Boxpipe's blueberry/hawaiian & Afgan Grow Journal

[boxpipe]

Thanks guys. I don't know how to express my gratitude. Except, maybe in french: Met poulet son sur la table.

(It's surprising how much mileage you can get out of grade 6 french)

Day 20
- The reservoir was this full today, so I decided to add another litre. I put 5ml of A and 5ml of B into the litre before pouring it in the reservoir:

- Overhead shots:

- Normal shots:

- Holy shit I’ve got nute burn on AFG1. The picture isn’t that great but the sign is unmistakable. (I did my research. This page is saved to my hard drive: 420 Magazine: (aw crap, this link must have changed. Well I saw it somewhere recently. Maybe the zombies took it)

- And, since I’ve just stupidly added nutes, I run to the basement to add another litre of non-nute water. I pour half of it right over AFG1 just to flush it out. I’ll check it again first thing in the morning to see if I need to take further action.
- Here’s a space I’m thinking of converting into a veg chamber:

- There’s 30 inches of space. 36 inches if I take out the bottom and go right to the floor. I can add 5 inches on top by raising the workbench surface. I can raise it even further but it quickly becomes ridiculously tall for a workbench, and stealth is a goal. I have a flouro I can stick under there which requires 4” of space. I’m dreading the fact that after I harvest, it’ll be another 4 or 5 months or so before the next one.

 

[Setting Sun]

That looks like a very usable space for veg.

Good planning ahead, nothing worse than running out of stash and having to cannibalize your grow.

Well, maybe running out of stash and not having a grow to cannibalize would be worse .

 

[boxpipe]

Right you are.

Day 21
- Big update. Lots of pics.
- Overhead shots:

- Regular shots:

- Not bad. Still have leaf damage on AFG2, and there's a few other leaves on other plants that don't look too good either.
- Thus I decide to flush the system. I really shouldn't have, since I didn't have enough water sitting out and de-chlorinating, but I decided not to wait. So here we go!
- This is how much water I had sitting out. I spent forever getting the PH correct, took about 20 to 25 drops of PH down. Had to get my wife to help me with the colour. As you can see, there's only about 5 litres of water ready.

- You can see in this pic there's a crud buildup along in the insides of the reservoir:

- I setup another bucket (this one is smaller than the other two I use) to drain the tub:

- When the water stops coming out, I prop up the other end of the tub with something handy to get the rest of the water out:

- Another look at the crud buildup:

- It went right to the top of my smaller bucket. I got lucky!

- I didn't want to set this stuff just anywhere while I did other stuff, so I used my white buckety thingy:

- Another shot of the crud buildup just before I wash it:

- A clean reservoir! I washed it with hot water and dish soap.

- I started pouring the new water back into the system, starting with a half litre of water directly on the base of each plant:

- System is up again, but clearly I don't have enough water. Also, my pump isn't really handling the uphill climb very well (note the salt buildup on the discharge hose itself):

- I stuck a 2x6 under the reservoir. Even this little height boost helped a lot. Also, though I don't show it, but I've added another 2 litres of water to the reservoir. I chucked it in right out of the tap, though I did pause to PH adjust it. Once again, my theory is that a little cholorine will help keep it clean:

- Difficult to see in this picture, but there is a scummy film that grows in my hoses. Not sure if that's algae or nutrient crud. I'll consider wrapping them in something to keep the light off them.

- You may have noticed I said nothing about nutrients. That's 'cause I didn't add any. Tonight I let the system run with plain water, tomorrow I'll replace the water with nutrients added. I've put out a bucket of water to sit overnight.

 

[Sonzor]

Looks like you getting it all figured out. If I could make one suggestion and this is something I also do is I put my tap water in two five gallon buckets and have air stones in each. It does a much better job with the chlorine and does it in a few hours instead of 24 and I always have fresh almost chlorine free water to work with. Just a thought. Great job...

 

[boxpipe]

Looks like you getting it all figured out. If I could make one suggestion and this is something I also do is I put my tap water in two five gallon buckets and have air stones in each. It does a much better job with the chlorine and does it in a few hours instead of 24 and I always have fresh almost chlorine free water to work with. Just a thought. Great job...

Huh. That's a great idea. I'd +rep you again but my wife is getting jealous (and I have no more to spend).

 

[Setting Sun]

Thanks for posting your res cleaning procedure. Yours looked pretty clean compared to some I've seen.

Sure looks nice after you scrubbed it!

They sell these long-handled brushes in aquarium shops that are made for cleaning out hoses if you want to scrub the residue out of those.

thanks for the update!

 

[boxpipe]

They sell these long-handled brushes in aquarium shops that are made for cleaning out hoses if you want to scrub the residue out of those.

Another good idea. Thanks, kemosabe!

 

[Setting Sun]

Another good idea. Thanks, kemosabe!

you're welcome brother!

I was looking through some of my old stuff and found some that I used to use with my aquariums. They would work great for keeping hydro hoses clean.

 

[boxpipe]

Day 22
- The discoloration on AFG2 is bigger this morning. May not be nute burn. We shall see.
- I swapped out the flush water and added in new water that had been sitting over night. So non-cholorinated, PH adjusted, Nutes added. I added Gro A&B at 1.25ml each per litre. I measured up 8 litres of water and dropped in 10ml of each. Stirred. Here's the new water in the reservoir:

- I still see a lot of that scummy crap. I'll have to do something about that. There's a disturbing amount.
- Overhead shots:

- Regular shots:

- I've slightly changed the way I do my pictures. I now crop before resizing. I've discovered good close-up shots don't have to be shot from real close up. Get as close as you can while still in focus then zoom when you have it on the PC. Then crop, then resize, and now I add the name right to the pic. Today I started adding the Day count so there's no chance of confusion.
- I've kept all my original pics. I'm toying with the idea of going back and redoing all my pics this way, but it's a shitload of work and I can't use my batch script anymore.
- AFG3 above is the first pic to have all of these changes.
- Now that I think about it, I'm not sure this is the best way. If I'm continually cropping to the size of the plant, I don't get a constant aspect. Bah.
- And now that I think about it, I should be putting a ruler in there too.
- I'm depressed now. Wish I had a cookie.

And now a personal moment. I don't know anyone who smokes regularly. Well strike that, I knew one guy but I haven't seen him in years. Also, I probably know people who do, I just don't know it.

And every time... I mean almost everytime... that I've ever queried someone about purchasing something, has always ended in a good deal of embarrassment for me. They don't do it. They're not into that. They only get a little from a friend. No, they won't put me in touch with that person, am I insane? I come off feeling like an idiot, a drug addict, a friendship abuser, etc.

I'm growing my own because...

I can't seem to buy the stuff (I never see anyone else with this problem).

I think it will help my wife (to sleep, a couple nights a month. You know what I'm talkin bout.) and myself. Yeah, hiatus hernia sounds like a real serious problem, right (although now they're telling me it's something else. No idea what. Thanks, Doc! Thanks for nothing, again!). Well imagine filling a balloon full of water so it's about the size of a baseball and shoving it under your ribcage right beneath your heart. It's not quite painful but it's always there. It's always disturbing. I can never sit still, and I've tried. Really really tried. Believe it or not, I'm on amitriptyline to "lesson the effect". This medicine has some annoying side effects like making your mouth dry all the time. ALL THE TIME. I take gum everywhere, or I'm always carrying a coffee, or something. And 2 or 3 times a day I'll be talking to someone when my mouth suddenly feels like I've eaten a mitt full of hay and I have nothing handy to chew. It's freaking annoying and embarrassing. Also, this medicine doesn't go well with alcohol, and often only increases the effect (bad, see next point). And, finally, I bet a few of you already know, but this drug used to be used for depression. Yes, that's right, DEPRESSION. And I'm not depressed! Seriously. (You should see how other doctors react to that. "You're on what?! For what?! Oh. I guess that makes sense.") And now that I think about it, it makes you really really sensitive to loud noises. That used to really freak me out. Shut a book and I jump. Except I don't do it anymore. I can only wonder what permanent side-effects I have taken on. Not to mention that I appear to be on this drug for the rest of my life.

Finally, I have a drinking problem. Most of the time I have it under control and it's not a problem. But once every 6 months or so I lose control for a night. Then anything's possible. In university days I would wake up in the morning feeling like death with no memory of the night before. And everybody would hate me and nobody wanted to talk about what happened. It's the worst feeling ever. So yeah, I'm looking for an alternative.

 

[Sonzor]

Been there done that with the booze my friend. Not sure I have or every had a drinking problem but you go out with a few friends drink a few drinks and wake up the next morning feeling horrible with this uneasy feeling that something terrible happened the night before but cant remember anything. Sometimes nothing, other times bad things and every once in a while a nice cut, black eye or ache you cant account for. Lucky for me those days are over. A few beers or wine when I am not relaxing with a bowl of course. One thing I can say about weed is the only thing you would have to apologize for the next morning is maybe to say sorry to the wife for falling asleep. Good luck and take it slow on the booze or even better take a big bong rip, stay home and watch a movie. Works for me..

 

[Tead]

Just saw your journal. Your heat issues caught my eye. Was chuckling at the cisco router.... never seen a grow with a router involved! Shoulda used a pix firewall.... much more secure than a router!

hehe

Cheers!

 

[boxpipe]

Been there done that with the booze my friend. Not sure I have or every had a drinking problem but you go out with a few friends drink a few drinks and wake up the next morning feeling horrible with this uneasy feeling that something terrible happened the night before but cant remember anything. Sometimes nothing, other times bad things and every once in a while a nice cut, black eye or ache you cant account for. Lucky for me those days are over. A few beers or wine when I am not relaxing with a bowl of course. One thing I can say about weed is the only thing you would have to apologize for the next morning is maybe to say sorry to the wife for falling asleep. Good luck and take it slow on the booze or even better take a big bong rip, stay home and watch a movie. Works for me..

Yeah, it's not exactly a drinking problem, more of a occasional failure to pace myself. But that morning after feeling, man you got that right. It sucks. I've been very good for a while now. Last time I blacked out, I pretty much just threw up on the carpet and went to bed. Other than that, haven't done that in a couple years now.

Just saw your journal. Your heat issues caught my eye. Was chuckling at the cisco router.... never seen a grow with a router involved! Shoulda used a pix firewall.... much more secure than a router!

hehe

Cheers!

Hey, Cisco routers were the bomb back in the day, eh. That one there probably cost $1500 brand new. Now it's just a piece of junk. I don't even use it at home because it's only 10MB.

I never really solved my heat problem, except the weather did for me. My basement just cooled down a lot as fall/winter came on. My water was also way to warm, but then I had a pretty big air stone in my reservoir so I think that really helped.

Welcome to my grow!

 

[Tead]

I actually have an old Pix515 running in my home network. I'm way familiar with the Cisco IOS, especially the older versions, so it's a welcome addition to my stack and I share my network with my neighbors, so I feel alot safer with a real firewall in the mix.

Cheers!

 

[boxpipe]

No pics in in Day 23 update, so I'll post Day 25 right after.

Day 23
- Nute burn continues on AFG2. BBY1 and AFG1 are also showing a little. AFG3 shows a tiny bit of nute burn, but it's still the biggest and strongest plant by far. This is probably the best indication that it is nute burn. It's worse on the smallest plant, and least on the strongest plant.
- Water in the reservoir was down to about 1/3 or ¼. I had a bucket of water sitting out, so I PH adjusted it and added about 4 litres directly to the reservoir. I won't add any more nutes for a while. From what I understand, once the leaf is burned, it won't recover. The rest of the plant should be fine though, once I have things right. Omg I badly need a digital PH/TDS/EC tester. But I ain't got 200 bananas to spend. I could very easily be having a problem with the EC of my tap water, but I have no way of knowing.

 

[boxpipe]

Day 25
- I checked on them yesterday and there was no big change. I didn’t take any pics.
- Today:

- AFG1 is still struggling with nute burn. I added 2 or 3 more litres of water today. PH adjusted but no nutes. I really really really need a digital PH meter. My eyes just can’t do this. I have 20-20 vision, I just can’t do colours.
- I noticed in Urdedpal’s journal that he knew the sex of his plants by the pre-flowers. I have no idea what to look for, but I managed to get a couple close-ups of AFG3:

- I often check out reflections I can see in my pics due to the mylar. What the heck is this?? Hahaha.

- Here are some more pics from much later in the day, around midnight. New growth on AFG1 looks good, no signs of nute burn:

- I fear they may be too close to each other.
- This part of the process is pretty easy. I could fill the reservoir and leave it for a week easy. Though, I should take PH readings daily. Unfortunately it doesn’t do me much good to take readings with this drip and colour system. I need a digital PH meter asap!

 

[boxpipe]

I actually have an old Pix515 running in my home network. I'm way familiar with the Cisco IOS, especially the older versions, so it's a welcome addition to my stack and I share my network with my neighbors, so I feel alot safer with a real firewall in the mix.

Cheers!

No question, Cisco is quality gear. We always used the best.

 

[Setting Sun]

Thanks for the update, boxpipe!

They're looking short and stacked, nice!

Is that yellowish color all due to the HPS light?

 

[boxpipe]

Thanks for the update, boxpipe!

They're looking short and stacked, nice!

Is that yellowish color all due to the HPS light?

Yeah. I swear they're green. Honest!

 

[Setting Sun]

lol .

 

[HazeSeeker]

looking good ...