I question the use of a capacitor to solve a wandering voltage on the analog pin, wandering voltage is common with these types of sensors and the usual fix is a 10k resistor to pull down the voltage.
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Right? Hard to say no to giving one a run for a literal order of magnitude less loot!
I did notice that these $40 units did not have a temperature correction sensor integrated into the probe, but the boards did have a spot to hook up a DS18B (I think, not looking at specs at the moment, possible part number error) temperature probe and the board will do temperature correction. So, it seems worthwhile for a try, I dont mind spending a little brain power to save a lot of money!
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And I’ll be right behind you to reap the benefits of your hard work! Haha!
Though if it’s just a solder-to-the-board job, that doesn’t seem too bad.
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So, part 2 of my ebb and flow experiment is up and running.
I’ve been reading some of DrBudGreengenes posts on other forums and fell in love with his SIL-LED 2sqft grow method using a SOG. He puts clones into flower as soon as they get roots. He claims to pull 7-20g of dried bud from 3 plants per week, by rotating 3 plants in/3 plants out after a 9-week flower.
So, my experiment.
I chopped the 2 Hubbabubbasmelloscopes, they were basically done. They’re drying now. I also reconfigured the cabinet. Again.
After much swearing, shelves falling on plants and a bump on the head, my cabinet is approaching a final-ish form.
So I’m trying something similar, only with ebb & flow instead of soil, because I hate working with soil (even though my soil grows outperform my hydro grows 
), and I’m starting from seed because I like to complicate experiments by running them in tandem.
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t quite figured out DWC yet, so part of me needs to acknowledge how dumb this is. But it’s fun, and I can suck at 2 things at the same time, and really the basics are kind of the same. I should probably run hotter in the ebb & flow than DWC, given the roots aren’t in the nutrients all the time, correct?
I have 3 more seeds soaking that might pop their heads above hydroton in 2 weeks, and 3 fresh clones that I took yesterday that I’m hoping will root by next week. Hopefully that’s the next 2 weeks of plants sorted, and I have a 2 week lead time to germinate seeds, until I switch to clones permanently. I’m working out timing by flying the plane as I build it.
The ultimate goal is to wait till the soil plants are all done and out of there, then set up the bottom section as a mother chamber with some small mothers, and use those to clone into the cups that go straight to flower in the shelves above. Obviously I need to figure out how to isolate the bottom from the top in terms of light. That’s a problem I won’t have to solve for at least 6 weeks luckily.
Assuming I can get that working, I’m hoping I can figure out a way to run perpetual in the cabinet for a super low budget, then write it up as a guide as a way to help people on a budget get into growing.
Lots of ifs, maybes and hopefullys, but it’s time to ramp things up. I ran dry again a few days back and it sucks. I’m tired of running dry.
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It’s almost annoying how good these plants are looking in terms of yield compared to my DWC grows.
Almost.
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Happy mistake.
It turns out my HBSS got pollinated by the LL§ x BBHP cup males, and I have at least 2 seeds:
Not sure if they’re viable, and I’m not sure how many are left in the flowers of the plant as it’s still drying.
I’ll give them a month or so to dry out, and then I’ll try and crack them. I’d love to get a male/female pair and get more seeds to experiment with, and see how the autoflower vs. photoperiod and the fem vs. regular traits express.
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give 'em the diamond test. Put it between your finger and thumb then squeeze it. If it implodes into an empty shell it’s not viable.
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Yeah did that, one down, one to go!
Weekly update time.
“That dumb stoner, he’s uploaded last week’s phtos”
I wish
Been fighting with pH issues in both the R1 and S systems (Round and Square respectively, so fancy) this week. The R1 system has had some attention and the plants look like they’re recovering.
All the girls suffered, some more than others, just like last week!
But man are the differences profound. I think some of this is specific plant related, and some of this is related to the size of the root system. I’ve noticed that larger root systems can handle the… stresses… of my gardening “style” better than smaller ones, because the larger GSC looks way better than the smaller GSC. Some of it has to be plant/genetic though, because I’ve noticed the GG just isn’t as hardy, as can be seen in the S system.
Below are the worst top of the GG:
Comapred to the worst top of the GSC:
The WW hasn’t skipped a beat the entire time. I’m definitely going to make sure I take a clone to keep as a micro mother if my new technique pans out.
“Oh PFF, I’m glad it looks like your issues in R1 are on the mend”
Again, I wish
But…
The plants seem fine, outside of pH. It doesn’t smell bad, it smells kind of like dirt to be honest. And no matter how much UC Roots I put in there, I can’t clear it. This is the second time it’s come back, the first time I did a res change.
My only saving grace is that I did put a bunch of beneficials into the last grow in this equipment, and that turned green too. I’m hoping these are bennies?
I’ll monitor the plants and keep smelling the rest and will report back.
Man, what a bummer.
Lets move on to happier things.
My ebb & flow experiment is coming along:
They also had pH issues but I spent time earlier nursing them and neglecting R1 until they were fixed. The Candy Kush seedling is doing well, the rest are clones. The GG clone has rooted and the other three were cloned on the weekend.
The coir mats are a recent addition, I was worried about roots exposed to light and artificially restricting their size. Lets see how that pans out.
The cabinet is faring better than the grow room:
I had to bend the Forum Stomper again:
The seeds are coming along, I’m not sure how much longer these are going to go for:
The White Widows, and all the plants in general look hungry so I upped my watering feed to Lucas 0.6 EC strength, and we’ll see how that goes.
Last but definitely not least, are my 3 experimental seedlings. They’re growing out just fine, albeit a bit slowly:
My notes are showing the seedlings are about 9 days old from being put in the hydroton from their sprouting cups.
looks like algae. You aren’t using black buckets which can be a problem. Light exposure to nutrient solution is usually fatal to the plant. Black that shit out.
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Yeah, that was next on my list of improvements. Black out all the containers.
How harmful will it be if I don’t do a full res change?
Also I have some peroxide coming in today so I can clear it out if I need to.
well, the rule is never allow light to fall on your nutrient solution or your plants will die. I’m sure someone somewhere will have plants struggling along while algae absorbs all resources. It will rob you of nutrients and oxygen as well as the light falling on the solution will destroy the nutrient straight up. I would concentrate on blacking out all light ASAP. Any solution will do as long as no light falls…umm on the solution sorry, I mean Just block the light in any way possible - it doesn’t matter how. Paint the buckets, use duct tape, put an opaque panel over the buckets. I would just toss out the crud with the algae it will just die and absorb more oxygen once you deprive it of light.
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Well, the HBSS is jarred up, got even less than I thought I would. A quick taste test gives it a nice fruity taste with hints of grape. It’s real smooth, smoother than the dispo black market I’m getting right now.
I’m gonna let this one actually cure, mostly because I know that if I dig in, it’ll be gone in days. No sense rushing it, I can smoke black market till the WW/Forum Stomper com in.
Edit: and I’m so stoned I forgot to mention that it has a nice heady fuzz that I like for an evening smoke, so far I’m really liking it. Haha.
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Operation Blackout has begun!
Heeding the advice of the esteemed members of this board I’m starting to black out any and everything that holds water. It’s a slow process, especially as I have plants living in these containers, but it’s ongoing.
I gave all the ladies in the round algae infested reservoir a haircut to remove their damaged leaves, mostly so I can track their recovery. I think things are looking up - their pH and EC levels have stayed relative stable in a good window, and the plants themselves are looking happier with new growth, though the GG is still worrying me a little, as it always does.
The White Widow is powering through whatever I throw at it.
Same thing over in the square res, gave them a haircut to track recovery. Again I think things are looking better, though I’m noticing some curling at the leaf tips. That could be pH or EC, but the pH is 6.2 and the EC is 1.4, which I bumped up because they were looking hungry on the lower feed.
I’ve been reading @JoeCrowe’s thread a lot since he’s posting a lot now (
thanks) and I really like his philosophy toward pH, so I’ve started adjusting down below 6.5 but then leaving it there once it gets there, instead of trying to push down to 5.8.
The Ebb & Flow experiment is on going. I rooted 3 clones in a week in this tub, which I think is pretty neat-o, so I’m going to keep going.
I might change up how I’m growing what will become small mothers, I’m thinking about potting them into 1-2L pots of straight coir, and removing the coir mat. What do you all think?
The flowering cab is flowering away, the Forum Stomper is fattening up nicely, while I’m struggling to feed the White Widows enough. I’m feeding them 0.6 EC Lucas every other day, which is a recent change from 0.3. I’ll up it again if they still look hungry next week.
The seed cup plants are throwing pistils again, which is good cause I’ll be able to track when she’s done, then go looking for mature seeds.
The roots-to-flower E&F container has been blacked out, and is running 0.6 EC Lucas on a 5 on / 55 off schedule. I think the Candy Kush in the back right is toast. The others seem happy enough.
In the bottom left you can see another replication of @JoeCrowe’s, his seed germination technique. Everything was going great till I decided that I was steaming the seedlings and opened it up. Cue everything drying out and nearly killing the best seedling. I remoistened everything and sealed it back up, I think I might be able to save 3 of the 6 in there, which is ok for my porpoises.
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excellent, I’m glad to see the progress in blacking things out. The cyanobacterium or blue-green algae…whatever that shit is, will definitely not be good for the plants. You’ll know you did it right when the pathogens stop growing. Light breaks down the nutrient in solution as well - probably costing $$$ in wasted product.
Heh heh yah you have to make sure the seedlings are at 90% humidity, or else they can shrivel up. I kept them sealed up in the jar until planting day. Well except I would open the jar and re-arrange the seeds so they could gain vertical height before planting. I sprayed the towel once with water, when the condensation stopped forming. I don’t usually lose seedlings, the danger is more in the root not touching the water, after it’s planted. Except, you can see how obsessive I am about that. LOL
I’m excited to see some relaxation of the ph control, modern nutrient formulations should have no problem with it because of chelation and ph buffering. I hope it’ll even out some of the wild ph swings below 5.5 that can be dangerous to the plants health. ph 6 is more middle of the road, I’m sure that’s why the nutrient I get tells you to hit 6, so you can never have a shift below 5.5… that’s more the zone I would grow blueberries in 4.5-5.5 then they are pumping. I put lots of coffee grounds on there, got a ph of 4.5!
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Yeah, I’ve observed myself that the plants tolerate out of range pH above 6 way better than below 5.5.
And yeah, the pH thing has stabilized things very nicely. I’ll typically dose nutes, then wait a day then dose pH. I think because my starting pH is always so high (7+ before oxygenation, higher after), I have to adjust down, but I’m finding for a 16 G reservoir, 4ml put it in the zone and it hasn’t moved since then.
I’m loving the feedback and it’s making my grow a lot more successful, so thanks to you and @Ginger_Rick and everyone else who’s given me advice so far, again.
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Hello.
A little after the last update, I noticed this:
She started dumping nutes back into the solution. Again. So I sat and pondered for a bit, then decided it’s been a while since I did a full res exchange, and I’d never flushed the system before. Is it possible that the water at this point was getting so saline that the plant refused to uptake nutrients? So over the weekend I drained the res, flushed it and drained again, then refilled it. Starting EC was 0.5, which is 0.1 higher than out of the tap but I didn’t think that was a big deal. I pHed it down to 5.9 (not trying to push it, that’s just where it landed), 1.3 total EC.
Today:
I’m at a loss here. The plant never seems to keep the nice green new growth, almost as if I was under feeding it. I’ve tried low pH, high pH, lower EC, higher EC. I’ve tried hard water nutes and regular nutes, regular GH program and Lucas Formula.
The only variables left I can think of are oxygenation, water quality and reservoir temperatures. I can solve the oxygenation when I get a good chunk of time, and plan to add more air to the reservoirs within the week. I can’t realistically do anything about the temperatures until the end of the year as a Christmas gift to myself. The water quality thing is something I might incorporate into a larger upgrade of the system, but that’s going to require planning and designing.
Anyway, onto some more good news:
Still getting mixed signals from this reservoir as well. This one is infested with algae, that seems to be under control if not entirely gone at this point.
I’m so done with this room right now. As soon as the plants in the cabinet finish flowering, I’ll reconfigure it for my micro perpetual experiment and flip the entire room, partial capacity be damned. I need to at least do a tear down and a deep clean of everything, if not do the larger system upgrade at the same time. I guess it will depend on how full my jars are and how well the micro perpetual experiment is going.
Speaking of the cab and the micro perp experiment:
I moved most of the seedlings that were in the flower cab back into the veg room. I’m pretty sure this experiment is going to rely on clones and the mass they have to regrow enough bud sites to make it worth my while. You’ll also notice a few new seedlings that survived my disastrous germination experiment:
This one has no idea what’s going on, and is curling it’s taproot up on itself. I tried to stretch it out a little and give it some encouragement to go the right way down, but we’ll see how that takes.
This is that seedling that I thought was toast. It’s struggling to live. For reference it’s the same age and the same strain as the seedling second from the left in the group shot above.
The cabinet is flowering. I upped the feed on the plants and now the smaller White Widow and the seed cups are showing the beginnings of nute burn, which considering where they are in their lives, I’m ok with. Having said that some of the smaller leaves are still yellowing, which I think at this point is due to their age and them fattening up those buds:
They’re starting to get that classic WW frost:
The Forum Stomper is doing her final bulk and getting frosty too. She went in at the same time as the WW, which I think still have at least 3-4 weeks left, but I think she might be done a week sooner. I’ll start checking the trichs when the pistils have shriveled more.
Even the seed cups are getting in on the frost game:
The flowering clones (and lone @Mr.Sparkle auto, a Cookie Devil he kindly sent out) look hungry, but the GG clone has definitely started to flower. I upped their ebb time to see if that helps. They’re running at 0.6 EC, so next nute change they’ll go up to 0.9 EC as well.
This weekend I have 3 more clones that will hopefully root (although maybe not, another experiment ) , and if so they’ll go into the cab too. The timing will be off since I believe the first row here is 3 weeks old now, but I think I’ll get enough from what’s nearly done that I’ll be able to soak that gap up.
I’ll also be firing up the clone dome for a round of clones, I might replace the runty GSC and the GG in the algae res if I get some particularly strong clones.
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i never had much luck with seedlings or small/starting plants in LECA as its not very conducive to easy unobstructed root growth and i was always trying to balance between too wet or too dry.
Question though how high pH wise have you gone in your testing.
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I’m about to switch to coco in beer cups I think. In one of the shots you can see a trial run where I’m monitoring the moisture, and I’m liking what I’m seeing.
pH wise I’ve let it get as high as 6.7 - 6.8 after oxygenation.
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so the new growth on the DWC plants looks pretty good right now, are you saying in a couple days they turn shitty and get the dead growth tips? How long before things turn south and can you put your finger on a condition that happens at the same time? ph swings or ec funk or something? The ec just starts to climb? Roots get a funky smell?
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