YieldMax -- Striving for Maximum Single-Plant Yield in a Micro Space.

aggreenvln said:

I'd wait on that HPS order... all the research I've been doing in the week or so since I ordered mine leads me to believe that CMH would be a much better pickup if you're going for an HID. They've really been causing quite the stir lately. I'd at least look into them. I'll probably stick with my HPS for the time being (it was one of those /facepalm purchases when I realized what I should have gotten a few days ago); it's still a perfectly good light and I'm sure it'll produce some sick buds in my space, but ... The name of my thread is "YieldMax" after all .

Plans for the tent... I went over them a week or so ago in a post a while back, but the tl;dr version of it is I'll be using my PC for clones/veg (approx ~4 wk/plant), a second PC (haven't started building yet, but have all the equipment) for a couple small mother plants in soil, and the tent for flowering. The tent is less than 2 sq. ft. so I think it still constitutes a micro grow, but the real benefit is getting extra vertical room paired with extra room horizontally. I think I'll be able to do really well with nearly a foot more vertical growing space. Also, the tent will be better equipped to take care of any smell issues my computer might not be. My roommates were complaining a bit as my last grow was finishing up, so I'm doing everything I can to minimize.

Click to expand...

Well from what I read the CMH blubs need the HPS magnetic ballast to run so I think I will pick up the HPS set up for now. After a while I'll pick up a CMH bulb. I mean for $69 for bulb, ballast, reflector... shit why not.

ONLY the 250 and 400 watt bulb require the HPS magnetic ballast. The 20 to 150 watt require a pulse start metal halide ballast. There is a CMH group with some information on it.

gumball said:

from my research, HPS will yield the most, CMH will have better quality but with minor loss in yield. and finally flouroscents will have the best quality and lowest yield. maybe you can add a CMH beside your HPS down the road and get the pros of both.

Click to expand...

Aah, very good to know. I guess it's good that I went with HPS then! I definitely won't have enough room in the tent for one of each, but if I upgrade to a bigger tent some day I can definitely see plenty of CMH bulbs in my future .

gumball said:

ONLY the 250 and 400 watt bulb require the HPS magnetic ballast. The 20 to 150 watt require a pulse start metal halide ballast. There is a CMH group with some information on it.

Click to expand...

This is correct. Thanks for the quick response.

brandon. said:

I mean for $69 for bulb, ballast, reflector... shit why not.

Click to expand...

Word. I'm perfectly happy with mine!

I've been able to hit the sweet spot with my humidifier. Temp/humidity at the plant is 76F and 50%RH. Good stuff . She sure is growing fast! More pictures and updates tomorrow.

Hi everyone,

I opened my case this evening to see a very morose-looking plant:


She still looks perfectly healthy (aside from the droopiness) and the reservoir is low-ish but not THAT low, so after about five seconds of reasoning I can conclude she's droopy because of flat out lack of nutes (i.e., she used them all up). I'm not sure why I didn't realize it sooner, but I guess half strength seedling nutes can only take a two week old plant so far . I like my new low-maintenance flush schedule, but I have to keep in mind that at this point in my previous grow I was increasing nutrient level virtually every flush I performed (every 4-5 days).

Anyway, the long and short of it is that I added 1.5L of quarter strength veg nutes to the reservoir and ended up with:

pH: 5.8
PPM: 590

Looking good. A day or two of growth was lost, but I expect her to perk up quickly.

I did some more investigation on the tap/RO water front at my apartment; water out of the tap has a PPM of ~250. After it goes through our RO filter, it has a PPM of ~225. Theoretically a functioning RO filter should bring TDS down to zero. I conclude a new RO filter is desperately needed, definitely before flowering. I'm losing so much nute potential by cramming all those unneeded dissolved solids in there, not to mention it might not be filtering out the bad stuff (bromine!).

I'll get on ordering a new filter tonight. It will arrive on Monday. Hooray Amazon free two day shipping. Happy growing.

lookin good man... cant wait to see what you max out at... it.ll be a good one for sure...

Glad to see that you figured out the issue with the filter and droopiness in the plant (hopefully)

Let me know how the new filter works because I also am needing one.

I just bought some nutes off amazon and got that 2 day free shipping for a free trial of amazon prime. Pretty lucky.

Just curious, what PPM meter do you use and how much was it / do you recommend it or a different one? thanks in advance

micro.grower said:

lookin good man... cant wait to see what you max out at... it.ll be a good one for sure...

Click to expand...

Thanks micro! I'm pretty pumped for this one.

Grandaddy87 said:

Glad to see that you figured out the issue with the filter and droopiness in the plant (hopefully)

Let me know how the new filter works because I also am needing one.

I just bought some nutes off amazon and got that 2 day free shipping for a free trial of amazon prime. Pretty lucky.

Just curious, what PPM meter do you use and how much was it / do you recommend it or a different one? thanks in advance

Click to expand...

Yep! The plant is looking much better today . I'll write up some more details with pictures below. I'm anxious to see how the new filters work as well -- it should only be a couple more weeks before she starts to smell! Amazon Prime is boss. It's free for a year if you're a student .

My TDS meter is the HM Digital TDS-4. $26 on Amazon with free two day shipping. Rad. I'm happy with it so far. It does everything it's supposed to do and as far as I know it's pretty accurate. Just about as good as they come, IMO!

Numbers:

pH: 5.2
PPM: 600

I expect my pH to rise another .4-.6 over the next day or two and then stabilize. Though I'm not sure that entirely matters as I'll be doing a full flush tomorrow night assuming my new RO filters get here.

Like I mentioned earlier, the plant is looking much better. This is a snapshot from this morning, roughly eight hours after I took the emo picture:


Looking better already! And here she is now:


As you can see, I also moved the reservoir to its final position as I was unsure whether the top of the plant was getting too hot/dry. I'm excited to see this little lady take off!

Happy growing.

The droopy plant looks sad . Goodjob on the first harvest man.

shes picking up, looks good. how is the root development so far?

Hi guys! Good things are happening over here; I'm excited to tell you about them.

simplyownage said:

The droopy plant looks sad . Goodjob on the first harvest man.

Click to expand...

Sad indeed! But no longer . She's looking pretty good.

gumball said:

shes picking up, looks good. how is the root development so far?

Click to expand...

Howabout a picture?

Looking good to me . I'm going to pick up some hydrogen peroxide pretty soon as a precaution. I don't want anything else to go wrong with this grow if I can help it!

Here's some news...

Cool, eh? It's official.

Numbers:

pH: 5.2 (and rising)
PPM: 990 (790? more below)

I did a full nute flush today and switched to 2/3 strength transitional nutes to push her over the hump into flowering. I also installed a new RO filter in my Brita reservoir last night and did some TDS tests; Tap: ~250. After new filter: ~200. I'm beginning to suspect that perhaps my TDS meter is incorrectly calibrated. There are a few calibration solutions available that I might look into getting. For now, I'm going to assume it's at least a little off and say my TDS is somewhere between 790 and 990.

Here's some more news: I started defoliating today. If you haven't read about it, check out this thread. It's a somewhat controversial technique, but many profess to seeing great results. The main idea is to maximize light exposure at developing sites that might otherwise be shaded by fan leaves. According to those who have used it, light exposure on the developing bud itself is more important than light exposure on its respective fan leaf. I think it will work very well in my case due to space concerns. Remember how cluttered it got during flower last time around? I plan to remedy that and see higher yields by defoliating. All mature fan leaves will be nixed once every week or two from here on out.

Here are some pictures before and after defoliation:

I'm excited to see what kind of results I get with this.

Happy growing!

Check it:


I still have a few things to do. I ran it last night to see how heat/ventilation was, and I'm definitely going to need to come up with a solution. At reservoir level it stabilized at ~90F. I have a plan for making a DIY "cool-tube" thing... You'll see. I'll update when I do it.

On top of that, I'm still waiting on the arrival of an air pump and seeds. It has been 16 days since my order was placed with Attitude, and the order's tracking status has simply said "Origin post is preparing shipment" for the past week and a half. I paid for one of the guaranteed shipping options with a t-shirt, so I'm not sure what could have happened. In any case, if they're not here in 5 more days I can request that they send my order again. More on that later as well. I also have to convert the plastic container you see in the picture into a proper reservoir. It fits perfectly!

My Easy Ryder is fine -- it looks pretty much the same as it did yesterday. A couple days of slow/no progress was expected due to the initial defoliation, and I'm expecting growth to pick up again tomorrow. From here on out the plant should be able to adapt to additional defoliation more quickly.

Numbers:

pH: 6.0
PPM: 800-1000?

I topped off the reservoir today with RO water to bring my TDS level down a bit. Also, I modified my ScrOG rack and raised everything up closer to the light. I'll keep my plant much closer to my CFLs this time around -- I think the fact that buds were ~4"+ away from lights last time was a big contributing factor in the lack of density I saw.

hey aggreenvin

Your plant in the pic before you chopped her looks exactly like mine did at 24 days old so she's beetin mine for growth im in coco, check her out in my thread the links in my signature below let me no what you think
keep up the good work bud
peace

hell yeah on the "defoliation"... lol... is that what the kids coined the pruning and lst thing i was trying? lol... like how you did your screen... like i said before, i have one more screen like that... if your method is better, i may try it... i wanted to let you know that the little peices of wire inside your grid... the onesthat the the "+"'s were connected to come of easily... get some pliers, place horizontally between the plier things, squeeze and twist.. they should snap off... you may have to peel that rubber shit back or cut it to get the things out... i didnt want my plant growing into them... mine were pretty sharp...
congrats on the pistils... she is moving along quickly... i think we are learning more and more from each other as we grow... but what i find interesting is your water and im dirt... see... all growers can get along now... lol...

PUKKA BUD said:

hey aggreenvin

Your plant in the pic before you chopped her looks exactly like mine did at 24 days old so she's beetin mine for growth im in coco, check her out in my thread the links in my signature below let me no what you think
keep up the good work bud
peace

Click to expand...

Looking good man! As you already know, I'm subbed . I'm eager to see how yours turns out.

micro.grower said:

hell yeah on the "defoliation"... lol... is that what the kids coined the pruning and lst thing i was trying? lol... like how you did your screen... like i said before, i have one more screen like that... if your method is better, i may try it... i wanted to let you know that the little peices of wire inside your grid... the onesthat the the "+"'s were connected to come of easily... get some pliers, place horizontally between the plier things, squeeze and twist.. they should snap off... you may have to peel that rubber shit back or cut it to get the things out... i didnt want my plant growing into them... mine were pretty sharp...
congrats on the pistils... she is moving along quickly... i think we are learning more and more from each other as we grow... but what i find interesting is your water and im dirt... see... all growers can get along now... lol...

Click to expand...

For sure! I think you could even get more aggressive with it (not necessarily on this grow, but in future ones). If you haven't yet, check out the thread I linked in a previous post: Defoliation: Hi-Yield Technique.

Hehe, my desire for symmetry was a bit tricky to figure out, but I think I came up with a pretty good hole layout. Also, good info on removing the cross-bar things! I don't think mine are too sharp so I'm not going to worry about it for this grow, but I'll probably take care of them before the next one. Thanks!

We're definitely learning a lot . It's pretty cool to see the contrast between soil and hydro systems. At this scale it becomes really obvious that plants in each system grow very differently. I like how you put that... you're dirt, I'm water. Different specialties, similar desires and results. Good stuff .

Numbers:

pH: 5.6
PPM: 800-1000?

Quick one today as I have to run to do some holiday shopping. The plant is looking really good, and growth has definitely started to pick up again. I'm seeing new pistils develop every day. I'll probably wait another 4-7 days before defoliating again. Hopefully there won't be quite so much stall time.

Pictures! Here's that funky stem. I think it's just that somehow the divide between stem and root ended up above my rock-wool cube. I'm not sure how normal the pinched section is, though. It seems perfectly sturdy and the plant is really healthy, so I hope it won't become a problem.



Happy growing!

Growth looks good, but how long hAs the stem been that way? It almost looks like the beginning of stem rot, but I may be wrong.

your stem/stalk has me seriously concerned...

gumball said:

Growth looks good, but how long hAs the stem been that way? It almost looks like the beginning of stem rot, but I may be wrong.

Click to expand...

micro.grower said:

your stem/stalk has me seriously concerned...

Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm definitely keeping a close eye on it... As far as I know the stem has always been that way though. It just keeps getting thicker and greener above the pinch so it's looking more exaggerated over time. There is definitely root matter above my rockwool, just below the pinch -- I kept trying to tell myself that maybe the section is semi-normal and it's usually just below ground so it doesn't look so frightening, but I kindof doubt that theory. It seems a bit weird that one section of the stem wouldn't grow with the rest. Hrrm.

If it does turn out to be stem rot, what should I do about it? My rock-wool cube was a bit damp for a few days about a week or two ago, but I wouldn't think that would be enough to cause rot. It has been relatively dry ever since, especially since I moved her up towards the light a bit more (no more moist than it should be anyway).

EDIT: By the way, the texture of the pinched section is dry, hard and a bit flaky.

EDIT 2: Just did a little research, and I didn't find any pictures of stems with rot that came down to a pinch like mine. They all look full sized and they have brown or white stuff (mold/fungus) on them, and I get the impression that they're not too solid eventually. By the looks of it, I'd say it's either a VERY advanced stem rot (in which case I'm surprised my plant is still alive and doing so well), or it's something else.

EDIT 3: I suppose another option is that the stem *was* affected by rot early on while the rock-wool was wet, and now it's healing. I can't imagine it would still be rotting in that section if it's not even touching the cube.

EDIT 4: Here is a repost of a picture from a week ago (the only other good picture I have of the stem). In this picture taken a couple days before defoliation, the stem does look a bit strange. It is fair to say that it looks way worse now, but I feel like it hasn't degraded further in the past few days. I'll start taking daily pictures of it to make sure, as the plant is growing so fast it's tough to judge based on memory alone.


EDIT 5: So I've come to the conclusion that it most definitely is root rot (or at least was). I took off the bit of dry flaky stuff (turned out to be an old stem husk -- plants shed too, you know!) and found a dark/blackish section of stem. I was able to scrape it off fairly easily with the back of my fingernail. Here's a picture:


My research tells me that the condition is pretty much untreatable. If the plant "recovers" it still won't yield as much as it otherwise would, so I'm contemplating just straight up chopping her down and starting over. If I do this, I'll have to make sure I disinfect / sterilize everything that may have been exposed to the fungus. Grr. I'll give her a few more days and we'll see.

Whatd'ya think caused the root rot?

brandon. said:

Whatd'ya think caused the root rot?

Click to expand...

There was a brief period when I watered the cube down a bit because it seemed excessively dry. Unfortunately, I didn't really think it through and after I topped off my reservoir I didn't have adequate rock-wool drainage (I assume) so the cube stayed wet for a few days. I don't know for sure if this was the cause, but I have no idea where else it could have come from :-\.