👨🏽‍🌾 Farmer Pigeonman (OR): How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Indoor Growing

[CADMAN]

@Pigeonman holy crap man.

Loads of strains, several of your strians I’ll watching eagerly…

Killer tent setup & access to butloads of nutrients. How do you like that AC duct fan?
Was debating getting one like it or to just get a AC Infinity T6 vs the T4 I got now.

Love your excel sheets, that’s WAY more responsible then my way of doing things lol

Thanks for the link to the store. I’ll find that useful as I’m only 4hr drive from GTA, so shipping will be very reasonable.
I’m already eyeing that 1x1x2 ft tent for a male flower chamber…

[CADMAN]

Got a heatsink to slap that baby on?

[CADMAN]

@Pigeonman

include a sample of DynoMyco with my most recent DIY Greenlife order

This stuff works really well, I’ve used it many times ,)

[Pigeonman]

@CADMAN

AC duct fan

I rather enjoy it! I got it used but would buy another one to make an active intake for the 4x4. I would conpare it with the T4/6 which has much finer controls.

[Pigeonman]

The ΩPot:

It’s finally gonna happen!

I built this thing earlier this year in preparation for a long run with a Mexican Death Sativa, but after the sexing it turned out to be a male. It’s leaves smell so darn good (like grapefruit!) that it’s still alive as a houseplant in veg. When it pops flowers I cut them off as part of it’s maintenance routine.

So now the ΩPot will have a proud example of OG (see below) should it turn out to be a femme!

Here’s a ECU of some of the developing areas if anyone wants to chime in with their opinion.

I think it’s a femme but this is day 11 since flip and it’s stretching like cray-cray so I really want to figure this out asap so I can top it, replant and get it back into veg for SCROG training into the second flip.

Here’s the winner, a fine selection from a legend: BOG’s SourBluTooth F2 in all of it’s glory! (it’s the one on the right)

The darling on the left is the Crockett’s Tangie F2; i’m 95% sure it’s a femme so it’s going into the 2x4 when i’m 100% sure it is femme. I’ve never had males NOT show balls by day 11 so if they do sport it’ll be a first for me which is why I’m confident of there femininity.

I’ve filled the ΩPot’s reservoir with 25L of water which leaves the surface flush with the net pot containing the hydroton. I left this for 24hours and the next day the hydroton showed no signs of any wicking effect.

I added another 5L, which lifted the water 10mm into the hydroton (I love my floating water line indicator even more now!) and again left it for another 24 hours but this time take a looksie at what I saw below:

Yep! Total success with the wicking action as clearly seen with the wet patches throughout.

So now was the time to mix up the media; which of course like the ΩPot is another test run but integral for the success of the system itself. Because this incarnation is to act like an Octopot I went with a blend of coco chips, perlite and Promix BX. The extra fun part for me is that this is also another first as I’ve never used coco before!.

Go big or go home; so that’s another pile of firsts and a whole lot of hope!

I got this from Hydrotech a few months back on impulse when it went on sale (it was $16cnd taxes in!) and oh boy am I happy I did.

Breaking off less than 1/4 of the brick, I soaked it in water, and then rinsed it a few times because I swear I read that somewhere…

Afterwards I tossed it all into a 5 gallon bucket and soaked it for 24 hours in 2 gallons of dechoramined water with 10ml of cal-mag+ as a buffering agent. After I let it all drain out it looks and feels amazing; I totally see why plants love to grow in here but also can foreshadow the absolute nightmare involved IF it dries out when you’re growing with it.

To this I added perlite…

…and then the Promix BX…

…and then a lot of hand mixing later I’m left with a mass that you can FEEL THE LOVE in between your fingers!

I think this is gonna work out really well as it’s airy enough to breath well but still will hold water perfectly as long as it’s not overly saturated; and even then there will be air available throughout the mass. The fine particulates of the peat, the large chunks of airy coco and the even more airy perlite in combination with the air-pots walls will hopefully work in conjunction with the wicking action; and if it pulls the way I’m envisioning then it should provide a graduated wet zone for the roots to reach down and into with dry walls on all sides ensuring a healthy breathing mass.

All in all the goal was to mimicking planting next to or on a river and I think it’s gonna do it.

I’ve been inspired years back by the concept of a Chinampa, which is a technique used in Mesoamerican agriculture which relied on small, rectangular areas of fertile arable land to grow crops on the shallow lake beds in the Valley of Mexico.

You can see my mimicry in the image above.

72L bin = lake/river,
Air-pot = woven reed wall,
mud/manure = my mix + nutrient solution,
mud & reed mat = net pot + hydroton,
maize = cannabis

All in all it would have been so very poetic to have done this with a Mexican Landrace like the Mexican Death Sativa but it’s now just a different poem and love note to our beloved Bushy Old Grower.

If this doesn’t work out, I have a safey net to make sure this isn’t a total waste and I know it’ll work but ultimately just be another version of a hydroponic system i’ve already done before.

The changes would be:

1. Hydroton throughout the net and air pot (no soilless medium)
2. T-Junction added to pump water fall feed, this junction will feed solution via 3-4 drip emitters surrounding the plant’s base running 24/7,

It’s a really simple change that makes this a double system; something I always appreciate as anytime something has multiple uses it increases the value for me .

Thanks for checking in on this mad house of living things!
All the best!

[Oldtimerunderground]

@Pigeonman bro, you’re killin it with these posts. Awesome details and pics.

Did some reading on chinampas and found this quote to be a sign of what’s to come “These raised, well-watered beds had very high crop yields”

Can’t wait to see what happens when you really get a plant going in the ΩPot full flower. This is some crazy suspense buildup, hope you plant something soon before I bite all my nails off

[Pigeonman]

@Oldtimerunderground

hope you plant something soon before I bite all my nails off

NOOO!!! Don’t bite them off you need them to crop your future trees! /
Thanks bruv, this is either gonna be fucking amazing or a brutal failure. One way or another we all learn something!

[HorseBadorites]

Interesting set up @Pigeonman. I’m a coconutter, and use Airpots, so hope you don’t mind if I tag along.
You were right to wash the coco, even if it was pre-washed. It grows by the ocean, don’t want to take chances with extra salt.
Are you going to do a test with a pot full of your medium? Like you said coco likes to stay moist.
I’m going over and hit that bowl I see being passed in the corner now. Good luck!

[Pigeonman]

@HorseBadorites

do a test with a pot full of your medium

Already on it @HorseBadorites .

I tried lifting it up and boy that wasn’t fun so I think it’s working.

[HorseBadorites]

@Pigeonman

Already on it

Just checkin’, lol!

I think I missed how you’ve got the Airpot connected to the net pot, and is that a 3 gallon AP?

[Pigeonman]

It’s a blue bottom; i think 7gal equiv? Instead of wrapping the sidewall around the bottom included i wraped it around the bucket lid net pot. All of this was then secured with quick ties run through the lowest holes of the air-pot and holes drilled into the rim of the net pot lid.

I went with a blue bottom as it’s the same size as a bucket lid net pot so no need for triming. I can redo the lid to support less plants if this turns out awesome.

[HorseBadorites]

I’ve never seen, or even heard of a bucket lid netpot, sounds like a marvelous invention!

I just ran microfleece wicks through the bottom, into the rez, and up to near the top of the pot… what’ll they think of next, lol?

[Pigeonman]

@HorseBadorites

bucket lid netpot

Here you go @HorseBadorites; a total breakdown of the ΩPot’s construction which will visually explain the bucket lid net pot:

It’s been running for several day’s now and the surface is still NOT wet which is amazing! This is suggesting that while there was the initial wicking effect from the media, it’s limiting itself to the graduated layers of moisture due to the breathability of both the medium and the air-pot walls. I’ll probe it later on today to see what the measurements actually tell me.

Unicorn Poop BX1 & Cherry Festival (RED) F2:

It was their 21st day of life yesterday so it was right time to up pot them. I went with orange bottom air-pots which supports 1.2 gallons of medium. It’s not much but I can always up pot them again if I feel like it. Ultimately I need to sex them, so my ideal situation is to do this in my 2x2 tent which was only possible with keeping things compact.

The root balls were firmer on the UP than the CF, but the SpeedCups did their job and there was no circling and only just purdy white tips everywhere. They look a little unhappy in the images above because I let them dry out for the transplant… and my basement is 15c while the room they came from averages 23-25c.

The media was 80% pure ProMix BX with the leftovers of the coco/perlite/BX mix so it didn’t go to waste… I’m also almost out of BX so it wasn’t an option. ().

The mix was packed into the walls to the top and then a hole with 3/4 tsp of MycoRyzo sprinkled inside was left to accommodate the 16oz root ball.

I made some fun tags for the Unicorn Poop and will be making up 3x more for the Cherry Festival but couldn’t find cherry stickers at the dollar store

Here are them all packed into the 2x2. There were 2 spaces still available for the Crockett’s Tangie F2 and the BOG SourBluTooth F2 so I left them there. I swear I saw pistils last night on the Tangie… but regretilby I think the Sourblutooth may have sported a . Since I don’t want to risk a month’s veg in the ΩPot with any question of the plants sex I needed to leave them both in there for a little longer so I can be 100% certain who is the winner of the 1st ΩPot run.

It’s tight in there, but I love my moving air so they are not having any breathing problems

Thanks for checking in an a very Happy New Year to you all!

[HorseBadorites]

@Pigeonman

Here you go @HorseBadorites; a total breakdown of the ΩPot’s construction which will visually explain the bucket lid net pot:

Ah ha! That’s a big net pot. I still don’t quite understand the piping and hoses. If you posted that further back I’ll go look. I went as far as my attention span would let me, but didn’t see anything!

When you say the surface isn’t wet, is it moist? I know you’re in a mixed medium, but I get a lot of feeder roots near the surface. The top 1/4" drys out over 24 hours, but it get’s soaked every day. That may not matter in 7 gallon pots, IDK.

When I was using wicks and mud, I had to top water for a few to get the hydraulic action acting, priming the pump so to speak.

Sorry for the ramble, it’s a a Sunshine Daydream night, lol!

[Pigeonman]

@HorseBadorites , the idea is to mimic nature; which does get soakings when it rains but not in areas with low rainfall. So the top soil stays airy and is the driest layer, the deeper you go the closer you get to the underground water source and therefore the wetter it gets until you’re in the reservoir.

This way the plant has access to water constantly but there is no risk of any drowning as everything can breath as it all has access to oxygen. It’s always watered so long as the level of the nutrient solution is maintained. If it drops below the basket, the plant will still feed if there are roots in the water. Otherwise I know it’s at least a 2-3 day buffer to hand water with so much media unless it’s in mega-flowering period mode.

Here is the waterworks for the tub; which takes the solution from the left side of the tub over to the right side in 2 places suspended well above the water line resulting in a waterfall effect. This is to keep the solution oxygenated and also well mixed. There are also 2x air-stone to increase this effect.

Having the pump OUTSIDE of the tank keeps the heat of the solution lower; and to increase to cooling effect the air used for the bubble stones is drawn from outside of the tent.

[HorseBadorites]

Now I do get it, thanks for your patience. Way too much faffing for me :), but it is an interesting system.

[Pigeonman]

@HorseBadorites

Way too much faffing for me

Funny enough my Mum’s last name was Pfaff so faffing around is genetic

[HorseBadorites]

@Pigeonman

faffing around is genetic

Ha! I should have added, in your case, the faffing was warranted, you did a very neat job!

[Rabeats2093]

Notification activated!

[MoBilly]

I saw this over on Johnny’s circus. I hop you don’t mind if I tag along.