First Time Grow, looking to do it right.

  • Thread starter workngrow
  • Start date
  • Tagged users None
SC69

SC69

Supporter
514
93
I am beginning to be sent options and figuring out what my personal goal is, and how to achieve it. After reading through yours and other posts, I reached out to someone I haven’t thought of in a while and she is going to help me get the setup right. She can’t move in. lol. I need approx 4 oz a month. A few more here and there and I won’t complain. I have friends who would love a gift sack. I’ve learned a ton just in the couple days I’ve been here by reading through the various threads. It was yours that made me say “let’s do it.” Thanks so much for the info and enjoy! I am sure I will have new questions in the near future. ✌️
 
Mostlymooses

Mostlymooses

312
93
Keeping your operation going is key. Having as little to no downtime as possible will keep you up and running year long and get a lot closer to your 6 harvests a year goal. You got it right that timing your cloning/seeds is very important. Flower times are also crucial to be aware of, especially since different strains flower for different periods.

I have my room set up to flower 2 tables that are 4 weeks apart, so I end up pulling 12 smaller harvests rather than 6 bigger. The work load at each time is better for me and I have the spare time to spend on it. Might be difficult considering you are sharing water between your rez's, but it's something else to think about. Good luck!
 
workngrow

workngrow

219
63
@Aqua Man

How are things bro? Been a while since I have posted.

Just an update, closing in on 3 months total invested in this set of 4.

They are Anesia Seed's Blackberry Moonrocks.

Yet again, 1 mighty monster, and 3 smaller-ish ones. All 3 larger than the first round. If it yields more could net maybe 2lbs+

Almost lost all 4 due to what I believe was root rot many weeks ago but caught it early, pulled them out. Trimmed away affected root area, cleaned them and put them back in small system. Sanitized the large setup for a few days with just bleach and water then flushed it out before putting the plants back in. After trimming away a lot of roots, down to the basket damn near. Recovery took a few days but within a matter of a week or so, the roots had not only replaced what was trimmed but significantly increased in overall mass.

I picked up on the fact that the plants looked wilted almost unwatered. The roots themselves were covered in this long gelatinous ooze coating and immediately researched and executed the above steps to remedy the situation. As mentioned, they bounced back fast as hell.

Otherwise, no other problems so far. Plants look a bit rough here but they are regularly defoliated and tucked under the net.

Id like to fill this scrog out before flipping but the 1 is just so much larger I think I will only be able to wait another week or so. Going to flush this weekend, give a nice fresh round of nutes then sit on that for the next week or 2 while I determine when I want to flip.

Seem to be on the appropriate pace size-wise in just under 3 months from seed?

Feeding around 400-450ppm
PH in range 5.5-6.0.

Still using same nutes. Jacks/Epsom + Silica and Hydroguard


20220117 151301
20220117 151309
20220117 151312
 
workngrow

workngrow

219
63
Of other notable updates. I picked up a rosin press.


Nugsmasher XP.

Still learning how to use it. Rosin isnt bad but probably going to get into making bubble hash and pressing that into live rosin.
 
workngrow

workngrow

219
63
4 Blackberry Moonrock ladies, about 6 weeks out. Almost full 6x6 scrog out of just 4 plants. Id like them to be a bit taller/bigger but this should suffice for now.

Im expecting to hit around 2ps this time then ill turn it all into ice hash > Live Rosin.

3rd run, under 1 year. Process is stabilizing.
 
20220222 191607
workngrow

workngrow

219
63
Wanting better control and monitoring round the clock, splurged on some bluelab equipment. Highly highly recommend. Now that ive got emailed alerts and persistent ph control my numbers have been steady as shit and ive been able to spot and correct sooner when the numbers start to slip.

This is right after today's flush. Did the flush, dosed the system down to around 6.1, then turned on the controller and its been slowly backing it down back to 5.8.

1650053392725
 
workngrow

workngrow

219
63
So far so good, defoliating these a bit, let them heal/recover over a week or so and then will go ahead and flip these to flower.


1654606398075
 
Perrin6363

Perrin6363

636
143
As the title suggests, first time grow.

Like many I have done a fair amount of research to try and understand environment control, ventilation/temperature/humidity/tds readings/ph, the list runs on. Interesting community as everyone seems to find which way works for them.

I am diving straight into the deep end, puns intended, with deep water culture. The approach fits my time schedule and with the monitoring tools available should give me the capability to remotely monitor aspects of the grow. Parse out changes in environment and/or nutrient uptake over time, and basically generate reports. I work in a technical space, so data management and workflow is where I tend to thrive.

Since I've basically learned to date that a 'grow' operation has varying stages with varying environment and feed needs at each stage. So listing what I am working with for each.

Propagation:
Super Sprouter Premium Propagation Kit
Rockwool cubes
Clonex Seedling and Clone nutrients

Veg and Flower, same tent. (Will likely change in the future assuming this isn't a Trainwreck (haha).)
5x5 Tent
6'' Vent system /w humidity and temp control
Few fans (clip-able, have batts, should run for a bit if short power outage)
Dehumidifier
Wireless temp/humidity monitors (Data collection)
Bluelab Guardian Monitor Connect with the USB Connector (This for water measurement/monitoring/data collection)
**This would basically hang out in the res and transmit readings to PC (Think this can be cloud leveraged as well.) Almost a third of the cost is invested in variable monitoring because I dont want any sort of failure be a result of inaction on an item that gets out of wack, such as water temp or ph.

UPS System Surge Protection and power outage battery life. (This should keep the system rolling in the event of a short outage.)

The 3 variables I am trying to settle on for the final stages of planning this out is the lights, nutes, and construction of the dwc system itself.

The DWC System:
For the under current reservoir dwc system I am just going to model a 4 plant site system off videos and diagrams I've seen. The system isn't too incredibly complicated, though I did read in one of the threads here that it was possible to run this system without air-stones, and use falling water to oxygenate the water. So the plan is to drop a couple drains with maybe a fitting at the end in each plant side to push aerated water into the container. The thread also mentioned that the air coming from the stones tends to rip up the root mass and that they found the water 'jets' or 'drains' produced sufficient oxygenation. Any feedback on that perspective would be awesome.

The containers are 15 gallon, 25'' inches x like 14'' and 12'' tall. Black but will be coated in reflective material. They look sturdy, are made of the appropriate plastic and have a nice surface spot to drop a plant basket right in the center. Through research on bucket sizing the information I found said you want about a foot deep for root space, as anything after about that tends to want to grow outward instead of down. To maximize space for growing the plants in a 5x5, keeping the container itself at a safe but short height seemed important.

Otherwise standard pvc, fittings, etc. My super awesome color coded mspaint diagram of the general layout. This is just pieced together from what I have seen other people or companies sell. Most of the pre-built setups didnt have the right amount of spacing, shooting for 2.5m2 per plant or close to it which means everything needs to be centered and spaced appropriately.

View attachment 1100976

Nutes
Aqua Man here pointed me to the Jacks products which I am checking out. I am pretty sure whatever I settle with, it'll be powder based and ill be avoiding the Fox Farms/Advanced Nutrients rigmarole. So either Jacks or Lotus, which the cal-mag aspects with those seem to be taken care of so then I would probably get a silica additive and hydroguard.

Light
With what the system would be able to produce this is where I am struggling. I've seen some of the YT videos where Spock from I believe the univ. of utah shows you how to do light intensity measurements and calculate what's needed for X Space over time, etc. Using I believe was a quantum reader. I will need to go over this a few more times to understand how all of the conversions work because I am dumb. Really looking for the ideal scenario for potency/yield as probably most people.

The light I am currently looking at purchasing is here:

Power60-600 Watts
Voltage Range100-277 VAC 50-60Hz
LEDSamsung LM301H & Deep Red
Flowering Footprint5' x 5' at 28"
Veg Footprint6' x 6' at 40”
System PPF Efficacy2.55 μmol/joule
Total output1522 PPF
Dimensions26" x 21.5" x 2.75"
Recommended Mounting Height28-36 inches above canopy


Sorry for the long post, just a lot of information to take in the first pass and needed a place to decompress this and hopefully get some ideas/pointers along the way. Thanks in Advance.
Very good post. I'm a first time grower too, not here to give any advice but to relay advice that's been given to me a lot lately regarding lights. I guess that maybe is giving advice, it's just not coming from me. Hehe. I was looking at the same light, or possibly the scorpion Rspec. And though everyone agrees that hlg are awesome lights, everyone also agreed that bar style has a much more even distribution of light. I'm still torn between getting hlg quantum boards or another companies bar style but from all that I've read and heard I'll prob go with bar style. I'd imagine you've prob researched all this, but I figured it couldn't hurt to pass on the info.
 
workngrow

workngrow

219
63
Very good post. I'm a first time grower too, not here to give any advice but to relay advice that's been given to me a lot lately regarding lights. I guess that maybe is giving advice, it's just not coming from me. Hehe. I was looking at the same light, or possibly the scorpion Rspec. And though everyone agrees that hlg are awesome lights, everyone also agreed that bar style has a much more even distribution of light. I'm still torn between getting hlg quantum boards or another companies bar style but from all that I've read and heard I'll prob go with bar style. I'd imagine you've prob researched all this, but I figured it couldn't hurt to pass on the info.

The solution to this was to just get 2 quantum boards which I did, instead of 1. If we talking about light distribution is just about bulb coverage on surface area right. A Pair of boards will probably net you same coverage. Just about budget and what makes sense.
 
workngrow

workngrow

219
63
Very good post. I'm a first time grower too, not here to give any advice but to relay advice that's been given to me a lot lately regarding lights. I guess that maybe is giving advice, it's just not coming from me. Hehe. I was looking at the same light, or possibly the scorpion Rspec. And though everyone agrees that hlg are awesome lights, everyone also agreed that bar style has a much more even distribution of light. I'm still torn between getting hlg quantum boards or another companies bar style but from all that I've read and heard I'll prob go with bar style. I'd imagine you've prob researched all this, but I figured it couldn't hurt to pass on the info.
I should add that I ended up going with a chinese manufac. for the lights. Cut the cost in half and they perform up to par. (puns intended)
 
Perrin6363

Perrin6363

636
143
I should add that I ended up going with a chinese manufac. for the lights. Cut the cost in half and they perform up to par. (puns intended)
That made me lol. You have a link for the lights you got? Honestly I trust your research and if you got them I bet they're pretty good.
 
Top Bottom