Hello... fairly new to the world of hydroponics and I just found out that keeping the ph at the desired levels needs a daily visit to your room.... of course I'm not planning a 2 weeks holiday while flowering but........ If this summer I want to leave my vegetative room alone and I'm away for 2 weeks, will my fully grown mothers take a messed up ph'd water for the time being?? I searched on the net and found some crazy ph testers/dosers that would solve the problem but cost a ridiculous amount of money..... How do you Hydro guys go on holiday without killing your mothers??? thanks
First of all you need to tell us what kind of system you are using? The bigger the reservoir you have the more time you can be away is kinda how it works. 2 weeks is pushin it though. 4-5 days maybe??? Im sure some other folks know more about this then me though...
If you grow the same strains with the same nutes without tweaking a whole lot you can get a baseline, keep a log daily what ph/ec are and when you tweaked things.. keep gathering data and you can predict what your plants will do and plan accordingly. For example if you know its going to rise .1 ph a day you can set it at 5.2 when u leave and when you get back 14 days later it should be at 6.6. It also helps you give simple instructions to anyone taking looking after them while there gone, (ie, add X amount of ph down every X days). of course the larger your nutrient tank the more stable your ph/ec values will be over time. You can also add supplements that act as buffers and help keep your levels stable longer. However with all this I still I plan on getting dosers and a ip camera before my next long trip..
my res at the highest capacity is 40 gallons, running with a drip irrigation system in the vegetative room..... still didn't try it at full capacity but I will... I still have 3 months to figure it out before leaving my mothers.... But I was thinking ..... since my mothers just need to survive.... wouldn't it be easyer if i transplanted them in soil? but then again ,,,,, what kind of buffers are you talking about? can you give me a specific name please??... And by the way I agree that the final solution is to get one of those dosers. bloody expensive but headache free..... ALL the best !!! thanks guys!
Ive had mothers live for months in 7 gallon buckets filled w/soil unattended under a few CFL's and an automated drip system running every other day.. burnt a few nodes that grew into the light but the mom was still alive and gave a ton of clones to get it back down to size.. If you have enough advance notice that you can plan your crops around it this would be one of the most reliable methods w/out a doubt. If your running a drip system on just a mom or two, use media that holds water well like grodan and low heat (fluorescent) so you only have to run once a day and I'd think a 40 gal could run 2 weeks stable no problems. This is a good read on buffering: Chemical Buffers in Hydroponics : What is the Best, Cheapest Buffer | Science in Hydroponics
nice article thanks....altough being a person who sometimes likes to travel the idea of having mothers in dirt and the rest hydro is growing on me..... I'll still meditate on it and let's see.... Thanks for sharing !!! BTW, nice built Bentripin... and the scar to remind you of your hard work (and clumsiness ) is the cherry on the cake.... All the best !!!!
while im not a big traveller (poor student) or an experienced grower (started first grow this year), provided you dont have a massive/perpetual grow, you can always just plan your holidays between grows.
Surely its a good plan to do all of the above mate... Take a new mother cutting off your current mum into soil, keep your original mum hydro but predict her PH... give a close friend the run down on checking your grow (plus write it all down for them on a nice big whiteboard in your grow room because your friend will probably do something wrong ;-) ) and lastly... give a fellow grower one of your cuttings... Ive managed to get out the house for 3 1/2 weeks before, and only one plant died! Ironically, it was because my two housemates decided to both do the watering, so I came back to some very soggy boggers! but apart from that, with a bit of planning and some well covered bases... you'll be fine!!! Where you thinking of going on holiday dude??? Any spare room in your suitcase ;-)
yep ur a slave to ur garden... were gonna try tissue culture, by the time we get back from Holiday we should have new little plants to start over with,
I have my plant in a 5gal bb and I just change the reservoir once a week (sometimes a little longer) and for the most part my plants look healthy
I'm assuming you're trying to preserve some strains/phenos? I would suggest also taking cuttings and rooting them in a soil-type medium... in case your hydro mothers don't survive, their soil-grown clones more likely will. Additionally in a low-light scenario they are less likely to dry out or otherwise destabilize before you return. Then once back, you can do what you need to make them into mothers, or snip some new mothers from them if you'd like them back in a hydro medium.
well some of use take a plane or drive our auto ah man tell me where they are and i might come and take care of them for you and that will be my vacation (holiday)
add a controller bucket and a large res.... might buy you a week if you know your system... i wouldn't go much longer than that
You're a slave to your garden if you rely on mothers. I did away with mothers (saves on energy & lights, nutrients and headaches). I use a propagation technique called micro propagation. My genetics grow in a sterile disease free environment that requires very little maintenance. I can cram a few dozen genetics under a single t-5 light and go away on vacation for 6 weeks or more with no problems at all. When it's time to grow again I use hormones to cause the genetics to multiply, once multiplied I root them and then I have dozens of little plants ready to go in a few weeks. In the little jar the plants get sugar (for energy), nutrients, hormones (rooting or multiplication), preservatives (to keep pathogens if any at bay), vitamins and agar to keep it firm. The second picture are all my genetics just chilling. Science is awesome! ~HD
that really is awesome, I am giving that a try sometime.. also sounds like a great way to discretely transport genetics long distances without having to create seeds. Thanks!
What??? I repent studying languages at school and not science... I guess I'm going to do some serious reading on the subject starting from now.... that sounds incredible to my ears..... if you have any suggested readings please feel free to give out as much info as you can.... Nice One
I know a fellow who freezes cuttings and tissues in a glycerin-base solution, then 'wakes them up' later on using the above mentioned technique. It's not as complicated as you'd think, just a step or two beyond your average cloning methods For more information: Introduction to Plant Tissue Culture
Does he use liquid nitrogen for his quick freeze? The freezing technique is standard operating procedures for saving tissue for long periods. It's how all the big labs do it. ~HD