Journal of my attempt at the "Mr Green" hydro setup (with influence from Al B Fuct)

You're setup looks exactly like the videos!!!

potorlando said:

You're setup looks exactly like the videos!!!

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Thanks - that's what I was going for.
Hard for me to do it much different when I didn't know anything about growing when I started

The hardest parts of this process, thusfar, has been figuring out a nutrient schedule and deciding on the dripper timing.
In the Mr Green videos he doesn't really explain the length of time his drippers run nor what volume they allow. Let alone any real idea about nutrients other than saying to "read the label" - lol

dude, I know what you mean... I remember way back when I watched his videos and I was getting into growing I started using a drip system and I had to do a lot of experimentation.. now I know that --> its all about trying different schedules in the beginning and watching the plant daily.. respond to its changes and keep adjusting until you find the right schedule.. if the solution is gushing (steady stream) out of the dripper, then only have it on for about 5 minutes every other hour.. if it is just dripping normally out of the dripper then have it on for 10 minutes or so per hour .. watch two main things.. the saturation of the rockwool (how 'heavy' they are) and how the top/new leaves look every day (if they are wilting or not).. this is related to the plants transpiration rate.. watch the level of the reservoir.. as the solution level drops, so to will the drip rate cuz the pressure drops and the pump isnt as efficient.. try to pump the most solution through per day without making the plant leaves wilt. but its really complicated by the fact that its a balancing act with all the other environmental and genetic preconditions.. like amount of light, access to oxygen/co2, nutrient ratios, stage of life.. etc for instance, if your plants grow 3 inches in a single day and get closer to the light, the transpiration rate will increase, making them suck more water from the res (roots WILL find their way to the res).. which drops the res level significantly, which then makes the drip rate fall dramatically .. it gets really f^!%#ed up man..
I think a decent rate to start with is a dripper at 4 drops a second and running 5 minutes per hour for veg .. but toy around with it and watch your plants! good luck!

i thought i would share this site with you. I remember you saying you couldn't find the dripper hub so here it is. i love this site because its one of the only ones that sells actual cocotek cubes . http://www.wormsway.com/detail.asp?sku=R154DT

i also have the exact same setup influenced by "mr green". i germed on 11-21-08.

Be careful with the drip manifolds, they are very unreliable as it relates to flow rate since it does not take a lot to clog them up. I messed with them for quite a while and finally abandoned them in favor of just a 1/2 inch tube with the little drip line connectors (you use a little hole punch and then pop them in) and an end cap. I was amazed at how much more flow I had. Anyhow, I'm sure your set up will work out for you, just thought I give you heads up, so you know what to watch out for

Unity

My set up was inspired by Mr. Green too. I've got to say I haven't had any major problems with it yet (started about 3 weeks ago). What do you do for your watering cycle? Mr. Green doesn't really specify. I have mine set for 30 minutes 3 times a day. My plants seem to like it. I've tried longer cycles but then they just start to droop.

Forsaken5678 said:

What do you do for your watering cycle? Mr. Green doesn't really specify. I have mine set for 30 minutes 3 times a day. My plants seem to like it. I've tried longer cycles but then they just start to droop.

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I have mine set to water 3x per day for 10min each time (lights on 24hr). The dripper tips I have are 2 gallon per hour, so it's about .2gal of nutes per cycle.
I've experimented a lot, and am trying to stay on the slightly drier side. I was definitely overdoing it previously (20min every 4hrs w/2gph tips) - plants got droopy right away after that change.
I had originally bought 1/2gph tips but felt they weren't giving enough water in a decent amount of time, so I "upgraded" to the 2gph tips.

Just had a mild setback. I was doing some finishing work on the flower side and got it to the point I could test out my 400watt HPS. It came on instantly and quite bright. Then after a few seconds the color of the light started to change from white to more orangy (as expected). Then about a minute after I fired it up the light got quite a bit brighter then made a sound (didn't hear really well as I was vacuuming) and the light just dimmed down to almost nothing. I turned it off then back on and just see a little "lightning" near the end of the bulb away from the socket. Luckily this has happened well before the room is needed, but I was just at the flippin hydro shop this afternoon. The shop I go to guarantees any bulb they sell for a year, so it shouldn't be a big deal to get a new one. Just worried about it being a ballast problem. FYI - I cleaned the bulb with Alcohol before putting it in and did not touch it with my hands at all.

Checked my Veg side pH this evening and it was 6.0, so lowered it to 5.7 and moved the lights up a bit again.

Tomorrow will be cleaning/tank change day. I'll make sure to post pictures of the progress then.

unity said:

Be careful with the drip manifolds, they are very unreliable as it relates to flow rate since it does not take a lot to clog them up. I messed with them for quite a while and finally abandoned them in favor of just a 1/2 inch tube with the little drip line connectors (you use a little hole punch and then pop them in) and an end cap. I was amazed at how much more flow I had. Anyhow, I'm sure your set up will work out for you, just thought I give you heads up, so you know what to watch out for

Unity

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Thanks for the advice on the drippers. I've heard they are prone to cloggage, so have been keeping a close eye on them daily. So far so good, but if I do run into issues I'll definitely give the method you outlined above a shot.
What you describe seems to be how Prnkstr's system is setup - is that right? Here's a link to Prnkstr's journal for reference...

https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/136338-prnkstrs-second-grow-various-strains-2.html#post1715247

unity said:

Be careful with the drip manifolds, they are very unreliable as it relates to flow rate since it does not take a lot to clog them up. I messed with them for quite a while and finally abandoned them in favor of just a 1/2 inch tube with the little drip line connectors (you use a little hole punch and then pop them in) and an end cap. I was amazed at how much more flow I had. Anyhow, I'm sure your set up will work out for you, just thought I give you heads up, so you know what to watch out for

Unity

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Yes what he describes is how mine is set up. I have a 1/2" main line with an end cap on it , i then made smaller 1/4 lines coming off that for my drip lines. I used 3 drip connectors on each plant with 1 backup line for each with no connector. works pretty well i water for 15min 2 times a day. midnight and noon.

prnkstr said:

Yes what he describes is how mine is set up. I have a 1/2" main line with an end cap on it , i then made smaller 1/4 lines coming off that for my drip lines. I used 3 drip connectors on each plant with 1 backup line for each with no connector. works pretty well i water for 15min 2 times a day. midnight and noon.

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Yep, that's about how I did it

Unity

I'm so flippin pumped! It would appear that #8 is showing some preflowers. Even though it's a little gimpy lookin it's still growing like crazy. Here's a couple of closeups (best I can do), but they look pretty convincingly GIRL to me. I've also attached a couple images of preflowers I've found around the web for comparison.

Whatcha think - is it a girl?

Also - do you think I should be concerned about the color of the stem on this one? Kinda redish/purpleish along with green...

Cheers, it's a girl!

Warning: Some of the attached photos are a bit ugly.

Started to see the brown spots here and there on another couple of plants, so decided to look into my water a bit more. After some digging online I was able to find my water company's monthly water report. Turns out my "hard water" is not "hard water" as far as the GH Flora Micro Hardwater formula is concerned. As far as I can tell the only reason to use the Hardwater formula is if your water has more than 70ppm calcium. Surprise-surprise! My water analysis shows that calcium content is a mere 25ppm here! So I've definitely not been giving my babies enough calcium

This afternoon I finally made it back to the grow shop and exchanged my light bulb. The owner said that he's gotten a lot of these bulbs returned - bad batch. (FYI - The bulb is an Osram Plantastar 400W HPS). Put the new bulb in and gave it a test run for 6hrs. Temp started at 63.5, but rose to 90.3 by the end of 6hrs. Looks like I'll have to make a few adjustments to get the temps down before it's flower time.

While at the shop I also picked up a jug of Cal-Mag. Hopefully that will take care of the ugliness. I added 5ml/gal in my tank (25ml total). Sound about right? Just don't want to go from not enough to too much...

Cal-Mag @ 5ml/G is a great place to start I would be weary of the tab water regardless of the low calcium readings. Just keep an eye on them.

Unity

What is your 'run off' ph & EC?

unity said:

What is your 'run off' ph & EC?

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I haven't checked that - what's the best way? Collect the runoff in a separate container and check it there?

Ahzweepay said:

I haven't checked that - what's the best way? Collect the runoff in a separate container and check it there?

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Sounds like a way to do it. Don't get freaked out if it reads high
If it is above 6.2 I would bring it back into balance by recirculating and adjusting the ph in the res until the run-off reads below 6.0. Do this with your normal nutrient soup, not just ph adjusted water.
But let's see where you are at first off all.

Unity

Ahzweepay said:

I'm so flippin pumped! It would appear that #8 is showing some preflowers. Even though it's a little gimpy lookin it's still growing like crazy. Here's a couple of closeups (best I can do), but they look pretty convincingly GIRL to me. I've also attached a couple images of preflowers I've found around the web for comparison.

Whatcha think - is it a girl?

Also - do you think I should be concerned about the color of the stem on this one? Kinda redish/purpleish along with green...

Click to expand...

How old are your plants here?
did you cut clones to sex or veg them until they showed?

nice set up things seem 2 be going well i plan on a similar set up good luck to you