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Jwats1973

Member
Jwats1973I am getting ready to switch from GH to the Jacks 5-12-26/Cal-nit and Epsom Salt. Combo I am running RDWC. I am about 2 weeks into a planed 10 week flower. In one post I see this recipe.

3gm/Gal Jacks
2gm/Gal Cal/nit
1gmGal Epsom Salt
1/4 tsp/Gal Monopotassium Phosphate.

Is this your recommendation? Lastly, the mixing order, it's Jacks, mix well then Epsom salts then Cal/nit?

Thanks so much for everything!
 

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Jwats1973I am getting ready to switch from GH to the Jacks 5-12-26/Cal-nit and Epsom Salt. Combo I am running RDWC. I am about 2 weeks into a planed 10 week flower. In one post I see this recipe.

3gm/Gal Jacks
2gm/Gal Cal/nit
1gmGal Epsom Salt
1/4 tsp/Gal Monopotassium Phosphate.

Is this your recommendation? Lastly, the mixing order, it's Jacks, mix well then Epsom salts then Cal/nit?

Thanks so much for everything!
First, I use:
VEG:
3 grams calcium nitrate
2 grams of the 5-12-26 mix
2 grams Epsom salt
BLOOM:
2 grams calcium nitrate
2 grams of the 5-12-26 mix
2 grams Epsom salt
.25 gram MKP

Second; mix your calcium nitrate in a separate pail and put it in your system separately from the rest. Put a half gallon of hot water in a pail, then add the rest of the ingredients list while stirring constantly. Be sure all crystals dissolve, that's the reason for hot water. Then add this to the system.

Don't fill your res up all the way, because you'll want to maintain a given EC. Top up using your EC meter, so you get the nutrient strength you need. As an example, I run 100x of the above recipes, but I never add in 100 gallons, I generally start with 70. This way, I can still add the right amount of water to achieve the relatively high EC I run in my room.

LAST, measure and adjust pH.
 

WestDenverPioneer

Well-Known Member
People are increasingly living in places only marginally suitable for farming or just outright inhospitable.
Just as bad are city folk that turn their front lawns into food gardens... toxic soil just under their fancy raised beds.


I am getting ready to switch from GH to the Jacks
I wouldn't. GH is solid.

what does it mean when you guys talk about open rated on those cmh shitters?
The bulb is safely able to run (out in the open) without being in a sealed hood.
The gig with CMH is they are high voltage but low amp. The low amp draw gives a low THD and a clean light.
 

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Just as bad are city folk that turn their front lawns into food gardens... toxic soil just under their fancy raised beds.




I wouldn't. GH is solid.



The bulb is safely able to run (out in the open) without being in a sealed hood.
The gig with CMH is they are high voltage but low amp. The low amp draw gives a low THD and a clean light.
1. A piece of plastic on the ground under fresh soil and that raised bed works just fine. Getting enough light in the concrete canyons is another story!

2. GH is no better than Jacks, just A LOT more expensive. @Jwats1973 unless you're changing out several hundred gallons of nutrient solution every week, you'll do just as well with Jacks 20-20-20 and maybe a little calcium nitrate to supplement veg. Check out @RM3's grows.

3. While you're right about the 315W CMH system being low watts and low amps, the rest is rest need of clarificationt;
  • Only 'open rated' lamps can be run outside of a sealed fixture, no matter what their type. Many wags here (not you, WDP!) say and do otherwise, then wonder what they're going to do with a crop that's been contaminated by mercury from a blown lamp.
  • The amp draw has nothing to do with the EMI profile of the BALLAST, (not the lamp); that's due to the low frequency it operates at. The only reason it does so is because CMH lamps require low frequencies to operate.
While we're on the subject, the whole reason the 315W CMH lamp is so efficient is again due to the ballast, in this case the fact that it delivers a square wave output. Such output delivers 30% more area under the power curve (the funny wave on an oscilloscope) and therefore drives the lamp to deliver 30% more light.

Nothing 'clean' about it; 'dirty' power is a completely different concept; voltage drops, transients and frequency of outages kind of stuff.
 

ttystikk

Well-Known Member
Today's update is about veg. I'm swapping my 860W CDM lamps on magnetic ballasts for two 315W CMH lights apiece, and swapping one for one for the 600W HPS lamps. The one 315W CMH lamp has already attracted a flock of growing tops, so it's pretty obvious the ladies prefer it. Thanks to @newgrower89 and his dad showing me how, I'm wiring them up safely and installing them myself.

The other recent change in veg is getting the pots off the bottom of the ebb n flood tables. The netpots would not drain or properly aerate against the hard plastic floor of the table. Also, since the table was open there was lots of light and lie humidity, which effectively pruned and contained the roots, eventually stunting growth later on.

We made tray lids from foil covered foam insulation board and covered two tables, this raised the netpots up off the table and kept roots in the dark and kept in humidity between floods. We then used panda film strips and plastic diffusion grating on the last table to accomplish the same goals.

Results are already explosive;
20160321_145632.jpg 20160321_150740.jpg
 
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ttystikk

Well-Known Member
How does one determine equivalent?
That's a damned good question you just asked there, good Sir. I'm glad you asked!

I can tell you that very question had me pondering for YEARS. Along with the one about why some watts feel hotter than others, even though supposedly they're all the same to the HVAC system.

And the answer I came up with was that I just wasn't ever going to be satisfied with any conversion factor, interpolation of graphs, statistics, light meter plots, anecdote, claims, no... nothing.

So what's left? The head to head, of course!

AND, in one corner, 5400W of '860W' CMH, previously revealed to be pulling 1080W-1100W apiece. In the opposite corner is the svelte newcomer COB LED, also packing 5400W of verified draw from the wall.

SAME WATTS. It was the only head to head that made sense. Everything needs to be the same; Same 6 trellis panels, same 6 plants of the same strains on them, same RDWC, same environment, same nutes, same growing style, same lucky underpants worn on alternate Tuesdays. At half mast.

And sooooooooo we'll know in a few weeks what the fuss is all about. I'm not saving one single solitary watt on the light setup itself, so I'll know the score based on how the chillers respond and of course how the plants respond.
 

Waiks

Well-Known Member
I know you haven't completed a full cob run yet, but at this stage of flowering, have you noticed an increased uniformity of buds throughout the canopy as opposed to the old bulbs?

My cob web wall and first vert run is about to go live. I'm hoping for the same sized nugs all the way up!
 
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