A Tale of The Tape HPA vs 21st Century Flood and Drain
- Thread starter PetFlora
- Start date
PetFlora
Well-Known Member
Quick update: 4/6 are males., so the seed inspection method is not 100%.
My F & D continues to blow away my hpa to the point I think something is wrong in there. I'm guessing it's coverage, so I went from 2 dual head misters to 3 single heads. It may be too late to make any huge improvements to the plants themselves, but it will be interesting to see whether this makes a discernible difference: it should.
FYI, all the holes are taped from the outside.
Here's a pic of the heads, which are now aiming ~ 25^s up, which should help swirl nutes around the pod.
View attachment 2166652
My F & D continues to blow away my hpa to the point I think something is wrong in there. I'm guessing it's coverage, so I went from 2 dual head misters to 3 single heads. It may be too late to make any huge improvements to the plants themselves, but it will be interesting to see whether this makes a discernible difference: it should.
FYI, all the holes are taped from the outside.
Here's a pic of the heads, which are now aiming ~ 25^s up, which should help swirl nutes around the pod.
View attachment 2166652
PSUAGRO.
Well-Known Member
Hey Pet............So the seed inspection method is a no-go/ bummer.........I think your mister selection/layout is a wise choice(is their a reason you couldn't use 4 single heads?? pump issues?).....what is your spray schedule(intervals) at now??........I had a feeling the FD would be superior due to it's simplicity and almost comparable growth rates(aeration/root saturation cycles )................anyways happy (stress-free) growing...
PetFlora
Well-Known Member
Hey.
I added the 3rd position yesterday afternoon. Keep in mind the hpa roots were not getting 360^ coverage whereas the F & D were/are. So it is not fair to judge one against the other, BUT, I expect that the hpa will begin to take off. This morning they were quite perky, better than with 2 @ 2 heads!
The reason I went with 3 heads is I simply added a 3rd head 'T'ing off the other 2 lines that were already there. I think this method balances the pressure to all 3. Thinking further on this, the 3rd head (the one in the middle of the long side) could be a dual head to provide max coverage. Decisions decisions. I may play with this later today.
If I went with one incoming line (instead of two - one to each short side) then I could place 4 heads, but might lose pressure to the 4th (farthest) head. Also it has to do with number of plants and their location on the lid/table. I plan to replace this R & D tote now that I have a better understanding of max adult plants in this size (~33G) is probably 3. This one I set up for 4 plants, but I think 3 is max to get good nute circulation. Also the holes in the side walls were experiments for mist head placement: higher is better, but not too high.I have taped over them as they were leaking light.
Assuming my hpa begins to show positive signs that I am finally on the right track, then I will consider replacing this tote and giving it one more shot with some clones. After all I have invested several years of experimenting, and this seems like the last thing I can do without resorting to adding an accumulator set up.
I added the 3rd position yesterday afternoon. Keep in mind the hpa roots were not getting 360^ coverage whereas the F & D were/are. So it is not fair to judge one against the other, BUT, I expect that the hpa will begin to take off. This morning they were quite perky, better than with 2 @ 2 heads!
The reason I went with 3 heads is I simply added a 3rd head 'T'ing off the other 2 lines that were already there. I think this method balances the pressure to all 3. Thinking further on this, the 3rd head (the one in the middle of the long side) could be a dual head to provide max coverage. Decisions decisions. I may play with this later today.
If I went with one incoming line (instead of two - one to each short side) then I could place 4 heads, but might lose pressure to the 4th (farthest) head. Also it has to do with number of plants and their location on the lid/table. I plan to replace this R & D tote now that I have a better understanding of max adult plants in this size (~33G) is probably 3. This one I set up for 4 plants, but I think 3 is max to get good nute circulation. Also the holes in the side walls were experiments for mist head placement: higher is better, but not too high.I have taped over them as they were leaking light.
Assuming my hpa begins to show positive signs that I am finally on the right track, then I will consider replacing this tote and giving it one more shot with some clones. After all I have invested several years of experimenting, and this seems like the last thing I can do without resorting to adding an accumulator set up.
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
Interesting, thanks for the heads up...
PetFlora
Well-Known Member
OK, let's do this.
I took this photo 3 hours ago. As you can see the F & D is ginormous by comparison.
I went ahead and added the dual head in the middle, meaning excellent coverage now. I will have to dial up pause to compensate for more misting; currently at 2:30.
That aside, it will be interesting to see how far hpa can catch up.
hpa pic on the left is 2 plants, one behind the other. Combined they do not equal the bushiness of the one in front in my 21st Century F & D. You can barely see the one behind, although it is some 4" taller
View attachment 2167065
I took this photo 3 hours ago. As you can see the F & D is ginormous by comparison.
I went ahead and added the dual head in the middle, meaning excellent coverage now. I will have to dial up pause to compensate for more misting; currently at 2:30.
That aside, it will be interesting to see how far hpa can catch up.
hpa pic on the left is 2 plants, one behind the other. Combined they do not equal the bushiness of the one in front in my 21st Century F & D. You can barely see the one behind, although it is some 4" taller
View attachment 2167065
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
Can't seem to view it? I find using the picture link button on top of the reply box works consistently. Yay- the like button is back, lol...
PetFlora
Well-Known Member
View attachment 2168142WTF? I just tried posting it 3 times. As a test I tired uploading a different pic, no go! Hope we're not having pic posting issues
View attachment 2168142
View attachment 2168142
jsamuel24
Active Member
Its something with RiU PF. I gave up last week when it was doing it to me and started using private albums on photobucket.
Snooch!
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
I've not had an issue- it's something about the way PF uploads, there are multiple ways to do it here, and the way that consistently works is to click the "picture" icon on top of the message send window
Most of the time when PF uploads a pic, instead of showing it like how mine does, it just leaves a link in the message- I don't know how he gets it that way?
PetFlora
Well-Known Member
Here is the much anticipated photo. Both sides are the same; seeds, nutes, lights.
The difference is that hpa is extremely sensitive to mist coverage, whereas my 21st Century Flood & Drain gets fed from the top of the lava rock, slowly working its way down through all the lava rock nooks and crannies, eventually draining out the bottom (every hour 24/7)). This pretty much guarantees 100% root coverage.
HPA: I added a 3rd mist head (see pic post 62) but since then changed the single head out on the long side for a dual head (now 4 heads but better coverage). Next go round I will get a new 33G tote and set it up for 2 plants. If that doesn't work well, it will be my last foray into hpa: it's just too damn fiddly, and well, my F & Ds speak for themselves.
Lights came on a little while ago. The hpa plants are extremely perky- finally
The difference is that hpa is extremely sensitive to mist coverage, whereas my 21st Century Flood & Drain gets fed from the top of the lava rock, slowly working its way down through all the lava rock nooks and crannies, eventually draining out the bottom (every hour 24/7)). This pretty much guarantees 100% root coverage.
HPA: I added a 3rd mist head (see pic post 62) but since then changed the single head out on the long side for a dual head (now 4 heads but better coverage). Next go round I will get a new 33G tote and set it up for 2 plants. If that doesn't work well, it will be my last foray into hpa: it's just too damn fiddly, and well, my F & Ds speak for themselves.
Lights came on a little while ago. The hpa plants are extremely perky- finally
PetFlora
Well-Known Member
On a sad note...
I was adjusting the light and noticed what turned out to be balls on both my F & D girls. Looks like I'll be doing some castrating.
Hope the hpa girls stay true, but since they are all from my cross (which was not hermies) most likely will be too. WTF?
EDIT: Panic attack half over. The hermie is the smaller one in the front; she is more Indica than the true female, which is showing more sat. The one I took clones from is female. YEAH!, but would like to have cloned the Indica dom as well.
I was adjusting the light and noticed what turned out to be balls on both my F & D girls. Looks like I'll be doing some castrating.
Hope the hpa girls stay true, but since they are all from my cross (which was not hermies) most likely will be too. WTF?
EDIT: Panic attack half over. The hermie is the smaller one in the front; she is more Indica than the true female, which is showing more sat. The one I took clones from is female. YEAH!, but would like to have cloned the Indica dom as well.
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
New uploaded pic works perfect, did you do anything different? P.s.- hope maybe it's not balls- and instead -boobs! hehe
PetFlora
Well-Known Member
TB if are you referring posting the pic, no. The problem was not on my end
MosDef balls. Not horrible as I still have 3 females from this cross + a 20" clone from this crosses mother, BUT, I would have liked to clone the one that is hermie as it is much bushier than the other 3, but then, she may not have long enough shoots to clone even if it was a female
MosDef balls. Not horrible as I still have 3 females from this cross + a 20" clone from this crosses mother, BUT, I would have liked to clone the one that is hermie as it is much bushier than the other 3, but then, she may not have long enough shoots to clone even if it was a female
Trichy Bastard
Well-Known Member
Gotcha... Well maybe things will work out in the next couple of weeks. Sometimes if it's just a nanner or 2 I've successfully picked them off and that's been the end of it. I had an issue with a streetlight here until I figured out that it was an issue.
