Tripl3fastaction - Spring '23 BOG OG seeds + more

[Tripl3fastaction]

This will probably end up being as much a Growlink review thread as as grow thread, but hopefully it helps someone in the future.

I turned on the crop steering/automated irrigation yesterday. So far - so good, but I’ve got a long ways to go on that before I make any conclusions.

Lest anybody think this is a promotional product review, it’s not (My did I pay) but here’s the first thing I found that wasn’t fully disclosed and pisses me off -

The free app - there is absolutely no way to track when the system has triggered the irrigation valves. It’s advertised as “fully functional” and I guess that’s true, but I am not ready to blindly give control to this thing at this point. So, if I want to see when my valves have opened, I need to subscribe to the paid app. $5/mo + about $2.50 per probe. So $10+ for my small grow. It’s not the end of the world but I hate when companies try to keep their hands in my pocket. I understand it but I hate it.

So, for now, I’m locked into the subscription model. The web interface is nice and appears to take care of my complaints, but I just find that to be a most likely intentional omission and it irks me. Too soon to see what the future brings for me here.

On the plus side, support has been responsive, and they did extend my trial by 30 days since I just learned about this when I started irrigating. More to come, thanks

Here’s the sensor data from the web app. You can see when I turned the system on and you can see the irrigation events throughout the day. You can export the data to get irrigation volumes down to the ml.

One of my earlier complaints about not being able to hide unused modules is also addressed in the web app. Here’s my custom dashboard. The probes seem pretty consistent at this point, will be interesting to watch as the root system develops.

[Tripl3fastaction]

So here’s an update after the plants have been on the Growlink system for a week.

Observation #1, I put them in 4" blocks way too early before the root system was strong enough. I knew that at the time, but I had a new toy to play with and I was just too excited/anxious. So most of what’s going on is a result of that.

I normally hand water at this point and flush a lot of nutes through at least 1x day. That keeps my ph and EC in the blocks low. I’ve not done that here, and allowed the system to control watering. Since I’ve not had real consistent drybacks yet, the system isn’t watering much. So my ph and EC is rising, and some plants aren’t happy.

Today was the first morning I had 10% overnight dryback, so we are getting there. I know this isn’t a good system to manage the seedling/early veg phase, but dammit I spent the money so I wanted to try it. Going forward this will strictly be used for last week or 2 of veg then flowering.

So, in general, the plants are showing signs of overwatering, over fertilizing, and ph issues. Lovely, innit? The Sour Strawberry have been the least affected. The Frankensteins sorta in the middle, didnt like it early but are coming out of it. The Bogbubble are an enigma so far. 2 of them are kinda okay, and 2 of them are not happy at all.

The SS plants have been drying back more, so they are getting more frequent feedings. It’s a chicken/egg situation here for me right now, I’m not sure how to interpret that. I’m pretty confident next week’s pics will show they’ve all outgrown this, but that may be a bit cocky of me.

Typical Sour Strawberry

1 of 2 Frankenstein, both look about the same

I’ve got 4 Bogbubble in here, 2 of them look like this:

And then 2 of them look like this:

All plants have been fed out of the same reservoir, about 450ppm and 5.6ph. Thanks for looking.

Edit to add - I’m trying not to manually intervene in the Growlink programming, so I’m not going to do anything to “fix” these, short of making sure my reservoir #'s stay in check.

[Tripl3fastaction]

5 day update as I’ll be away for a few days . Day 23 since sprout.

I’ve let Growlink go on its own this week and things seem to be going alright. The system is bringing the blocks up to fully saturated over the course of about 4 very small waterings each morning, and then a final 5th watering when I begin the dry down period in late afternoon. I will need to stay on top of the programming for the time of the final feeding each day, as that drives overnight dryback.

Here’s the Sour Strawberry (x5) to the right and top. The 2 Frankies are at 1 o’clock and 5:30 from the valve box. The SS are all pretty healthy, gonna be squat plants no surprise. The Frankies have rebounded nicely and and telling me they are going to get tall. Is that right @GrouchyOldMan ?

The Bogbubble have continued their course. Couple look good, one not bad, and the runt I showed last time is growing out of it but is not going to last in here as im already heavy in plants

First time I’ve vegged in this tent, so still tweaking lighting, etc. Roots are filling out the 4x4 blocks, this is normally when I’d start making plans to put them onto Uni-slabs, but I’m still up in the air as to what I’m going to do. I may end up flowering these out in the smaller blocks, that should put the system to a test.

Guess that’s it, still at about 500ppm, 5.5ph, 18/6, 78f, 60%rh. Thx for looking.

Edit to add, it’s still real cold here so I’m using a 600w hps at the top of the tent. The 315cmh wasn’t keeping it warm enough and my thought process is if I’m going to be forced to run a heater I’d rather run a light.

[GrouchyOldMan]

@Tripl3fastaction

The Frankies have rebounded nicely and and telling me they are going to get tall. Is that right @GrouchyOldMan ?

Totally impressed with your grow @Tripl3fastaction! Your Growlink system is state of the art, elegant design and a clean build!

It looks like you sprouted the phenotype of Frankie’s Daughters that we are calling “Hilda.” In my experience the “Hilda” phenotype will easily hit 4-5 feet tall and about as wide on an indoors grow. Outside, “the sky’s the limit.” Hilda is a little fussy about pH and seems to want a bit of extra Mg.

I’ll look for some closeups when you get around to it.
-Grouchy
PS, Here’s a couple Hilda bud shots

[Tripl3fastaction]

Day 29 from sprout. Doing their thing, the SS (right side and 1 on top, 5 total) are growing out instead of up except 1 at the back, the BB (4 left side, runt is still in there …) are chugging along. The Frankie’s have suddenly become the most finicky, not really liking the shared feeding schedule. Not bad but a bit wispy, I hope GOM chimes in on those.

Getting about 12% dry back in my 6 hour night period, and the system is watering about 8x per daylight hours. 1.2 EC feed, and the EC in the blocks rises up to about 1.9 now during the driest night period then goes back to 1.2 during the wet daytime. Seems okay so I’m going to keep going.

I did wake up one morning to email notification that the Growlink system was offline. I had to reboot the board, which could’ve been an issue if I were offsite. The system doesn’t need internet to function, and it kept plugging along as programmed during the offline time. But if I were away and could no longer see what it was doing, I’d probably have a bit of anxiety. So gotta keep an eye on that.

Overall

SS

@GrouchyOldMan - tried to get a bit of structure detail on the closest Frankie

[GrouchyOldMan]

@Tripl3fastaction

@GrouchyOldMan - tried to get a bit of structure detail on the closest Frankie

I’m on call and reporting for opinionations™…

Yah know, Frankie’s Daughters have proven a little fussy, or at least particular about pH and the Ca/Mg balance. I’d start there and be very responsive to yellowing and brown spots. Adjust as needed and smooth sailing from there.

For pH I ended up in the range 5.8 - 6.2. Above or below that I adjusted in the reservoir. In addition to 2ml of CaliMagic per gallon, I added 1/4 tsp per gallon epsom to balance Ca/Mg. But that’s what was needed in my weird little micro octopuppy enviro. YMMV.

More importantly, that pic says to me that your plant is the “Hilda” phenotype, so prepare for some fun. Hilda is a Monster! lol

Cheers,
-Grouchy
PS, Have you checked out @BU2B’s Hilda plants in the Monster Mash thread? Get Thee Hither!

PPS, more pics pls…

[Tripl3fastaction]

Thanks for the addl info, will check the other thread!

You had said earlier that I’m potentially looking at 4’+ tall and 4’+wide. As you can see, that’s going to be an issue . The sour strawberry don’t look to have much more than 24”-30” in them, and I’m hoping I can train the Bogbubble to not much more than that.

These are the situations you run into when you sprout seeds by the seat of your pants. Anyway, not sure what my m/f ratio will ultimately be, but I’m struggling to think of a way to do the Frankenstein justice. Given she already has a bit of a finicky reputation, I doubt she’ll be happy with the compromises I’d force onto her. So I’m leaning hard to cutting the tops for clones, and once they root move these out and run the clones next round by themselves. So many positive reviews that I do want to finish them.

You birthed them, what do you think?

[GrouchyOldMan]

It’s your grow and you know best, make the call.

Regarding size, it depends on how long you veg. She’s about normal in stretch. Frankenstein vigor if you get her dialed.

If you do get a chance to grow Hilda out, the smoke is pure

[Tripl3fastaction]

Day 34 above ground. Getting there. The Frankenstein in front is not happy, @GrouchyOldMan gave me some tips for her but with a common reservoir it’s hard for me to keep up with individual needs. I did snip a clone …I probably need to up my ppm some as the bigger plants are giving up their lowers a bit. I’m at about 750 ppm of 1 part Megacrop now, and that’s higher than I normally go but with the new system I’m learning too …

Growlink is managing all fertigations, I think it did 12 shots to the Bogbubble yesterday. The Sour Strawberry’s on the right side are behaving perfectly, but I’m still hoping for some stretch.

Edit to add - pic was taken under combined light of a 600w mh and a 315w cmh. This must be what inspired the burple craze

[bigzach87]

Looks fantastic! I was able to find an older pack of Sour Strawberry recently, looking forward to popping it.

Happy growing!

[Tripl3fastaction]

Thanks. My seeds are F3’s that were freely shared in the OG community by @Mithridate. They seem remarkably consistent so far, out of 5 I’d say 4 of them are identical at this point. 5th one is 50% taller which is not a bad thing I don’t think. Not sure what’s a boy or girl yet.

Pop by when you get your growing and compare notes, would love to see how the f1s compare. Thanks!

[bigzach87]

Super cool stuff! I plan on popping a few SS my next round, will definitely post what I find :).

Currently wrapping up a few Grape Punch females, and selected a male from the pack to have fun with on a few girls.

Cheers! Will definitely continue to keep tabs on your updates!

[Nitt]

@Tripl3fastaction

The free app - there is absolutely no way to track when the system has triggered the irrigation valves. It’s advertised as “fully functional” and I guess that’s true, but I am not ready to blindly give control to this thing at this point. So, if I want to see when my valves have opened, I need to subscribe to the paid app. $5/mo + about $2.50 per probe. So $10+ for my small grow. It’s not the end of the world but I hate when companies try to keep their hands in my pocket. I understand it but I hate it.

So, for now, I’m locked into the subscription model. The web interface is nice and appears to take care of my complaints, but I just find that to be a most likely intentional omission and it irks me. Too soon to see what the future brings for me here.

So are you saying they only neutered the mobile app, and that there’s a (free) desktop/pc (or only a website interface??) with the features you want from the mobile app?

[Tripl3fastaction]

@Nitt

So are you saying they only neutered the mobile app, and that there’s a (free) desktop/pc (or only a website interface??) with the features you want from the mobile app?

There’s a free IOS or Android mobile app which allows 100% control of all functions and programming. But it offers limited graphing capability and no way to view valve triggers.

The desktop interface is paid only ($5/mo + $2.50 ea sensor). It gives you the ability to lay events out in graphical form on top of each other, including the valve trigger events. So you can graph fertigations on top of WC and see how EC reacts. The free app lets you graph all of that (excluding valve events) but on separate graphs. And you can only export the raw data from the paid web app.

So pretty typical free vs paid ratio. Everything I need is free, except that 1 thing I really really need, which is to see when my plants get watered. I could make inferences based on my WC increases, but that’s too much trust at this point.

This is paid web access only. The yellow lines are valve opening events. You can tell I changed something in the middle of the day.

[Tripl3fastaction]

My lack of planning is really dictating this grow, but I went ahead and flipped them in the 4” blocks. It’ll keep them smaller at least. Not mature enough to sex yet. I’m really trying to learn the system, so plants are pretty much untrained, except for the remaining Frankenstein which I topped. I did clone and bin the finicky one ….Growlink doing fine, but I did lose connectivity again in the middle of last night. It immediately connected once I reset the unit, so not sure.

Day 36, day 2 since flip

[Tripl3fastaction]

Plants are blowing up in stretch as expected. Overnight dry backs with the 4” blocks is going to be my Achilles heel as I progress. The system has given a couple shots at hour 11 of darkness, which I don’t like, but better than excessive dryback I suppose. I’m adjusting my final watering times to try to avoid this.

They tell me to run dry during stretch, so that’s what I’m doing, but I feel like I’m on the edge. Higher Feed EC than I normally run (1.7) but plants seem to be liking it. The blocks feel pretty much dry each morning and that’s with about a 32% water content. Once stretch is over I’ll try to keep them wetter but I’ll still have the same overnight issues. I guess that’s why I should’ve put them on slabs .

Day 39, 6 since flip.

[NoCal]

What a growth spurt, the canopy is looking nice and even.

Do you ever have blocks fall over as they approach that dry % or do the roots grip that grid enough?

[Tripl3fastaction]

They would/will fall at that moisture level in 4x4 blocks if I didn’t have them packed in there, once they get 16” or so. And no, roots don’t go into the grid, they pretty much air prune close to the bottom of the block. I pick the blocks up and move them as necessary …

Once I get them sexed and sorted I’ll have to put a net up. It’ll be too late to scrog so I’ll just use it for support. Depending on how many females show up I still may throw them on Uni-slabs. It’s late in the game, but that would also give me that moisture reserve I was complaining about. I just don’t want to waste the slabs on males and my very very early look/guesstimate is at least 3/4 of the BB are males.

[Tripl3fastaction]

The purge begins. Bogbubble #2 gets the axe. He has been one of the best looking all along, so kinda figured he would be a he. Not going to grow this one out, so he’s going.

[Tripl3fastaction]

Mother Nature is doing what she does best. The coming out party is underway. So far, all of the tall, most vigorous plants have shown male and have been removed. (3 of 9 stood out in this regard, 2 of the BB and 1SS).

It’s day 12 of 12/12 (corrected from above), day 43 total. Not seeing many female bits yet.