'taders first grow journal.. high frequency fertigation

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420hobbygrower

420hobbygrower

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Howdy y'all, thanks for stopping by. Long time lurker, first time exposing myself 🙊👀. Pics at the end for all you perverts 💃💃

Quick hits about myself: I love gardening, drinking, cooking and getting stoned.

First of all I've learned a TON from a bunch of people on here, including some who haven't posted in many years. Great resources here at the farm, so thank you! Special thanks to @Aqua Man for dropping knowledge consistently.

I'm strictly a hobbyist. This is my 3rd grow, I did one indoors 2 years ago, and 1 outdoors last year. Mostly successful, but always looking to improve (and learn). I'm running high frequency fertigation DTW coco and my setup is fully automated (back injury made watering, shop vac drainage, etc. unbearable, plus now having a son I can't spend as much time on the menial parts of my hobby). My first run indoors was hand-watered soil, so this is my first coco grow.

Setup/Gear
CANNA Coco
1 gallon Honor FLOW bags
5x5 gorilla grow tent with 1 ft extension
2 Scynce Dragon Alpha 2 LED Lights - 650w each (bought like 2 months before the new gen raging kush came out). I do realize this is overkill.
AgrowTek Automation and Sensors - GCX computer, climate sensor, auto dosers (nutes/pH), EC/pH/temp/ORP sensor for res, water level sensor for res which controls valve to fill when needed and stop when full. Also controls humidifier, dehumidifier, feeding schedule and pump, mix pump, heater/AC (not currently in use), CO2 (not currently in use) and pretty much anything you can think of, lawd hae murcy. I'll probably purchase some of their soil moisture sensors to further automate feeding times. I like to spend money once, and figured if/when things are federally legalized I can use all this in a greenhouse. I'm a half drunk idiot with no association with AgroTek by the way.
Little Giant Condensate Pump (450 GPH) to handle drainage - pumps to my sewer for now, but eventually I might collect it outside to water outdoor plants
AC Infinity S6 Exhaust Fan
Ideal Air Humidifier (75-pint)
Toshiba Dehumidifier - outside the tent, keeping room 35-40%
SEAFLO 33 Water Pump - to feed the girls
EcoPlus Pumps to mix res and pump solution past sensors/injectors
GrowOnix reverse osmosis system (minus the pre-filters since I have filters for my house)

Nutes etc.
Dyna-Gro ProTekt (using as a buffer, plus pH up), Foliage Pro, Bloom, Mag-Pro
Mr Fulvic (added at random currently, I just dump in an appropriate dose like once a week depending on how fast my res turns over)
GH Defguard (added at same time as Mr Fulvic)
Koolbloom (dry)
Flawless Finish
pH Down

Girls (clones, not sure if I'm allowed to post the source)
1 Blue Dream
1 Tangie
1 AJ Sour D
1 '91 Chem
1 Grape Pie
1 Gorilla Butter (White Truffle cut)

I do want to mention, I'm feeling pretty fucking lucky.... it turns out the ambient CO2 level in my room stays between 900-1300 ppm. 😃😃 I may get a tank at some point just to keep it around 1200 whenever it's needed, but no rush here. I want to get things dialed in first.

Enough bullshit, here are pics of the setup. Finally got the wife's blessing, so this is starting out as a photo dump. 💩

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420hobbygrower

420hobbygrower

111
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Bitches got big before I was ready for em, so I topped them a little later than I would normally. First time cloning as well.. all but the white truffle cloned for me. I think I got like 23/28 to root? Not sure what I'm going to do with them though since I only have one tent haha. Wife says no on tent number 2.... which I'm fine with since the clones are apparently available regularly.

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420hobbygrower

420hobbygrower

111
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Defoliated and pruned before dropping the trellis down on them. I made my own trellis using PVC and nylon string.. that way when it comes to harvest time I can just untie the string, pull it out and not have to deal with a mess of string and sticky buds and stems. Before and after.

I also did some LST every day to keep them branching out horizontally as best I could. Snapped 2 stems (not completely) and duct taped them for a week.. no harm done.

1 IMG 3860


2 IMG 3862


3 IMG 4371
 
420hobbygrower

420hobbygrower

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One more defoliation before flipping to flower (and leaving for a week 😨)..

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Fucking rats nest haha..
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Jimmie

Jimmie

269
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I’m an old man, this spaceship looking shit is why I grow outside. What you got is a great looking well thought out set up. Great job . Gimme dirt, bugs and birds.
 
tobh

tobh

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would be lying if i didn't same i'm a bit envious. i too have a fuckall back that makes hauling water an unwelcome chore, while fucking around weighing salts is for the birds. out of curiosity, and by no means must you answer, but how much did that controller and the dosers set you back? need to get something i can use to control my fertigation cycles in a more granular way -- my 1min 16 setting timer just ain't cuttin it for where we're going haha.

🍻 lookin damn good, stoked to see more automation cropping up in these parts!
 
420hobbygrower

420hobbygrower

111
43
would be lying if i didn't same i'm a bit envious. i too have a fuckall back that makes hauling water an unwelcome chore, while fucking around weighing salts is for the birds. out of curiosity, and by no means must you answer, but how much did that controller and the dosers set you back? need to get something i can use to control my fertigation cycles in a more granular way -- my 1min 16 setting timer just ain't cuttin it for where we're going haha.

🍻 lookin damn good, stoked to see more automation cropping up in these parts!
Thanks!

If all you need is auto dosers for pH and EC, the four pump option is like $1600. The GCX (computer) is built for wayyyy more than a tent, more like a greenhouse or large room.. can handle several separate rooms actually.. so you can definitely find something cheaper for a tent or small room. I’m more or less planning for long term.

I think I spent $2500 on the GCX. Definitely cheaper / simpler options out there.

Thank god my wife didn’t ask how much I spent. 😅😅
 
tobh

tobh

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Thanks!

If all you need is auto dosers for pH and EC, the four pump option is like $1600. The GCX (computer) is built for wayyyy more than a tent, more like a greenhouse or large room.. can handle several separate rooms actually.. so you can definitely find something cheaper for a tent or small room. I’m more or less planning for long term.

I think I spent $2500 on the GCX. Definitely cheaper / simpler options out there.

Thank god my wife didn’t ask how much I spent. 😅😅
that's not terrible. i'm thinking long term too (overbuild it once or build it again, and again, ad infinitum). some day with land and above the brow crops, having all the right tools would be excellent. hell, my home network is built for a medium sized enterprise lol why shouldn't my tent grow setup be built like a commercial operation? 🤣
 
420hobbygrower

420hobbygrower

111
43
that's not terrible. i'm thinking long term too (overbuild it once or build it again, and again, ad infinitum). some day with land and above the brow crops, having all the right tools would be excellent. hell, my home network is built for a medium sized enterprise lol why shouldn't my tent grow setup be built like a commercial operation? 🤣
My thoughts exacty! I hate wasting money lol.
 
tobh

tobh

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My thoughts exacty! I hate wasting money lol.
is it a waste if it always does what it's supposed to with minimal involvement from you? or because it's excessive to other's standards? 🤔 let's not get the ladies involved, we all know exactly where that conversation will land us haha
 
420hobbygrower

420hobbygrower

111
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is it a waste if it always does what it's supposed to with minimal involvement from you? or because it's excessive to other's standards? 🤔 let's not get the ladies involved, we all know exactly where that conversation will land us haha
Yea I more mean I hate wasting money on things I end up replacing. This wasn’t wasted in my mind, but I am just getting started with it so time will tell I suppose. 🤞
 
tobh

tobh

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Yea I more mean I hate wasting money on things I end up replacing. This wasn’t wasted in my mind, but I am just getting started with it so time will tell I suppose. 🤞
i hear ya. my late father taught me if you try to be cheap, you'll spend more money than if you bought quality from the start (specifically regarding tools, but applies to life in general).
 
420hobbygrower

420hobbygrower

111
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Smart man, I agree 100%. It’s almost a problem for me lol.. I save money and spend it on things better than what I need all the time. My wife is like, “babe, we don’t need a top of the line “x” because you’ll only end up using it once. Everything doesn’t have to be the best.” And she’s also not wrong lol. But there’s a fine line.

I had 0 regrets purchasing this stuff. I’m in it for the long haul.
 
420hobbygrower

420hobbygrower

111
43
Over the last few weeks I noticed a few weird issues with a couple fan leaves. I only noticed this on maybe 5 leaves total, but any thoughts? I saw a horse fly in the tent a while back, which probably isn't a huge deal.. got it out of there.. but it looks like something is chewing on a few leaves and I'm really hoping it's nothing horrible. Also some random yellow spots.
 
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420hobbygrower

420hobbygrower

111
43
Yesterday was day 22 and I did a pretty heavy defoliation to open up the canopy a little more to help with light penetration and air flow. Before and after pics are below. Hopefully I didn't overdo it. I feel like I should have taken off more of the smaller branches, but being my second indoor grow, this is as much as I've pruned before. I'll probably take more off next time. Thoughts?

Before:

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After:

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