It's A Fuct World

Sup Al? I've been watching your threads forever man. This is my first time trying to clone in RW cubes, and I have them all setup under my dome, but I'm wondering if I should keep the weight of the cube at 25-30 grams for the entire cloning process, or should I just allow them to get lighter? Thanks.

*BUDS said:

I cant work out who are the bigger thieves, led sellers or hydro shops that make 500g bags and 500ml bottles of fertilizer and make 1000% profit.

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I don't begrudge anyone making a profit, but any shopkeeper who wants loyal clientele will charge reasonable prices instead of the limit of what the traffic will bear.

Another thing Al ,with the adjust a wings do you have the avenger ($260) or the standard one ($100)?

View attachment 2129040The Avenger! lol

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I have Avengers. I believe the difference is the Avengers have a highly polished reflector surface finish.

*BUDS said:

No worries Al, I would be keen to find out if the plastic drums have a taphole , like you said things could get a bit heavy and awkward, still there's always a pump.

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The jugs are fitted with a bung suiting taps. I've lodge an inquiry with the shop to see if they can get some for me.

TillthedayiDIE420 said:

I would have to agree with ya there, but at the same time i disagree my friend.. This is not to create an argument... lol For $1000 bucks i bought a spectra 500... last year... At the same time i bought a 600w Lumatek Digital Ballast with a HORTILUX bulb... my little LED light not only out grows my 600watt lol...

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If you have plants doing better under LED than a 600, there's something very wrong with the 600 or the plant under it.

You should be able to light a 3'x4' tray with a 600HPS. Could sustain up to 48 SoG plants, each yielding .5-.75oz each for a total yield of 24-36oz. A 600 HPS with reflector & magnetic ballast is about $150. I don't see LEDs doing that at all, at least not for several times the price. Lot of bang for your buck with HPS.

hornedfrog2000 said:

Sup Al? I've been watching your threads forever man. This is my first time trying to clone in RW cubes, and I have them all setup under my dome, but I'm wondering if I should keep the weight of the cube at 25-30 grams for the entire cloning process, or should I just allow them to get lighter? Thanks.

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40mm cubes should weigh about 25-30g immediately after watering, should lose about 10-15g water weight either through evaporation or transpiration in 12 hrs time, presuming a heat mat set to about 30C.

Hey al, I have a seedling mat that i bought (just a cheap one) no thermostat. i have a barrier between the mat and my seedling tray, but i turned off the mat and within 12 hours of doing so every r/w block i had in there showed healthy roots popping out. My question is, is it even worth having the cheap one on? or just ditch it? (i never throw anything away, i plan to use it at the bottom on my micro cab that i am converting into a bud dryer to add a little heat. the box has intake and exaust fans with one oscillating fan inside it. sound like it will work?) thanks for any input ^_^

Al B. Fuct said:

40mm cubes should weigh about 25-30g immediately after watering, should lose about 10-15g water weight either through evaporation or transpiration in 12 hrs time, presuming a heat mat set to about 30C.

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So should I add that 10-15 grams of water back to the cube?

Bigz2277 said:

Hey al, I have a seedling mat that i bought (just a cheap one) no thermostat. i have a barrier between the mat and my seedling tray, but i turned off the mat and within 12 hours of doing so every r/w block i had in there showed healthy roots popping out. My question is, is it even worth having the cheap one on? or just ditch it? (i never throw anything away, i plan to use it at the bottom on my micro cab that i am converting into a bud dryer to add a little heat. the box has intake and exaust fans with one oscillating fan inside it. sound like it will work?) thanks for any input ^_^

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Heat mats which do not have an adjustable thermostat normally still have a thermostat but it is fixed at a particular temperature, usually 30C. Confirm the surface temperature of the mat by putting an indoor/outdoor thermostat's outdoor temp sensor in contact with the mat surface (a bit of box tape to hold it in contact with the mat surface is necessary).

You can add an external thermostat to your heat mat. Most hydro & many general gardening shops sell thermostats which have an external temp sensor (often the mercury bulb type) which can be fixed down to the surface of the mat, again with a bit of box tape. Such thermostats incorporate a switch for controlling an AC mains powered device, such as this unit from Growlush:



A thermostatic controller like this will allow you to be certain of what the surface temperature of the mat is running at.

I would not use a cloning heat mat in your bud dryer. They are not designed to heat air; they're designed to put a small amount of heat into objects in contact with the mat, such as rockwool cubes.

That your clones popped after removing the heat mat sounds coincidental. There's an awful lot of variables in cloning and it's a rather fiddly process. You have not given me enough details to diagnose precisely what happened in your particular situation.

Heat mats are used broadly in horticulture due to their well-known & proven effect of speeding rooting of cuttings and seedlings. If the temperature is well controlled, they are a very useful adjunct in cloning. I consider them to be essential in a SoG op due to their improvement of speed of rooting. With a heat mat, you should be seeing first roots out of the bottoms of 40mm cubes in 7-8 days (and even quicker on occasion). Without a heat mat, that period will roughly double and will not be nearly as consistent. Heat mats vastly improve the predictability of rooting time.

hornedfrog2000 said:

So should I add that 10-15 grams of water back to the cube?

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Isn't that what you're doing when watering the cubes every 12 hours?

Al B. Fuct said:

Isn't that what you're doing when watering the cubes every 12 hours?

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I wasn't sure if that is what you meant. Thanks.

Al, have you still got your exhaust swithched to thermostat? I am considering to don't use thermostat to make sure that all laydies got delivered enough of fresh air. I will switch a heater to heating thermostat. When temperature drops, heater switching on. What do you think about that?

how big tray u need to keep 10 mothers? And are you using first half of them when second half is growing up to be ready or u got 10 adult mums and taking few cuttings from every one?

Swiezy said:

Al, have you still got your exhaust swithched to thermostat?

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Yes. I'm in a somewhat cool location and thus have my ballasts in the flowering room to keep the air temps up to 24-26C. There's also a dehumidifier in the flowering room that runs 24/7, which also puts some heat into the airmass. Consequently, the room needs thermostatic control of the intake/exhaust fans for when the airmass exceeds 26C.

I am considering to don't use thermostat to make sure that all laydies got delivered enough of fresh air. I will switch a heater to heating thermostat. When temperature drops, heater switching on. What do you think about that?

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While the exact amount of time it will take to deplete the room's air of all CO2 depends on the actual volume of the room's airmass, it would be on the order of hours even for a minimally sized room, as mine is (7'W x 8'L x 7'H = 392 cu ft). Plants will consume CO2 mainly when lights are on and they are actively photosynthesising. When lights are on, they should be putting enough heat into the airmass to trigger thermostatically controlled ventilation fans.

During lights off, ventilation is not as critical, but will keep humidity under control (30-50% is ideal). If you are depending upon heat to trigger thermostatically controlled fans, bear in mind that unless you are running a dehumidifier 24/7 (or a heater), there's nothing adding heat to the room during lights off to trigger the thermostatically controlled ventilation fans. Consequently, humidity may spike during lights-off in the cooler times of the year if this is the case. If your cool season lights-off temps fall below 24C, you may indeed need to add a heater of some sort, probably electric, to hold temps up during lights-off.

how big tray u need to keep 10 mothers?

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Without going into the room & measuring it, I'd guess it's about 300mm x 1200mm (roughly 1' x 4').

And are you using first half of them when second half is growing up to be ready or u got 10 adult mums and taking few cuttings from every one?

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I'm usually taking cuttings from 6-7 fully developed mums while there's 3-4 younger ones vegging up. I discard mums when they're about 3-4mos old (though that varies).

It helped me a lot, but what about smell accumulating/escaping the room when exhaust is switched off for longer time? At "night" for example.

I'm concerning to make myself a corona discharge ozone generator if its neccessary to eliminate odour in full, simply because it's not cheap toy. Do you still use ozone generator on exhaust? Room will be pretty the same as yours.

Al B. Fuct said:

During lights off, ventilation is not as critical, but will keep humidity under control (30-50% is ideal). If you are depending upon heat to trigger thermostatically controlled fans, bear in mind that unless you are running a dehumidifier 24/7 (or a heater), there's nothing adding heat to the room during lights off to trigger the thermostatically controlled ventilation fans. Consequently, humidity may spike during lights-off in the cooler times of the year if this is the case.

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^^^^ good stuff Al! ...I learned this the hard way a couple years back, bud rot all to hell from the RH raising when the AC stayed off during sleep hours....glad your still around bro!

Swiezy said:

It helped me a lot, but what about smell accumulating/escaping the room when exhaust is switched off for longer time? At "night" for example.

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There IS a way of keeping a fan running all the time, either at a low speed when the room is below the temperature setpoint of a thermostat and at full speed when above the setpoint:

View attachment 2140294

Simply parallel a motor speed controller with a thermostat. Set the MSC to a fairly low speed, enough to keep some air moving but not so low there's a chance of stalling the fan with some voltage applied (which might cause damage to the fan motor). Set the thermostat to switch on at 26C. When air temp exceeds 26C, the full line voltage will be applied to the fan motor- the thermostat provides a zero-ohm path around the MSC. Below the thermostat setpoint, its contacts are open and the current path will be through the MSC. The exhaust fan should be pushing air through a carbon filter. The net effect of an arrangement like this is to keep the grow room at a slightly negative air pressure all the time with exhausted air being pushed through a carbon filter. This will prevent unfiltered air containing scents from escaping the room.

I'm concerning to make myself a corona discharge ozone generator if its neccessary to eliminate odour in full, simply because it's not cheap toy. Do you still use ozone generator on exhaust? Room will be pretty the same as yours.

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I no longer use an ozone generator in the flowering room airmass. They're so effective, they'll de-scent resin while it's still on the plant- which isn't good for smoking qualities.

If you employ an ozone generator, it must be downstream from the exhaust fan. In this case, it doesn't matter whether it's a UV or corona discharge type, but do be aware that corona discharge type ozone generators will produce nitric acid, which is corrosive to metals and harmful to plants.

trichome fiend said:

^^^^ good stuff Al! ...I learned this the hard way a couple years back, bud rot all to hell from the RH raising when the AC stayed off during sleep hours....glad your still around bro!

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Thanks.

A sulfur 'burner' (actually an evaporator) which runs 2x 10-15 mins in the flowering room airmass during lights-off will halt most moulds including powdery mildew & grey mould (botyritis, bud rot).

OK, this is annoying.. images keep disappearing from my posts.

This image should be appearing in the above post

Al B. Fuct said:

OK, this is annoying.. images keep disappearing from my posts.

This image should be appearing in the above post

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not showing for me here either ><

one more time.

Hmm, OK... fine fellow at Ye Olde Hydroe Shoppe fronted me a sample bag of Sure-To-Grow cubes.



Will give these a go in the next batch going in to flower.

going to start a perpetual SOG here soon. Mother plants will be bagseed, G13 purple haze, and Killing Fields from sannies shop. Bagseeds started, ordering other seeds sometime this week. I'll be using a mini al b fuct version since i only have a closet. Haven't exactly figured how im gonna set that up yet.

Al B. Fuct said:

Hmm, OK... fine fellow at Ye Olde Hydroe Shoppe fronted me a sample bag of Sure-To-Grow cubes.

View attachment 2147079

Will give these a go in the next batch going in to flower.

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Good luck with those. I saw a guy try those and all his babies rotted. He then named it "Sure not to grow". He probably kept them too wet. I bet with your green thumb they will work great.....

Gyroscope said:

Good luck with those. I saw a guy try those and all his babies rotted. He then named it "Sure not to grow". He probably kept them too wet. I bet with your green thumb they will work great.....

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These work ok in dwc. not sure about the watering them. Im just curious if they provide the same support that the hydro pellets provide?

Al, I've potted my seedlings which was started in coarse vermiculite up into larger pots with coco peat. filling all the gaps.
I did mix the peat bick with a bit of the verm, but it seems to hold alot of water. It does drain reasonable fast, but I just get the impression that it holds on to too much.
I can only get hold of very fine coco, the plants were doing quite well (read my most impressive start so far) in the verm, but I read about some claims that verm is bad in the long term as a medium.
I have like 3 feedbags full of the vermiculite, so cost isn't an issue, I got it as a gift.

Do you have any experience with this?
What do you think about my concerns with the fine coco, am I being paranoid? I'd hate to see a grow that was going awesome up to now, go south due to a bad choice for medium.
At the moment I water them once a day, any more would apear to be courting trouble, as the pots stay quite heavy, even when drained.
It is a sativa so it would have to endure for quite a while (the medium).

Ok mr al, ( this is my first dwc that I have done)
iv kinda read thro the post I'm not going to read all 100+ pages but, I have a tote Rez at 5 gal with a 5" net pot rockwool and hydro pellets, I fell the Rez with 2gals protekt and dyna-grow for nutes, I use distilled water I noticed this weekend the roots had a lil slime on them I think ther was a lil light going thro the net cup so put so mylar over the net cup so no light gets in.. I can't seem to get my temps down in the day and it runs about 84-86 in the day and about 77 ish at night the Rez runs about 75-76 with lights on, rh about 40-50% I looked at the roots this morning and the slime is all over the roots now, I did us some h2o2 on the roots and they looked great for couple hours and the next morning it came back? I do have 35% that I can get I have 3%? At my house. I use cfls in a cab that's about 30"x17"x42" so it's an ok cab I have four lights 1-2700(150w eq) and 3-6500( 100w eq) in a DIY hood have a fan that moves about 250 cfm or so do the out take and a 4.5"hole with a fan on it for the intake and a 7" fan in the box to push air on the cfls cuz they get very warm! Sry if I'm kinda all over the place but I write as I think or I well forget so thanks to any one that can help!!!

The lil ladybud have be above ground since 4-5 and its about 3-4" tall with 4 nodes not including the seedling node and it's just a lil rounder then the bet pot I Belive it's stunned but idk cuz the inner nodes r filling out more?