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Both buckets are outside for now. In 1 mo I will have a tent and will set them in there for a week before flowering. LST is the plan for my first dwc, KISS to manage the hydro learning curve with fewer variables.
PK is in drip/dwc
MKU is in ordinary dwc.
PK is a larger clone, and with the drip is doing well. Day 3 No roots below the net yet
MKU is smaller and gets hand watered several times a day, growing slower than the drip
Bucket with drip system has small leak.
My pH meter had dead batteries, plants went day one at pH 7m fixed day 2 when I got batteries.
Plan to get ppm meter in the near future.
Beginning of week 2
pH prior to res change was high again, all the way to 6.7
Changed nutes, double the first week, plus B52
A little extra B52 to adjust pH to 5.9
No visible roots through the top hat yet.
Plants look healthy.
Still outside and being moved to the sun several times per day.
PK thriving with drip.
MKU growing more slowly but making progress. It has begun to repair leaves damaged in transport. She's a survivor!
Seeing the difference between the plants, I will give MKU a drip column in a few days. Plan to drill through lid rather than net. This will hopefully lessen stress on the plant during instalation, and make it easier to modify the drip tube to fit the 6" pot.
Thinking about LST frame with simple pvc rods fastened to tophats somehow. This will probably evolve into a scrog system in subsequent grows. KISS for now.
When modifying, I am seeing advantages to net pots over top hats, but I realy like the sturdiness of tophats...will decide before next grow.
Peltier thermoelectric dehumidifiers extract 300ml of water per day. Weak compared to compresser units, small and use less energy. Is it enough?
Would a conventional dehumidifier set outside of the tent near the intake be effective, or does it need to be inside the tent to work
Should be fine outside the tent as long as its lowering the RH enough in the main room so the air going into the tent is the desired RH.
If it can't do that, then place it inside the tent.
If you use AC, that also removes RH from the ambient room air.
Good Luck!
End of week 3.
pH has been a bit high at 6.4 but is corrected to 5.9 to 6.0 every day. Lots of leaf problems with MKU, and it grows slowly. No sign of of bugs that I can see but my eyesight isn't great.
A few leaf problems with PK, but it is growing fast. Explosion of root growth after topping this plant a couple of days ago. Branching as expected.
I have been leaving the tent open to control heat during day. The duct fan is not strong enough but my 6" CANFAN is very noisy even when switched to low speed. I have even put an additional controller on it, set to low. I will have to get a duct reducer and some flexible ducting before I flip the lights.
What's going on with mk Ultra? It gets Neem every 2-3 days, and I have tried to keep pH down to 6. This has been going on since I got the clone, and it continues to happen. The pink kush (last pic) has a few similar spots.
Lights are 50cm above.
Your killing it by hitting it with neem every 2 to 3 days. Its hard on plants with 1 spray, let alone multiple sprays. Only to be used if you have pest problems. I use a few drops of dawn soap mixed with water to kill bugs.
A lot happened
• Started training PK. She is bushing up as expected.
• Unplanned training the MKU. She was struggling already, and I planned to let her grow naturally. Then it was broken while I was fussing with duct tape. She got some duct tape for herself and looks like she is on the mend.
• I decided to try chitosal this grow, so they all got a foliar spray. they love it
The fan and filter came crashing down, missed the plants. But it had to be reassembled more securely.
In the morning there was 1.5 gal of nutrient on the floor. I must have bumped the air pump higher when fixing the fan, and the PK drip system was on overdrive, squirting it everywhere. Mopped up and topped up with fresh nutes.
I took a few near-dead leaves from lower down the MKU.
Threw in a couple of Kratky lettuce photos. 2 more going in soon, looks like I will have to buy new curing jars 😀
Interesting week.
Plants love the chitosan treatment I gave last week. 2nd treatment next week.
Flushed both for about 1 hour.
Started Bud Ignitor with fresh nutes.
PK is vigorous.
MKU struggles with root infection again.
They are in the dark now.
Starting midnight they get 12/12 with lights on at night to manage temps.
PK is chugging along nicely. No pistils yet but a little stretch. First treatment on microbes. 2nd foliar spray of chitosal. Nervous about defoliating, but took some flimsy leaves from bottom.
MKU is in very poor shape. Don't know if she will survive. Some root has rotted off and the basket/netpot is covered in slime. Let her sit in peroxide for 30 min before setting her in a clean bucket with fresh nutes. No chitosal spray untill she recovers.
EDIT:
MKU didn't make it. RIP
PK got sick a few days later. Cut majority of roots off. Peroxide bath. Fresh nutes including enzymes and microbes.
PROBLEM was reservoir heat.
Got cheap AC unit and McGuiver'ed it to direct cold air to air pump and bottom of bucket. (See image)
Improved heat exhaust by running it to ceiling, and turned exhaust fan to high.
Put reflective material on top of bucket.
Tent now 25° and outside of bucket is cool to touch.
Roots almost black. Flowers still growing, despite root sickness.
One more week of feeding, another of flush.
Gotta keep her alive at least 2 more weeks.
Roots still diseased. Hypochlorous acid keeping her alive. Start flush in a few days, harvest aprox 8 days away.
Next will have a recycling dwc/drip with external reservoir, to protect the roots from light and disturbance, and running sterile from the start.
I grow in a 5 gal buckets, 6" netpots in Leca. Next, I am planning a 3 bucket system with external 5 gal reservoir and drip system drain to res. How much difference in fert use between Drip, or Drip/DWC? Is growth much faster, and is it worth the additional nutrient cost?
For me, I will say no ;) more cost more maintenance more space for almost the same harvest for just 2 4 pots not worth it in my opinion If you have a greenhouse then you can do it 🤯🍻
Building a Drip to Res with Netpot lids of Hydroton on 5 gallon buckets, and an aerated 5 gallon reservoir outside the tent. Is there any any point to aerating the 1.5" of water below the bulkhead, which doesn't drain from the bottom of the buckets?
depends on how long it sits there... if it is drunk quickly, it's fine.
could use those pot risers/elevators and drain out bottom in future, if you wanted. but, this sort of thing works well. it's kind of a small hempy bucket or whatever they call them. just a smaller reservoir at bottom.
so does the drip run continously? if it is a pool of water at all times in that bottom 1.5", then stagnating water is an issue. if the drip refreshes it enough, that would mitigate it. bubbles wouldn't hurt, but not sure how much it'd help. it'd be less about O2 and more about agitation to reduce microbial growth.
VitaMan
