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

PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Root Hair News: Since changing the w/d cycle way down (more frequent) to 4 seconds ON and 2:15 off, I started to see root hairs, but lots of drops when wet cycle came on, so I reduced 15 seconds, so dry cycle is now 3 minutes. Keeping my fingers crossed that I am finally in the zone
 
Fonzarelli

Fonzarelli

Active Member
I've heard a lot of different wet dry cycles and it really depends on your setup and environment for sure. It's gotta be a pretty unique situation for each grower. I'm still liking TB's suggestions of half a second on and 30 seconds off or whatever it was. The first wet/dry cycle I ever heard of was 30 seconds on and 3 minutes off. Needless to say it was pretty wet in there. Keep experimenting and make sure you keep your rez at 68 F or lower. That may be adding to your problem. Are you sure you aren't getting any root rot in there?
 
Fonzarelli

Fonzarelli

Active Member
Whoa I gotta tell ya, I'm really liking the Red Suns now. I just starting running 4 Red Suns, 2 Blue Plus, and 2 Flora Suns in my 8 lamp fixture and holy fucking shit the plants have totally blasted off. Thanks for suggesting the Red Suns over the 660nm. I'm doing a little test between the 2 lamps. Check out my post in the led without led thread. I do believe this has to be the perfect ratio for a VEG fixture.

peace
 
Fonzarelli

Fonzarelli

Active Member
Poly, the reason why my LED is going to be so expensive is because they are 10 watt LEDs. They will penetrate into the bush a lot harder! I'm sure it will pay off quickly. Also, it should run cool to the touch and make em last for the full 10 years or longer. Gonna be good!
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Root Hair Morning update: In a word encouraged. I am seeing a fair number of empty condos (tiny fish bones) taking on tenants. but I won't be happy until I fill all those empty condos with little fuzzy white hairs. Upped dry cycle to 3 minutes as they still had a fair amount of hanging droplets when the wet cycle came on.

F & D The plant looks done, BUT, close inspection of the trics none are cloudy. The little bastards (that one is for you TB):fire:
 
Trichy Bastard

Trichy Bastard

Well-Known Member
Fonzarelli said:
I've heard a lot of different wet dry cycles and it really depends on your setup and environment for sure. It's gotta be a pretty unique situation for each grower. I'm still liking TB's suggestions of half a second on and 30 seconds off or whatever it was. The first wet/dry cycle I ever heard of was 30 seconds on and 3 minutes off. Needless to say it was pretty wet in there. Keep experimenting and make sure you keep your rez at 68 F or lower. That may be adding to your problem. Are you sure you aren't getting any root rot in there?
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I think the idea is that shorter cycles are most beneficial as you have a constant environment conducive of growth and optimal oxygenation to the roots simultaneously. In less than perfect situations you can increase the pause times to make up for too wet conditions but it's not ideal. The cycle times are very dependant on each individual situation and best timings need to be "found" for each individual setup.
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
HPA

The condos (empty fish bones) continue to get new tenants (root hairs) but am still dialing in times.

F & D

I continue to be amazed at the efficiency of this system. Feed cycle has been once/hr for over a week and nutes < 200 for ~ 3 weeks, but new pistils keep popping, and still no signs of amber trics. I was hoping to finish her over a week ago only due to difficulty to control spider mites at this stage. Instead of soaping her down, I blasted her with DE.

Big Girl Clones

I took a couple clones very late (3 weeks into flower). These are in my DIY bubbler. No new leaves yet, but nice root structure developing. Will take pics Friday
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Trichy Bastard said:
I think the idea is that shorter cycles are most beneficial as you have a constant environment conducive of growth and optimal oxygenation to the roots simultaneously. In less than perfect situations you can increase the pause times to make up for too wet conditions but it's not ideal. The cycle times are very dependent on each individual situation and best timings need to be "found" for each individual setup.
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Yes, but Fonz was partially correct. Without an accum, I needed to significantly increase the wet cycle from 2 seconds. 4 seconds seems to be close, now it's a matter of dialing in the dry cycle
 
Trichy Bastard

Trichy Bastard

Well-Known Member
PetFlora said:
Yes, but Fonz was partially correct. Without an accum, I needed to significantly increase the wet cycle from 2 seconds. 4 seconds seems to be close, now it's a matter of dialing in the dry cycle
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Makes sense as you'll have to make up for the pressure ramp up phase. Based on your trials, I am really confirmed in my thinking that hpa and getting consistent roothairs is near impossible without an accumulator- I mean you have really tried everything, would you agree? Luckily it's brought you to your style of f&d that seems to work really well for you, so in the end there was alot learned, and you found something positive no matter what out of it.

There's still a chance you'll find that correct pause time, but I am having the same issues as you in my aerolife chamber, because the size of the chamber and the nozzles themselves, I cannot get the paramaters dialed in and go back to my thinking that hpa is sort of an all or nothing thing in terms of getting the special benefits associated with proper roothairs. If you don't have just the right setup, it's just way too finicky it seems...
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Trichy Bastard said:
Makes sense as you'll have to make up for the pressure ramp up phase. Based on your trials, I am really confirmed in my thinking that hpa and getting consistent roothairs is near impossible without an accumulator- I mean you have really tried everything, would you agree? Luckily it's brought you to your style of f&d that seems to work really well for you, so in the end there was alot learned, and you found something positive no matter what out of it.

There's still a chance you'll find that correct pause time, but I am having the same issues as you in my aerolife chamber, because the size of the chamber and the nozzles themselves, I cannot get the paramaters dialed in and go back to my thinking that hpa is sort of an all or nothing thing in terms of getting the special benefits associated with proper roothairs. If you don't have just the right setup, it's just way too finicky it seems...
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Pretty much agree, although there is more to it than that. RH inside the pod plays a HUGE roll. In summer that room gets hot. The ambient heat quickly overpowers the moisture left on the roots.

I neglected to put a frozen jug in the pod this morning. Just got back a while ago. When I checked for new tenants it was quite warm in there and the tenants departed. Good News/Bad News is they come/go quickly via such a tiny RH window. I've probably got 2 more weeks to figure this out. If I can't, I will wait until cooler months to try again.
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
TB was jut catching up on your thread. the conversation about DIY pod. I have given this much THOUGHT. I just haven't gotten off my ass to do it. :wall:

HD/Lowes sells 4 X 8 sheets of foam board (various thicknesses up to ~ 3") One side has reflective material! They will even cut it for me. Pop a drain hole, tape it together and BAM. No frame needed, but a good idea. Probably cool it with an ice cube :bigjoint:
 
Trichy Bastard

Trichy Bastard

Well-Known Member
PetFlora said:
TB was jut catching up on your thread. the conversation about DIY pod. I have given this much THOUGHT. I just haven't gotten off my ass to do it. :wall:

HD/Lowes sells 4 X 8 sheets of foam board (various thicknesses up to ~ 3") One side has reflective material! They will even cut it for me. Pop a drain hole, tape it together and BAM. No frame needed, but a good idea. Probably cool it with an ice cube :bigjoint:
Click to expand...
Yes, was considering the foamboard, although where I live none was covered in reflective material. For a longer life I planned to fiberglass over it all, but that's just me liking to overdo things... ;) Instead of the iceblock, I figured to just run some chiller lines through it. One could argue the iceblock doesn't require additional electricity, but you have to remember your freezer is working that much harder to cool it, not to mention the joy of being able to let things run on autopilot.
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
As you can imagine I am far from autopilot with hpa. I had/have a plan to add a bubbler on s stand inside the pod, but never seem to get around to it. That could really help maintain moisture in the pod during summer's ambient heat

But that's why i love My DIY 21st Century F & D
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Nothing new with Big Girl, she is ever so slowly finishing. No amber trics yet :wall: , but her Indica dom sister in my hpa has taken a growth spurt off the main cola even though ppms are < 350.

HPA

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Big Girl F1

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Big Girl Clones + one from Lil Sister taken in mid- flower. Took a couple weeks before roots started to develop. No new leaf sets (partially due to being under 95% red led, but word is late clones take a long time to grow new leafs. The clones are in my DIY Bubbler with 900L/hr air pump. The resultant massive amount of bubbles create a rich oxygenated environment that clones love, and new roots thrive on.


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PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-Known Member
Natural Bug Cures http://www.naturescontrol.com/

I am seeing positive results using a strong concentrate of home made chili concentrate. The unknown is, Will my harvest taste spicy/hot?

HPA

Since dialing in the hpa w/d cycles+ keeping a 1/2g frozen jug in the pod, I have new roots with the same massive root hairs as TrichyBs avatar.
 
polyarcturus

polyarcturus

Well-Known Member
how do you plan on making the concentrate? i can give some personal exp. with extractions since i mad one recently. i did burn the shit out of my plants but no mites so far they really dont like my mix(tomato leaves, garlic pressure cooked and strained +, pepper Cinnamon and rosemary alcohol extract + neem)
 
PSUAGRO.

PSUAGRO.

Well-Known Member
I've always used chili/neem/dishsoap solution for most pest issues and it is effective at controlling sm's not eradicating them...........depending on how far along in flower you are they will be spicy .............keep up the good work pet..
 
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