Another run with Sannie's Killing Fields

Hi All,

Time to give it another try. (Running out is motivational…) Since there were a few issues last time, I thought I’d change things a bit.

I changed out the three 2.75 gallon wastebaskets for a couple of 4 gallon square buckets. Since two of the old buckets had problems with roots obstructing the drains last go round, i figured I’d try something from the Dutch bucket style, in addition to the more conventional Hempy drains from last time. I suspected that the standard Dutch bucket drain might act as a siphon, and it did. A vent hose was added to prevent that. By covering up the end of the vent hose, the bucket can be siphoned to within a half inch of the bottom. (Might come in handy for flushing.) Hopefully, between the two drains, at least one should work until the end.





Also taken from the Dutch bucket style is a 400 micron filter bag that should keep the perlite from getting out, as last time around, a couple of pieces of perlite jammed a check valve open in the drainage system. While it didn’t cause a problem, it could have.

This time, I decided that I’d spend a bit more time figuring out the nutrient math, so that when nutes get mixed, the ppms will be correct in the nute tank, the first time, without a lot of screwing around. I made up a 1/2 gallon batch of nutes using the Useless schedule and based on the ppms of that, I was able to make up a little spreadsheet to scale up my results and make life a little easier. So far, it’s been pretty accurate, but I still need to make up a chart for each week of the bloom schedule. Like this:



Away we go: This morning the girls got defoliated, and put into flower, after a 39 day veg. Hopefully, that bag of leaves that I pulled off won’t be missed.

 

Man that's a clean looking setup. What is the silver box mounted on the wall? Looks like cable tv...

 

Thanks, FF. That's a manifold to connect the feed hoses to. I had intended to have a second nute tank, but never got around to it. So half of the manifold sits unused.

I intended to use a feed hose on either side of each plant to spread the nutes around better, but found my pump was only able to run 3 hoses consistently. Back to one hose per bucket.

 

I’m seeing a little bit of clawing on a few leaves and have backed the nutrients off from 1000 to 900 ppm. It seems that i’m adding quite a bit of extra nitrogen as a component of the Cal Mag. The Botanicare Cal-Mag + says it’s a 2-0-0 product, which has as much nitrogen in it as GH Flora Grow. The GH Calimagic is a 1-0-0., so I picked up some from the local hydro strore. It’s a bit different as it raises the ppms at almost double the rate of the Cal-Mag+. 4 ml into a gallon of water raises the ppms by about 500. I’ll give it a try at 2.5 ml/ gallon.

I’m trying real hard to be moderate with the nutes this time. The “feed it until I burn it, then feed it a little less” philosophy wasn’t working out.

Today was flush day and the first time I got to try out the modified drain for flushing (because I forgot to last flush.) It works amazingly well; flushing the 4 gallon bucket with 3 gallons of pH’d RO had the runoff at 40 ppm at the end of the flush. Since I can’t move the buckets around, this is going to be very useful. If it continues to work well, I’ll modify things a little more by putting it on the outside of the bucket next time, as it does take up a bit of space that the roots would enjoy.

 

Killing fields loves 600-750 ppm with the lucas formula. I have to keep my cbp which has kf in it at around 600-650 or it goes all wonky.

 

What is cbp? 600-750 sounds way low or maybe I've just gotten used to feeding the hell out of them. In the past, they've always been eating above 1000, with 1400 as an upper limit... But that was with tap water @ 280 ppm. This RO thing (and the need to add CalMag) is taking some getting used to.

 

CBP is my cross of killing fields and blue chocolate, my purple strain (crystal blue persuasion). And your tap water is higher than mine, mine is at around 225 ppm and i have to use the hardwater micro or stuff goes all sideways if I don't. As a result I only have to use a very small amount of epsom salts for the first two weeks of flower, if any at all.

 

That sounds like a tasty combination.

I was vegging at 700 ppm at pH 5.8 and the drain water was consistently about 6.5 pH and 500 ppm. So I raised the nutes to 800 ppm and had about 5.8 pH and 800 ppm draining out. I thought that it meant the plant was taking up the nutes at the right amount.

This got me to thinking about the need to have the pH drift over a small range. It sounds like it's better to have a low nutrient level and allow the plant to raise the pH as it drinks.

 

Week 2 starts today. Plants have been getting nutes at 840 ppm for the last half of the transition week. There's a bit less growth compared to the last grow, but it's tough to pin down the exact cause. 2 plants vs. 3, defoliation, less nutes or all three. Too much experimenting all at once.

Looks like a bit too much light in the center of the garden, but I'm not sure. Might need to take a flash pic with the light off and see if the plants actually look like that. Last grow, I learned that HPS custom white balance plants don't look exactly the same as proper flash photo plants.







This was the extent of the defoliation. Probably a little less than Mr. G does. It looked more impressive before it dried out.


Inlet filtration is a good thing. So is changing the filter once in a while. Oops.

 

OldSmokey, they look pretty good to me man. I set my PH at 5.6 and it will rise slowly to 6.0 by the next water change.

 

That is a gorgeous setup. I really like it! It looks like the grow op they are putting in the space station...

[Edited to delete comment that revealed the depth of my stupidity]

 

Thanks, guys.

I've been testing the runoff a lot. They're getting watered 3x a day. It's going in at 840 ppm and coming out between 350-400. The pH is 5.8 in and 6 out. Still don't know what to make of those numbers, but at least I'm watching them.

Next batch of nutes shall be 950 ppm. In the past, I'd be up to 1250. Moderation is the new word. Hope it doesn't totally kill the yield.

 

real nice man!

 

Much obliged, guys.

I tucked some of the taller shoots last night and this morning, and have decided that it should be the last routine tuck. 23 days of stretching lie ahead, but I'm a little afraid of having the shoots laying down when the flowers start to emerge. Should be seeing some small flowers by next weekend.

 

Thanks, Nippie. She stretches maybe 4x in 30 days.

 

That's a lot of stretch. How do you move the fans up or do ya?

Those four fans could swivel out and you'd have a drone cab. Fly and grow!

 

The fans are clipped onto wooden brackets, with big magnets keeping the brackets on a steel strip. They can be moved until something else gets in the way, like those outlets. The outlets should have been mounted below the screen.

 

Week 3 has started. No real flowers yet. They seem happy at 800 ppm.