Quest for mold-resistant strains, Hawaii outdoor greenhouse grow

[CBDMed]

Personally, if I was only looking to get 8 oz. I'd start my plant in a 1 gal pot. Veg about 4 weeks & up pot to a 5 gallon SIP.
Give it about 3 days to recover from the up pot & flip to 12/12. No need to veg any longer to get 8 oz. using a SIP. Now that I grow in SIP's I love to grow big ass plants. I've got some seeds (CAP Junkie) from dispensary weed I'm going to try to grow here real soon. The THC content was at 29% so I sure hope I get a female.

Best of success with the Dispo Seed Score.
I am a total noob with photos in SIPs, but is there a reason that you do not want to give the girls two weeks to find the reservoir and develop water roots, before you flip? (Because they go crazy after they find the reservoir.)

 

[cbdhemp808]

Yes, they drink like crazy. These small Charlotte's Angel autos need a refill every day and a half--and these are just autos!
Even if a 5G SIP (which has 4 G of soil) is enough soil, it would be great to have a larger res, so you do not need to water photos twice a day (i.e., so you can go somewhere).

Hmm, this is starting to sound like a bit of high maintenance. And if I went to the 14 gal HDPE tote, then the plants would just get bigger and require even more fertigation. So I guess one can regulate growth by just alternating with straight water. Again, I am only looking for an 8 oz yield, due to the restrictions of my bud dryer, which isn't built yet!

 

[CBDMed]

Hmm, this is starting to sound like a bit of high maintenance. And if I went to the 14 gal HDPE tote, then the plants would just get bigger and require even more fertigation. So I guess one can regulate growth by just alternating with straight water. Again, I am only looking for an 8 oz yield, due to the restrictions of my bud dryer, which isn't built yet!

For full disclosure, the girls DO drink a lot once they find the res. (It is like you want to hook up a firehose...)
The fill tube makes things a lot easier.
With the fill tube I can put water over soil twice a week, and then quickly fill the tube with calmag water on other days. (Tube water is mix calmag, fill, and go.)

The issue is the res is small.
With a 5G SIP it is 4G soil (3.73 maybe) and maybe only a 1G res, which is a SMALL cup for thirsty girlies working out in the gym.
If you had a bigger res it would take the pressure off.
That is all I know. I hope that helps, somehow.

 

[Buds Buddy]

Best of success with the Dispo Seed Score.
I am a total noob with photos in SIPs, but is there a reason that you do not want to give the girls two weeks to find the reservoir and develop water roots, before you flip? (Because they go crazy after they find the reservoir.)

Well I would water about twice from the Top & fill the res the rest of the way after the top drains. The roots will hit bottom in about a week. I had a plant I thought was a female that I vegged in a regular pot. I put it in a SIP & about a week later saw male parts so I disposed of it. I was surprised at how much root growth there was so quickly. Wasn't packed with roots yet, but some were already at the res.

 

[Buds Buddy]

Hmm, this is starting to sound like a bit of high maintenance. And if I went to the 14 gal HDPE tote, then the plants would just get bigger and require even more fertigation. So I guess one can regulate growth by just alternating with straight water. Again, I am only looking for an 8 oz yield, due to the restrictions of my bud dryer, which isn't built yet!

Not that high maintenance. Way easier than Fabric or Plastic Pots & no mess to clean up from run off. I never fed plain water. Nutes every time. At first you will only be filling the res every few days. Once you start flower you'll be filling it daily & by the end of veg you'll be feeding twice per day if you were to grow a giant plant. But for an 8 oz. yield / smaller plant I doubt you'll ever need to feed more than once per day. Another plus to growing in SIPs is you don't have to worry about overwatering. For me, growing in SIPs falls right between Hydro & Coco but much easier than either one of those methods. It's damned near foolproof !

 

[cbdhemp808]

Not that high maintenance.

Cool. and I realize ... much more efficient, because I'm losing a lot of water and nutes in the runoff. even nutes from the super soil. I would be happy with once a day starting in flower. I could probably make it to mid veg on just water. it wasn't long ago that I flowered in 5 gal plastic, although it was far from ideal.

 

[cbdhemp808]

Greetings Growmies,

I hope everyone's having a good summer!

Here's a not-so-great late summer update.

My whole grow is in a slump right now. My timing has been off, in terms of veg, flip, and cloning. I've got two plants in flower, and neither one is doing very well, even though they are both in 10 gal. pots. One is a Blueberry clone, but she's struggling, with quite a bit of leaf yellowing going on, even though I'm feeding her. My general sense is that she's been in the pot way too long (was in veg way too long). That's a common glitch in my operation. She's also not drinking normally, and the colas are undeveloped... doesn't look good. The other plant in flower is a White Widow clone that was stunted due to late transfer to 10 gal from 1 gal, and being root bound. It's a small plant, toward the end of flowering. It's got decent but small colas, however unfortunately a bit too much PM, now encroaching into the buds.

The veg house is hardly any better. Temps have been hitting 90°F in there. I've still got the HI-BISCUS mom (recovered clone of the recovered clone that suffered from a root zone pathogen that went systemic). She's just not doing great either... been in the 10 gal. in veg for way too long. She's not drinking normally, and the canopy is looking off to say the least. So, I will probably not even flower her (just chop). (At least I have some cuttings of her in the cloner. Dunno if I will keep going with that pheno.) Other than the HI-BISCUS, I've got a nice big Humboldt Dream clone in veg, and if I transfer her to flower very soon, she may do OK. Then I've got a bunch of clones in 1 gal pots that are getting to the point of being root bound, so that's sad. Some may be good to go, in 10 gal—I'll need to sort them out. And then I've got another batch of new cuttings in the cloner, and at least they are doing well and looking perky.

So, I'm not sure what I'm doing at this point. I'm feeling the call of the SIP, and downsizing to 5 gal SIP bucket, HDPE food grade plastic. Filling 10 gal pots is just a lot of super soil to hand-mix. I'm getting tired of that. Very labor intensive.

I'm thinking... cutting my losses, just focus on the one Humboldt Dream going into flower. Keep the essential phenos going, and re-clone instead of up-potting most of them. Drop the Blueberry and White Widow... they seem to have little or no fungus/mold resistance, and they were freebies anyway. Then build my first SIP bucket and grow tried-and-true Humboldt Dream, Sweet Critical CBD, or one of my Cherry Blossom CBD phenos (#9 or #18). I'll be building a DIY SIP, so I'm interested in best methods for that. Maybe I could build 2 or 3 to start out with.

On top of all this, I've got my "cool & quick" bud dryer project on hold... would very much like to move that forward. I've just been super busy this summer.

Thanks for reading!

 

[cbdhemp808]

@Azimuth , I'm thinking of a bucket-in-bucket DIY SIP that simulates a GroBucket, with the tube and the overflow hole, and no wicking. There would just be lots of holes in the bottom of the top bucket, say 1/4" holes, for the roots to reach the res, radial pattern. I'm thinking a layer of coarse perlite on the bottom of the top bucket, and maybe a layer of coir above that, to help prevent soil from getting into the res. Would this work well? This would give me a full 5 gal of soil, and a biggish reservoir, yes? It also enables me to use 100% HDPE food grade plastic in the system, including 1" or 1.25" HDPE rigid tubing (black) from Home Depot.

 

[CBDMed]

@Azimuth , I'm thinking of a bucket-in-bucket DIY SIP that simulates a GroBucket, with the tube and the overflow hole, and no wicking. There would just be lots of holes in the bottom of the top bucket, say 1/4" holes, for the roots to reach the res, radial pattern. I'm thinking a layer of coarse perlite on the bottom of the top bucket, and maybe a layer of coir above that, to help prevent soil from getting into the res. Would this work well? This would give me a full 5 gal of soil, and a biggish reservoir, yes? It also enables me to use 100% HDPE food grade plastic in the system, including 1" or 1.25" HDPE rigid tubing (black) from Home Depot.

 

[cbdhemp808]

There would just be lots of holes in the bottom of the top bucket, say 1/4" holes, for the roots to reach the res, radial pattern.

I could also do radial slots using a skill saw, plunge cut.

 

[CBDMed]

I could also do radial slots using a skill saw, plunge cut.

(I know you are asking Azi, but as an interested onlooker, if you can get it to do that without shattering the plastic, that sounds much quicker than drilling holes...)

 

[Tokin Roll]

Here is a strain I thought might interest you @cbdhemp808 .
I will be growing it my next grow.

Royal Queen Seeds

Effects, Flavors, and Aromas of Titan F1: Powerful Effects and Sugar-Citrus Notes​

Titan F1 will treat your olfactory system throughout the flowering phase, and beyond. This autoflowering variety unleashes a powerful terpene profile consisting mostly of myrcene, farnesene, ocimene, pinene, bisabolol, and limonene. Combined, these aromatic compounds offer notes of fruit, candy, and lemongrass. With the highest THC concentration within our F1 hybrid range, Titan F1 exerts a powerful and fast-acting effect that melts the muscles and clears the mind. Perfect for enjoying after a long day at work.

Growing Titan F1: Stealthy, High-Yielding Plants​

With an average height of 25.4 inches, you can grow Titan F1 just about anywhere and maintain a low profile. This bushy plant features an indica morphology, a huge trichome count, and develops into a mature specimen in around 73 days from germination. Gear up for a uniform, consistent crop that will thrive in practically any environment.

Stay safe and grow well my friend,
Tok..

edit: The graph did not work and turned black, but the long indicator is for myrcene.

 

[cbdhemp808]

Here is a strain I thought might interest you @cbdhemp808 .

Thanks. Looks good, but I'm not growing autos.

 

[Azimuth]

Hey cbd, I look forward to welcoming you to The SIP Club!

I'm thinking of a bucket-in-bucket DIY SIP that simulates a GroBucket, with the tube and the overflow hole, and no wicking.

That design won't simulate the GrowBucket since you won't have a connector cup/bowl. To mimic it you'd put an upside down bowl at the bottom of a single bucket to act as the reservoir/air chamber and fill around it with soil bit leaving an easy way for the excess water to drain out.

I ran that design, that seems to work great in the 5G version, but it kept my 2G one too wet so I changed to a central column of soil that extends down into the reservoir. I also changed to a large NetPot as my container and look forward to running that as it should mimic cloth pots for air access which is important to me as I'm trying to move to high brix growing.

In your design, without a direct connection between soil above and water below, you won't get the true benefits of the SIP. Any reason you don't want to try tried and true for your first attempt?

T here would just be lots of holes in the bottom of the top bucket, say 1/4" holes, for the roots to reach the res, radial pattern.

1/4 in holes are pretty big and for drainage you could definitely go smaller than that. I make mine with a soldering iron and they're probably half that diameter and work fine. Without a connector pot it'll be hit or miss for the roots to reach the reservoir given the air gap that's central to these pots.

I could also do radial slots using a skill saw, plunge cut.

If you're going to do slots I'd go with a Dremel over a skill saw if you have one.

I'm thinking a layer of coarse perlite on the bottom of the top bucket, and maybe a layer of coir above that, to help prevent soil from getting into the res. Would this work well?

With small enough holes soil won't get into the reservoir very much and even if it does it doesn't much matter. A trick I use is to put really wet soil as a first thin layer as it will hold together and then fill above it with normal moistness soil.

If your lowest level is perlite, and your holes are too big, it'll fall through the holes more than soil will. But you could flip your layers and put the coco layer at the bottom.

If you're going to use the wicking function you'll want a homogenous mix rather than distinct layers but if not your idea will work fine if you swap them, but the perlite layer will serve to raise the Perched Water Table which isn't ideal.

This would give me a full 5 gal of soil, and a biggish reservoir, yes? It also enables me to use 100% HDPE food grade plastic in the system, including 1" or 1.25" HDPE rigid tubing (black) from Home Depot.

A bucket in a bucket design also allows for easy flushing if you ever do that in your grows but I'd still encourage you to rethink the 'no connection between them' idea.

 

[cbdhemp808]

I've got Azi tagged here, but I'm happy to have input from anyone, and especially if you have SIP experience.

EDIT: Azi's reply just came in, but I'll go ahead and post this anyway...

@Azimuth , I'm thinking of a bucket-in-bucket DIY SIP that simulates a GroBucket, with the tube and the overflow hole, and no wicking. There would just be lots of holes in the bottom of the top bucket, say 1/4" holes, for the roots to reach the res, radial pattern. I'm thinking a layer of coarse perlite on the bottom of the top bucket, and maybe a layer of coir above that, to help prevent soil from getting into the res. Would this work well? This would give me a full 5 gal of soil, and a biggish reservoir, yes? It also enables me to use 100% HDPE food grade plastic in the system, including 1" or 1.25" HDPE rigid tubing (black) from Home Depot.

OK, I see a problem now with this idea. The GroBucket does have wicking, due to the shape of the insert...

image: Peter Stanley video

The soil fills in around the insert, which means the soil is sitting in the reservoir water. So the roots are easily able to fully reach this wet zone, and the water wicks upward, while the roots can also permeate the slots and holes of the cone. (If anyone's wondering, the plastic used for the GroBucket insert and tube is PVC.)

And here's what the roots look like, reaching down into the reservoir wick zone of the GroBucket system...

image: @CBDMed 's thread

What people usually do for a bucket-in-bucket system is add a net pot like this...

image: Peter Stanley video

The net pot extends into the reservoir, and the grow medium fills the net pot, which then serves as the wick. I would naturally think that a layer of perlite at the bottom of this bucket should be used to help block soil from entering the reservoir, but apparently it's not a problem. As far as I know, with the GroBucket system, just straight soil is used.

 

[Azimuth]

Post up your thoughts over in SIP Club and you'll get lots of thoughts to consider .

 

[cbdhemp808]

I only grow Indica. I believe that was a "Cherry On Top" plant if I remember right. Grown in FFOF with Mega Crop, Monosilicic Acid & Nitrogen using @InTheShed Feeding Calculations. During Bloom I was filling the res twice per day during the last couple of weeks because they drink a hell of a lot.

Thanks for the reminder about silicic acid. I'm gonna use horsetail tea for bioavailable silicic acid. For my SIP grows.

 

[cbdhemp808]

Greetings Growmies,

My grow is at a low point, but I'm gearing up for a new and different approach... SIPs.

The flower house is empty at the moment. In the veg house I've got a big Humboldt Dream, now root bound in 10 gal, not drinking normally, and showing leaf curl... I will likely chop tomorrow... "just let go".

Good news is I've got 6 new healthy clones in 1 gal.— 2x HI-BISCUS, 2x #9 CBD pheno, and a couple other keepers. I've also got 9 cuttings just added to the cloner: 2x Humboldt Dream, 2x Blueberry, 2x Sweet Critical CBD, 2x #18 CBD, and a White Widow. So those will be ready in about 2 weeks. I was going to discontinue the BB and WW, but I'd like to try them out in the SIPs.

Yesterday I mixed up about 15 gal of really great super soil, using 5 gal compost soil sifted to 1/4", 5 gal fresh worm castings from my bins, 5 gal coco coir, and 1 gal of perlite. Plus the usual organic ferts.

I built a new SIP bucket design, as I reported in the SIP Club HERE, HERE and HERE. I call it the experimental "Triforce SIP bucket", because it has 3 domes instead of 1 dome.

Triforce SIP #1

Benefits of this design:

• All HDPE #2 non-toxic plastic (PVC drain will be replaced w/ HDPE in future builds)
• Single bucket (not bucket-in-bucket)
• Recycled yogurt containers (this one uses the 4-1/2" tall 24 oz. ones; i.e. less than a quart)
• 3 domes give 3 distributed air pockets (D1 has fill tube, D2 has drain tube, D3 has no tube)**
• Air/water vents on the sides of the domes for increased surface area of air/soil interface
• Large "R" zone**—the area between the domes where roots reach saturated soil in the reservoir (much larger than GroBucket or bucket-in-bucket net pot designs)
• 12" fill tube
• D3 dome may create an air pressure differential as reservoir fills and empties, encouraging air flow through the medium
• More details HERE

** Here's a diagram of the "R" zone...

This SIP will hold 4.4 gal of medium, and I'm planning to use a coir/perlite mix in the "R" zone, for max air permeability. (The "R" zone is from bottom of bucket to 4-1/2" from the bottom—i.e. the height of the yogurt containers.) Above that will be about 3-1/2 gal of my super soil mix.

I plan on keeping a low-ish reservoir level at the start of the grow, and increase as the plant drinks more and more. This may mean watering the soil directly at first, and then using the tube more later on.

My plan is to do a comparison grow...

I wrote to the SIP Club on 8/27...

Now I want to do a side-by-side comparison grow of 2 identical clones taken from my latest batch of just-rooted clones that I'm up-potting today to 1 gal. The comparison would be between my latest SIP build and a standard 5 gal nursery pot. I'll mix up a new batch of my organic living super soil, heavy on the fresh worm castings, to use for both pots. I plan on using a 5" layer of coir/perlite at the bottom of the SIP, so I'll do the same at the bottom of the nursery pot. I will water and fertigate approx. the same for both pots, but not over-water the SIP.

I have the option of flipping them at the same time, or flipping them at X" height in veg.

I like the height-based option... what should X be?

I'll create a separate thread and link it here.

I may refine the parameters a bit on the comparison grow... I think I'd rather use Humboldt Dream clones, rather than either HI-BISCUS or #9 CBD. So that means waiting 2 weeks for the new clones to develop roots, and then another 2-3 weeks for them to develop in 1-gal pots. It's a tough call, because I could use the #9 CBDs right now or very soon. I'm still debating on using a 5 gal bucket w/ holes drilled in the bottom or a regular 5 gal nursery pot, for the non-SIP pot.

 

[cbdhemp808]

I just did an interesting test...

I added 5" of coco coir in the bottom of the bucket ("R" zone), to fill in around and cover the domes. Then I slowly added 1 gal of water down the tube, in a steady stream. By the time I had emptied my 1 gal container into the tube, a little bit of water was just starting to seep out of the drain hole that the drain tube goes through. I added maybe 1 cup more water, and it immediately came out the drain tube. So, transfer of water out of D1 into D2, D3, and the intervening space, works as expected very quickly. Another dynamic here is that the coir is absorbing water, so some of the 1 gal added is getting soaked up by the coir. Strangely, with the drain hole at 3-1/2" from the bottom of the bucket, this is at the 1-1/4 gal mark. So how could 1 gal of water added start seeping out the 1-1/4 gal mark? Because the coir itself is taking up space in the 1-1/4 gal volume—i.e. the water only permeates the air space between the coir particles. In other words, a volume of 1/4 gal (i.e. 1 quart) of the medium is impervious to water (after initial soaking-in), thus reducing the volume to be filled to roughly 1 gal.

This is gonna work!

My plan is to use a mixture of coir and perlite for the "R" zone, but I may add 2 parts of that to 1 part super soil, for the final mixture... something like that. Lots of perlite.

 

[Azimuth]

Yesterday I mixed up about 15 gal of really great super soil, using 5 gal compost soil sifted to 1/4", 5 gal fresh worm castings from my bins, 5 gal coco coir, and 1 gal of perlite. Plus the usual organic ferts.

Soil aeration is very important in a SIP. 1:15 is 6.66%. Typical recommendation is 30-40%.