Dirtbags Hydroponics Thread.

[Dirtbag]

Strains by row;
1, God
2, Bubba Kush
3, Platinum cookies
4, Violator kush
5, I dont know.. I tried to pick out what I thought was violator based on leaf traits, but my extras got mixed up. Could be anything other than cookies as cookies has the easily identifiable double serrated leaves. This layout is about to change though.

Forgive the childish drawing, I'm high as a Fkn kite right now.

 

[Aqua Man]

Looking great man

 

[Judaz]

I always kept the a little more wet in flower vs veg. Flower you will have a much finer line between PPM shooting up in the block with dialed waterings. Without monitoring or really being in there everyday checking everything it's kind of a chore and not something I wished to ever do with the amount of plants I had.

Exactly. If you try letting those cubes go dry you gonna spike up the root zone so fast your plants will be finishing by week 6. Don’t be afraid to keep them balanced by feeding them right with minimum 20% runoff and in late flowering I do 40% run off and low ppm as they start to use more water. Only in veg you don’t want to over saturate cube especially first 2 weeks

 

[Dirtbag]

This is what the last 7 days growth looks like. They're very compact, lush and vigorous.

I think my soiless grow looked like it grew a bit faster than this to be honest, but it was also very stretched, these plants are growing far denser with much tighter internode spacing and thicker branches than I got in promix.

These first 2 pics are actually of the same plant.

And something is going fucky with the EC and ph in the block. I've been feeding 1ec @ 5.5ph, and today before feeding I tested the block and it was 1.6ec and ph 6.2. It just seems odd to see them both rise. (awe man.... ph and ec are too high, better start over... ;))Temp of solution in the block was 73f. Feeding is basically RO with botanicare calmag+ and PBP grow
So I fed with 1.0ec 5.5 solution @ 68f with plenty of runoff until the block tested 5.7ph and 1.1ec. I guess I'll see where it's at tomorrow and go from there.

 

[AtomicRoostr]

This is what the last 7 days growth looks like. They're very compact, lush and vigorous.

I think my soiless grow looked like it grew a bit faster than this to be honest, but it was also very stretched, these plants are growing far denser with much tighter internode spacing and thicker branches than I got in promix.

These first 2 pics are actually of the same plant. Crazy.
View attachment 913728View attachment 913730View attachment 913727View attachment 913729View attachment 913731View attachment 913732



And something is going fucky with the EC and ph in the block. I've been feeding 1ec @ 5.5ph, and today before feeding I tested the block and it was 1.6ec and ph 6.2. It just seems odd to see them both rise. (awe man.... ph and ec are too high, better start over... ;))Temp of solution in the block was 73f. Feeding is basically RO with botanicare calmag+ and PBP grow
So I fed with 1.0ec 5.5 solution @ 68f with plenty of runoff until the block tested 5.7ph and 1.1ec. I guess I'll see where it's at tomorrow and go from there.

Look good despite your "issues"

 

[Aqua Man]

Agreed if plants look good no reason to fuck with it.

 

[Dirtbag]

Look good despite your "issues"

It hasnt quite reached "issue" status yet, more just an interesting observation. Seems unusual to me for nutrients to become that much more concentrated and ph to also rise. I'd expect the ph to drop as the ppm in solution went up.
And 3 out of the 4 varieties are expressing some purpling of the stems beyond the usual pinstriping I see on these strains, so I think it might have been legitimately out of whack a little. But it's not a big deal, 50% or so runoff had it back to exactly where it needed to be.

 

[cemchris]

See you are catching on quick. It's a little quarky at first if you haven't run something like that. After a couple of rounds it will all be like second nature like the other stuff. Even with a little rocky start you have them right back on track. Can't wait to see them when they get flipped. Just don't get discouraged. That first flower run is always a learning experience in cubes.

 

[AtomicRoostr]

See you are catching on quick. It's a little quarky at first if you haven't run something like that. After a couple of rounds it will all be like second nature like the other stuff. Even with a little rocky start you have them right back on track. Can't wait to see them when they get flipped. Just don't get discouraged. That first flower run is always a learning experience in cubes.

I think once there is enough root mass in there that things stabilize also.

 

[cemchris]

I think once there is enough root mass in there that things stabilize also.

Actually quite the opposite. That is actually when things can start going out of wack on you since the root zone gets so dense and becomes like a mat. Once the cubes start filling up tha'ts when you taper the ppm's off a little and when tuning the watering become real important to keep the blocks stable.

This is what they usually end up looking like after an 11 week run with 2 weeks of veg. Funny thing is these are kind of mild compared to how they get sometimes with the longer flowering strains or more veg time. A lot of times I would get 3ft+ root masses filling the drain channels in the table if it was sitting over one. Almost like NFT action.

 

[Farmer P]

Nice setup Dirt! Looks pretty sharp. The ones in the blocks look a little happier than the ones in the bags. Maybe a strain thing?

 

[Dirtbag]

Nice setup Dirt! Looks pretty sharp. The ones in the blocks look a little happier than the ones in the bags. Maybe a strain thing?

Nah the plants in blocks have a 2 week head start on those ones is all. The fabric pots were just planted a few days ago from leftover clones. Just bumping my numbers up a bit. But honestly I'm not even 100% sure I'll keep those in there. If the plants in the blocks go crazy this week things could change

 

[Dirtbag]

See you are catching on quick. It's a little quarky at first if you haven't run something like that. After a couple of rounds it will all be like second nature like the other stuff. Even with a little rocky start you have them right back on track. Can't wait to see them when they get flipped. Just don't get discouraged. That first flower run is always a learning experience in cubes.

Yeah the really long lag time waiting for roots really hurt these girls early on. I've been experimenting a bit since and found I get cuttings to root into the wool much faster using the heating pad and sticking the temp probe right into the hole on an empty wet starter cube, and setting it for 70-73f.

And thanks for all the tips, a lot of it has been very valuable info. So far I'm really liking growing in wool.

So is the issue in flower that they slow down on feeding and ppm spikes in the block? Until I get the feels for it, I predict a lot of syringe samples in my future lol.

 

[Farmer P]

I haven't tried rockwool yet. My friend told me if it gets too wet he sits it on top of another block for a while and that sucks the water out. Only tip I know.

 

[Dirtbag]

Well it looks like they hit their stride..
I went to take syringes samples and hardly got anything out of the blocks, they dried back to about 30-40% overnight. But I got enough to test and I'm right a 1.1ec and 5.7ph in the blocks still, which is very nice to see. Basically unchanged from saturation levels.

Also realized I had this beauty water barrel at work not being used. Say hello to my new holding tank. This bastard isnt likely to leak any time soon.. and with this I'll only need to bring water to the shed about once every week and a half. It's awesome how much less water this system goes through compared to 7 gallon pots of promix. Even feeding more frequently I bet I'm down about 50% in water usage. That's awesome!

 

[Dirtbag]

Another interesting observation I've made.. I've got these experimental plants under T5's flowering to show sex so I know which cuttings to keep, look for hermies and get an idea of how vigorous they are and other things I look for. Stress testing essentially.

Anyway I've been feeding them out of the hydro res just to see what would happen, and they're thriving at ph 5.5, in promix. I thought for sure that low ph would show me which ones are sensitive feeders but they're all loving it. Interesting....

Oh, and Dragon Cheese from dragons flame genetics looks like the standout. Reeks already at 2 weeks flower and is by far the most productive.

The ethos forbidden zkittles is kind of a let down so far. Really small lanky plants and lots of variation. I guess we will see how she smells.

 

[cemchris]

Well it looks like they hit their stride..
I went to take syringes samples and hardly got anything out of the blocks, they dried back to about 30-40% overnight. But I got enough to test and I'm right a 1.1ec and 5.7ph in the blocks still, which is very nice to see. Basically unchanged from saturation levels.

Also realized I had this beauty water barrel at work not being used. Say hello to my new holding tank. This bastard isnt likely to leak any time soon.. and with this I'll only need to bring water to the shed about once every week and a half. It's awesome how much less water this system goes through compared to 7 gallon pots of promix. Even feeding more frequently I bet I'm down about 50% in water usage. That's awesome!View attachment 913895

Hell ya! Less nutes also to boot. It's really nice with timed waterings and being able to say "I'm going to be gone for 3 days so as long as they have x amount of water we are golden". Does a lot for your sanity.

 

[Dirtbag]

Daily waterings didnt last long, They need twice a day now. Tested them this morning and I'm getting 0.8ec and 6.4 ph, so ec dropping and ph rising, that's what I want to see. But I dont want to see it t ph 6.4 either.. guess I should lower my ph and increase my ppm a bit.

I've also been struggling to keep humidity over 50% even with the humidifier going, damn cold weather dryness.. Its drying these things out super fast.

This is quite the learning experience.

 

[Aqua Man]

In hrydrob

Daily waterings didnt last long, They need twice a day now. Tested them this morning and I'm getting 0.8ec and 6.4 ph, so ec dropping and ph rising, that's what I want to see. But I dont want to see it t ph 6.4 either.. guess I should lower my ph and increase my ppm a bit.

I've also been struggling to keep humidity over 50% even with the humidifier going, damn cold weather dryness.. Its drying these things out super fast.

This is quite the learning experience.

That won't last long soon those babies will be pumping out the humidity. 50% not perfect but very doable.

 

[Dirtbag]

I inspected the roots tonight and found this odd white stuff appearing on the bottom of the cubes, anyone know what this is, and is it a cause for concern? @cemchris @Judaz @Aqua Man ?
I noticed it's on the tops of the blocks too but not as much as the bottom.

I have my own guesses but I want to see what you guys come up with.