Coco/Perlite Hempy Buckets and Jacks 15-12-26

Dream Machine

May 25, 2016
- has some light bleaching at the tops from when it was in the Mars tent. This is the only plant that suffered a little under 1000w actual draw (mars and Mars II lights). I later moved it into the Amare tent and the bleaching went away. see the next post for photos of same plant from a few days ago

 

Dream Machine - photos taken on June 5 , three days ago - so 12 days between these photos and the ones in the previous post

 

thanks!
yes its true, maybe search for jacks here on GC would turn up something, but i haven't looked.

there is another forum where this stuff has a lot of followers, i was searching over there and stumbled onto it. Its pretty well known stuff, just not on this forum.

its a top quality hydro nutrient. I will use it again next grow for certain. Its just so brain dead simple, especially if you use the meters (EC and PH meters)

and CHEAP

 

They are taking off... The Two Critical + are nearing the end. they are still swelling though, about 11 days into final flush. Its getting easy to find amber trichomes, though they are spread pretty thin still. . and there are a LOT less clear trichomes to be found. Certainly less than 5 days left.... perhaps a lot less.


I gotta say.... its REALLY nice not to have to be mixing nutrients now that everything is in final flush.


and hand watering gets old - glad its almost over. this grow has taken a long time.

 

thanks!, yes on most of the plants i have excellent stacking. I have six plants going and i estimate about 18- 20 zips. Happy with that, all six of these got stunted badly during a heat wave, so these results will be good. 2 of the plants look like about 2 ox each, pulling the average down.

that plant is under the amare 350-UVB. at first i was a little unimpressed with this light, i had a lot of stretch, but the light is performing very well in flower. I think the stretch wasnt due to the light, but perhaps crowding.

still is interesting, you see blades post all the time "watts doesn't grow weed, PAR does" ... anyone who says that hasn't compared 1000w of burple Mars lights to 350W of Amare. A LOT of light that is not quite the perfect spectrum (that cost me 500 dollars) can outgrow a 1000 dollar 350W Amare

trust me on that one. of course a better spectrum and more watts is even better, but at the prices the so called" great" lights cost, to takes longer to recoup the cost. not a problem for a business. but i only grow twice a year.

and i have discovered that smaller LED lights can be arranged to cover better than the larger lights. I have wall to wall bright light in the 1000w tent.

and the amare needs to be higher above the canopy to cover due to the design and layout of the COBs and the gap between them for the UVB tube. So i am adding 4 platinum p150s to the amare tent for the next grow, then the amare/platinum tent will draw about 750 watts


electricity is still cheap here these days, even with a lot of the subsidy having been removed, i pay about 75 dollars a month during this grow so adding the lights to the amare tent is affordable from that point of view

 

chopped the two critical + last night. Abundant amber on top bods, perhaps too much, but its sure good. the sample kicked me in the ass...

these plants look like they will yield about 8 oz or so dry. Happy with that, i keep the plants on the small side intentionally for ease of handing;

lower buds are perfect, almost no clear trichomes, carrying amounts of amber, all the way down to the popcorn - which is pretty nice popcorn. these were grown under the Amare 350UVB. I like this light, but for me to cover its advertised 3x3 feet of coverage, it has to be about 24 inches above the canopy. It did produce nice tight buds for the two Criticals and the Dream Machine under it.

I am adding some additional side lights for the next grow to bring actual draw to 750w in that tent

still waiting on the dream machine and the 3 remaining Zombie Kush. These are still packing on weight after a week in flush.

 

thanks.... this is an estimate but i don't think its far off.

not a record for me, but nice enough considering these were stunted for a month due to a heat wave.... i didn't feel like buying an air conditioner for that room. i just won't grow in the summer here any more.

the two criticals - i dropped the seeds around Jan 15!!!!! this grow has taken forever.

critical + is supposed to be a quick strain, i had to flower for 11 weeks - for a while a month ago it was too cool at night in the tents - when i added a heater things took off again

 

in february, both of the criticals got stunted during a heat wave

February IS in our summer, and they did NOT like the heat as seedlings

and neither did they like a 67 degree grow tent last month

 

I'd never grow critical again anyway. I only did it because it received two free fem seeds. ITs ok, i like it, but big bud crosses are kind of old school.....

and i am never growing in the summer again here. Too hot. Too humid. and I don't have AC where i need it

I do two grows a year, its easy to avoid the hot months, and these are the only problem months. I just blew it this time.

I started about a month too early. February was really hot. should have planted at the end of february, but couldn't since have travel plans, the harvest would have had to be too early.

its all ok. this grow is going to probably make a pound a square meter, and i like that. (two tents, 5 smallish plants each, two pounds total)

next grow starts third week of july. That one will finish before it gets so hot, which here is January/february... Stay tuned for that one, its going to be a 4 site PPK grow.

 

a PPK is a recirculating system, often using Turface as a growing medium. The creator is now using 80 percent perlite, 20% fibrous coco. Many people doing PPKS are using Jacks Hydro 15-12-26

each put has a tailpiece on it that serves two purposes. It functions as a passive wick (it extends from the bottom of the pot into a small reservoir under the pot, each bucket has its own reservoir. This tailpiece also lowered the perched water table so that roots will use more off the container, since the area under where the PWT WOULD be (without the tailpiece) is now properly drained and reoxegenated during feeding.

each reservoir is connected to a main reservoir. The buckets are fed from the top, drain into the buckets reservoir and back into the main reservoir.

feeds are on the order of every 90 minutes. growth rates are phenomenal apparently.

all of this is on another forum. if you google "PPK Cannabis" you should be able to find the threads.

 

Chopped 2 Critical + two nights ago.

Chopped Zombie #2 last night.

everything drying in my auto- drier setup

hang the plants in the tent, turn on the controllers, monitor two humidity displays, make minor tweaks to the controls for about 5 to 7 days. I don't have to open the tent except to refill my DIY humidifier.

there are two humidity/temperature controllers in the drying tent, Keeps the humidity between 57 and 61 percent - 24/7. No need to do anything but check the displays and make minor tweaks

one controller keeps the temp above 74 and the humidity above 57. The other controller turns on the exhaust fan (set to a very low speed) whenever the humidity is above 61%, drawing in are from the room which right now is 34%. this allows an small exchange of air as the humidity cycles form 57 to 61 about every 3 minutes.

there is a tubberware tub full of water with two microfiber towels hanging over the side. an inline fan blows on the towels 24x7. when the humidity gets low, air pumps come on in the tub, making even more humidity. Even with the air off, the towels and fan are sufficient to keep the humidity high.

The the upper humidity limit controller in the loop, the twoooels and fan are unable to raise the humidity above 61 percent, as soon as that happens, the exhaust fan looters the humidity

this system only works when ambient humidity is lower than 57 percent.

minor tweaks are required when the ambient humidity swings very far. This is because the exhaust fan is bringing air in from the room every three minutes or so, and it matters what humidity the air in the room is. I cant humidify the aire in the room, there in another tent in that room that is in flower.

i don't have am automatic solution for dyring when ambient humidity is HIGH. I'd need a dehumidifier for that and those are rare and expensive here in Buenos Aires. This hasn't been a problem so far - I've been lucky because i try not to have grows finish in the most humid months

this automatic system is seriously DIY and isn't too expensive. the two controllers are about 40 bucks each. the small space heater in the tent was 50. there is a circulating fan, a 20 dollar bathroom inline fan, an air pump and two are stones. ITs set up in a grow tent now, but when both tents are busy, it goes in my closet, though i can only dry about two or three plants at a time in there, my closets are tiny