Happy Jack's 1st Hydro Grow Journal - DWC - LED - Nirvana Blackjack - WW - Etc

[Happy Jack]

Greetings, fellow Herb Barons and Baronesses,

Just a quick update.

Plant Report:

Wowzers! My babies are exploding (sorry for the image) since I put them in the totes. Master Kush and Pure Power Plant have taken a tie for the lead, and both were ready for shoot-pinning LST. Black Jack is now in third, with one plant just pinned today, and Wonder Woman is fourth. All are looking healthy and vigorous.

The Scrog guide I'm following had me crop the 5th leaf set off each plant, and now calls for the resulting four branches (two secondaries from the node I cropped, and two more from the node below) to be wired down and out in a "+" pattern. That grower wasn't using hydro and Reflector144 s,, because I have about 8 big branches per plant, and many more smaller ones. Truly amazing.

So I'm pinning the many branches out and down about 45 degrees apart, as viewed from above. The guide calls for topping the four branches again when they've recovered a bit, but I *already* have at least eight decent branches per plant, so I may skip that step.

The guide calls for flipping to bloom when the scrog areas is about 40% full, and at this rate that may be in about a week!

The water level has dropped below the baskets, and I plan to ultimately set it about 1.5" below. Sound good?

The plants are growing fast and sending out secondaries like mad, and my hands had that familiar musky growing-weed smell after LST, so I'm a happy camper. (The bedraggled plant in the ULHC is the Black Jack I just pinned down. It's not sick, at least not literally. )

Grow Activities

My RO filter and 2nd tent are due to arrive tomorrow, and I'm beavering away getting more totes ready and putting together my RO setup. I'm putting the filter outside in a tote, and using two garbage cans as reservoirs, which I will pump inside into my mixing tank and totes.

I'm trying to be thorough and make a set up that will be easy and convenient in use, and the planning and set up has been a lot of work. Also the uncertainty of doing new stuff and trying not to fuck up is rather stressful. But so far so good.

Thanks for looking. Please feel free to comment, and have a grrrrrrrreat day!

 

[Mars Hydro]

every seconds they are growing....

 

[Happy Jack]

every seconds they are growing....

Thanks Sara!
I'm fortunate to have your company's lights, and all the DWC wisdom that folks have learned, and shared online. My last grow was soil under Super High Output florescents. DWC and LEDs, combined with all the growing technique and info available now, is amazingly faster. I'd say at least twice as fast.

Grow Activities:

My HydoGardener Pro RO unit, designed for well water, came today, along with my second 4'x4' Mars Hydro tent, and Reflector96 s. So I'm busy. Details and photos to come.

 

[OlderGrower]

Growing is addictive is it not
If you think you hands smell now, wait until those plants are covered in sticky buds and you start doing maintenance on your plants

 

[Happy Jack]

Growing is addictive is it not
If you think you hands smell now, wait until those plants are covered in sticky buds and you start doing maintenance on your plants

Thanks OG, I can hardly wait! Yes, growing is addictive in itself, and it is a "gateway" activity--to vaping fine bud and feeling peaceful and pain-free!

I find it a little dangerous to garden after partaking, however.

 

[Happy Jack]

Slow Ride

This is what happens when Daddy comes home feeling frisky.

Yes, the tent has that freshly-scrogged look.

Sent from Happy Jack's phone.

 

[Happy Jack]

Hooking up Outdoor Reverse Osmosis System Outdoors In A Tote

Hi folks!

It was a brilliant day here on the Isle of Mann (that's a Happy Jack reference), a lovely day for assembling my
RO system. I went with the Hydrofarm Pro, which is designed for well water, and so far I'm happy. I'm posting my experience here in hopes of helping others.

Grow Activity:

Hooking up Outdoor Reverse Osmosis System Outdoors In A Tote

My reservoirs hold 80 gallons, so I need to filter, store, and move around a lot of water. My solution is to do the filtering and storing outside, and pump the water in through a window to my mixing bin, then pump to the totes. This means mounting the pump outside, and it needs to be protected from the elements. Here my solution is to mount the filter in a Rubbermaid Tote.

I like doing the Stoner McGuiver bit, and come up with simple, effective designs. So I made the mount out of a piece of plywood and two pieces of 2x4. The Pro model adds that black water driven (!) pump to boost efficiency, and it has to be mounted in that particular orientation (there's an arrow that has to point up--it's on the right side of the silver label, and its arrowhead is lost in the glare. It fit perfectly on the 2x4.

It slides into the tote nice and secure, with the pump protected.

The orange tube is water in, red is waste water, and blue is filtered water. To get the tubes through the tote wall, I used my new favorite solution--Hydrofarm grommets for 1/2' tubing, available at the big A. Drill a 3/4" hole, pop it in, and presto, chafe-free entry. (And we all know how important that is.) In this case they grip the tubing, making it less likely that I will jerk them tight in a medical misadventure, and damage the pump.

Sober guy looks out for stoned guy.

Hoses through the grommets, and we're all buttoned up. I can also store accessories in it.

Pump seems to be working fine, it has a post-filter that adds Cal-Mag. So far the water tests out at 50PPM, and tastes delightful. (My well water is 250PPM, and the filter waste water is 380PPM ) I am currently filling one of my two 32 gallon trash cans, er reservoirs.

Well, that's it for tonight. Wishing you all a fine day.

HJ


Sent from Happy Jack's phone.

 

[Happy Jack]

Just a ping that I've added text to the previous post.

 

[jayne]

Interesting set up. Is the wood treated with anything?

 

[Happy Jack]

Interesting set up. Is the wood treated with anything?

Hi Jayne,

Nope. Do you have a concern? Even if the wood were treated, I can't think of how it could contaminate the water. RO filters are often mounted under sink, along with garbage, household chemicals, etc.

Happy growing! HJ

 

[jayne]

Hi Jayne,

Nope. Do you have a concern? Even if the wood were treated, I can't think of how it could contaminate the water. RO filters are often mounted under sink, along with garbage, household chemicals, etc.

Happy growing! HJ

No immediate concern, just that wood living in water tends to break down. Treating it would probably introduce more chemicals into you res than you want. Just thinking out loud here. I have no experience one way or the other to offer. I just found it to be an interesting set up. I look forward to seeing the results.

 

[Happy Jack]

No immediate concern, just that wood living in water tends to break down. Treating it would probably introduce more chemicals into you res than you want. Just thinking out loud here. I have no experience one way or the other to offer. I just found it to be an interesting set up. I look forward to seeing the results.

Oh! Sorry, I didn't make it clear--there is no water in the tote--all it does is protect the filter, keeping it dry and clean.

That's an interesting idea--putting the filter *in* the reservoir! But no, the lines all end outside of the tote--the orange line attaches to a garden hose, the red line outputs waste water, and the blue line outputs filtered water, and goes into my garbage cans... er, reservoirs!

Thanks for keeping me honest Jayne. Happy growing!

 

[jayne]

Oh! Sorry, I didn't make it clear--there is no water in the tote--all it does is protect the filter, keeping it dry and clean.

That's an interesting idea--putting the filter *in* the reservoir! But no, the lines all end outside of the tote--the orange line attaches to a garden hose, the red line outputs waste water, and the blue line outputs filtered water, and goes into my garbage cans... er, reservoirs!

Thanks for keeping me honest Jayne. Happy growing!

OIC, well that makes a lot more sense. I thought you were trying for a fully contained stealth type deal.

 

[Happy Jack]

Better Get The Second Tent Ready!

Weee! I'm liking this, and keeping my fingers crossed that I don't screw up.

Grow Report:

It was a day of non-grow work, and I returned to see that the explosive growth continues. I've never done Low Stress Training before, and I'm very happy with the results. The fast, dense, robust growth really responds to being trained horizontally, Sending off secondaries like mad. It's a new, delightful experience for me. I'm so stoked on all the great info, resources, and products available. now.

I'm thinking I should spread them out into the second tent in a couple of days. The two bigger varieties on the right--Master Kush and Pure Power Plant--will go into one tent, and the smaller two on the left--Black Jack and Wonder Woman--into the other. I plan to flip each tent when the plants have each filled up about 40% of their individual 2x2 areas. That could be real soon, barring accidents.

Happy growing

)

Sent from Happy Jack's phone.

 

[Happy Jack]

Hi friends! Photos from today's activities, updated text to follow.

Sent from Happy Jack's phone.

 

[Happy Jack]

Hi Friends,

I've made more progress, here on the Isle of Mann.

Grow Report:

Well, I got my second tent set up. Whew, lots of work setting up the second tent, building the new totes, switching the plants, putting in all clean totes, and refilling with new Bloom Transition Phase GH Flora Nutes: 1-1-1tsp/gal M-G-F, plus 2TB/40gal of HydroGard (sp?).

Basket-LowsStressTrainingScreen combo:

On the plus side, once all that was done it was easy lifting out the baskets and just dropping them in their new totes. I'm really liking the wide rim baskets (6' basket with wide 12" rim, designed to fit on a 5 gallon bucket) with the attached training screens. It makes the plant really secure and easy to work with, and as I do my Low Stress Training, I can just spin the buckets in the totes to work all side of the plants.

I swapped out the 4 totes that were in use for clean ones, and filled with the fresh nutes-- GH Flora Nutes: 1-1-1tsp/gal M-G-F, plus 2TB/40gal of HydroGard (sp?).

The old nutes, which were made with 250PPM well water, left mineral rings on the sides of the totes, just like on my kitchen sink. I mixed my new nutes with RO water and was able to get the pH at around 6.0 (hard to judge those colors exactly on the GH test kit) with 8ml pH Down/10gallons. That was very satisfying, after using up most of a pint of pH Down on the well water batch, and still not getting the pH down. Yay.

It was my first time pumping out old nutes and swapping in clean totes, and there were mistakes and cursing. I'm low on the learning curve, but I know it'll be easier as I learn.

Then I did the second and final topping on the 4 primaries on each plant in tent 1, Then there was scrogging. Here's my new setup, freshly scrogged. Note that there is now a single plant per tote.

Tent 1 has Master Kush on the left, and Pure Power Plant on the right

Tent 2 has Black Jack on the left, and Wonder Woman on the right

As you can see, Master Kush is most awesome, followed by Pure Power Plant, Black Jack in third, and Wonder Woman currently last. That's surprising, because going in I expected Wonder Woman and Pure Power Plant to be the fastest and biggest growing, and Black Jack the smallest. So far Master Kush has been consistently impressive. If it has nice bud, we have a wiener.

Grow Activities:

Pumps

I brought my Hydrofarm 70LPM pump online for the new tent, and I hate how loud it is. Like 10 times louder than my 25LPM HydroFarm, that is designed for low noise. It is also hot, and the air is hot. I've heard good things about the General Hydroponics Dual Diaphragm pump, even though it is a little more expensive than the 25LPM HydroFarm for the same output. In its favor it is rebuildable with a $10 kit, so could be cheaper in the long run. If the GH is about as quiet as the HydroFarm, I'll probably prefer it overall.

I'll let you know.

Now I've got to make my scrog screen, clip some clones for the next round, and flip the Master Kush / Pure Power Plant tent. I'm supposed to do that about about 40% coverage, and that looks like it's coming right up.

Your comments and advice appreciated. Happy Growing!

 

[Happy Jack]

Just a heads-up that I've added text to the post above. I have to upload photos from my phone, and add text later on my PC.

 

[Happy Jack]

Things continue to progress surprisingly well here on the Isle of Mann.

Grow Report:

This is tent 1--Master Kush on the Left, Pure Power Plant on the right.

I've finally gotten my scrog screens designed, fabbed, and installed. It took me about 20 hours to perfect the design, but now that it's done the screens are a snap to fab and install. I'm glad to share the design if anyone's interested--it's fairly obvious. That's 1/2" pvc and fittings, and 2' wide vinyl-covered wire fencing, 4.5" above the totes.

Now everything is integrated into the tote lids, so I can lift the lid up to work inside, or swap in clean totes, without disturbing the plants.

I flipped to bloom cycle a week ago. I'm using the "LBH's Famous ScrOG Tutorial" training process, but he used soil, so I think I'm way ahead of his timeframe, and maybe flipped too late. I'm thinking I may have to work to keep things under control before final bloom. Live and learn. I've flipped tent 2, with the plants smaller, so we'll see.

I took cuttings from all my plants, and am rooting them in one of those GH incubators. It's my first time cloning, but much to my surprise they seem to be fine! I plan to grow them in rockwool cubes until I harvest this crop, then lather, rinse, and repeat.

Comments invited and appreciated. Happy growing.

.

Sent from Happy Jack's phone.

 

[Mars Hydro]

Hi Jack,i didn't see you and your girls for about 10 days
Your girls are so much wide and bushy now,they are beautiuflYour scrog screens design looks good

Things continue to progress surprisingly well here on the Isle of Mann.

Grow Report:

This is tent 1--Master Kush on the Left, Pure Power Plant on the right.

I've finally gotten my scrog screens designed, fabbed, and installed. It took me about 20 hours to perfect the design, but now that it's done the screens are a snap to fab and install. I'm glad to share the design if anyone's interested--it's fairly obvious. That's 1/2" pvc and fittings, and 2' wide vinyl-covered wire fencing, 4.5" above the totes.

Now everything is integrated into the tote lids, so I can lift the lid up to work inside, or swap in clean totes, without disturbing the plants.

I flipped to bloom cycle a week ago. I'm using the "LBH's Famous ScrOG Tutorial" training process, but he used soil, so I think I'm way ahead of his timeframe, and maybe flipped too late. I'm thinking I may have to work to keep things under control before final bloom. Live and learn.

I took cuttings from all my plants, and am rooting them in one of those GH incubators. It's my first time cloning, but much to my surprise they seem to be fine! I plan to grow them in rockwool cubes until I harvest this crop, then lather, rinse, and repeat.

Comments invited and appreciated. Happy growing.

.

Sent from Happy Jack's phone.

 

[Happy Jack]

Thanks, SmokeSara

Thanks Sara!
I always appreciate your helpfulness and friendliness.

It's been that long? I didn't realize! I've been so busy on the plants.

Yes, I'm shocked at how bushy and full of secondaries the ladies are. The low stress training to make the mains grow horizontally is working wonders. When I last grew 30 years ago, I didn't have access to any of this growing wisdom and technology, and the results are amazing. I'm very grateful.

When I said my plants are growing faster than the tutorial, I should have said it is because of hydro and Mar-Hydro lights and tents. The dual Reflector144 s illuminate the 4'x4' space perfectly evenly, and I've had to back the lights off to about 18' because there was too much light!

I'm eager to see how the lights and scrog work out during the bloom phase.

Thanks again, I hope you have a great day.