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

[Scientific]

Definitely nute burn.

Those white spots are troubling. I think I remember some kind of (leaf juice sucking) pest having that as a symptom, but that seems less likely for an indoor hydro grow. I'll be curious to see what you find out.

 

[ElDoctore]

I think what I'll do is cut off the leaves with these symptoms and remove them off the tent then have a look at them under a scope

 

[ElDoctore]

Recirculating Water In Coco

What a hectic 2 days in been. My msg to anyone who wants to do such a system is filters, filters, filters.

I transplanted the PP plants to their new and final 7 gallon pots. In the process abit of the coco went into the collection tray, that ended up in the reservoir, that ended up clogging the octopus... that was a bitch.

I decided to remove all the piping and plants from the tent. Declog everything.

Added filters to the reservoir. I bought a new octopus which is an absolute beauty with a built in filter.

Fixed the filters in the collection trays.

Opened up all 3 pumps and declogged them as well.

Drained all the water from the reservoir and cleaned all the coco particles.

Even the particles that passed through the octopus ended up travelling to the sprinklers and clogging that.

I bought pre pump strainer as well to add more filtering.

I checked the leaves under a scope, no signs of anything moving or eggs. I am presuming it's a light bleach "although when cleaning I did see a small spider scurrying out of the tent... hmmmm"

It's only a few leaves that have it but non of the other plants. They haven't been increasing either.

It's interesting that even though the AF show nute burnt tips, the photoperiod look absolutely normal. Shows you each plant has its own personality, knowing PPM is an imperfect science and needs to be tailored to each plant.

It looks like white hairs are starting to form on one of the AF. So I added abit more bloom to the reservoir.

I put both candy kush on one side and the plan is to put the LED panel above them 2 until they finish them move it back.

Thinking of changing some LED to 2700 bulbs, do a mix of all 3.

The culprit

After cleaning and all

New octopus with filter

Candy kush in 5G pots

Viva Sativa in7G pots

Pineapple Chunk in 7G pots

All of them back home

White hairs starting to show on the larger candy kush

 

[Scientific]

You been busy!
Plants are lookin' good.
I liked the shot of Viva Sativa sittin' on the terlit.

 

[ElDoctore]

System working well. I stopped it for 2 days during transplant and de-clogging, then on the third day when I switched the system back again, they grew like crazy.
Pistils showing on the AF kush. Bushy as hell, considering moving the LeD panel over the 2 candy kush only. Then switch it back after harvesting the AF. My other PP will be in Veg for another 4-6 weeks at least.

 

[ElDoctore]

Been a while since my Last update.

Things are going well, both AF currently are in flowering. I have kept the reservoir nutes as they are and just started adding more bloom to the mix in addition to the flora nectar. I also moved the LED only over the flowering plants.

In terms of the irrigation system, it's working like a charm. No problems and no issues.

The 5G already have the roots coming out of the pot even after the transplant.

Plants look healthy, some tip nute burn but nothing too significant

But I do have an issue now which I am reaching out to the community for advise on.

I started noticing some greenish/brownish spots on the tubes, I thought it was some coco but after closer observation looks more like fungus/algae/slime.

I ran my hand inside the inside wall of reservoir and noticed a slime layer on it. Water looks clean.

I added hydrogaurd today... wondering what to do next

 

[Scientific]

I started noticing some greenish/brownish spots on the tubes, I thought it was some coco but after closer observation looks more like fungus/algae/slime.

When you provide nutrients + light, the algae spores and bacteria floating everywhere all the time are going to take advantage of them--been that way for billions of years now.

You can't prevent the fellow travelers from doing their thing, but you can manage them. (You can also just ignore them if they're not getting too smelly (like blue-green algae aka cyanobacteria, which give dirt its distinctive earthy smell), too slimy, clogging the lines, or just getting too ugly.)

The way to manage them without poisoning them (not good for your plants) is to keep light away from them with shielding and opaque hoses, and to have good circulation, since as a rule the fellow travelers--the baddies, anyway--like warm, still, nutrient-rich water.

HydroGuard seems like a good idea too, but the photosynthetic bugs will persist as long as there is light + nutes, so light management is the key.

Good to see the plants are filling up the bigger bags!

 

[Omega Man]

I'm liking what I see

Looking forward to what those female ganja plants will do for you !

From a fellow coco-nut !

 

[Scientific]

The way to manage them without poisoning them (not good for your plants) is to keep light away from them with shielding and opaque hoses, and to have good circulation, since as a rule the fellow travelers--the baddies, anyway--like warm, still, nutrient-rich water.

Letting stuff dry out between uses rather than sitting wet can help too...

 

[ElDoctore]

So the pathogen in the tubes isn't causing any film layers or odors, for the time I am adopting "live and let live"
The girls seem to be growing really well, so I'll just leave it at that.

These days I am having huge changes in my PPM, start the day at 700 and 24 hour later it's 400. The pH seems to bounce between 5.6-5.8, but in range.
I thought about brining the ppm higher, which I did, "900 ppm" the photoperiods loved it, but the AF got nute burns, so currently I am topping it up mainly with the bloom,micro, and gro. Then add the other nutrients till I get to 600 - 700 then stop. I have probably 3 weeks left till harvest.
Tent is getting crowded, the bushes are intertwining and getting squashed on one side, so I started deflowering the AF. Removing leaves on alternative days, making it less bushy with better light penetration.
Even though both AF is candy kush, one of them is far more superior "50%" larger. Maybe light distribution.

Loads of buds, looking good.

In the last week, I am gonna disconnect them from the system and flush them manually.

I wanted to ask wether people prefer harvesting all at one go, or at stages?

Once the AF are out of the tent, I am gonna put each PP on a side of the tent, give them 10-14 days to adjust to their new space, LST, then switch to 12/12.

They are already at 1.2 meter in height, while AF at least 0.5x0.5x1 meter.

Currently running the water at 30min x 10 a day. Which roughly equally 8 gallons each plant a day. They absolutely love it.

I wonder if DWC is more superior to coco in yields.

A few pics. As always, feedback is appreciated.

 

[Scientific]

They are looking beautiful!

> So the pathogen in the tubes isn't causing any film layers or odors, for the time I am adopting "live and let live"
In microbiologist talk, those aren't pathogens, they're "normal flora." (I had brown spots just like yours in the clear tubing I used to drain and fill my fish tank for 30 years. It looked crummy but never did any harm to fish or plants.)

>The girls seem to be growing really well, so I'll just leave it at that.
Sounds simple, but just leaving well enough alone is a lesson some people never seem to learn.

> These days I am having huge changes in my PPM, start the day at 700 and 24 hour later it's 400. The pH seems to bounce between 5.6-5.8, but in range.
Sounds like they're really rocking. When my hydro grow got to that stage, the pH got really unstable (my reservoir was probably too small).

> I thought about brining the ppm higher, which I did, "900 ppm" the photoperiods loved it, but the AF got nute burns
Interesting. That's exactly what the folklore says. Maybe it's right for once!

> Tent is getting crowded, the bushes are intertwining and getting squashed on one side, so I started deflowering the AF.
I assume you meant "defoliating."

> In the last week, I am gonna disconnect them from the system and flush them manually.
> I wanted to ask wether people prefer harvesting all at one go, or at stages?
I'm still not 100% convinced that you need to flush at all, but the preponderance of evidence from experience is that it does help. Assuming you are asking about flushing in stages, me, I just switched 'em from nutes to pH'd water. Short sharp shock.

> Currently running the water at 30min x 10 a day. Which roughly equally 8 gallons each plant a day. They absolutely love it.
> I wonder if DWC is more superior to coco in yields.
I have wondered that myself, which is a big reason that I have enjoyed watching your grow and process so much. I think it would be hard to beat a fully optimized hydroponic grow (meaning among other things, a huge tank with excellent aeration and circulation in the reservoir, and perfect pH control), but your method is pretty much doing that. It would be fun to do side by side grows to compare, but I doubt if you'd see a huge difference. I think you're getting pretty close to ideal growing conditions.

 

[ElDoctore]

Haha yeah, meant deflowering.
This is a picture 2 days later.

The tent has flooded on me quiet a few times, and mostly because the tube gets clogged.
I tried filters, helps but doesn't solve.
So I made a little overflow valve between the 2 tubs. Let's see if that helps. It should in theory. Both tubs are enough to contain the whole reservoir, so worst case scenario they just fill up without overflow.

Looking at the pic I wonder if I should have left the pipe at top level rather then bottom

 

[Scientific]

The plants look beautiful.

When I build my version of your system, my plan/daydream is to pump fluid up from a reservoir sump that is the lowest point in the system and then the pots drain back into the sump. That seems simplest. How to filter to keep the pumps and lines clear I have not thought about yet.

 

[ElDoctore]

Recirculating Water In Coco

It's actually a very simple solution, don't use 1/4" tubing for drainage, just use the 3/8" tubing. Problem solved. The pumps use the 3/8" standard anyway, makes life a lot easier and no worries about clogging.

In an ideal situation I would raise the collection tray, and have the tube coming from the bottom.

If you buy a filter, make sure it's a maximum of 50 mesh filter, it allows the small particles to go through, which usually clog the 100/200 mesh filters very quickly and you have to clean it once/twice a week to maintain a good flow.

Because i was putting my pipe on the side, I opted for 1/4 because it would suck more then the 3/8 side placement.

I am getting the 3/8 tubes next week and will reattach to the collection tray from center.

Currently everything is working well, I am just fiddling extra because I want to perfect every nook and crack before I am done.

 

[Scientific]

I want to perfect every nook and crack before I am done.

Of course.

Thanks for the info. I have pasted it into my design notebook.

 

[Stillalive420]

I couldn't complicate my grow like that, you guys make me feel stupid, I know that's not the case though...

 

[ElDoctore]

Stillalive420. Combining hobbies.
I know if I do it manually and all it works perfectly, which is what I have done before. This time though since I have more freedom, added another hobby to it.
Worse case scenario if this ever failed, back to manual waterings

 

[Scientific]

I couldn't complicate my grow like that, you guys make me feel stupid, I know that's not the case though...

I had a successful coco grow this summer simply by watering the plant on my deck every day, but automated feeding with a pump would have allowed me not to have to be here every day for 11 weeks.

The setup doesn't have to be as fancy as Alios's. Just an $12 aquarium pump in a bucket of nutes watering pots that drain to waste could be a big time saver and free you to go away for a week. Next summer I'm going to at least do that much.

Great science project!

 

[Stillalive420]

Stillalive420. Combining hobbies.
I know if I do it manually and all it works perfectly, which is what I have done before. This time though since I have more freedom, added another hobby to it.
Worse case scenario if this ever failed, back to manual waterings

I would defiantly automate my system if I had the cash, but I would still be pretty simple about it.

 

[ElDoctore]

I wish I could have done that, but with 4 plants, and the reservoir being 1/2 a meter high, I would have used up a lot of the tent space.
Maybe when I do 1-2 AF I'll probably use gravity as my ally