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

yes the problem is that all the really great PPK threads, the creator of the PPK deleted all his pictures. still there is plenty on that site to get an understanding if you search for PPK on that site

try googling for "mini PPK cannabis.".

the interesting thing about the PPK is the tailpiece, not how its fed. it can be hand fed (passive PPK) or on a recirculating reservoir per plant, or a central recirculating res feeling multiple PPK sites

the tailpiece is simply a tube fastened to the center of your plants pot extending into a small reservoir under the pot. I am going to use 3" toilet flanges and 3" PVC water pipe. The end of the tailpiece is covered with wire mesh. The tailpiece is filled with the same growing medium as whats in the pot.

so its a long tubular wick. this helps if you are doing recirculating PPKs and the power goes out. It also drains the pot back into the site reservoir and it lowers the PWT to below the bottom of the pot.

IN a central reservoir PPK system , each site reservoir is connected to a central reservoir,, the sites drain by gravity back to the central res. the central res and the sit reservoirs all sit at the same water level. the central res has one pump connected to a manifold to feed the sites from the top. High porosity medium is used, these pots drain almost immediately, they are generally fed every 90 minutes, providing great growth rates - perhaps because of all the oxygen being supplied to the root zone. Turface or Perlite/coco (80-20 - 20% coco) is often used as a medium.

the Mini PPKs are stand alone, no plumbing to a central reservoir. each plant has a small pump, and sits over a small reservoir. I cant fit a res and 4 PPKs in 1 meter square tent so I will either do 3 PPKs and the central res or 4 mini PPKs. cant have the reservoir UNDER the plants because its at the same level as the water in the PPK satellite reservoirs. besides it would give up too much vertical with a res UNDER the plants in the same tent

The plants get so big that three will easily fill a meter square tent and managing a central res is less work than managing 4 individual reservoirs. I need to have the res in the tent - don't want plumbing running outside the tent .

the most confusing thing i discovered when trying to piece together the PPK info is this - generally in a recirculating PPK system there is an addition res that is used for doing add backs and reservoir replacements. It sits above the main res. and feeds the main res through a float valve in a small plastic box sitting in the main res. this box has a small hole in it to allow this add back res to flow VERY slowly from the box into the main res. during a PPK feed cycle so much water flows out of the res, that the add back res would fill the reservoir too rapidly. Once the pots drain after a feed cycle, the reservoir would likely overflow, because the add back res has already refilled the reservoir. So the add back flow rate is restricted using this float valve/box system.

i going to skip the add back reservoir. Once you omit it, its not a complicated active hydro setup, 1 res, some flex tubing to connect the drains to the main res. some more tubing to connect pump manifold to feed lines, 1 pump, and an aquarium heater, The res won't need chilling, one of the great things about the PPK system,

 

The nice thing about using controllers to automate the drying is that there is really no guesswork.

I usually dry to about 58%. that takes about 6 days depending on bud density, stem thickness. I don't use the "stem snapping" system to determine when its dry enough, I can tell by feeling the bud... I have found that if the stems ( unless we are talking about really small stems) are snapping its already a bit dry for the way i do things.

I always use Boveda packs, so as long as the humidity of the jarred product is close the packs can will getting the weed to 62%. If i have jarred early, I know it because i use chinese digital hygrometers - 1 per jar. IF the humidity is too high for the boveda pack to get it to 62%, i burp the jars over the span of a couple days. Ifs the humidity is low, say below 58, I use a couple boveda packs. Usually everything is stabilized no more than a week after jarring. usually just a couple of days.

the best thing is using controllers, all i am doing is making sure there is no bud rot developing, and refilling my DIY humidifier in the dry tent

 

Nice


today i jarred the two Critical +, and Zombie Kush #2. Met my goals on these three!

i always estimate high low and medium yield after i trim a plant. When I hit the mid point = the goal. When I jar and hit the goal i am happy! got 8 oz, which is what i expected. not huge, but acceptable. The last three plants are a LOT larger....

so far, 19 oz for this grow, from 7 smallish plants

 

thanks, but I am doing PPK next grow. I hate hand watering. and i want the phenomenal growth rates. Doing a recirculating system is the PERFECT solution for me


and i didn't learn much this grow, i did it the way that I have developed over the years, nothing new was discovered except how a couple of new (to me) strains grow in hempies with heavy LST and jacks.

and the biggest consideration isn't even the hand watering - its the DAILY watering. I cant get away much during a grow. With a PPK system Ill be able to take off for a weekend easily.

AND since its 80-20 perlite-coco, i won't be using much coco. Cant get the in Argentina. Have to hand carry from the USA. Sure you can reuse it but that isn't the point. The less i buy from from the big grow companies the better.

as fir water leaks, I bought two kiddie pools to line the bottom of the tents.... metal frames, flexible liners, 1 meter square - not the most robust kiddie pool, i would prefer rigid and a meter square but could not find one. For the occasional disaster these will be perfect.

AND although I may make the same amount of juice for them, i won't be doing that every day

decided to go with three PPK sites in a one meter square tent. Just one tent for flower for the first grow, starting mid july.

 

do you chill your water when you hand water? What would happen if you hand watered coco-perlite DTW every 90 minutes - well, for one thing you'd get phenomenal growth rates, but you'd be unlikely to see root rot.

PPK, same. its like hand watering. except a pump does it.

the water doesn't SIT at the bottom the bucket. It drains into the site reservoir. AND the system gets oxygenated every 90 minutes so there is no need for air stones in the reservoirs (main or site) either.

after a pulse feed, the bucket is drained for 90 minutes thru the tailpiece into the site reservoir, and then another ten second (or so) pulse feed comes in the top of the bucket , it drains again ( in about 30 seconds).... so the root rot doesn't start. IN DWC, the roots are in water 100% of the time, so the res needs to be chilled.

its no different than hand watering coco every 90 minutes, except for the the fact that it recirculates and you have to manage reservoir PH and PPM, though most PPK growers that (depending on your tap water) are able to ignore the PH completely.

this one thing is what sealed the deal for me to go from passive hydro in coco-perlite hempy buckets to Top Feed Recirculating. . it gets HOT here, our climate is like Savannah Georgia's - other automated systems wouldn't work , except for ebb and flow. But the PPK's have a wick that both lowers the PWT and provides moisture , so prevents disaster if your timer or pump fails. PPKs were originally hand watered, so the tailpiece being a wick was handy, it kept the medium from drying out too much between watering - and this was in turface (calcined clay - floor sweep) so it dried out FAST. Adding a pump and a main res, and feed and drain lines made the whole thing even better.

I didn't want ebb and flow, I wanted that tailpiece. When you empty a normal or Hempy bucket, I can usually see a zone where there are basically no roots because the PWT kept it from being drained.

I didn't want a res chiller chugging away, i have enough noise in that room with all this fans running as it is. I have neighbors both upstairs and downstairs from that bedroom

then i discovered the PPK system, Ill do a thread for it

I am already collecting the parts to make the system, and i go to the USA in early July and get more stuff for it that is unavailable here.

 

no, i haven't

but i have heard it works well.

 

I should say I prefer jacks two part since I can tweak the N and not effect P or K by using lower or higher amounts of calcinit . After 4 weeks of flowering I am not using any and the mix is at a nice blend to carry thru flowering

 

You need a timer that can be set in seconds, minutes and repeats

A cycle timer. I'll be using one I found for about ten dollars on eBay

 

if you use boveda bags, once the hygrometer stabilizes, your humidity will be 62%. then just watch for relative changes. if it drops 4 percent, time for a new boveda pack. the actual humidity is not all that interesting. its the drop we are looking for

 

google for " McPPK PPK cannabis"