Need help dialing in shot frequency schedule for drip to waste program

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koolwhip

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whattup Dirtbag? New here. First post. Good to know these threads are alive and well.. been years. I recall your name from scrolling thru doing research of late.
I am a year in running a drain to waste system using Rockwool (Hugos) and drip irrigation. still not dialed and frustrated. knew nothing about drybacks, crop steering and how sensitive and easy to overfeed Rockwool is. quite a learning curve and I do know my way around a garden.

my system pushes 35ml per minute per stake. I run 3 stakes equating to a 105 ml shot size. I do lights on for two hrs followed by a 1 min / 105ml irrigation every hr. (four hrs, four shots) until a 5 min flood. total feed is 9 min. = 945 ml daily feed. 20 % runoff is 190 ml. has worked decent with other runs and been tweaked plenty. seemed alright wk 1-3 thru stretch then was drying a bunch, increase feed, tweak, blah blah blah then fucked!!

QUESTION:
1.) should shot size be tweaked throughout cycle? saw a fella here suggesting 2% veg, 3%stretch, 4% flower, 6 % late bloom
2.) shot size frequency to achieve proper dry back?
3.) shot frequency schedule?

does shot frequency change weekly? - every hour until flood at midday -vs- every other hour for example.
would I increase that 105ml /min feed (3%) every hour to a 210ml / min. (6%) every other hour possibly? in late flower?

recap: lights on at 4:00, 1 min., 105ml shot at 6;00, 7:00, 8:00, 9;00, then a 5 min./ 525 ml flood at 10:00. lights off 4:00.

I feel like I'm so close to unlocking the key. I only run 3, 4 x 8 tables. 28 in each ( 4x7). two fluence spyders over ea. I just can't see needing a grosense or troll master water content reader or such. when did growing a weed become so difficult? its simple, a fuckin weed for shits sake!

any help would be appreciated. if not your cup of tea please forward to anyone you feel can help break the code.

thanks in advance and be well brother.
 
K

koolwhip

12
3
whattup Dirtbag? New here. First post. Good to know these threads are alive and well.. been years. I recall your name from scrolling thru doing research of late.
I am a year in running a drain to waste system using Rockwool (Hugos) and drip irrigation. still not dialed and frustrated. knew nothing about drybacks, crop steering and how sensitive and easy to overfeed Rockwool is. quite a learning curve and I do know my way around a garden.

my system pushes 35ml per minute per stake. I run 3 stakes equating to a 105 ml shot size. I do lights on for two hrs followed by a 1 min / 105ml irrigation every hr. (four hrs, four shots) until a 5 min flood. total feed is 9 min. = 945 ml daily feed. 20 % runoff is 190 ml. has worked decent with other runs and been tweaked plenty. seemed alright wk 1-3 thru stretch then was drying a bunch, increase feed, tweak, blah blah blah then fucked!!

QUESTION:
1.) should shot size be tweaked throughout cycle? saw a fella here suggesting 2% veg, 3%stretch, 4% flower, 6 % late bloom
2.) shot size frequency to achieve proper dry back?
3.) shot frequency schedule?

does shot frequency change weekly? - every hour until flood at midday -vs- every other hour for example.
would I increase that 105ml /min feed (3%) every hour to a 210ml / min. (6%) every other hour possibly? in late flower?

recap: lights on at 4:00, 1 min., 105ml shot at 6;00, 7:00, 8:00, 9;00, then a 5 min./ 525 ml flood at 10:00. lights off 4:00.

I feel like I'm so close to unlocking the key. I only run 3, 4 x 8 tables. 28 in each ( 4x7). two fluence spyders over ea. I just can't see needing a grosense or troll master water content reader or such. when did growing a weed become so difficult? its simple, a fuckin weed for shits sake!

any help would be appreciated. if not your cup of tea please forward to anyone you feel can help break the code.

thanks in advance and be well


****can someone forward this to chemistry, jumpincactus, cemchris, capulator, sunhouse and kind gent who suggested I create a new thread? Not too technologically savvy here. Gracias
 
tobh

tobh

Supporter
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whattup Dirtbag? New here. First post. Good to know these threads are alive and well.. been years. I recall your name from scrolling thru doing research of late.
I am a year in running a drain to waste system using Rockwool (Hugos) and drip irrigation. still not dialed and frustrated. knew nothing about drybacks, crop steering and how sensitive and easy to overfeed Rockwool is. quite a learning curve and I do know my way around a garden.

my system pushes 35ml per minute per stake. I run 3 stakes equating to a 105 ml shot size. I do lights on for two hrs followed by a 1 min / 105ml irrigation every hr. (four hrs, four shots) until a 5 min flood. total feed is 9 min. = 945 ml daily feed. 20 % runoff is 190 ml. has worked decent with other runs and been tweaked plenty. seemed alright wk 1-3 thru stretch then was drying a bunch, increase feed, tweak, blah blah blah then fucked!!

QUESTION:
1.) should shot size be tweaked throughout cycle? saw a fella here suggesting 2% veg, 3%stretch, 4% flower, 6 % late bloom
2.) shot size frequency to achieve proper dry back?
3.) shot frequency schedule?

does shot frequency change weekly? - every hour until flood at midday -vs- every other hour for example.
would I increase that 105ml /min feed (3%) every hour to a 210ml / min. (6%) every other hour possibly? in late flower?

recap: lights on at 4:00, 1 min., 105ml shot at 6;00, 7:00, 8:00, 9;00, then a 5 min./ 525 ml flood at 10:00. lights off 4:00.

I feel like I'm so close to unlocking the key. I only run 3, 4 x 8 tables. 28 in each ( 4x7). two fluence spyders over ea. I just can't see needing a grosense or troll master water content reader or such. when did growing a weed become so difficult? its simple, a fuckin weed for shits sake!

any help would be appreciated. if not your cup of tea please forward to anyone you feel can help break the code.

thanks in advance and be well brother.
Awesome! Thank you for starting a new thread. This should prove to be a great resource for a bunch of the newer rockwool growers. Sounds like you've some good experience thus far, though are losing control around mid-flower.

I'm also doing similar tactics as you and can offer some insight.

1. Yes, shot size should be modified throughout the run. Here are my baseline schedules.

Screenshot 2021 12 11 19 48 23


I tweak based on syringe tests at the bottom of all the unislabs. I try to keep the media within 0.3 EC of input, if the drift is higher than that, I do a flush until runoff is within 0.1 EC of input.
2. Yes, shot size and timing are vital for proper dryback control. See my schedules above. For vegetative growth you want higher WC and lower EC in the media, for generative growth you want lower WC and higher EC in the media. These two variables are 100% controlled by shot size and timing.
3. Personally I run eight events a day because that's what my timer limits me to unfortunately. Ideally one could have infinite events within a day and be able to run smaller shot sizes during the replenishment period which would allow more shots to happen when increasing the WC and lowering the EC in the media. Conversely, one would be better able to control runoff percentage as well as to not have excessive waste of solution.

You can change shot frequency if you'd like. Whatever it takes to (A) keep the plants happy and (B) the media parameters in check is what matters. If drybacks are too severe for a given stage, increase shot size and/or modify frequency to address the issue.

You could, though the goal in late flower is to induce stress conditions by replicating a drought so having higher WC in the media is counterproductive to steering like that.

See my schedules for when to start your shots and when to end. THESE ARE NOT HARD SCHEDULES! Use them as a baseline for your situation and modify as needed.

I also agree, the idea of getting a grosens, aroya, or other steering system with all the sensors isn't cost effective for a small scale grow. As a result, we have to do syringe tests instead to roughly measure the parameters that are fundamental to steering.

@Dirtbag, you have anything to add here?
 
K

koolwhip

12
3
This is wonderful info. @tobh. Appreciate your thoughtful reply.
What is/are your baseline shot size(s)? in volume / percentages if possible?
Pardon my ignorance, define difference between replenish shots (stack feed?) and maintenance shots (maintain EC?)??
Can we say that schedule will be broken into thirds to some degree?
1.) wk. 1-3 = stretch = 2 hr. dryback, 3 % shots every half hr. for 3- 4 hrs. (or until we have stacked feed and achieved daily run off of 20%) then dry back remainder of cycle (more dry backs)
2.) wk. 3-6 = plump = 2 hr. dryback, 2% shots every hour on the hour until feed is stacked and achieve daily 20% runoff, less drybacks...
3.) wk. 6-8 = swell is finished / dry back / stress = return to wk. 1-3 schedule to encourage stress and ripening
4.) wk. 8-9 = flush
many folks suggest achieve drybacks until the medium is light and almost tipping over. seems way too much and harmful to medium. the difference between the field capacity of a HUGO
(approx. 80% moisture retention) and ideal moisture after dryback ( 35-40 %) leaves a subtle / fair amount of weight to the medium. I have possibly dried back too much and compromised my medium at times. more to follow..
 
K

koolwhip

12
3
This is wonderful info. @tobh. Appreciate your thoughtful reply.
What is/are your baseline shot size(s)? in volume / percentages if possible?
Pardon my ignorance, define difference between replenish shots (stack feed?) and maintenance shots (maintain EC?)??
Can we say that schedule will be broken into thirds to some degree?
1.) wk. 1-3 = stretch = 2 hr. dryback, 3 % shots every half hr. for 3- 4 hrs. (or until we have stacked feed and achieved daily run off of 20%) then dry back remainder of cycle (more dry backs)
2.) wk. 3-6 = plump = 2 hr. dryback, 2% shots every hour on the hour until feed is stacked and achieve daily 20% runoff, less drybacks...
3.) wk. 6-8 = swell is finished / dry back / stress = return to wk. 1-3 schedule to encourage stress and ripening
4.) wk. 8-9 = flush
many folks suggest achieve drybacks until the medium is light and almost tipping over. seems way too much and harmful to medium. the difference between the field capacity of a HUGO
(approx. 80% moisture retention) and ideal moisture after dryback ( 35-40 %) leaves a subtle / fair amount of weight to the medium. I have possibly dried back too much and compromised my medium at times. more to follow..
if I were to dryback to a plant tipping over extreme, I would have likely ruined my medium and created an anaerobic environment correct? thus encouraging a slew of issues inside my Hugo block. Severe EC increases, pH decreases, salt build up, etc...

I have noticed a pattern with run off - higher EC = lower pH. Lower / more appropriate EC = higher, stable pH. I recently had some crazy run off numbers and blocks remaining too heavy. Flushed with normal feed solution (2 EC, 5.8 pH) for 10 min. Numbers got better. Flushed another 10 min. and damn near achieved same out as in feed. Light bulb moment... The craziest part is I figured that saturated block would take at least 2 days to dry and it was ready the next day! As if I flushed the salts, maybe unlocked something and reset the block. Any merit to this?

My brain is fried, I shall pause for now and see what feedback this warrants.

Thanks again.
 
tobh

tobh

Supporter
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This is wonderful info. @tobh. Appreciate your thoughtful reply.
What is/are your baseline shot size(s)? in volume / percentages if possible?
Pardon my ignorance, define difference between replenish shots (stack feed?) and maintenance shots (maintain EC?)??
Can we say that schedule will be broken into thirds to some degree?
1.) wk. 1-3 = stretch = 2 hr. dryback, 3 % shots every half hr. for 3- 4 hrs. (or until we have stacked feed and achieved daily run off of 20%) then dry back remainder of cycle (more dry backs)
2.) wk. 3-6 = plump = 2 hr. dryback, 2% shots every hour on the hour until feed is stacked and achieve daily 20% runoff, less drybacks...
3.) wk. 6-8 = swell is finished / dry back / stress = return to wk. 1-3 schedule to encourage stress and ripening
4.) wk. 8-9 = flush
many folks suggest achieve drybacks until the medium is light and almost tipping over. seems way too much and harmful to medium. the difference between the field capacity of a HUGO
(approx. 80% moisture retention) and ideal moisture after dryback ( 35-40 %) leaves a subtle / fair amount of weight to the medium. I have possibly dried back too much and compromised my medium at times. more to follow..
In my setup, baseline shot size deposits ~150ml per site per one minute interval. That equates to right under 3% of media volume for a 4x4 delta block + unislab if my math is correct. Been a while since I calculated that out.

Replishment shots are the period when we're rehydrating the media. We don't want to hit runoff right away, the goal is to do like you said, stack the feed and push any higher EC concentrations from the top of the blocks to the bottom in preparation for hitting max WC and runoff targets (flush out the waste/toxic levels of EC). This also helps keep the pH balanced throughout the media per the moisture gradient inherent to rockwool.

You are correct about breaking the schedule into thirds. You switch back and fourth between vegetative and generative cycles to influence what the plant is doing.

So, you start flower with generative schedule because (A) you're aiming to control stretch and (B) you're pushing the plant to set flowers. By inducing drought conditions with higher EC and lower WC, it makes the plant think "fuck, this came faster than I expected, better hurry up and breed".

After stretch, you switch back to vegetative schedule to drive flower growth and further leaf production. The lower EC and higher WC makes the plant focus on building overall mass instead of trying to rush to finish.

Then, around week 6ish, you switch back to generative schedule. This again induces stress conditions and forces the plant to ripen. You can stick with this schedule through the end of flower.

You are also correct. For vegetative cycle, you want no more than 80% dryback, for generative 75% - 65% is ideal. Keep in mind those percentages are inverse, so those are WC percentages not water loss percentages. If the media is allowed to lose much more than 45% of its WC, not only will the structure inherent to the media be damaged, but the EC and pH will also be severely impacted and one would have to do a heavy flush to at least remedy the second problem.
if I were to dryback to a plant tipping over extreme, I would have likely ruined my medium and created an anaerobic environment correct? thus encouraging a slew of issues inside my Hugo block. Severe EC increases, pH decreases, salt build up, etc...

I have noticed a pattern with run off - higher EC = lower pH. Lower / more appropriate EC = higher, stable pH. I recently had some crazy run off numbers and blocks remaining too heavy. Flushed with normal feed solution (2 EC, 5.8 pH) for 10 min. Numbers got better. Flushed another 10 min. and damn near achieved same out as in feed. Light bulb moment... The craziest part is I figured that saturated block would take at least 2 days to dry and it was ready the next day! As if I flushed the salts, maybe unlocked something and reset the block. Any merit to this?

My brain is fried, I shall pause for now and see what feedback this warrants.

Thanks again.
It's not necessarily creating an anaerobic environment -- that's more controlled by your inputs (hopefully sterile). The major consequences are the microstructures in the wool will be damaged and you'll see a massive spike in EC and pH will do all kinds of crazy things as well. It's best to avoid dry backs higher than 45%.

What you experiences is right in line with the typical behaviors of EC in hydro. There is a very clear relationship between water levels, EC, and pH and as any of them moves, so do the others. That's why we can't really rely on weight in wool as a reliable metric for determining WC in the media. Without the sensors, our controls are entirely based on time and volume and we have to trust what we're doing is correct and monitor the plants accordingly. Doing the math to determine appropriate shot sizes and estimated dry back is vital to successfully steering in the ghetto fashion.

Hopefully that all makes sense. I'm still refining my own practices in this and most of this is information I've picked up from dozens of blogs, reddit posts, and other forums since there really isn't any publicly available resource that is explicit in saying "this is how you do it and why you do these things."
 
K

koolwhip

12
3
man, you are something else. Thorough and patient. Much appreciated.

Maintenance shot defined? I'll assume it is to maintain EC or happy balance in block? So its no different in execution per se just different in definition or purpose??

I thought your feed schedule was referencing 'veg cycle' as pre flower. Gotcha. It seems like crop steering is another name for 'head fucking' your plants. As if your feeding it opposite of its cycle or what logic would imply. Your switching back to a veg schedule (wk.4-6 ish) when you want your flower to generate fat chunk? So to use your analogy, is your plant then essentially saying " fuck, I'd better throw chunk before I switch back to veggin"??? Any logic or merit to that? Whoa...

Furthermore, by switching back to a generative feed while ripening and crossing the finish line, your 'head fucking' / stressing your plant to hurry up and finish before we...?? start generating flower again?? something like that??

Had no idea this process would be so complex. Curious what a successful Keep. It. Simple. Stupid. approach would look like vs the crop steering approach. Tricky shit for sure. Helluva learning experience and I'll be better off on the other side once code is broken. Humbling as well. Definitely wiser through endless failures and adjustments.

But like they say, 'if you ain't failing, you ain't trying"!!

Happy Sunday Sensei🙏⚡
 
K

koolwhip

12
3
would you be so kind as to explain this syringe test dealio?
 
jguit

jguit

Supporter
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@tobh, quick question.. After lights on, you slowly bring the media back to max WC over the course of a few hours, got it. Once max WC is achieved, you run approx .75L of feed (vegative schedule) through the media to flush the built up EC? Is this correct? Is there a magic number for the run off target here?

Also, when stacking the feeds prior to reaching max WC, is this basically a trial and error thing or is there a clever way to calculate this?

Great info in this thread!
 
tobh

tobh

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man, you are something else. Thorough and patient. Much appreciated.

Maintenance shot defined? I'll assume it is to maintain EC or happy balance in block? So its no different in execution per se just different in definition or purpose??

I thought your feed schedule was referencing 'veg cycle' as pre flower. Gotcha. It seems like crop steering is another name for 'head fucking' your plants. As if your feeding it opposite of its cycle or what logic would imply. Your switching back to a veg schedule (wk.4-6 ish) when you want your flower to generate fat chunk? So to use your analogy, is your plant then essentially saying " fuck, I'd better throw chunk before I switch back to veggin"??? Any logic or merit to that? Whoa...

Furthermore, by switching back to a generative feed while ripening and crossing the finish line, your 'head fucking' / stressing your plant to hurry up and finish before we...?? start generating flower again?? something like that??

Had no idea this process would be so complex. Curious what a successful Keep. It. Simple. Stupid. approach would look like vs the crop steering approach. Tricky shit for sure. Helluva learning experience and I'll be better off on the other side once code is broken. Humbling as well. Definitely wiser through endless failures and adjustments.

But like they say, 'if you ain't failing, you ain't trying"!!

Happy Sunday Sensei🙏⚡
So a maintenance shot is simply to maintain max WC and consistent EC for the remainder of the lighting cycle. That's why it's defined as a maintenance shot and the drybacks are longer between each maintenance shot and each maintenance shot is smaller than the replenishment period.

Crop steering in a basic sense is 'head fucking' the plant, yes. The idea is to trigger different hormonal responses within the plant so you 'steer' the kind of growth you want to see. The idea is this helps cut down time in flower and produces healthier fruits/flowers. In addition there are economical and ecological benefits as you won't be using so many resources so you save money, water, energy, and time overall. There are other variables you manipulate as well such as temperatures, light intensity, RH, CO2 levels, etc, but for the sake of this thread I'm solely focusing on nutrient solution manipulation.

The idea is that generative forces the plant to think it's going to die because it's experiencing drought conditions. As a consequence, it throws pistils and tries to fornicate ASAP before it dies. Then, you switch back to vegetative schedule and the plant relaxes and instead puts a ton of energy into bulking the flowers, building new cells since it isn't so concerned with dying due to drought conditions. Finally, you switch back to generative and again the plant is stressed, so it throws a ton of new pistils trying to have one last go at procreating, and since it's late flower now, it also produces a ton of trichomes as a stress response.

It's all about making the plant think it's gonna die and do what any living thing does when it thinks that -- procreate so the species lives on.

A non-steering technique is consistent waterings to 10% runoff each event. It works just as fine, but I consider it to be wasteful and feel there are more benefits to steering in a primitive way as I've described than there are downfalls, so long nothing severe happens such as a reservoir runs dry, a pump fails, or a filter clogs. Since we're manipulating already high EC, a failure that goes unaddressed for too long will surely spell disaster.
would you be so kind as to explain this syringe test dealio?
You take a plastic syringe; i use one that came with some children's tylenol, and press it against the base of a block/slab and extract some of the solution from the media. Deposit that sample into a cup, and repeat for each unit in the grow so you have an average sample. Then you measure the EC of this total sample. You can also do the same thing individually, for instance if you have one plant that's unhappy and need to rule out an issue in that particular site's media.
@tobh, quick question.. After lights on, you slowly bring the media back to max WC over the course of a few hours, got it. Once max WC is achieved, you run approx .75L of feed (vegative schedule) through the media to flush the built up EC? Is this correct? Is there a magic number for the run off target here?

Also, when stacking the feeds prior to reaching max WC, is this basically a trial and error thing or is there a clever way to calculate this?

Great info in this thread!
So, each shot ideally will be 3%-5% of total media volume in generative schedule, 5%-7% in vegetative schedule. I try not to speak in terms of actual volumes I run as each environment's parameters are going to vary slightly. However, at run-off target, you want at least 10% run-off. Any more and it's wasteful, any less and you're likely not flushing out the excess EC and resetting the media pH to a happy level.

See above regarding stacking feeds. It's a calculated volume with the intention of NOT hitting run-off until midday. If you have runoff too soon, it's wasteful. The idea behind this is your initial shot happens after the plants are fully transpiring and uptaking water. Since you have higher EC at the top of the media, stacking the feeds during replenishment forces that EC lower into the media, making it available to the newest roots. Then, you flush out the old and the entire media stack should be reset to whatever input is, keeping everything happy.

Let me see if I can find the graphs that really were like lightbulbs for me regarding all this. It's helpful to see the graphs and compare them to the schedules while wrapping your head around the how's and why's.
 
jguit

jguit

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Let me see if I can find the graphs that really were like lightbulbs for me regarding all this. It's helpful to see the graphs and compare them to the schedules while wrapping your head around the how's and why's.
Thanks brother. Right now my lightbulb's dimmer is slowly being turned up. This shit made minimal sense a day ago. LOL. Excellent write-up. I have plenty of time between this run to get a decent irrigation strategy/understanding in place so that i'm not completely lost from the start.
 
K

koolwhip

12
3
@tobh- I jumped on here to say thanks again and see that you have responded. Again, thorough, detailed and proper. I am grateful for your time and efforts, thank you.

I have been in a rabbit hole since the new year and feel I have broken the code. For all you have patiently explained and shared, I would like to offer you something you may or may not deem useful.

Athena rep says 3 % shot in Gen and 1-2% shot in veg.
Grodan rep says 6 % shot in Gen and 3 % shot in veg.
Speaking in ratios, both imply 2 part shots in Gen to 1 part shots in veg. - both strategies align with one another.

Athena - similar frequency as you suggest
Grodan- due to increased 6% shot in Gen. he suggest every other hr. vs the 20-30 min. back to back refreshments.
Veg. feed frequency strategy same across the board - every hr. for the most part

IN conclusion, possibly considering flipping your shot % around may unlock something for you?

Thanks again for everything.

May 2022 bring you peace, health and prosperity.

Happy Growing brother!!
 
K

koolwhip

12
3
@jguit- read this entire thread and the secret lies within. it contains your irrigation strategy. @tobh is one brilliant, badass motherfucker who is kind enough to share his wealth of trial and error experiments and knowledge with us and save us some headaches. Wish my dumbass knew to ask these questions a yr ago. Live and Learn.

Good Luck~
 
tobh

tobh

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Here are some that are similar to the ones that turned on the 💡for me.

This is what a full cycle looks like:

Full crop steering chart


Start to first run off:
Irrigation to run off

Run-off to last irrigation:

Run off to last irrigation


And last irrigation to next morning:

Last irrigation

When looking at these charts every low point in the WC line would be when a fertigation event happens. These would vary between generative and vegetative schedules, but these charts show a baseline of what should be happening. I don't have a timer that allows so many events otherwise if one graphed my schedules, they'd be almost direct replicas of what the charts indicate.
 
jguit

jguit

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Makes much more sense now. I guess the only thing that's not accounted for in the charts above is when the last irrigation event would be. From what i understand that should be well before lights out but is not set in stone as long as you reach P2 correctly.

Thank you!!
 
K

koolwhip

12
3
Here are some that are similar to the ones that turned on the 💡for me.

This is what a full cycle looks like:

View attachment 1206124

Start to first run off:
View attachment 1206123
Run-off to last irrigation:

View attachment 1206125

And last irrigation to next morning:

View attachment 1206122
When looking at these charts every low point in the WC line would be when a fertigation event happens. These would vary between generative and vegetative schedules, but these charts show a baseline of what should be happening. I don't have a timer that allows so many events otherwise if one graphed my schedules, they'd be almost direct replicas of what the charts indicate.
Something that may be of interest to you on Amazon-
NEARPOW multifunctional programmable timer, 19 on/off programs and does seconds increments. $17
You may be able to tweak your feed schedule with 19 schedules vs 8. FYI.
hope alls well and thanks again.
 
K

koolwhip

12
3
Something that may be of interest to you on Amazon-
NEARPOW multifunctional programmable timer, 19 on/off programs and does seconds increments. $17
You may be able to tweak your feed schedule with 19 schedules vs 8. FYI.
hope alls well and thanks again.
@tobh - FYI
 
tobh

tobh

Supporter
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Something that may be of interest to you on Amazon-
NEARPOW multifunctional programmable timer, 19 on/off programs and does seconds increments. $17
You may be able to tweak your feed schedule with 19 schedules vs 8. FYI.
hope alls well and thanks again.
good looking out. that's definitely a MUCH better option. with more events, you can dial things a hell of a lot better. eight events are fine, but i'm sure the performance could be significantly better with more events available.
 
Roadblock

Roadblock

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2. Yes, shot size and timing are vital for proper dryback control. See my schedules above. For vegetative growth you want higher WC and lower EC in the media, for generative growth you want lower WC and higher EC in the media. These two variables are 100% controlled by shot size and timing.
3. Personally I run eight events a day because that's what my timer limits me to unfortunately. Ideally one could have infinite events within a day and be able to run smaller shot sizes during the replenishment period which would allow more shots to happen when increasing the WC and lowering the EC in the media. Conversely, one would be better able to control runoff percentage as well as to not have excessive waste of solution.


What you can do for a multi-timer hack is this, although its dangerous because both sides of the plug becomes live, but if both ends are plugged into a timer there is no problem at all.

Ok make a power lead with 2 male connections going into 1 female connection, like the 2 to 1 you can buy from the hardware but the plugs are reversed, once made plug a digital timer into each male plug and the female goes to the pump, each timer will work independent from the others, so now you got 32 x 1 minute on cycles, if you wanted to you could make a lead with 4 males and run 4 timers to the pump giving 64 x 1-minute irrigations. the timers are only a switch power can be on either side it makes no difference to the timer, , each timer will set the pump off, but as I said those male connections all become live if one of them is live, so when power on keep the plugs in timers and it safe
 
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