Pure Michigan f3 (oreoz x mendo breath) and I96 (TG GG#4IBL x PM), On Top of the World Genetics out of Michigan.
Floated 6 of each, all grew. Discarded 4 along the way, ended up with 3 PM and 5 I96 females. I up potted them all as I actually have room to move them this time when I’m sure it’ll become necessary. Ran out of Unislabs so improvised by sinking some of the 4” blocks halfway into Hugos, hopefully that will give me enough overnight moisture reserve.
Day 34 total, D5 since flip. Jacks, Growlink, yada yada. Thanks for looking!
Pretty neat looking sensors. I gotta read some more about them it seems like an intriguing measurement technique usually applied to other sorts of applications.
Hugo is Grodan’s brand name for their 6x6x6” rockwool blocks. The pic you enlarged shows one of their UniSlab blocks, which is also just their brand name for a specific sized rockwool slab.
Those are part of the Growlink Precision Irrigation System (PIC). It’s basically a pressurized automated irrigation system that uses the probes to monitor water content and rockwool EC and develops irrigation strategies based upon how your plants are drying back each day. Almost all commercial facilities use some version of these, the technology is just now getting down to the home grower level.
It’s a neat system, I like it and I’ve developed enough trust to let it do its thing. But the basic cost of entry is about $700 for the system + one probe so it’s not for everyone.
Yeah, 3 probes now. I could completely automate 3 different tents if I had the room and if I ran irrigation lines to each tent. Not gonna happen for me, but I throw that out for anybody considering the system (like you @NoCal).
The basic Growlink PIC system will accommodate up to 4 probes and 4 valve controls, so you can establish 4 different watering zones.
Very cool! I’m down for the show, I actually enjoyed slab growing for a while it’s so simple, I was using old tech though as it was many moons ago, my buddy loves his growlinks. He tossed a crazy system in order to facilitate the growlinks and has not looked back
That green box on the bottom of my tray contains 4 electronic valves. Since I’m just the one tent, I like to set up different irrigation programs per strain. So this time, the two probes visible in the front of the tray are driving the Growlink Auto Pilot irrigation program. PM on left, I96 on right.
So I’m irrigating 3 PM’s using one probe, and irrigating 5 I96’s based on the second probe. You can set up to 4 independent irrigation programs per each PIC.
My 3rd probe, if I was running a 3rd strain, I’d set that up independently too. Since I’m only running 2 strains this time, I’ll use that probe as a “floater” to periodically check the behavior of the other plants that don’t have a full time probe. Just pull it out and move it to a new block, simple as that.
These plants have been on 3-2-1 at full strength since about a week old. I’ll keep that up through stretch and then try to figure out how to implement the new Jacks 0-12-26. I ran that towards the end of the last batch, but that was such a cluster F I can’t really draw any conclusions from that and the flowers are still hang drying.
I’m old, and it’s what I grew up on, old dogs new tricks, ya know?
I appreciate that I’m in total control of every plant, every day. Now that I’m retired and with my wife all the time, I grab on to every little bit of control I can .
Flip side of that level of daily control is that it also requires daily attention. That’s why I went fully automated, I’d never be able to go anywhere otherwise. With my setup and media size, I’ve got about a 36 hour window from healthy plants to dead plants if I don’t water them.
Biggest development I guess was 2 of the Pure Michigan’s turned out to be males. I was “pretty sure” they were F based on some stuff, but they proved me wrong again. All the remaining are showing pre flowers so we should be done with that.
Unfortunately, I’ve only got 1 PM left (back left). The other 5 plants are the I96’s. I’ll thin them out once they stop stretching.
Jacks 3-2-1 @ 2.1 EC. Growlink is doing the watering, about 7-8x per day right now. 80/72f, 55-60rh. 900-1000 ppfd. I’m moving the light up daily to maintain relative distance. Ambient co2 of 700-850 most of the time. Not going to screen them this time …
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Not in a traditional sense, but the drip-lock connectors I use can be disconnected and reused. I’m not anal at all about keeping the system sterile. It’ll bite me in the ass some day I’m sure.
Thank god for my trusty canary.
It’s below ground, furnace is running more now, 4 dogs and a beautiful wife that exhales a lot of co2 , and I’m running that hydroxyl generator for odor control which adds some. It all adds up but I always run way above what would be considered ambient. No complaints !
Haha I forgot you were in the basement… that’s pretty cool
For now I have to move my reservoir to fill it up (pain in the ass) and a pvc quick connect came up, just unhooking the locking fittings might be the way to keep it simple (lol).
Cool man, I’ll let ya run your log here and not clog it up too much… but how dare you have 4 dogs and not show them off in your own grow log. Shame.
Okay, back to business …. D17F. One last pic before I thin the bottoms out hard.
They seem to be enjoying things. They are about 3.5’ tall, stretched a bit more than I hoped but I still have about 2’ of headroom to play with so not worried this time around. I’ve never grown any cookies things or even GG#4, so I’m not real sure what to expect tbh.
I’m impressed. Not only by the strategy and the medium, but by the nute’s management too. Most of the time i see Jacks users with blueish plants and K patch in leaves, nothing here. Also I’ve always screwed my slab’s grow, even with coco, so respect in bonus.
I stripped most of the low stuff and thinned out the interiors and here’s what’s left. It’s always a little bittersweet to cut off 10 gallons of healthy, green plant material that I’ve worked so hard to grow.
From this point on I’ll keep the bottoms cleaned almost daily (pinch off new growth) and I’ll likely have clear out more leaves one more time in 3 weeks or so. Still feeding “veg” nutes, will give them a PK boost in next week or 2, then start pulling back the nitrogen until finish.
I ran out of Jacks 5-12-26, so for the last week or so they’ve been on a formula that @LD50 so graciously worked out for me that should approximate what I’ve been doing. It’s 3.8g 0-12-26, 3.0g calnit, and 1.2 epsom per gallon, I’m still feeding it at about 2.2EC.
The I96 front right is being a tent bully, probably 50% larger than anything else in tent. I’ve had to supercrop several branches. I normally SCROG my tent, but it can be such a pita sometimes I decided to go au natural (sort of) this time. It sure was nice to be able to pull them out of the tent to clean them up.
, they look beautiful and healthy, just intrigued: What’s Hugo and this? 
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, and I’m running that hydroxyl generator for odor control which adds some. It all adds up but I always run way above what would be considered ambient. No complaints !
. Thx for the feedback, always nice to hear, appreciate it.