few days to get caught up!

 

[therootsofpositivity]

Well now have a project of my own! I have been thinking that I have a lot of GH products (FloraNova Grow and Bloom and Koolbloom) that I want to use up but don't really want to use them as I like my salt mix with PureBlend Pro Bloom Hydroponic. Well right now it struck me "DUH do a comparison!" So I have Purple Kush that is about ready to go into flower. Therefore I am going to compare my mix to GH products. So in the next few days I will get that thread up and going so anyone interested stay tune! I have enough GH to do at least two flowers with. Therefore since not everything is going to be identical I figure that running a few cycles will help give a better picture of the products. What does everyone think about this?