ElDoctore's Self Watering Coco - Candy Kush AF - Pineapple Chunk PP - VIVA Sativa PP

E

ElDoctore

Well-Known Member
Hi there.
So i have tried growing once in the past, results are great.
Now i am going for my second run a year later. As always the law enforcement doesn't make our lives easier, but you do what you got to do to survive.

I am posting to get a general feedback and any advise from people with more knowledge.
The run down!

I am currently on my 14th day.
I am growing 2 autoflowers "candy kush" in 3 gallon fabric pots "40%/60%" perlite/coco
1 photoperiod pineapple chunk and 1 viva sativa

The coco was pre conditioned by me till the ph and TDS run out was the same as the inflow "5.8 & 90"
I am growing it in a 4x4x7 tent.

There is a carbon filter with a 500cfm fan connected to it "currently switched off"

There are 2x 6" fans attached to each side of the tent to keep a nice breeze going.

2 inflow fans at the bottom 1x4" which is currently on to keep a nice supply of oxygen flowing in, and the 6inch fan which is currently switched off.

Temperature in the box fluctuates between 21 and 27, while humity between 60-70%

The lighting system, I have a 450W viparspectra in the center, as you can see its supplimented by CFL's, currently there is 8 x 27 watts, 2 x 32 watts and 24xW LED. They will increase in time. on a 20/4 lighting schedule.
IMG_130745.JPG

"Note the mother off puff the magic dragon in the top left corner watching over our babies"

I made a nifty little irrigation system, waste to drain. I prepare the nutes in a 20 litre bucket, which is connected to the pump. The pump then is switched on and the plants get 1 gallon of water each every third day. The run off is then sucked by another pump from all 4 plants to a wastage bucket which is then emptied.
Fucking turn on the electricity and watch ur babies be fed and cleaned off within minutes while u are blazing looking at it.
IMG_130836.JPG

I had to use bricks to prop up the pvc piping, it could look prettier, but cost cutting.

As for preparing the nutes.
You can see my prep, the bucket has an air pump built in it which oxygenates it as i prepare the mixture.
32055.jpg

Dont know if it makes a difference
I use all general hydroponics nutes as it is shown on their website. I have added a picture here
22558.jpg


I usually have a look at the water runout of the previous watering, see the PH and TDS, and then in the next watering adjust my pH between 5.6-5.9 with my main run off target being 5.8. My watering TDS is usually much higher then what is expected by the schedule, i.e second week says 400-700, i get 1000 and i just dilute it with water to get 650-700

Now for the questions:-
- Lighting, keep as it is? change? scheduling?
- Oxygenating mixture while prepping the mix?
- The drainage system? looking good? changes?
- The nute schedule?

One thing i was thinking of doing, is a recirculating DTW system, in which the run off is sent back to a 10 gallon reservoir. I will adjust the PH and TDS of the resevior ever 3 days, and change the whole mixture every 10 to 14 days.
I have heard the issue is when replacing the nutes, u dont know what nutes is needed, so u tend to throw the whole ratio off balance. Thoughts.

Please let me know what you think, and if you guys are interested i will be posting more photos.

Thanks
 
re: A minute for your thoughts!

Hi -- Nice looking setup. I especially like the automatic pumping. I'm pasting the shot of your setup into my notes. I love DTW coco, but the watering gets to be a hassle.

I think I have some useful feedback for you, though.

First, don't water coco like soil. You cannot overwater coco (especially 40% perlite!), so water it at least once a day. A coco grow is not a soil grow, it's a modified hydroponic grow. Give your plants a constant bath of fresh nutes and they will grow better!

Second, GH's recommended concentrations can be on the high side. I use GH FloraSeries, but at about 1/3 strength (but for a dwarf strain). If you want to run full strength GH nute sked, be sure to monitor your leaf tips very closely for yellowing.

For both points above, I invite you to look at my coco grow log in the sig file. There is a link to a video there about watering frequency that I'd recommend.

I too have thought of re-using the waste. With the concentrated nutes you're using, all you'd have to do is adjust the pH, really, though the nute ratios would shift over time. Just like a hydro grow, you'd want to periodically (weekly for my hydro grow) change to fresh nutes.

Lights:
Your lights could be WAY closer! Those CFLs can be (and work best when) they are just inches from the plants. All you have to do is make sure they're not too hot at the plant surface ("back of the hand" test).

Rigging aluminum foil reflectors for your CFLs will effectively at least double the light getting to the plants. Cheap and easy.

Those 37 (or whatever) watt lights could be way closer too. Remember that light intensity decreases by the square of the distance: 2 X distance = 1/4 intensity, 3 x distance = 1/9, etc.

If it was my grow, I'd push the plants all together as close as possible lower and center the lights over them. You could easily triple the lumens that way.

That's my .02. You have a nice setup. With a few easy tweeks, it could be much more effective and have your grow really rockin'.

Good luck and have fun!
 
re: A minute for your thoughts!

BTW, I don't think "oxygenating" your nutes is going to help any (and it could affect your pH readings...). Any extra O2 will off-gas to equilibrium very quickly, and coco + 40% perlite gets plenty of O2 as it is.
 
Re: A minute for your thoughts!

Hey Scientific.
Thanks so much for the feedback. A lot of positive feedback and points to improve.
I am definitely gonna drop down the lights, you are absolutely correct about the CFL.
I think with the mixture I miswrote, I meant to say airing, not oxygenating.

I don't use tap water as ppm over 250, so I buy 4 gallon water bottle "1 gallon per pot" and I leave it to settle in a bucket for 24 hour. During the 10 minutes of adding that nutes I air it, it also works as a great stirrer :p

I will consider doing the recirculating system this week, my questions are as follows:-
- how big should the reservoir be?
- how many water circulations a day?
- how often should I check the ph of the reservoir?
- how often should I change all the reservoir?
- what strength nutes should I use?

It's 4 plants, each in 3 gallon coco/perlite. Starting third week today.

Thanks
 
Re: A minute for your thoughts!

Hey A69--I was just looking at the photos of your setup again. I really like how you set up your pump system. Your setup looks great. :thumb:

"Aerating" or "oxygenating," I don't think it helps much either way (though a good mixer, as you noted). If you measure the pH of still water and water that has been shaken up, you will probably see that it can be quite different. Still water is the norm, so if you're going to bubble, let it sit still for an hour before trying to get an accurate pH reading. Or at least try reading it both ways and see what you think...

250 PPM tap water! "Liquid concrete" ;)

I don't think there should be any reason to let reverse osmosis (bottled) H2O "settle" for an hour? Maybe you are thinking of letting chlorine offgas or something?

I have only thought about capturing the runoff and reusing, so I'll just share some noodling for whatever that may be worth:
Size: I would mix up one week's worth of nutrients and then return the runoff to that reservoir. That would make your coco grow very much like a hydro grow. Then you just top off the reservoir to make up for the water lost to evaporation and transpiration (which can be a lot!), just like doing hydroponics.
Changing the nute reservoir: The nutrient ratios can change weekly, so changing the reservoir weekly would seem to make sense. One of the rules of thumb I have seen for hydro (that seems to work for others but I haven't tried) is to wait to change the reservoir until the top-off water equals the reservoir capacity (i.e. change a 10-gallon reservoir after you have topped it off with 10 gallons of water).
pH: I would check the pH of the reservoir daily until you figure out how much its changing. (BTW, Advanced Nutrients "pH Perfect" nutes are advertised as being more pH stable, and people at the hydroponics forum here seem to agree that it works.) ph was the biggest pain in the butt for me in a hydro grow. It might drop from 6 to 4.8 overnight (with a very small--probably too small--reservoir). That's what I LOVE about drain-to-waste! The nute solution flows through once at the ideal concentration and pH and then it's gone. You never have to guess what your plants are getting or make corrections or chase the pH all over the map.
Strength: I use Nebula Haze's modified General Hydroponics schedule, which is diluted by about half. With the dwarf plants that I grow and daily feedings, full strength GH schedule is way too much (tip yellowing in a matter of days).
Circulations per day: That's a great question! I don't know. At the limit, a hydroponic grow has the nutrient solution circulating constantly, and hydro seems to generally be considered to have the highest yield. At the other end, I have just irrigated the coco once a day with good results, but I suspect that more often would be good. What you're shooting for is a steady nutrient supply with lots of oxygen. I might try hourly or or maybe 12 times a day? Once a day will work fine, so anything more than that is bonus nutrients. Constant irrigation would seem to cut down on the oxygen. 12 times a day? It would be fun to do an experiment...

I'm pasting this into my notebook for the next time I do coco. I'd really appreciate hearing about your results if you implement a recirculating coco system!

Good luck and have fun. :)
 
Re: A minute for your thoughts!

I think it's amazing people go to these lengths and complicate things when I've gotten amazing results doing a fraction of what you are. I have the same 450w light as you do, in fact vipaspectura sent me their new 450w model to test and it dosent fog like the old ones. Are you going to get more lights? I didn't read that part, I use 1 450w per plant and I'd rather have 2. So no way will 1 be enough for 4. Setup looks great though!
 
Re: A minute for your thoughts!

That's what I was wondering because my plants are all in one thirty gallon tub and it's 1.5 all the way Around
 
Re: A minute for your thoughts!

Loving the feedback so far.

The issue being is where i live, nothing is available, these grow lights and nute mixes and all, i have to order and send them by courier, the plan was to get a 1200W LED to cover the whole tent, but that would have cost me a minimum of $1200 for that light, so that was scratched off. Just the 450W cost me 600$. This is why i had to resort to this hanging light CFL to Augment the LED lighting until i manage to have a better budget to get another LED. The biggest problem with CFL is the heat, even though its minimal. The room temp during the day can get to 36 degrees easy, so the AC has to be on 24/7 at 23 Degrees, and even that Keeps the tent temperature at 29 Degrees, which is more then what i would like.

I adjusted some of the lights and added bulbs, i took some close ups of the irrigation system and of the babies.

Scientific, when i measure the water out of the bottle directly, it gives me a TDS of 110-120, after letting it open in a bucket for 24 hours, it goes down to 85/90. Maybe its the chlorine, maybe its black magic, but even this 30 decrease in TDS gives me more comfort when making my "tea"

Here are some close up of the plants, and the lighting system after adjustments.

Even the irrigation system pumps i had to order online to arrive by courier, the extraction system is working, just waiting for the other pump to finish the irrigation part then i will add pics of it in action.

Pineapple Chunk:-
pine_chunk1.jpg


Viva Sativa:-
Viva_Sativa.jpg

Its growing very short and bushy, i wonder if this is the strain or its a dwarf, need to wait and watch

Candy Kush AF:
Candy_Kush_1.jpg

Candy Kush AF 2:-
Candy7.jpg

Close up of the pipings in the extraction tray
Irrigation_1.jpg

Lights:-
Lights_12.jpg


As you can see, i have added more lights, adjusted the heights. The problem is after this the temperature exploded from 26 tp 31 degrees.
If you see in the bottom left corner, the 6" inflow fan has now become operational, and i switched on the extraction fan as well, all this to increase the ventilation to decrease the temperature.
My biggest issue with temperature is that the pots dry quicker and i need to water them more often.
 

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