Tonight I fed everyone their first dose of bloom nutes. Sensi bloom, voodoo juice, big bud, and some calmag 1500 PPM, pH 5.8 Some sacs starting to show on one, gonna pull in next few days, no signs of pistils yet. At least the girls will have a bit more room once I pull males... I also took two more clones, and put all of my dwc clones into rockwool. They all seem to be perked up which is good. Sprayed everything down with a heavy neem spray, this stuff smells awful lol Sent from my Spaceship using the GrassCity App.
That's what I've done... but strictly for monitoring. When I go on vacation, I have a long history of nute use data and can pretty much setup an additional res with a pump (going to the main res) on a timer to compensate for how much they're drinking daily. My arduino reads all configuration data remotely, so at some point I may add a variable for a daily supplemental res pump time that I can update while away. I did hempy buckets for a long time. I switched because: I never liked dealing with runoff after the plants got big, and because my roots often looked like they were on the verge of rot from sitting in stagnant nutrients. I think you really have to be careful to run them all the way full/all the way dry to get the most oxygen to the roots (which is hard to tell when you're dry without a sensor), and even then it doesn't seem like it can compare with a simple dwc bucket. The silence of no moving parts was nice, though To me, automation just lets me obsess more over everything normally (more data), but gives me peace of mind when away.
So far I haven't had any root rot problems. I pulled some males a few weeks ago. And roots were slightly brown from my nutes, but no slime or rot, and aside from the very slight brown they are like a pure white. I don't think I have to worry about rot since they drink a lot of water, and I have to water daily now. My solo cup get extremely light when I need to water, so its pretty easy to tell when they need a drink, I wait till its very dry and the plant just starts to show its thirsty.. I want to design it so I can just press a button on the app I develop and it waters for say 2 minutes. My runoff trays have a spot where I can put a return line on, and lead the runoff to another container so its not sitting there. I certainly do want to try a rdwc in the future, but I'm gonna have to see a major improvement on growth in order to give up my Hempy lol. I won't have space to do it in my LED cab unless I try a shallow water culture, but I'll try it with my HPS My main concern is running lots of pumps, I'm pushing the amount of amps on my circuit, I don't really want to have 5 pumps buzzing, as I'm trying to be stealth as possible. My bubble cloner was louder than my whole setup lol. No joke. The buzzing got annoying I just want peace of mind while I am away. The ability to view temps and other data, and perhaps a camera to check on them is priceless to me. The ability to water them away from my home would be a life saver too, as some days I work such long days, I won't even be home for lights on in my LED cab most of the time. I'll figure it out, I'm not in much of a hurry to spend money on this, I got some stuff laying around so I'll see what I can come up with Sent from my Spaceship using the GrassCity App.
Automated watering via an app sounds perfect, atm I can only really leave the house for two days at a time which is kind of annoying. I don't think there is a way to keep the pumps quiet except have them in their own sound proof box. I found suspending them from hooks like everything else helped a bit but you have enough water churning and there isn't much you can do about the noise, so back in the cupboard they went.
Yea if in run pumps they will be put into a soundproof box with foam to help the vibration. I had it quiet for about 3 hours, then it started rubbing against my cab, making the whole cab echo a vibration lololol. Back in the box they went too. I'll have to think of something to keep the splashing sound down also, it gets fairly questionable when you hear that in a silent room haha. Once I begin designing the app, I'll more than likely have it open source so everyone here on the city can use it if they want I haven't programmed in years so I'm gonna need a few big ass buds for inspiration haha Sent from my Spaceship using the GrassCity App.
I was thinking of having the res in it's own soundproof/insulated box too, for noise but also to try and keep the water temp down. It's a way off though, still tackling the fans atm lol. I'm sure you'll find plenty of happy testers on GC.
That's actually a good idea, more so just for sound for me lol, but it could help keep the res temp down a bit also good idea I'm sure I would have tons of interest haha, and possibly even help. I'll probably start working on it in the next few weeks, maybe have a prototype working by December/January if I'm motivated enough. I am heading that direction just not sure how far I'm jumping into it quite yet. I'm the go hard or go home type lol so I'll probably go a little overkill Sent from my Spaceship using the GrassCity App.
I think having the setup that will work flawlessly with it will be the hardest part, a drip system might be an easier starting point then full DWC? Dunno, it's all interesting to me though.
Yea, that's why I'm going with a drip setup first, see how it works with my hempys. I might eventually do a side by side of a Hempy and similar sized dwc just to see growth difference. I expect dwc to win but its a lot more work and more nutrients than I'd like to use. With my hempys I only waste 16 oz of solution between about 10 plants, I suspect with dwc when you change the whole res you'll be burning through the nutes. Doesn't sound very appealing to me. The drip setup would waste much less. And it would be pretty easy setting up what I'm after, dwc just seems like too much work for me. And more $ Its just another excuse to build more things really... I like to make things easier on myself so I can in turn do way more in less time. I have a funny feeling once I am perpetual I'm gonna lose my mind, its gonna be a lot to deal with without some sort of automation. I spent 4 hours yesterday cleaning all the cabs, mixing new nutes, defoliate and inspect each plant, fine tuned my cloner, took clones, then watered everyone. Watering took me the longest out of all of that because I have to pull each plant out, water over a container and let some drain out and put back in in such a way so they all fit lol. Now add trimming to the mix... On top of my job, school, flight school and hockey... My busiest time of the year for sure. haha good thing I'll have some weed Sent from my Spaceship using the GrassCity App.
My watering systems consists of mixing each individual plant in 2ltr bottles but let me tell ya it's days are numbered. In theory with DWC if your feeding is perfect then there shouldn't really be much nutrients left in the res when you change it, only water. Of course you will have to know your strain really well and have allot of dwc experience but I think you should be able to get to a point where you are wasting very little. DWC seems to need lower strengths compared to run to waste which is good too. Flight school? Fixed wing or rotary?
You mix nutes separately for each plant? Yikes, that would take me forever lol. I know dwc needs less ppm in theory so I'd probably actually save, but it seems like a lot of work. I'm going to save my runoff whichever way I go anyways, and use it for my greenhouse. The cost of nutes isn't an issue lol, I just like to save where I can so I can buy more toys Yea bro I'm currently in classes for fixed wing to get my private and night time. May end up going commercial multi engine too, but for now I just want to buy a little Cessna or Piper and fly around the mountains My flight school is awesome. State of the art motion platform simulator you must master before any actual flights. It inspired me so much I'm building a two seat version about 1/4 the size lol. Its great to learn engine failure, stall procedures, landing in crosswinds ect. I want that stuff drilled into me so its naturally going to come to me 'just in case' Got to help fly a learjet for about a 45 minute trip about 4 years ago, a family friend has a pretty solid job and it got me hooked to flying. I didn't actually get to do much, just call off checklists, and got to set the ap to descend about 3000' lol. Still was an awesome life changing experience just spending time in the cockpit. Now that I'm only about 20 solo hours away from graduating I might get get a chance to go up with him again next summer. He flies the same plane, and is very very rarely in town for more than a day or two so its hard to catch up, I guess pilots get worked pretty hard. Hahaha. Alright I gotta stop before I write a novel about how much I love flying... Can't wait till my motion platform is done so I can smoke a few bowls and cruise in the sim lol Sent from my Spaceship using the GrassCity App.
I get that. When I was running hempys I automated it with a liquid sensor at the bottom and just below the drain hole. When the bottom sensor showed dry, it just turned on the pump until the top one read as wet. Still, it didn't produce as well as DWC (but it was plenty decent), and at harvest the roots still looked questionable sometimes. To me, it seems like hempys trade off efficiency for simplicity: If you have to wait for the res to be dry, then there is a period of time where the plant is not absorbing as much nutes as it could (especially if you wait for visual cues that the plant is thirsty). With a DWC, it has a constant all-you-can-eat buffet of nutes and oxygen at the ready. Also I kept going more and more micro... and with automated hempys, you need a separate res compared to a all-in-one DWC, so that was a space-plus to only have 1 container. Oh, and buying perlite over and over again was not fun (I was not about to try sterilizing it for reuse). As far as nute waste, you don't have to dump the res... with a ppm meter or even just replenishing with slightly more than full-strength nutes, you'll be fine. Not trying to talk you out of your hempys.. I'm all for simplicity, and had perfectly fine results from hempys... just talking about the tradeoffs I considered I hear you... the simpler the system the less weak links in the chain, so to speak. The main downside to DWC for me was starting plants in them... before the roots hit the res you're either hand watering or raising the water level into the grow media or just crossing your fingers. I switched to airlift (1 air pump lifts water to the top of your grow media wherever you want it and oxygenates it at the same time) and am now trying out just starting from seed directly in the bucket and it's going well so far.
That's awesome mate, I've always wanted to fly (more helicopters) but never had the time or money to have a real go. One day maybe. Flying a Learjet would be pretty amazing, I love the sound of turbines at full noise. Building your own sim is pretty cool, good way to learn and would be pretty funny trying it half baked coasting around lol.
Man helis scare the crap out of me, I've been in one a few times, and I hate it every time haha. It would be very cool being the one flying it though, probably way better than sitting in the back. It scares me more than when a Cessna hits an air pocket and suddenly just drops 30' I'm building mine on the cheap, its about $10 000 to get a Private Licence here which sucks, so its been taking me a while. Im paying by the session which really helps keep costs more manageable. I'm hoping my sim will cost about 1/3 of my licencing, the most expensive part isn't even the motion platform, but all the switches and joysticks, rudder pedals ect. It's like $200 each for each instrument, so I'm gonna try to build my own radio stacks and stuff to keep it down. FSX is awesome even without a motion platform, its actually extremely realistic if your PC can handle 3rd party scenery. I mastered that sim and going into the real thing was so easy, obviously a bit different but very close to the real thing for sure Sent from my Spaceship using the GrassCity App.
Those tradeoffs are the same reason why I am looking at doing dwc. I know the limiting factors with hempys, I just wanted something simple for my first grow and harvest so I was guaranteed smoke by new years lol. Seen too many people hop right into dwc with no grow experience and have so many issues, just wanted to get to know da erb first, Mon. Lol If I can keep the amp pull down with a few pumps then I will be trying it out very soon. I want to attempt pretty much everything. Including true HPA Sent from my Spaceship using the GrassCity App.
Good plan. HPA would be crazy! I'd definitely sub to your thread if you try it, but I think I'd always be a spectator... I don't think I could invest that heavily in a system that couldn't handle short power outages
I think if I get that involved I will be utilizing a motorcycle or car battery as a backup just in case power goes out. I have a small generator too that I use for jobsites, but have it just in case power ever goes out at home Once I build my dream home power shortages won't be an issue. I'll be completely off grid. Hopefully in 5 years from now that will become a reality lol, for now I can just dream... Sent from my Spaceship using the GrassCity App.