Get a Harvest Every 2 Weeks

[Al B. Fuct]

Thanks for that very helpful reply. Information about the small things involved with the growing, I believe, is most important and helpful. Anyone can read up on hydroponics and gain a basic understanding of the process, but the nitty-gritty tasks involved with starting and maintaining a system often go unmentioned. Which is why this thread is so awesome!!!

Seriously, I'm learning almost everything I need to know from this thread. The last few times I read the thread I just picked a random page, but was able to find something significantly helpful each time. Good Stuff.

THANKS!

Coolio, thanks

Mr. Fuct,
"You are my sunshine my only sunshine".

Herro Kitty!

In all sincerity, your posts are immensely helpful and are an invaluable resource.

Thanks.

As a disclamer, I am only repeating information that I have read without any actual experience but some believe that an exhaust system hooked up to a thermostat can be a fire hazard because if there were a small fire the exhaust would allow it to grow bigger.

Some would never run a successful grow op if that was their belief. Thermostatically controlled ventilation is an utter essential for a functional grow op. The only way to avoid it would be to install air conditioning- and then one would also have to introduce CO2- this would roughly double to triple the cost (if not more) of running an op like mine.

There are no fire hazards in my op- neither should there be any in yours. If there were any (say, a combustion type CO2 generator), a fire suppression system which disconnected AC mains power to the ventilation system would be sensible. However, if your electrics are in good condition, all devices adequately fused, circuits are not loaded in excess of their capacity (continuous load should not exceed 80% of breaker rating- I run 50%), off the floor and away from wet, you have no fears of fires. If you have your house in true order, the risk of fire is so low that sophisticated fire protection and suppression are simply unnecessary. Breakers will trip or fuses will open before anything foul can happen.

Anyone installing an op should be intimately familiar with the wiring of the housing structure. Smart growers pull in their own run of new 10-12ga Romex cable from a power panel in their op to the breaker box so to avoid using existing house wiring, especially if it is old or of dubious quality. 10ga will carry 30A.

The jury's out on smoke alarms. A falsely alerting smoke alarm can draw public attention to your op in your absence. Can spoil your whole day when you get home.

I do have a few questions that I hope aren't too burdensome.
Besides security, what about your grow regularly worries you? You mentioned that daily you check a pot from each corner of each tray to ensure that your pumps are functioning properly. It seems that you are also battling P.M. You probably watch these two things closely because in the past they were problematic. So, which things do you expect could be problematic in your grow?

Watering failures are a frequent pain in the ass, usually caused by an air bubble in a pump chamber, sometimes caused by a pump wearing out, less often caused by a malfunctioning digital timer (they act screwy when their backup batts die, OK after replacement, kinda defeats the purp, eh?).

Continuous harvest ops are hard to control stuff like PM in. The existing infected crop quickly colonises the newbs. I'm still working on that, as you know. The trick is to never let it get started. One of these days, I may have to pull everything out of the room, sterilise it, harvest everything harvestable and start the process over. Not that fussed yet, tho. Still generally working fine despite the odd dusty leaf.

What prophylactics do you use?

Sulfur burner is a recent addition, have been using 'Micro Kill' in the past.

No thanks to the wiseass who stole my opportunity for a cheap smutty joke here.

You wrote that it took you about three 12 hour days to manicure a tray. If each tray has 23 plants then it takes almost two hours to trim each plant?

Yeah, but you have to understand that 'nose down, hard work; to me involves bonghits and a couple of cups of coffee, as well as talking to you lot.

AL can you just mix some extra nutes and top off with the same ppm solution ?

No, you get the same effect as adding fresh nute mix to an old tank. Think of it this way; your fresh nutes might be NPK 10-20-10. After 2 weeks, let's presume all the P is eaten, half the N and 2/3 of the K. So, you have 5-0-3.3. Then you add a 50% tank volume of fresh 10-20-10. The resulting NPK is something like 7.5-10-6.65, not quite the high P ratio you want for flowering.

Al can i start taking clones off of a plant that is in week 4 of veg and the Foxfarm feeding schedule ?

Don't know what the FF feeding sked has to do with it. Nutes iz nutes for the most part. Nutes from big mfrs are more likely to be consistently quality controlled than those mixed up in buckets in the back of Ye Olde Hydroe Shoppe. However, quite often, small maker or bargain nutes can work surprisingly well, but are best suited for experienced growers who can spot problems quickly should they arise.

wk 4 from seed? Got to raise them to sexual maturity (6-8wks from seed) and sex them before they're useful as donors for plants you will flower. Raise your seedlings to sexual maturity, sex them (cover a branch for 12h/day while keeping the donor under veg cycle light or take cuttings, MARK WHICH PLANT THEY CAME FROM, then put those under 12/12 to reveal sex) THEN you can take all the cuttings for flowering you like.

 

[bigal10]

Al when you were mentioned you only get 2 days off you meant weekly right.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Al when you were mentioned you only get 2 days off you meant weekly right.

I can tend the op, take 2 days off, tend it, take 2 days off, etc.

Mind you... IF ONLY a day went by when I could just sit on my ass... there's ALWAYS something to do in the op. If I let a day go by and do nothing, I have 2x to do the next day. There's always some manicuring or cleaning that can be done... but somedays... I get a real bad case of IDGAF.

Tending the op itself is a real zero, takes next to no time, but I can't fuck off to Nepal for a few weeks if that's where the spirit moves me.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Fuct Engineering products:









With deluxe heat-shrink strain reliefs!

If it ain't FUCT, you don't need it.

 

[insanestang4life]

Hey, AL B got another question for you. Sorry to keep bothering you. If I was going to put about 3 inches of hydroton in the bottom of my pots, then a few inches of coconut, then set my rockwool cube on top of the coconut and surround the rockwool with more hydroton. When I flood the table how high should the water go? Should it just barely touch the coconut or cover it or should it barely touch the rockwool or even soak the rockwool? If the coconut gets soaked will the rockwool since its touching the coconut suck some water in it? Sorry for the stupid question but I couldnt find anything about this! Thanks again

 

[Al B. Fuct]

How about you just skip the coco coir? Organic materials can support mould as well as can break into bits and foul your pumps.

 

[insanestang4life]

Okay if I skip the coconut and just put the rockwool cube in the hydroton I will have to water twice a day probly right? Also, should the water flood high enough to get the rockwool barely wet or soaked?

 

[We TaRdED]

hey al, hows it shaking mate?

if you were to substitute the trays for something different, what would you use? i heard pond liner works great.

also how would you frame this using wood?

it seems like the trays are the most expensive part of an E&F system.

thanks al.

 

[blazingblunt1989]

straight respect on this nicly done my ex girls dad had a soil system harvested 6-8 pound every 2 months but shit i like your system way better because there ain't no bud like hydro bud lol jp soils good as fuck 2

 

[Kuji]

I saw you posted that you grew a variety of strains and was wondering which ones gave you the most problems as well as which ones preformed the best in the ebb and flow SoG. I want to start with a well rounded plant with, still potent, but easy to grow and decent yeild. However, if all goes well I would eventually like a solid big yielding strain as well as an extremely potent half-hitter quitter bud.

Also, do you think using four 1000w lights and doubling up the system like another poster proposed is pushing your luck with electricity, security, secrecy, etc?

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Okay if I skip the coconut and just put the rockwool cube in the hydroton I will have to water twice a day probly right? Also, should the water flood high enough to get the rockwool barely wet or soaked?

With a RW cube in pellets, flood at least 2x/lights-on, perhaps 3 in the beginning. When the plants are advanced (post wk4), they might need more frequent flooding.

Flood up to 1/2" BELOW the RW cube, don't let the flood level touch the cube. You'll get overwatering symptoms. The roots will find the damp pellets below in short order. You can hand water the pellets around the cube- NOT the cube- for the first 4-6 days after planting in pellets, if you like. There's lots of airspace between pellets, so the roots will like being frequently flooded once they've knit down into them.

hey al, hows it shaking mate?

Sideways at the moment. Was shaking obliquely and to the left a while ago. Why do you ask?

if you were to substitute the trays for something different, what would you use? i heard pond liner works great.

also how would you frame this using wood?

it seems like the trays are the most expensive part of an E&F system.

Being a shithouse carpenter, if I framed something using wood, it would be kaddywompus and askew.

I would not attempt to make trays if you can buy proper moulded plastic ones. Pond liner and shower stall liner, however tough, isn't designed to have pots scuffed across it all the time and will develop pinhole leaks. If it is not UV stabilised (as I would expect shower stall liner to NOT be), that will advance its demise. If you were to frame with wood and use plywood for the floor, you have the problem of sloping the floor toward the drain, as well. One pinhole and your wood tray or frame becomes mould food. If you DO try this, use treated pine timbers and marine grade plywood... and expect to replace the liner occasionally.

I might suggest you shop better- trays are not that dear at all around here. The major cost in setting up an op will be the lighting and ventilation gear. I can get 900mm x 900mm trays for $52.

straight respect on this nicly done my ex girls dad had a soil system harvested 6-8 pound every 2 months but shit i like your system way better because there ain't no bud like hydro bud lol jp soils good as fuck 2

respeck, moite!

I saw you posted that you grew a variety of strains and was wondering which ones gave you the most problems as well as which ones preformed the best in the ebb and flow SoG. I want to start with a well rounded plant with, still potent, but easy to grow and decent yeild. However, if all goes well I would eventually like a solid big yielding strain as well as an extremely potent half-hitter quitter bud.

Also, do you think using four 1000w lights and doubling up the system like another poster proposed is pushing your luck with electricity, security, secrecy, etc?

I settled on Sweet Tooth #4 because it was an outstanding yielder, resistant to pests & diseases and a damn nice smoke. It really was the best in show at the time and would yet be hard to beat.

All plants are easy to grow if your room presents the right conditions. Indica dominant hybrids will be the best yielders as opposed to sativa doms. ST4 may be hard to get these days- try LUI or Blockhead.

No, I'm pretty confident that if I wanted to, I could add another couple kW. The power company doesn't normally care about big users who pay their bills on time. I don't think I'd push far beyond 4kW in a residential house, though. That's starting to look like industrial usage.

However, for my particular case, it would involve some upgrade to the ventilation system; I rely on dumping my heat into a 6000cu ft crawlspace, which while huge and able to sink a fair amount of heat into the damp bedrock, would probably begin to get a bit warm with the waste heat from 4kWs. I'd have to work out a way of getting the warm air out of there more proactively. I'd also be pushing the limits of the 60A mains service supply to this place. About 24A would be committed to the op.

Could be done- but you know, I have enough trouble keeping up with the output of 2kWs. Starting to look like work already.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Was just looking through my gallery and came across one of my favourite tricks. Bears repeating.

parallel a motor speed controller with your fan thermostat

You have just invested a few hundred in a centrif fan, some acoustic damped duct and a carbon filter. However, during lights off, you notice scents wafting around the grow room? What gives?

When the lights are off, the temps in the room may not come up high enough to trigger your thermostat running the exhaust blower. Absent the blower running to push scents through the carbon filter, scents will leak where ever there is a tiny airgap in your room construction. Keeping the room at negative pressure causes air to be drawn inward through those little gaps, keeping all air exiting the op going through the carbon filter.



If you wire a fan motor speed controller in parallel with a thermostat, when the temp setpoint is reached, the thermostat's contacts open but since there is a current path through the speed controller, the fan motor does not shut off- it just slows down to whatever the speed controller is set for, could be 20-30% normal speed. This both keeps air moving through the carbon filter at all times, sucking air into the room via any air leaks, but also reduces wear on fan motors as the start pulse puts the highest forces on the bearings.

When the temp rises back up to the setpoint, the motor speed controller is bypassed and the blower motor runs at full speed until the setpoint is again reached.

 

[We TaRdED]

thanks al for the reply

ya if i can find one for 50 bucks ill pick it up. i all ready have my 400 watter and my 6 in inline fan is hooked up, its just a matter of finder a cheap e and f table.

if anyone has a link to some cheap ones in the us, please post the link, or PM me.

al do you think its ok to get this shipped? sometimes the delivery service are a bunch sloppy SOB's.
or am i better off paying top dollar at the hydro store?

ty al for your services.

ps i bet you didnt expect this many questions when you signed up for RIU, hehe

 

[Al B. Fuct]

Depends, how bad are the prices at Ye Olde? Can't help you with US pricing, pretty long commute for me.

I have seen single units damaged in shipping. If sent via courier, they have to be packed well. Seen hydro shops try to wrap them in black plastic sheeting and expect they'd be OK... If you do mail order, get some water in the tray soon after delivery to ck for cracks.

You know, I actually did expect this many questions- I was a mod/mentor on Overgrow from sometime in 1999 into 2005.

I'm doing things a bit differently these says, containing most of my commentary to this thread. I just can't keep track of a number of them. I do occasionally stray out of here, but it's rare.

 

[Al B. Fuct]

While we were on the topic of expanding my op, it occurs to me to mention the concept of "enough." With due respect, it's totally foreign to all teenagers and most Americans.

One of the secrets to growing dope for a very long time with no legal complications is to be a one-man band. This op makes as much as one person can manage, as a full time gig or close to it. Some days you work 10 mins, some days you work 12 hours- but you'd be one busy sumbitch trying to run an op this size and commute to a daily rat race gig, particularly come biweekly harvest times.

5000 thetans can keep a secret if 4999 of them have been blown up by Xenu with a cosmic H-bomb in a volcano.

 

[VictorVIcious]

That is exactly what I have been thinking. Getting too greedy is what gets people busted. I have a question. Could you pour sand on top of the fotocell you are using and have it stay there ?? I added some to the top of my coco-coir medium as an experiment for controlling fungus gnats. It added about 2# of weight to the pot, they won't float anywhere. No noticable adverse effects so far. Had less than a 10 ml of washed out sand when I cleaned the table. VV

 

[Kuji]

While we were on the topic of expanding my op, it occurs to me to mention the concept of "enough." With due respect, it's totally foreign to all teenagers and most Americans.

One of the secrets to growing dope for a very long time with no legal complications is to be a one-man band. This op makes as much as one person can manage, as a full time gig or close to it. Some days you work 10 mins, some days you work 12 hours- but you'd be one busy sumbitch trying to run an op this size and commute to a daily rat race gig, particularly come biweekly harvest times.

5000 thetans can keep a secret if 4999 of them have been blown up by Xenu with a cosmic H-bomb in a volcano.

That's good advice, though sounds a bit lonely. I will most likely have a couple house mates simply becuase I couldn't afford a single family home(rent) on my own. However these peeps are totally cool with it, of course, and are mature individuals as well and that's more then I can say for most of my stoner friends.

Thanks for the great info on strains. Did your white widow and ak-47 do well in the system(Yeild/potency/problems)? I'm interested in these two well-known strains and it would be an absolute joy to grow my own.

 

[JESSICAJESS]

hi man real nice,haw much dos it cost to set up?

 

[Al B. Fuct]

That is exactly what I have been thinking. Getting too greedy is what gets people busted.

Every SINGLE time.

I have a question. Could you pour sand on top of the fotocell you are using and have it stay there ?? I added some to the top of my coco-coir medium as an experiment for controlling fungus gnats. It added about 2# of weight to the pot, they won't float anywhere. No noticable adverse effects so far. Had less than a 10 ml of washed out sand when I cleaned the table. VV

I suppose I could put sand on the Fytocell, but my gnat problems are really not that bad. If it was a big deal around here, I think I would drop the pots in knee-hi stockings and secure the stocking around the stems with an elastic band. Yellow sticky traps on the top of each pot of media in my op tend to catch adult gnats before they get too far out of control.

That's good advice, though sounds a bit lonely. I will most likely have a couple house mates simply becuase I couldn't afford a single family home(rent) on my own. However these peeps are totally cool with it, of course, and are mature individuals as well and that's more then I can say for most of my stoner friends.

The problem with housemates is that if they don't have what we affectionately refer to as 'plausible deniability,' that is to say that if they could potentially have had access to your op or could have known about it, it's harder for them to say they didn't know a thing about it, should there be cause to ask them. In example, it's better to have an op in a locked garage/shed/etc for which only you have the keys than in a spare bedroom.

Thanks for the great info on strains. Did your white widow and ak-47 do well in the system(Yeild/potency/problems)? I'm interested in these two well-known strains and it would be an absolute joy to grow my own.

WW & AK47 were poor yielders (esp WW) compared to ST4 and several others I tried. WW is a fabulous smoke and I'd grow it again on small scale for my own use, though. AK47 was unimpressive from beginning to end for me. I had an F2 cross of WW and Skunk #1 for a while, which we called 'White Skunk' which had most of the smoking characters of WW and most of the heavy yield of Skunk #1- can't recall what I did with that strain, but I think it may have been lost when I was moving the op at one time or another.

hi man real nice,haw much dos it cost to set up?

Geez, you WOULD ask that.

Not sure, but I'd guess about $3-4000 if you started from a bare floor and worked your way up.

 

[Enigma]

WW & AK47 were poor yielders (esp WW) compared to ST4 and several others I tried. WW is a fabulous smoke and I'd grow it again on small scale for my own use, though. AK47 was unimpressive from beginning to end for me. I had an F2 cross of WW and Skunk #1 for a while, which we called 'White Skunk' which had most of the smoking characters of WW and most of the heavy yield of Skunk #1- can't recall what I did with that strain, but I think it may have been lost when I was moving the op at one time or another.

What would have been your best yielder and highest high?