Vortex's Lab: 4x4 Secondary Garden & Experimental Thread

[Baron Von Blurple]

Well... furk.

The first go at automated watering was for shit. Put 2 emitters per pot (Lemmy got 1, since she is in a 3gal) and they barely dripped with a 400gph pump.

Sooooo.....

I fed Lemmy, who was starting to droop a tick, and called it a night in the Lab.


Then I did some more digging, and some more. Finally came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth screwing with, and hit up amazon for:

8" drip trays.


Will be easy to install. Just take the drippers off and the lines hook right to the tray. Tray takes the water and spreads it out across the top of the pot. Good nuff, and will be here Tuesday. My guess is they show up right after I head out for the evening.

Might have to get someone to grab them for me, so they don't get snacked up by some derpy idiot.

Either way, hope I get them put in before Santa shows up and I have to share the goods.

Gah...Dutch did it to me too. These are calling my name as well. Im more than intrigued. But again, come time to defoliate and you want to move your plants around. It will take some equipment unhooking and rehooking. For now, I am in the less is more camp, but dayamn if I wont watch you 2 play with them.

 

[multiVortex]

Gah...Dutch did it to me too.

Exactly. The fault lies exclusively at the feet of @Dutchman1990. Yep, all dutchies fault.


These are the 8in square ones, but whatever. They'll fit in my round pots and be alright. I'll have to adjust the bondage a bit to get them on initially, but shouldn't be too bad.

Of course I'm now finding out that we're going to have an overnight guest Tuesday night, so it may be Wednesday evening before I can mess with them. Ugh.

As for moving things around, I have that covered! One thing it seems I've done right lately.

You know those RO water connectors? The ones you push the tube on, and then can release them when needed? Yep, I've used those and can unhook the line from each pot if needed. I'm not planning on moving them though, which is why I'm hooking this up in the first place.

I was able to find a 5-pack of these for $35, which is good enough by me. I was looking at $15 more for a drip ring setup, but this will do just fine instead. Also no clogged emitters to worry about. The water will soak out to the edges so should be good to go.

 

[Dutchman1990]

Exactly. The fault lies exclusively at the feet of @Dutchman1990. Yep, all dutchies fault.

I’ll take the blame I suppose lol! Anything to help along the way

 

[multiVortex]

I’ll take the blame I suppose lol! Anything to help along the way

We'll see later this week how it all works out. Everything is set up, so should be easy to do. All the lines are ran, just take the drippers off and put the open-ended tube on once it's under the canopy.

They're a great idea. Once the drippers flopped out, that was that. Easy call to make.

 

[multiVortex]

Thankfully my brother is able to stop by on his way to his stuff Tuesday evening to pick the package off the porch and set it inside the house. Good enough for me, yep.

Not that I can do anything with it until Wednesday evening anyway, as we'll have an overnight guest Tuesday and then make the rounds on Wednesday.

That being said, the girls got some chow this evening, and they are really starting to gobble the drink. Turning into quite the little lushes. Maybe they need to attend an MCA (MegaCrop Anonymous) meeting.

Needless to say it looks like another big round of hand watering Tuesday for everyone, plus Lemmy's habit on the daily. Looks like Thursday will be the first real feed with the new drip caps. Even though I'll install and test Wednesday evening, that's all they'll get is a little test taste so I can see it work. Lemmy aside, as she'll drink it all up. The rest get the test and can wait for their normal cycle. If it weren't for Lemmy being on a daily, it may be possible to put it all on a timer, but I don't mind doing it for now. Some day in the future on another grow, it's possible. This one, I'm just wanting to improve their watering as access is getting limited. I could pull them in and out, but really it would be better to turn some knobs and drip em.

Lemmy is definitely the persistent one. She's probably in need of a main daily, then an afternoon snack. She starts to get a tick of droop to her about the 20hr mark. I should have put her in a 7gal pot, but didn't have an extra at the time. Not to mention I honestly didn't expect much from her with the late sprout and all that jazz. She's coming around though, which is good honestly. Love some Super Lemon Haze, and she's got sites running out her arse.


We have a temporary resident in the Lab. Well, back in the Lab, technically.

You may recall the sprouts for the RDWC being in the Lab while getting big enough for the RDWC. You may also recall that the only remaining girl was the second Strawberry Lemonade. Well, the GDP is runted out, and not sure she'll do anything. So the Strawberry Lemonade went into the RDWC today in place of the GDP, and the GDP is now back in the Lab for a minute.

She's still in her net pot, which is sitting in a tupperware with about 1" of nute water in the bottom. That should keep the hydroton moist enough for the night until I can figure out what I'm going to do with her. More on her in my RDWC journal, if interested.


Today was shot in the ass by company that showed up early afternoon and stuck around until almost 9. I was planning to get in and do a little housekeeping, but that went out the window. So tomorrow, on top of running the smoker for a couple briskets and a pork roast, plus dicking with the GDP, I'll be trying to get in and defol the girls a bit, and retie the Chica.

Lemmy and the crack baby are the most in need of some trimming so we can get plenty of light to all the sites they're putting together. Blue needs a little, but not a ton. She mostly needs tied up a little bit more to bring her down a few inches. She does need a few fans taken though, but not too many. Mainly just need to ensure she stays opened up as much as possible.

Six is doing well, but not really in need of much at the moment. I'll look her over good while I'm in there though.

Humidity in the main room is 48%, and inside the tent is running about 53%. A little higher than I'd like, but not a deal breaker yet. I cranked down the house humidifier, so that adjustment should catch up in a day or so and get the main room (and house) down to 35%-40% or so. In turn, sucking in drier air should help the Lab get under 50% as well.

Temps are holding well. With both of the 250w Budget LED's on full blast face melt, they are only raising the temps about 8F over ambient. Tent is running abiout 76F, and the room is 67F-68F depending on time of day. I think after the first of the year I'll drop the main HVAC down a few degrees to get the overnight temps down to 65F.


That's that for tonight. Lots to do tomorrow, but what else is new?

 

[Baron Von Blurple]

Merry Christmas kind sir, I hope your New Year finds you well with lots of jars filled with your top shelf medicine.

Grow on and keep reaching higher!

 

[multiVortex]

Merry Christmas kind sir, I hope your New Year finds you well with lots of jars filled with your top shelf medicine.

Grow on and keep reaching higher!

You too! Started in on a big defol task earlier, and got maybe 3/5 of the way through before having to get ready to leave for the evening jazzercise.

Ugh lemmy is a cabbage patch, and tell ya what, that chica is gonna be a big girl.

 

[multiVortex]

Fuck fuckity fuck fuck fuck...

Go down to the garden this morning before anyone else is awake, just to take a peek and check in.

Humidity: 68%

WTF?


So I slipped down a few times this morning, and before I left around lunch, and again this evening when I got back.

I'll be off to home depot tomorrow for a dehumidifier. There goes 3 bills. ugh!


So the slightly more detailed version is a week ago we got 8" of snow. Well, it's been in the 60's and close to 70 the last few days and all that shit is melting. Thus humid AF outside, raising humidity inside, and then even more inside the tent.

Granted we're very early flower on a few of the girls, but it just isn't worth taking the chance.

The unit I'm going to pick up is probably a little bit of overkill, but whatever.


Getting ready to go and (try to) set up the watering trays and test them out. Will try the smaller pump first, and move up if needed.

 

[multiVortex]

Watering setup tested and operational. Going to tweak on it a bit and play around. Why? Just cuz.

Went to the parts gettin store, yet again, and picked up a big dehumidifier. Getting ready to pop that on and get things back under control. Fingers crossed.

Got one with a pump option, just to be on the safe side. It's probably a bit much for the space, but I'm fine with that. If it works faster and isn't on as much then it works out in the end.

 

[multiVortex]

While I'm at it, Merry Christmas and/or happy holidays to all y'all.

I'm a bit preoccupied, and apologize for not making the rounds to everyones journals to be a bit more personal. However, the best wishes are still there and wishing everyone well!

 

[multiVortex]

The dehumidifier has been running in the room for close to a full day, and has the room down to 37% at 70F according to the hygrometer for the room.

The Lab tent is running at... 53% RH.

Well, furk.


Need to get it down more. I opened up one of the bottom screened flaps last night, and that hasn't done much. It went from 56% to 53% where it is now.

I may have the hygrometer sensor a little too close to the canopy, It's only a couple inches above the top in the center right now, which is where the Chica is vegging hard. So maybe it's picking up some of the canopy's micro climate instead of a true reading. I'll look into it a bit I guess, and think some of this over.

Any ideas from anyone around today?

 

[multiVortex]

Depending on who knows what, it seems the RH is anywhere between 48% and 52% any time I've looked today.

Been in the middle of some work in the Lab this evening. Pulled Lemmy out, and have given her a good defol. Damn did she need it, she was turning into a straight up cabbage hedge.

She's loaded with side branches from every which way but loose, to the point I had no choice really but to snip a few just to thin her out so she could get some air circulation through her. Of course it was stuff that was weak and wasn't going to reach the canopy anyway.

Now working on some 1/2" drip lines. I have 1/4" ran, and it was ok with a smaller 132gph pump with one or two at a time, but with the 400gph pump it wouldn't budge. Either the pump was bunk from the start, or with only 5 drippers (at times just 4) I created too much back pressure and blew the diaphragm. Not sure what, but it wouldn't even pop a trickle. Picked up another one at the hydro store, on their recommendation, and they offered a full exchange/refund if it doesn't work.

So what I'm thinking is I can run some 1/2" lines to each tray, with a ball valve in between, and slow the flow enough it soaks and doesn't flood it too much at once. If not, then I'll use the smaller one and do a couple pots at a time.

I guess my other option would be a feedback loop to relieve any back pressure, but that will be my last option. Once I find a working option, I'm going to redo the runs. Right now it's a bit of a mess from trying different things.

Well, break times over. Back to it.

 

[multiVortex]

Well, shit.

That didn't work so hot. It worked, but even just the little pump was too much too fast. I cut it back to a trickle, and the "flood plates" don't get even coverage.

Need to think it through a bit and look at some other setups to see what's working.

I'm thinking now about taking the 1/2" to each pot as it is now, but taking that and splitting it into two 1/4" lines. That would let me put a 1/4" line on each side of the tray and may help get water to both sides better than just one bigger line.


Well, off to do some more reading it seems.

 

[multiVortex]

First, how are the girls doin?

Well, let's take a look, shall we?


First up, tent shot:

Top Left: Chica (Mexican Airlines)
Top Right: Blue (Blue Dream'mattic)
Center: Lemmy (Auto Lemon Drop, aka Super Lemon Haze)
Bot Left: Six (Six Shooter)
Bot Right: Crack Baby (Green Crack)


Wait, wut?

Yes. I move the Chica to the back left, and put Lemmy in the middle. Chica was going to take over the middle, and she's headed towards being a big, big girl. She fits better in the back corner, so it is what it is. Lemmy in the center, I took her off her riser. She's at the level with the front two, maybe a hair above. Works just a treat.

Yes, that's my tinkering on the ground with hose and valves everywhere. More on that later, after pics and plant talk.

Here's Six. She's doing well, and may be close to needing a little thinning of a few fans. With humidity being a hair high, I'll be staying on top of that and snipping some fans when possible to keep things a little more open and able to get as good of air flow as possible. (Aside from full defol, but that's not the topic here.)

And here's the crack baby, doin what she do. She's got the start of some nice flowers, and also has my eye on her (as they all do, really) to keep her as receptive as safe to airflow.

Here's the resident hedge. AKA: Lemmy. Hard to believe she just had half a fuckton of fans taken off. She was getting so. damn. thick. it was ridiculous. Granted she had been "neglected and abused" for a bit, and is side branching like mad. Needless to say, she's thick as hell. I should have got a pic underneath her. She's getting a hell of a root to her coming up to pump those nutes up from the root zone.

Chica is growing, and has a few BFF's on her lowers. Yes, Big Fucking Fans. Twice a hand size. You may remember she was a bit of a late starter. Popped later than the rest, took a bit longer in the initial seedling phase. I wasn't sure she was going to make the 21 day limit for a top back then, but she did.

Finally we have ol Blue. Damn she is sticky and getting an interesting fragrance to her. I'm pretty excited for her, and thus far hasn't disappointed.


More? Sure. How about some rando's from me messing around?

This is off the crack baby. She's already frosting up, and up close has some pretty flowers coming on.

Six isn't being left out in the heat, either. She's putting on the frost as well.

These last two weren't great shots. Couldn't keep it steady enough, plus trying to keep lined up through my lens, and all that along with it. They're both off of Blue, one with a filter, one without. To get a closeup from her I have to go through a side access, and I have a tote of their feed water in the way. So not the easiest or most steady of positions.

Either way, they're all progressing and moving along.



=======================================


Now for the watering. I did some digging and going to prick around some more tomorrow with the setup. I'm going to run over to Lowes and get a couple drip manifolds. Run 1/2" to each manifold (one off a tee, one off an elbow) and then 1/4" from there and straight to the trays.

That may change, I have a few more things to dig through tomorrow, but seems to be about what I'll be after.

 

[multiVortex]

And here is the working watering solution. Well, part of it anyway. This is the front riser that is connected to a 6-port manifold. There is a second riser between the two back plants that is connected to a 4-port manifold. That's 10 spots total, and 2 per plant.

1/4" from the manifold to the tray, and I put a line into each side of the tray. 132gph pump and the flow is just right. Run it for 1.5-2 minutes, then stop and wait about 30 and do it again. An hour later, take the shop vac and suck out any (minimal) runoff.

The bad part is I don't have any valves. I may cut the line between the risers and add one to shut the back off, but I dunno. I probably won't do that.

What we have here works, and fairly decent. The square trays only cover about 2/3 of the top, but it seems to be soaking down alright.

This will also be the majority of what I end up using for feeding the next run. I've decided that it will be hempy/dutch/bato/whatever you wanna call it buckets. I'm going to use 3.5gal buckets, and put the round bucket size floraflex tops on them. The good thing about those buckets is they're shorter. This will allow me to put them on a riser, and use a reservoir to recirculate instead of DTW. This will make it easier on feed length, timing, etc. I think another round from Fast Buds will rock those buckets under the Budget LED's.

I'm obviously getting ahead of myself, but trying to think it all through and get the plan laid out so when it's time for action I'll be ready.

 

[multiVortex]

Forgot to update this, but there is a pair of these on the way and they will be here Friday. These won't just be for the Lab, but that's where they will first see action.

 

[Baron Von Blurple]

Thata boy, more scientific equipment for the lab!

 

[multiVortex]

Thata boy, more scientific equipment for the lab!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it!


Need to start getting my act together for the next round of seeds so they are here and available when these finish up early Feb. Which means figuring out what to run, procurement, so on and so forth.

Another round of autos for sure, and one better be Blackberry from FastBuds.

Would love to run a Night Queen from Dutch Passion as well.

 

[multiVortex]

2019's been a good year in this neck of the woods, and 2020 will continue to build on that! It's soooo nice to no have to look over your shoulder any longer, and I am so very thankful for that!


So I want to wish everyone following along a prosperous and happy new year as we usher in yet another new decade!

My how far we've come in this one, and I can't imagine what we will see with the next!

 

[Ganjagrandaddy]

2019's been a good year in this neck of the woods, and 2020 will continue to build on that! It's soooo nice to no have to look over your shoulder any longer, and I am so very thankful for that!


So I want to wish everyone following along a prosperous and happy new year as we usher in yet another new decade!

My how far we've come in this one, and I can't imagine what we will see with the next!

back at you multi good luck for 2020. nail those fast buds.