Dirtbags Hydroponics Thread.

[MIMedGrower]

To add. What I do see from changing seasons in my room are different phenotypes. When it's hot out my seeds seem to lean toward sativa and when getting cold out more indica phenos.

 

[MIMedGrower]

I know I've shared this here before but here it is again. Everest explains it pretty much on the money.

I like his videos a lot. But he is only there to sell hydro gear.

And its cheaper to adjust nutes and watering habits than controlling the atmosphere.

Will i get more than 2oz per gallon of potting soil following vpd better.

I think no. The plants adapt.

 

[Dirtbag]

I like his videos a lot. But he is only there to sell hydro gear.

And its cheaper to adjust nutes and watering habits than controlling the atmosphere.

Will i get more than 2oz per gallon of potting soil following vpd better.

I think no. The plants adapt.

It's true it's often cheaper to adjust by manipulating the nutrients rather than the atmosphere, but that's still manipulating variables to allow decent plant growth with your VPD.

I do believe there are ranges that work better than others though, and by maximizing a plants metabolism by keeping it at the perfect temp and transpiration rate you can cut a large % of the veg time off, and get plants with bigger thicker stems and bigger leaves, quicker.

Bear with me here.. I sort of see VPD as the throttle of an engine, where temp and humidity are the gas and air. If gas or air are out of proportion you get it running rich or lean.
Sure you can make it run at different throttle rates, but the engine is usually running the best and cleanest (Highest metabolism) at 2/3-3/4 throttle. And yes, this is good weed I'm smokin' hahaha.

 

[MIMedGrower]

It's true it's often cheaper to adjust by manipulating the nutrients rather than the atmosphere, but that's still manipulating variables to allow decent plant growth with your VPD.

I do believe there are ranges that work better than others though, and by maximizing a plants metabolism by keeping it at the perfect temp and transpiration rate you can cut a large % of the veg time off, and get plants with bigger thicker stems and bigger leaves, quicker.

Bear with me here.. I sort of see VPD as the throttle of an engine, where temp and humidity are the gas and air. If gas or air are out of proportion you get it running rich or lean.
Sure you can make it run at different throttle rates, but the engine is usually running the best and cleanest (Highest metabolism) at 2/3-3/4 throttle. And yes, this is good weed I'm smokin' hahaha.

I get it. Im just never going to worry about it in a ventilated room.

 

[Judaz]

Oh I keep VPD well in check. Currently temps are 23-26c, RH is 60-65 and leaf temps are about 22-23c at top of canopy.

Balancing the VPD partly explains my odd layout. It was heavily considered when choosing total lamp watts, vertical vs horizontal lamps, and exhaust fan size etc.

Curious as to what’s your strategy to maintain this kind of leaf temps on tops with your current setup. Especially when the high in the room goes to 26. Is it an observation that you see from the min and max temps you experience in your room as a result of fans hitting tops or is there a way you manage this process?

 

[Dirtbag]

Curious as to what’s your strategy to maintain this kind of leaf temps on tops with your current setup. Especially when the high in the room goes to 26. Is it an observation that you see from the min and max temps you experience in your room as a result of fans hitting tops or is there a way you manage this process?

Primarily I depend on vertical lighting so the plants recieve very little radiant heat from the lamps, and having my circulation fans and fresh air intake between the canopy and the lamps. My min/max are located just at canopy height. Average in the room is closer to 24-25, and transpiration is enough to cool the leaves down a couple degrees just by minimizing radiant heat exposure.

 

[Dirtbag]

Lol! I get the irrigation mostly complete and start filling the 210L water tote, and I get about 5 gallons of water on the floor. Damn thing has a crack in the bottom. But the messed up thing is I leak tested it at work a couple weeks ago and it was fine. Just lucky it happened now and not when I wasn't here. I really need to get a floor drain in here now that I'll have this much water in here on pumps and timers. Guess that's tomorrows project...
ill use a rubbermaid trashcan for now I suppose lol.

On another note, Ill be getting a few backup cuttings planted in fabrics of rockwool cubes tonight for a total of 20 plants instead of 16, and should have the system automated by bedtime, barring anymore unforeseen complications...

 

[Dirtbag]

One more unforeseen complication, pump doesnt have enough pressure to fully open the check valve. That's surprising...

I guess I'll have to run it without one for now. Hopefully I got the benches high enough lol.

 

[Dirtbag]

Alright, lines flushed with peroxide and the irrigation system is working properly.
Now to just get a few of these clones planted. Tomorrow I think I'll spread them out and fire up the second light.

 

[cemchris]

How long is the shock period for stuff like topping plants in wool? anyone know? Now that they're out of transplant-stasis the growth rate seems to have gone crazy. If i do top I'll need to do it tomorrow. Itll be 12 days since transplant and will leave it 2 weeks to keep vegging. I'm curious to see how much they will grow in that time.

Very small. Maybe a day or 2 or less. Just head the warning. Cut your normal veg time by about a week in rockwool. The growth you are seeing atm is going to be nothing compared to the flip and the 2-4 weeks following it. I overgrew quite a few of my rooms in the beginning making this mistake. If the plant is a stretcher it will be a hella of a strechter. East coast would go about 2.5x on flip for me. You saw my table and light height. 3 weeks is too long for that setup. The Bubba x Stardawg strain 3 weeks is almost the right amount of time from day 1 of transplant and topping once at the 4th node and its a squaty.

Went out of town. Nice to see things turn around for you.

As far as nutes, if you aren't liking the mega but seems to be working now, look to see if Peters is in Canada. Oasis (Jacks) and Peters Hydroponic Special is pretty much the same thing (1 - K in the NPK only difference). I still dont understand why that happened with the mega. They even say you can go like 250:1 for dosers with it.

edit: looks like Jacks you can get in canada " Oh SNAP, our Canadian shipping option is broken. If you are looking to place an order to ship to Canada, shoot us an email at [email protected] or give us a call today and we will take care of it for you! "


I see them rainbirds :D

 

[Dirtbag]

Very small. Maybe a day or 2 or less. Just head the warning. Cut your normal veg time by about a week in rockwool. The growth you are seeing atm is going to be nothing compared to the flip and the 2-4 weeks following it. I overgrew quite a few of my rooms in the beginning making this mistake. If the plant is a stretcher it will be a hella of a strechter. East coast would go about 2.5x on flip for me. You saw my table and light height. 3 weeks is too long for that setup. The Bubba x Stardawg strain 3 weeks is almost the right amount of time from day 1 of transplant and topping once at the 4th node and its a squaty.

Went out of town. Nice to see things turn around for you.

As far as nutes, if you aren't liking the mega but seems to be working now, look to see if Peters is in Canada. Oasis (Jacks) and Peters Hydroponic Special is pretty much the same thing (1 - K in the NPK only difference). I still dont understand why that happened with the mega. They even say you can go like 250:1 for dosers with it.

edit: looks like Jacks you can get in canada " Oh SNAP, our Canadian shipping option is broken. If you are looking to place an order to ship to Canada, shoot us an email at [email protected] or give us a call today and we will take care of it for you! "


I see them rainbirds :D

Yeah man the rainbirds were cheap and they work excellent. Nice and free flowing with the 1/4" line and every end is pushing the same volume. Thanks for that tip.

I'll watch for crazy stretch, you're the fourth person to tell me that now. Theyll be flipped next week sometime so I think itll be ok. I've got lots of ceiling height to play with... And yeah they didnt slow down after topping at all. Like not at all. Cool to see this plant behave so differently than I've seen for any of my grows in the last 20 years, anytime I top plants in soiless they stall for 2-4 days and do nothing. After topping these I came in the next day to see all the side branches had grown a couple inches! Unbelievable. When you see shit like that it becomes clear just how much stronger the plants metabolism is in this system.

As for megacrop.. I havent used it on these plants, I'm still working through my bottle of PBP and will probably stick with pbp for the rest of the cycle. I'll keep the MC for outdoor plants next year and experiment with it on my other vegging plants some more. But in more recent online chatter, guys like Hydrored are now saying this version 3 doesnt work nearly as well as V1 or V2, and a lot of people who were raving about it before arent using it anymore.. lol, I wish I had done some more research on it honestly. They sent me version 3 in an old V2 bag, wrong nutrient percentages printed on the bag and everything. But I confirmed all product in Canada is V3.
I'll check out Jack's. I'm honestly now considering making my own. I know enough growers I'm sure I could convince a couple of them to split on some bags with me.

 

[MIMedGrower]

I have been wondering about stability on these little cubes. My style plant would fall right over in a 6” cube. Unless it was in steel wool. Lol

 

[Dirtbag]

I have been wondering about stability on these little cubes. My style plant would fall right over in a 6” cube. Unless it was in steel wool. Lol

They're surprisingly heavy when they're wet, but I think taller plants with less support would be better in a 3" block on a unislab for that reason.

I'll be using netting again so not an issue here, 2 rows of nets and the plants arent falling over.

 

[Aqua Man]

Yeah man the rainbirds were cheap and they work excellent. Nice and free flowing with the 1/4" line and every end is pushing the same volume. Thanks for that tip.

I'll watch for crazy stretch, you're the fourth person to tell me that now. Theyll be flipped next week sometime so I think itll be ok. I've got lots of ceiling height to play with... And yeah they didnt slow down after topping at all. Like not at all. Cool to see this plant behave so differently than I've seen for any of my grows in the last 20 years, anytime I top plants in soiless they stall for 2-4 days and do nothing. After topping these I came in the next day to see all the side branches had grown a couple inches! Unbelievable. When you see shit like that it becomes clear just how much stronger the plants metabolism is in this system.

As for megacrop.. I havent used it on these plants, I'm still working through my bottle of PBP and will probably stick with pbp for the rest of the cycle. I'll keep the MC for outdoor plants next year and experiment with it on my other vegging plants some more. But in more recent online chatter, guys like Hydrored are now saying this version 3 doesnt work nearly as well as V1 or V2, and a lot of people who were raving about it before arent using it anymore.. lol, I wish I had done some more research on it honestly. They sent me version 3 in an old V2 bag, wrong nutrient percentages printed on the bag and everything. But I confirmed all product in Canada is V3.
I'll check out Jack's. I'm honestly now considering making my own. I know enough growers I'm sure I could convince a couple of them to split on some bags with me.

It doesn't matter how many people tell you about stretch... The first time your gonna shit yourself lol. Also why it's so important to try and get as much dialed in before flip as possible. Most dirt growers don't feel it's a make or break thing but it has a big impact when you are getting growth rates like you are and just goes to show how much the science is supports things like VPD, day/night diff and CO2. While in soil these don't make a whole lot of visual difference so it's not seen as important.

 

[MIMedGrower]

It doesn't matter how many people tell you about stretch... The first time your gonna shit yourself lol. Also why it's so important to try and get as much dialed in before flip as possible. Most dirt growers don't feel it's a make or break thing but it has a big impact when you are getting growth rates like you are and just goes to show how much the science is supports things like VPD, day/night diff and CO2. While in soil these don't make a whole lot of visual difference so it's not seen as important.

My latest blt plant is growing about 2” per day. It will triple in size in 10-14 days. I have only really noticed a major difference in the speed of veg with hydro from what i have seen.

And final yields about the same as im getting per space.

I would try it but we get too many power outages out here. Even short outages would be a huge pain.

 

[Aqua Man]

My latest blt plant is growing about 2” per day. It will triple in size in 10-14 days. I have only really noticed a major difference in the speed of veg with hydro from what i have seen.

And final yields about the same as im getting per space.

I would try it but we get too many power outages out here. Even short outages would be a huge pain.

Yeah power outage = death in my system I do have an air pump with battery back up if I need it. But puts out less volume and only has about 2hrs of use

 

[chemistry]

My latest blt plant is growing about 2” per day. It will triple in size in 10-14 days. I have only really noticed a major difference in the speed of veg with hydro from what i have seen.

And final yields about the same as im getting per space.

I would try it but we get too many power outages out here. Even short outages would be a huge pain.

Try a one potter just to see if you like DWC, the results will blow you away, and you will become hooked, you've been warned. lol

 

[MIMedGrower]

Try a one potter just to see if you like DWC, the results will blow you away, and you will become hooked, you've been warned. lol

No i am not going to rely on electric for my plants to live out here.

I also like growing in pots so i can move the plants. And i need them in different stages.

Hydro seems like a huge expense and a lot of work and worry to me. And cant really work in my system.

 

[Dirtbag]

I can see why it's not for everyone, but I'm having fun with it and it works perfectly for my system. And besides the UV light which most people probably dont need, it's really only cost me about $180 in irrigation stuff. Rockwool alleviates some of the issue with power outages, as it can retain a lot of water and keep the plants alive for a few days. I run a backup generator anyway.

For me the benefits outweigh the initial setup and costs. Automated watering is a huge one I wanted to do anyway, greatly enhanced growth rate compared to my promix grows, I'm using less water overall, way more control over ph and ec in the rootzone. Only downside for me has been installing the watering system with my fucked up back, I swear I'm two steps from needing a walker. I can barely put my shoes on these days.

I really like the concept of using the rockwool croutons in fabric pots. I imagine the air pruned root structure will go berserk in the wool with all those air pockets. Ive got 5 of these plants, one to replace the one I killed with ph9 and 4 to add an extra row. Not gonna top these ones to try and keep the canopy roughly the same. From what I've seen the lag time is much shorter in the croutons, and the clones going into them are very well established. Let's see what they can do in a week and a half for veg.

 

[MIMedGrower]

I can see why it's not for everyone, but I'm having fun with it and it works perfectly for my system. And besides the UV light which most people probably dont need, it's really only cost me about $180 in irrigation stuff. Rockwool alleviates some of the issue with power outages, as it can retain a lot of water and keep the plants alive for a few days. I run a backup generator anyway.

For me the benefits outweigh the initial setup and costs. Automated watering is a huge one I wanted to do anyway, greatly enhanced growth rate compared to my promix grows, I'm using less water overall, way more control over ph and ec in the rootzone. Only downside for me has been installing the watering system with my fucked up back, I swear I'm two steps from needing a walker. I can barely put my shoes on these days.

I really like the concept of using the rockwool croutons in fabric pots. I imagine the air pruned root structure will go berserk in the wool with all those air pockets. Ive got 5 of these plants, one to replace the one I killed with ph9 and 4 to add an extra row. Not gonna top these ones to try and keep the canopy roughly the same. From what I've seen the lag time is much shorter in the croutons, and the clones going into them are very well established. Let's see what they can do in a week and a half for veg.View attachment 912288

I didnt know it held water and could keep a plant alive that long. That alleviates my problem.

And i could use the little cubes in my containers and still move the plants.

Maybe i will hand water one to see one of these days. Thanks for the info.