Growing Without Bloom Nutes By Farside05

Things on the agenda for my off days:

Hang shelves and decor in the weed lab.

Make some FN Nutes. I need to pick up several gallons of distilled water. Up till now I've only made quarts but I'm feeling pretty confident now in the formula after using it for a couple months. I'll make a gallon of each so that I don't have to worry about that chore for a while. Digging out all the salts and weighing takes most of the time. The time difference between making a quart a gallon will be minimal.

@Reave asked me to revisit an old experiment I did in 2019 comparing a cell phone light meter app to an actual lux meter. Last time the app/phone combo proved to be highly inaccurate. Let's see if newer phones and apps produce better results.
 
Do you know where the switch for that is? I want to turn it OFF! Not too much more headroom with the light unless I reconfigure the exhaust fan.
I’d say test negative DIF! Srsly :) keep night time temps equal or higher than lights on.

Also I read some of the seaweed/kelps does have a natural PGR’s which should inhibit the stretch/stem elongation.

I fed my soil plant (Purple Punch#1) with some cheap market seaweed extarct which had kelp on it, and you may have seen how compact she stayed.

This is a good read: Reducing Stretch in Hydroponic Crops | Manic Botanix about the stretch phase and how to control it. Article talks a lot about those PGR concentrates, but at the end theres more about the DIF and other natural ways to inhibit it.
 
I’d say test negative DIF! Srsly :) keep night time temps equal or higher than lights on.

Also I read some of the seaweed/kelps does have a natural PGR’s which should inhibit the stretch/stem elongation.

I fed my soil plant (Purple Punch#1) with some cheap market seaweed extarct which had kelp on it, and you may have seen how compact she stayed.

This is a good read: Reducing Stretch in Hydroponic Crops | Manic Botanix about the stretch phase and how to control it. Article talks a lot about those PGR concentrates, but at the end theres more about the DIF and other natural ways to inhibit it.

Much of my issue is of my own making. LST works wonders to control the height but I keep growing 4 plants in a smaller space. Kind of a quasi SOG. Therefore, I don't have room to spread them out. I let them go about a week longer in veg than normal because I was hoping the NAA would vacate the bigger tent. That didn't happen since the NAA has been an extremely slow developer. All the Blue Dreams I've grown in the past have been big stretchers. I should have planned accordingly. They do look like they're gonna fill in the internodal space though. Should have some missiles for colas, which is not a bad thing.

Lights are currently off during the day (when the room is the warmest) and on during the night, when it's cooler. I switch it up just to try to keep it balanced as much as possible since there's no supplemental heat in the tent, just the normal house heating and cooling that's set to 68 in the winter. The other smaller tent that's in the closet has supplemental heat and is set at 72 around the clock. The NAA is in there now and once harvested it'll see some Original Glue and Zkittlez autos.
 
@Reave Here's my new, or not so new, take on phone apps.

So I have a new Google Pixel 5A. Its known for good photos, so one would think its got one of the better light sensors on the market. I installed the Photone light app. Set it to Lux and Full Spectrum LED. Out of the box, next to my lux meter, I get this.


Ok, its off in low light, and a regular light bulb, not full spectrum LED. Lets go to the tent.

At the tent door

Under bright lights, left center and right readings.



Kinda like the last time I tested a phone app. Basically says 45,000 everywhere under bright light compared to fluctuating values on my lux meter.

So I find a pretty consistent 40,000 lux on my meter and recalibrate the phone app. Now without having a lux meter to begin with, how would one calibrate the app? I test with the newly recalibrated phone and app.



Holy shit! Its even worse!

Verdict? Phone light meters are very inaccurate, even when "calibrated". Zero stars, do not recommend. It's my opinion that spending an extra $20 for a real meter is well worth it, considering the hundreds that we spend on our lighting.
 
Your phone is in the case. And you didn’t follow the directions in the app and make the diffuser for the phone out of white paper. It says that when you load the app doesn’t it?
E8CF422E-F040-4EA3-814B-7FB6C857FEAC.png
 
Your phone is in the case. And you didn’t follow the directions in the app and make the diffuser for the phone out of white paper. It says that when you load the app doesn’t it?
E8CF422E-F040-4EA3-814B-7FB6C857FEAC.png

I saw no such instructions on the android version. It has a case but no screen protector.
 
I saw no such instructions on the android version.
Interesting. That little caution exclamation on the meter click that and see what it says.

The versions may not be the same though. They say the iPhone one is calibrated at factory and is usually better than a cheap light meter. They claim not mine.
22C94E36-2AC9-441B-A6B9-586DC6579FC7.png


Well maybe one day I can afford a good PAR meter and check it out. I think the accurate one are 600$ CAD.
 
Interesting. That little caution exclamation on the meter click that and see what it says.

The versions may not be the same though. They say the iPhone one is calibrated at factory and is usually better than a cheap light meter. They claim not mine.
22C94E36-2AC9-441B-A6B9-586DC6579FC7.png


Well maybe one day I can afford a good PAR meter and check it out. I think the accurate one are 600$ CAD.

Yeah, I didn't spend more on a meter than my light. I opted for a lux meter and have used THIS as my guide. Although I'm a little rougher on my seedlIngs and normally hit them with about 15k lux. It does seem to keep my seedlings from stretching too much. I aim for 30k as younger adults. Full adult veg and bloom around 50k. 60k+ and I'll see light burn typically.
 
Sounds like you have a good system worked out. I hear yah I don’t think I spend 600 on my tent and light. I built my own light DIY style and bought a pretty cheap tent. But it’s been going for a few years now so I’m glad I didn’t spend too much. I might by a sponsor light eventually if one of mine goes. One almost did but soldered it back together and it’s still going. Think I might get a Mars.
 
The Vipar XS2000 in the he small tent does ok. It's a relatively small footprint. I do like the strip style that I built better though. Seems to dissipate heat better than all clumped together on one board plus I think you get more even coverage. Cost was a big decider at that time so I didn't pony up more for a built strip light style. As more companies are moving that direction, the price is coming down more though.
 
Let's make some nutes:

FN A©

Measure out 189.3g Potassium Nitrate

Measure out 189.3g Ammonium Calcium Nitrate

Measure out 378.5g Magnesium Nitrate

Add all 3 to a pot, add 1 gal distilled water. Heat and stir until dissolved. Wait for it to cool and transfer back into the gallon container. You'll have a bit more than a gallons worth. The extra I'll pour into my smaller containers for feeding then top those off with the gallon.

*Part A is the hardest to dissolve and I think it has to do with my Ammonium Calcium Nitrate. I think the prills have a slight plastic coating that likes to cling to the edge of the pot. Eventually it all dissolves with enough heat and stirring. A different brand may not have this issue.
 
Lastly today we'll make some FN Silica©. I won't be making FN Micros© today since I still have about 1/3 gallons left. While the others you can make in quarts like I had previously, you have to make Micros by the gallon. Why? The amount used of some of the chelated metals are so minute, even in a gallon, my scale couldn't come close to measuring it since the lowest it goes is one tenth of a gram.

I measure out 280g of AgSil 16h (Potassium Silicate).

Here's where its a bit different. Empty your distilled water into the pot 1st and heat it some. Now slowly sprinkle in your powder while stirring.

Why the change? If you put the powder in 1st and then add the water, the powder turns into a clumpy gelatinized goo. It will eventually all dissolve with heat, stirring, and breaking up clumps, but this way saves you that headache. How do I know? I've done it the powder then water way before, and it sucks.

I might have to make some FN Micros© in a month and a half since they are out of sync, but the batches today should last me a good 3 months.

Hope you've enjoyed today's FN© Tutorials.
 
My daughter works at Home Depot and she bought some Amaryllis bulbs with these little buckets and coco pucks on close out. She planted them on the 15th of December. It had a couple shoots on them, smaller than the one that's bottom right now. In just a few short weeks we have this. Two foot tall and blooming. Being fed medium strength FN Nutes© (about 6ml each product). Don't you wish we could go from seed to blooms that fast?

 
Thanks for the mixing tutorial!

Like Reave I was wondering about the missing diffuser in the instructions for the app I've seen here. When you get a chance try it using the iPhone instructions and see if it makes a difference, unless it's tied to the iPhone sensor being a standard compared to the myriad versions of Android phone manufacturers.

And we have the same Ammonium Sulfate and Magnesium Nitrate! Amazon bargain hunters unite. :high-five:
And now I'll be singing this all day!
 
Thanks for the mixing tutorial!

Like Reave I was wondering about the missing diffuser in the instructions for the app I've seen here. When you get a chance try it using the iPhone instructions and see if it makes a difference, unless it's tied to the iPhone sensor being a standard compared to the myriad versions of Android phone manufacturers.

Your killing me Smalls. :rofl: That's right, you're not a movie quote guy. Maybe when lights are on again. Don't know if I'll get to it tonight since I'm on hour 20 and many drinks.

And we have the same Ammonium Sulfate and Magnesium Nitrate! Amazon bargain hunters unite. :high-five:

It's not so much Amazon as it's local at Ace Hardware and I don't have to pay the extra $ for shipping. Although I have Prime, they are still baking in some of that cost.


I guess there's worse songs :rofl:
 
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