Advice Please, 7.5ftx 10ft area.

Currently I am running a 1k hps on a 4x4 flood table. I have another 3x5 space separated by panda sheet, but haven't got to that yet. I successfully germed like 8 or 10, but they arent femmed. I have done soil, but on my second cycle I switched to hydroton. I realized on my 3rd cycle that the root grows was mostly the bottom 4 inches of the pot. I am sure this is due to the limitation of my flood table and res. I am now using coco because I thought it would wick, but it really isn't working as id hoped. I am now thinking instead of flooding, maybe I should convert the flood pump to a for of drip or at least a top feeding methodology. And advice would be great..... I dont have exp w coco and dont have exp with top feeding methods but would love advice from some 1 who does.

What kind of pots do you have them in?

Sent from my SPH-P500 using Rollitup mobile app

Air pots, But I am ganna have to get some more. I was considering getting smart pots to try a side by side.

actually, They are in red solo cups right now. sorry,

Hmm, let me see if I understand this, you have the smart pots on the flood table and you want them to wick up into the pot? This would work (same way my auto pots do) but you would need to time your floods correctly, about 15-30 mins once a day (during lights on) should to the trick, is this what your trying to do?

Ill retest. the medium. I can flood the table n test the moisture level. Do you use this method? is drip better then flood? it would not cost much to convert to drip and if id benefit the plants, I am all for it.

How did the auto pots do as far as yield? I read your grows. Nice thorough work.

Lighterfighter said:

Ill retest. the medium. I can flood the table n test the moisture level. Do you use this method? is drip better then flood? it would not cost much to convert to drip and if id benefit the plants, I am all for it.

Click to expand...

I don't drip feed with coco, I've been considering trying this method with the tray and smart pots for quite some time, in fact if these autopots don't perform as well as I hope, I may build my own weird system using flood trays and smart valves.

Lighterfighter said:

How did the auto pots do as far as yield? I read your grows. Nice thorough work.

Click to expand...

Thanks, this is the first time I'm using the autopots for my main system, I usually use them for my mothers and I've grown a couple of autos in them, so I'm curious to see the results as well.

I am using air pots, so I think they will air out quickly and I am going to have to water alot. I only have a 1k running now, but looking at also maybe adding another 1k or maybe a 600. I am curious as to when I will blow the fuse. So I am taking it slowly. I got time as you see. If I decide to I will need to add another flood table and itll increase costs. I have another 3x3 flood table actually that might work well. but was planning on using that for mothers. I could probably come up with something different for the mothers. hmm a lot to think about.

After alot of reading. I think I got it sorted. I did a wick test and it did real well, just took some time to do so. I have adjusted my over flow valve so the table floods more and bought a digital time to more accurately fill. I don't want to burn my pump out. One of the plants is having either nut burn or maybe light burn. I reduced ppm and moved the light to 30 in away. I am running at like 750 ppm, 200 of which are nutes and root ecxell. so I got the drip clean stuff from house and garden. my tap water comes out at 800 and I only got 2x5 gal jugs lol.everything else seems to be moving normally. Once I discovered the wicking would work, I placed them in their permanent home. they are a week and a half old. some barely a week. my first germination cycle only 4/8 popped and because they aren't fem'd, I decided to do 8-10 and just got lucky the second time around. Ive decided to get a t5 and 600. to supplement the area and a veg area. I know how to fem them, but maybe there is a better way? I understand everything is a trade off, and was thinking Ill pull the most healthy female and make it a mother, Ill clone her and drop them under the 600 2 weeks after to split up the harvest. OR I could Make a cloan a mother, Any one think that'd be to crazy? Id loose produce up to 20-25%, the math being 50% male/female leaving me with 5 females (taking the largest of which would be a lot more then just an extra plant, so giving up the mother is a large opportunity cost. I know from exp that running a 6 week veg and flower is a lot of huge colas, 3oz a plant dry. I ran 6 under the 1k I got now, but I want more form this turn, hint the light addition. I got another 3x3 flood table and the layover of light in the space would really make some goodness. any advice on the mother question would be welcome. I dont think they are auto flower. Ill be pissed if they are.

I only grow using top feed - drain to waste in coco ( maybe 10% perlite).

There are several methods to use as far as feeding, but the wet/dry cycle is where the work gets done.
one small 320 gph pump will easily feed 8-10 sprayers. I use 2 pumps and place 2 sprayers from each pump on each plant. This way, if a pump goes out, they still get fed from the other one.
I am a redundancy nut from way back.

Good Luck with your grow.

Peace

Asmallvoice

Wow that ppm is high for tap water, that is going to give you all kinds of problems later on, it would definitely be worth looking into an RO filter or just buy distilled water like I do. I buy 1000L of water for $400 and this lasts me a couple of months but that's for multiple grow rooms.

What PH will you be running?

Did you know that an advantage of wick feeding means you never need to flush because excess nutes get pushed to the top of the medium where roots can't like anyway.

I'm not sure what you meant about the mothers.

I can buy a r/o for a 100 lol i am running 5.8-6.2 range. its always an upward moving battle lol. The drip clean is ment for hard water. REAL HARD WATER!!! lol I used to use ionic hard water. Judge by the plants, The one had an issue. beyond that I think they are on par. Thats why I mixed in r/o. I used to use just tap water.
As far as the mothers is a clone okay?

Nice I just got a killer deal. I got an 2 600w ipower dimmable ballast and 2 air cooled hoods. For 180,had to buy two 120v cords for 13 so just under 200. Good deal ehh? Now I just need and r/o. and I have everything Id need. I Am gana take my 3x3 table and I will put one 600 in the flower room. Add 4 more, because I have 4 pots. And then I will take cloans. Also got fem'd seeds. any advice on early sexing of the original 10?

There are absolute inconsistencies. Thew drive me mad! heres a few pics.

curling up is mg right??

I haven't added nutes but I have added just r.o water. maybe short on nutes? the previous was proly nute splash from in the pics. easy to do in red cup and watering, but Idk. Just throwing some things out there. It all works out in the end. When I get the r/o, I'LL remix the water. at 50%. Coco, I am using slacker, is no nutes so I have heard of not enough is prob and also heard salt lock out. I flushed so the salts at the top would clear up, Like u advised me wicking does, They are small so there is a possibility the top is the majority of the root base. Just a few considerations Ive made. shoot back if you got any ideas.

maybe it is over watering mixed w too much light?

Coco is pretty hard to over water, especially if mixed with perlite, the older ones look like they could use a feed, I usually supplement my nutes with cal mag at 25-50% strength aswell, particularly if you're using RO water, otherwise they look fine, don't mess with them to much.

I got my ro in. Ganna change the tank out now let you know what I do n how I do it.

they got some heat curling still, not terribly but idk what to do. I even got a 600 and thats 30 in away and still curling. I was thinking maybe a few short floods a day to let the humidity rise form 40 to 60 or something. I fimmed the two biggest ones. the r/o makes it cheap to replace. so I can just add more as I go. ganna flip in a week or 2, prolly 2 weeks. and cloan in 3. Ill post some pics ina bit.

What's your temp?