Auto Night Queen & Blue Dream Auto

[Man'O'Green]

very cool set up. I should invest in a drip system like that. It's a budget issue for me at the moment but maybe in the future. sorry I'm late,
Looking forward to watching the rest of this grow.

Hi Hacker:

Not very expensive: EcoPlus Eco 264, $20, Timer Apollo 7 $17, Pressure compensating drip emitters 2 packs of Rain Bird SW05 - 10 packs $14, misc tubing $10. So about $60 dollars.

 

[LifeHacker589]

Ya that doesn't sound expensive until you see my bank balance haha. Na I could do that in the near future. Maybe for my next grow. I have a question though maybe you can answer. With the drip system, how do you avoid nutrient build up in your medium? Like, for my plants using a run to waste hydro system, I water my plants with nutes, then when they are ready for another watering in 3 or so days, I just give them plain 6.0pH RO water to flush out any nutrient salts that might build up before I give them more nutrients. Because I've had problems with that in the past. So how do you work that out with your reservoir? Do you just compensate with plain water periodically as the plant consumes the water so it doesn't concentrate the unused nuts? Because obviously plants use water faster than they will nutes. I thought about that and it sounds like it would work to keep ppm in the correct range and avoid nutrient build up. And honestly that sounds easier than watering my plants directly. Do I have the right idea there or can you walk me through your reservoir maintenance if I am wrong?

 

[Man'O'Green]

Hacker:

Read this whole thing carefully. I am sure you will have more questions.

You are on the right path. Here is the "Precision Watering Technique from GroDan"

Ok so after communicating with the west coast GroDan rep; there is a newer “Precision Watering” method recommended in my scenario that supersedes the previously published information. I am going to reiterate the information sent and discussed with me here and I will try to explain what it means to me in my 6 plant grow as well as some of the ideas behind the changes. You want to slowly water about 3% of the capacity of the rock wool block on each pump on cycle with enough cycles to accomplish a 10% to 20% of that total volume as run off by the end of the watering period that day.


Watering Formula


1 Gallon of Water = 231 in3

1 Hugo = 216 in3 (.94gal)

1 Ounce = 1.805 in3

1 Gallon = 128 oz.


Formula:

216 ÷ 231 = .94gal. x 128oz. = 120 x 3% = 3.6oz.


Whew….. Ok so let’s talk first about that small 3.6 oz. of water (nutrient mix) per cycle for the Hugo. I could not understand why such a small amount of water per cycle until in the course of our conversation the topic of “Water Channeling” came up. When you water in larger faster volumes the water develops “channels” through the block instead of permeating the entire block. Smaller slower more frequent watering provides a more desirable capillary action. This capillary action moistens and aerates the block more evenly which is the goal as opposed to just the areas close to the channels. It was like a light went on for me with this revelation. Using “X” number of water cycles per day to achieve a 10% to 20% run off of the total water applied in those cycles by the end of the day has to be accomplished by observation and measuring the run off. This small runoff is what is flushing any salt build up out of the block daily. The number of cycles in a period is going to change as the plants uptake changes and I think I have figured out a way to keep tabs on that in my system. More on that as the grow proceeds.

The “when” to water patterns has changed as well from previously prescribed regimes, it is now recommended for me in Veg. to start watering 2 – 4 hours after lights on until 4 – 2 hours prior to lights out. So this is a 12 to 14 hour watering window in veg. Listening to your plants is part of determining when to start and stop within these hourly ranges. Remember you need to achieve that 10% - 20% runoff of the total by the end of the watering time frame. Not watering during lights out is going to provide a very important “Dry Back Period” in the block which stimulates root growth and health.

In flower mode you water from ~4 hours after lights on until ~4 hours prior to lights out. Here we are talking about a 4 hour watering window in which to accomplish the runoff. Shrinking down the watering window places more stress on the plants to strive for “survival of the species with bigger better flowers hoping to get pollinated” at least that is the theory behind it. I think that this may set a very fine line between good stress and too much stress that can cause hermies in some strains. Consequently I may opt to be a bit conservative here.

When I am ready to transplant the A-Ok starter blocks into the Hugos, I will prepare the Hugos by following Grodan’s instructions soaking them in 5.5 PH water for 30 minutes then flushing to waste with ¼ strength nutrients PHed 5.5 to 6.0. Transplant, and then don’t water for 7 – 10 days in order to establish a good root system in the Hugo. Watering should start when the blocks are ~30% - 50% moisture content. Just picking them up is the test here they will be light yet should still have about 36oz to 60oz of water.

The “First drip watering”, It has been explained to me that runoff from this first drip watering will begin at around the 4th cycle which means I will have applied about 14.4oz per block and would be looking for 1.4oz. to 2.8oz runoff; If I don’t get that then I would want to add another cycle in which case I will have applied 17oz and looking for 1.7oz to 3.4oz and so on. Remember I have a big watering window and the plants will not be very large yet so I should be able to dial this in.

Now I don’t want to water again until the block is at that ~30% to 50% moisture content range again which may be a few days or more but now I will have a better idea on the number of cycles needed to get the proper runoff.

As the grow progresses I will just keep ramping up the number of water cycles to meet the plants demands and getting that 10% to 20% runoff as well as keeping within the other watering parameters above.

Now to make this happen I added pressure compensating .5 GPH drip emitters to what I already have and in a 5 minute time interval I accomplished the 3.6oz per block desired.

I know that right now that seems complicated but I think it will be easier once I get it going.

Another benefit to this precision watering method is an even more substantial savings on nutrients. I am pretty sure I can run this with <12 gallons of nutrient mix per week! It turns out I am using about 10 gallons equivalent per week.

That is what I did to start with but the runoff PPMs were getting over 2000 PPM in my opinion that is just too high so I just let the PPMs in my reservoir drop for three days as it was topped off from my top off tank (Just tap water that has been PHed). Then I brought the reservoir back to the PPMs for that week. Remember keep everything in balance. This is what I am doing now.

 

[Man'O'Green]

Based on what I think I learned in my last grow which was a Photoperiod grow, I have developed a feeding schedule for this Autos grow. The amounts in light grey are from H&Gs charts in ml/gallon. The dark numbers are 80% of H&Gs chart and the amounts I will be adding to 6.1 gallons. I am doing drain to waste. The amount of runoff per day is less than a quart. When I get to the point where I will be watering every day I will add nutrients to the reservoir every third day. This has the effect of starting at about 1200 PPMs in the reservoir, day 2 is ~ 900 PPMs and day 3 is ~ 700 PPMs because of the makeup water automatically added to the res via a float valve as it waters. Since the plants use more water out of the blocks than nutrients this has a tendency to raise the PPMs in the blocks. Only adding nutrients after every third day the reservoir nutrients in the blocks remain in the target range of about 950 PPMs. I use Mammoth P throughout the grow it just got cropped from the veg picture.

Veg.:

Flower:

Just a couple of comments on this: The PPMs are starting day 1 of the plant week at about 800 PPMs (not counting my starting water ~140 PPM) going over this with these strains started to tip burn. Day 2 is about 600 PPM and day 3 is about 400 PPM. Then I add back about 40% of the above chart numbers to bring it back to 800 PPMs. After 3 weeks I drain the reservoir refill with PHed water and let it run 1 day to do a kind of a mini flush. Then I resume the above schedule.

So far so good.

 

[pino0911]

Great write up lots of great info. The equations can get complicated it seems but once things are dialed it ur golden. How did u solve the ppm issue? Numbers over 2000 is crazy. Great thread and journal! Keep up the great work!!

 

[LifeHacker589]

Yes that first part with the equations might take me a minute to wrap my head around. Unfortunately I do not have time to focus on it tonight because I gotta crash soon. Bright and early to work at 6 am. But... I will be sure to revisit this later on and get a good grasp on it. I'm not one to spend money on something I don't have a decent understanding of, especially for these purposes. So I will for sure be studying this stuff extensively before I dive into it. Looking forward to discussing this more but for now, goodnight 420m community. Hope everyone will smoke a fatty for me in my time of sobriety! Can't afford any green at the moment so I'm stuck waiting for my crop to finish....

 

[Man'O'Green]

Day 36 and 31: Time for the weekly update.

I had some contract work this week and I took my eye off the ball for a couple of days and guess what? The PH took a nose dive in the cubes all the way down to 4.4 so I had some Cal-Mag lock out. The Blue Dream in the right rear showed the most damage but they were all affected. I made the correction yesterday and they already look a little better. Hydro produces fantastic results but you must be relentless in steering it. I was supposed to make a deal with the BlueLab rep for a monitor with an alarm but that did not pan out. Perhaps I will buy one for the next run. I have some surprise USA West Coast seeds coming but I don't want to talk about them until I have them in hand. I am on Flower week 2 of the nutrient chart.

Other than the PH fiasco the girls are coming along:

Group photo:

BD, ANQ:

ANQ,:

Blueberry, BD: PS. The Zambeza Auto Blueberry is unbelievably tolerant of PH swings. It showed no signs of problems with that 4.4PH problem!

 

[pino0911]

Great update glad u caught it and diagnosed quick and effects were minimal! Thanks for documenting.

 

[Man'O'Green]

Great update glad u caught it and diagnosed quick and effects were minimal! Thanks for documenting.

I am all about the truth. I have some colossal failures out there; I also have some big winners!

I learn something from every attempt.

 

[pino0911]

Well put!! Great work!!

 

[LifeHacker589]

Day 36 and 31: Time for the weekly update.

I had some contract work this week and I took my eye off the ball for a couple of days and guess what? The PH took a nose dive in the cubes all the way down to 4.4 so I had some Cal-Mag lock out. The Blue Dream in the right rear showed the most damage but they were all affected. I made the correction yesterday and they already look a little better. Hydro produces fantastic results but you must be relentless in steering it. I was supposed to make a deal with the BlueLab rep for a monitor with an alarm but that did not pan out. Perhaps I will buy one for the next run. I have some surprise USA West Coast seeds coming but I don't want to talk about them until I have them in hand. I am on Flower week 2 of the nutrient chart.

Other than the PH fiasco the girls are coming along:

Group photo:

BD, ANQ:

ANQ,:

Blueberry, BD: PS. The Zambeza Auto Blueberry is unbelievably tolerant of PH swings. It showed no signs of problems with that 4.4PH problem!

Glad you caught it fast! But, see this is the kind of thing that scares the heck out of me..... See I was planing on kicking mine into flower around the first week of November or beginning of the second week, which would put my cut time roughly around the end of December or early January.... problem is I have a big family vacation I have to go on the last week of December and I will be gone for 4 days.... I keep trying to reassure myself that if I make the necessary preparations that they will be fine when I get back.... but it still makes me super nervous....I have one person that I could pay to look after my plants while I am gone... but she is not experience in growing at all..... Like I will have to have this person come over for a growing 101 crash course and just hope she understands most of it in a day... I don't like the idea.

 

[Man'O'Green]

Glad you caught it fast! But, see this is the kind of thing that scares the heck out of me..... See I was planing on kicking mine into flower around the first week of November or beginning of the second week, which would put my cut time roughly around the end of December or early January.... problem is I have a big family vacation I have to go on the last week of December and I will be gone for 4 days.... I keep trying to reassure myself that if I make the necessary preparations that they will be fine when I get back.... but it still makes me super nervous....I have one person that I could pay to look after my plants while I am gone... but she is not experience in growing at all..... Like I will have to have this person come over for a growing 101 crash course and just hope she understands most of it in a day... I don't like the idea.

Anytime your are not there shit will happen - Murphy's Law.

A couple of things you can do: hold them in veg longer so you will be back when they are ready or flip them a little early and hope you can just run a flush for the 4 days you are gone and harvest when you return.

 

[LifeHacker589]

Anytime your are not there shit will happen - Murphy's Law.

A couple of things you can do: hold them in veg longer so you will be back when they are ready or flip them a little early and hope you can just run a flush for the 4 days you are gone and harvest when you return.

Yes I was thinking of similar options. I think I am going to aim for the flush to land right around then. I usually go about 3-4 days between watering anyway, so I think if I start the flush a before I leave and just give her a good drink of just water before I go she should be alright...... but nothing is ever for certain with these kinds of things....*fingers crossed*

 

[Man'O'Green]

Day 43 and 38: Time for the weekly update.

The girls are now on flower week 3 nutrients. For the most part they have recovered as much as I think they will from the low PH lock-out. The Blue Dream in the right rear took the biggest hit and the Blue Dream in the front left still looks a little peaked. Sometimes a stressor like that will improve the THC levels in the meds sometimes not. We will know after the harvest. I think I will take a yield hit although some plants look right on track. I took some flash photos to highlight the colas. It really shows them off. We still have 3 or more weeks to go so hopefully they will get much bigger.

Group photos:

BD front, ANQ rear:

ANQ front, BD rear:

Blueberry front, BD rear:

 

[Man'O'Green]

Day 50 and 45, Time for the weekly update:

Well the difference in phenotypes is evident in this week's update. The Dutch Passion Auto Night Queen is the most striking. They really do not look anything alike. Then the three Humboldt Seed Organization Blue Dream Auto has three different plants (one was really damaged by the low PH). One was damaged but seems to be overcoming it and the third is doing really well. The Zambeza Blueberry is without a doubt the best genetics in this grow. The breeders say I have 20 days to go but they will be done before then.

Group photo:

The Auto Night Queens:

The Blue Dreams:

The Blueberry:

 

[Man'O'Green]

Day 57 and 52, Time for the weekly update:

With the arrival of the Fall colors the harvest window is opening. The trichomes have moved from crystal to all milky. I personally prefer ~20% amber so I have a few days to go. The much cooler temperatures in the grow room now 69°F night to 75°F daytime will allow the colas to ripen slower than the summer grows. A problem I will have to deal with is the different strains and phenos will ripen at different times so the flush will need to be done by hand. I will take the drip cap off of a plant and hand water the AN Flawless Finish flush for three days prior to harvest. Yes Advanced Nutrients is a different brand; H&G does not make one and my research leads me to believe this may be a good product or I have fallen into the hype? It makes sense to me. The real test of course will be the smoke reports. Here are some pictures of the trichomes today:

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Here are the girls today:

Group Photo:

The Blue Dreams:

The Auto Night Queens:

The Blueberry:

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[Man'O'Green]

Day 64 and 59, Time for the weekly update:

The girls are on Flawless Finish since last night for a chop chop on Tuesday. They are right on the breeders schedule. I thought they were ahead of schedule but the much cooler temperatures this Fall slowed them down. The smell when I open the tent is amazing. I cannot differentiate the individual strains; it is a potpourri of goodness. Here are some pictures:

 

[pino0911]

Looks great even after the lil issues u had! Looks to b a potent heavy harvest. Great work!!

 

[LifeHacker589]

Just thought I'd pop in real quick and see your progress. Them nugs look solid man. Today is day 7 of flower for mine. she did not fill my whole grow space but that is okay she still bushed out very nicely and I am super excited. can't wait till my kolas look like that. great work on yours. they look wonderful. will check back next week. I am due for an update on mine as well. maybe this weekend when I have time. peace!

 

[Man'O'Green]

Chop chop. The buds seem tight and dense on all of the plants save one. The ANQ from the left rear is mostly a failure. I will be making rosin out of it. Weird little airy buds. I think this is the result of my PH problem in the middle of the grow but it may also have had a clogged drip emitter? I do not like the fact that I cannot see the water dripping with this drip system. I am revamping it for the next grow. I want to be able to see the water coming out of each drip line. Here are some pictures of the crop hanging out to dry: