Thirvnrob's Power Plant - TLO Soil In SIP Containers

[Buds Buddy]

@Buds Buddy do you defoliate?

On photoperiod plants I'm a heavy handed defoliator. I just can't stop myself & get carried away at times. But everything still goes well so can't complain.
On the Auto I barely touch it. Those things are too finicky to mess with very much. Most I'd take off at one time is maybe 10 leaves.

 

[Buds Buddy]

It's running an a/c & a pedestal fan, both run on 110. As I said, earlier, I don't understand electricity so I don't know what the a/c actually pulls from the wall. Each outlet in my shop has a dedicated 20 amp circuit so I should be able run pretty much anything & not have a problem. We had a lightning storm last night that I wasn't aware of till this afternoon when my stepson told me about it (I've slept through hurricanes) so that could be the culprit - nothing else would've been running. Either way, the surge protector did it's job...

The breaker is 20 Amp. What size wiring to the breaker ? 14 is for regular House lighting. 12 is for regular outlets.
I ran #6 wiring from a 50 AMP sub panel to an outlet that handles 50 Amps in my wall. I use 10 gauge extension cords for my lights & AC which run off that breaker. The fans & other stuff are ran off reg. house outlets. I think I did it safely as I haven't had any issues & it's been over 2 years this way.
So you need to know your wire size & see how many amps that wire can handle & then keep it under 75% - 80% capacity to be safe. I live in a mobile home so I might go a little overboard on safety.... but better safe than dead !

 

[Thirvnrob]

Unfortunately I had high rh this year outside in the greenhouse so I trimmed everything under the skirt.
Normally I would do a light defol under the light line but rh was a factor so I went a little heavy.
But next year, Big Ass Dehumidifier and bushy bushy girls.
Inside they are thick and full.




#Vivosun #Love What You Grow
Bill284

RH is a concern for me too. I’ll probably have to thin these out but I’m gettin me a big ass dehumidifier too…

 

[Thirvnrob]

The breaker is 20 Amp. What size wiring to the breaker ? 14 is for regular House lighting. 12 is for regular outlets.
I ran #6 wiring from a 50 AMP sub panel to an outlet that handles 50 Amps in my wall. I use 10 gauge extension cords for my lights & AC which run off that breaker. The fans & other stuff are ran off reg. house outlets. I think I did it safely as I haven't had any issues & it's been over 2 years this way.
So you need to know your wire size & see how many amps that wire can handle & then keep it under 75% - 80% capacity to be safe. I live in a mobile home so I might go a little overboard on safety.... but better safe than dead !

It’s 12/2 Romex at the suggestion of my son in-law the master electrician.

 

[Thirvnrob]

Yeah, I grow great big root balls.
My girls can support everything above ground.
I see no need to remove the panels giving the buds energy.
Buds don't absorb light, fan leaves do.
Light trim under the skirt before and after flip.
Everything else produces me hard nugs so it stays.
Just my 2 cents.
Take care.




#Vivosun #LoveWhatYouGrow
Bill284

Until today I’ve always started from the top to get those pesky fan leaves casting shadows on those buds that ended up being plucked off anyway. Today I started from the bottom & went after the larf first. When I was satisfied with that I expected to remove a good bit of leaf but it wasn’t necessary. All those bud sites I was worried about was larf anyway, so I only took a few fans that were bunched up and in each other’s way. So now those leaves are there to support, through photosynthesis, the flowers I want to keep. Thanks @Bill284 for that suggestion!
One down

Two to go

 

[Bill284]

Until today I’ve always started from the top to get those pesky fan leaves casting shadows on those buds that ended up being plucked off anyway. Today I started from the bottom & went after the larf first. When I was satisfied with that I expected to remove a good bit of leaf but it wasn’t necessary. All those bud sites I was worried about was larf anyway, so I only took a few fans that were bunched up and in each other’s way. So now those leaves are there to support, through photosynthesis, the flowers I want to keep. Thanks @Bill284 for that suggestion!
One down

Two to go

I think that's perfect.
Below the skirt is wasted energy that produces nothing.
Above on the main branches with buds , fan leaves provide energy to the nearest bud.
If you remove it the bud has no direct energy source.
Then it has to rely on the plant, stealing energy from the other buds reducing overall volume.
Simple solution let them stay and energize your buds.
● As long as rh is under control and you have good air circulation.
If RH is an issue then it's a problem.
Otherwise I grow huge bushy girls that reward me.

Under the skirt was completely removed due to humidity.
Everything else stays.




#Vivosun #Love What You Grow
Bill284

 

[Thirvnrob]

Balancing the temperature and humidity in my grow area is a juggling act. To make a long story short, my original plan (when I built my shop) for controlling the environment doesn’t work when I have to deal with extremes regarding outdoor conditions. That said, I manage to keep it in the VPD sweet spot about 90% of the time so I think they’ll be ok. I’m really pleased with having gotten rid of so much larf & leaving those fans intact. Thanks again for that suggestion. Defoliating from the bottom up is the way I’ll do it from now on…

 

[Bill284]

Balancing the temperature and humidity in my grow area is a juggling act. To make a long story short, my original plan (when I built my shop) for controlling the environment doesn’t work when I have to deal with extremes regarding outdoor conditions. That said, I manage to keep it in the VPD sweet spot about 90% of the time so I think they’ll be ok. I’m really pleased with having gotten rid of so much larf & leaving those fans intact. Thanks again for that suggestion. Defoliating from the bottom up is the way I’ll do it from now on…

RH killed me in the greenhouse this summer.
First battle with rot.
I'll know better next year.
It's no joke.
Take care.




#Vivosun #Love What You Grow
Bill284

 

[Thirvnrob]

@ReservoirDog suggested I black out my white buckets. I had som 7 gallon bags that open down one side with Velcro to seal them back up so I have access to the drain hole. Not perfect, but a definite improvement.

 

[Thirvnrob]

RH killed me in the greenhouse this summer.
First battle with rot.
I'll know better next year.
It's no joke.
Take care.




#Vivosun #Love What You Grow
Bill284

Here’s a snapshot of what I’m dealing with. The room is 10’x12’ & well insulated & my radiant heat on the lowest setting gets the room too warm so I have to leave the door open & use a fan to blow cold air from the main room in the shop to balance it out. If it’s really cold
(for here), say below 40° F I leave the door barely cracked but if it’s mid 50s I leave the door wide open. For the next few hours the RH will be in the low 90s & the temps in the low 50 s & dropping to the low 40s by 3am. I do have good air movement & good air exchange but exchanging the air is what makes it difficult to maintain the right balance as once every 30 minutes all of the dehumidified air gets pulled out of the room. I’m going to install a window unit A/C - heat pump this spring but for now I have to manipulate everything. I’ve actually gotten pretty good at it

 

[InTheShed]

Here’s a snapshot of what I’m dealing with. The room is 10’x12’ & well insulated & my radiant heat on the lowest setting gets the room too warm so I have to leave the door open & use a fan to blow cold air from the main room in the shop to balance it out. If it’s really cold
(for here), say below 40° F I leave the door barely cracked but if it’s mid 50s I leave the door wide open. For the next few hours the RH will be in the low 90s & the temps in the low 50 s & dropping to the low 40s by 3am. I do have good air movement & good air exchange but exchanging the air is what makes it difficult to maintain the right balance as once every 30 minutes all of the dehumidified air gets pulled out of the room.

And people think I'm nuts for moving my plants outside and in every day! Ya gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[Chrondocious]

@ReservoirDog suggested I black out my white buckets. I had som 7 gallon bags that open down one side with Velcro to seal them back up so I have access to the drain hole. Not perfect, but a definite improvement.

Whats the idea for this? I would use white pots for outside, to keep the roots cooler, but I see no difference indoors under LED for black pots.

 

[ReservoirDog]

Whats the idea for this? I would use white pots for outside, to keep the roots cooler, but I see no difference indoors under LED for black pots.

Light leak.

 

[Thirvnrob]

And people think I'm nuts for moving my plants outside and in every day! Ya gotta do what you gotta do.

Some days I don't have to worry about temp or RH at all - some days I use an A/C during the day & a heater at night. Sometimes I run the A/C 24/7. Sometimes I run a dehumidifier 24/7 & sometimes I run a humidifier 24/7. I'm looking forward to March - for a couple weeks all I have to do is keep an eye on things but then the bugs will show up...

 

[Thirvnrob]

Whats the idea for this? I would use white pots for outside, to keep the roots cooler, but I see no difference indoors under LED for black pots.

These girls are fat & healthy in their white pots but I do believe that darkening them will be beneficial. If it's overkill, so be it but I think it's a worthwhile effort. Even if it doesn't make any difference, it's still good exercise. I'm proud to be able to lift the buckets!

 

[Chrondocious]

Light leak.

Aaaaah.....makes sense.

 

[ReservoirDog]

Aaaaah.....makes sense.

I tested these two side by side, one is blacked-out with thick contractors grade garbage bags, the other with nothing save the reasonably dark-colour, plastic tote material.

Results: I have no roots stretching into the reservoir space in the plain SIP, while the blacked-out version pictured below has roots crawling down the entire air gap space, along the wicking foot. The non-blacked out SIP has no roots crawling down, take my word on it. Both plants are mature, large AF, growing together in same tent, and both are clones (GG#4).

The roots pictured above are from the black look unhealthy brown only because they were fed a couple times with GH Flora Micro, which dyes roots brown but does no harm.

 

[Thirvnrob]

Looks like the humidity won this round. I discovered pm on the girls this past Tuesday so I had to get rid of a bunch of fans. I also eliminated the corresponding shoots & what I considered to still be an unacceptable amount of larf. I hate dealing with that stuff, so I took it off. Interestingly, the one plant that seemed sickly early on is now in high gear & appears to be healthy. She is stretching the most. She also had the least amount of pm & subsequently saw the lightest defoliation of the three.


I commented earlier about how difficult is to stay out of the way & trust the process in a TLO grow. I also mentioned in another post that I had top dressed with a high N mixture of 5-3-2 bat guano & kelp meal which was not a bad idea had I stuck to my original plan of vegging them for another 4 weeks, but I didn't do that. I flipped the lights a week after top dressing & consequently, flowering is off to a sluggish start. It was 12 days before I saw any pistils. Again, the sickly one is showing off already after three days of flowering. The others are beginning to catch on. I'm hoping the top dressing doesn't have a bad effect on my yield. Lesson learned. Since then, I've given water only...

 

[Thirvnrob]

Also wanted to mention that the subject of lighting has always been intimidating to me. The first time I read a thread related or dedicated to lighting, I immediately rejected it as something too complex for me to learn. ppfd? par? Lumens? I've always wanted to just be told how far above my girls their light source should be but I finally understand these are general guidelines based on several variables. So I downloaded photone & paid a few bucks to unlock everything. I don't remember who suggested I do that, but thank you. It isn't nearly as hard to understand as I expected it to be...

 

[Chrondocious]

Looks like the humidity won this round. I discovered pm on the girls this past Tuesday so I had to get rid of a bunch of fans. I also eliminated the corresponding shoots & what I considered to still be an unacceptable amount of larf. I hate dealing with that stuff, so I took it off. Interestingly, the one plant that seemed sickly early on is now in high gear & appears to be healthy. She is stretching the most. She also had the least amount of pm & subsequently saw the lightest defoliation of the three.


I commented earlier about how difficult is to stay out of the way & trust the process in a TLO grow. I also mentioned in another post that I had top dressed with a high N mixture of 5-3-2 bat guano & kelp meal which was not a bad idea had I stuck to my original plan of vegging them for another 4 weeks, but I didn't do that. I flipped the lights a week after top dressing & consequently, flowering is off to a sluggish start. It was 12 days before I saw any pistils. Again, the sickly one is showing off already after three days of flowering. The others are beginning to catch on. I'm hoping the top dressing doesn't have a bad effect on my yield. Lesson learned. Since then, I've given water only...

I havent done sips style, but Ive used high N seabird guano in the past, with just darker than normal foliage and slight clawing. Your plants look very nice and happy so I wouldnt worry too much. I think The soil balances everything out a bit.