Grow Journal Harlequin 1:18 Fem Using Masterblend

[Budsbunny]

Day 25. October 3, 2019

I’ve made a new batch for the fogger as it was almost running out of water. I’ve set the timing to 120 sec “ON” and 600 sec “OFF” as I had the impression the cubes looked dry at the end of the 600 sec “OFF”

Impression DWC

This seedling is growing, that is for sure. It is standing straight up again after yesterday but still no roots visible under the net pot. Ph. went up from 5.64 to 5.8 and the ppm’s went down from 440 to 380


Impression USM

Not growing as much as her sister but you can see she is stretching her leaves and still good root development in the net pot (see pic). Perhaps she grows less as the ppm’s were only half of her little sister so I brought the ppm’s with the new batch from 290 to 350.

Ph. and ppm’s were still the same as 2 days before which is awesome. The new batch is for 3 days as I have read that the H2O2 in the mix is active for only 4 days.

If the seedling will start to grow, I will swith to USM with all my future plants.

 

[ProfessorFlora]

Hey buds. Sorry to hear about the return of the slime. There's a few things you should check as slime and mound all need certain things to be able to thrive. The first thing to check should be res/water temperature. Next I'd recommend checking for any kind of light that may be penetrating the tank. That's how I ended up with root rot. I found the leak which was in my net pots. Light was getting in through the gaps in between the clay pebbles at the top of the pot. I put some card around the stem of the plant to cover the top of the net pot and the problem went away. I'm still using H2O2 as I've read that there are more benefits than just having a clean environment but the rot has for the most part gone away. The yellowing leaf that you have may be the plant requiring more nutrients as it looks typical of plants using up reserves. Apologies for not seeing your queries sooner

 

[Budsbunny]

Hey Professor

I’ve covered the net pots with black plastic since the last time and the water temperature is always around 19.5C (67.1F). It really confuses me, as in my greenhouse in the past, I had white buckets and many times much higher temperatures and never saw that. I also used the same ratio of MB as now, but probably much higher ppm's. You might be right with not enough ppm’s, tomorrow I will make a new batch with higher ppm’s.

 

[Budsbunny]

Day 26, October 4, 2019

DWC
Same old same old, plant still very light green, no roots under the net pot.

USM
The plant seems to grow but not in the same way as the DWC one. It looks as the bigger leaves get bigger, but slower in development as the younger ones. I took a picture, same USM plant, same distance and angle to show what I mean.

I start to think it is the droplet size of this fogger that makes it different compared to using the more conventional fogger that everyone uses. I have those “conventional foggers” as well and this is the difference:

Conventional fogger

• If I put the conventional fogger in a 5 gallon open bucket with 4” of water (no fan), the mist looks heavy and stays at the bottom of the bucket

Cool mist humidifier

• If I bring the fog in from above as I do now, the mist is SO FINE, that it turns back up at the bottom and 50% leaves the bucket again in a slow speed. The droplets are much, much finer and less heavy. So the nutrients uptake will be different I assume.

I’ve read a lot about using real dry fog, in general, the fine droplets will carry the nutrients but you will get a very fine root system.

Yesterday evening (before reading all “this stuff”, I adjusted the timing to 20 sec “ON” and 2 minutes “OFF” I am going a bit back to the timing that gave me the good root development and have set the timer now to 2 minutes “ON” and 3 minutes “OFF”

The temperature in the USM bucket is 19.1C (66.4F) , temperature outside the bucket is even slightly higher.

Maybe I should put a small fan blowing into the bucket to force more fine droplets to the roots and RW cube?

 

[Budsbunny]

Day 26, October 4, 2019

I've added a tiny fan on the cover of the bucket, the dry fog swirls good through the bucket now. I will keep the timing as it is now (2minON/3minOFF) but if the bottom of the net pot gets soaking wet, I will adjust to 1minON/3/minOFF and take it from there.

 

[Budsbunny]

Observing the impact of the mixing fan on top

 

[Budsbunny]

The more the merrier…..

Well I thought if I only mist for such a short time, why not mist two at the same time but just a bit longer?

My test log:

At the end I saw the small new roots getting bigger so I thought I will take the plunge as I was afraid that the DWC plant would slime again tomorrow and I have absolutely no time tomorrow morning. BTW, there was not one root coming out of the DWC RW cube.

I have attached some thumbnails about getting the same amount of smoke out of each pipe, but I will have to stay on it tonight (lol, this evening I mean...) as one small fan gives more air than the other one and once connected I can’t see if each plant gets the same amount of fog.

 

[Budsbunny]

Day 27, October 5, 2019

A fresh start with 2 plants on one ultrasonic fogger/humidifier unit. I would have preferred each plant having its own unit, but two of them don’t fit in the shower stall.

Observations

The old DWC plant got back its green color (no signs of roots yet) and the USM plant’s roots are growing a bit. I made a fresh batch of nutrients and readings of the old nutrients that came out were still the same as two days before.

Actions

I have to make some sort of hood above the fans, as they are straight under the light.

I am at day 27 since I started the paper towel germination, but I was wondering how big in size the plants would be now if I would have put them in coco after sprouting. I mean, experimenting and all is normally a lot of fun but the main goal was and still is, to grow cannabis for harvest, not for observations and reports……
Maybe I should play it safe and sprout 2 seeds and put them in coco.

 

[ProfessorFlora]

Strange that there's no sign of roots yet. I think I had roots in a week after putting them into the system. I do like experimenting but I always have another grow as reassurance lol. I'm currently running 7 plants in the same 10 gallon pot as my most recent experiment. It going better than I had hoped but I still made sure that there would be something to fall back on if it all went south. My next experiment will be to try out the Kratky Mehod using mason jars. I want to see if I can keep some mother plants alive in them for an extended period of time by regularly root pruning. I may afraid that what you're doing is new to me so I can't be of much help with the foggers. It looks like they need more of something though. Whether it's light or moisture I'm not sure but you're right in saying that they're a bit small for their age. Hope you find out the solution buds

 

[Budsbunny]

Strange that there's no sign of roots yet. I think I had roots in a week after putting them into the system. I do like experimenting but I always have another grow as reassurance lol. I'm currently running 7 plants in the same 10 gallon pot as my most recent experiment. It going better than I had hoped but I still made sure that there would be something to fall back on if it all went south. My next experiment will be to try out the Kratky Mehod using mason jars. I want to see if I can keep some mother plants alive in them for an extended period of time by regularly root pruning. I may afraid that what you're doing is new to me so I can't be of much help with the foggers. It looks like they need more of something though. Whether it's light or moisture I'm not sure but you're right in saying that they're a bit small for their age. Hope you find out the solution buds

My mistake from the get-co was, that I did not wait long enough with putting the RW cubes into the system. One cube had only 1 small root coming out and the other one had basically none outside the cube and by putting them in the system I almost drowned them. I was just too eager I guess. But if the roots keep coming as they do, the plant must take off, I am sure.

 

[ProfessorFlora]

My mistake from the get-co was, that I did not wait long enough with putting the RW cubes into the system. One cube had only 1 small root coming out and the other one had basically none outside the cube and by putting them in the system I almost drowned them. I was just too eager I guess. But if the roots keep coming as they do, the plant must take off, I am sure.

Once the conditions are right they normally explode into life. Hopefully it won't be much longer

 

[Budsbunny]

Day 28, October 6, 2019

When I went to the casino yesterday evening to lose some money, I realized when I was there that I did not put in the correct timing for the humidifier. But as my girlfriend was on a winning streak, she refused to go back with me…..can you imagine???? Coming home the plants looked fine from the outside, so I followed the money upstairs……

This morning however, the roots and net pot were super dry and the roots started to get brown tips again, this time not from less oxygen but from not enough mist/nutrients. Also, the fans on the bucket are not the same (have new ones on order…) and the stronger one was, because of higher pressure in the bucket, pushing most of the mist into the other bucket. I have changed that by putting a RPM regulator on the stronger one and that seems to be fine now. I have also changed the mister settings and gave 6 ml of nutrients to the RW cubes.

General

My handicap (one of them lol…) is, that I am testing my mister on plants with almost no roots so the little bit of roots react immediately if something is not 100%

Today I will dig up one of my Jimmy Nardello Peppers, flush the roots clean and hang the plant with the roots in a bucket and attach a fan and a cool mist humidifier, perhaps I can see more clear how a plant reacts.

The pictures are from this morning, the one on the left is the one who was in the DWC, it was always a bit bigger, but the other one is catching up, if only both had a bunch of roots…

 

[ProfessorFlora]

I would have expected the fan to maybe dry the roots out or at least stress them as they're not usually exposed to air movement. Is the fan ever operating when there's no moisture in the air?

 

[Budsbunny]

These are my observations:

When there is no air movement, the fine mist is just hanging in the bucket and STAYS hanging in the bucket, even after 5 minutes the mist is still in the high part of the bucket, but (I think) because there is no air movement, no mist is given to the roots, so they dry out.

• Two days ago, I let the fan run constantly, and the mister 2 minutes “ON” and 3 minutes “OFF” Everything was soaking wet (roots and net pot) so I guess there was so much nutrients on the roots that they did not get enough air, for that the brown tips on the roots.
• Last test was the fan “ON” when the mister was “ON”, mister 40 sec “ON” and 5 minutes “OFF”, but in those 5 minutes there is no air movement and everything was dry again.

So THIS is what I am trying to do now:

• Fan running constantly
• Mister intermitting 60 sec “ON” and 3 minutes “ON”
• I will increase or decrease the 60 seconds until the hydro ton gets damp
• If I can’t find the good setting, I might go to 15 seconds “ON” and 45 sec “OFF” and play with the 15 sec setting, so with the 45 sec I decrease the "drying time"

At all times I will let the fan run so I am only trying to regulate the amount of nutrients (the “ON” time) and/or the drying time (the “OFF” time)

 

[Budsbunny]

After several different setting with no results, I came up with the idea to make a cap over the net pot but keep an opening so the mist could escape out of the side of the cap. In that way, the mist has to pass the RW cube and roots, let’s hope for the best as I am not sure how much more possibilities there are….

The cap and fan cover are made from the bottom and top (with cover) of a yogurt container that I spray painted black.

It might be that the speed of the fans is too high, time will tell.

 

[Budsbunny]

Day 29, October 7, 2019

I think I am getting very close now. Plants are looking good and inside the bucket, the net pots and RW cubes were wet/damp, more to the wet. Setting last night was 60 sec “ON” and 80 sec “OFF” and I am going baby steps now with adjustments. Changed the setting to 50 sec “ON” and 90 sec “OFF”. I will replace the batch, as with all the experiments I have used a lot, have increased the PPM’s to 710

Hopefully I have time enough today to get the grown up pepper plant into the fogging system. I have already 3 same (size) plants in soil to compare.

 

[Budsbunny]

Today I have put one mature pepper plant in the misting system. I have flushed the roots clean with water and managed to pull the roots through the net pot. Next to that, I have 3 mature pepper plants in (new) soil as a reference. The soil is very good compost based on rabbit poop, these plants have given me a super crop this year, a crop that will be hard to beat.

The setup for the USM pepper is basically the same as the two cannabis plants. Ph. = 5.67 but ppm = 1010 and fogger 50 sec “ON” and 70 sec “OFF”. I do not use the fan any more. ( it is still in the picture though on the right side)


My main goal is to see if this system also works with a lot of roots.

See pictures.

 

[Budsbunny]

Day 30, October 8, 2019

A few days ago, I blocked the suction side of the small fans partly, to get less air in the bucket but I “burned” one of the (non-waterproof) fans and because of that I made the “hoods” over the net pots and air could escape through the hoods. This was a very good solution as the escaping mist was now forced to pass the RW cube with a very low speed. Both plants now start to show small roots coming out under the net pot.

By eliminating the fan, I am back to basics, only a cool mist humidifier, a bucket and a plant, dosing always the same Ph. and PPM’s. It is a pity that I started with underdeveloped roots but I hope the pepper test will give me the final answer.

The pepper-root test is going fine as well as far as I can see after only one day, the roots are nice damp/wet but not “shiny wet”, I am excited about this test. If the plant grows well, I will start the cannabis seedlings in soil and transfer them once they have enough roots.

Basically this is what I always did when I had my greenhouse with veggies, so why not now?

 

[Budsbunny]

Day 31, October 9, 2019

Everything is finally going well, it took me a long time, almost lost a plant twice but it has come back strong and hopefully from now on it will stay going well. Since 3 days, after the final set-up, I don’t need to go and check all the time. I don’t measure the Ph. and PPM’s any more as they never change from the original values when I made the batch, I just re-fill and that’s it. The fact that the Ph. and PPM’s don’t change has probably to do with the fact that the reservoir of the cool mist humidifier is closed air-tight (and painted black).

Anyway, pictures say more than a 1000 words.

 

[ProfessorFlora]

Good to see things coming together. The roots are looks nice and healthy. Good job buds!