Al B. FAQt

[brontobrandon1]

so al will my 400 watt mh work just as good if not better than the hps??? dam if not should i return it if its too late??


thanks

 

[newportbeach949]

so should i buy another bag of hydroton to put under the rockwool again or do think if i lower the over fill drain it will work fine with the layer of hydroton it has now ?

the reason hydroton is on the other side is because i want move the plants evenly through-out the table when they get bigger in a couple weeks- thats why i have 1 light on and the other off at the moment

 

[Al B. Fuct]

well i still cant bring myself to chop em that bad but i'm getting meaner/better all the time...

Vegging cannabis plants are hugely tolerant of being pruned back. You could conceivably chop everything but one node and a leaf off a healthy mother- and it will spring right back, whether you like it or not.

just a lil thanks to you again al...your design works perfectly and as a result so does mine.

Thanks, good to hear it.

How far should a 20watt fluro be away from the canopy?

Couple of kilometres would be enough, I'd think.

Kidding, fluoros are the preferred light for seedlings and clones and for slow-vegging mums, when you don't need a lot of clones often.

Mine is 4 to 5" above most of the plants, but one that is a week and half older than the rest. So it is 2" above it.

Lamp to leaf spacing with fluoros can be zero. Ideally, whatever you're doing with fluoros should be 2" or less from the fluoro tube.

Im wondering because the first set of true leaves have gray edges and the fan leaves have yellow tips.

It's not the proximity to fluoros causing the problem, this much I'll promise you. It'd be overwatering or overfertilisation.

To my twin tube floros; check journal. I was at low 80F with them and now it goes up to 90F with HPS. The ambient room temp where box is, is usually room temp. Right now it is 75F and the growbox is 90F. I am guessing it is all sitting on the cool tube, (That I don't have)

ow. Gotta get that down, 32C is toooooo hot. If you must, revert to the fluoros until you get a cooltube installed.

This box is supposed to be all veg. Then I want to build my bloom box around a digi 600HPS. I

Skip the 'digital' (electronic) ballast. Get an ordinary 'magnetic' (more properly called 'inductive') ballast. Electronic ballasts produce no more light from the lamp tube than an ordinary coil & core ballast, don't last nearly as long (20 year old mag ballasts are not uncommon), save only a marginal amount of power (9% savings over a mag), but cost 4-6x more than a standard ballast.

Some months ago, I got kind of annoyed with Lumatek's sales claim of 'up to 30% greater light intensity' with their electronic ballasts. Electrically, I knew that there's no way to make a lamp tube produce more luminous output without allowing the tube to consume more than the tube mfr's rated current, which could very dramatically shorten tube life. ZO, I buggered off down to my hydro supply whse, armed with my lux meter. I set up a 600 HPS lamp in a ref, drove it with a Lumatek, checked luminous output, allowed the lamp tube to go cold and then repeated the test with a standard ballast. I wasn't too surprised to find that the output with either ballast was absolutely identical. At the time, the Lumatek 600 was fetching about $A425 while the std mag 600 ballast cost $A95.

Save your dough, buy the old technology. Until electronic ballasts are equal to or less costly to buy than standards, give them a miss.

so al will my 400 watt mh work just as good if not better than the hps??? dam if not should i return it if its too late??

You're right, MH is normally the preferred light for vegging. I use a 400HPS because it was what I had on hand some years ago. Vegging with HPS does cause plants to be somewhat elongated compared to MH. MH produces shorter internodal spacing in veg. However, in the SoG format, a tall mum isn't such a bad thing.I cut very tall clones (~9" tall) so it's nice to have long stems on the mums to work with. Your 400MH will do just fine for vegging.

so should i buy another bag of hydroton to put under the rockwool again or do think if i lower the over fill drain it will work fine with the layer of hydroton it has now ?

I thought I saw your plants in growbags full of pellets. I would not fill your trays directly with pellets. I'd keep them in pots or growbags.

All you need be concerned about is getting the RW cubes 1/2" above the flood level, however you accomplish that, whether by increasing the depth of the pellets or lowering the flood level.

 

[newportbeach949]

no my plants are in 6 x 6 x 6 rockrool cubes- i put plastic over the tops of them because i was feeding from the top and didnt want the rockwool in the light,

the pellets are just keeping the plastic on so the fan doesnt blow them off,

i will take a plastic notch off the overfill and see how this works

thank you

 

[specialkayme]

You're on your own with Hempys. They keep roots submerged without oxygenation. That's a recipe for root rot. I'm glad you're comfortable with them. Rotsaruck.

As I said, that's what I'm typically comfortable with. Contrary to what most people think, you don't keep the roots submerged without oxygenation for extended periods of time. You fill the bottom 1" to 1.5" with water and wait for the plant to use it all up, and in a sense they get oxygen that way. I and many others have had no problems with root rot, even though it seems like it would invite the rot to move right in. But I'm not writing to argue or convince people to use Hempy buckets, quite the opposite actually.

The reason why I use Hempy buckets is because I don't feel comfortable relying on pumps and air stones. If I have a pump with a timer on it, I have a tendency to keep my hands off of it, and more problems arise. In addition, I may not be able to check on the plants every day. More like every other day, or every three days. Sometimes even only once a week. With Hempy buckets, it's easy to set the timer to water twice a week, and check up on it to make sure it's ok, and it's fine. The pump only uses pure water, so there arn't any Ph issues, and no nute issues either. I then water with nutes once a week. Rather simple. Something that I can't do with F&D or drip systems. But I realize that it isn't optimum. So, relying on your conventional wisdom, What method would you recomend to me Al?

 

[Al B. Fuct]

no my plants are in 6 x 6 x 6 rockrool cubes- i put plastic over the tops of them because i was feeding from the top and didnt want the rockwool in the light,

oh, OK. 6" cubes are pretty big, 216 cu in (3.5L), roughly equivalent in volume to the 175mm pots I use, once stuffed only with RW floc. Worked well for years. I flooded those 1x-2x/day. If you use those RW blocks as your main grow media, I'd flood them similarly, 1x/day, perhaps a 2nd flood a couple hours before lights-off with mature, vigorous plants.

The problem with mixing RW & pellets is that RW can't be watered as frequently as pellets. If the RW is below the flood line, you can only flood 1x-2x/lights-on as said, but this is not often enough for the roots which get out of the cube and knit into the pellets.

If the RW cube is 1/2" above the flood line, the roots will escape the cube and knit down into the pellets and can be flooded at least 5x/day, conceivably up to 1x/hr for 5min during lights-on for vigorous, mature plants. If I had my druthers with your system, I'd do it this way. More flood cycles = more root oxygenation = better productity, but the media you use must support this frequent flooding.

Containing the pellets in growbags or pots is still a desirable thing as opposed to plants rooted in a common bed of pellets. Containers keep the rootballs of neighbouring plants from knitting and allow portability of the plants for maintenance or putting slow plants in better light.

What method would you recomend to me Al?

Plants in pots of absorbent media, watered by a flood system.

They get no simpler.

Missing from SimplyHydro's diagram is an air pump & air stone/bubble curtain.

 

[toast master]

Hey ABF , quick ? about my well water, its about 400 ppm do I include this # in my ppm or in adation to the ppm nutes. Want 1400 ppm do i make it 1850 . The faq section is still down.. thanks

 

[specialkayme]

Fair enough Al. Your medium of choice would be?

 

[sparkafire]

Hi ABF! One question, my mums tub started out at 1400 ppm and i have 3 days to go before swap out and i am at 900 ppm is this normal? I am running 2 week intervals.
Also why i have your attention what do you think about these clones do you think i could get away with potting them and sticking them with the others i really need to start another batch and they are jacking me up!?

Thanks in advance

SParky

 

[Al B. Fuct]

my well water, its about 400 ppm do I include this # in my ppm or in adation to the ppm nutes. Want 1400 ppm do i make it 1850

If you have 400ppm out of the tap and want 1400ppm nute strength, mix for 1800.

You'd be wise to get a water analysis. Check with your local university or County Extension agent. Be on the lookout for high levels of salinity (NaCl). That's the only real problem for using the water in a hydro system. Other commonly found dissolved minerals like Fe, Mg & Ca are OK. All are nutrients and you'd have to add them if they were not there.

Fair enough Al. Your medium of choice would be?

Depends on how you want to work with the op.

If you are a stoned slacker like me, you'll select an absorbent medium. The more water in the medium, the more safety margin in case of pump (or grower ) failure. Rockwool holds the most water but can't be flooded often. Fytocell & Perlite hold less water but can be flooded much more often, 3-4x per lights on. Pellets hold the least water but can be flooded most frequently, exposing the roots to oxygenated nute solution more frequently than with other media.

Lightweight media like RW, Fytocell & perlite are easiest to dispose of. Pellets are heavy and can split rubbish bags if you overload them. Can make a real mess at kerbside. Pellets can theoretically be re-used but they have to be cleaned FULLY of old root matter and then sterilised (soak in water with 10ml/L 50% H2O2 for 24h). Failure to totally clean & sterilise re-used pellets can transfer root disease from crop to crop. Discard pellets that have a crust of nute salts on them.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Hi ABF! One question, my mums tub started out at 1400 ppm and i have 3 days to go before swap out and i am at 900 ppm is this normal? I am running 2 week intervals.

Completely normal, especially if you have been topping up the tank with plain water as the level has fallen since mixing day. That's about the rate of nutrient comsumption I'd expect. Your res may be a little small for the number of plants it is supporting. How many plants and how big is the rez?

Also why i have your attention what do you think about these clones do you think i could get away with potting them and sticking them with the others i really need to start another batch and they are jacking me up!?

No, these don't have enough roots just yet.

Aerocloners should have a submersible aquarium water heater set for about 28-30C to speed things along. Of course, due to that warm of a temp, dissolved O2 won't stay in the water long. You need constant oxygenation from a pump & stone and should be treating the aerocloner water with 50% grade H2O2 @ 1ml/L every 3-4 days to both add oxygen and inhibit pathogen growth.

If you're doing all this and still only getting this level of root development after 7-10 days, let me know. About all you can do right now is wait for this batch to get some more root development and hold off on doing your next batch of cuttings.

Aerocloners have a fixed number of sites to put cuttings. If you were working with RW cubes on a heat mat in a clonebox, you miight find numbers of clones you can support at one time is a bit more flexible.

 

[specialkayme]

What's your take on cococoir as a medium?

 

[Al B. Fuct]

I'm not fond of organic materials like coir or peat in a recirculating hydro system. They can support mould growth and may decompose or fragment with exposure to H2O2. The bits can get loose in the nutes and can foul pumps if not contained.

 

[specialkayme]

Interesting. I didn't know that about coco.

Rockwool seems the easiest. Would watering once a day be sufficient? more? less? My only concern with rockwool would be with disposing of it. Kinda makes me a little paranoid.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Yes, for a quantity of rockwool sufficient to give enough space for the rootmass of a mature, vigorous plant, watering 1x/day would be sufficient.

Disposal is easy. You can either bag it while still damp or put the pot with rootball in front of a fan for a few days to dry it out & make it lighter. Just bag it up like the rest of your ordinary rubbish. Make sure it is free of any identifiable leaf material while bagging. Leaf waste should be buried or composted.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Yes, for a quantity of rockwool sufficient to give enough space for the rootmass of a mature, vigorous plant, watering 1x/day would be sufficient.

That quantity would be between 2-4L. A 175mm x 175mm tall pot is about 4.21L. A 140mm dia x 140mm tall pot is about 2.15L.

Handy link: solid cylinder calculator

 

[sparkafire]

Completely normal, especially if you have been topping up the tank with plain water as the level has fallen since mixing day. That's about the rate of nutrient comsumption I'd expect. Your res may be a little small for the number of plants it is supporting. How many plants and how big is the rez?

My rez is a bit small 15 gal for 7 plants i am only going to run 3 or 4 mums at the most so i will be ok i think.

No, these don't have enough roots just yet.

GTK i will wait a few more days it will be 2 weeks on these guys everyone else went in 8 days. Its just a few of the mums that are throwing off clones that are doing this to me. Lets hope they are males!!

Aerocloners should have a submersible aquarium water heater set for about 28-30C to speed things along. Of course, due to that warm of a temp, dissolved O2 won't stay in the water long. You need constant oxygenation from a pump & stone and should be treating the aerocloner water with 50% grade H2O2 @ 1ml/L every 3-4 days to both add oxygen and inhibit pathogen growth.

I need to get some H2o2 i have an air stone already in and my temps are running 28C ( had to Google that LOL) already.

Aerocloners have a fixed number of sites to put cuttings. If you were working with RW cubes on a heat mat in a clonebox, you miight find numbers of clones you can support at one time is a bit more flexible.

That is why your the man!!!! I will get to that point someday i am working on it. Needing to set up my clone box. but for right now this is all i have. I tried 2 times with RW and failed miserably so i built this.
Some day i want to grow up and be just like you!!!kiss-ass
Thanks for the time

Sparky

 

[Chumlie]

It can't be over ferting cus Im doing half the recomended, but I do water every other 15min. The marijuana bible said to use regular distilled water for the first week, but I don't think that would do anything. Don't know if its right or not.

 

[bigal10]

Al Im not quite sure but I think some of the my plants are begining to show signs of spider mites. I was looking at the plants that are in the cubes still and at the bottom of the cubes i found microscopic tiny little bugs that that have a reddish, black dots on them . Are these ok for my plants if not what should I do. I inspected the actual plants and there are no eggs under my leaves or anywhere around the mothers from what I can see. there are only off a few clones that I bought from the medical dispensary. I can only see a bunch concentrated around the roots of the clones which have not been transplanted into any medium yet.

 

[bigal10]

I think it might be fungus gnats instead of mites. They seem to only be around the rockwool cubes going for the roots. I prbably have been overwatering my cubes in the clonebox keeping the enverionment perfect for them. I notice that a small corner of the rockwool has started to turn a greenish moldy look. This has to be due to overwatering my clones in the cubect correct?