16 1k lights 235 ebb&grow buckets! Lets get it on!!

[DreaminBig1207]

True true, but the 1/2 in. hole is still about a half inch above the bottom of the buckets. I cleaned hydroton for days and couldn't get it clean enought lol, it takes alot to fill too.

Also keep an eye on those contollers, 1 of mine the timers would start sticking at 3am every morning, another the float sensers would randomly stop working and over flow every bucket, happened 3 times.

But it still came out dank! Genetics is a big key too. I had 8 buckets under 1000 and pulled 3oz a plant but way better to sog, keep it up bro I'll be watchin. Hope u crush it!

 

[Bobby Smith]

Yoda - I'm sure you're feeling pretty overwhelmed at this point with 15 different opinions from people on what you should or shouldn't do - I'd recommend finding someone who's run the system you're running (or at least hydroton in an E&F setup) and listen to that one person.

Without pointing out any specific advice, there is some on this thread that's conflicting and some that's just flat out incorrect for your growing system.

Guys, he's not asking us what system he should set up - he's (obviously) already got his system, now he's trying to figure out how to maximize it - he doesn't need 15 posts saying to run in dirt.

Yoda, your setup is almost as easy as dirt for a beginner, and is 1000% easier for someone who knows what they're doing - sounds like you're getting the hang of it, so good luck and when you have a question, try to ask it as specifically as possible to help us help you out.

Neo, this is far from UCTestn's first grow.

 

[Yodas Master]

Thanks gents!!! Here are a few updated photos of the girls. The ones in perlite really seem to love the higher nute solution. Currently in these photos they are at 800ppm and 6.0 ph. No question this is the range that these girls are most comfortable. The girls in hydrtoton are alittle more stressed i assume due to the transplant? They still look alittle clawed but the yellowing on top has stopped altogether. I cant wait to see these in a week. I promise they will be way more healthy!!!. Anything you guys can see im doing wrong?? Im going to purchase a humidifier today---my humidity is basically 0 during the grow period and 55% at night... Sounds crazy but thats whats happening. is this normal???

 

[Yodas Master]

Hey Dreamin Big i know exactly what u mean... I have already had to change the float valve in one. Overflowed all over the floor. I believe i have all the small kinks taken care of and the system seems to be working well. On the older cap bucket system the feeder was in inch above the bottom of the buckets. In the these new ones the feeder tube is all the way on the bottom to drain completely.Somehow i purchased the older ones and newer ones at the same time. This is how i figured it out about the difference. So i raised my buckets, but u are correct in the older models the water does still remain!!!!!

 

[NeoMarius]

Neo, this is far from UCTestn's first grow.

I have only seen the trailer he has. Deep pockets and low experience. I had a bad day and got on to see him talking smack at me so it was a culmination of that. If I had a billion dollars to spend a day, I wouldnt have started my first op the way these two did, Its not meant as offense, Its simply shock at bad judgement, On that issue Shady and I are in complete agreement. Apologies for bad vibes or any offense given as it wasnt my intention. Really I only want to help as Im very passionate about my medicine. Sorry again.

 

[Yodas Master]

Its cool NeoMarius. I for one definetly have more money than experience as well but our intentions are the same as yours. Im here for guidance and help with what im really passionate about. I was diagnosed with cancer a few years back and after seeing what all these patients go thru, I felt i could help. Your right im sure i should have toned my setup down abit, but my goals are high. Id like to help as many people as possible with my meds...not just me. I havent always made the best decisions but ive learned to live with my mistakes and make the best out of them. Case in point right here!!!!

 

[NeoMarius]

Keep your head up brother, Fight that good fight and props to you!!!

 

[buffbuds]

That being said, I believe your 700 PPM mix is too high at this stage... I did read buffbud's post earlier and would respectfully disagree with his recommended PPM's in a hydroton medium... Whereas his amounts make more sense in coco with it's cation exchange capacity...

(I don't know how the internet works anymore, just plants)

I agree with everything from this post, though I obviously get to chime back in here to discuss this. I was taking into consideration that the clones were dieing from their condition, and noting that they looked more like a bad batch of nutrients (ala advanced nutrients 2006), normaly, I would start them at next to 0 ec (just enough base nutrients to stabalize and adjust the pH) and let it cycle once like that in coco. BUT.... he doesn't have R/O, so he is experiencing a problem with the ratios of his nutrient as well, (if you have base minerals in your water, they affect the ratio more when you add less nutrient, not much, but I am guessing he's working with less than 200ppm base, so only up to half can be an improper ratio). Also..... my first grow 4 years ago went JUST like this, ebb and flow hydroton with GH 3 part, though I did it under a 400 watt light to the tune of 56 grams.

Glad it's working for you, don't stop posting picture updates, it forces you to check yourszelf, and check here more to keep up in the game. it's what I credit most for my success (and all my income from local consulting for dispensaries (not an advertisement)).

 

[Shady]

BUT.... he doesn't have R/O, so he is experiencing a problem with the ratios of his nutrient as well, (if you have base minerals in your water, they affect the ratio more when you add less nutrient, not much, but I am guessing he's working with less than 200ppm base, so only up to half can be an improper ratio).

Hmmm, actually he does have RO and his system is not much diff from a typical ebb 'n flow setup with hydroton which I've been running continuously for almost two yrs...

Thanks it a 1625 gallon res. All r/o water. I have 8 different mini 55 gallon res to get ppm for different strains. Hopefully ill be doing around 10 different strains. Ambitious----yes, very. Spent my retirement on this place. Hopefully i wont have to hire someone to take care of it for me.

I dont believe my greenthumb is coming thru to soon!!. Ive killed alot of plants so far and while it may have been the clones, Im sure the seeds where my fault.How long does it usually take for plants to take off after transplant? Mine have been in a full week and seem to not look any better only worse. Ive cut about 30 yellow dead rotting looking leaves of the cuttings. The clones were extremely brown with no white roots. They are starting to root into the buckets but it seems to be taking forever.

PPm 400. Seems to be looking im over watering or over fert? Any help would be apprecitated.

The seeds are 2 weeks old from being germinated, but no growth there either. Im having trouble keeping humidity in my room. It stays at around 5-10% Maybe time for a humidiifer huh?

On another note, I would not attempt such a grand scale without the basic fundamentals first... Everything is relative though and some can afford to make costly mistakes. I'm not hating on UCTestn or Yoda... I cannot afford to make such mistakes and have heavily documented my successes and failures... I respectfully tried to help, but I'll sit back and watch as I have taken the time to assess this grow and offer advice... It's up to Yoda to sort through the details and figure out who has really grown successfully, or who is just regurgitating info from research rather than experience.... :itwasntme

 

[Yodas Master]

All i can say is im taking all the advice in totally. I can only go with the look of my plants. I think that it is honestly the nutrients. They are probably not for this type of thing and ill be getting new nutes first thing in the morning. I promise. Im going to use Shadys advice and stick with the three part gh nutes. Ive seen alot of guys running it and it seems to be the easiest for new users.

Shady thanks for your help. I have read your threads and Im totally listening to anything you have to say. I dont care what anybody says on this, its my thread and im really glad you have taken a few minutes to help where you can.

But if we could all stay on task and stick to helping each other it would be nice. Seems im causing alot of bickering between friends. Im thankful to have you guys and i dont want people to lose interest in helping me. Thanks to everyone for the support and ctiticism. I can handle them both!!! No harm no foul!!

By the way shady, you mentioned mixing calmag in with my r/o water. How much should i mix per gallon? Then add the gh nutes by the labels on the bottle? They are seeming to enjoy the nutes at around 750 to 800. Im totally draining the old nutrient solutions and mixing new batches tommorow with the gh nutes. Im going to start them at 500ppm and see how they do with those nutes on your advice of not going to high on the ppm at first, then slowly adding to the ppm over the next week or so??

 

[Shady]

Good to hear bro... Sorry for being a little assertive, but I had friends helping me in my first couple of rounds... Some were very experienced and some had only one grow, but they never mentioned their lack of experience... They just sounded like they knew what was up because they read a ton of journals and books. Needless to say, I realized that the best thing to do is take all the advice you get with a grain of salt and experiment for yourself... Experience and learning from mistakes will make you a better grower. Keep up the positive outlook and I'll be here to help as will many others... :cool

 

[NeoMarius]

Good to hear bro... Sorry for being a little assertive, but I had friends helping me in my first couple of rounds... Some were very experienced and some had only one grow, but they never mentioned their lack of experience... They just sounded like they knew what was up because they read a ton of journals and books. Needless to say, I realized that the best thing to do is take all the advice you get with a grain of salt and experiment for yourself... Experience and learning from mistakes will make you a better grower. Keep up the positive outlook and I'll be here to help as will many others... :cool

Ditto


:passingjoint:

 

[Yodas Master]

Here are a few shots of the stems on my plants. They are continuing to turn purple and i have no idea why. Anyone ? I cant seem to get it to go away and now its starting on my other clones also. Is this common? Im getting new nutrients tommorow and im hoping that will ease the problem.

 

[f1ydave]

Thanks Dreamin Big... If you would have raised your buckets 2inches above the height of the controller bucket it would eliminate that problem. Atleast on my system the bucket runs total dry. I also decided to use perlite on about half of the grow. Hydroton was terriblely dirty and i couldnt get the damn red dust off good enough. No matter what i did it was leaving a residue on the top of the water line of the buckets. Sucks. Hopefully ill be able to get this thing under control and on my way to becoming a master farmer!!!!

I was gonna ask if you double rinsed your hydroton before using it. That would mess up your nutes and ph. It could kill your pump too. You need to wash/rinse it until it no longer is bleeding clay.

You should consider getting a 60-120 site EZ-Cloner system with T5 light fixture to really drive those roots home. Use a cloner solution like CloneX and then transplant when you have 4-6" of roots. Get a couple 120 site and space em out.

I am not familiar with any of your nutes so I can't comment on them at all.

As far as the humidity, the plants need some humidity. Sounds like you need a humidifier. The reason the humidity goes up at night is because during the dark cycle the plants perspire/sweat. This is normal.

Are you cooling with window units?

IMO Soil sucks no matter how you cut it. Its so messy and dirty. Just my opinion tho. LOL

Best of luck to you!

 

[UCtestn]

It's all good. I'll just say that even I (with my experience or lack there of) have half the trailer in Sunshine Mix and the other half testing the UC, so I agree with ALL of you. Just not the way it was said.

I did say I have no experience with the ebb&grow.

MY experience makes me agree with the low nute count (as Shady said) and verify your PH over and over to check for drifts. Don't over correct unless it's really high.

As for Cal/Mag the standard is about 150 PPM (Using Hanna readers). The reason for this is because the RO filter strips everything out of the water including the natural minerals found in them. Because nutrients don't normally have a lot of Cal/Mag in them they need to be supplemented.

Perhaps Shady can chime in and give his opinion on how much Cal Mag worked in his setups.

+1 on watching the humidity and keeping it at the right level. Babies need higher humidity levels. I've used an agrowtek controller and really likes it's logging function. I can graph out the humidity, C02 and air tmp with it. (Kinda pricey though)

I'll say this, if this round has issues... I would consider changing half your setup to soil to ensure cash flow as soon as possible while you dial in the ebb&grow.

I'll keep watching, I think NOTHING is wrong with your warehouse. You'll work out the kinks just like any new room.

Good luck with the grow.

 

[yayarea]

www.lucasformula.com, check it out. Floranova Bloom Super easy for a beginner or pro. Check out dizzle's threads he uses nova with great results, also MASHUP aka rollinendough and Neptunes threads over at icmag. As for the calmag I use 1 to 2ml per gallon with RO. I would start with my ph at 5.6 in hydro and let it swing up to 6.1 before I take it back down to 5.6.

***ALL MEASUREMENTS PER GALLON***

1st to 2nd week of VEG
4ml GH floranova bloom, 1ml Botanicare calmag plus, 1ml GH floralicous plus, 1ml DM zone.

2nd week to end of VEG
7 to 8ml floranova bloom, 1 to 2ml Calmag plus, 1ml floralicous plus, 1ml DM zone

All of flower
7 to 8ml floranova bloom, 1 to 2ml Calmag plus, 1ml floralicous plus, 1ml DM zone

Flush last week

K.I.S.S.

 

[yayarea]

ebb & grow buckets floranova bloom, by Neptune
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=63724

 

[DreaminBig1207]

I was gonna ask if you double rinsed your hydroton before using it. That would mess up your nutes and ph. It could kill your pump too. You need to wash/rinse it until it no longer is bleeding clay.

You should consider getting a 60-120 site EZ-Cloner system with T5 light fixture to really drive those roots home. Use a cloner solution like CloneX and then transplant when you have 4-6" of roots. Get a couple 120 site and space em out.

I am not familiar with any of your nutes so I can't comment on them at all.

As far as the humidity, the plants need some humidity. Sounds like you need a humidifier. The reason the humidity goes up at night is because during the dark cycle the plants perspire/sweat. This is normal.

Are you cooling with window units?

IMO Soil sucks no matter how you cut it. Its so messy and dirty. Just my opinion tho. LOL

Best of luck to you!

He nailed it, I'm only on my second grow. So I'm no expert but have done alot of research and tryed the ebb/flow with hydroton my first grow. Didn't rinse them well enough and my ph was all over the place at first. My cuts looked like yours but bounced back in a few weeks. I'd make sure to just stay in the garden as much as possible to make sure everythings in key. Any nute line up for your first grow will be fine. Next time you might want to run half the systems in gh and the others another nute lineup and compare. Just a thought, keep it up bro!

 

[DreaminBig1207]

ebb & grow buckets floranova bloom, by Neptune
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=63724

He Pulled 1.5lbs from 16 buckets under 1k. Your running less then 15 buckets per 1k so your numbers could look like that. So I guess his nute lineup is where it's at, pulled more then me on my first try, but he also had problems with his timers sticking on the controller as well.

 

[Yodas Master]

Hey Dave washed the hell out of them, still left a small amount of residue. My ph is fine. Goes up around .1 evry other flood or so.
Yes three window units. I built this place myself and i think they are better than for multiple reasons. What do u think?

As for my friends with lucas formula. I was just talking about the dry nutes from gh. Had no idea about the lucas formula but guess what gentlemen we about to find out about it.We are officially using the lucas formula for the rest of this grow. Case in point i have a friend that grows in soil and has wonderful results with it. Apparently he didnt realize you could use in hydro too!!!!

Was just wondering if i should still add the calmag? My partner does not but he also does not use r/o water. Im picking it up just in case.

Ok gents its official---LUCAS FORMULA IN AFFECT FOR THIS GROW!!!!!

Check this out gents--awesome thread.A true must read,probably already posted here somewhere but here it is This is the link from the actual man himself. To all hydro growers read this asap!!!!