First Time Grow, looking to do it right.

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Schwer

Schwer

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Man I really need a new name lol

No sir. That would undo too much of the goodwill you've earned.

Aquaman morefuncomics83 37
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

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Aqua is the name of the band that made the Barbie Girl song so idkkkkkkkk.


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Ok here we go... let me have it. In all honesty and sorry super hero ppl but I'd rather have my name associated with Aqua of I was forced to choose.

I know it's not normal. I loved superman, Spiderman buck Roger's (ok not a super hero but still kick ass) as a kid... I hated batman. That pow, bam, boom, crash and absolutely horrible acting that dad forced us to watch cause it was sooo cool traumatized me I guess the most hated by me is the joker (yup honestly, if batman and whatever group it is of those stayed as comics I'd prob love super heros) . Then they just got a bit to much and the acting with exception of spider man I just can't do it.

May as well air all the dirty laundry. Hate absolutely detest star trek, Jason, Freddy and all those horrible horrible movies with acting that i consider insults my intelligence. It's probably more of the extremely bad acting than anything. And well my brain doesn't do well with science fiction as a whole unless it's somewhat believable.

But yeah most super hero stuff is just really really bad acting.

I can watch Spiderman and a few others like Ironman but just not my thing.

And that's Aqua's version of rotten tomatoes.
 
AmokNewb

AmokNewb

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Was thinking just Aqua... but yeah I think I asked a while back and no can do cause it will mess all my posts up or something.
As a software engineer I would be more than happy to simply go into the DB and change it for you. :) including all post references. Would take maybe 15 minutes…

also I lived in CAN for a few years… isn’t beast master the national movie?
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

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As a software engineer I would be more than happy to simply go into the DB and change it for you. :) including all post references. Would take maybe 15 minutes…

also I lived in CAN for a few years… isn’t beast master the national movie?
Don't remember that maybe I'll look it up and probably recognize it... lol for some reason master triggered the memory of he-man and the masters of the universe... by the power of grey skull.. lol

Ok I'm heading for the door on this. ✌
 
Schwer

Schwer

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also I lived in CAN for a few years… isn’t beast master the national movie?
If not is should be. That movie is a masterpiece (when I was 10).

Don't remember that maybe I'll look it up and probably recognize it... lol for some reason master triggered the memory of he-man and the masters of the universe... by the power of grey skull.. lol
Makes sense... they're both blond dudes in loin cloths with giant cats 🤔
 
Schwer

Schwer

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@workngrow Your grow looks amazing btw. I didn't barge into the conversation just to poke fun at Aqua Man and reminisce about men in loin cloths.
 
workngrow

workngrow

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@workngrow Your grow looks amazing btw. I didn't barge into the conversation just to poke fun at Aqua Man and reminisce about men in loin cloths.
Lol all good this the first one and it'd a wrap. Should be time to start a thread for number 2 but may not bother.
 
Aqua Man

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Aqua. how many ppm of silica are required for Veg and bloom in soil grow (feeding once a week)
😃
Well I use potassium silicate as a PH buffer. Around 50 ppm.

But I will prob be upping it to 50ppm of potassium silicate and 50ppm of silicon dioxide.

I use start to finish is why is use 50 ppm. I'd say up to 150ppm of silicon dioxide? But prob 100ish would be good
 
SC69

SC69

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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.

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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.
First timer here too. Outdoor so this is all very impressive. Is it supposed to be this stressful though? Ha.
 
workngrow

workngrow

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First timer here too. Outdoor so this is all very impressive. Is it supposed to be this stressful though? Ha.
Nope but any plan done well and executed well is going to be involved and for most people this prob the first time they've grown and plan to consume what they grow so there's this added pressure to ensure quality is there. Now that my stuff has cured its starting to smell amazing. People were impressed so the job was done. Now to continue and improve.
 
SC69

SC69

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I just took 4 clones and was told I’d be guided the first year but it didn’t work out. Nobodies fault. The help I did get was the transplanting of 2 (the weaker looking ones). I’d never transplanted a plant but when the bags came I did it. I thought they were doing well. Flowering hasn’t been great though. I know I’ve probably shocked them a couple times. I may or may not have bud rot now. I didn’t know what it was just saw brown sugar leaves. They aren’t twisted and when I pulled them they did all break and not pull right out so I have a glimmer of hope. I didn’t know until it was already dark and I was reading about drying etc. Really anxious to get out there.
 
SC69

SC69

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Real happy to hear of your success. Do you mind my asking what the cost was per month to run everything? I’m going to have to move indoor after this flop. I’ll try outdoor again next year but I need to get moving on perfecting so I’m set all year.
 
Mostlymooses

Mostlymooses

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Scfm69 everyone's first solo run at outdoor usually doesn't go that great, and without someone to guide you I don't really think you can be blamed for not knowing about the dangers rainfall and high moisture pose to flowering plants. Don't give up on it, you will do measurably better your next run.

Workngrow I will add my hat into the pile, good work. You really took a difficult path to begin with and excelled. Keep it up!
 
workngrow

workngrow

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Scfm69 everyone's first solo run at outdoor usually doesn't go that great, and without someone to guide you I don't really think you can be blamed for not knowing about the dangers rainfall and high moisture pose to flowering plants. Don't give up on it, you will do measurably better your next run.

Workngrow I will add my hat into the pile, good work. You really took a difficult path to begin with and excelled. Keep it up!
Thanks a ton, already about to flip my next round of 4 plants to flower. Going to do some defoliation, let them heal for a few days then flip. These 4 should be bigger. Ill throw up some pics. This is a run of Skywalker OG.

Drawing up plans for run no.3, likely to order some seeds from overseas since I cant find the strain/breeder I want without doing so.

Funny how quickly you can move through harvests running 2 systems and timing the germination through harvest properly overlapping the runs and migrating from small system to large. I might be able to clear somewhere between 4-6 grows the first year which is that symbiotic rotation-ish situation I was looking for.


In response to the power and usage questions, its difficult to say because I started growing right at the beginning of the hot season. There is a lot of electronics in the house, With everything rolling elec can be as much as 290-340. Im talking everything in the house running plus 2 simultaneous hydro setups and the seedling one running 24 hours a day. I honestly dont think its costing more than 100-150 tops, probably less. LED Quantum boards and light cycling is really the answer there to keeping the costs low. As I understand the other light options are significantly more power hungry. Moving indoors though its not just light, its ventilation, fans, water pumps, possibly air pumps, air stones, the whole hydro system. Dehumidifer or even a humidifier depending on the ambient RH in the area you live in.

As is probably mentioned many times on these threads, you can grow weed pretty much anywhere but growing 'good' weed requires all the variables being hit.

The environmental controls/lights/nutrients etc, thats all science. With any amount of effort these are fixed numbers and ranges that should be fairly easy to hit with the right plan.

The plant training and proper defoliation and all that, all thats art and takes a lot more time to perfect between studying and just flat out experience.
 
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