Update: start of week five flower today.
This is gonna be a long post FYI. Stoners who don’t like to read should scroll to the bottom for pics lol
Haven’t given much info on watering and temps etc lately so here goes.
All started from seed in ffof soil in 5g pots. Each plant topped once at 5th node and then lst’d Under the scrog. The room was moved three times so it caused slow growth during early veg. New room is proper though and they loved the move.
Nuets are dutchbpro brand. Using just the A/B, multi total, take root and explode as well as adding some cal/mag.
Was feeding every other water and watering once a day but that proved to be too much so now I’ve been just watching the plants and at least feeding once a week with nuets. Ph’d water inbetween feeds.
Water type:
distilled(from store or my dehumid collection bin) occasionally tap water left out over night. We have bad tap water so I try not to use it. 298ppm and ph 8.9. Left out overnight and ppm drops about 30-40 ppm but nothing more usually.
Ph:
6.5 every time minus two weeks my meter broke. Water temps usually around 72 when checked. I first started veg at 5.8 ph but quickly realized that was incorrect
Ppm:
900-950 every time durning flower. 800-850 during veg
I have fed slightly less then the bottles recommend though throughout the grow.
Temps:
So temps have been fun.... I haven’t noticed much difference but during lights on, my temps float around 72-76 and same for lights out.... they say to make it colder duringnlights off but haven’t seen much difference with keeping temps constant throught the entire grow though. They don’t seem to mind it.
Co2:
monitoring co2 levels. Usually sitting around atmospheric co2 levels around 518ppm and raises up whennim in here. No control fornit. Just wanted to know the ppm really. Did make a co2 generator with sugar and yeast but never saw an increase in ppm so I ditched it.
Humidity:
During veg I was running 55%-60% RH constantly. Flower i started at 50-55 then dropped to 40-45 after a few weeks. They seem to like it there. For control, I have a humidistat that monitors the RH and controls outputs to my controller for a humidifier and a dehumidifier. Keeps RH exactly where I need it regardless of hvac or exhaust running.
Exhaust:
440cfm in-line fan to a 16” carbon filter. Set to operate between 73 cut out -76 cut in and then once every hour for two minutes to recycle air.
Hvac:
8000btu window unit. I re wired the unit and bypassed all the onboard controls and hard wired it to one of my controllers relays and cycle off various temps around the room that I then average and control the hvac. I built a plenum off the window unit and ran it to a 6” duct that goes along the floor. Return was untouched.
Lights:
Started with 1000wt mh during veg. Was too much so I dimmed it down to 600. They responded well after that and stoped bleaching it seemed. When flower started I switched to the 1000wt hps and then a few weeks later bumped it up to 1100 wt. they seem to like it still.
Veg light height was around 2.5 feet from canopy.
Flower light height is sitting around 16” +\- from tops after the stretch.
Fans:
I have one stand Up oscilating fan behind them blowing over the tops on lowest fan speed. Fans roughly 3-4 feet away. I have another 24” box fan in the front of them blowing under the screen. Also on lowest setting about same distance apart.
Controllers:
I’m using a controller meant for grocery stores but with a bit of re programming I’ve adapted into what I need and works quite well. I’ll put it this way, with this one controller I could probably control 20 grow rooms all the same size and still have room to add to it. I am currently only running one input board and one output board. But capable of running up to 64 boards on the same channel. I have 2 channels.... each board has 16 inputs and 8 outputs either n/o or n/c, your choice. I have 16 inputs that I can use to read temps humidity co2 light levels etc. any analog or digital input can be assigned to one of the 16 points weather it be a 0-10v or 4-20ma or resistance based input. I also have 8 available relay outputs capable of up to 250v at 5a. For my higher amp equipment I run them through a secondary 24v relay that’s rated much higher and then cycle the coil voltages though my board.
Sensors in the room:
I’ve got several sensors through the room. All sensors are 10k thermistor types. Ive got one for exhaust inlet temp, hvac return temp, canopy temp, and room temp. I average some or all and control various things based off averages. Aside from the sensors that are actually controlling things I’ve got some basic stand alone min/max sensor and humidity sensors sitting at the root zone and canopy levels.
What am I controlling:
I control the lights, hvac, space heater, exhaust, humidifier and dehumidifier. Next step is automated watering. Not quite confident on that yet though. Still some things to work out to get something that works well for soil. Hydro is an easy game. I prefer soil though. However s good automated water cycle is hard to nail down.
Electrical specs:
I have three dedicated breakers for my room. Hvac and light are on a 50amp and the rest is split between the two remaining 30 amp breakers. That’s sufficient for my current setup.
Defoliation:
I was never a fan before. I am now though. I only defoliate twice. Once before flower and then again a few weeks into flower. I grow under a screen so I strip EVERYTHING under the screen and any shoots that won’t make it to the top or only have 1-2 node sections. Then let her go for a few weeks and then check again. I’ll trim up any small new growth in the canopy but also I’ll look at bud sites as they develop. If I’ve got some small ones not quite to the canopy I’ll try and move things around to get more light to it but usually I just cut them out. I call them larf buds. Basically just look at all the nugs. If you’ve got some below canopy level and are struggling just cut them off. The inverse will send your nuets to the other sites and stop trying to grow a larf bud down below.
Tips:
Wind burn will make you chase your tail....
A completely pitch black room for flowering is a myth. Obviously you want it dark but from what I’ve seen on my grow and tested, it doesn’t need to be pitch black. I have light coming through the return of my hvac unit and a few spots along the walls where I sealed with foam that daylight kinda breaks through but it’s a very subtle light. I covered all the led lights on all the equipment. Someone should really make all this shit with green led lights and not red lol. Either way though I’ve got a dehumid unit that glows at night and they haven’t minded it yet.
Get your setup dialed in before you stick the plants in it. And actually run it for a few days with no plants. We are always excited to start but if you spend the extra time setting up it’ll make it s lot less painful throughout.
And last but NOT least......consistency.....consistency is key. I’m not saying you need to catalog the time and day when you fed and the weight of each plant etc but you should try to keep everything as consistent as possible. Temps, humidity etc.
Lol I was joking about the pics..... sry lol. just read through previous logs and you’ll see them. Ones above this post are from this morning. Anyone wants any other info let me know. I’ll take some close up bud pics tonight right before lights come on and upload.