Tent, cold conditions; 5x feminised snow white

Trust me, Hydro is so much easier than it sounds. I know it's scary but it would probably use about 0.1% of your brain.
I suspect it's inevitable that you will go that way eventually and IMO it will be a waste going to the trouble/expense of individual valves etc when you will soon 'make the change'.
And, with 800w in a 120, one grow should keep you going for months.
I would do one grow with soil, then think about it.
I have a drip irrigation system. In the back of a cupboard somewhere.....

I most likely will make that change in the near future and .. actually, your not wrong with the idea of it being a waste to get one system working then the other.
But its also not for sole purpose of that particular grow.

I'm building more modules and accompanied software in a hope I will one day make that somewhat of a low budget commercial product. (with very advanced techniques)
And with an eye on low budget and the plant limits in our country being 5, the valves system isnt that much of an investment.
The current grow has an amazing climate control system which gets me power efficiency and a very stable, easy to manipulate climate. (rh/temps)
If I get the watering system for soil working eficiently, it adds up to a full system which can be applied to soil

I already know that the watering schedules effects the humidity, I see that daily my logs.
With the monitoring system I should be able to determine good watering times which could aid in producing a better product by having an even more refined climate control.
Basic example: watering when humidity is low.

You need to look into golf courses and the systems they use.
In the simplest form, they use a rain guage to determine wether or not the irrigation turns on or not.
The other end of the scale is systems that measure VPD (Vapour Pressure Deficit) to determine how long the water stays on for.
But then, these guys can easily spend many thousands a year on water and they have the disadvantage that they can't turn the water on at midday.
Looking up USGA spec greens may also help. It's almost like a soil (mainly sand of a uniform type and structure) that is designed to 'fill-up' and then dump out when full like hydro, based on the hygroscopic effect of water.
The way I like to think of it is like the water being a film through coarse (ish) sand. It sits there in balls or beds until it all joins up then just dumps out.
Hope this makes some sense.

automated said:

I most likely will make that change in the near future and .. actually, your not wrong with the idea of it being a waste to get one system working then the other.
But its also not for sole purpose of that particular grow.

I'm building more modules and accompanied software in a hope I will one day make that somewhat of a low budget commercial product. (with very advanced techniques)
And with an eye on low budget and the plant limits in our country being 5, the valves system isnt that much of an investment.
The current grow has an amazing climate control system which gets me power efficiency and a very stable, easy to manipulate climate. (rh/temps)
If I get the watering system for soil working eficiently, it adds up to a full system which can be applied to soil

I already know that the watering schedules effects the humidity, I see that daily my logs.
With the monitoring system I should be able to determine good watering times which could aid in producing a better product by having an even more refined climate control.
Basic example: watering when humidity is low.

Click to expand...

I think humidity would be less a problem with Hydro or Aero because the root chambers are covered, not open evaporating like soil pots I sure like your thinking on the programable climate control. Also the Hydro and Aero are more predictable for a watering schedule with evaporation out of the equation. you said you can control valves for Co2. I think you should build your system in a box with a/c outlets labeled for the device. Main Light Source, Auxiliary Light Sources, Nutrient Delivery, Ventilation, and sensor inputs for Temperature, Humidity, Webcam and maybe nutrients? could be too expensive of applied technology for the basic model. As far as the panel spectrum I see the Hans and A-51 are getting into selectable spectrum blends, I would prefer individual controlled diodes for a highly adjustable spectrum blend.
Anyway HERE's to the New "GRO-BOX 360" I would buy one from you, I'll support thr BETA version I'm starting with Aero. Thanks for your good work

cues said:

You need to look into golf courses and the systems they use.
In the simplest form, they use a rain guage to determine wether or not the irrigation turns on or not.
The other end of the scale is systems that measure VPD (Vapour Pressure Deficit) to determine how long the water stays on for.
But then, these guys can easily spend many thousands a year on water and they have the disadvantage that they can't turn the water on at midday.
Looking up USGA spec greens may also help. It's almost like a soil (mainly sand of a uniform type and structure) that is designed to 'fill-up' and then dump out when full like hydro, based on the hygroscopic effect of water.
The way I like to think of it is like the water being a film through coarse (ish) sand. It sits there in balls or beds until it all joins up then just dumps out.
Hope this makes some sense.

Click to expand...

Makes perfect sense, and very much appreciated btw.

For indoor application some of them wont do, either to complicated to maintain, prone to problems with the soil, or plain expensive.

I know how to make simple and advanced moist sensors, which works with 2 simple pins in the ground detecting a certain level of moist.
It can be used to determine wheter or not new water is needed everytime the value of the electric current between the two pins is evaluated.

I like that VPD tech, bit expensive, but I'm nosing around for alternate solutions.
Thanks again

dochickory said:

I think humidity would be less a problem with Hydro or Aero because the root chambers are covered, not open evaporating like soil pots I sure like your thinking on the programable climate control. Also the Hydro and Aero are more predictable for a watering schedule with evaporation out of the equation. you said you can control valves for Co2. I think you should build your system in a box with a/c outlets labeled for the device. Main Light Source, Auxiliary Light Sources, Nutrient Delivery, Ventilation, and sensor inputs for Temperature, Humidity, Webcam and maybe nutrients? could be too expensive of applied technology for the basic model. As far as the panel spectrum I see the Hans and A-51 are getting into selectable spectrum blends, I would prefer individual controlled diodes for a highly adjustable spectrum blend.
Anyway HERE's to the New "GRO-BOX 360" I would buy one from you, I'll support thr BETA version I'm starting with Aero. Thanks for your good work

Click to expand...

I actually have hardly need for my humidifier anymore since I try to water in line with the humidity levels going down in the air.
I dont have to water a lot for it, but I do have to water more often.
Having that automated would be fantastic and could help benefit the plants a lot.

Having looked into several casings/housings, I near choked at seeing the prices for having a mold created (plastic model prototype)
Prices are crazy, far more so if you need a couple.
So for price sake I have been looking into standard box shaped models, and figured I can make modules which get connected by dedicated cables or plugs.

Ohw, I love that idea for panel spectrum control, the ability to select which diodes are on or off. Maybe its a bit too much for some, but having the uppertunity to give certain strains specialized light blends, there would be quite a few who would love to experiment with that.

Thanks for the input, and ima definately smoking one on that

On the third side, remember it's called weed for a reason....

cues said:

On the third side, remember it's called weed for a reason....

Click to expand...

No shit! I agree that is why when there's a light outage, just figure it's an eclipse, or volcano eruption, and maybe they get tougher with a little adversity anyway! and what about the full moon?

The idea of having my new ladies vegging in by means of sun, (in a serre or wiht lots of sun outside) in the spring and summer kinda failed.
One of the 5, a whitewidow bit the dust.
Witht the cold days the young ladies where stretching a lot, even if i transplant them lower in a later stage.


A small light didnt really work well either.


Nosing around I got my hands on a TL fixure for office ceilings.

The 60cm wide metal hood fit right on a (open top) kitchen cabinet.


The inside is covered with thermal blanket.
Dual function, isolation and reflection


And after some tinkering
There are 4x18 watt tubes in there, they came with the set,
I'll be looking into getting a 4 new 60cm tubes.
suggestions anyone ?


You can see the green dispensor tube,
I recycled the tube and gave this cabinet a co2 bottle aswell. (sugar/yeast)
I forgot a shot of the whole view but that tube goes straight through the reflector and hood.
The back is sealed of well, and there are 2 pc fans sucking the air away right from behind the lights.






On the end of the white tube inside is a PC fan sucking the air from above through a panty.


the pots are elavated atm with empty 11L pots upside down with a tray.


You can see some wiring, beginning of LST (no rest for the wicked)


I tried making a co2 sensor with a servo to control nightly co2 flow, but failed as the sensor was a monoxide sensor.
So I still had the arduino nano and the servo I figured I put it to good use.

That fan is oscilating, lol


the arduino is only running the servo which rotates the fan over all the plants.

I can hook up a lot more, but this was an simple and usefull application.
But i gotta say thats one hellua way to apply a servo rofl, it works perfect btw.

I rigged a small carriar from gardens fence wiring, its wrapped that thermo blanket isolated box and around the tube,

It its around 22 degrees now and humidity between 50% and 60%.
The lights arent really sufficient, they are just warmwhites I think, office stuff , phillips.
I'm curious if this will already work better then the half arsed lighting they have been getting.



And current grow
Day 103 nearing week 9 of flowering
The yellowing is starting on the other plants too.

Its now the start of week 9 of flower, the ladies on the left seem to be ok for another week or so, they still have lots of white pistils.
The ladies on the right and the middle one should be going by the end of the week.

I noticed some of the lower growth being laced with resin like mad, but relative smaller growth,
But several smaller sites which benefitted from extra light from previous trimming, were in fact a lot larger.

I had read a couple of growths using the trimming at the end of flower to push that last bit of extra growth into the buds by a big trim last week of the flower.
I gave this a shot as I have been experiencing good results with previous trims.

So I took the scissor again and went for another run of precise and carefull trimming ...

results

Last week all the ladies got harvested, hung from the main sidebranches after a crude trim in the tent for 4 days @ 45%~55% humidity with temperatures between 20~25 degrees (68F~77F), after this another trim and jarred.



(3L pots / 0,79 gallon jars)

yield is crudely 620gr, giving me a 0,77 g/w ratio.

Its actually a bit higher (0,, but I have ~20grams of bud which has slight browning on/in it.
It wasnt rot yet but stuff that has the potential for it, mainly where old leaves where stuck inside the buds and started browning what it touched.
This is sepperated from the other buds in different pots to dry quicker.



Here are some shots from the ladies in the day before the harvest.


































In the mean time somewhere else,
my new ladies are still in there preppping stage in the kitchen cabinet.
It turns out to work quite well, the lights which were already in the office equiptment (code830) were actually doing pretty well.
Still I changed two lights, I replaced the 830 with the cool whites.
The result is actually going quite well.


































2 biggest fem afghani, 2 mediums are white widows, the two smaller are another fem afghani and a fem vanilla kush.








Here is a bud pic which got dried outside the weck pots.


I alread smoked some of the buds that were dried outside of the pots, and I gotta say its pretty damn good.
I had expected a harsher taste which would get less as the buds cured, but its already tasting pretty fine.
It seems I have two sets of high buds as I cutt the ladies at the same time.
A part is couch lock like, and the other real high

I'm so glad I got my grow done as I am now able to smoke my own, ... no more buying w00t w00t




Some notes:

Lighting
I had one light bulb of the two, which was older and used for the beginning of flowering for a couple weeks,
the ladies under this light were done faster then the ladies under the new bulb.
And the plant that was right between the lights, was aactualyl in between ..
Leads me to believe that with older lights, the flowering goes quicker but not more effective,
as the plants which had been under the good light full time had a slightly bigger yield and looked healthier/greener.
I am considering led, as its reduced power costs. i am not too worried about yield, seeing as I have some to keep me going till the next harvest


I used top max.
I'm not too sure about this product, it mainly seemed to influence my plants smell.

Small buds / fluff
with two plants I did not trim the bottom fluff, but i did defoliate a couple times for better light penetration and air flow improvement.
The plants with the lower fluff had a bigger yield, as some of these fluff that got good light ... were really fluffy, but big buds.
It was a lot more work to process during trimming though.

LST / super cropping
I trained my plants, not with wiring or ropes, but I bended most branches in a direction where I wanted,
and if the branches bended back, I supercropped it (pinching) so it would stay in place.
This gave me a LST effect by means of super cropping.
The branches I did this with had near twice as big buds then the branches I did not do this with (density)

Temperatures / humidity
I analysed countles of measurements and grapsh and stats.
I have to say, being able to see everything that happens and with hind sight, has been a major contributing factor for the success of this grow.

Things I want to do different
I want to automate the watering
More precise applied super cropping
Same size plants in means of training; the one plant in the middle was fun, but it required everything just a tinsy bit more, was annoying.

Cooling
I might look into getting cool tubes but am not too sure about that, the appliance of led might also work out here.

Thats it for now, thanks for following my grow, peace out.