This is a repost of a batch of queries posted as a comment to an image in my gallery. While I don't mind comments on images, those are not widely read. The readership figures on this thread are stunning, 11,600+ reads in the last 30 days as of this writing, averaging 386 reads per day and rising fast, it was averaging 350 reads/day only a few days ago.
If you have queries, it's easier for me to keep track of them here in the FAQt thread and more people see the queries & responses, hopefully answering other folks' questions before they even need to ask them.
Big ass clones
08-30-2008 04:53 AM
Whats your ppm on your tap?do you let it sit to evap.the chlorine?i m using ro water on this grow and not seeing any diff.ANY THING you have to do to get the big clones going? im doing your get a harvest every 2 weeks and want to get some big ass clones to start with what temp is best im trying to keep mine in upper 80s and they seem to grow faster than lower temps was cloning at 70 to 75?By the way thank you im loving getting 4 plants and 8ozs everymonth.
Last edited by SOMEBEECH : 08-29-2008 at 07:29 PM
My tapwater is pretty soft, about 140-300ppm out of the tap. Most of that is caused by Ca & Mg, which the plants can use as nutrients, so it doesn't bother me. I know this as a result of consulting the water analysis data from my local water utility. Your water util may publish the same, check their website. They almost surely will provide this data for free even if they don't have it on their website, just give them a call.
If the water out of your tap has a bit of electrical conductivity (EC), find out from the water quality data whether that EC is caused by generally helpful/harmless (in usual municipal water concentration) minerals like Ca & Mg or by something which SHOULD worry you- salinity (NaCl). If your tapwater has high salinity, RO is a good idea, but otherwise it's not really necessary.
Since I want a nute strength of 1400ppm for my flowering plants, I measure my tapwater EC and subtract that number from the TDS (total dissolved salts/solid) reading for a mixed batch. In example, if my tapwater today is 200ppm and I want 1400ppm of nute strength, I mix for 1600.
pH is always 5.8. Usually, the pH buffers included in my nutes will correct my tapwater pH to 5.8 or 5.9 without me adding any pHDown. Sometimes after very heavy rains, pathogens are washed out of the catchments and into the reservoirs, so the water util treats a bit more strongly, which can bump up the pH. In that case, I may have to put 15-20ml of pHDown in each 125L tank after mixing in the nutes.
Chlorination in the levels as commonly applied by modern water treatment plants is not only harmless to plants (and people), but it is in fact the grower's frined. Chlorination will keep water free of pathogens int he pipes while it is on the way to you as well as for a couple of days in an open tank, until the stuff evaporates from solution. After then, you have to use a pathogen suppressor like H2O2 to prevent your yummy nutrient soup from being a happy home to any passing algae, mould or fungus spores.
SoG does not allow any veg time for clones post setting root, so big clones help make big plants faster.
Thicker stemmed cuttings outperform thinner ones. The stack on the left all have stems of about 4mm or less. The stack on the right all are over 5.5mm. If there's any tricks here, that's a good one.
My clonebox air temp is held to 30C by a small muffin fan exhausting the box (located upper left of the back wall) and controlled by a thermostat (not seen in this pic, located also on the back wall, at plant level). A heat mat is especially helpful for speeding along clone rooting. Mine is a fixed 30C mat, moulded in silicone rubber. It's been running continuously for about 8 years.
Glad your happy with your 8oz/mo output off 4 harvested plants. I think you can do better than 0.5z per, though. I get 1-1.25z per plant under 1000HPS lights.
Ok here's a newbie Q. Does the dissolved O2 concentration matter with a flood drain? The roots are not in water most of the time.
It does matter. More O2 to the roots increases vigor. This is why I run air pumps and bubble curtains in each tank and dose the tanks with 50% grade H202 @ 1ml/L every 3-4 days. Since clay pellet media holds almost no water, it can be flooded frequently, starting with 5x/lights-on, bathing the roots in freshly oxygenated solution as much as possible. However, also since it holds next to no water, pellets don't offer much backup water storage in case of a pump failure. Highly absorbent media like rockwool does not permit frequent flooding. However, I used pots of RW floc for years because I'm a stoned slacker and I wanted to be able to skip looking in on the op for a day if I get a slack attack. It could only be watered 1x/day though, limiting the amt of oxygenated nutes I could flow through my roots. I have since changed to Fytocell, which has about a 37% air content and can be flooded more frequently. I now flood small plants in wks 1-2 of flowering 2x/lights-on and larger plants (wk3 on) 3x/lights-on in Fytocell.
Wouldn't roots use nutes and O2 when available?
Yep!
this hps bulb i'm after....is a bulb a bulb? any at yeolde hydro shop will do , or is there a type i need to buy, i.e. brand name and so forth.....i just found out there aint just one ya know!!
When you pay more for a lamp, you're getting a lamp that probably meets its luminous output spec when you buy it and chances are the lamp will make a higher average output over its service life. I use GE Lucagrow HPS tubes. I've tried some cheap no-name Chinese HPS tubes that certainly lit up but didn't meet the luminous output spec. Looked pretty bright but I wouldn't have known it was as dim as an 18 month old Lucagrow without measuring it with a lux meter.
that sounds really cool....if you figure sumthin out lemme know...i'll go buy it.
