A Tale of The Tape HPA vs 21st Century Flood and Drain

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Fonz Keep in mind I reduced mist heads from 4 to 2 in a 30g pod AND my plants are off center, which prevents mist from circulating 360 degrees. Yesterday afternoon I saw a few new root hairs, but they are few and far between. Lights just went on 1/2 hr ago. Will check then update

UPDATE: Still only a few RHs. Just changed from 5 to 6 +6:15 and re-aimed mist heads towards the larger open area

6:36pm Update Increased wet to 7 sec, but may drop it back to 5 and lower the pause time. Each extra second becomes ~ 10 seconds each hour = 240 seconds over 24 hours= 4 extra minutes of nutes being sprayed.

We know short w/d cycles are important so dialing both down to where the roots get wet enough but not too dry in between SHOULD help with root hairs. This is where I was going until YOU came along
:wall: Just kidding. It was a journey I had to take

I used to run 2 seconds on and that didn't work as it did not adequately wet the roots. Will work down to 4-5 seconds wet then adjust dry (pause) in hopes of finding a happy medium. These plants are roughly 2 weeks behind, so I still have time to find a decent root hair producing setting.

Pics tomorrow
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Just heard back from UVL regarding 660 bulb life:

We are seeing useful life at 4500hrs before 25% decline in phosphor drop. At 10 hrs daily = 450 days, recommend replacing yearly.
 

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
dont buy from them i hear they have a lot of burnouts i was gonna buy my tents from them till i found some better, but if you dont believe me, check out the stores return policy some messed up policy. i was thinking about that tent, and how i might not like it.

dont how you feel about DIY but you can make a 90w 0r 120w 660 only with 30w led arrays for a little cheaper.
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
dont buy from them i hear they have a lot of burnouts i was gonna buy my tents from them till i found some better, but if you dont believe me, check out the stores return policy some messed up policy. i was thinking about that tent, and how i might not like it.

dont how you feel about DIY but you can make a 90w 0r 120w 660 only with 30w led arrays for a little cheaper.
I would like to try DIY but need easy instructions. For $55 though- plug and play baby

I bought a 2 X 4 tent from them. It's well made with quality materials- $100 shipped

 

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
gastanker is working on some easy instructions for you :) but its really a lot easier than you think lol. just mostly common sense and a little reading on how to match the drivers to the LEDs and such, wiring organization ect. really not too much to it. yeah i found a slightly better tent than the wholesalers one for 90 +free shipping on fleabay.

5day old articel hopefully well see some bulbs on he shelf by the end of the year wopnder how i would "mod" my hid with the stuff or if i could even get it.
 

Fonzarelli

Active Member
Fonz Keep in mind I reduced mist heads from 4 to 2 in a 30g pod AND my plants are off center, which prevents mist from circulating 360 degrees. Yesterday afternoon I saw a few new root hairs, but they are few and far between. Lights just went on 1/2 hr ago. Will check then update

UPDATE: Still only a few RHs. Just changed from 5 to 6 +6:15 and re-aimed mist heads towards the larger open area

6:36pm Update Increased wet to 7 sec, but may drop it back to 5 and lower the pause time. Each extra second becomes ~ 10 seconds each hour = 240 seconds over 24 hours= 4 extra minutes of nutes being sprayed.

We know short w/d cycles are important so dialing both down to where the roots get wet enough but not too dry in between SHOULD help with root hairs. This is where I was going until YOU came along
:wall: Just kidding. It was a journey I had to take

I used to run 2 seconds on and that didn't work as it did not adequately wet the roots. Will work down to 4-5 seconds wet then adjust dry (pause) in hopes of finding a happy medium. These plants are roughly 2 weeks behind, so I still have time to find a decent root hair producing setting.

Pics tomorrow
Now that you've made your "ON" time totally clear......what is your friggin "OFF" time???????????? LOL

On/Off times please so I can get an idea with your 2 misters what you are doing as of now.

Thanks
 

Fonzarelli

Active Member
I just priced out the materials including everything for building a 250w STATE OF THE ART LED light with deep red dimming capabilities, 2 high flow 5" square cooling fans, 10" x 10" x 1.5" heatsink and 21 x 10w LEDs of the deep red, blue, and warm white colors for around $600 +or- $50 or so. I think I'm gonna start out a little smaller. LOL

If I were to buy this setup already made it would be around $2000.
 

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
yes but your price is still unreasonable coming from the brokest of the broke. is there a reason you dont want to work with arrays? it would be cheaper. gas tanker has it down to almost a 1$ per watt. yo check it out. in the led section umm Cheapo DIY Chinese led something like that.
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
I just priced out the materials including everything for building a 250w STATE OF THE ART LED light with deep red dimming capabilities, 2 high flow 5" square cooling fans, 10" x 10" x 1.5" heatsink and 21 x 10w LEDs of the deep red, blue, and warm white colors for around $600 +or- $50 or so. I think I'm gonna start out a little smaller. LOL

If I were to buy this setup already made it would be around $2000.
My ideal set up is 3 separate rails @ ~ 70 watts/. Umbilical them to run off one power supply
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Now that you've made your "ON" time totally clear......what is your friggin "OFF" time???????????? LOL

On/Off times please so I can get an idea with your 2 misters what you are doing as of now.

Thanks
Still dialing off time in. I let it go ~ 4hrs before checking to see whether the last off time helped or not. Currently 7 sec ON and 5:15 off.

Haven't checked this morning
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
The above pics are from my F & D, so no root pics until I harvest.

As of an hour ago, my hpa roots are STILL not dialed in, hardly any root hairs. Thinking what was different when I was beginning to see ~ 10% RHs, I was also putting a 1/2 jug of frozen water inside to reduce heat/RH, so I will try this again, now.

HPA may well give best results when combined with an accumulator. My method (much longer on times) generates too much waste, at least when D2W. HOWEVER, since I get such spectacular results (by comparison) using F & D which DOES recirculate, even during flower, perhaps D2W does not represent the problem I thought it was (which could have been due to organic nutes), assuming one checks pH and ppms every 3 days, and adjusting accordingly.

My F & D is so much simpler, but I still see hpa as a valuable learning experience.

One invaluable thing I learned this time around is: if your plants are droopy (especially buds/colas) it is because they aren't getting enough water for the amount of pause/dry cycle. So increase one, or, decrease the other.
 

Mohican

Well-Known Member
Hey PetFlora,

I noticed when I dropped my ppm I saw more hairs. Then I realized that if the roots need more nutes they will make more hairs to find them. I had a very small root system until I lowered my ppm. After I started flushing weekly and using pure water for 24 hours after flush I saw major new root growth.


Unfortunately I have root rot that keeps killing the new growth. Trying a last ditch effort save the roots.

Cheers,
Mo
 

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
HPA roots update: Still no hairs, so I divided the W/D cycle by 2, so twice as many wet cycles, but only half the amount of nutes per cycle.

PPMs have been < 300 for several weeks

Trying to grow hpa in summer in a non ac room is very frustrating

Mo, if you are growing aero, remove the plant wash the roots using a hose or strong water in a shower/tub. Soak roots in a pail of 3% h2o2 for ~ half hour. Occasionally (and gently) shake, swish/swirl to get deep inside. You may need to repeat for a few days. I did this successfully a couple years ago. No longer have that issue since switching grow techniques, which included lowering ppms
 
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