A ViparSpectra KS3000, GroBucket SIPs, & FN Fertilizer, Oh My - By Farside05

Close-ups, please?!
That looks like my kinda bud: Zoomy, hackeysack-circle-inducing, 80s-synth-wave-listening, "hey, do you guys wanna do shrooms tonight?", type of weed. Kinda specific, I know but, "the heart wants what the heart..." ... ooh, are those Oreos?

Sorry, been out for a bit. Supposed to be on vacation but had to work 2 of my vacation days. Also replaced 10 boards on my deck and remodeled a bathroom. Then the alternator went out on my van so I had to replace it. Wife was in FL visiting her folks and ended up in the hospital for 2 days with back and rib pain. They never found anything but it won't stop them from sending a big bill I'm sure. It's been a rough 10 days. Anyway...

Day 54 along with a couple close ups.



 
Sorry, been out for a bit. Supposed to be on vacation but had to work 2 of my vacation days. Also replaced 10 boards on my deck and remodeled a bathroom. Then the alternator went out on my van so I had to replace it. Wife was in FL visiting her folks and ended up in the hospital for 2 days with back and rib pain. They never found anything but it won't stop them from sending a big bill I'm sure. It's been a rough 10 days. Anyway...

Day 54 along with a couple close ups.



God man, the health…the consistency of canopy…the growth…the pistil development…

Killer grow.
 
Oh man, Farside, I sure hope you've come out the other side of that rocky stretch. That sounds pretty rough. Sounds like life overloaded your plate at exactly the moment you figured you'd cleared it. You may be due for a recalibration! Break out the test liquids.

Don't worry about us, we knew you were doing whatever it was that you needed to be doing -- instead of answering forum posts I mean. I will say, whenever a forum buddy goes quiet, I usually get sucker-punched with two realizations. The first is, "wow, yeah it's true, I really do give a damn about this person's wellbeing" followed rapidly by, "Crap, there's virtually FA I can do about it".

Buds look tasty, thanks for the close ups, def worth the effort from here! lol. Was wondering, have you been doing any preventative flushing in your young SIP Soilless career? I've started. Going over some memories and log entries from a couple of years ago, and I think I had a build-up issue on one of my first runs with pure salts (MC2part) fertigation in rez. Log also shows that I kept EC under 1.1 the whole time, but a mistake when mixing can't entirely be ruled out. Still, I think it was a build up. BTW, that's the reason I won't let my rez stay dry for over 24hrs, I don't want it to start drying from the bottom-up and create a salt-layer.

In my notes, it says I saw a possible toxicity issue in mid-flower, with the bud hairs going orange just as soon as they came out. So that triggered a slurry test of my Promix using a deep sample, from almost all the way down, which revealed a dangerous build-up of around 2200ppm (500).

First I emptied the remaining fertigation, then plugged the overflow and super-overfilled the rez with clean, 0-10ppm, tap water to soak some of that stuff out from the bottom for a few hours, then emptied. Then I did a textbook flush through the soil top but used only 2x planter's volume of water, not 3x as recommended (cuz that's 60 gallons per SIP). Although, I have a portable pump that I designed the SIPs around for filling and potentially emptying if necc., and that made it go quite well.

In the end, the grow came out really nice, and maybe that's why I didn't start doing preventative flushes on the regular after that, I can't say for sure. I've run quite a few SIPs since and not registered an issue. But now, now out of an abundance of caution, and the knowledge that I can do it pretty easily, I've decided to prophylactically flush once during the grow - but I haven't quite determined when I should do it. Any thoughts? I'm also using kelp:humates @ 2:5 now, do you think that stuff conditions my Promix in ways that work on this issue for me?

Anyway, given your handiness with dry synth ferts, and being one of the few active soilless-fertigation SIP growers I know, and can contact, I thought to get your 2 cents. If you'd care to respond but prefer to do so on the main SIP thread to keep this one clean that'd be fine. If you're not up to it, that it really is fine too. I understand, I do.
Best, RD.
 
What a bad vacation, the sun is always behind the storm, let's believe everything will be good soon. This is life. Like these girls, as long as there is water and sunlight, they will grow up better and better.
 
Oh man, Farside, I sure hope you've come out the other side of that rocky stretch. That sounds pretty rough. Sounds like life overloaded your plate at exactly the moment you figured you'd cleared it. You may be due for a recalibration! Break out the test liquids.

Don't worry about us, we knew you were doing whatever it was that you needed to be doing -- instead of answering forum posts I mean. I will say, whenever a forum buddy goes quiet, I usually get sucker-punched with two realizations. The first is, "wow, yeah it's true, I really do give a damn about this person's wellbeing" followed rapidly by, "Crap, there's virtually FA I can do about it".

Buds look tasty, thanks for the close ups, def worth the effort from here! lol. Was wondering, have you been doing any preventative flushing in your young SIP Soilless career? I've started. Going over some memories and log entries from a couple of years ago, and I think I had a build-up issue on one of my first runs with pure salts (MC2part) fertigation in rez. Log also shows that I kept EC under 1.1 the whole time, but a mistake when mixing can't entirely be ruled out. Still, I think it was a build up. BTW, that's the reason I won't let my rez stay dry for over 24hrs, I don't want it to start drying from the bottom-up and create a salt-layer.

In my notes, it says I saw a possible toxicity issue in mid-flower, with the bud hairs going orange just as soon as they came out. So that triggered a slurry test of my Promix using a deep sample, from almost all the way down, which revealed a dangerous build-up of around 2200ppm (500).

First I emptied the remaining fertigation, then plugged the overflow and super-overfilled the rez with clean, 0-10ppm, tap water to soak some of that stuff out from the bottom for a few hours, then emptied. Then I did a textbook flush through the soil top but used only 2x planter's volume of water, not 3x as recommended (cuz that's 60 gallons per SIP). Although, I have a portable pump that I designed the SIPs around for filling and potentially emptying if necc., and that made it go quite well.

In the end, the grow came out really nice, and maybe that's why I didn't start doing preventative flushes on the regular after that, I can't say for sure. I've run quite a few SIPs since and not registered an issue. But now, now out of an abundance of caution, and the knowledge that I can do it pretty easily, I've decided to prophylactically flush once during the grow - but I haven't quite determined when I should do it. Any thoughts? I'm also using kelp:humates @ 2:5 now, do you think that stuff conditions my Promix in ways that work on this issue for me?

Anyway, given your handiness with dry synth ferts, and being one of the few active soilless-fertigation SIP growers I know, and can contact, I thought to get your 2 cents. If you'd care to respond but prefer to do so on the main SIP thread to keep this one clean that'd be fine. If you're not up to it, that it really is fine too. I understand, I do.
Best, RD.

I haven't done any flushes with my SIPs. I would do "rinse and resets" with fabric pots once or twice a grow. Once around the time they started blooming, and once mid bloom. If you have a way to do it, I don't see where it will do any harm.

Day 60

Not quite as perfect as they once were. A bit of neglect on the growers part as I've been an absentee horticulturalist. Even though I'm running version 3 of FN Fertilizer™ with higher Ca, they probably could have used some more. Rather than supplement, I just kept up the standard feed regiment.


 
Day 62

Probably 2 weeks left, just going by age. Other than the front left that still looks good, they all are a little off. Not overly concerned since I'm close to the finish line. I'm still trying to figure out a nute blend that will keep them pristine all the way to the end. I've got an idea for FN Fertilizer v4. With v3 I upped the P, K, Ca, and Mg. That didn't solve the issue I saw with v2 and am now seeing with v3. I'm thinking of going the opposite direction and reducing all those now to pre V2 levels after reading a few other research papers.

 
Day 62

Probably 2 weeks left, just going by age. Other than the front left that still looks good, they all are a little off. Not overly concerned since I'm close to the finish line. I'm still trying to figure out a nute blend that will keep them pristine all the way to the end. I've got an idea for FN Fertilizer v4. With v3 I upped the P, K, Ca, and Mg. That didn't solve the issue I saw with v2 and am now seeing with v3. I'm thinking of going the opposite direction and reducing all those now to pre V2 levels after reading a few other research papers.

If I may be so bold - all I’m seeing is a bit of more pale than you want leaves on the back two plants. And like you say, you’re close. The buds look awesome. With your nute blend, maybe you can come up with a way to maintain N and Fe levels all the way through? Think those might be your culprits?
 
If I may be so bold - all I’m seeing is a bit of more pale than you want leaves on the back two plants. And like you say, you’re close. The buds look awesome. With your nute blend, maybe you can come up with a way to maintain N and Fe levels all the way through? Think those might be your culprits?

It's definitely not N or Fe. They do remain constant throughout the grow. The blend does not change over the life of the plant, only the amount dosed. From about 3 weeks on, the levels of N and Fe remain the same. It just seems to be the last couple weeks where things go off the rails. It doesn't seem to effect yield. Based on a new research paper I just read, I'm wondering if it's too much K. Today I'm gonna work on a 4th version of FN Fertilizer™. I have plants that have just budded in my other tent (different thread) and plan to test it though an entire run in this thread once these are harvested.
 
The color of the one in the lower left corner has always looked different from the others, but their buds now look like they are on the same level.
 
Day 65

Getting closer. The back right will probably come down first. Her buds are more purple than the others. The front left is more snow white so she must be expressing more of the White Dwarf genetics.

 
Day 65

Getting closer. The back right will probably come down first. Her buds are more purple than the others. The front left is more snow white so she must be expressing more of the White Dwarf genetics.

Just gorgeous buds @farside05 , and wow, so much purple. Have you employed low night temps, or are those just the regular expression of the strain?
 
Just gorgeous buds @farside05 , and wow, so much purple. Have you employed low night temps, or are those just the regular expression of the strain?
Thanks. The tent is in a spare bedroom in the house, aka the Weed Lab, and it's averaging a pretty steady 74 degrees.
 
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