DRM's - T5 - Hydro - OSH - Grow Journal 2015-2016

Thank you for signing on dreadednorth, I'm not using anything but the Dyna Gro nutrients. My current formula is 2.5g RO water, 5ml ProTekt, 10ml Grow, 2ml MagPro, which nets a pH right at 5.8 and a fairly low ppm in the 520's or thereabouts.

I'm watering once daily, and doing a by hand recirculating method until I have pumps and timers ready to do the job.

I water about three times the container volume, check reservoir pH and correct it if it is below 5.8, water again and check the rest pH and correct if needed, I do this as many times as needed to ensure the media pH is 5.8-5.9.

I am learning that pH is quite possibly the biggest aspect of nutrient management. Getting it right, and keeping it right is working for me.

As for the low ppm value, I have scoured and scoured the web and folks who seem to have excellent results backed up with pics are always going really easy on the nutrients.

In flower I plan to ramp the nutrient concentration up but I'm going to keep ppm's below 1k ppm targeting 830 at peak then ramping down over the final 4 weeks.
 
How did the transplant go? I have often thought about a grow with T5's to see how they would turn out... Are you in flower yet?

Transplant went fine, its pretty much a zero issue deal with the rockwool cube media.

I'm not going into flower till I have a dehumidifier up and running. My lights out humidity is higher than I am willing to flower under. With more than 800w of t-5 light I think it'll go okay, if not I'll have learned something.
 
In this grow I have two plants that are slower than the rest, I'm not at all worried about these as I planned on some level of failure from the get go.

On these slower plants I'm trying out things like foliar feeding with different formulas; today I mixed up

1qt RO water
1tsp baking soda (to elevate pH on the leaf surface as a mold and mildew prevention)
1tsp dawn (to aid in coverage, surfactant)
0.6ml foliage-pro (foliar feeding)

The two smallest of my plants get to be the guinea pigs today, 1 hour prior to lights on they get a good showering of the mixture.

I'd like to find a nice foliar spray formula to supplement the root feeding moving forward, the one thing I know isn't going to make it into that mix is the dawn, a real surfactant will replace that component. My local hydro shop has coco wet and dutch master saturator, however those seem to be expensive options. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.
 
Since my last update I've been experimenting with pH and ppm; nothing here should be taken as anything other than what it is, me reporting on this grow.

pH, from time to time I check the pH as it first starts to drain while I'm watering/feeding. With a 5.8-5.9 pH going in I've seen drain pH as low as 5.3!!! In my mind that means the media pH was likely we'll below the pH value I record (an average of the nutrients suspended in the media and what I put in fresh). My aim at a solution is then to increase my initial pH high enough to allow it to drift across a more desirable spread of pH values. I decided a pH of 6.5 would be my first trial. I landed on 6.4, called it good, and watered till the pH in and out stabilized at 6.2 giving me the impression that my media pH is very likely also sitting at 6.2 (that is 0.4 higher than usual), my hypothesis is that the pH drift will still go downward, and that it will perhaps not go so very low.

ppm, I did water the plants with as high as 800 ppm once, it seems to me that one plant showed a marked dislike for such high nutrient concentration so I'm subjectively capping veg nutes at 600 for now. I am trying to play around with ppm in an effort to see how increasing or decreasing effects the plants and other measured factors like pH, ppm, total nutrient uptake, etc.

I believe getting a better grasp of pH control is important. It may well be more important than any other factor to me right now.

As for the grow equipment standpoint, I am going to pick up a dehumidifier this evening and a few more items to get myself ready to flower these girls. I'm not in a serious rush so when they flip to 12:12 they might be big.
 
Looking forward to seeing the flower process... Are you going to continue under the T5's or switch? My girls all start under T5 and do very well. Never flowered with them so I'm curious!

Yes, I intend to flower under the t-5 lights, they are all I have at the moment to work with.

I can't yet afford to buy a full HID or LED lighting system, so my plan has always been to start with the t-5 lights which will always be used to veg, then add a couple 600-1000w HID lights for flowering when funds allow.

I'm cautiously optimistic that the t-5 lights will do just fine, but I don't see them as a long term solution here in my grow room. The t-5 lights have served me very well thus far, they are a bit warmer than I had expected, I can't imagine what SHO t-5 lights might put out in terms of hear.

Thanks for looking, I'll do my best to get the most out of the t-5 lights as is possible.
 
I think you'll do just fine with them... The grow to this point looks great... those roots look fantastic! The heat on the hps or mh would be MUCH higher! Not sure on what exactly your grow room looks like but you definitely need to plan ahead if your going to switch lighting systems. Keep us posted!
 
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Bring on some more equipment!!!

Pardon the mess, this is my recirculating system; 14gal tote, 5" net pot, small net pot, 9" hydro halo, 1/2" water line, 250gph submersible pump, and a 7 day digital programmable timer.
 
I think you'll do just fine with them... The grow to this point looks great... those roots look fantastic! The heat on the hps or mh would be MUCH higher! Not sure on what exactly your grow room looks like but you definitely need to plan ahead if your going to switch lighting systems. Keep us posted!

I don't see a light swap actually happening, mainly because of the additional heat management equipment I would need to purchase.

My next project is a couple SCROG carts on castors. I should be able to bang those out this weekend if all goes well.
 
I've been putting a ton of work into building a pair of adjoining rooms to my current room.

As far as the plants are concerned, little new to report on at this time, they are mainly on auto pilot, I've increased the frequency the two larger girls are watered/fed to twice a day; first being right at lights on and again eight hours later.

I need to do something to make training them to fit the SCROG net a bit easier than just looking for some random place to tie branches down. That's something I'm just thinking about now.

I'm thinking about an automatic plant reservoir top off system, I'd like very much to be able to take off for a week and not worry about a low reservoir allowing a pump to run dry. I'm thinking simple float valves, and secondary reservoirs. The idea is still young, and I don't have enough data on my own grow to make a final decision on how that will fully work out.
 
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Framing work.


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Drywall going up.

Walls are 2x4 with insulation. Pretty standard stuff here.

I'm dividing my grow into three areas, first is the clone/work room, second will be the veg room, third will be the flower room.

The entrance to the clone/work room will be via a double door entry way to prevent unwanted pests from gaining access. Both doors will be locked for security as well.

The clone room will have a wash basin, work counter, access to my RO water and nutrients, storage, and cloning area. Access to both the veg and flower room are on either side of from the clone/work room.

The veg room will hold the RO system and 50 gallon reservoir which in turn is plumbed back into the clone/work room wash basin.

The flower room is going to be the simplest of the three rooms, mainly just the room and electric.

All rooms have exhaust vents, HVAC will go in at a later time but prior to our summer.
 
I'm considering the same thing. Trying to decide if we are staying here at our current home or moving? If we decide to stay I will be completely changing my grow room. Re-designing the entire system and possibly going totally hydro! Not sure yet? Your is looking good. how long till harvest? If I switch thing around I will definitely put some fluorescent lighting in there.
 
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