Round 3 - Capn Style - Automated

[Skybound]

My filter is a little junk one, and I am planning to run 2 different rooms through it so once I get another in Bloom (hope tomorrow or Sunday) and things start stinking, it'll be 24 hours nonstop deStinkification going on up in there. I flipped it upside down as there was not enough room above the RO res and of course I failed to plan things out a bit more. Had I poked the 6" holes just a few inches higher, I could've blown the air down. Now it looks real busy up top. I still need to figure out how to block light through the ducting because the Wye only blocks about half the light. I'm thinking to run some flex hose from the wall port to above the light. I'm thinking the bends in the hose + being on top of the reflector might give me a cheap fix. If it works, the upside I guess would be that air is then being drawn off the top of the room instead of the current midway point.

Another nugget of good news is that I just finished the code to control a single dosing pump via my cell phone. Just need to figure out how to duplicate the code to account for the other 7 pumps. At any rate, I foresee my days of drawing nutes from a bottle with syringes will soon be coming to an end. The days of "dial a dose" is extremely near. Life will then get a lot easier.

 

[AfricanGrower]

SB, what's up! I stumbled upon your email a few days ago and it really have me the motivation to get back into growing.

I'm halfway through your write up, but I just had to drop in and give my salutations. I appreciate your reaching out to me, and I'm here for the journey. Most importantly, I'm here to learn!

Peace Brother,

AG

 

[Skybound]

AG, so happy to see you back at it! I hope everything is all gravy in your world. Are we still neighbors? Fun fact, my veg plants consist of those beans a good friend gave me some years back. I also sent one into bloom, but a barrage of screw ups lead me to discontinue bloom for now and regroup. I hope to have the next Bubb in bloom in a week though, maybe less so fingers crossed!X!

At any rate, I'm staked that you're back at it. Hope you journal up soon!

 

[AfricanGrower]

AG, so happy to see you back at it! I hope everything is all gravy in your world. Are we still neighbors? Fun fact, my veg plants consist of those beans a good friend gave me some years back. I also sent one into bloom, but a barrage of screw ups lead me to discontinue bloom for now and regroup. I hope to have the next Bubb in bloom in a week though, maybe less so fingers crossed!X!

At any rate, I'm staked that you're back at it. Hope you journal up soon!

Sky, unfortunately we are no longer neighbors. I have relocated to a friendly state however

I just finished writing up a post to all the questions and comments I have about your grow. Please excuse the length, and don't worry if you miss any questions. I just wanted to be thoroughly caught up!

I won't be starting a grow anytime soon only because a space has not become available to me. But I have patients, as I am legally allowed to cultivate six plants

 

[AfricanGrower]

Damn Sky, I have been waiting for this journal for a couple of years too! I am glad to be on this journey with you. I still have one of the Audrino circuits you had gifted me to spark my interest on the subject. I have always been 'pro-automaton' for everything grow related. I can honestly say I am disappointed in myself for not pursuing this further with you in the past. My environment distracted me from the passion!

>>>The others were gifted to me roughly 3 years ago from another grower. I never thought they would germinate, but these are the ones that did.


Haha "wachu talkin' bout [Sky]', of course they were going to germinate! I can't wait to see these girls bloom. I have been very curious on the variety of genotypes had come in that batch of seeds. If I remember correctly the 2 I germinated was more of a Sativa dominate, straying away for the advertised Indica dominant strain.

>>>my system draws water from the RO reservoir, fills each site, adds in nutes, mixes the nutes, checks PPM and PH multiple times every day, pumps to plants to feed them, then pump it all into the drainage once every 7-10 days, and repeat, all will be controlled by the Arduino.


This is EXACTLY what we need. Especially first time growers. This will definitely become invaluable information for the next generations of growers.

>>>At my new location, I didn't hesitate to apply those lessons prior to starting and I now have a complete plumbing circuit into and out the grow area and will begin building the bloom rooms later today.


I remember this setup quite well. I emulated your intake plumbing from my kitchen to my res in the grow room at my last location. I never thought about implementing a waste system as well. That would have avoided so many spills and the often situation of 'forgetting' to turn off the water pump!

>>>Atlas Scientific has a long line of circuits and metering probes that work well with Arduino, but once I can afford that, I hope to have my motorized valves designed and built so I can control all devices and liquid movements precisely.


So I was browsing the web for this product. So just so understand correctly, the Atlas pH circuit kit includes the probe, sensor, and electrode, correct? I'm not sure on the accuracy of Atlas probes, but I wanted to know if their kits can be interchanged with other brands of probes, or to the circuits exclusively work with Atlas probes?

>>>The second box with the green dots is the dosing pumps and I am almost finished building that. It will draw from 1 gallon GH nutrient and supplement bottles. I will use the silica to replace the PH UP, but will still use PH DOWN.


Please clarify this for me: Once you purchase the Atlas probe and circuit kit, will the PPM and pH probes measure the amount of nutrient solution that is added to the reservoir in 'real-time', once you input preset PPM/pH levels?

>>>I am also eagerly awaiting an 8oz. tub of RealGrowers Recharge.


That first tub is done already, eh? Plants love the stuff! I really appreciate the fact I chose to go 'live' rather than a 'sterile' environment when I was first starting up. You cannot go wrong with beneficial bacteria!

>>>I don't expect anyone to have the excitement that I do from the progress I am making in the electronics stuff, but it is all starting to come together now at an increased rate and I think I am just days away from deploying it into the grow which will make my life A LOT EASIER. I don't know if other hydro growers feel the constant concern the way I do, but I've experienced a few mishaps in my previous grows that simply would not have happened if I would have had better control.

As long as you know some of us here WILL be excited about this part of the grow! I have 100% gone through similar mishaps. Only if there was a solution to the madness...Oh wait, there is 'Skybound's Automated Capn' Style Grow'

>>>One of the better qualities of rock wool is that it is near impossible to over water, so when only watering briefly throughout the day, it's best to thoroughly drench when feeding.

Yessir, +1. Lovel roots so far Sky. The girls are loving their first weeks of in their new home. I am not sure if you mentioned it yet, but what are the dimensions of the inclusive you built?

>>>They get their weekly Recharge inoculation and the roots are poking out of every hole in the pot, nice and white.

I am not sure if you have ever tried increasing the frequency of weekly inoculation to a few time a week during veg?
I never mentioned it in my journal, but I fed tea about 4 times a week in veg, which really increased the rootball to a generous size in prep for flower. In flower, this was then reduced to twice a week. But by all means, it's better to conserve at this point since you are still waiting for your next order of Recharge!

>>>This I think will make a sump in the tote and the pump can sit down in it and pump out everything down to a few ounces. I would be very content to leave a few ounces of the previous weeks nutes in the tote after a res change.

I am right with you here, in fact this had always been a concern of mine...Until I saw Capn's grow. He's been doing his 'thang' for a while now and I think I remember telling you that the 'fine details' were;t too much of a concern for him. Like the milliliters or nutrients used or leftover res feed from last week. I used to cringe over those things!

The way I found a work around to get as much re water pumped out was by purchasing a pump that didn't need to be fully submerged. So the pump had an intake/outtake line. This allowed me to connect tubing from the intake line to the lowest point of res. By the way, I had the res slightly angled to one side.

>>>My only concern is the crud that gets left behind every time a site res is emptied. You have any ideas how I can clean that stuff out if I'm not physically there to clean it out?

The first thought that came to my head was applying some sort of filter. Perhaps if it is fully submersible pump, creating a filter screen that the nutrient will have to pass through during res change. There probably many ways how that will not work. But I will give it more thought!

>>>she might even be a he as s/he originated from gifted seeds, though I cant remember if he said they were fems or regulars.

These seeds were all regulars from the batch you are talking about. Out of the two Bubbs I vegged, the lanky one ended being male. Fingers crossed.

>>>Transition PPM is just under 600 and PH was holding at 6.0.

One thing I remember is that the Bubbs were very sensitive to high nutrient levels. I'm not 100% sure what my PPM's were at this stage, but I started seeing nutrient burn early into flower because of my lack of knowledge on this strain. I will explore my old journal and give you some references of my PPM levels at this stage.

>>>For a silica source I may buy some powdered stuff. Also looking into experimenting using dried powdered horsetails (plants), which I think will work well, based on what some organic growers say.

Weasel, pleased to meet you. This is very interesting. I would love to see how your experiments work out!

>>>I got a decent look at the bloom plant (Bubblelicious) and I'm pretty sure I saw the smallest calyxes and some pistils which tells me it might be a lady after all. Now I regret not potting her up prior to bloom, and also topping her a few hours before sticking her right into 12/12. Oh well!

I'm glad to hear you have a female in bloom! Congratulations. What is stopping you from transplanting in flower. Do you already have a trellis up? Oh but then I scrolled down I read that she has been botched! Oh well. I look forward to seeing the other girls get nice and bushy in veg!

 

[Skybound]

Damn Sky, I have been waiting for this journal for a couple of years too! I am glad to be on this journey with you. I still have one of the Audrino circuits you had gifted me to spark my interest on the subject. I have always been 'pro-automaton' for everything grow related. I can honestly say I am disappointed in myself for not pursuing this further with you in the past. My environment distracted me from the passion!

No worries AG, we all have our own lives and make our own sacrifices as we deem worthy. I am just happy to share my findings so nobody else has to lose time to learn unnecessary information. Believe it or not, the programming community is nowhere near as friendly and helpful as the grower community. That said, I have to trudge my way carefully through the attitudes just to find a snippet of code or something.

Haha "wachu talkin' bout [Sky]', of course they were going to germinate! I can't wait to see these girls bloom. I have been very curious on the variety of genotypes had come in that batch of seeds. If I remember correctly the 2 I germinated was more of a Sativa dominate, straying away for the advertised Indica dominant strain.

The one I just killed I swear was the strong Sativa pheno as her nodes were 4"-6" apart. I thought it was a male based upon how leggy she was and how much faster she stretched out in veg than her 4 other counterparts. Thankfully, I have 2 cuttings from her and they are also kicking ass. The one I just potted up today was a Herbies bean I just bought. I'm guessing it's the coveted Indica pheno you were searching for as [she's] very short and stocky. She's only a little more than a foot tall 10 weeks into veg, but she is starting to branch out. Her trunk is about 1.5" in diameter with very broad leaves. I only snapped one pic of her today when I had her flipped, she will be heading into the HPS in a few days.

This is EXACTLY what we need. Especially first time growers. This will definitely become invaluable information for the next generations of growers.

Excessively better than the growBox they advertise on Facebook at a fraction of the cost. Personal involvement and acquired knowledge will be needed though. Perhaps other arrangements can be made down the road for those completely without the ability to build circuits and such. Imagine programming in GenHydro's entire feed schedule into memory and a machine capable of making it happen?

I remember this setup quite well. I emulated your intake plumbing from my kitchen to my res in the grow room at my last location. I never thought about implementing a waste system as well. That would have avoided so many spills and the often situation of 'forgetting' to turn off the water pump!

So I was browsing the web for this product. So just so understand correctly, the Atlas pH circuit kit includes the probe, sensor, and electrode, correct? I'm not sure on the accuracy of Atlas probes, but I wanted to know if their kits can be interchanged with other brands of probes, or to the circuits exclusively work with Atlas probes?

I am pretty sure that all probes will work with the circuitry as all probes measure the respective liquid condition equally, and they all terminate with BNC connectors. The extent of my research puts their probe quality on par with BlueLabs etc. Atlas probes are built for indefinite submersion, plus they make probes for all 3 K ranges.

Please clarify this for me: Once you purchase the Atlas probe and circuit kit, will the PPM and pH probes measure the amount of nutrient solution that is added to the reservoir in 'real-time', once you input preset PPM/pH levels?

They way I will build it into my grow is that the RO res is central to the 2 bloom rooms (3'6" x 3'6" x 7'6" each). The res output immediately will Tee into 2 PVC manifolds I already built. One rail has 8 Tees to mate with the dosing pumps, the other rail can hold as many as 4 probes. In order to test a specific site, I would need to ensure that the correct valves are closed and the correct valves open. The the site pump can activate and move water from that tank, past the plant it normally feeds and through the testing rail. Beyond that, there will be a return line so the respective site can run it's solution back into itself like normal, but instead of feeding the plant, it runs it's course past the probes and returned.

My first choices was to have a probe in each tank, all connected to a single circuit, but the level of engineering needed to properly address each probe and run the reading back through a single ciruit which must then also be interpretted correctly with Arduino was simply too far beyond my ability to comprehend and/or learn in a reasonable amount of time. That said, I worked around and came to the current solution. One set of probes can monitor 1000 different res tanks if done so correctly. I aim for 50, but currently will have 2 (Bloom A and Bloom B)

That first tub is done already, eh? Plants love the stuff! I really appreciate the fact I chose to go 'live' rather than a 'sterile' environment when I was first starting up. You cannot go wrong with beneficial bacteria!

The first tub didn't get used, then over the years moisture crept in and made a bennie brick. I have since got my new tub and will increase my usage based on your findings.

As long as you know some of us here WILL be excited about this part of the grow! I have 100% gone through similar mishaps. Only if there was a solution to the madness...Oh wait, there is 'Skybound's Automated Capn' Style Grow'

Yessir, +1. Lovel roots so far Sky. The girls are loving their first weeks of in their new home. I am not sure if you mentioned it yet, but what are the dimensions of the inclusive you built?

I am not sure if you have ever tried increasing the frequency of weekly inoculation to a few time a week during veg?
I never mentioned it in my journal, but I fed tea about 4 times a week in veg, which really increased the rootball to a generous size in prep for flower. In flower, this was then reduced to twice a week. But by all means, it's better to conserve at this point since you are still waiting for your next order of Recharge!

I am right with you here, in fact this had always been a concern of mine...Until I saw Capn's grow. He's been doing his 'thang' for a while now and I think I remember telling you that the 'fine details' were;t too much of a concern for him. Like the milliliters or nutrients used or leftover res feed from last week. I used to cringe over those things!

Say it isn't so! I guess the "recipe" is over rated? A little bit of purple, a bit less of pink, and a dash of green? I could never.

The way I found a work around to get as much re water pumped out was by purchasing a pump that didn't need to be fully submerged. So the pump had an intake/outtake line. This allowed me to connect tubing from the intake line to the lowest point of res. By the way, I had the res slightly angled to one side.

The first thought that came to my head was applying some sort of filter. Perhaps if it is fully submersible pump, creating a filter screen that the nutrient will have to pass through during res change. There probably many ways how that will not work. But I will give it more thought!

I am referring to the crud that sicks to the walls of the tote after the res has been drained.

These seeds were all regulars from the batch you are talking about. Out of the two Bubbs I vegged, the lanky one ended being male. Fingers crossed.

One thing I remember is that the Bubbs were very sensitive to high nutrient levels. I'm not 100% sure what my PPM's were at this stage, but I started seeing nutrient burn early into flower because of my lack of knowledge on this strain. I will explore my old journal and give you some references of my PPM levels at this stage.

I remember that, I think you topped out at 850 after coming back from almost 1000. Still, shit you not, THEEE best most enjoyable flavorful smoke I've had in my life! I gotta hit that shiiii once more in my lifetime. I'm eager to taste the Indica pheno now that we're talking about it.

I'm glad to hear you have a female in bloom! Congratulations. What is stopping you from transplanting in flower. Do you already have a trellis up? Oh but then I scrolled down I read that she has been botched! Oh well. I look forward to seeing the other girls get nice and bushy in veg!

Here's the rootbound Indica (I think) pheno I mentioned. She'll be in bloom soon!

HERE is a quick video of my dosing pumps. I only coded for 1 pump to be programmed from my cell phone. This involves internet, not bluetooth so physical presence isn't necessary. I am currently working out the code to include the other 7 pumps.

 

[Skybound]

I worked out the majority of kinks in my bloom and was able to pull the other Old Bubb from veg and stuck her in bloom for a few hour dark period. Actually lights should be kicking on any minute,.....

Oh wait,....Yup, it's on.

But geez is that RH high! I hope all the the I dotting and T crossing will lend to decreased temps and RH. I might to readjust the code and plug some fans in on the open outlets to better manage things in the days ahead.

Transition nutes are equal parts of the GH 3 part, 3.0ml/gal CaliMagic, 2ml/gal Silica, 3.5ml/gal Flora Blend = 600 ppm, PH adjusted down to 5.6. Lights on is 5PM to 5AM. Arduino controls all timed events in code, and at some point, I think I can power cycle the exhaust fans independently according to room stats (A or B). Bloom B began first due to a misunderstanding of my own diagram when wiring in the sensors. SO essentially, I thought I was wiring A, but no it was B. The relays I just moved the lights and pump from the A outlets to the B ones, problem solved.

I potted up the remaining large plan in Veg (Bubble Gum), but not to her finish pot as I hadn't prepped enough cubes for the larger. I shit you not, the roots grew under the pot onto the flood table and elevated the entire pot with plant on top about 1/4" which is lot when considering the wet weight plus the plant itself. I wish time was more plentiful when visiting the grow. I should've potted both of them up weeks ago. I'm slacking on training, res swaps, and canopy control. The other day I arrived to find an empty res without the pump running. Thank God there were 2 Super Trooper plants on the table that could give 2 shits. Perhaps another day of that would've been a different story, but it's the shit I gotta work through at this time in my life I guess. I hope all the hard work will pay off and give me a near zero maintenance grow system so that when I do visit, I can ONLY focus on the plants and not need to worry about dumb shit!

The clones are 2 - Old Bubb 1, and 1 - Old Bubb 2 (or maybe the other way around). The previous attempt at bloom that I killed, I have 2 from her and one from the one that just went into bloom. Later in the week, I will take a few from the B Gum and then begin defoliating her some.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Wow! All that wadded up dental floss you're using really does seem to work as a grow medium. Who would have thought..

geez is that RH high!

. My first thoughts too. But how comforting to see it say 'exhausting the RH...'


I've been thinking lately, as my room gets more and more tightly packed, and more complicated but (hopefully) more effective, how much it resembles being on a boat. Or perhaps a spaceship except I'm a lot more familiar with boats. It's almost totally self contained, a bit cramped and everything has its place. A big part of the reason for that is because it's basically a sealed unit in a hostile environment (thank you government), so going in and out of it is a bit like going through an airlock too. Problem is- I can't really get anyone to take care of my place too well unless they go through an extensive training course. Not really something I could ask of someone doing me a favour. So if I go away the plants will have to rely on gerry-rigged auto-watering for the most part.

 

[Skybound]

So if I go away the plants will have to rely on gerry-rigged auto-watering for the most part.

I've been there, am still mostly there, but am working my way away from there b/c I really don't wanna be there! Granted, if I ever find myself with the ability to make it my living, then yeah, there is where I'd like to spend the lot of my time. But needing to hold down a job, then the amount of hours needed at the grow is really adding up on these aging bones. Rest assure though, if you ever consider joining the dark side, I will then be much further along than I am now and can better help you shop for a fraction of what I had to spend, code to upload and assistance in circuit building.

 

[Weaselcracker]

How are things going over there Skybound?

 

[Skybound]

Not great. Had a coding snafu that caused my lights to be on for a few days and no feedings occurring. Excessively frustrated from having fucked up my second 'go' in bloom, I chopped the plant and brought the MCU home. Come to find that the clock module was faulty, so ordered another, got it, soldered everything that needed to be soldered, and worked out the bugs in my code. But, being that my grow is elsewhere, I have no car and quitting my job the end of this week to start a business with a close friend, things have been too hectic to do anything outside of general maintenance (PH corrections and benny inoculations). I also opened up my ventilation to try and cancel a room to room light leak, so I still need to address that.

All things considered, I have a large thoroughly topped Bubblegum in Veg that shooting pre-flowers like crazy. I want to pot her up this weekend and get her into bloom the beginning of next week. I'm now very confident about my code and circuits, and I expect a 2 week rest period for me after I quit till the new business starts to pick up, so I should finally be able to get everything finished by next weekend at the latest.

I also finished coding for the nutrient pumps, and once I get everything connected and everything, I will shoot a video of how that works and how much easier life will get. The things I have already achieved from using Blynk boggles my mind. Every control I want over my grow is now on my cell and I can do it from anywhere. Blynk makes and Arduino 10,000 times better! I hope you can jack a decent signal to watch that video, because if automation is still something you're considering, you'll definitely want to see what I got so far.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Thanks man. Sorry about the issues but it sounds like you're moving on. I'm very interested in what you're doing. But whether or not I'll get time to delve into it anytime soon is questionable. Looking forward to the video.

 

[303goatweed]

Subbed up. I also run cap'n style hydro. I am interested to see how you run your setup.

Are you a dude grows member?
Cheers

 

[Skybound]

Subbed up. I also run cap'n style hydro. I am interested to see how you run your setup.
Are you a dude grows member?
Cheers

Nah, but I check out some content on their site and of course purchased Recharge there. Cap reached out to me here back in the day when I was starting in dirt. He got me redirected and showed me his simple hydroponics threads and I learned all the fundamentals of his style in that post. I think it's still archived here on 420, but pretty much ever since, that's all I did. We've since lost contact, but I still "stick to the recipe" with my own minor augmentations of course, but only because I learned quickly the basics which are transferable to every other media used or nutrients etc.

~Long Veg (10 weeks+)
~Beneficial Bacteria over H2O2 (builds massive root zones)
~Top Frequently (builds massive canopy)

= 1 pound producers 11 out of 10 times. I'm trying to take Simple Hydroponics to the next level, "Simpler Hydroponics". With the microcontroller, I will be able to program precise recipes based on the manufacturers recipes, just thinned out to fit inside a PPM range. I want to make growing pot so easy, a stoner could do it. No pun intended, seeing as how I'm a stoner and all, but all things aside, my reality has shown me that growing (hydro especially) has full time needs that my occupations seem to conflict with and the "right now" often outweighs the "what is to come" and my grows suffer, hence my very strong desire to automate. And not just automate the lights and pumps, but every single thing except the handling of the plants themselves.

 

[Skybound]

Friday, I worked my last day in the body shop. No more will I allow myself to be an employers mule for shit pay. I gave them 2 months notice, and thankfully I survived all that time with only minimal damage to my body. I can now devote myself to creating a business with a close friend. A business that will allow me to work smarter and not harder, pay me better, and afford me much more free time that I can use to give more deserved attention to my grow.

Yesterday, I got started on my long list of things I gotta get done before I can take another shot in bloom. A brief test of my circuitry confirmed everything is working as it should. I moved the bank of outlets up to the ceiling facing downward which will give me more room for the maze of ducting I need to figure out to allow for good ventilation while preventing light leaks between the rooms. I am also looking into making doors from panda film scraps and vel-cro strips. I hope to make something of a grow tent entry way where the corresponding films overlap enough to seal off light leaks. To enter a room, I would then just need to peel off the door and roll in up to keep it out of the way. This is good because the middle area between each bloom room is very small and I can't waste any space on door panels, so I hope that works well.

I potted up that big ass BubbleGum AG gave me to a finishing pot, the biggest I have. I think it's about 7 or 8 gallons in volume. Unfortunately, I will not keep her genetics alive. I already have cuts from the previous Bubblelicious plants that I killed that are doing very well in veg. I also did a thorough lower canopy defol session on all 4 plants and then hit all 4 with an intentional overdose of Recharge to make sure the whole root zone gets a good bennie drench. This, I feel will compensate for any residual transplant shock followed by a thorough pruning/defol. My intent is to hopefully finish a bloom room enough to get that BG in there as soon as tonight, but no later than tomorrow.

Pics to come and hopefully a video too.

 

[Skybound]

I was able to get one decent photo of the 3 clones in veg. I will likely take a major top from the 2 larger ones to take advantage of the wide branch structure.

The automation quest is growing on my nerves. I've began migrating all my plugs back over to mechanical timers which I severely hate, but this was always about the plants, so they will remain my first priority. I'm near certain I need to purchase a new $120 micro controller b/c I think I may have short circuited once or twice and I believe there is some internal damage to the MCU causing the program to halt after about 2-3 days. I have another cheaper version of the unit, but I abused this board even more, plus I need it to be my tester.

General specs, Bubblegum in bloom for about 3 days, but it was already preflowering in veg so I expect to see pistils very soon and I will switch into bloom feed regimen beginning at about 600 ppm. Gradually increasing the supplements and phasing in Kool Bloom and phasing out Flora Blend. Unless I see signs of stress, I will increase ppm week to week but about 100-150 with plans to top out between 900-1100 ppm by the end of bloom. Temps are mildly hot, and humidity is currently an issue, but with every hour I get to spend at the grow, the more things I get connected and the closer I am to have it all jive good enough to grow some good bud.

Of course I will continue working on my Arduino, but I got into that due to my needs as a grower, and with having quit my job to start a business with a friend, I need to allot most of my time to that to make that 'right now' money.

 

[Weaselcracker]

Those stick-on zippers for plastic make pretty good doorways - two to a door, maybe along with a plastic flap or two and some Velcro. But I'm sure you're already aware of those.
Congrats on making the break from the job. I'm doing the same. One more day, and then maybe a couple more to move some neighbouring equipment, and I'm out. Nice to be getting out!
One thing I've never really been able to get a good answer on, and I'm sure it's been discussed a lot somewhere- is how/if bennies can live in the sort of environment you've got going there. Fungi are normally something that have a fairly long life cycle- and myco supposedly feeds from the roots in a dependent/symbiotic relationship. It gets its food from the plant roots. But at the same time I hear people saying that it can't live in hydro conditions or in a high ppm of chemical nutes. Myco and trichoderma don't seem like the sort of thing that would have a short term effect in a hostile environment- seems like it must be either establishing itself long-term among the roots in the RW, or it's not.
Bacteria I guess makes more sense in the context of a hungry horde that does its job and then dies out.

 

[Skybound]

I've found in my feeble attempts at aeroponics back when I first started growing, that even using H2O2 in the nutes still lead me to pythium and all plants in the aero died. Shortly thereafter is when Capn began coaching me about simple hydroponics and the like, plus he sent me about a cubic foot of croutons. Don't get me wrong, I've been also doing my own diligence on the matter and have found a very good lot of info written up on another forum and a general Google search on the terms "DWC Root Slime Cure" will return a link to RIU (another canna forum). Upon reading that, in conjunction with what the Capn was telling me, plus other agreeable sources, I'm given the impression that the mycos do not fit well in a salt rich environment, such as what my GH nutes create. Still, consider that if left untreated, bacteria will likely form in a root zone, it's just a question of whether this bacteria will be beneficial or not. When mycos are introduced into another bacteria rich environment, the mycos are said to consume this other colony of bacteria (that creates pythium) and shits out compounds of available nutes. AG can explain this a hell of a lot better than I can, and TBH, I'm pulling from a very cloudy memory while stoned so I know my explanation does little justice to the subject, but to answer your question; Yes, I still use bennies knowing that they will likely not survive long enough to create a thriving colony in the roots, but I do expect that using bennies about twice a week will also keep the other colonies at bay all while breaking down some of the built up nutes stuck in the cubes.

I use Recharge due to it being convenient, but I've also tried about 4 or 5 other similar products and they all produce the same desired effect, a very clean root system that thrives, which further translates to expedited growth up top. I would actually love to find a journal of a soil grower that uses bennies. I'm curious to know if their plants grow faster than just a normal soil grow?

God bless ya for finally getting out of your sticky situation. Your tales were giving me bad chills when considering some of the shady characters I've crossed paths with. Life is too damn short to allow ourselves to be taken advantage of as if we were some kind of sheep. I guess some people do need the hard lessons though, too bad both our employers were too self consumed to comprehend what their income will do when it solely depends on their own ability to produce without a work force. My new job started about 2 weeks early, so things are already looking up! I hope you find similar or BETTER fortunes in your next chapter.

 

[Skybound]

The fans are on full time, and the light (and it's fan) are on a mechanical timer, and so is the feed pump. This allows me to proceed with my grow while I continue to troubleshoot my electronics. I still feel I need a new board, but for the time being it is behaving. It seems to lose it's bearing about 3 days into the program, so I will need to do added research before I know if I need a new board for sure.

All that said, I was able to begin playing around with the dosing pumps today, and I've found a pump, maybe both need a calibration adjustment in the code. The first test produced the desired 75ml of Silica, but the second test on a different pump was way off. I asked for 10ml of Flora Gro and got almost 15. There is a finite amount of milliseconds for the pump motor to spin to produce exactly 1ml, and it will likely take a lot of pump and reprogram till I can find the exact number for each pump. However, once I find each calibration number, the pumps will be set for life more or less, and precise dosing will be possible.

As the months progress and funds become more plentiful, I will finalize this project by adding in the PH and EC circuits, and finally the valves which I think I do have to build. To be able to use the solenoid valves that the market is flooded with, I would need to use res pumps that output twice the volume that I currently use (160 GPH), and I fear this might create a pressure washing effect from my hydro halos. If my attempts to build my own valves return poor results, I will have no choice but to invest in larger res pumps that are capable of more than 3 PSI. Maybe I'll just get one larger pump and have it spray a dummy pot of cubes to see if there's anything to be concerned about. Either case, I can't see everything taking me longer than by the end of the summer maybe, possibly a bit longer.

 

[Skybound]

Taking major tops from the 2 veg plants went well and I tried making a peel off door with panda film and velcro, and that also went well.