New Beginnings for Massachussetts and I

JustCallmeMom said:

LOL...never thought of it that way~ literally giving baby her bottle. I only change them out twice a day with 2 liter soda bottles filled with frozen water. Once in am when I check on them and take water readings...then again at night when I check on them. One more step to add for now I guess....but it is better than listening to that freakin air pump all day. Hopefully soon I will be able to move the tent out of my living room into to its own room. I will probably switch to using a high power air pump with stones again once its somewhere I cant hear it.

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Can you run your pump in-line(outside bucket) most pumps can. Otherwise, seems like trade-off( noise for twice a day bottles) or try muffling airpump.Surround with foamrubber so it can still breath. You have a few months to go and bottles will get old-but res. temp is a MAJOR.

JustCallmeMom said:

I am just learning too...but my baby has a great root coming through the bottom of the net pot at 12 days. I must be doing something right! I got a 400gph submersible water pump from my friend for 10 bucks. She got it on ebay for her aquarium for only $19.00....and it came with the venturi aerator kit.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/291965350501?lpid=82&chn=ps&ul_noapp=true
what size is your bucket? I think that if i went lower than the 400 for my 5 gallon bucket it wouldnt have been enough. 400gph sounds like to much for a 5 gallon, but its not. the bucket is deep, and pump has to work harder to aerate the water and surface. Im telling you this thing is SILENT. The setup I had to start was an external air pump and stones. The external air pump was so loud it drove me crazy. I will never go back to soil now. I love being able to actually see the heart and soul of my plant~ the roots.

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Nice tap root- wait a week and you will be amazed( roots everywhere( thats why the access hole) at some point, you will not want to remove lid( huge root ball) or damage will occur.Good Job- glad you like it.

greg nr said:

True, but not really an issue for me since I've taken the 2 N into account in my formulary. I stop using cal mag and switch to a sweetener during flower, so the N doesn't end up causing issues there either.
Botanicare cal mag plus is what most people refer to, so I point that out.

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(to everyone involved) So at what point in flower is it time to reduce the nitrogen and how far down should it go? I know excessive N is bad for flower, but I don't know what excessive is. Using terms like 1.5-20-18 would be super helpful.

It's not that you want eliminate N completely in flower, you want to reduce the percentage you give. I forget the exact ratios, but it is something like like 4:1:1 in veg and 1:2:2 in flower. I probably have those numbers wrong, but the drift is that in veg you feed more N than p or k by a large percentage, and reverse that in flower. Then you lower the N to nothing towards the second half of flower.

You have to do the material balance and adjust to the ppm's you want to hit in any given week.

Ok, I posted pics of the QB build here: https://www.rollitup.org/t/diy-with-quantum-boards.927159/page-153#post-13443730

Now I just need to find a use for a slightly worn mars 192 reflector series. It's actually not a bad light, it pull almost 400 true watts at the wall with both sets of lights on. Unfortunately for this light, the QB's and driver cost me over $100 less.

But I can't resist something shiny and new......

HideousPenguinBoy said:

(to everyone involved) So at what point in flower is it time to reduce the nitrogen and how far down should it go? I know excessive N is bad for flower, but I don't know what excessive is. Using terms like 1.5-20-18 would be super helpful.

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With Canna a+b you use the same ratio of nutrients the entire grow (with flower boosts). I think the important word here is excessive. Just don't give them a lot of N.

I don't alter the amount of nitrogen I supply throughout veg and bloom.

be4meliz said:

Nice tap root- wait a week and you will be amazed( roots everywhere( thats why the access hole) at some point, you will not want to remove lid( huge root ball) or damage will occur.Good Job- glad you like it.

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I see 2 new roots just since last night How do you clean res if you cant take off top?

HideousPenguinBoy said:

(to everyone involved) So at what point in flower is it time to reduce the nitrogen and how far down should it go? I know excessive N is bad for flower, but I don't know what excessive is. Using terms like 1.5-20-18 would be super helpful.

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I have always wondered same thing...nutes confuse me.

That is why I went hydro with my new plant, (I dont have to worry about unknown nutes or ratios in soil. With hydro, what I put in is what the plant gets. Or vice versa. I feel I have more control) and went with a ONE nute that can go from seed to harvest
VEGBLOOM
https://hydroponic-research.com/

Just took my first try at cloning. Took 6 Super Lemon haze and 6 Fruity Pebbles. Made some nice cuts then into the Clonex and finally into rapid rooters. Hope at least half of each root! First pic are my clones, second pic is my Sour Diesel sprouts and 2 Rasberry Kush clones. 3rd pic is my scrog which will be flipped shortly to 12/12! Was hoping for input on how there looking this far

Hi, I am a resident also and from the South Coast MA area. I love all the political posts from stoned Yoda and I agree. Hopefully we can all share in this evenly and in some proportional way that makes sense. So maybe having this strange political mix that we have here will work out for the best. All I know is right now is that two adults can grow 12 plants, as long as it is out of sight from street view.

Here is my start, and I am coining this year "summer of 17"!

I figure in about a month and it will be safe to go outdoors, and they will have a good head start.

JustCallmeMom said:

I see 2 new roots just since last night How do you clean res if you cant take off top?

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Thats why the access hole that you drilled & siphon pump which you have- for res. change, just suck out as much as possible, and toss & change- don't have to clean until after chop.

be4meliz said:

Thats why the access hole that you drilled & siphon pump which you have- for res. change, just suck out as much as possible, and toss & change- don't have to clean until after chop.

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If you have the one(pump) I think you do- just suck everything you can out of res.,premix nutes in fresh water, pump back in, allow X-amount of time, check Ph and PPM. Nutes will change Ph slightly, so wait until after nute change- shoot for 800-1000(max) PPm ( i have stayed in the 800 range through entire grow(don't follow Manufacturers scale(too much usually& hydro reacts quickly) K.I.S.S principle - stay with same formula until flower, then adjust & don't forget Hydroguard on change(2ml. per Gal.) so in your case-8ml.

Harvested my first Northern Lights Auto last night. She was not ready but most of her leaves were brown so she wouldn't grow much more. Not much there after her haircut. Guess that's what happens when you stress an auto too much. She was smaller than her sisters anyway and they are still green.

be4meliz said:

If you have the one(pump) I think you do- just suck everything you can out of res.,premix nutes in fresh water, pump back in, allow X-amount of time, check Ph and PPM. Nutes will change Ph slightly, so wait until after nute change- shoot for 800-1000(max) PPm ( i have stayed in the 800 range through entire grow(don't follow Manufacturers scale(too much usually& hydro reacts quickly) K.I.S.S principle - stay with same formula until flower, then adjust & don't forget Hydroguard on change(2ml. per Gal.) so in your case-8ml.

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Wow. There is no way I could ask anyone else to do all of that for me on a daily or even weekly basis. I travel too much. Dirt is easier, but slower. I think I'll try my hand at sip with super soil soon and then all the cg has to do is make sure there is water in the res. Or I could put a pump externally with a timer and not even do that.

Slow, but steady. Not criticizing hydro by any means. It seems to work and work faster than just about anything else. Just too high maintenance for me. Carry on. Love to see the other styles as well.

It's all good!

Finally, my ww's are starting to look like real plants in flower. I have had dozens of bud sites, but they all appeared at the top of stems, with no multi bud stems visible. But 1 day after turning on the quantum boards, I have real looking plants.

Might just be coincidence, but I'm happy. Just finishing up week 3 of flower.

greg nr said:

I think I'll try my hand at sip with super soil soon

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My plants absolutely LOVE my sip tray but the 10 gal smart pots only sip about 1/3 of the way up. I still top feed them light nutes every couple days since my soil runs out of nutes after a few weeks. Will need to flush soon. Have you used super soil before?

Week 5 flower in 10 gal pot w/sip. Lil N deficiency but a little late to give her more than a little bit extra.

Inquiring minds want to know ....

Is there such a thing as too many fine roots? I just performed an emergency up-potting from 3 to 7 gal pots, and the entire 3 gal volume was solid hair roots.

For all you soil and coco growers out there ... if leaves are curling down at the tips, and the bottom leaves are starting to yellow, in addition to N deficiency, over watering, under watering. and some form of cal-mag deficiency, add too many roots and not enough medium to the list. The root mass appeared to be too dense for water and nutes to penetrate and stay long enough to be absorbed.

And for all you soil/coco fans out there ... even with 2.5-3gal of solid root mass, it takes a shitload of soil to fill 5 7gal pots. And they barely fit in a 2x4 tent ... which is why I was planning to wait until I moved them to the 5x5 before doing this.

And as for the root mass ... any reason not to take a screw driver and carefully loosen things up in there so the center mass has some better aeration?

Axle4worc said:

My plants absolutely LOVE my sip tray but the 10 gal smart pots only sip about 1/3 of the way up. I still top feed them light nutes every couple days since my soil runs out of nutes after a few weeks. Will need to flush soon. Have you used super soil before?

Week 5 flower in 10 gal pot w/sip. Lil N deficiency but a little late to give her more than a little bit extra.

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Never used super soil. I was thinking of an earth box or grow box. I'm not into the diy on these things. I'll probably still feed something though, even if it's just an enzyme tea, just because I come from a greek family and everyone needs to eat well and eat often.

Bosgrower said:

if leaves are curling down at the tips, and the bottom leaves are starting to yellow, in addition to N deficiency, over watering, under watering. and some form of cal-mag deficiency, add too many roots and not enough medium to the list. The root mass appeared to be too dense for water and nutes to penetrate and stay long enough to be absorbed.

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I did all that to this plant in a 5 gal pot. After watering it had about 3 gal. Here are pics right after repotting and today on my sip tray. I have issues with top watering all the time. Wish I had put holes before it recovered. Maybe you could put some fresh soil on top.