disregard my stupid question i read you were using thousands. I gonna be running thousands in the same unit. I got the dimmable ballasts so i all dim them down to 600 for the first week. How was your heat . I gonna use a chiller and ice box. I am also running a dehum but no c02 because sealed room never work for me. Yes my plants loved it but i could never get my smell in line. For me security is everything all tae the less yeild if i can keep going. . I was told i need to hand water first week until clones break 4 inch cube any truth to this. my last flat garden i average 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 per 1000 very basic but effective room. With the roto i hope to hit 2lb per 1000 cant wait to see ur numbers
Nice! I would be happy to see another grow journal if you are up to the challenge. Demystifying this method of growing is essential to more mainstream adoption and furthering the experience base. It has been a relatively lonely club thus far, so always happy to see how others approach it.
Heat - Heat was not an issue for me either ambient or in the reservoir. Another grower also mentioned that he was getting advice to run a chiller in the reservoir. Is this a common problem? I actually had to run an aquarium heater to keep the water temps within my posted ranges. I have my reservoir sitting on top of a concrete slab base, so I am sure using the earth itself to insulate helped considerably in keeping the temps consistent. You can see my temp readings per week on the Notes post for that week. As for ambient, I use a temperature controlled location and set it to never reach over 85 degrees F with large AC units that engage should it approach that level. I live in an area that can easily get to 100 degrees, so heat is a big problem for growing in general and not something to take lightly as it can have devastating effects on your crop if not managed properly.
Smell - I would think that a sealed room would help keep the smell inside versus venting? Am I just not understanding something?
As for the clones - healthy clones are essential, if not THE most essential piece to the puzzle. Correct strain selection, voluminous root mass, and overall health and viability of the clones determine everything. I rooted all my clones in small rockwool insert cubes (approx 1"x1"x2") that are typically found in mats at the local hydro store. I kept them in humidity covered dome trays with a heating mat underneath with RH at 90% and base temp of about 78 degrees under t5 lighting. After the clones were rooted (where the roots were starting to poke out of the cubes), I transplanted those into the larger 4" cubes inside the grow trays and loaded them in the Wheel at the same time. At that point, I vegged them for a couple weeks directly in the Wheel with 24 hr/dy light cycle (refer to Week 1, Week 2 on the front page of this thread for the specifics). I saw no need to hand water nor do anything outside the initial rooting process. Light shock was not an issue, but clones that did not have healthy root masses before transplanting, quickly succumbed to stress and died within the first week. I anticipated this and had standby replacements sitting outside the wheel, still receiving the same light and ready to be swapped in. That is why I state my realized mortality rate was much less than actual, simply because I had backups. I cannot stress how important it is to have your clones very healthy and viable before introducing them into the setup.
2lbs should be very doable, and I can confirm the actuals here in less than a week when things are trimmed and cured. The important driver to maximum yield is proper strain selection and you will see why when I have my data tabulated and verified.
