Hot Diggity Sog - Chapter 5: The Big One

[Hot Diggity Sog]

Day 36: Transitioning to all Quantum Boards

This will be a brief update.

I've decided to run an all quantum board setup from here on out. After building the 1st prototype LED stand, I'm sold.
Tonight, I built a second LED tower and removed the 315W CMH. I'm now running 2 towers with one board on each. As the plant grows in height, I'll add more boards vertically.
Two more towers will be coming online over the next 7 to 10 days.

Big update in a week...wish me luck

 

[Bubblin]

Love those rings m8, they're high flow af.

Hows the double ring system working? I've got a V fitting here and I've been tempted to run two rings for more even saturation.

 

[Hot Diggity Sog]

Love those rings m8, they're high flow af.

Hows the double ring system working? I've got a V fitting here and I've been tempted to run two rings for more even saturation.

I've had problems with over-watering so I have to wait a little longer before I can turn them on. I'll let you know!

 

[Bubblin]

I've had problems with over-watering so I have to wait a little longer before I can turn them on. I'll let you know!

Thx m8, I've got several of emm kicking around, they're sexy rings for the price n they rarely clog. I've just been too busy to toss in the V fitting n a second flow rate limiter. Hoping the double system works well.

 

[Hot Diggity Sog]

Thx m8, I've got several of emm kicking around, they're sexy rings for the price n they rarely clog. I've just been too busy to toss in the V fitting n a second flow rate limiter. Hoping the double system works well.

Thank you! Things are kind of slow but should pick up soon. The removal of the rockwool early on really hurt the plant but she is rebounding and once her roots get a bit further, she should really take off...I hope at least! I'll probably be bringing the rings back online in a week or so.

 

[dubekoms]

Looks good man, I love how you go all out with these journals. That octagon vertical one was killer, excited to see what your room will look like when it's all set up.

 

[Hot Diggity Sog]

Looks good man, I love how you go all out with these journals. That octagon vertical one was killer, excited to see what your room will look like when it's all set up.

Thanks man! I can't wait too.

 

[Hot Diggity Sog]

Day 38: We're about to take off!

I have a large update despite only 48 hours passing!

Last night, I made a bunch of changes.
1) I removed the reflectix cover that was covering the netpot/hydroton
2) I set my chiller to 73 degrees...up from 67 which is what I've had it at all along.
3) I put my outer top feed ring on a timer and turned it on - 15 minutes on, 3 hours off.
4) I removed 2 gallons of water from the control thus dropping the water level from the bottom of the netpot to the water from 0.5" to ~ 1.5"

As of last night, my rez was running extremely stable. 500 PPM's exactly. 5.9 PH. It did not change...not even a little.
Then, I started to see my PPM's drop today. Late morning it went from 500 to 480. Then a few hours later from 480 to 460. And again a few hours later, from 460 to 450. I got really excited figuring that I should do a rez change soon and bump up my nute strength.

I turned my RO unit on to start making good water and then I started messing around with my control rez. I moved the pumps around just a bit and was basically just checking on them and positioning them as I wanted and boom...PPM's went from 460 right back to 500. I'm like, huh?

I sat there for 2 hours figuring that's gotta be a fluke but the numbers did not change. I decided I'll do something productive while I wait so I ended up cleaning the room. Brought the shop-vac in and used vinegar water to clean a bunch of surfaces. After an hour of that, I check my monitor and PPM's are now 530. What???

So...I'm a bit confused at the moment and decided not to do anything drastic. I added 1 gallon of fresh RO water to the control and wallah, back to exactly where I was: 500 PPM and 5.9 PH.

On to the fun stuff....

I ordered two more QB304 4000K boards and heat sinks - This time I chose 2 boards and 2 heat sinks.
Ordered two QB304 3500K boards and heat sinks - same deal...2 boards and 2 heat sinks.
Ordered 2 more Meanwell HLG-240H-C2100A drivers.

Once this stuff arrives, this brings my tally to:
(4) HLG-240H-C2100A drivers
(4) QB304 4000K
(2) QB304 3000K
(2) QB304 3500K

This gets me exactly half way there. 4 Towers and 4 Boards per tower is 16 boards and 8 drivers.
I got the 3rd tower built tonight and the 4th, and final, tower will be done soon...probably this weekend.

Next update I will get some root action - She's really starting to explode. Another week or two and she will be rockin n rollin.

 

[Hot Diggity Sog]

I forget to speak to why I did what I did last night:

1) I removed the reflectix cover that was covering the netpot/hydroton
She started with leaf droop (which is hard to really diagnose since NFT, DWC, RDWC all seem to cause droop) and leaf upward curl. The upward curl was the main clue and I thought that maybe me covering the hydroton was interfering with the O2 movement. I was not letting it "breathe", so to say.

2) I set my chiller to 73 degrees...up from 67 which is what I've had it at all along.
I did this because I went from incredible root growth last week to virtually nothing this week. I figured, as long as I keep a close eye on things, it should be fine and the warmer temps should spur quicker root growth.

3) I put my outer top feed ring on a timer and turned it on - 15 minutes on, 3 hours off.
I did this kind of to address the O2 issue. If I was preventing good airflow, I thought this might help. When the water comes down thru the hydroton, it's going to bring some air with it.

4) I removed 2 gallons of water from the control thus dropping the water level from the bottom of the netpot to the water from 0.5" to ~ 1.5".
I did this because I was worried that the very bottom of the net pot might be water logged, or super saturated, or whatever. I did not like the signs I was seeing so I just went with it.

 

[Hot Diggity Sog]

Day 41: Big procedural change...

For those of you who have followed, or at least seen, my journals, you might remember that I grew quite a bit in the mid 90's and then stopped until 2014 when I caught the bug again. Back in the mid 90's, there was no rollitup. There was barely an internet. After spending about 5 months reading, I decided to do a Coco grow with Blue Planet Nutrients. It was an amazing experience and, by far, the most insanely resinous weed I had ever grown...by FAR. So Blue Planet instantly found a soft spot in my heart. Over the next few experiments, I moved on and tried other things including different nutrients.

Flash forward to now, and I felt compelled to revisit Blue Planet and use the skills I've learned with various hydro techniques and see how the two might do.

This grow has been less than perfect from the start. From bad decisions on my part using 4 inch rockwool cubes to various other minor mishaps, it's been a sub-par showing from me thus far and I just can't have that.

Lets talk about Dutch Master ZONE for a moment. This was the one and only additive I've ever used in Hydro and it was great. I never had any issues with roots. None. Great growth rates. Never any issues.

Until now....

Dutch Master rebranded and repackaged most, if not all, of their product line. It is now called the "Commercial" line. When I first got the rebranded ZONE, something seemed a little off. The liquid was clear and the original was more of a yellow. This has the feeling of water where the original was much more viscous. And this smells like straight chlorine where the original had very little odor and certainly nothing resembling chlorine.

After a little digging, come to find out DutchMaster was bought by Fuji Film. That's right, Fuji fucking Film (at least it wasn't Monsonto). So, I don't know what's up but I've lost all confidence in this product and I'm switching things up and going a new direction.

Instead of a sterile res, I am jumping head first into the world of beneficial's. @Bubblin gave me a crash course over the period of two days and I now feel confident enough to give it a try. So I am!

Tonight, I did a major res dump and clean. I cleaned and flushed as best as I could and then mixed up a fresh new batch of goodies for the lady.
I've removed ZONE from the mix and introduced Great White from Plant-Success.

Nothing else too major is or has changed. The res temps have been put back to 68/69. The 2 rings on top of the netpot are starting to be used more and more frequently. Not sure if keeping them on 24/7 can ever happen, but we'll see. For now, I have them turning on maybe 10 times a day for 15 minutes each time.

On to some picks. Within the next 3 to 7 days, we should see the Great White in action

 

[Hot Diggity Sog]

Day 45: Things are looking good

Did another rez change tonight. I was able to get almost all of the water out of both totes thanks to my new bottom draw pump. I like this pump a lot! I had a bunch of hydroton dust sitting on the bottom and I cleaned all of that up proper. Both rez's were super clean before I started.

I took a close look at the girl under a CFL light and I couldn't believe how dark green she is. I saw this with Blue Planet Nutes before, but this was bordering on crazy. I decided to tone the nutes back a bit further.

Here was dinner, and running PPM totals as I added:

Starting point: 0 PPM
Shield (Silica): 25ml - 50 PPM
Calmag: 40 ml - 170 PPM
Micro: 20 ml - 270 PPM
Grow: 20 ml - 330 PPM
Bloom: 20 ml - 390 PPM
Vita Blue: 7.5 ml - 390 PPM (no change)
Easy Weed (Seaweed): 1 scoop - 390 PPM (no change)

PH came in at 6.2. Awesome! Usually, I would leave it at 6.2 and drop it by a 1/10th per day until 5.8 but today I added ~ 30 drops of PH down to get me right to 5.8.

I had premixed 1.5 tsp of great white into 1 gallon of RO water earlier in the day and added that at the very end.

I've started to make some changes here and there. My lighting schedule has changed. I've had the lights on 24 hours a day since day 1 but I switched to the 6/2 method yesterday. 6 on, 2 off, 6 on, 2 off, etc.. Comes out to 18/6 but more frequently.

I've removed both air stones from the main rez.
I've implemented my first venturi on the pump that sits in the control rez and just stirs. Will be exploring this further.

I've been experimenting with the top ring frequency. The last 2 days, I've had them on for 4 hours, off for 2 hours, repeat. Tonight, I changed it up a bit and have them on 15 minutes, off 30 minutes, on 15, off 30, repeat.

I replaced the pump for the top feed rings. It was a 180 gph and now it is a much more powerful 590 gph.
I also replaced the pump that pumps control rez water into the main rez via 2 lines....nearly tripled with a new 1056 gph.
I have to say...the increase is not as impressive as I was hoping

I ended up topping her Saturday morning. I've been on the fence about topping. I kind of did not want to top and with all of the side light I have was hoping that it would work well. But...in the end, I felt like I needed to top her. I also took 4 of the main large fan leaves off. I know, I know...shoot me. It is what it is. I thought it was needed, so I did it.

She's getting ready to respond to the topping so it's exciting!

Roots are still not where I want. When I pick the net pot up, the roots extend about 5 or 6 feet out of the bottom. So that's cool, but I'm looking for some more explosive growth out of the side. Fingers crossed

Room temps and humidity are really good.
Rez temps are 100% under control.

All in all, things are great!

Onto some pics

 

[Unit Farm System Supply]

interesting set, happy growing

 

[Hot Diggity Sog]

Day 46: Reservoir Upgrade!

So yesterday I replaced the 2 pumps that feed water from the control to the plant with much more powerful pumps and dang...I was not at all impressed. I was wracking my brain trying to figure out how to get better water flow/movement/agitation in the plant rez. The top rings are working great but I think I'm starting to see a bit of air pruning going on with some of the roots that are higher up the net pot. I am blowing air from 2 air pumps directly into the rez, above the water line, so I turned those off last night. But then I saw some parts lying around that I've had for years and never used. I got inspired and I wanted to share what I came up with!



These sprayers are not spraying directly onto the net pot but they are causing enough splashing around to throw small amounts of water onto the net pot. And then of course, this is doing a much better job at agitating and aerating the water than what I had before. With this being my first grow of this style, feel free to chime in and let me know what you think.

Here is the main stem and the 2 rings going.


And finally, a picture of the lady. She's doing alright, I guess. A little slow going but maybe I'm just impatient



I'm still running the 3 towers with one Quantum Board 288 in each. Don't think I'll need the 4th tower for a little while still and won't need to add another row of lights to each tower until she hits around 27 inches tall or so.

 

[Unit Farm System Supply]

you are professional

 

[Hot Diggity Sog]

Day 49: Cruising along...

Been running the top feed rings on 24/7 with the new bottom feed pump and it's going well. These are the pumps:
https://www.amazon.com/EcoPlus-Convertible-Bottom-Draw-Water/dp/B00L2L3U08

This same pump is now feeding the waterfall fixtures inside the rez so we've got a total of 1170 GPH flowing from the control to the plant!

Nutrient Strength: 0.6 EC
PH: 5.8/5.9
Water Temps: 68/69 F
Room Temps: 75 to 79 F
RH: 45% to 55%

Next water change I will try and get some root pictures. They have not exploded like I was hoping since introducing the Great White. But they are doing fine, I guess.
Rob from Blue Planet is going to send me a custom mix to try...he and the Blue Planet folks have been an absolute pleasure to work with.

Got a reply finally from HLG regarding my fuck up. I had started ordering the QB 304's on accident when I really wanted the 288's. They were super cool and will let me exchange them.
Got a new shipment from them today...4 more 288's. I've been running (3) 288's. (1) 3000K and (2) 4000K's. I much prefer the 4000K and so now the (3) towers are all 4000K. I also decided to hang one above the plant. Was not sure if I wanted, or if she would need, any overhead lighting but I decided to put one up and I like it so far. Have to keep a very close eye on burn and stress.

Other than that, not much to report. She's just chugging right along.

Oh...I measured her tonight: 11 inches tall and 15 inches in diameter. I've definitely never had a plant take on this shape or appearance before. It's going to be interesting!

Cheers

 

[Hot Diggity Sog]

Day 52: Going well!

Did a fresh rez change yesterday morning. Roots are making good progress and I'm not really worried anymore. The net pot is starting to expose roots all over...not just from the bottom.
She seems perfectly happy with the top feed rings on 24/7 so I'll stop fucking with it and just leave them on.

Yesterday's mix was to 480 PPM (0.685 EC) and 6.2 PH. Dropped it to 6.1 this morning and then 5.8 this evening.
PPM's steadily dropped over the last 36 hours. From 480 to 470 then to 460 this morning and 450 this evening. Added 5 ml's of micro, grow and bloom and 2 ml's of vita blue. This brought the PPM's up to 500 (0.714 EC). Then added 1/2 tsp of great white for just a touch of fresh bennies. The optimum PPM level is something that will reveal itself...I'll continue adjusting as I see fluctuations. I'll also continue to do full rez changes every 5 or 6 days...need to avoid any imbalances that could occur when adding fresh nutes.

I have to say that overall I am very pleased. I've never seen a plant take on this shape. And this is exactly what I was hoping for by using the side lighting. My rating on the quantum boards is still an A+. I have more 288's and drivers on the way and will bring the 4th tower on in a few days. She really responded well to the overhead board too...something I had not planned for. We'll see

I've got October 15th in mind for the flip but it really depends on her. I'm not on a schedule but I am hoping to have something to enjoy with friends and family on xmas.

 

[Kami Samurai]

The great white causes dust too. There is a recipe for Heisenberg tea in the DWC section. Best thing I’ve used for root health, promotes growth and prevents rot. Everything looks great bud, Makes me want to start another room watching you methodically dial yours in.

 

[Hot Diggity Sog]

Day 56

Did a water change last night...a day or two earlier than I wanted. She has really started to feed this week and instead of continuing to add more nutes and risk imbalances, I did a full change. Also started to see the first signs of gradual PH drops.

I targeted a PPM of 600 but it came in at 700 exactly or 1.0 EC. I added some plain water and got it to 670. It might be a bit strong but 14 hours later she looks great and is not showing and signs of over-feeding. In addition to more nutes, I went a little heavier on both silica and calmag.

Brought the 4th tower online so we're up to a total of (5) QB 288's...all 4000K.

She's doing great and not much else to report.

 

[Hot Diggity Sog]

Day 69

Everything is pretty dialed in now. Took a couple of weeks to get my nutrients perfect, RH and temps perfect. Ready to flip to 12/12 any day now!

 

[ANC]

Lol, all that space and you are growing one plant?