Get a Harvest Every 2 Weeks

[Al B. Fuct]

Each 125L tank in the flowering area is dumped and cleaned 2x a month. I use 400ml each of the Canna Flores 'A' and 'B' when mixing a new tank (yields 1400ppm), so each flood system uses 800ml nutes per mo.

There are other necessary consumable items like 50% grade H2O2, which I apply at 1ml/litre, so 125ml in each tank, normally every 3-4 days but can be applied weekly. I also put 1tsp Epsom Salts and 10ml of Canna liquid calcium in each tank when mixing every 2 weeks. A 2L jug of pHDown lasts several months, requires about 20ml per tank when mixing, perhaps 10ml per tank in between dumps.

There's some other expenses in hydro like nutrient and pH meters, which are sort-of consumables. Good pH meters (I use Eutech pHScan1 meters) have a replaceable probe tip; these last 2 years. I have a Truncheon nutrient meter which is now 7 years old and going like a champ, but that's longer than mfr Bluelab's estimation of the service life of the device. I can't recommend Bluelab's pHTruncheon meter. I have had 3, all croaked in weeks. You also will want an aquarium air pump and air stone for nutrient aeration. Air pumps last about a year, some come with a replacement set of pump diaphragms and flapper valves, good for another year's use. Common aquarium air stones, made from essentially glued sand, don't last long in acidic nutrient solutions. Use bubble curtains made from plastic materials. Look hard and you will find some bubble curtains with a porous poly sleeve with a woven stainless steel core, which weights them down to keep them from floating. This sort can be used for a couple of years with occasional cleaning with a scrub brush.

Hydro is indeed a bit more expensive than soil, but the benefits far outweigh the costs, which in the end are usually reasonable if you shop well for your hydro supplies- do comparisons between local shops. Some hydro shops are treated like cash cows by their operators- you can spot these jokers with their 1 litre bottles of H2O2, repacked with a house brand name and priced at $20-25. So's ya know, I pay $5/litre for 50% grade H2O2 in 25L jugs and could get it cheaper if I bought more qty... Make sure you shop around, especially online, to get a clue if your local hydro shop is clipping you.

 

[WidowMaker79]

Great advice, thanks.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Can't highly enough recommend installing cooltubes!





I've had them in for about 11 days now, not long enough to really discern any difference in how the plants are growing, but the numbers are sure adding up better. The peak-mem thermo sez there's only about a .75 degree C variation from the 23.7C main exhaust setpoint, ranging from to 23.0C to 24.5C. That range is during both lights-on and lights-off. The room air temp has never been so stable and within the desired temp range.

Without the tubes, it ran closer to 26.5-27C @ 70% during lights-on. RH is now bang-on 60%, still a bit higher than I'd like (even with the dehumidifier running), but lately, my intake air has been about 18C @ 80%RH- had a lot of rain recently.

Better temp & RH control can't be anything but good. Can't wait til I get the first batch out that has always been under the cooltubes. That batch went in yesterday, so will be out in 8 weeks.

 

[We TaRdED]

Thanks so much! lots of great info on here. i just dont have the time to read it all right now, so im subscribing... Great job btw, and i dont think your a lazy stoner....

 

[LoudBlunts]

the reflectors are sexy as hell!

 

[SaRaNaC]

Al i cant find a place to get H2O2 online in the states, what company makes it?

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Thanks so much! lots of great info on here. i just dont have the time to read it all right now, so im subscribing... Great job btw, and i dont think your a lazy stoner....

Thanks for that.

Most of the thread is meaty, not much fluff, suffer through it if you can.

Does make me wonder if there's a practical upper limit to the length of a thread, though. It's not very searchable, but at least it's all there for anyone to browse.

But yeah, you know, I really am a lazy frickin' stoner- I'm typing this with a fat doob in my teeth and about to roll another... instead of doing something useful.

the reflectors are sexy as hell!

Ain't they?!

The great part is that it's not like mags on a Pinto- they do kinda have that mad-scientist's-lab thing happening, but they actually accomplish something useful.

Al i cant find a place to get H2O2 online in the states, what company makes it?

H2O2 is a common oxidising chemical. You're most likely to find it at hydro shops. I buy from hydroponics equipment wholesalers- the folks who supply the local retail shopfront hydro shops- so I can get 25L bulk 'carboy' jugs instead of getting it repacked in 500ml-2L 'profit bottles' at 5x the bulk price.

You might also find it at foodservice supply houses where it is sold as a steriliser for food processing equipment. 'Food grade' may be 35% H2O2 as opposed to the 50% 'horticultural grade' but it's still usable. If you get 35%, use it at 1.5ml per litre of tank volume instead of 50% which is used at 1ml/L.

 

[OhYesTheDopeMan]

Sorry if this is 'offensive' though it really shouldn't be lol....

I would say to anyone pondering the thought of going soil with generally the same setup as Al B Fuct I'd say go for it, that's what I did. My yields are just as good with LESS plants and heh I DON'T control several variables such as temp and humidity for no particular reason really except being lazy I probably will in the near future. Also worthy to note this was done with several different strains (indicas and sativas) and the sativas yield very low in SOG setups. This partially because I can't get cloning success as much as I'd like so I put out what I can but that's changing lately. After 2 perpetual harvests I've been content with my noob success. I expect numbers to increase when its an all one strain, indica garden which will be 2 harvests from now.

Soil I guess is more messy than hydro but that doesn't necessarily it is messy, my room is pretty clean I don't throw soil everywhere and I know exactly how much to water now so that it doesn't flood all over the place. I've pondered the idea of switching to hydro, don't want to start any arguments but (imo) if you smoke AAA marijuana you won't fancy hydro (though there is some very intense hydro sometimes).

Its a coincidence how my setup is basically the same as Al B Fucts, but I had started prior to this thread. Then later when I saw it I just modified it (took many weeks of effort) to be perpetual and now things are pretty consistent. My lights are also vertical which I think is more efficient but in the summer, the heat around them gets too intense so will have to worry about that later.

Also you have to purchase floc and all that stuff for hydro anyway so just as much disposing required, each harvest leaves me with 1-2 garbage bags of waste not stressful to me at all. And then I considered deep water culture but just no thanks. My soil garden forgave me even after being unattended for a WEEK at a time yes you heard that a week. Can you leave your hydro for a week need be?

There are advantages and disadvantages and to each his own but I just think there should be less soil bashing here lol considering what it can offer.

 

[upinchronic1]

Aesome. I read the fist couple pages and then couldnt go on, but it gave me a great idea. I have a 150 watt hps that ill stick in a 2 drawer file cabinet and a 250 that ill set up in a dressor, with the 150 on 04 and the 250 on for 4-8, then one mother in a computer case ( lsted up the ass and trimmed to keep height reasonable), with a batch of clones in another PC

Thanks for the insperation man!!!

This is wrong.Your power usage quotes are flawed, it largely depends on the quality of the ballast, as this could flucuate ALOT.
Also your coverage is flawed too.
You’ll get better light coverage with 2-400’s. better yet, 2-600’s. The great thing about the 600’s are they put out the same amount of light as a 750 watt HID would if you based it on the efficiency of a 1,000 watt HID. In other words, you'll get 75% of the amount of light from a 600 as you’d get from a 1,000 at 60% of the energy cost.

A 250 watt HID will illuminate a 2' x 2' garden.
A 400 watt HID will illuminate a 3' x 3' garden.
A 600 watt HID will illuminate a 3.5' x 3.5' garden.
A 1000 watt HID will illuminate a 4' x 4' garden.
You can see from this how 2 400's or 600's would be better than a 1000 watt light.

You might be the person i want to ask about ballasts. Ok so if you use HTG at all or know anything about them, do you think there cheap 50 dollar ballasts kits are bound to be shit?? For so cheap it makes you wonder... Plus htg ballast kit vs htg complete set ups vs their USA made 200 dollar ballast kits ( with the 30% extra lummen output).? Any advise GREATLy appreciated.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Also you have to purchase floc and all that stuff for hydro anyway so just as much disposing required, each harvest leaves me with 1-2 garbage bags of waste not stressful to me at all. And then I considered deep water culture but just no thanks. My soil garden forgave me even after being unattended for a WEEK at a time yes you heard that a week. Can you leave your hydro for a week need be?

There are advantages and disadvantages and to each his own but I just think there should be less soil bashing here lol considering what it can offer.

Soil is about 4-5x the weight of even rather heavy rockwool floc. Multiply that times 23 pots (every 2 weeks) and it's a fairly significant amount of stuff to lug. A 100L bag of Fytocell stuffs ~50 pots but weighs under 10kg- you can easily carry a bag in each hand. 50x 175mm x 175mm pots of soil would easily weigh 150kg. Wet it and that becomes 200-220kg.

Of course, you can dispose of used soil in your gardens- but for how long? I use about 1.5 cubic metres of media per year. If I had to spread the last 7 years worth of media on my gardens, I'd have raised my lot level by half a metre. After 2 crops, I doubt you will have encountered the long term disposal problem just yet.

Floc & Fytocell are much lighter than soil and will both dry out rather readily- just point a fan at the harvested pots- Fytocell will dry in a few days, floc in about a week. It's not far from dry weight by time to bag it up and bin it.

If you dispose of old media in common rubbish, weight is important. Most folks have rubbish collection via trucks that have robo-arms. If you overload the bin, the arm may crush the bin trying to grip it or it may not be able to lift it at all.

Hydro is faster and yields better than soil for one simple reason- O2 to the roots. The less absorbent the media, the more often it can be watered with oxygenated nute solution.

Long-term unattended watering systems are easily possible for hydro ops, but plants need attention other than watering, at least once a week. I have a vacation watering system which uses a reservoir, digital irrigation timer valve and float valves which allow me to leave my op unattended for a 8-10 days.

While I appreciate that you're having fine luck with not measuring anything, what you're having, after 2 crops, is indeed just luck- and it will very likely run out. I actually know what's going on in my op. When something stops working right, I'll know why and how to solve it. I like science a lot better than guessing.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Aesome. I read the fist couple pages and then couldnt go on,

You really should go on and read the whole thing- if you had, you sure wouldn't be quoting videoman40

but it gave me a great idea. I have a 150 watt hps that ill stick in a 2 drawer file cabinet and a 250 that ill set up in a dressor, with the 150 on 04 and the 250 on for 4-8, then one mother in a computer case ( lsted up the ass and trimmed to keep height reasonable), with a batch of clones in another PC

Thanks for the insperation man!!!

Your mom will NEVER find it.

You might be the person i want to ask about ballasts. Ok so if you use HTG at all or know anything about them, do you think there cheap 50 dollar ballasts kits are bound to be shit?? For so cheap it makes you wonder... Plus htg ballast kit vs htg complete set ups vs their USA made 200 dollar ballast kits ( with the 30% extra lummen output).? Any advise GREATLy appreciated.

What's HTG?

I'm not a fan of electronic ballasts- not until they last 10 years and cost the same as an inductive ballast, thanks. Plain ol' inductive ballasts last nigh on forever and deliver the same luminous output as electronic types.

 

[upinchronic1]

You really should go on and read the whole thing- if you had, you sure wouldn't be quoting videoman40

Your mom will NEVER find it.

What's HTG?

I'm not a fan of electronic ballasts- not until they last 10 years and cost the same as an inductive ballast, thanks. Plain ol' inductive ballasts last nigh on forever and deliver the same luminous output as electronic types.

Why wouldnt i be quoting videoman, he def knows his shit. Actually my mom not only will find it, but she will be claming one plant wich will be 20 percent, its so my younger siblings dont find out and say something stupid to anyone.

Check out HTGsupply.com, tey sell a shit load of growing acc.

And what is an inductive ballast? like a magnetic?

 

[OhYesTheDopeMan]

1-2 bags of dirt every 2 weeks is not difficult to dispose anyway you look at it whatsoever, they aren't dead bodies. And most soil users tend to use a promix which is much lighter than the soil you're speaking off. When completely dry an 8" is probably 3 lbs.

If one were to go soil you probably wouldn't decide to have 23 plants a cycle due to the efforts needed to repot and water individually for soil but rather half that number and grow larger bushier plants. For my particular space, though I could fit 23 x 4 plants I felt a lot of the girls and budsites would be left in too much shade for my liking. And its easier to care for only 40 plants versus 80.

Its not really luck actually, its I know the climate in there and the humidity and though they aren't perfect they are still good and actually replicates that of a region which grows the greatest outdoor bud. But IF I do decide to dedicate the extra effort I'd yield even more, I don't even have proper air circulation.

And Al B Fuct my comments aren't really targeted towards you as you clearly know what you're doing and are actually the main reason to my big yields, I finally found a setup that does what I want. Its actually for all the peeps mentioning soil, it may help to let them know it isn't exactly the darkside. All my other dozens of houseplants are hydro, I don't like soil in my living room

 

[cmak40]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH DOPEMAN
a connisiuer likes organic dirt, thats what i like , thats what i wanna grow, and thats what i wanna smoke

 

[Al B. Fuct]

And what is an inductive ballast? like a magnetic?

Standard 'coil and core' ballasts are known either as 'magnetic' or 'inductive.' The current limiting element in the device (looks something like a transformer) is an inductor; a coil of wire, in this case with a laminated iron core. Inductance is effectively a resistance to AC current, related to the expansion and collapse of a magnetic field when an AC current encounters a coil of wire with certain characteristics. You can see how the terms are interchangeable.

If one were to go soil you probably wouldn't decide to have 23 plants a cycle due to the efforts needed to repot and water individually for soil but rather half that number and grow larger bushier plants.

Sea of Green-ish, but not quite SoG per se. Fewer yet bushier plants involve at least one pruning and some veg time between clones rooting and flowering them. Typical SoG exploits zero veg time after clones root, to save time and eliminate lighted floorspace spent on veg aside from mums. SoG also expoits the character that cannabis plants develop a larger terminal cola if they have only a single mainstem instead of divided growth induced by pruning. Pruned plants will yield more weight per plant than SoG style plants, but SoG plants yield larger, denser, heavier individual buds.

I see what you're doing and it's a smart way to reduce plant counts, should the worst happen. However, compared to typical SoG plantflow, some additional time and facilities are required for bushy plants. Can't veg the clones you've pruned in the flowering area. A separate veg cycle lighting area would be needed in the pipeline, used for only a few days to a week for each batch, before they are flowered, so you get some branch development post pruning.

If all goes well, you'll get something like this:

And Al B Fuct my comments aren't really targeted towards you as you clearly know what you're doing and are actually the main reason to my big yields, I finally found a setup that does what I want. Its actually for all the peeps mentioning soil, it may help to let them know it isn't exactly the darkside. All my other dozens of houseplants are hydro, I don't like soil in my living room

Thanks for that.

You're right, soil is forgiving, particularly for new growers and is eminently practical in small pot-count grows. However, as you note, dealing with a large qty of pots of soil is painful enough for you to want to reduce their numbers.

Hydro has a reputation for being expensive and complicated- and it can be a bit of both, if you let it. Mind, if there was no production benefit to hydro, nobody would do it. However, in a continuous output op with lots of pots moving through it, hydro makes good financial sense and is more practical from a slackers' perspective for a one-man-op.

 

[psyclone]

Well? Well? did you see the learned (and seminal) disquisition on plant feeding using Human (I hope (and fear)) ejaculate?
Thanks to you my SOG is astounding me-budding very heavily and set for 8oz's per square metre using 310watts inc 60 UV. I would not have thought it possible. And all without spilling seed (inappropiately).

 

[Al B. Fuct]

psy, I was really hoping I could completely avoid any conversation whatsoever about ppl wanking on their plants. Any. And I mean that most sincerely.

310W including 60UV? Is that 250W HPS and *shudder* 60W of incandescent UV blacklight? Say that ain't so, too!

 

[Al B. Fuct]

BTW psyclone, the plants look bitchin'. Well done.

You can bin the UV light tho, whatever sort it may be. You'll be getting plenty of UV from your HPS already. The UV output from HPS is proportionally similar to sunlight, right down to germicidal UVB wavelength @ 253nm.

 

[LoudBlunts]

mh has more uv than hps....

al b., you dont agree that the glass from reflectors block out uv rays?

also, have you heard about the hybrid lights? why arent you using them? what do you think about them?

 

[Al B. Fuct]

LB, I did a bit of research on this when considering cooltubes. HID tube envelopes are made from high light transmissibility borosilicate glass (aka Pyrex). The standard borosilicate used in Pyrex bakingware has somewhat lower UV transmissibility; about 30% of the shortest wavelength UV, that shorter than 300nm, is lost.

There was no labelling on my cooltubes as to whether they used optical or more industrial grade Pyrex. At worst, I'm losing 30% of the very top frequency UV.

Fluoro UV ozonator tubes, due to their very short operating wavelength at 253nm, use quartz for tube envelopes. Ozonator tubes cost a motza because of the quartz tube (14" (355mm) x 1" (25mm), $90! Don't want to think about the cost of a 150mm dia x 500mm long quartz tube, thanks.

Hybrid? MH & HPS?