40+ lbs with 12 Plants in 2 Rooms on a Flip

Major Blazer · Feb 17, 2019

Renfro said:
I have never had that problem. I use 1" lines for my 10 gallon buckets and 1/2" lines for my 5 gallon ones.

Excuse my ignorance then how does it fill a waste bucket if the drains are ground level. Is there standing water in the bottoms of those lower buckets?

Renfro · Feb 17, 2019

diggs99 said:
are you using pens for PH and PPM?

or do you run one of those fancy controllers ive seen around lol

I have 2 pens, PH and TDS. i trust the TDS, since i calibrated , it has stayed consistant, the PH pen is another story. i abandoned using it this past few weeks because of inconsistency, went to the drops , issues with one plant started happening shortly after.

I need a new pen i think, was much easier and more exact than the drops.

I like my blue lab pen for pH. I calibrate it weekly and it's rarely even off but the key is I use it everyday. If they sit they can go bad or get out of whack. Supposedly a soak in TAP water can fix a bad probe sometimes. Never put it in RO or distilled water as it supposedly messes up the probe, always have some nutes mixed in the water first. All that said I usually end up having to replace the pH pen every few years. It just gets to the point where it takes forever to read and needs calibration constantly.

My PPM pen is just a cheapo and it works great.

Major Blazer said:
Excuse my ignorance then how does it fill a waste bucket if the drains are ground level. Is there standing water in the bottoms of those lower buckets?

There is just a little slope in my floor towards the floor drains, thats how they usually build them so water will run that way if a water heater blows or something. The only little bit of water that remains is below the barbed fitting in the side of the bucket. There is a few inches between that and the bottom of the top bucket so roots don't really work their way down there due to air pruning.

Major Blazer · Feb 17, 2019

Renfro said:
There is just a little slope in my floor towards the floor drains, thats how they usually build them so water will run that way if a water heater blows or something. The only little bit of water that remains is below the barbed fitting in the side of the bucket. There is a few inches between that and the bottom of the top bucket so roots don't really work their way down there due to air pruning.

Ahh ok I understand now. Lucky to have that slope! I have to elevate everything but then headroom becomes an issue and I'm trying to hack my way out of that. Was thinking of using buckets from an ebb/flow system with a recessed drain, slightly elevated above ground level, and then draining into a shallow tote. Your monsters are inspiring me more.

Renfro · Feb 17, 2019

Major Blazer said:
Ahh ok I understand now. Lucky to have that slope! I have to elevate everything but then headroom becomes an issue and I'm trying to hack my way out of that. Was thinking of using buckets from an ebb/flow system with a recessed drain, slightly elevated above ground level, and then draining into a shallow tote. Your monsters are inspiring me more.

Yeah my buddy has higher ceilings and he did the same buckets I have, he put a grommet and 1" barbed elbow in the bottoms of his buckets and set them on some squares of 1.5" thick styrofoam insulation. He only has maybe a quarter inch that doesn't drain because of the grommet.

diggs99 · Feb 17, 2019

Renfro said:
I like my blue lab pen for pH. I calibrate it weekly and it's rarely even off but the key is I use it everyday. If they sit they can go bad or get out of whack. Supposedly a soak in TAP water can fix a bad probe sometimes. Never put it in RO or distilled water as it supposedly messes up the probe, always have some nutes mixed in the water first. All that said I usually end up having to replace the pH pen every few years. It just gets to the point where it takes forever to read and needs calibration constantly.

My PPM pen is just a cheapo and it works great.

There is just a little slope in my floor towards the floor drains, thats how they usually build them so water will run that way if a water heater blows or something. The only little bit of water that remains is below the barbed fitting in the side of the bucket. There is a few inches between that and the bottom of the top bucket so roots don't really work their way down there due to air pruning.

Ya i think the PH pen i have is just junk. im gonna try and calibrate it again, but once you lose trust in something, its hard to get it back lol

I should have just spent the extra $80 and bought the bluelab

Renfro · Feb 17, 2019

diggs99 said:
Ya i think the PH pen i have is just junk. im gonna try and calibrate it again, but once you lose trust in something, its hard to get it back lol

I should have just spent the extra $80 and bought the bluelab

I had a milwaukee that needed calibration every use and it was never close when I would calibrate it. The only ones I had good luck with were Blue Lab and Hanna Instruments (that was a HI98129 pH PPM combo pen). Needed a pen in a hurry and the local store didn't have the hanna so I tried a blue lab and I have had a couple of those over the last 3 years or so. Using them daily helps keep them alive.

diggs99 · Feb 17, 2019

I just asked renfro about removing my bloom nutes and replacing them with 0-10-10 for last couple weeks. Removing N without removing PK

You say this should be fine, but make sure they still get the micros

Any recommendations on how to achieve that?

i assume calmag for calcium and magnesium, are there others to worry about?

Renfro · Feb 17, 2019

Yeah there is a lot of different micronutrients from boron to molybdenum, zinc and so forth. In my GH 3 part the micro bottle has all those goodies, so if you have that you could go with the micro at say perhaps 8mL per gallon and enough of the liquid cool bloom to get your target PPM of say 1000. Perhaps a little calmag if you use it (add first).

diggs99 · Feb 17, 2019

Renfro said:
Yeah there is a lot of different micronutrients from boron to molybdenum, zinc and so forth. In my GH 3 part the micro bottle has all those goodies, so if you have that you could go with the micro at say perhaps 8mL per gallon and enough of the liquid cool bloom to get your target PPM of say 1000. Perhaps a little calmag if you use it (add first).

Ok perfect, will mix up the next feeding this way for sure.

Are you on a certain feed schedule? like water,water ,feed or water ,feed, water?
Or are you giving nutes with every watering in the last couple weeks?

Renfro · Feb 17, 2019

diggs99 said:
Ok perfect, will mix up the next feeding this way for sure.

Are you on a certain feed schedule? like water,water ,feed or water ,feed, water?
Or are you giving nutes with every watering in the last couple weeks?

I feed every watering. I once tried skipping the feed and the plants would get upset with me right away.

You do want ample runoff every watering to help minimize salt buildups and I do give a flush every couple weeks to ensure there isn't a buildup.

I flush with RO water and I add a little epsom salt to get about 100 PPM just so the RO water doesn't suck the life out of the roots (I know there is a technical term something about ions perhaps? lol). I pH the flush mix to 6.5. I normally feed my 10 gallon pots with 2.5 gallons and get about 20% runoff. To flush I hit them with 2.5 gallons of the flush mix, wait 20 minutes to let that soak up the salts in the soil, then I hit them with another 2.5 gallons of the flush mix to push that all out and then I give 2.5 gallons of feed with normal nutrients so they can keep on rocking. This isn't overwatering as it's all done at the same time. Over watering is not letting the medium dry out between watering and thus suffocating the roots.

diggs99 · Feb 17, 2019

Renfro said:
I feed every watering. I once tried skipping the feed and the plants would get upset with me right away.

You do want ample runoff every watering to help minimize salt buildups and I do give a flush every couple weeks to ensure there isn't a buildup.

I flush with RO water and I add a little epsom salt to get about 100 PPM just so the RO water doesn't suck the life out of the roots (I know there is a technical term something about ions perhaps? lol). I pH the flush mix to 6.5. I normally feed my 10 gallon pots with 2.5 gallons and get about 20% runoff. To flush I hit them with 2.5 gallons of the flush mix, wait 20 minutes to let that soak up the salts in the soil, then I hit them with another 2.5 gallons of the flush mix to push that all out and then I give 2.5 gallons of feed with normal nutrients so they can keep on rocking. This isn't overwatering as it's all done at the same time. Over watering is not letting the medium dry out between watering and thus suffocating the roots.

Ya i just did that with my problem girl a few days ago. flushed with ph`d water then waited a bit and fed her like normal.She showed no ill affects of it whatsoever.

i usually water to runoff, so i assume salt buildup issues should be decreased for me. I do like the idea of feeding them nutes every watering tho, especially when the number of times they actually take water is not very high in the grand scheme of things.

Atleast for me, my plants are in 5g fabric pots and they are still taking 3-5 days to dry out completely, 5 being close to wilting. I see some guys are watering every 2 days, kinda makes me wonder why my plants arent using so much water.

Couch_Lock · Feb 17, 2019

diggs99 said:
Atleast for me, my plants are in 5g fabric pots and they are still taking 3-5 days to dry out completely, 5 being close to wilting. I see some guys are watering every 2 days, kinda makes me wonder why my plants arent using so much water.

I do know one variable as to why. Some strains require water more often, probably due to their genetics and the environments they were originally grown in.

There could be more reasons why, also.

diggs99 · Feb 17, 2019

Couch_Lock said:
I do know one variable to why. Some strains require water more often, probably due to their genetics and the environments they were originally grown in.

There could be more reasons why, also.

Ya for sure. That makes sense. Although the one that messed me up most was a journal growing the same strain under the same light and both in 5g fabric pots. he was watering every 2 days the last few weeks of flower.

Still many variables in play tho, maybe his rh was much lower than mine, maybe his temps were not quite so controlled? i dunno to be honest lol just hope its not something im doing wrong, you know?

Couch_Lock · Feb 17, 2019

Could be a diff pheno......its just not parental genetics, could also be grandparents. They all started out as landrace strains, particular to a given area and its particular environment (precipitation amounts, latitude/longitude, etc).

Couch_Lock · Feb 17, 2019

Party is @ Renfro's this year!!!! No bout adoubt it!

Renfro · Feb 18, 2019

So I may change things up in a room next run.

Nutrients. I am using GH Flora and I spend a little over 300 bucks a month on nutrients. (I did the math with excel)

I have a friend who is getting amazing results with Jacks Hydro. jrpeters.com

He uses their 15-12-26 Part A and their Calcium Nitrate Part B along with Epsom Salt. Part A is $55 for a 25 pound bag, Part B is $50 for a 25 pound bag and they sell a 25 pound bucket of epsom salt for $35 bucks. So all three is $140 + shipping.

I'll do my math not including shipping although I am sure that's gonna cost a few bucks.

Part A 3.6 Grams per Gallon
Part B 2.4 Grams per Gallon
Epsom Salt 1.2 Grams per Gallon

So I did the math on my mix and it would only be costing me 95 cents to mix a 30 gallon barrel of this stuff. That's my daily consumption for both rooms. A dollar a day! So I would be spending 10% of what I currently do for nutrients.

His results are great, he converted from GH Flora as well.

Thundercat · Feb 18, 2019

I've seen lots I great reviews for the jacks. I've thought about trying it. The Envy brand nutes I use are a similar concept. If you haven't check them out I would say it's a least worth looking at too. I get outstanding flavor and very healthy growth.

https://www.envybrand.com/index.php/envy-hydroponics

Renfro · Feb 18, 2019

I saw a thread on here about it, people seem to get great results. It's simple and cheap. I think I would be silly not to give it a shot.

thenasty1 · Feb 18, 2019

Renfro said:
I saw a thread on here about it, people seem to get great results. It's simple and cheap. I think I would be silly not to give it a shot.

i switched to dry nutes a while back, wish i did it sooner. your wallet will thank you. i suggest grabbing some monopotassium phosphate and potassium sulfate too, youll probably want to tweak the standard 321 recipe a bit. plenty of good info to be found in the jacks threads when it comes to that sort of thing

Renfro · Feb 18, 2019

thenasty1 said:
i switched to dry nutes a while back, wish i did it sooner. your wallet will thank you. i suggest grabbing some monopotassium phosphate and potassium sulfate too, youll probably want to tweak the standard 321 recipe a bit. plenty of good info to be found in the jacks threads when it comes to that sort of thing

I assum these are basically a PK booster? How much do you use and when?

40+ lbs with 12 Plants in 2 Rooms on a Flip

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