Kushtie - Dark Devil - Candy Kush & Himalaya Orange Diesel - Autos In NFT

Light off with flash pic:

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The Dark Devil Auto in the middle seems to be slowing down upward growth and starting to grow flowers so I guess it's time to switch her to bloom nutes. The main top is now at the back right of that pic. She does seem to be a bit moody with her leaves, especially before lights off but then she seems to enjoy her sleep and perk up soon after lights on. I guess SueZilla is just more of a morning girl ;)

Plant on the right is Candy Kush Auto looking like she might need a lift up and on the left is Himalaya Orange Diesel.
 
Will get a big camera back up here again soon.....

Dark Devil now on flowering nutes at about EC 1.5 although hopefully that will increase as she drives the pH up and creates more room for nutes to bring it back down. It's the same every time I flush now.....can only get the EC so high or my pH would drop out of range unless I use other additives.

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I like adding nutes in top ups anyway. In veg autos don't seem to need too many top ups with nutes but by the time they are flowering top ups tend to be a bit more than splashing a bit water in the res.....seeing the EC go up and down lets me know how hungry they are and it looks like progress even when you can't notice much change above ground between res checks.

Candy Kush is starting to grow limbs but I really need to get it on a raised platform as it looks like it's going to stay much smaller than the others:
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Himalaya Orange Diesel starting to pick up the pace now too:
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Day off tomorrow so hopefully I'll get some big camera pics done......need to change lenses, charge batteries and clear memory cards from other projects hence all the wee camera pics lately ;)
 
I'm going to try something similar to this for a single plant grow. But I was planning on staying with an E&F type feeding schedule. What does NFT stand for? Here is my setup for my single plant grow.

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I've install a net pot in a shallow tub so that the roots will spread. The reservoir is below which will pump nutrients up to the plant. I usually feed 3 times a day for E&F. What type of schedule should I run with this system? Also should I changed up my nutrient mix. I currently follow the GH expert recirculating system guidelines.
 
NFT stands for Nutrient Film Transfer. Under the rockwool there is a tray with spreader mat that the roots grow on and a pump that runs constantly.

I haven't tried any other hydro setups yet and have only really been growing for as long as I've been a member here. Same with nutes....all I've tried are the ionic hydro ones. Cultivator can probably advise better. ...I haven't a clue about much yet lol
 
NFT stands for Nutrient Film Transfer. Under the rockwool there is a tray with spreader mat that the roots grow on and a pump that runs constantly.

I haven't tried any other hydro setups yet and have only really been growing for as long as I've been a member here. Same with nutes....all I've tried are the ionic hydro ones. Cultivator can probably advise better. ...I haven't a clue about much yet lol

What does a spreader mat look like? Is it just something for the roots to hold onto? What if I line the bottom of my tub with a single layer of hydroton? It will give the roots something to hold onto as they spread out.

I thought the T stood for technique.

Ebb and flow is very similar. I used canna nutes with my NFT and is always good to use PK 13/14 during flowering too.

So I use the same nutrient strength as I would in an Ebb and Flow system? I suppose that makes sense, they are both recirculating nutrient systems. I'm going to continue the flood cycle but I will double the number of feedings but reduce the time of the flood by half. This should keep the roots from drying out.
 
Looking good...
 
I thought the T stood for technique.

Ebb and flow is very similar. I used canna nutes with my NFT and is always good to use PK 13/14 during flowering too.

Could be for technique. No matter, the reasons it works so well are that the roots always have access to everything they need and there is nothing in their way to restrict growth.

According to the bumf only aeroponics can beat it for growth rates and, potentially, yield per square metre. I haven't seen anybody make a decent job of aeroponics yet though.....must be some somewhere?

DWC looks like a step backwards in terms of performance but is easier to scale and flood/drain looks like it can perform but requires more grower skill in setting timers which is why I'm sticking with NFT.

One of the reasons I'm running the DDA is to get an indoor strain record and show that NFT is better for yield. Lets face it....a strain record on a strain hardly anybody else has tried doesn't count for much so I went for one that loads of folk have run. (my bad :biglaugh:)

What does a spreader mat look like? Is it just something for the roots to hold onto? What if I line the bottom of my tub with a single layer of hydroton? It will give the roots something to hold onto as they spread out.



So I use the same nutrient strength as I would in an Ebb and Flow system? I suppose that makes sense, they are both recirculating nutrient systems. I'm going to continue the flood cycle but I will double the number of feedings but reduce the time of the flood by half. This should keep the roots from drying out.

The spreader mat is like a fine sheet of fibreglass that acts as a wick and I gather it is there to spread the nutrient solution out to the edges of the tray. It doesn't have to be used but without it the root zone would likely be much smaller as the nutrient solution would just trickle down the middle of the tray.

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Looking good...

Thanks bud. Not a patch on your outdoor monster.....check it out folks ;) :)
 
NFT is a great way to grow small scale but tricker large scale due to the number of trays and sizes of res.

RDWC blows NFT out the water for a couple reasons.

Firstly because its much simpler to use and because generally there are larger volumes of nutrient there is less to adjust.

2 you can grow really big plants quickly in RDWC.

3 its simple to scale up.


There are pros and cons to every type of set up but ultimately however you grow it comes down to hands the set up is in. There is no substitute for knowledge and hands on experience.

Flood and drain is the safest way to grow hydro and also still very effective. There is no skill in setting a timer to come on 4 times per day. The skill is knowing what nutes to apply and when.

Having said that, i like nft.
 
NFT is a great way to grow small scale but tricker large scale due to the number of trays and sizes of res.

RDWC blows NFT out the water for a couple reasons.

Firstly because its much simpler to use and because generally there are larger volumes of nutrient there is less to adjust.

2 you can grow really big plants quickly in RDWC.

3 its simple to scale up.


There are pros and cons to every type of set up but ultimately however you grow it comes down to hands the set up is in. There is no substitute for knowledge and hands on experience.

Flood and drain is the safest way to grow hydro and also still very effective. There is no skill in setting a timer to come on 4 times per day. The skill is knowing what nutes to apply and when.

Having said that, i like nft.

I hear you on the practicalities front but on the performance front I'm not tempted to go DWC with autos for my small scale grow.

Have only done a few auto strains in NFT but 2 of the 3 were bigger than anything else I can find and the one that wasn't I fluffed and still got over 12oz. There seems to be precious little data to go on but my own when it comes to running autos in NFT.....by the end of this grow hopefully we will have a better idea of the lie of the land. Or at least I will :)

Was tempted to switch to DWC on my last photo grow though as I got a male on the same tray as a female. After these autos the plan was to run photos again but it's probably going to be a mix of soil and NFT although could be persuaded by something that would free up plug sockets and made less noise.

I've still got loads to learn about what to feed and when too.....I intend to study your use of nutes and see what little gems I can pick up to help it all make sense. I did have a load of wee bottles of additives on my first grow on here but all that really taught me is that they don't help if you don't know what you are doing as I've had better results since I ran out :biglaugh:
 
Looks like I wasn't keeping a close enough eye on things and the DDA res pH got up to 6.4 while the EC dropped to 0.9. She needs her cap full of nutes for breakfast it seems.

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I'm sure we could identify the rust spot deficiency but I reckon whatever it is the solution is the same- sort the pH and EC. Everything the plants need is in the nutes (so says the bumf lol) so if the plants can't access something I figure it must be my fault for not having the res set right. Res temp is tickety boo at 23.9c so I just upped the EC and lowered the pH to 5.7 by adding nutes then crossed my fingers :)

Cultivator, meant to say, Rifleman is team DWC for Dark Devil Auto at the moment; Rifleman's Roost Open 24/7 - Perpetually Perplexed. He's got some other interesting hydro projects on the go too.

Rifleman and I share a goal of trying to beat LEDRF's 118g haul for this strain ;)
 
Some quick pics while I wait for res to settle - all 3 tanks have had nutes and water this morning but the bigger ones might need some pH down as they were at pH 6.1 and 6.2 before I topped up and it'll likely take more than the nutes to lower to about 5.7.

EC for HOD is up to about 1.0 now, CKA about 1.5 and DDA about 2.0. DDA is on bloom nutes and the others still on grow nutes.

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Seeing all the DD grows on here is making me want to try one of my own. My god, they are just beautiful plants! I'm a DWCer but NFT has always intrigued me. I'd like to follow along, if i may...
 
Seeing all the DD grows on here is making me want to try one of my own. My god, they are just beautiful plants! I'm a DWCer but NFT has always intrigued me. I'd like to follow along, if i may...

Glad to have you bud:high-five:

DDA does seem to be pretty photogenic....and is now starting to get a decent stink on too. :) Hopefully I'll still like it when it get to the smoking. At this early stage the Candy Kush Auto is my favourite though.....hoping that one is about to hit stretch and triple in height but I've no idea as I haven't done any research on this strain beyond having seen a couple of pics of soil grows.
 
Some DDA pics from yesterday:
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Group shot from today:
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And HOD as I watch her stretch like crazy.....would have lifted her up but lowering her back down might be a bit of a mission as the bigger they get the less stable they get and I can't be arsed with a faff. Also, the closer to the light she is the faster I expect she'll grow so either way she should get pretty big and fill the remaining space on that side of my screen. Only one way to find out :)

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Candy Kush is the one on the right on the group shot. She's my favourite still.....mega stalks, mega leaves and now loving full strength grow nutes. Think that's the first auto I've got up to EC 2.0 before bloom. She's been a joy from the start and I could get used to growing plants that look like that so am really hoping the smoke floats my boat too:high-five:
 
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That was about an hour after lights on so temp will go up and humidity down from there.

Dark Devil in the centre is 60 days old. Leaves have gone from bad to worse after the high pH/low EC incident but the buds are getting fatter so I guess it's going OK.

Candy Kush on the right is 35 days old and hopefully about to start showing some nice flowers.

Himalaya Orange Diesel on the left is 32 days old and growth still seems to be accelerating so hopefully I'll get a fair few tops through the screen in the next few days.
 
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