The klx Way!

[ganjamystic]

whats your chosen grow style these days?

just growing with plain water in homemade soil in fabric pots at the moment. I've done it all though.. I love it all

 

[klx]

just growing with plain water in homemade soil in fabric pots at the moment. I've done it all though.. I love it all

Cool, I get my dirt / organics / permaculture fix from my outdoor gardens so indoors its strictly sterile.

 

[ganjamystic]

Cool, I get my dirt / organics / permaculture fix from my outdoor gardens so indoors its strictly sterile.

ah word, sterile is actually one style I've never experimented with now that I think about it.. I've always used microbes, even when I've done dwc and flood and drain.. but my ocd side can totally appreciate it

 

[Keesje]

.......so aero cloner it is. DIY esky version. Works a treat.

I googled for Esky version but could not find it.
Do you have a link of a similar one you build?
What kind of pump with what volume do you use for the cloner?

Thanks again.

 

[klx]

I googled for Esky version but could not find it.
Do you have a link of a similar one you build?
What kind of pump with what volume do you use for the cloner?

Thanks again.

It is just a DIY aero cloner but instead of using a tote I used an 40L esky (cooler). The totes tend to leak but the esky doesnt leak and its also insulated.

Here is a link to very detailed plans for a cloner. Mine ismuch simpler than this, and I use mini sprinklers instead of sprayers.

Harvest a Pound Every Three Weeks!

I use the same pump as in my trays in my cloner. The high volume gets a good spray out of the sprinklers.

 

[Keesje]

Didn't know Esky was a brand. I thought it was a nickname of a member here

At the very minimum I dump the whole res after the PK boost week. If I am feeling motivated I will dump it every 2 weeks. But yes, in between dumps I top off with tap watet and adjust PH and PPM.

What size do you think your reservoir should be if you want...
A) No need for topping off at all.
B) Not risking that you'll have really disproportionate nutrients i.e. way too many of one element and not enough of another?
And then a total dumping of everything after 2 weeks and filling the reservoir up again with fresh tapwater and nutrients,

Now you have a 100 liter reservoir for your 3 x 3 tray, so I wonder what size would be needed to do no work for 2 weeks and not jeopardizing your plants/roots.

 

[klx]

What size do you think your reservoir should be if you want...
A) No need for topping off at all.
B) Not risking that you'll have really disproportionate nutrients i.e. way too many of one element and not enough of another?
And then a total dumping of everything after 2 weeks and filling the reservoir up again with fresh tapwater and nutrients,

Now you have a 100 liter reservoir for your 3 x 3 tray.

This is the best way to do it if you can keep up the discipline needed for it. For a 3x3, I would say a 150L tank would be big enough that the water would not drop below the pump before the 2 weeks is up.

There will be some experimenting with EC/PPM levels to find the correct dose so that, as your water level drops the PPMs remain steady, and it will vary from strain to strain.

 

[Keesje]

You wrote somewhere that you searched for the systeem with the least amount of work
So I was wondering where to gain a little more lazyness in your already great system.

 

[klx]

You wrote somewhere that you searched for the systeem with the least amount of work
So I was wondering where to gain a little more lazyness in your already great system.

haha good idea but in my situation, topping off is less work than dumping and refilling. My plumbing goes up before it goes down, so I need to use a bigger pump to get the leftover res onto my outdoor vege gardens. I find myself thinking, that res can go one more week lol.

 

[skoomd]

haha good idea but in my situation, topping off is less work than dumping and refilling. My plumbing goes up before it goes down, so I need to use a bigger pump to get the leftover res onto my outdoor vege gardens. I find myself thinking, that res can go one more week lol.

Do you just top off the res or do you do res changes every 1-2 weeks?

I use organic additives, even in dwc, so a weekly res change is a must. With topoffs if needed, and sometimes nutrients in the topoffs.

 

[klx]

Do you just top off the res or do you do res changes every 1-2 weeks?

I use organic additives, even in dwc, so a weekly res change is a must. With topoffs if needed, and sometimes nutrients in the topoffs.

In theory, I do res changes every 2 weeks. In reality, its more like 4 weeks with weekly top offs. Sterile makes this sort of laziness less problematic. Plus, I dont like to waste water.

This tray is at Day 26 and has not had a full res dump yet. It will in a couple of days as the leaf tips and fringes are just starting to show signs with the PK boost in this week.

 

[skoomd]

In theory, I do res changes every 2 weeks. In reality, its more like 4 weeks with weekly top offs. Sterile makes this sort of laziness less problematic. Plus, I dont like to waste water.

This tray is at Day 26 and has not had a full res dump yet. It will in a couple of days as the leaf tips and fringes are just starting to show signs with the PK boost in this week.

View attachment 4134229

Very nice. Ill have to keep that in mind. I dont wanna give up my humic acids/kelp/microbes quite yet, but if I have a vacation planned ahead ill maybe give sterile a try as I am thinking of swapping to coco my next grow. Used to do coco with drip system a couple of years ago and its how I first started, then I tried DWC and hated the shit out of it. Then swapped to soil that's packed with perlite or growstones in fabric pots to try and replicate the oxygen levels in coco. I can get close to the same veg speeds as hydro with it but I like coco because you can change the nutrients or flush the medium several times a day if you wanted/needed to. I like having full control.

One thing I noticed last time I did DWC was that when I did top offs of the res throughout the week, certain nutrients were uptaken faster than others. So by the end, the NPK was all different. i could tell this because of nutrient signs on the plants. I was adding back 2 gallons a day and 200-300ppm though. Those plants were thirsty/hungry fuckers.

 

[klx]

Very nice. Ill have to keep that in mind. I dont wanna give up my humic acids/kelp/microbes quite yet, but if I have a vacation planned ahead ill maybe give sterile a try as I am thinking of swapping to coco my next grow. Used to do coco with drip system a couple of years ago and its how I first started, then I tried DWC and hated the shit out of it. Then swapped to soil that's packed with perlite or growstones in fabric pots to try and replicate the oxygen levels in coco. I can get close to the same veg speeds as hydro with it but I like coco because you can change the nutrients or flush the medium several times a day if you wanted/needed to. I like having full control.

One thing I noticed last time I did DWC was that when I did top offs of the res throughout the week, certain nutrients were uptaken faster than others. So by the end, the NPK was all different. i could tell this because of nutrient signs on the plants. I was adding back 2 gallons a day and 200-300ppm though. Those plants were thirsty/hungry fuckers.

Yep thats the issue. The longer you go between res changes the more out of whack the ratios are. Everything is a trade off and my least favourite chores usually lose out.

 

[Keesje]

You can make your reservoir really oversized perhaps.
Sure you spend a lot on nutrients then, but the ratio of the different elements stays more intact.

 

[klx]

Dry weights for the test tray. Light was set at 500W for this run. I think I am just about reaching the point of diminishing returns for a 3x3 tray. Almost exactly 1gpw.

Green Crack - 97
Critical Cheese - 32
Granddaddy Purple - 82
Girl Scout Cookies - 68
Sweet Black Angel - 31
Purple Trainwreck - 56
Glueberry OG - 63
Amherst Sour Diesel - 76

Doesn't mean much really cos for example I have already killed the Green Crack even though it yielded the most. Always the way.

 

[The Dawg]

@klx Hey Brother I'm Digging Your No Medium Grow. However My Question Is Where Did You Get Those Brackets That Attach Your Heatsink To Your Frame

 

[klx]

@klx Hey Brother I'm Digging Your No Medium Grow. However My Question Is Where Did You Get Those Brackets That Attach Your Heatsink To Your Frame

Cheers brother, you have good eyes. Cutter is your man.

 

[The Dawg]

Cheers brother, you have good eyes. Cutter is your man.

Thank You Brother. I Thought Your Bracket Looks Similar To Cutters However I Didn't See The Rotation Arch Like Cutters. I Guess I'm Going To Bite The Bullet Order A Couple To See If They Fit My 135's

 

[klx]

SoG tray day 30 cruising along:



Stacking:



...and tray 2 on Day 9 in full jungle mode:

 

[Keesje]

Dry weights for the test tray. Light was set at 500W for this run. I think I am just about reaching the point of diminishing returns for a 3x3 tray. Almost exactly 1gpw.

Before you had the same weight but with just 450 Watts of led, right?