You big Dicken dick23 ? Awesome light brother, and awesome lst work
Dick23rk's Fresh Start: Mantis Nutrients Featuring MedicGrow's New Spectrum X+ 880w Light Panel
- Thread starter dick23rk
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Now you're talking. That's a sweet light. Powerful. That thing is hitting the plants with 1033 par from that distance? Or it's putting OUT that much and the plants are getting hit with a lot less than that (that's what it looks like). Dig the controller. Does it give you spectrum control, like more reds for budding and what not? Dimmable? (Is that 51% in the corner mean you're running it at 51% power? NICE.
Your future looks bright, Dick! 
Rider509
Well-Known Member
Very nice! Now get those lights down closer to the plants and feed them some photons! Think bright sunny day on a south facing hill in Afghanistan or Thailand.
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- #185
Thanks Reave, it's not quite as nice as it seems but it sure does the trick. A few years went into this room.
big Dicken!Thanks man! It's pretty crazy compared to any light I've had before. O thought my air cooled hoods were the shit haha
Thanks Jon. I'd have to say that reading is what it's putting out, I don't think it's that high with the light not lowered. I looked for that par meter app you messaged me about but it's not available for android yet, seems like a good app though. I'll have to play around with a couple others to compare.
Yes the controller gives you some spectrum control, but not custom. There are 4 settings if you get the uv/ir bars. V1 and V1 + ir/uv, then F1 and F1 + uv/ir. I'll go over them later when I make a intro post about the light.
Yes also dimmable from 30-100%, I was at 51% in that picture.
Brighter than myself at leastYour future looks bright, Dick!
Thanks GDB
Thanks rider! They will be getting lowered sometime today. That was just a quick hang and test yesterday and to help get the plants used to the new light without frying them lol
I gotta do some organizing and resetting everything, likely take my HID hoods down for now too. Hope I can keep all 12 under that light, I'm not flowering them too big, one more up-pot and hitting flower early
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- #186
Ok, time to get into the garden for a while, get pictures, set things and clean up. I'll be back later with an update along with an introduction for the new grow light from MedicGrow. Hopefully get this all done in a few hours, then ontonthe outside garden to till and mix in some straw and poopsoil lol.
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- #187
Ok, so I'm in the garden and I notice that both of the big bangs in dwc are looking a little sad this morning, seemed ok last night, not this droopy. I haven't had a chance to test the ph and tds yet as I'll do that with the update. Both res are around 19c for temp. I do have some buildup in the buckets from the hydroton, that will get cleaned out before flower, but I don't think that's the issue. Roots are getting balled up and tangled in each other from the movement and bubbles in the buckets, a little staining from the hydroton dust. I have some UC ROOTS on the way to start adding to the res just in case of pathogens. What do you guys think? @KCCO 77 @Rider509
KCCO 77
Well-Known Member
Hey brother when did you top them? How old is the nutrient mix?Ok, so I'm in the garden and I notice that both of the big bangs in dwc are looking a little sad this morning, seemed ok last night, not this droopy. I haven't had a chance to test the ph and tds yet as I'll do that with the update. Both res are around 19c for temp. I do have some buildup in the buckets from the hydroton, that will get cleaned out before flower, but I don't think that's the issue. Roots are getting balled up and tangled in each other from the movement and bubbles in the buckets, a little staining from the hydroton dust. I have some UC ROOTS on the way to start adding to the res just in case of pathogens. What do you guys think? @KCCO 77 @Rider509
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- #189
Last top up was April 1st, planned to do another today when I feed the potted plants. Figured I'd ask about this first before I went ahead and did the top up. I should have tested the res right then, but easier when wife is there.
KCCO 77
Well-Known Member
You just changed lights? Plants could just be adjusting to the new led.
I have to go back and have a look at what your getting up to over here.
Rider509
Well-Known Member
If they just woke up they’ll be a little droopy and should perk up with lights on. The roots getting tangled is not a problem. They’re clean and white and look healthy. But wow, your humidity is so low it would make a cactus happy. Low humidity drives the VPD high and then the stomata close up and restrict the intake of CO2. Indica dominant types can handle lower humidity levels, sativas want lots of humidity, but 20% is desert dry.
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- #192
Yes just changed to the new light, and had thought about that as well, maybe just adjusting. Seemed fine last night and they had the light on from. About 4 til 11
Light has been on for about 7 hours now. Could still be adjusting like kcco thought.
The humidity... yeah I can't do a dam thing about that unless I completely seal my room and not run and air intakes, but then I have no fresh air exchange. My basement in the winter gets like this until it rains in the spring and warms up. It due to the natural gas furnace, super dry, and there no air exchange unit or humidifier in this old house.
Normal humidifiers, wick and fan humidifiers, warm steam.. just doesn't do the trick. Last option I figured would be to build a pond fogger with a computer fan and duct to blow onto the plants, but RO water is expensive going that route, tap water leaves a white film.
Rider509
Well-Known Member
You have a big room. Could you move the grow into a corner and create a smaller growspace? With additional plastic sheeting or the reflective covered styro sheets you could make an easier to control environment and bring the humidity up.
You can have the best nutes in the world and have your res dialed in perfectly and still not get max growth if your environment isn’t also dialed in.
Case in point... these seeds were germinated at the same time and have been eating the same nutes. The one I culled looked as good as the others but it had a wonky stem. It was left in the rooting system under conditions almost exactly like yours; 76F and 20%rH. When lights, temps, and humidity are all in the ideal zones it makes a huge difference in growth and health.
edit: it’s in the Solo cups only so I could transport it to the grow room.
You can have the best nutes in the world and have your res dialed in perfectly and still not get max growth if your environment isn’t also dialed in.
Case in point... these seeds were germinated at the same time and have been eating the same nutes. The one I culled looked as good as the others but it had a wonky stem. It was left in the rooting system under conditions almost exactly like yours; 76F and 20%rH. When lights, temps, and humidity are all in the ideal zones it makes a huge difference in growth and health.
edit: it’s in the Solo cups only so I could transport it to the grow room.
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- #194
I had thought of that, also had been thinking about getting a smaller veg tent for the corner, I think my buddy in town has a few.
I'd really like to have 2 of the 2x4 tents for my back wall. Too bad they don't make a 2x8 lol
I like my space to move around, thats why I took the divider wall down I used to have in the middle for veg and flower sides.
I do understand the fundamentals of proper environment in the grow room, just so friggin hard here in the winter months. I get that the small spaces are much easier to control, I need to do something about it eventually. Another month and I'll have 50 or 60% in there. Get a lot of rain and heat outside during flower and I'll need a dehumidifier in there as it could climb higher. I've slowly been trying to build things up and fix issues as I go, environment seems to be the worst to get though.
I'd really like to have 2 of the 2x4 tents for my back wall. Too bad they don't make a 2x8 lol
I like my space to move around, thats why I took the divider wall down I used to have in the middle for veg and flower sides.
I do understand the fundamentals of proper environment in the grow room, just so friggin hard here in the winter months. I get that the small spaces are much easier to control, I need to do something about it eventually. Another month and I'll have 50 or 60% in there. Get a lot of rain and heat outside during flower and I'll need a dehumidifier in there as it could climb higher. I've slowly been trying to build things up and fix issues as I go, environment seems to be the worst to get though.
KCCO 77
Well-Known Member
Hey brother I hope all is good.
@Rider509 is on point with the environment.
I too know about the low RH and deal with the 4 season swing over here as well.
I keep my RH in range by drawing cool moist air from around my sump pump in to my flower room.
My summer setup draws air in from a chimney outside.
It can be hard as the seasons change but all we can do is try to adapt.
It's an evolving process, Dick.
Still, what I would give for your grow space!
It looks like it would make it possible for me to do what I want to do, which is to take a shower and then water my plants butt naked! Spider mites are haunting me.
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- #197
Yeah, I may get something figured out for the next winter season. As for right now, I'll just have to wait til we get some moisture. My sump holes are bone dry too, I could fill it with water and it would be gone in minutes lol farmers here are crossing their fingers for moisture its so dry right now. Burn bans on already.
It sure is my friend. And every day is a new journey.It's an evolving process, Dick.
Still, what I would give for your grow space!
It looks like it would make it possible for me to do what I want to do, which is to take a shower and then water my plants butt naked! Spider mites are haunting me.
As for journeying around naked in the basement watering plants, I'd have to make sure the kids were in bed first
Rider509
Well-Known Member
What part of the country are you in that it’s so dry? I know dry! I’m in the inland desert of Washington state. The west side of the state is wet and the state tree is the evergreen. The state tree for the southeast side of the state is the tumbleweed.
Edit: ummmm, what’s a sump hole?
Yup. That was my guess.
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- #200
I'm in southeast Saskatchewan. It's 11pm right now and weather network says it's 36% outside. Then add a gas furnace running in the basement all winter.
We have tumbleweeds too haha and next to no trees, this is the prairies, farm capital of Canada lol
A sump hole is a hole in your basement foundation that leads to bare ground, filled with gravel sometimes. And you put a sump pump in there with a float. When the water table rises, it comes in that hole, and the pump sends it outside or into the sewer. This is so your basement doesn't Crack, flood and fall apart.
Was my guess too, but I think I may have found something else.
So we went out this evening for dinner, got back late just before lights out. Big Bang in bucket #2 seemed to look worse than this afternoon, so I got to digging. I took readings, all seemed ok.
Bucket 1 - 5.63 / 787 / 18
Bucket 2 - 5.67 / 624 / 17.9
Seems right, considering I added calmag to only Bucket 1 the other day. So I topped them up anyways since it was about time to get some more buffing agents back into the mix anyway. Added calmag first to about 120ppm, then 5ml of nutrients per liter. Used about 1.5 gallons between both buckets, got up to just under the net pots. Mix going in was 5.58 at 627ppm.
I then got looking around the net pots and the hydroton for any signs of something and bam, I can see bright shiny white down by the base of the plant. New root growth had been starting up near the top of the clay balls and I believe that even with my poly covers on, there was still lots of light hitting the base of the plant.
I immediately grabbed my bag of hydroton, went to the tub and rinsed it well, then rinsed again with some RO water. Went back down and topped them net pots up right to the top and got lots of small ones in around the base to cover them new roots.
I'm really hoping this was the problem and I don't have some other strange issue. I kept thinking oxygen, but that can't be it. So we will see how it looks in the morning.
And I will have that update and introduction too tomorrow morning. Spent too much time in the outside garden today and cleaning up the yard before the rain/snow coming.