Can weed absorb co2 via roots ?

Spider-Man

Well-Known Member
Tho I think it looks pretty cool on there for the look of the whole system it's not worth risking problems. Must have been over 10 years ago in the old Cannabis Culture forums a guy had his sealed up and killed two plants in a 4 pail RDWC system with stem rot. Luckily he was a week or two before harvest so the loss wasn't huge but I made sure to keep mine open after that.

:peace:
I lost 42 strawberry plants a couple years ago, in a sterile system, because of light penitration, thru the media.

Fact green algae covered my roots. Then root rot. Then death. Then read to cover the pots.

This year foiled the top of the net pots, perfect!

Here is the bottom line period.
I was told this by an extremely large fertilizer company. That specializes in fertilizers for vegetables and weed.

Their expert told me: When it comes to weed:
Most people think they are an expert weed grower!
The fact is: Until the college universities get involved. With proven data.
Their is no conclusion, to hypothetical ideas.

So if it's not broke don't fix it!
 

Kola_Kreator

Well-Known Member
Now that makes sense.
I run rdwc. Also using enhance c02 bottles. I can only get about 600 ppm. Running 4 cans. In a very well sealed Gorilla.
Today is 18 days into flower.
4 different indica strains growing in one connected rdwc.
I believe, my first grow. I removed fan leafs for more air flow and light.
They will look butchered until morning
Like you said: I think some c02 is going thru the air pump. First ever grow should not look this good.
View attachment 5379247View attachment 5379248View attachment 5379249View attachment 5379250
Your roots are not robbing your C02.

Those Enhance C02 bottles are a gimmick. The only way to run sealed grow is with bottles or a burner running on a controller.
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I lost 42 strawberry plants a couple years ago, in a sterile system, because of light penitration, thru the media.

Fact green algae covered my roots. Then root rot. Then death. Then read to cover the pots.

This year foiled the top of the net pots, perfect!

Here is the bottom line period.
I was told this by an extremely large fertilizer company. That specializes in fertilizers for vegetables and weed.

Their expert told me: When it comes to weed:
Most people think they are an expert weed grower!
The fact is: Until the college universities get involved. With proven data.
Their is no conclusion, to hypothetical ideas.

So if it's not broke don't fix it!
Not really sure what the point is there. Out of around 50 DWC tubs I had root rot twice and both times it was with clones I'd rooted in medium that had some natural soil mixed in with soilless. I figure it was from the real dirt and both times I killed the rot with heavy doses of 35% food grade peroxide.

I wouldn't call myself an expert but I grew my first buds in 1978 then on and off over the years even working in a couple of big biker grows out Vancouver way. When I moved up here to northern Alberta in '01 I brought 6 hash plant clones with me and until about 6 months ago there wasn't a day that there wasn't pot plants growing in my house. Most of my time on forums starting with Cannabis Culture about 2010 was helping newbs with their grows and I had well over 10K posts there. I do know a bit of stuff about growing, processing and consuming pot. Mainly into for medicinal reasons now and fairly self educated in a lot of that too.

I'm not saying you would for sure have problems if you leave the pots covered as you have but I've seen problems from that and it's not something that's really needed. With some net pots that had holes on the sides all the way to the tops I wrapped some electrical tape around them to cover a couple inches down just in case some light managed to get thru the balls. I never covered the lids with anything and always ran HID lights from clone when there was no shade from leaves to stop light hitting the lids. Never had algae grow in any of the tubs.

I don't tell people what to do. I tell them what I've had success doing and they can do it or not.

Roots.jpg
 

Drop That Sound

Well-Known Member
I could see problems covering the pots like that too, don't get me wrong. Especially if running a waterfall type DWC system without forced aeration? Aeroponics is mostly sealed off in the containers as well, and they even make foam collars that seal the plants into the netpot. Same with EZ LPA and bubble cloners.

I wouldn't seal any kind of hydro container off like that though, unless I knew the air trapped inside the system was able to be displaced every time a pump cycled on, etc.. OR have its own ventilation with a fan pumping fresh air through all the containers above the water level.

The real question, is would it be better to just stuff the DWC system into a sealed room and somehow benefit from the small amount that the res water becomes saturated with, or pump fresh air from outside into the air stones, in a way that doesn't displace the co2 in the room.
 

Spider-Man

Well-Known Member
That's a beauty of a setup! I would advise you to remove the foil on top of the net pot tho. Concentrating humidity around the base of the stem like that could easily lead to root/stem rot and plant death. The roots that are in the net pot now are basically just pipelines and don't absorb anything so could be bone dry and would function fine.

If you're concerned about light penetration just pile more hydroton balls on top or get some shade cloth and cut to fit as it breathes really well.

I did about 50 tubs worth of DWC from '01 to a couple years ago and just kept my pots filled slightly over level with balls and not paint or reflective tape on the lids without any problems.

Boggled my mind how well I could grow plants in such a simple system when I couldn't keep a house plant alive to save my own life. When I added CO2 they just exploded more.

This talk of added CO2 acidifying the water enough to matter is just that. Talk. I know in my case it would have been a good thing as every 3 days when I topped up my stand-alone tubs my pH would have risen from around 5.5 to 6.2. I would test both ppm first after topping up with RO water then add small amounts of nutes to get back to my target ppm or raise it if needed. Then I would test the pH after 15 min or so of letting the fresh nute addition react as they tend to lower pH a bit. It would take 4 or 5 drops of conc., 96%, sulphuric acid to get back to 5.5. It was so regular that I would just check the pH every 3 top-ups and always found it the same.

Then I switched from the old AN 3-part nutes and got the pH Perfect ones and never bothered checking pH again. :)

:peace:
Thank you very much! Advise well taken! I have removed the foil.
I I just checked my net pots from my strawberry plants, that had died from root rot. When I check the pots, the holes in the pots came up close to the top. With a very small lip.
So that is what caused, I think, my light penetration issue.
I am learning so much on this site! Here are a couple pictures of the same plant I posted before.
That's a beauty of a setup! I would advise you to remove the foil on top of the net pot tho. Concentrating humidity around the base of the stem like that could easily lead to root/stem rot and plant death. The roots that are in the net pot now are basically just pipelines and don't absorb anything so could be bone dry and would function fine.

If you're concerned about light penetration just pile more hydroton balls on top or get some shade cloth and cut to fit as it breathes really well.

I did about 50 tubs worth of DWC from '01 to a couple years ago and just kept my pots filled slightly over level with balls and not paint or reflective tape on the lids without any problems.

Boggled my mind how well I could grow plants in such a simple system when I couldn't keep a house plant alive to save my own life. When I added CO2 they just exploded more.

This talk of added CO2 acidifying the water enough to matter is just that. Talk. I know in my case it would have been a good thing as every 3 days when I topped up my stand-alone tubs my pH would have risen from around 5.5 to 6.2. I would test both ppm first after topping up with RO water then add small amounts of nutes to get back to my target ppm or raise it if needed. Then I would test the pH after 15 min or so of letting the fresh nute addition react as they tend to lower pH a bit. It would take 4 or 5 drops of conc., 96%, sulphuric acid to get back to 5.5. It was so regular that I would just check the pH every 3 top-ups and always found it the same.

Then I switched from the old AN 3-part nutes and got the pH Perfect ones and never bothered checking pH again. :)

:peace:
Thank you very much! Advise well taken! I have removed the foil.
I I just checked my net pots from my strawberry plants, that had died from root rot. When I check the pots the holes in the pots came up close to the top. So that is what caused, I think my light penetration issue.
I am learning so much on this site!
Here are a couple pictures of the same plant I posted before.
This is day 64 under lights. Day 23 of flower.
The dime and dollar are for size reference. 20240321_091334.jpg20240321_091308.jpg
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I could see problems covering the pots like that too, don't get me wrong. Especially if running a waterfall type DWC system without forced aeration? Aeroponics is mostly sealed off in the containers as well, and they even make foam collars that seal the plants into the netpot. Same with EZ LPA and bubble cloners.

I wouldn't seal any kind of hydro container off like that though, unless I knew the air trapped inside the system was able to be displaced every time a pump cycled on, etc.. OR have its own ventilation with a fan pumping fresh air through all the containers above the water level.

The real question, is would it be better to just stuff the DWC system into a sealed room and somehow benefit from the small amount that the res water becomes saturated with, or pump fresh air from outside into the air stones, in a way that doesn't displace the co2 in the room.
I always used 2 - 12" airstones in each Rubbermaid tub hooked up to fairly high volume dual outlet aquarium air pumps so the only real way for the air to get out is thru the airpots. Some around the rim of the lids but they do fit pretty tight so not a lot. The air pumps have to run 24/7. There's really no benefit I can see running air thru the containers above the water level. The popping bubbles from the airstones keep everything including the lid wet.

That escaping air is at 100% humidity so if the tops are sealed up the base of the stem is constantly moist and the portion of the stem above the medium whether hydroton balls or dirt is best left dry. I always kept my 12" oscillating fan on an inverted 3gal pail so the air blew across the tops of the tubs keeping moisture away from the stems. Lack of air circulation around the base of plants especially if they are a bushy strain that encloses the bottom in leaves often leads to mold or fungus problems like powdery mildew. Once plants are getting a foot tall or so taking out fan leaves around the base is good practise. They aren't getting much light now and have done their job in the early stage of growth so can go without impact to the plant.

My grow room isn't sealed tight but my 6" exhaust fan is controlled by a temp/rh unit made using a bathroom fan humidity controller and a heat/cool thermostat wired to the cooling side with both wired together so if the temp or rh goes above what I've set them at the fan turns on and it's set at half speed using a ceiling fan speed control. I hooked up a watt meter to it then put a mark on the speed controller where the meter showed 60W as full speed it drew 120W.

FanControl.jpg FanControlSchematic.jpg

With our chronically low rh and the cool temp in my underground grow room sometimes the exhaust fan wouldn't turn on at all. All the air coming into the room comes from the larger area of the basement which is really a tall crawl space 10x30x7'h concrete box. The grow room was a cold storage room built by the original owner and a huge selling point for me when we first came to look at the place 20 years ago last Oct. We were living in an old mobile on a small lot in town we had bought from our landlord for 22.5K a couple years earlier. The old guy selling this place had started trying to sell it at $175K almost 3 years before we got it. He kept lowering the price so they could move to the old folks place in town so I got it for 50K. It's a 1990 16x80' mobile with attached 17x34' shop and 20x30' carport on 7.5 acres. Everything has 6" walls and is on cheap gas heat so cheaper to heat than the 12x65' 1974 box we lived in and sold for 32.5K a couple years after getting this place. The place in town had a 20x24' heated garage that I had built a 12x5' grow room inside of while we were still renting there so moved plants in here the day we took possession.

Because the exhaust fan wouldn't turn on sometimes I made an alcohol lamp to add CO2 and holy crap did it make a difference. I thought the plants did great but noticed they seemed to slow down once they got bigger and were taking up a lot more space in there. I had no clue how much CO2 I was adding until years later when I bought a CO2 controller and found I was way over 1500ppm so made a smaller wick unit that gets it up over 1500 but burns a lot less fuel. 12 hours burning uses about 100ml of methyl hydrate I get at the hardware store for $12/4L. I mostly only use it during the stretch period now when the plants go thru a huge growth spurt. During that period I have already changed my nutes to a bloom heavy formula and added a half dose of Big Bud a week before flipping to 12/12. 3 weeks after flipping the buds are already the size of ping-pong balls and there's lots more than waiting to add bloom booster like many do. I tried a side-by-side grow where I didn't feed one tub any BB until the 2nd week and the other starting a week before the flip and the difference was really noticeable. I'll also allow the temp to get up to 90F as they can use the CO2 better at a higher temp. That helps keep the exhaust fan from turning on unless I'm running a 1000W light or it's summer when the basement can get up to 65F so it heats up in the grow room easier. Mid winter when it's average -20C outside the basement can get down to 40F or lower. The walls and floor are always cool so I've never needed A/C but have a heater on a thermostat in the grow room to keep the temp in there at 70F when the lights are off.

Got a bit carried away there but that happens when I get up early and take my ADHD meds with 3 coffees. :) Need to get off my butt soon and get some stuff done around the house.

:peace:
 

conor c

Well-Known Member
I lost 42 strawberry plants a couple years ago, in a sterile system, because of light penitration, thru the media.

Fact green algae covered my roots. Then root rot. Then death. Then read to cover the pots.

This year foiled the top of the net pots, perfect!

Here is the bottom line period.
I was told this by an extremely large fertilizer company. That specializes in fertilizers for vegetables and weed.

Their expert told me: When it comes to weed:
Most people think they are an expert weed grower!
The fact is: Until the college universities get involved. With proven data.
Their is no conclusion, to hypothetical ideas.

So if it's not broke don't fix it!
Id be wary of any "experts" who work for nutrient companies the fact is anyone who grows many different kinds of plants and has plenty of experience will already know half the stuff out there for weed on the market is snake oil or smoke and mirrors vs whats actually best for the plant personally i would trust a horticulturist or experienced farmer over a nutrient company anyday sure he is right in the aspect that more research is required but thats a given cos its been illegal for so long
 

Spider-Man

Well-Known Member
Id be wary of any "experts" who work for nutrient companies the fact is anyone who grows many different kinds of plants and has plenty of experience will already know half the stuff out there for weed on the market is snake oil or smoke and mirrors vs whats actually best for the plant personally i would trust a horticulturist or experienced farmer over a nutrient company anyday sure he is right in the aspect that more research is required but thats a given cos its been illegal for so long
I have been growing vegetables for 3 years. For my restaurant. 100% success rate. Onions bell peppers jalapeno peppers tomatoes. It's harder to grow vegetables
Id be wary of any "experts" who work for nutrient companies the fact is anyone who grows many different kinds of plants and has plenty of experience will already know half the stuff out there for weed on the market is snake oil or smoke and mirrors vs whats actually best for the plant personally i would trust a horticulturist or experienced farmer over a nutrient company anyday sure he is right in the aspect that more research is required but thats a given cos its been illegal for so long
I have been growing vegetables for 3 years, for my restaurant. With perfect success!
Try growing perfect vegetables sometime. Growing a Weed has been the easiest thing I have ever grown.
Again with 100% success rate, so far. My first grow.
You sure don't grow vegetables right in the first grow.
So having said that, I love my nutrient company. They specialize only in water soluble nutrients for the big boys.
They don't even mess with pee-ons like me.
They know the laws are changing.
Im a believer, and they are taking serious notice.
So, I may be a newbie, I'm growing perfect plants.
Personally, in rdwc, I think the D is for dumb.
I couldn't pass 8th grade science.
The professionals and biologists have madsuit so people like me can grow successful plants.
And I thank them for that.
Have a nice day.
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Here are a couple pictures of the same plant I posted before.
This is day 64 under lights. Day 23 of flower.
The dime and dollar are for size reference.
They look really good but I'm wondering about your nutes and feeding schedule as the buds are smaller than I would expect at 3 weeks into flowering.

I mentioned how I prep for flowering in my long-winded post to Drop that Sound above. I was always experimenting with my grows to keep things interesting after many years of doing it. I went back to school in my 30s for 3 years to get a diploma in environmental chemistry and had hoped to go to uni for at least a bachelor's degree but life got in the way. 2 small boys at home and a very non-supportive spousal unit who left a couple years after I graduated making me a single dad closed that door.

Anyway I used to monitor the ppm drop in my tubs and noticed that when I flipped to flower the rate of drop would increase in the first week up to 4X what they were eating before the flip. Within a week after the stretch stopped they would go back to rates the same as before the flip. That's when I tried feeding one tub more bloom nutes with a half dose of Big Bud, (which I've used since it came out and hate to grow without), a week before flipping to 'prime the pump' so to say. The other tub with the same number and strain of plants got more bloom and BB in the 2nd week as recommended on the containers. The pre-primed tub's buds were lots more plentiful and twice the size as the other one.

As I always used RO water only and had to buy that I didn't change nutes very often. No drain in the garage grow meant hauling used nutes into the house to dump drawing attention to what I had going on too. I would start off the clones at 300ppm using equal amounts of all 3 bottles. 1ml/L of each worked just right for that. For the first few days until roots began to emerge from the net pots I would use a turkey baster or large syringe to suck up some water from the tub and squirt it around the top of the pots to keep the roots wet and fed. I always cut a smaller hole in the lids to get water in or out and would just keep the hole covered with anything to block light. I'd rent a hole saw to cut holes for either the 5" pots or 3.5" ones and had a 2" saw for the access hole. To drain a tub I used a drill pump and could run a hose into the sump once we moved into the place we're at now.

I could never see the sense in changing nutes every week during the early stage of veg. They would hardly use any so once they were starting to grow I'd just use syringes to add more nutes to the tubs to boost the ppm or maintain it at my target ppm. I would start the plants in the shorter tubs that hold 35L at one inch below the bottom of the net pots. A week before the flip I would pre-mix my bloom nutes with BB in a taller tub that holds 50L when full. Then just take the lid off with the plants and drop it on the fresh tub as the lids are the same size. The next change would be after the stretch when I would switch the nutes to a Lucas Formula type of feeding. There is a specific formula to follow but it basically means to not use the Grow and use 1 part Micro to 2 parts Bloom plus the addition of BB until the end of week 5 or later depending on the flowering period of the strain being grown. Most hybrids are about 8 - 10 weeks but I used to grow a lot of sativa dominant strains that could go up to 16 weeks before they were ripe.

During the stretch plants want lots of all the nutrients and higher levels too. Once stretch is over they need less N, P, and Ca but more K, Mg and S. Your standard P/K boosters if used past the stretch period are feeding too much P which is what can give the buds that 'chem' taste when smoked. Big Bud is 0-15-35, 10%S, 20 amino acids plus citric and ascorbic acid, (vit. C) so doesn't add extra N which can retard bud growth later in flower or excess P. I get the powdered version of BB as it has a lot longer shelf life than the liquid.

I was looking at those first pics of your setup and wondering how you get around in there with everything fixed in place. I also noticed that you're not tying the grow tips down to the net which unless you can raise it later will be of little use to keep the colas from falling over so will need a 2nd level of netting like I've seen many other grows resort to. I've done a lot of actual ScroGs and would start training the grow tips by using short pieces of twist tie to hold them to the top of the screen thru veg and continue tying them down during the stretch. As side branches would grow up they got tied down as well. By tying the grow tips to the screen rather than weaving them I could easily remove the 3 or 4 bits of twist tie near the top of each branch and shift the whole branch over if need be to cover the surface evenly. Once the screen was about 75% covered I'd flip and keep tying down during the stretch so by the time that was over the whole screen would be covered.

My tubs weren't all connected like yours and I had them sitting on wheeled dollies so I could sit on a 5gal pail and turn a tub around while I worked on the top. for DWC ScroG I rigged up the tubs like this so the screen could rise as the plants grew. There was rolls of that sheep fencing here when I bought the place so I used it instead of buying screen. The branches would quickly reach the edges so I'd tie along the edge then turn the tip toward the inside to grow it's way across again.

This one was a mother plant growing in a 2L plastic tobacco can full of ProMix HP I made a DIY net pot for from another can to convert it to grow in DWC. I cut the rootball off half way down, put some folded up snow fencing in the bottom of the net pot to keep the rest of the rootball up off teh bottom and top fed it until roots emerged but that only took 4 days.

ScroG01.jpg

ScroG.jpg

Newroots.jpg

This is one of the lids I made using the smaller pots for a SoG type grow. It's sitting on one of the wheeled dollies I made. Not the access hole I mentioned earlier. My air lines go into the tub through small holes drilled just under one of the handles so there are no holes in the tubs below the water line thus no place for leaks.

SoGTubOnWheels.jpg

BoilingTubs01.jpg


I was planning on growing a few plants but should have started months ago. If I got some going now they would be starting to flower just about the same time the hemp field down the road from me would be pumping out clouds of pollen. I had to stop growing autos outside as they got all knocked up which really kills the potency and yield. I know damn well that pollen would get into the grow room too so I'll wait until probably end of Oct - early Nov before starting any plants. I'm hoping to be out in BC for the month of Oct to visit family and get up to the family cabin for our thanksgiving when is the usual shut the cabin down for the winter long weekend trip. This year my b-day is on Thanksgiving day, Oct. 14, so I could get turkey on my birthday! Probably won't have turkey up there tho as mom is too old at 97 this Aug and blind now and won't be going so I'd have to make the turkey myself. I'll have trout instead as they are biting good and nice and fat by then. A lot depends on the wife's health situation too tho. Something is going on that made her lose almost half her weight in 5 months last year and they're still working out what the problem is but think it's her thyroid.

:peace:
 

conor c

Well-Known Member
I have been growing vegetables for 3 years. For my restaurant. 100% success rate. Onions bell peppers jalapeno peppers tomatoes. It's harder to grow vegetables

I have been growing vegetables for 3 years, for my restaurant. With perfect success!
Try growing perfect vegetables sometime. Growing a Weed has been the easiest thing I have ever grown.
Again with 100% success rate, so far. My first grow.
You sure don't grow vegetables right in the first grow.
So having said that, I love my nutrient company. They specialize only in water soluble nutrients for the big boys.
They don't even mess with pee-ons like me.
They know the laws are changing.
Im a believer, and they are taking serious notice.
So, I may be a newbie, I'm growing perfect plants.
Personally, in rdwc, I think the D is for dumb.
I couldn't pass 8th grade science.
The professionals and biologists have madsuit so people like me can grow successful plants.
And I thank them for that.
Have a nice day.
Lol ok then you kinda proved my point for me and on a side note you never stop learning when it comes to growing plants because the best growers are the ones who are never entirely happy with there plants because that way you can always do better and as for backround i been growing stuff most of my life and i do have horticulture experience as a job as well as a backround in biomed i was only pointing out be wary of nutrient companies as they like to sell you nutes not questioning your abilities theres a long running joke about the people who call themselves "master growers" on riu for a reason imo theres no such thing as a perfect plant either we can all always improve no matter how long you been doing it we can do better next round
 

Spider-Man

Well-Known Member
They look really good but I'm wondering about your nutes and feeding schedule as the buds are smaller than I would expect at 3 weeks into flowering.

I mentioned how I prep for flowering in my long-winded post to Drop that Sound above. I was always experimenting with my grows to keep things interesting after many years of doing it. I went back to school in my 30s for 3 years to get a diploma in environmental chemistry and had hoped to go to uni for at least a bachelor's degree but life got in the way. 2 small boys at home and a very non-supportive spousal unit who left a couple years after I graduated making me a single dad closed that door.

Anyway I used to monitor the ppm drop in my tubs and noticed that when I flipped to flower the rate of drop would increase in the first week up to 4X what they were eating before the flip. Within a week after the stretch stopped they would go back to rates the same as before the flip. That's when I tried feeding one tub more bloom nutes with a half dose of Big Bud, (which I've used since it came out and hate to grow without), a week before flipping to 'prime the pump' so to say. The other tub with the same number and strain of plants got more bloom and BB in the 2nd week as recommended on the containers. The pre-primed tub's buds were lots more plentiful and twice the size as the other one.

As I always used RO water only and had to buy that I didn't change nutes very often. No drain in the garage grow meant hauling used nutes into the house to dump drawing attention to what I had going on too. I would start off the clones at 300ppm using equal amounts of all 3 bottles. 1ml/L of each worked just right for that. For the first few days until roots began to emerge from the net pots I would use a turkey baster or large syringe to suck up some water from the tub and squirt it around the top of the pots to keep the roots wet and fed. I always cut a smaller hole in the lids to get water in or out and would just keep the hole covered with anything to block light. I'd rent a hole saw to cut holes for either the 5" pots or 3.5" ones and had a 2" saw for the access hole. To drain a tub I used a drill pump and could run a hose into the sump once we moved into the place we're at now.

I could never see the sense in changing nutes every week during the early stage of veg. They would hardly use any so once they were starting to grow I'd just use syringes to add more nutes to the tubs to boost the ppm or maintain it at my target ppm. I would start the plants in the shorter tubs that hold 35L at one inch below the bottom of the net pots. A week before the flip I would pre-mix my bloom nutes with BB in a taller tub that holds 50L when full. Then just take the lid off with the plants and drop it on the fresh tub as the lids are the same size. The next change would be after the stretch when I would switch the nutes to a Lucas Formula type of feeding. There is a specific formula to follow but it basically means to not use the Grow and use 1 part Micro to 2 parts Bloom plus the addition of BB until the end of week 5 or later depending on the flowering period of the strain being grown. Most hybrids are about 8 - 10 weeks but I used to grow a lot of sativa dominant strains that could go up to 16 weeks before they were ripe.

During the stretch plants want lots of all the nutrients and higher levels too. Once stretch is over they need less N, P, and Ca but more K, Mg and S. Your standard P/K boosters if used past the stretch period are feeding too much P which is what can give the buds that 'chem' taste when smoked. Big Bud is 0-15-35, 10%S, 20 amino acids plus citric and ascorbic acid, (vit. C) so doesn't add extra N which can retard bud growth later in flower or excess P. I get the powdered version of BB as it has a lot longer shelf life than the liquid.

I was looking at those first pics of your setup and wondering how you get around in there with everything fixed in place. I also noticed that you're not tying the grow tips down to the net which unless you can raise it later will be of little use to keep the colas from falling over so will need a 2nd level of netting like I've seen many other grows resort to. I've done a lot of actual ScroGs and would start training the grow tips by using short pieces of twist tie to hold them to the top of the screen thru veg and continue tying them down during the stretch. As side branches would grow up they got tied down as well. By tying the grow tips to the screen rather than weaving them I could easily remove the 3 or 4 bits of twist tie near the top of each branch and shift the whole branch over if need be to cover the surface evenly. Once the screen was about 75% covered I'd flip and keep tying down during the stretch so by the time that was over the whole screen would be covered.

My tubs weren't all connected like yours and I had them sitting on wheeled dollies so I could sit on a 5gal pail and turn a tub around while I worked on the top. for DWC ScroG I rigged up the tubs like this so the screen could rise as the plants grew. There was rolls of that sheep fencing here when I bought the place so I used it instead of buying screen. The branches would quickly reach the edges so I'd tie along the edge then turn the tip toward the inside to grow it's way across again.

This one was a mother plant growing in a 2L plastic tobacco can full of ProMix HP I made a DIY net pot for from another can to convert it to grow in DWC. I cut the rootball off half way down, put some folded up snow fencing in the bottom of the net pot to keep the rest of the rootball up off teh bottom and top fed it until roots emerged but that only took 4 days.

View attachment 5379713

View attachment 5379712

View attachment 5379715

This is one of the lids I made using the smaller pots for a SoG type grow. It's sitting on one of the wheeled dollies I made. Not the access hole I mentioned earlier. My air lines go into the tub through small holes drilled just under one of the handles so there are no holes in the tubs below the water line thus no place for leaks.

View attachment 5379719

View attachment 5379720


I was planning on growing a few plants but should have started months ago. If I got some going now they would be starting to flower just about the same time the hemp field down the road from me would be pumping out clouds of pollen. I had to stop growing autos outside as they got all knocked up which really kills the potency and yield. I know damn well that pollen would get into the grow room too so I'll wait until probably end of Oct - early Nov before starting any plants. I'm hoping to be out in BC for the month of Oct to visit family and get up to the family cabin for our thanksgiving when is the usual shut the cabin down for the winter long weekend trip. This year my b-day is on Thanksgiving day, Oct. 14, so I could get turkey on my birthday! Probably won't have turkey up there tho as mom is too old at 97 this Aug and blind now and won't be going so I'd have to make the turkey myself. I'll have trout instead as they are biting good and nice and fat by then. A lot depends on the wife's health situation too tho. Something is going on that made her lose almost half her weight in 5 months last year and they're still working out what the problem is but think it's her thyroid.

:peace:
You cannot go by Bud size. Only one plant started budding week and half ago. Two of them started budding 3days ago. Another one started budding a week 6 day ago.
One plant is kushberry moonrocks, one plant is purple kush, one plant is god father OG which went under the light one week later than the others, and one plant is Bruce Banner.
If you didn't know, different strains, bud and finish at different times.
 

Spider-Man

Well-Known Member
Lol ok then you kinda proved my point for me and on a side note you never stop learning when it comes to growing plants because the best growers are the ones who are never entirely happy with there plants because that way you can always do better and as for backround i been growing stuff most of my life and i do have horticulture experience as a job as well as a backround in biomed i was only pointing out be wary of nutrient companies as they like to sell you nutes not questioning your abilities theres a long running joke about the people who call themselves "master growers" on riu for a reason imo theres no such thing as a perfect plant either we can all always improve no matter how long you been doing it we can do better next round
Lol ok then you kinda proved my point for me and on a side note you never stop learning when it comes to growing plants because the best growers are the ones who are never entirely happy with there plants because that way you can always do better and as for backround i been growing stuff most of my life and i do have horticulture experience as a job as well as a backround in biomed i was only pointing out be wary of nutrient companies as they like to sell you nutes not questioning your abilities theres a long running joke about the people who call themselves "master growers" on riu for a reason imo theres no such thing as a perfect plant either we can all always improve no matter how long you been doing it we can do better next round
I appreciate the input.
I will never be a master grower. I do learn everyday.
There is no importance to me on that subject.
I don't want to use my age for anything. But I'm going too. I'm just a 65 years old retired engineer thats having fun. Because I never had any type of fomer knowledge of hydroponics. It allows me to think outside of the box.

If you would like to see something outside the box, I would love to show you!

I have have had comments on my fancy system. I dont know what a fancy system looks like.
I was just always taught. Take your time and do it right the first time, measure twice and cut once.

Why do they call it common sence, when its rare?

I was raised on a farm. We had a quarter of an acre Garden. We canned all of vegetables, fruits, processed.
Raised and butchered our own chickens, pigs and cows.
Now, just a great memory. Still growing for my restaurant, outside summer, inside winter.
 

Spider-Man

Well-Known Member
They look really good but I'm wondering about your nutes and feeding schedule as the buds are smaller than I would expect at 3 weeks into flowering.

I mentioned how I prep for flowering in my long-winded post to Drop that Sound above. I was always experimenting with my grows to keep things interesting after many years of doing it. I went back to school in my 30s for 3 years to get a diploma in environmental chemistry and had hoped to go to uni for at least a bachelor's degree but life got in the way. 2 small boys at home and a very non-supportive spousal unit who left a couple years after I graduated making me a single dad closed that door.

Anyway I used to monitor the ppm drop in my tubs and noticed that when I flipped to flower the rate of drop would increase in the first week up to 4X what they were eating before the flip. Within a week after the stretch stopped they would go back to rates the same as before the flip. That's when I tried feeding one tub more bloom nutes with a half dose of Big Bud, (which I've used since it came out and hate to grow without), a week before flipping to 'prime the pump' so to say. The other tub with the same number and strain of plants got more bloom and BB in the 2nd week as recommended on the containers. The pre-primed tub's buds were lots more plentiful and twice the size as the other one.

As I always used RO water only and had to buy that I didn't change nutes very often. No drain in the garage grow meant hauling used nutes into the house to dump drawing attention to what I had going on too. I would start off the clones at 300ppm using equal amounts of all 3 bottles. 1ml/L of each worked just right for that. For the first few days until roots began to emerge from the net pots I would use a turkey baster or large syringe to suck up some water from the tub and squirt it around the top of the pots to keep the roots wet and fed. I always cut a smaller hole in the lids to get water in or out and would just keep the hole covered with anything to block light. I'd rent a hole saw to cut holes for either the 5" pots or 3.5" ones and had a 2" saw for the access hole. To drain a tub I used a drill pump and could run a hose into the sump once we moved into the place we're at now.

I could never see the sense in changing nutes every week during the early stage of veg. They would hardly use any so once they were starting to grow I'd just use syringes to add more nutes to the tubs to boost the ppm or maintain it at my target ppm. I would start the plants in the shorter tubs that hold 35L at one inch below the bottom of the net pots. A week before the flip I would pre-mix my bloom nutes with BB in a taller tub that holds 50L when full. Then just take the lid off with the plants and drop it on the fresh tub as the lids are the same size. The next change would be after the stretch when I would switch the nutes to a Lucas Formula type of feeding. There is a specific formula to follow but it basically means to not use the Grow and use 1 part Micro to 2 parts Bloom plus the addition of BB until the end of week 5 or later depending on the flowering period of the strain being grown. Most hybrids are about 8 - 10 weeks but I used to grow a lot of sativa dominant strains that could go up to 16 weeks before they were ripe.

During the stretch plants want lots of all the nutrients and higher levels too. Once stretch is over they need less N, P, and Ca but more K, Mg and S. Your standard P/K boosters if used past the stretch period are feeding too much P which is what can give the buds that 'chem' taste when smoked. Big Bud is 0-15-35, 10%S, 20 amino acids plus citric and ascorbic acid, (vit. C) so doesn't add extra N which can retard bud growth later in flower or excess P. I get the powdered version of BB as it has a lot longer shelf life than the liquid.

I was looking at those first pics of your setup and wondering how you get around in there with everything fixed in place. I also noticed that you're not tying the grow tips down to the net which unless you can raise it later will be of little use to keep the colas from falling over so will need a 2nd level of netting like I've seen many other grows resort to. I've done a lot of actual ScroGs and would start training the grow tips by using short pieces of twist tie to hold them to the top of the screen thru veg and continue tying them down during the stretch. As side branches would grow up they got tied down as well. By tying the grow tips to the screen rather than weaving them I could easily remove the 3 or 4 bits of twist tie near the top of each branch and shift the whole branch over if need be to cover the surface evenly. Once the screen was about 75% covered I'd flip and keep tying down during the stretch so by the time that was over the whole screen would be covered.

My tubs weren't all connected like yours and I had them sitting on wheeled dollies so I could sit on a 5gal pail and turn a tub around while I worked on the top. for DWC ScroG I rigged up the tubs like this so the screen could rise as the plants grew. There was rolls of that sheep fencing here when I bought the place so I used it instead of buying screen. The branches would quickly reach the edges so I'd tie along the edge then turn the tip toward the inside to grow it's way across again.

This one was a mother plant growing in a 2L plastic tobacco can full of ProMix HP I made a DIY net pot for from another can to convert it to grow in DWC. I cut the rootball off half way down, put some folded up snow fencing in the bottom of the net pot to keep the rest of the rootball up off teh bottom and top fed it until roots emerged but that only took 4 days.

View attachment 5379713

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View attachment 5379715

This is one of the lids I made using the smaller pots for a SoG type grow. It's sitting on one of the wheeled dollies I made. Not the access hole I mentioned earlier. My air lines go into the tub through small holes drilled just under one of the handles so there are no holes in the tubs below the water line thus no place for leaks.

View attachment 5379719

View attachment 5379720


I was planning on growing a few plants but should have started months ago. If I got some going now they would be starting to flower just about the same time the hemp field down the road from me would be pumping out clouds of pollen. I had to stop growing autos outside as they got all knocked up which really kills the potency and yield. I know damn well that pollen would get into the grow room too so I'll wait until probably end of Oct - early Nov before starting any plants. I'm hoping to be out in BC for the month of Oct to visit family and get up to the family cabin for our thanksgiving when is the usual shut the cabin down for the winter long weekend trip. This year my b-day is on Thanksgiving day, Oct. 14, so I could get turkey on my birthday! Probably won't have turkey up there tho as mom is too old at 97 this Aug and blind now and won't be going so I'd have to make the turkey myself. I'll have trout instead as they are biting good and nice and fat by then. A lot depends on the wife's health situation too tho. Something is going on that made her lose almost half her weight in 5 months last year and they're still working out what the problem is but think it's her thyroid.

:peace:
I really do enjoy your input. I'm just kinda crusty. Lol.
I change my nuts every 7 days. I only top off with water when my ppm goes over 1400, from starting with RO with 15 TDS to start. If it's under 950, I will add.

My growing conditions I try to live with. I only grow indaca.
Water temp 67

Ph 6.2

Nuts 1250 ppm

Temp 86

Humidity 55 %

C02 500 ppm (enhance bottles suck) next year, I will bottle feed it.

3- 6 inch air stones in each 27 gallon tote. Spray covered to block uv
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
If you didn't know, different strains, bud and finish at different times.
I kinda figured that out about 100 strains ago. :)

Did all the plants get switched to flowering at the same time? I always count my flowering time from when flip to 12/12 because of the variation in different strains on how soon after the flip they will begin to show bud formation. Bud formation can be different with the same strain if grown from seed as well. If I'm planning to use the same mother or cuts from the same plant for my next grow it helps to know how long from switching I can expect to harvest with a fair degree of accuracy.

I like breeding plants and have been pollen chucking for over 20 years. About 4 or 5 years ago I started getting into making fem seeds using STS. I never used to like them but they're pretty handy. Here in Canada anyone, except in a couple of provinces and one territory, can grow 4 recreational plants so knowing you can sprout 4 beans and have them all be female is a good thing.

Your growing conditions look great. 500ppm CO2 is a little higher than atmospheric which hit 420 last year so there's really no need to add more unless you want to push them a bit. PPMs look fine tho because of my chronically low humidity here most of the year I would run about a third lower to prevent toxic salts buildup. Trying to keep a decent moisture level was a PITA so I adjusted other parameters to not have to bother with it.

You got great lights and if I were just starting off I'd want lights like that as our power cost here has always been high but is now close to 35¢/kwh. Thing is I need heat in my grow room so if I used LEDs my heater would be having to kick in during the day period negating any power savings using them and the initial investment would take a lot longer to amortize if ever. As I'm closing in on my 70th b-day I probably wouldn't live long enough to recoup my investment. :)

I have a good selection of HID lights with all but the 600W ones old style magnetic ballasts. About 7 years ago I got a Light Rail 4.0 which gets me more coverage without having to go to a larger light and only uses 9w to do it so has paid for itself by now.

:peace:
 

Spider-Man

Well-Known Member
I kinda figured that out about 100 strains ago. :)

Did all the plants get switched to flowering at the same time? I always count my flowering time from when flip to 12/12 because of the variation in different strains on how soon after the flip they will begin to show bud formation. Bud formation can be different with the same strain if grown from seed as well. If I'm planning to use the same mother or cuts from the same plant for my next grow it helps to know how long from switching I can expect to harvest with a fair degree of accuracy.

I like breeding plants and have been pollen chucking for over 20 years. About 4 or 5 years ago I started getting into making fem seeds using STS. I never used to like them but they're pretty handy. Here in Canada anyone, except in a couple of provinces and one territory, can grow 4 recreational plants so knowing you can sprout 4 beans and have them all be female is a good thing.

Your growing conditions look great. 500ppm CO2 is a little higher than atmospheric which hit 420 last year so there's really no need to add more unless you want to push them a bit. PPMs look fine tho because of my chronically low humidity here most of the year I would run about a third lower to prevent toxic salts buildup. Trying to keep a decent moisture level was a PITA so I adjusted other parameters to not have to bother with it.

You got great lights and if I were just starting off I'd want lights like that as our power cost here has always been high but is now close to 35¢/kwh. Thing is I need heat in my grow room so if I used LEDs my heater would be having to kick in during the day period negating any power savings using them and the initial investment would take a lot longer to amortize if ever. As I'm closing in on my 70th b-day I probably wouldn't live long enough to recoup my investment. :)

I have a good selection of HID lights with all but the 600W ones old style magnetic ballasts. About 7 years ago I got a Light Rail 4.0 which gets me more coverage without having to go to a larger light and only uses 9w to do it so has paid for itself by now.

:peace:
Our electric runs 5.9 cents a kilowatt. I can run 4 tents w chillers for about 300 a month. That includes the building as well.20240228_144918.jpg20240228_145017.jpg
 
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OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Our electric runs 5.9 cents a kilowatt. I can run 4 tents w chillers for about 300 a month. That includes the building as well.
Holy WTF Batman! Quite the setup for a first time pot grower but I guess there is stuff for your restaurant growing in some of those tents too is there?

I'd sure love your power prices. Over 20 years ago our conservative provincial gov't de-regulated our power system so now it's all owned by foreign companies mostly US but one Australian at least. Every time they build new plants or transmission lines like to sell power to the US they tack the cost on to our bills. If Walmart did that every time they built a new store their prices would be so high nobody would shop there but we have nowhere else to buy our power from. 2/3 of our bills are for things like delivery, administration etc and as we live in the sparsely populated north of Alberta those costs are double what they are in the south. If I thought we would live here, or live as long, for another 20 years I'd invest in solar but that is being restricted too. We have our own version of MAGA here now and 3 more years before we get another chance to vote them out.

My wish is to live long enough to recoup those costs in all the free medical services I can get sick enough to survive. They're trying to bring in paid medical services like in the US as well.

Rant stops here or there will be pages of it! :D

Since we went federally legal up here in Oct 2018 there is an overabundance of pot in both the legal and black markets so prices have tanked. I was never into it for the money and have been making most of my pot into oils and giving that to friends in need. Good thing I don't have a lot of friends and a few have passed in just the last few years. As I have amassed a quantity of pot stored away in the freezer I am on a break until later this year. I did get some opium poppy seeds so will be growing a bunch of those outside this year to make 'enhanced medicinals'. I also got some 30:1 CBD:THC seeds so those and a strain called Paonia Purple Paralyzer will be my next pot grow and I'll make fem seeds from both.

Are you in a legal place to grow? I think a big drive for my growing was to give the finger to the man and now that it's legal the thrill is gone. Somehow in the 50+ years of possessing, selling and messing with pot I never even got charged with a drug offence. knockwood.gif

:peace:
 

Spider-Man

Well-Known Member
Holy WTF Batman! Quite the setup for a first time pot grower but I guess there is stuff for your restaurant growing in some of those tents too is there?

I'd sure love your power prices. Over 20 years ago our conservative provincial gov't de-regulated our power system so now it's all owned by foreign companies mostly US but one Australian at least. Every time they build new plants or transmission lines like to sell power to the US they tack the cost on to our bills. If Walmart did that every time they built a new store their prices would be so high nobody would shop there but we have nowhere else to buy our power from. 2/3 of our bills are for things like delivery, administration etc and as we live in the sparsely populated north of Alberta those costs are double what they are in the south. If I thought we would live here, or live as long, for another 20 years I'd invest in solar but that is being restricted too. We have our own version of MAGA here now and 3 more years before we get another chance to vote them out.

My wish is to live long enough to recoup those costs in all the free medical services I can get sick enough to survive. They're trying to bring in paid medical services like in the US as well.

Rant stops here or there will be pages of it! :D

Since we went federally legal up here in Oct 2018 there is an overabundance of pot in both the legal and black markets so prices have tanked. I was never into it for the money and have been making most of my pot into oils and giving that to friends in need. Good thing I don't have a lot of friends and a few have passed in just the last few years. As I have amassed a quantity of pot stored away in the freezer I am on a break until later this year. I did get some opium poppy seeds so will be growing a bunch of those outside this year to make 'enhanced medicinals'. I also got some 30:1 CBD:THC seeds so those and a strain called Paonia Purple Paralyzer will be my next pot grow and I'll make fem seeds from both.

Are you in a legal place to grow? I think a big drive for my growing was to give the finger to the man and now that it's legal the thrill is gone. Somehow in the 50+ years of possessing, selling and messing with pot I never even got charged with a drug offence. View attachment 5380045

:peace:
Yes they just legalized it here. Yes I do have vegetables in my other tents. Onions, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers and strawberries. I learned that, so I could be good at growing the good stuff.
I need to learn how to make CBN, I can't sleep... that's what will kill me.
A type personality.
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
Yes they just legalized it here. Yes I do have vegetables in my other tents. Onions, jalapeno peppers, bell peppers and strawberries. I learned that, so I could be good at growing the good stuff.
I need to learn how to make CBN, I can't sleep... that's what will kill me.
A type personality.
My personality type starts with A as well but has more letters after that as in ADHD and how it hasn't got me killed years ago is due to dumb luck or a guardian angel. I finally started taking meds for that recently and just had 20mg of dextroamphetamine with my morning coffee. :)

When THC breaks down it becomes CBN. This is why a lot of growers allow their flowering plants to stay in flower long enough to get lots of amber trichomes. That can tie up your flowering space for extra weeks waiting for that but you can produce more CBN by decarboxilating, (decarbing), your pot longer than needed when prepping it for edible use. Airtight decarb containers can be bought in different sizes to decarb in the oven preserving terpenes etc if you want to be able to smoke your pot with higher levels of CBN tho I'm not sure that burning the pot after decarb won't break down the CBN present.

If you check out the link in my sig you'll see how I made cocobudder and decarb the fresh pot right in the oil. Allowing that step to go on longer will convert more THC to CBN. Other oils can be used instead of coconut oil if it's not to your liking. These days I prefer to extract the oil from the pot with solvents and then decarb that for use in edibles.

As you seem to be a man of means you might want to just buy some CBN product online. Pure CBN extracts can be had or blends of THC and CBN are all over the place with a quick search. Then you could try CBN directly to see if it has the desired effect before investing time and effort trying to make your own. If it does, and like I think you want to make your own, you would know what effect to look for from your DIY product.

I've been making edibles for quite a few years now and go by how it feels to me to titrate dosages and advise people who I've given it to about dosing themselves. I have quantities of 2 types of pot, (reg thc stuff and thc/cbd strains), plus a few pounds of industrial hemp flower I gleaned from the hemp field down the road last fall after they cut it down. The plan is to turn it all into 3 batches of oil then send a sample of each to a certified cannabis testing lab in Vancouver to have it analyzed so I can make edibles like gummies or chocolates of known dosage in the CBD or THC silicon molds I bought just for that purpose. They only charge $60 for the potency testing and told me I can get a bit of a discount as a senior.

When they legalized pot here in Canada they changed some of the other laws too so now the maximum penalty for making oils using organic solvents is 14 years at Club Fed. The only way they would be able to get me for that is if I screwed up and blew up my operation bringing in authorities. I worked as a chemist in a hazardous waste disposal facility for a couple of years not long after I got my chem diploma so have a lot of training in handling dangerous goods so that's unlikely.

I used to have horrible insomnia for decades probably due to chronic depression and PTSD symptoms brought on by a near fatal hammer attack in my early 20s. About 8 years ago I had a minor stroke and sleep a lot better now. Not a remedy I recommend tho. I did have problems sleeping after that but it was due to an enlarged prostate causing me to get up 5 or more times a night to go pee hardly anything and still feel the urge to go afterwards that kept me awake. I was using zinc to help with that but it wasn't working as good as it used to so now use a few different supplements to not only allow me to sleep through the night most nights but go right back to sleep if I have to get up. A hi-rez MRI I had in Dec 2022 had my prostate at 64cc then an ultrasound I had just this last Jan has it now at 44.9cc. If I just took the urologists advice I would have been on at least 2 different harsh pharma meds and had an unneeded biopsy with all the nasty side effects that go along with those.

Have you ever tried melatonin for your sleep issues? It can really help getting to sleep but doesn't sedate you like sleeping pills do. It's also an anti-aging hormone. I use it fairly often just to get to sleep easier and faster when I want to get to bed before I really feel like going to bed or have to get up early. I tend to stay up way too late and am trying to get back on the day shift. These ADHD meds seem to keep me awake so it helps with that too. I like the 5mg sublingual tablets and stick one under my tongue when I go to bed and read for a while. 5 pages later and I'm dropping the book. No dopey hangover when you get up and it doesn't mess with your REM sleep so you feel rested when you get up. A lot of people say you don't dream when using pot but I've never found that to be true. I don't smoke lots but have a few hits in the pipe every evening and have lots of dreams. Mostly positive dreams or very puzzling but very rarely scary ones and that only happens when I'm physically or emotionally stressed out.

:peace:
 
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