Wheelo's 3rd run - Attack of the Holy Shoots

[WheeloFortune]

looks like the stuff that clumps together on the rim of the superthrive bottle
have you cleaned out your pipes in case they might have bacteria inside them thats doing this?
or have you figured out whats causing it?
blacky want help ^_^b

nope I haven't figured it out yet.

i mean, there's not really much pipe here, maybe a foot in and a foot out. in between runs i ran some h2o2 to try to kill anything organic. I don't usually use bleach or anything too strong because it will leave residue. butch suggested i use a weak bleach solution, but i'm not sure about that yet, i'm taking it into consideration, considering the source.

part of my problem is that my setup is not set up to make it very easy to maintain. . . lots of bending down, reaching around things, moving the res to change it, clean it, top it off, adjust it. . . the scrog is time consuming to water, it's hard to get in towards the back, etc. etc. i could go on.

So basically I have no feng shui going on in my grow op and I feel like its part of the reason I have trouble keeping my environment stable, and hence many of my problems. so why stay married to a system that isn't working very well as far as time management and ease of use? short answer is, i'm not going to.

I asked McBuds a while back why he liked hydro better, and he said it saved him lots of time, now I am understanding what he meant more deeply. . . you know almost a year ago I bought this wheel, and it propelled me onto bigger and better ideas, but I've just been throwing it together as i get it. Now i think its time for me to go back to the drawing board and really design an elegant simple setup that will be much easier to maintain, and although I plan to do more automation, that's not what I'm talking about, I'm talking about how easy it is to fill and drain the res, and feed them, etc. the physical time consuming work.

Look at 420fied's hydro journal, he raised his res, tapped a drain at the very bottom, hooked up to an inline pump with a shutoff valve, man it must have been easy peasy for him to drain it, clean it, drain it again, run a flush for a day (he probably didn't in his aero, but apparently i have to), drain it again, fill it with nutes, something i wouldn't be able to or want to do with my current setup.

anyways I'm ramblin' because

the long point was, that because I am going to redesign, for the first time since i bought it, I'm gonna break everything down and clean it all before I reassemble it all in a very feng shui manner.

try to make it easier on myself to be more successful.

 

[Munki]

I don't think this is the right goal, but I'm basing my comment primarily from reading. Interested in hearing contrasting opinions.

Since different nutrients uptake more efficiently at different pH, and fail to uptake at all above and below a given value, letting the reservoir drift through it's spectrum is desirable in my opinion. I believe the goal is to ensure it stays in the key range and doesn't remain static.

I absolutely agree with you there Soniq. A fresh nutrient batch goes from a 5.3 and drifts up over time. Daily water addbacks to the reservoir help. By the time I change out the tank, I am at 6.0. No drastic chemical pH changes are needed in between reservoir changes in my experience.

 

[Munki]

Wheelo, your ScrOG looks very nice. The buds remind me of my last screen. Beautiful dusting of crystals. Sorry to hear of your troubles with the wheel though. I know it is your baby.

 

[WheeloFortune]

I absolutely agree with you there Soniq. A fresh nutrient batch goes from a 5.3 and drifts up over time. Daily water addbacks to the reservoir help. By the time I change out the tank, I am at 6.0. No drastic chemical pH changes are needed in between reservoir changes in my experience.

*A fresh nutrient batch SHOULD go from a 5.3 and drift up over time.

yeah i agree too munk, but if you only feed for 5 minutes once a day, and the pH fluctuates over a point in that period, what to do?

I know RW is notorious for pH fluctuations, but thats the res, i've never even tried to measure the water in the cube. . . It was better last res after the flush, and is becoming a pain again this week, so i think the flush calmed it down for a minute. . . I think it's the salt buildup thats making my pH such a pain.

right now i have to pH down it every other day to keep it below 6. one more res change to flush it, and then finito.

 

[WheeloFortune]

Wheelo, your ScrOG looks very nice. The buds remind me of my last screen. Beautiful dusting of crystals. Sorry to hear of your troubles with the wheel though. I know it is your baby.

Thanks a lot munki,
actually i'll take pics in a few minutes, but the scrog is looking pretty burnt these days too, but Dec 23 is the end of week 8, and HS is definitely an 8 week strain, so I'm gonna flush starting saturday, go dark monday, and harvest wed. its only the leaves anyways, and I think all the buds will turn out nicely.
it almost wants to purple, if it was getting a bit colder at night maybe, or if i let them go another week or two, but it's not that important to me.

I'll get some pics up in a few.

 

[PHATBLUNT420]

What intervals are your plants hitting the res?

Would addding some Clearex to the Res make sence?

 

[The Butcher]

So i've been thinking. Now this is just a thought. After you flushed, having released the salts from their bond, Do you think that the salts still in the system and thats whats throwing the ph off. Well we know its the salts, but do you think its still bonded in your pump? I just replaced my old pump and did a breakdown of the old pump to replace a few parts and I noticed even w/ me flushing on a regular basis, there was still a salt build up that would ruin any system. I think the reason why it didnt kill my system is cause the regular rez changes w/ the addition of having a smaller rez.. Watcha think?
Cause if you think about it, that would be 1 way to explain the flux'n goin on. The smallest amount of salt would throw the p.h off easily.

 

[WheeloFortune]

What intervals are your plants hitting the res?

Would addding some Clearex to the Res make sence?

well i water for 45 minutes, which is 1 full rotation. and thats once a day. but they only dip through it for about 5 minutes each. so effectively they feed 5 minutes a day.

well since this is the last week, i will use clearex/final/etc. i have some of all of the flushes, lol. they'll get one either tomorrow or saturday.

So i've been thinking. Now this is just a thought. After you flushed, having released the salts from their bond, Do you think that the salts still in the system and thats whats throwing the ph off. Well we know its the salts, but do you think its still bonded in your pump? I just replaced my old pump and did a breakdown of the old pump to replace a few parts and I noticed even w/ me flushing on a regular basis, there was still a salt build up that would ruin any system. I think the reason why it didnt kill my system is cause the regular rez changes w/ the addition of having a smaller rez.. Watcha think?
Cause if you think about it, that would be 1 way to explain the flux'n goin on. The smallest amount of salt would throw the p.h off easily.

i've been haveing pH problems for the last 7 weeks or so, every week except last week. and last week was the only time i flushed all grow, and i flushed for 3 days.

so I think it's the salt buildup in the RW itself. i'll take the pump apart after the grow to clean it and check, but from the amount of buildup on the cubes, i would think they are def the main culprit.

I have a small res too, 10 gal only, i think if it was bigger i would have more stability, but i dont want to waste the leftovers. I hate waste.

i am paying for not flushing, but i don't think its my only problem, and honestly butch, it would have been a real real pain in the ass to do it every week the way i have everything setup.

here come some pics, you can see for yourself.

 

[WheeloFortune]

ok, i figure this may be the penultimate pic post for this journal so I made it a pretty big one. 31 pics. y'all ready fa dis?

here is a little shit that lost the root war long ago. i spared her life today.

the problem:

 

[The Butcher]

yeah you got the cause for sure. Thats some mean build up. but hey we live we learn right?

 

[WheeloFortune]

Here are some of the old STS'd fem -> male

some male sacs (yellow)

hmmm. nothing wrong with its stem. its in the same environment. the build up not so bad on this one.

 

[WheeloFortune]

here are a bunch of the scrog, im not going to comment on each one.

look familiar PA?

 

[WheeloFortune]

Here are some of the wheel, I did the best I could with this lens.
in no particular order

these look amberish to me. i wish i had a macro.

 

[WheeloFortune]

here are where the little ones don't sleep at night. they are so green compared to the old girls.

*edit* man, this little fridge is gonna rock with a hundred something watt LED in it instead of 45 watts of t8's.
hopefully SS can shine some light on the subject in the coming weeks. the interior dimensions are 24"x24"x46" and it has a megagarden flood and drain table in it that takes up 10" of height. lots of control over temp, no control over high humidity. great veg chamber.

 

[IMA]

man i was habing the time of my life untill i remembered them uckfing bastardsi wish they ate yeast lol

 

[PHATBLUNT420]

Idk dude, it seems like having the Media only run thru the res once a day is just asking for salts. It lets the media dry and salt up then the next feed will just add more salts.

Why does the scrog look torched? I tought you were running SuperSoil, so its not nute related is it?

 

[IMA]

can someone post the ORIGINAL recipe for thios super soil

 

[Munki]

can someone post the ORIGINAL recipe for thios super soil

It is from a poster named Subcool. He posts on another forum so we cannot directly link it here.

Do a google search for "subcool super soil". Note it makes a lot of soil so many have adapted it for smaller batches.

 

[WheeloFortune]

Idk dude, it seems like having the Media only run thru the res once a day is just asking for salts. It lets the media dry and salt up then the next feed will just add more salts.

Why does the scrog look torched? I tought you were running SuperSoil, so its not nute related is it?

the RW cubes retain the hell out of water. . . at one dip/day they stay wet through the next day. . . in fact they don't get bone dry for at least 2-3 days depending on how thirsty the girls are. If i feed more than that I think encourage the stem rot i've been battling.

the scrog, could be a couple things. The most likely is that I underwatered them when I was busy and that they decided to eat the fans in favor of death. It only started to look like this the last 2.5 weeks and I was really busy with work, so I didnt pay as much attention to them as they needed.

the other options are that my version of the SS was too hot, these HS don't need a heavy feeding, and I filled up most of the bags with over 1/2 SS so maybe there was too much SS for them since it is very hot itself, or i added some cha-ching to the watering schedule a few weeks ago, maybe that burnt them up a bit. Some of it is probably natural for the end of its life too.

it doesn't really matter at this point, all the yellow will be trimmed of when I chop them. you'll never know once they're trimmed.

man i was habing the time of my life untill i remembered them uckfing bastardsi wish they ate yeast lol

flashbacks of the war. lol. I have some, but chopping in a few days, not worth the neem or the effort.

can someone post the ORIGINAL recipe for thios super soil

No Prob Bud. I'm doing a full batch next time. add some water and let it sit for a few weeks. (i didnt let mine sit last time because i was under the gun to get them going.)

8 large bags of a high-quality organic potting soil with coco fiber and mycorrhizae (i.e., your base soil)
25 to 50 lbs of organic worm castings
5 lbs steamed bone meal
5 lbs Bloom bat guano
5 lbs blood meal
3 lbs rock phosphate
¾ cup Epson salts
½ cup sweet lime (dolomite)
½ cup azomite (trace elements)
2 tbsp powdered humic acid

It is from a poster named Subcool. He posts on another forum so we cannot directly link it here.

Do a google search for "subcool super soil". Note it makes a lot of soil so many have adapted it for smaller batches.

thanks bro. always appreciate the help. Subcool is a pretty well know breeder with his own seedbank. . . i remember someone saying they were going to run some subcool seeds, was it pit maybe? i can't remember now.

I had a good experience with it so this time, but I want to see what it can do in 7 gal pots with big plants like he suggested in his post.

Andy Botwin is smart enough to follow his method exactly, step by step, he could probably attest to its ease and benefits as well.

 

[WheeloFortune]

by the way,

while the net, I found a website that sells horticulture grade STS for male'ing.

if anyone wants to try reversing sex and breeding all fem seeds, and doesn't want to try to mix it up themselves, check this out.

www.silver-thiosulfate.com

i didn't try to buy any or email them or anything, because I don't mind making it myself, and I have the ingredients. . . but this might be useful to others so i figured I'd let y'all know.