CR1MS' ReadyGro in Flo-N-Gro Organic Multiple Strain Grow 2012

[CR1MS]

Okay how about we start with an intro? This is going to be my first grow journal but not my first grow. This is going to be interesting since this is the first time I'm trying this and from what I hear, no one's really tried this before either. After looking through some reviews on the Titan Flo-N-Gro system I decided to buy it. The extra bonus was stumbling upon this forum and now I've decided to stick around and see what it has to offer. So last week I decided to go shopping and $647.35 later I came home with:
One of these,

Four of these,

and got 12 of these on order.

I also went to home depot and bought some 3\4" I.D. x 20' corrugated tubing. Thanks and credit goes out to noknowcure for the idea. Just FYI, the home depot employee had no idea what I was talking about when I asked him where this was. He couldn't even find it in the computer. (he had sku# and everything) Instead of depending on the "experts" go straight to the outdoor garden center and look for the fish pond and water feature area. The tubing is for fish ponds so i figured that would be the logical place for it. In case anyone might also need some extra 1/2" I.D. tubing, they have that there too. Both tubing is ok for fish so I'm sure it'll be good for consumable plants as well. That costed me $18.37. The only reason I bought the extra tubing is because of what I plan on doing with this system. Hang out long enough and you'll find out why.

 

[CR1MS]

Quick Info

Strains; Lemon Skunk, Chem Dog, Blue Dream, and NYCD#5. I got all of these from clone so not 100% on genetics.
All are in veg right now. Still waiting to be transplanted from my clone trays. I'm not too sure how long I'll veg for. It all depends on how they react to the nutrient.

This is an indoor grow.

I will be using Botanicare ReadyGro in a Titan Flo-N-Gro

The Flo-N-Gro has 4 gal grow sites with 3 gallon mesh inserts. I will also be using a fabric liner to make sure the ReadyGro stays in the mesh insert.

For Veg, I use 1 1000W Dimmable Lumatek LK1000 electronic ballast with a Plantmax 1000W Metal Halide bulb. I dim the light to 600W during early veg. I use a Hydrofarm Xtrasun XT6AC hood. and yes it's air cooled.

For flowering, I use the same thing as veg times 2 and I set the ballast to 1000W in early flower and turn it to the super lumen feature in mid flower til harvest.

Temp of the room stays around 78-85ish and RH is around 40% but is easily manipulated since I'm indoors.

pH is something that I don't really bother with. I run only R/O water and my nutrient does little to change the pH......or maybe I'm just lazy. One of these days I should start checking that.

Pests= HECK NO!! BETTER NOT!!

I'm planning on running the flood cycle 3 or 4 times when lights are on and once when the lights are off. If I decide on something else I'll be sure to post it here.

Ok here's the tricky part. I'm gonna try and go through this and do my best to not sound like an a-hole. The fertilizer I'm using has not yet been released to consumers. The whole reason for this grow is to see if this fertilizer can be used in a hydroponic application. I've used this product in a past soil grow, which is what it was made for. It worked wonderfully and was so easy. All I have to do is water the plants and feed them every 10 days. The fertilizer is 100% organic and its the only thing I'm going to be using from start to finish. That's all I can really say about it.

I'm really excited to see how this turns out!

 

[CR1MS]

Setting Up the Titan Flo-N-Gro

On Friday I got to pick up my Square Root Flo-N-Gro so I decided to set it all up and get it going on Saturday. Unfortunately I forgot to make water so I only got to set up the system and will wait to transplant my clones.

First thing I want to go into is the liners. I had no idea how to use these things. as you can see here, it doesn't really fit.

So I thought maybe the liner replaced the mesh insert. So I took out the insert and put the liner into the grow site. It fits perfectly but didn't make any sense.

I decided to fold the liner over the top of the mesh insert and I'm guessing that's they way it's supposed to go. So here's what my grow site will look like.

Setting up this system was really easy! I plan to veg and flower with the same system so here's why I bought the extra tubing. I didn't want all my grow sites spread far apart while in veg. Since the clones will be small I want to get all the pots close to each other so that I can fit them under one 600W light. I placed the 12 grow sites in a 4x3 pattern and all next to each other. I cut 9 9" pieces of 3/4" tubing from the provided roll to go in between my grow sites.

After that was done I took the corrugated tubing and cut 3 pieces long enough to go from my controller unit to the grow sites. This tubing is a pain in the butt to get on the fittings. I used a needle nose pliers to stretch it out and I also sprayed water in the tubing as well as on the fitting to help get it on. I was thinking of using hose clamps to secure these since the tubes aren't all the way on the fitting. In the end I decided to not use the clamps because besides the tubing being on there REALLY tight, I don't think there's enough pressure on those tubes to push the tube off the fitting.

Lastly I added the ReadyGro into the grow sites. In case anyone decides to use this same method, make a note that I bought 4 bags of the ReadyGro and only needed 2 bags to fill the 12 grow sites. But then again, everything is still dry until I get to fill my res.

Now I just sit and wait patiently for tomorrow and I will get to transplant my clones into this system.

 

[Smokemupm8]

Hey mate.. well, you got a nice little setup happening there bro! Hope its packed full of buds in time to come. Im keen to see what you decide to grow. Goodluk and Happy Harvesting

 

[exile19]

Cant wait to see this one

 

[CR1MS]

Hey mate.. well, you got a nice little setup happening there bro! Hope its packed full of buds in time to come. Im keen to see what you decide to grow. Goodluk and Happy Harvesting

Thanks for stopping by and for your encouragement! As far as what I decide to grow goes, I'll be growing 3 Lemon Skunks, 3 Blue Dreams, 3 Chem Dogs, and 3 NYCD#5.

 

[CR1MS]

Cant wait to see this one

You and me both!

 

[CR1MS]

First, congrats on your new system!


Your media will be what best determines how best to time your watering schedules. Especially early on, you'll want to keep it from being constantly "soaked". I've played around quite a bit, but have found best results, for me in hydroton, to be 1-2 waterings per day during the early veg stage, and ramping that to 3 per day once the roots are showing through the sides and bottoms of the netpot. Fewer waterings early on will encourage the roots to seek for moisture and will speed root growth and development. Once the roots are well established, you can ramp that up. You don't want it to dry out, but getting close to that will help the root growth and development. More is not better at the beginning.

During bloom, I water about once every 3-4 hours during lights on only (all waterings in veg and bloom should be with lights on). I used to water once during lights off (again with hydroton) to keep things moist, but after gaining some experience with the system I found it unnecessary and the plants did better once I discontinued that. My first watering is about 15 minutes after lights on, my last is about 1 hour before lights off.

Light cycles are a whole 'nother ball game. There are many opinions on this. I've vegged under 18/6, 24/0 as well as the 12-1 (Gas Lantern Routine) method. Honestly, I don't see a big difference between them. Perhaps the 18/6 and the 12-1 technique speed the veg phase slightly. 12-1 technique is also supposed to help build up flowering hormones as you head toward the bloom phase, but it's a little more to manage. If you aren't familiar with the 12-1 technique (also called Gas Lantern Routine) do a search on the site or go*gle it for more details. It works good, saves on electricity, and may help build up flowering hormones prior to switching to the bloom phase - reducing plant stress during the transition. Since most of my vegging is in an adjascent space and "speedy" veg growth is not what I'm typically trying to accomplish, I'm vegging under 24 hours of light per day. Honestly, I don't see much difference in any of the veg light cycles as far as the plant growth/development. I also haven't noticed any quicker bloom activity based on the veg cycle previous to it. So, personal preference comes into play, too.

For bloom lighting phase - 12/12 is the standard. However, there is some merit to a diminishing bloom phase where the timers are reduced slightly each week until the end of bloom. This light cycle is the bloom part of the 12-1 technique, and most closely mimics nature. Also, DJ Short (well respected grower and breeder) has a belief that 12/12 is better suited to indica varieties, and not sativas. He feels that a shorter light cycle (for example 11 on, 13 off) will help bring out sativa tendencies in hybrids and sativas. There may be something to that, as many sativas almost refuse to flower or finish flowering under 12 hours of light, necessitating a reduction of light hours to get them to properly "finish". Currently, I'm growing sativa-dom plants and am using a light cycle of 11.5/12.5 from start to finish and am happy to this point.


I think the corrugated tubing was from noknowcure, and I can't answer you on that. I would just say, make damned sure those fittings are on securely to avoid flooding your grow room. Better safe than sorry is a good motto in that regard, as I've seen/heard some horror stories from people who inadvertently flooded their room with 55 gallons of nutrient water. Doh! On that note, test the system with water and no nutrients before putting plants in it to make sure everything is working well and nothing is leaking.

I realized that for some strange reason I thought I had to water the ReadyGro more than Hydroton. Anyways after figuring that out, I decided to Run my light/flood schedule like this; lights on at 6am and off at 12am. (18/6) I have 2 floods through out the day. First one at 6:15am and the second at 6pm. I think that should keep things moist but still allow for a bit of drying time. I ran the flood this morning at 6am when the lights came on and checked the ReadyGro around 5:30pm. It was still damp about 1" down. I'll keep an eye out for that and may even possibly try 1 flood a day and see what happens. Less floods actually may work to my advantage. My nutrient will have more time within the root zone before being "washed out" of the medium.

I agree with you on the lighting cycles. I've used 24/0, 18/6, and even 16/8 and have never really seen any drastic differences. I also do believe that plants need to sleep. Staying up for 24 hrs would drive me nuts and I don't want to put my girls through that kinda torture. That GLR method sounds interesting. Maybe I'll check that out when I have some down time.

Let me know how your bloom turns out with your 11.5/12.5 schedule. I LOVE my sativas! If that really works out, I most definitely am going to use that schedule! Once again thanks for all your helpful tips.

 

[CR1MS]

7/9 Transplant

So I finally got to transplant my clones into the Flo-N-Gro. L to R; NYCD#5, Chem Dog, Lemon Skunk, and Blue Dream. I also fed each clone with 2oz. of my fertilizer dilution. I'll try and take daily pictures to see what kind of growth I'll be getting. I also plan to top each plant in a few days.

 

[Xlr8]

Looking good so far! Nice start to the journal and grow. Glad you decided to start a journal - I don't think there are many, if any, out there using square root liners and a mix like this. Can't wait to follow along! + rep for a great start and luck with the grow.

 

[CR1MS]

Looking good so far! Nice start to the journal and grow. Glad you decided to start a journal - I don't think there are many, if any, out there using square root liners and a mix like this. Can't wait to follow along! + rep for a great start and luck with the grow.

I'm glad I decided to do this as well! I may be the first doing this exact grow but I'm glad I'm here cause 10 heads are better than 1 and I'm pretty sure I'd like to have a bunch of second opinions if I run into any problems.

 

[CR1MS]

7/10 Update

I have no idea why I did it, but I ended up taking the 6pm flood off the schedule this morning before I left for work. When I got home, I checked the ReadyGro with a moisture meter. Wet! 17 hours after my 6:15am flooding, the ReadyGro is still wet. I'm glad I ended up doing that. So for now my flood cycle will be once a day at 6:15am. Maybe when all the root zones get more established and the plants start drinking more water then I'll bump the floods up.

So with all that being said, I'm wondering if there are any ways to increase the rate at which my medium drys out. Or if I really even need to bother with that. Any thoughts or ideas will be greatly welcomed.

 

[Xlr8]

Good call on taking that flood out. The biggest reason I have hesitated to do a grow like you are doing is a slight fear that, at least in veg/early veg, even (1) flood a day would be too much, necessitating manual interaction. However, I wasn't familiar with the Ready Gro aeration blend mix that you are using (I need to get out more!). I'd keep a close eye on things to make sure that even just (1) a day isn't too much at the start. Eventually the plants will help dry things, but the sides of those liners aren't exposed so drying will be from top only (I know you know this, but I worry about moisture for you in the beginning here, and I want to see you rock this grow!). Again, great call!

Make sure you have good air movement and that your RH isn't too high - that's about all you can do to help things dry faster, other than heat from lights, but you'll want to be careful there. 30-40% RH might be ideal. Not too dry, but enough to make plants thirsty and speed drying of media.

 

[CR1MS]

I got 2 circulating fans and RH is about 42%. I checked the ReadyGro for moisture levels and the meter kept reading wet. No surprise there. So I decided to stop all floods and will just keep an eye on the moisture levels and will flood again when the medium is slightly dry.

 

[Xlr8]

I got 2 circulating fans and RH is about 42%. I checked the ReadyGro for moisture levels and the meter kept reading wet. No surprise there. So I decided to stop all floods and will just keep an eye on the moisture levels and will flood again when the medium is slightly dry.

How's it going? Wishing you luck, and hoping things are coming along for you.

 

[Alaskan1]

Good call on taking that flood out. The biggest reason I have hesitated to do a grow like you are doing is a slight fear that, at least in veg/early veg, even (1) flood a day would be too much, necessitating manual interaction. However, I wasn't familiar with the Ready Gro aeration blend mix that you are using (I need to get out more!). I'd keep a close eye on things to make sure that even just (1) a day isn't too much at the start. Eventually the plants will help dry things, but the sides of those liners aren't exposed so drying will be from top only (I know you know this, but I worry about moisture for you in the beginning here, and I want to see you rock this grow!). Again, great call!

Make sure you have good air movement and that your RH isn't too high - that's about all you can do to help things dry faster, other than heat from lights, but you'll want to be careful there. 30-40% RH might be ideal. Not too dry, but enough to make plants thirsty and speed drying of media.

Mini heat gun attached to each pot??
Just curious why you went with this medium?

 

[Truth Seeker]

How did this grow turn out?

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