Tiny Grow, MrSparkle inspired

[firehead]

MrSparkle, yeah… I saw that you ran your irrigation as straight-tubes, and I’m thinking about that now.

But, currently, my software only handles events on 1 minute intervals. Which means the shortest amount of time it can do on/off for is 1 minute. That would probably be too much water through a straight pipe. Currently, 2-minutes of gentle-drip ON brings it from 20% to 28-30% moisture. Which is almost perfect!

But the adjustable drip valves just seem a bit wonky. Hard to get the flow the same on each one… so, the control pot may end up at 30%, but it’s neighbor may end up at 60%.
I’m almost thinking that’s why #4 is such a runt. I think it is always too wet and the plant is suffering overwatering.

I’m going to look into a proper scheduler daemon, that can do seconds-accurate events, and maybe then I can just straight-pipe it

[firehead]

News for today.
#3 turned out to be female!
#4 still tiny, and sex unknown.

So, #3 female was chosen as the seed bearer, because she was very healthy looking, but also more compact than the other females. And I like the idea of super small plants.
So #3 and #2 were moved to their own tent to make seeds.

The remaining 4 are as shown:

[Ginger_Rick]

@firehead

my software only handles events on 1 minute intervals. Which means the shortest amount of time it can do on/off for is 1 minute

Hey man, if you love the joy of rolling your own code then you do you, but you’ve got a pi already so there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Save yourself a shit ton of work and get yourself absolute best in class automation out of the hardware you already have. For free. Install Mycodo, you’ll thank me later.

https://kizniche.github.io/Mycodo/

https://kylegabriel.com/projects/2020/06/automated-hydroponic-system-build.html

[BudSy]

@firehead

Hard to get the flow the same on each one…

Hi Firehead, it is hard to get the flow right using drippers if you have low pressure. Using the controller to adjust feed times is the way to go.

Great little setup. You cant go wrong using designs from @Mr.Sparkle

[firehead]

The runt plant, #4, showed its sex today.
Sadly it was a male.
So it was sent to the big compost pile in the sky.
The king is dead. Long live the king.

[firehead]

Today’s update:
Corrected reservoir ph. One had crept up to 6.2. Knocked it back to 5.9

The boost in calmag seems to have corrected the discoloring in the leaves. But I’m watching them closely to make sure I didn’t go too high with the nitrogen.

Size-wise:
#1 is the tallest, at 11” high.
#5 is about .5” behind
#6 is only a little over 7” tall.

Don’t know how much more they are going to grow, as they’ve remained about the same for the last 2-3 days.

[firehead]

Today’s updates:
Plants are doing well. Boy, was I wrong about them not growing any more! #1 grew 5” in last 3 days! Other 2 grew a lot also. But #1 is crazy.

#6 above, is my favorite though. Just because of how tiny and bush it is.

Stem-rubs… they all smell about the same. But #1 has a bit of lemon smell, where the other 2 do not

[GramTorino]

Stopped by to see what kind of fun you are having.
Also drawn to the coco like a fungus gnat.

I ran the GH trio for some time. Also had my share of Mg and Ca issues.
So I had to get to know my coco. More than I wanted, but it helps.

Hopefully not TMI. On your feed. Here’s a ppm view of the major elements. (based on my input and calculations, I can make mistakes)

For comparison
Breakdowns of the good ol’ Lucas/H3ad recipes.

Your earlier grow pics looked like Mg def - you are taking care of that with the calmagplus, but…
For me, Ca higher than K was not good.
I would be comfortable with 6. Respectfully, ever my intention to preach or criticize, just help with info and experiences.

[firehead]

Oh! This is some GREAT info!
Where did you get those spreadsheets? Create them from scratch, or download from the web?
Do you just plug in the values and it calculates the ppm and percentages?

This seems like the way I should be tracking things!

[GramTorino]

Here’s something to get you started.

https://bit.ly/35A8p6V

You just change the numbers at the top - and gallonage.
It’s an unprotected spreadsheet so any cell can be changed - intentionally or accidentally.
It’s in some libreoffice .ods format, but excel should open it. Maybe some formatting or column width/height issues. Lemme know.

[firehead]

Thank you!!!

[firehead]

Update.
The number 2 male turned out to be like bamboo. Which is not the kind of offspring in this auto that I’m looking for. Consistently short is what I’d prefer.
You can see him in the purple picture below. So I cut him down. Some of his pollen sacs had burst. So there is a chance the female is a little seeded.

Looking back, I should have kept the tiny runt number 4 as the dad.

Anyway. I gave the female a dunk and a wash to remove (hopefully) any pollen that was on her… and I put her back in with the other girls.

Is this risky? Yeah. I know. Some of the other gals could sprout some seeds.
We shall see.

Anyway, there are now 4 girls all back in the tiny tent.

[firehead]

Today’s update:
So far, all is going well. Only minor issue, is the two tall plants in the back are very close to the light. Within 8” (as shown in pic) which is closer than I’ve run plants before. Usually I keep them 12-16” away.
They don’t seem to be minding… but keeping an eye on them for signs of stress or burn.

I gotta say. I’m loving the coco/hydro setup. Plants seem healthier than many other grows I’ve done before. No weird issues with ph and nutrient deficiency. Plus, with the auto irrigation… it really is a piece of cake!

[Mr.Sparkle]

That’s what flopping is for, pinch and crush the stem decently just above say your 3rd or 4th node from the top or where ever that lower canopy level is and fold over the top to lay down in an area where there is little or no other shoots, they will be back vertical in a day or so, but at a greatly reduced height, bonus is the rest of the canopy fills out.

Like just above the end of that white extension cord would be a good level

[pufferfishfiend]

I too am a fan of the flop:

Plants don’t even skip a beat.

[firehead]

This weeks update.

Plant #5 did need to get flopped. I wanted to let them all run with no topping, training, or interference… just to see what they would do. But she just kept stretching and was almost touching the light.
These plants all have hollow stems, and don’t seem super strong. It took almost no pressure for her to pinch and fall completely over
I was worried she was damaged. But 2 days later, she was angling up the the light again.

The #3 plant does have a few seeds growing, from its short time in the tent with the male. Maybe 10 or 12 visible seeds.

Overall, they are super healthy!
I’m loving the coco/hydro setup. No health problems at all. Hoping for a great harvest in a few weeks

[firehead]

Today’s update.
The ppm in the reservoir climbed from 750ppm up to 900ppm this week. So, seems plants are absorbing water but not much nutrients.
I topped tank off with only water, and that dropped the ppm to 600.
Will keep monitoring. May soon need to switch to a weak bloom-only mix to start removing most of the nitrogen from the mix.

[firehead]

Update.
Good news, and a little bad.
I was out of town for a couple days. Checked on the girls today.

GOOD:
Plant #1 (photos below) is a little further along than the others (she’s been consistently a leader) and her buds are really starting to frost up and fatten up.

Plant #5 that got flopped is again reaching for the stars. She’s just a monster.

BAD:
Plants are all very dark green and glossy, and look like they’ve gotten way too much nitrogen in the last week. A few of the lower leaves showing some brown dead spots.
It’s not super severe. Not yet anyway. But I don’t want this lovely smelling harvest ruined by the nitrogen.

I gave them all a heavy flush and changed the reservoir.
They are now getting only 320ppm, and it’s almost all from the FloraBloom. No nitrogen additives at all.

I’m guessing they have 3 weeks left. So hopefully they will normalize and return to optimal health.
Fingers crossed.

[Mr.Sparkle]

they have more than 3 weeks left id say your only at the half way point, also them having nitrogen up to finish isn’t a bad thing no sense staving them if they are still growing, sure too much can be an issue but typically they will shutdown and stop consuming near the end anyways, so id just be watching with a keen eye at the moment at how they progress.

[firehead]

Update.
Days from sprout: 45

Well. I knew moving plant #3 from the tent with the male, back in with the other girls was risky… even after giving her a dunk and wash.

Yup. All the other plants also ended up with some seeds. Not heavily seeded, but there’s at least 5-10 swollen seed pods on each. Mostly down low on the plants, where the fans were pointed.
Most of the other upper pods show no signs of seed development.
It’s cool though. Just means I’ll have plenty of extra seeds to run this strain again, and share a few.

Smell:
The smell has intensified in last couple days. There’s a very strong sweet blueberry scent to these flowers, but also a garlic smell just beneath the berry. I haven’t come across this garlic smell before in other strains I’ve grown.
Normally, I prefer earthy, spicy scents over sweet ones. But that weird garlic smell is really cool and I’m excited to see how it matures.