FieldEffect's Attempt to Grow Indoors

[FieldEffect]

Well, unsurprisingly they continue to grow

I am getting increasingly annoyed at the pH drift of my jug of feed solution. Started at 5.5 and it just drifts up. The correction via pH down is a whole process. I’m beginning to really grasp the buffer concept. The majority of my irritation isn’t the fact that things are occurring, it’s that I totally ignored a chance to really learn this when I was younger.

@Northern_Loki did an interesting bunch of experiments about this I’m trying to work through understanding. MES is something I actually have readily available so that piqued my interest. I need to finish reading and understanding before I act though.

I’m thinking I’m going to clip/clone the bigger plants tonight. I may be firing up the SOG this weekend

[FieldEffect]

Almost tried taking cuts this morning but chickened out. Going to do more reading like that’ll help anything

Tomorrow I’ll take cuts of the bigger ones.

Runt 907xShiska still diminutive in scale

The rest are rapidly increasing in magnitude. They seem happy

I’ve got rooting plugs, Athena Cuts, scalpel and blades, H2O2, mister, labels. Anything else I need before cutting begins?

Plan is to soak the plugs initially in H2O2, then water. Goal is minimal nastiness because these are going to be humid for a while. I’ll clip diagonally above a node on the parent plant and trim all leaves other than the top couple, then spritz it off with peroxide. Scrape the side of the stem lightly and apply the cloning gel. Insert into plug. Add to propagation tray. Repeat ~5x for all the plants that are sufficient size. Mist cuttings, put the lid on and put in low-intensity light (200-300 par). It should take 5-10 days for roots and transfer to final media. Do I have the gist of that about right?

Cheers everyone happy hump day and thanks for the advice!

[tamimes]

Shake the plugs an block like 5 times ( so there is less watter in them) humid not soaking wet
That will promote more roots( plant in search of water) after 2 days bottom feed max 1/3 hight of the block for a short time

[FieldEffect]

Gotcha. The key being not too easy to get water to encourage root development. Different folks say different things but the bottom-watering is intuitive.

I presume I use my veg nute solution for this bottom water process as that is what the cuts are acclimated to? Plain water mist first 2 days?

[tamimes]

Once the clones have roots i give them a 1/2 strenght nute and Alays 5,5 ph - 5,8ph
Once growing 5,5 when i make the nute and give it max a week ( recirculating tank) an it raise to max 6,2 ph
I like the variation in ph 5,5 to 6,2 plants doing great ( max uptake of all nute ranges)

[FieldEffect]

Took 4 cuts. My internodes are really tight so not much room to work, I’ve slightly dimmed the lower light to encourage a little more stretch.

Here’s the seedlings before starting. They’re all in good health

Here’s the result:

The optimal amount of light seems to be between 90-120. Split the difference. This page has some good info

Cloning Studies Reveal Surprises - Cannabis Cultivation Institute.

Doing the link on my phone is annoying because I’m an idiot, may need to fix that later but good info on it.

The turtle of a 907 x Shiskaberry got moved down to the primary veg tray for some peer pressure and motivation

We’ll see if it works. More red light and less blue may be better, they are really squat and chunky so the cuts are super short. I thought I wanted that but I think it may not actually be optimal. For keeping short moms, sure. But they are stacked so tight they are tough to clone. We’ll see

Cheers have a wonderful day

[Nitt]

Amazon.com: PHOTOBIO LGBQM2 Advanced Quantum Sensor PAR Meter (Micromoles),...

Quantum PAR Meter, PAR Light Meter for Plants - Accurate Measurement of LED Grow...

…Heyyy… Wait a second…

[Nitt]

I might get one just to open it up and see if it’s the exact same as the/your Photobio branded one.

Does yours have the exact same features listed? Does yours have a “zero point” or “CALI” (Calibration) function? —nvm just checked online manual and it says it does. That might come in useful for your comparison tests amongs par meters.

[FieldEffect]

I actually wondered the same thing when I was looking for the Photobio. I’d be very curious to see the other unit.

I’m guessing it’s almost identical if not exactly so.

[FieldEffect]

Well, it’s too soon to tell about the clones but I popped the lid off and made sure everything was moist. It certainly is.

The apical growth looks healthy which I believe is all that matters. I debated cutting off the larger leaves but left them for some energy rooting.

Rest of the plants are growing like weeds

I got this cool USB fan for some air movement downstairs. It’s a $10 Amazon thing I figured may as well do that rather than come up with something for a PC fan and wind up spending more money on something that doesn’t matter much. I like it, the low speed setting looks good for this.

—NOW, SOME QUESTIONS—

I need to mix up another gallon of nutrients for the lower tray. The MegaCrop schedule has become:

VEG: 2g A, 2g B EC~1.1mS
Flower: 3.9g A, 3.2g B EC~2mS

I guess my first question is, should I taper up the EC a bit? If I’m going to be moving the clones straight into flower do I “transition” the nutes the first week of the reservoir? Or should I start feeding the seedlings the veg ratio at maybe 1.5EC?

I could start the reservoir with the veg 1.1EC and gradually add more each day to wind up with the flower doseage 2EC by the end of, say, a week. It’s still a week for things to get rooted and more cuts to be cycling into the clone dome so I’ve got time to sort this out in my head.

Another thing, I don’t understand why my jug of nutrients is pretty much every morning increasing to 6.0-6.2pH. I add a few drops of pH down and it goes down, and I’ve been feeding it at 5.5-5.6. It seems like some buffering is happening to equalize to around 6 rather than 5.5. Are there other nutrients that are optimized for rockwool that buffer to a more acidic pH? Is this totally normal and expected? Maybe this is a question for @GreenleafNutrients. I mean, a self-stabilizing nutrient solution at 6ish pH seems like a well-engineered blend for hydroponics to me. Generally that seems close to ideal for uptake.

Now, I understand when the plant is consuming nutrients from a reservoir the pH changes as ions are removed from the solution. But this activity in a one gallon jug with no plants and stable 70F temperature implies a slow buffering exchange is occurring.

Am I fundamentally misunderstanding rockwool feeding is another element of this question. I was under the impression that ideally I want to soak and feed, for the entire lifecycle of the plants at 5.5ish pH. Scouring the internet leads me to believe that perhaps I should have only been that low initially to stabilize the rockwool and running around 6pH is no problem. What should my feed pH be for rockwool? Is 6 fine and I’m doing a bunch of acidification for no reason whatsoever?

As always, appreciate all the input! Have a great day

[Hashpants]

Have you had a look at @lusid 's thread , Return of the Husky hut. He’s in Rockwool and has been for a bit. GL

[FieldEffect]

@Hashpants thanks for the tip towards @lusid he answered my question right away.

@FieldEffect

Am I fundamentally misunderstanding rockwool feeding is another element of this question. I was under the impression that ideally I want to soak and feed, for the entire lifecycle of the plants at 5.5ish pH.

The answer to this was YES, I was misunderstanding.

Rockwool soak at 5.5 initially. Routine fertigation at 5.8-6.2.

[lusid]

The ph isn’t trying to stabilize at 6.0. It will climb to 7+ if you let it. It’s just the nature of a nutrient solution. Some nutrient lines add a stabilizer though.

[funkyfunk]

Nice little grow op there, pulling my chair in a corner. Wonder if you shouldn’t have to wait a bit to cut this clones? Not used to see their apex so close to the soil level. No reason they don’t make it. Hope so!

[FieldEffect]

Yeah, there are lots of lessons being learned. I lowered the brightness a bit and am waiting to take more until they get a little bigger. I’m curious if the short ones make it. Almost everything in this log is the first time I’ve really attempted any of this.

Thanks for popping in!

[funkyfunk]

Doing great for a first time! Don’t know someone (and certainly me) that doesn’t make mistakes. And they may as well take, this thing is weed after all

[Nitt]

Water chemistry; alkalinity, hardness, and then the makeup of a fertilizer (does it use MAP, for example) can affect pH stability/drift too. I don’t know enough to give any really give any practical advice now, not any that others won’t mention I don’t think. I’ve been hurting my brain all day on moles of chlorine and related stuff, so it’s not working right now.
Also, think about what chemical you’re using for pH down. Phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, acetic acid, etc. That might…be noteworthy.

[FieldEffect]

Bonjour les amis!

Had to mix up new nutes this morning, refreshed by the knowledge that my steady-state fertigation pH should lie within the comfortable bounds of 5.8 and 6.2. Logic is all finally aligning and becoming tranquil in my mind. As suggested by @tamimes I’ll start on the low side and let it rise to 6.2 generally just to expose the plants to a spread to increase uptake diversity. I’ve opted for a higher rate so that cuts will have an easier transition to flower EC when they root. 3g A, 3g B, pH with no adjustment 5.78 EC 1.85

Took 3 more cuts this morning. Learning to label with higher fidelity. The cuts from Thursday morning have good looking new growth still although the larger leaves are faring worse. Not a big surprise to me there.

Should these cuts not take, lessons learned. Perhaps I am too eager to make cuts, a few weeks will fix the problem if that’s the case. Perhaps they root and take off just fine. I wouldn’t put money on either outcome at this point.

The 907 Blue Genes x Shiskaberry is creating some fat, BLD leaves. I’ve been waiting for these

Shuffled around seedlings to expose the Runtz x Sour Bubble to the fan. They are quite vigorous and healthy.

Cut tray lowered PAR to 100 from 110.

This is how it looks today upon closing the veg side.

Thanks for helping to guide my somewhat neurotic attempt to grow indoors. I’m sure the plants appreciate it as much as I do

This afternoon I’ll be doing some work preparing the MegaGarden - washing the components, building the support “table” with reservoir drain position, assembling the fittings and pump, installing airstone and programming the Controller 69 to accept the new switched outlet. I’m also going to figure out how to get the ACI Cloudray 6" oscillating fan installed on the flower side. I’m worried it may be too large for my tent and perhaps I’ll trade it away for some seeds or something.

Have a wonderful weekend!

[funkyfunk]

@FieldEffect

I’m sure the plants appreciate it as much as I do

They do seem to enjoy your thumb too. Looking good here.

[FieldEffect]

@funkyfunk

They do seem to enjoy your thumb too. Looking good here.

Thanks funky!

Yesterday I got the MegaGarden together on its elevated platform. There is a removeable piece of support foam that tilts the entire assembly by an inch to drain the dregs of the reservoir. It barely fits in the tent there’s about 1" of clearance around all sides. I ordered some silicone tubing to connect the pump to the fill/drain fitting, that way I can get in there to check on things by lifting the flood table and having noodly-enough tubing that it’s not a PITA to reconnect. It’s fucking tight. Everything in this tent is tight. The location of the reservoir drain sets the rotation of the reservoir, which happens to also mean the pump has to be in a difficult location, therefore all the flood/drain hardware will also be less easy to access. A little extra tubing length so I can lift the flood table and peek in will likely be a big benefit.

Overall, it’s all coming together in what I think will be a really nice, functional setup. It occurred to me when I opened the flower chamber that the ventilation system actually does a great job. The seedling side, closed up, vents to the flower chamber. Those things smell like weed already. I hadn’t noticed because usually when I’m working on them there’s a negative pressure in the veg area. Glad I heeded the advice of @Fuel and @Coda and got rid of all the clothing items. Come flower time it’s going to be ridiculous.

I never posted pics of what the finalized exhaust system looks like. Here it is. Pardon the mess of cables was trying to get the Controller 69 doing some other things yesterday let’s just say that endeavor ended in annoyance.

It goes through the ceiling, and in the attic is just aluminum dryer flex hose sideways about 10’ to a roof vent. I put some bends almost like a plumbing trap to keep water and stuff from coming down my exhaust tube.

Speaking of draining, I’ve been observing salt residue on the seedling rooting cubes. I thought about this yesterday, decided to drill holes in one of the trays and use two stacked together so I can fertigate to a more significant amount of runoff. Foam spacers in the lower tray, the one at the far side is slightly taller than the near side so the tray will slant slightly (~1/8" over the 20" tray).

Took the tray out to clean things up a bit and relocate the the new tray with drilled drain holes only in one side. If I ever need to flush the blocks all the drainage will be in a controlled area on the left side of the tray so I can put it over a bus tray and run gallons through it without getting water everywhere.

The Runtz x Sour Bubbles are growing well.

I raised the light a few inches to slightly reduce the intensity. @MissinBissin I think there’s certainly a limit to the “illuminate without mercy” concept and I have a knack of finding it. I browsed Digikey for some red or warm white LED strips to supplement my red spectrum. The node spacing just seems ridiculously short. Again, I took a reasonable goal probably too far. I wanted chunky seedlings, and I got them I guess

The clones I took 3 days ago are perking up

This picture shows the whole state of affairs, they don’t look fantastic but better than yesterday or the day prior. I think the lower light level probably helped (100 umol/m2/s)

I’ll bottom-feed those 4 older ones tomorrow morning. I’ll have to pop the plugs out so we’ll see if there is any root action going on.

That’s all for today. I’m sure there will be plenty of pics of the flower flood-drain setup as I’m getting those going probably next weekend if these clones take. I’m happy the tent is prepared, generally the plants are in good health. Rather enjoying the process of thinking through the little details and implementing them sooner rather than later, especially in such a small space. I’d hate to be futzing with most of this stuff with bigger plants in the tent.

Hope you all have a lovely Sunday. I plan to smoke Panama x Malawi cobb from last season’s harvest and reside mostly on the couch