T5s are great for keeping the stretching down, as long as they are kept close. I do like them myself. If youre growing in soil then ph and EC meters aren't a necessity (or at least to the degree that they are in hydro). You can read the manufacturers recommendation and use 50% strength on every watering (once they start needing nutrients) and you will likely have it in the right ballpark. I do use an EC meter for soil but I also understand the figures from using it with hydro, most soil growers don't use an EC meter. I don't check ph in soil, but I already know that my soil/nutrients/tap water combination is in the rough area. You will unlikely need a ph meter with soil but it's handy to have just in case I guess. I would only use a digital meter. If you use one that involves colour charts then you will always fine that the colours never really match up properly. If the meter says 6.4, then you know it's 6.4, easy
GOtcha man. Ive been reading up on nutes, and its got me thinking im going to change my choice from a 2 part flora Nova to the 3 part Flora Micro/bloom/grow for better control of the nutrients. Think that's a better choice or should I just stick with the simple 2 parter? EDIT: This is my theory, Id use the FLORA NOVA GROW for VEG, then for flower I use the FLORA MICRO and FLORA BLOOM, slowly tapering off the MICRO to decrease the nitrogen. Sound decent? Read that its better to taper off nitrogen when flowering. -Also been reading about potassium overloading with coco and nutes. I was thinking about looking for something with a lower potassium amount, maybe even coco specific nutes. -Going with one active air fan and one can fan, trying to save some money with the active air, and was told they are decent, just as good as some of the name brand fans. -What do you think would be a good training technique for a starter to try out? I have topped before on my first time, but I wasn't serious then. I want to get a decent amount of bud sites, but don't really wanna chance killing or maiming my plants too badly, what do you recommend would be good for me to try?
I think each bottle of the 3 part nutrients are supposed to all be used all the time. Just different ratios for veg and flower. You are better off using the manufacturer's recommendation on ratios because they will have done the research, they know their products better than anyone. I prefer single bottle nutrients, that way you can't get the ratio wrong, and its less work. If you're growing in coco, then definitely get coco specific nutrients. I use growth technology's ionic bloom (hydro version) for vegging and flowering. One bottle from hatch to harvest. I never get nutrient problems. I use this in my hydro grows, and my soil grows. I have never tried that brand of fan, but if you see a few people say they are good, they probably are. ScrOG is probably the most idiot proof training method. It takes a little bit of work to set up, but then it's relatively labour free. You just keep pushing the growing tips under the screen. Keeping all growth underneath the screen allows all the shoots to even out and fill the area. Then when you switch to flower you allow all the growing tips to come up through the screen at the same time creating a thick and even canopy that wastes no light. A great way to grow a large plant in a small area leading to large yields .
Ive been looking into the lucas technique, and i cant find any negatives associated with it, so i think that's what ill go with. Itll keep the costs down as well. haven't decided on using the floranova bloom/cslmag or the flora micro/bloom/calmag combo. Whats a good pH for coco watering? Read the soil is supposed to be around 7, but im using coco, so not sure if the same principal applies. ------------------- ---------------- -Also, I have a theoretical situation i need some help with. I haven't tested my water yet, but im guessing its going to be hard, probably at 250ppm. Lets say its at 250ppm and 7pH. I am getting pH down to adjust the pH level, but what can i do about the ppm problem? ------- ------- Scrog might be an option, but im not sure how well it will work in a tent, edspecially a small one
The problem with the lucas formula is that's it's still guessing. Plants will take up what nutrients they want and leave what they don't want so if you get the ratio wrong, you won't know about it unless you test the nutrient solution before and after a plant has been using it. Manufacturers do this to dial in their ratios, so they stand a far better chance of getting them right. Plants also take up a nutrient solution of a particular strength. It's best to match that strength so you get osmotic balance, that way the plant will be able to take up the solution at maximum speed. I'm not sure what the best ph is for coco. I keep mine between 5 - 7 in hydro and soil, so it will probably fall in to the same area. 250ppm is pretty borderline in my opinion. At 250ppm it's certainly usable, but it may be worth buying some RO or distilled water and mixing it with your tap water 50/50 for the first couple of weeks because seedlings prefer low ppm water. If it's 300+ it will be worth buying a reverse osmosis filter. What makes you suspect it's so high? ScrOG is perfect for small tents
I see what youre saying, but just because its not the manufacturer recommended stuff doesn't mean that it doesn't work correctly. In theory, the mix has all the essentials for good growth, generally. I really want to save some money on nutes now, but I know its not the place to skimp. I also have my cal mag and silica ratios to think about and I have no idea when to use those. I kind of want to get both flora nova parts and just try the lucas formula out, if it doesn't work ill just go to the regular regimen. --------- --------- -So all SCrog is just pulling the different branches through eah part? I thought it involved training, such as tying down or whatever to make it more beneficial in terms of yield to space ratio. At the very least im going to top a few plants to see how they react. ------- ------- -What size pots would you recommend? For right now, I purchased mostly 3 gallon pots, with 1 gallon parts for starters, a few 5 gallon pots, and like 3-7 gallon pots for mother down the line. I want to get a smaller tent for a mother and a separate light system and shit so I can start taking clones and not have to buy seeds anymore. Eventually producing my own feminized seeds as well. I was reading a lot of people bitching about RO water, that its hard to use, because it takes a lot of minerals out of the water that you need, and it ens up being harder to control and such. -------------- ------------ Im kind of confused on the idea of a reservoir, I mean I know it holds the water, but why would you have the nute solution already mixed in there? Wouldn't it make more sense to mix as you take out for each watering? ---------------- ------------ Would you recommend getting a flood tray and sticking the plants in that? Or just using saucers under each individual plant. I was going to get a flood tray and a table for it to sit on, but I think that would lose a lot of vertical growing room. So at the very least I think a flood table would be handy to have.
I'm not saying your own ratio will definitely be incorrect, I'm saying that the manufacturer's ratio is correct, so why bother risking it when there is no gain. The best way to save money is to not skimp on things like nutrients, and get a better harvest because of it. It's the yield that gives you the biggest saving. Where I live just 1 gram would cost me £10 to buy. £10 would buy me enough nutrients to grow 800 grams . Yeah there's no tying when it comes to ScrOG, the screen does all that. You keep all growth under the screen while vegging. You do have to push the growing shoots back under the screen every day, but it's easy and doesn't take long. Once you switch to 12/12 you let the plant do it's thing. . Yeah those pot sizes sound fine. The bigger the plants, the bigger the pot needs to be so it's hard to recommend the size of the pot unless I know the size of the plants. . RO water works perfectly fine, but you do need to add some calcium and magnesium back in to it. I recommend raising the ppm to 100 with calcium and magnesium before adding you main nutrients. Many people say RO water is unnecessary and this is true for a lot of people. It all depends on your tap water. Some people's tap water is terrible, so it's a way to correct a problem if there is one. There are a lot of people using RO filters unnecessarily in my opinion. . I'm not sure what you're saying about the nutrient reservoir. Are you growing in soil or hydro? You don't need a nutrient reservoir with soil. Although having water sit out for a couple of days is good practice if you're using live soil. . I don't really understand the flood table question. Why would you have it on a table? Wouldn't it make more sense to have it on the floor? When I grow in soil pots I just put some plastic sheeting down on the floor.
Sorry for the late response, but I wanted to wait until my stuff got here to post again. -Well, first off, I tested my tap water,.. and its worse than I thought. It tested at 320ppm... My EC meter has a couple different setting when it comes to measuring tds so im hoping I used the right one, but two of them were about the same so im thinking I got it right when I used the 442 setting. --Because of that, I think RO water is going to be necessary for me, and ill follow the 100ppm advice definitely, like I said im growing in coco so its kind of necessary anyways but still good practice. -------------------------- -For Nutrients, I just said fuckit and purchased the whole Nova set as well as the Flora set so ill be good for a couple grows, im hoping that they woll last me a while, I bought the 1g bottles, but im thinking im onlky going to go through 10gal of water a week with the full sized plants. --------------------------- -Thanks for the clarification on the SCrog, but I think ill at least want to top my plants a few times to increase yield. ---------------------------- -As far as exhaust goes, I am going to have my carbon filter hooked up with a fan, and my light hooked up with a fan both on separate ducting. But what im thinking about doing, and is kind of my only option at this point, is im going to have both ducting meet up, and hook up into one duct line and have that go into the attic where there are a couple fans pulling air outside. Sound plausible and good? If not, I need to come up with something else.
If you scrog correctly topping isnt nrcessary. Topping slows a plant down as it heals from the stress of removing 1 bud site so 2 can grow bigger. When you scrog you bend the plant over and all 3 bud sites will grow larger, the plant won't be stressed and slow down. Sent from my XT1028 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
oh ok. Ill look up scroging more so I can visually confirm what im thinking is the necessary way of bending. ------Also, im having a problem with my carbon filter. For some reason, when its hung up it keeps pulling the cross bars together that's its hung from, closing up the hole where the ducting is going to go. Anyone got a idea to remedy the situation? I will post pics if needed. I was going to hang from one bar but it seems like it was bending pretty badly with it on two bars already. only a 20lb carbon filter.
This is a major design flaw in tents, they all seem to have this problem. I don't know what other people do, but when I set up my first tent I tied a line of paracord from the front bar to the first cross bar, and then from that cross bar to the next, and that one to the back bar. I did this on the right-hand side, left-hand side and the middle. This stopped the bars sliding around. I also cable tied the joints of the cross bars. Then after a while I came up with a much better idea and used this ever since. I use a 2" steel wire mesh panel and cable tie it thoroughly to all of the ceiling bars. That way I can hang all my equipment exactly where I want it, tie up all my cables out of the way, hang my yo-yo supports, and it makes the tents more rigid and stable. They really should come with the tents
Great idea. About how much would you say that 2' wire mesh weighs? I want to use it, but my tent can only hold about 120lbs and im getting close already, plus the bars seem like they are bending a little too much for my liking, ------- Im not very experienced with HVAC or ducting work, as pretty obvious by now, but I need to know the correct way to go about this without putting me or my family at risk. -Since I am running one ducting for the hood, and one for the filter, both 6", I want to exhaust them through the same place. What I did was buy a wye branch that has an 8" outlet. I plan on exhausting these up into my attic and outside. But to do this, I will need to cut a hole in my ceiling. MY PROBLEM: I am not sure how to connect the wye branch up into the roof and make it airtight so I can then have the 8" outlet up in the attic and then exhaust through that Ive looked at starting collars and such but obviously that's not the answer because Im not using sheet metal, the roof Is drywall.
I don't really know, they don't weight much at all, I guess each 2'x3' panel weighs probably about 400g and I have 2 per tent. The weight of the panel and everything that is hooked on it is evenly distributed all over the top bars so the weight is less of an issue. having 2 ducts go in to one is generally not a great idea if it can be helped because your two fans will be pushing against each other to a degree. It will work if it's your only option, but I'd side with 2 separate ducts if you can do it. I'm not sure what you mean when you're talking about your roof. I would probably run the duct in to the attic and let the air find it's own way out. But if you want to run it out through the roof you will need a purposely made roof vent. To go up through the ceiling I would fit a flange to the ceiling and use a sealant to make it airtight, and then fit the ducting to the flange with a hose clip. A short length of straight rigid ducting can be fitting on the other side to stop any insulation falling in to or over the hole
I meant to say the "ceiling" is drywall, not the roof. Since I live in a warm climate, I will have to figure out another way to get the heat+smell out of the attic but I first need to figure this out. ------ How would the straight rigid ducting, or any ducting in the attic fit airtight to the hole in the ceiling? Because I'm going to want to run another duct line out a hole in the roof. Since the flange is one sided it will be pointed in the room to attach the ducting from the tent too, how will I make another airtight duct line on the other side of the hole, in the attic? --Is there any chance you could link me to a picture of the flange you would use? I want to make sure im looking at the right stuff. Horse clip too, not sure what that looks like.
I am saying fuckit, just running the ducting up through the roof, will have to add a fan on each ducting halfway to the output of the exhaust though to keep the CFM up. ---Got my seedlings, about 8/16 sprouted in 1 day, kind of a low ratio but hey I waited a couple months after I got the seeds, and most of them looked pretty immature, definitely wont be ordering from that bank again.... --What Distance should I keep my 4ft 4 tube HO t5? --Since I don't have my carbon filter running yet(blowing carbon when I did, anyone else have this problem?) and my Hood has the other fan, what do you think I should do to create replace air in the room, and that will help cool the t5?