Indoor WWWillie Grows

[wwwillie]

Hey Now!
Welcome to WWWillie grows. I want this to be my blog if you will. I was recently kicked off Face Book. I had a nice blog going there and was really enjoying myself and making friends and updates. I must have pissed off someone as I came on one morning to find myself shut out. I tried to get back on but since I fudged details like DOB I could not prove who I was and now 2 months work and hundreds of words and pictures later... Here I am. Well enough of that!

I am starting over here. I plan to keep several journals as I test different bits of gear, lights, genetics, etc. but will also keep this up to date.

So what's new at Chez' WWWillie?
I'll tell you, in a word, MITES! Yikes, first it was fungus gnats and now mites. I am peeved to say the least. I have four Tangilope clones in and I thought something was going on and sure enough it is/was a mite infestation. Only one tent, the clone cab is clear. I went out and got some Azamax and a sprayer. I soaked the heck out of them twice in so many days. I have't really looked but a quick once over and I don't see any live ones. Going to wait another week, the life cycle is around 6-10 days so I should see some if the eggs made it through the soaks. Fingers (and toes!) crossed.

I have two tents open, I was getting them ready but placed pans on hold until I clear the mite problem. I do plan however to get some Mephisto beans germing by next weekend. We have the epic Mephisto battle 2018 starting soon and I want to be a part of that. I am also testing two different lights and a nifty data collector recorder widget.

So stay tuned we have some real fun going on here!!!

 

[Dazed]

A first wwwillie grow for me I'll tag along.

 

[wwwillie]

A first wwwillie grow for me I'll tag along.

Welcome aboard!
Working on some environmental automation tonight. Hope to write up what I am up to. Samsung Smarttings, automated heat and cooling, RH measurements and control... Should be fun!

 

[wwwillie]

Here we go. Time for IOT, Internet Of Things. This is pretty cool stuff. I have been after this stuff for years, remember X-10? Anyways, this is about using sensors and actuators on a wireless network with the ability to add some programmatic logic to the whole thing. Well happily for me this stuff is now a reality and starting to become common place, well almost I guess. I am currently using a Samsung Smartthings hub for home automation. Simple stuff like lights on when you enter a room, thermostat control, security. I use it in conjunction with Amazon's Alexa voice control and a Philips Hue Bridge and lights. I love it and its a blast to play with.

Which brings me to what I am planning for my garden room and tents too maybe. I have been given the opportunity to test (read that play with!!!) the Pulse Nano. This is a widget that sits in your tent and reads temperature, relative humidity and light intensity and saves it to the cloud. It then presents the data in graph format and calculates VPD. This is key I am learning, so with the Pulse Nano I can measure and track and with the IOT set up I hope to control my environment. One of the goals is to keep it somewhat on the cheap side as this stuff can get pricey.

I will be using my Smartthings gateway/hub and an app that runs on it called WEBCore to to the programming. It's new to me so I hope I can get through it. For sensors I found a wiereless temperature and RH sensor that I was able to incorporate into the Smartthings system for just under 10 bucks and so far it works great. I ordered three more, one for each tent. Now I can read these values and act upon this information. Cool! One for my room and one for each tent. So far I'm in for $40.00. Now I need to be able to control fans, heater, A/C, humidifier, dehumidifier and so on. Sonoff to the rescue! I found these wireless switches that handle 10 amps. I got six of these for $40.00, now I'm in for $80.00. I can now measure temp and RH from four places and control six devices. I'll be adding my lights to this as well. Very cool, but I have to do a little fiddling to get the switches to work. I need to load a different firmware and that's a process.

That's all for tonight I'll try to get a bit more in depth with some of the process and be happy to provide details.
Peace

 

[BigD1128]

Sounds like a mad scientist grow. Best of luck with everything!

 

[bushmasterar15]

Sucks that the original blog on FB got the boot. But glad your taking the time to do it again here @wwwillie I'll be following along. Now get that tent clean so I can watch what your doing in the Mephisto battle. Mine are in their pots already.

 

[wwwillie]

Image test of new image host.

 

[Boradan]

Now THIS is where it gets interesting.
Even though I am only on my first grow, I have been thinking about trying to set up something like this (on the cheap).
Subbed and will probably be pestering you for more information as this proceeds

 

[wwwillie]

Now THIS is where it gets interesting.
Even though I am only on my first grow, I have been thinking about trying to set up something like this (on the cheap).
Subbed and will probably be pestering you for more information as this proceeds

Welcome aboard!
Yep gonna get fun real soon. I'll try to detail as I go. I'll be sure to provide links and pictures too.
Stuck doing a hard drive recovery this morning so it will be a while till I can get started.

 

[wwwillie]

Good Morning Gardeners!
Welcome to Chez' WWWillie'!
As I was saying VPD or Vapor Pressure Deficit is really where it's at for me. I think a huge piece of the puzzle has been put in place with this. The Pulse Nano is just phenomenal in this regard. It gives me a perfect picture of the two factors in VPD.
Here is my readout for the last week. Early in the week I was getting close by using a steam type humidifier. VPD is the green line. I will use this to guide me as I build out my environmental controls.

Here is a nice excerpt from a blog post on The Weedblog about VPD

The risks of VPD extremes
In high or low VPD extremes, plants can’t or won’t transpire like they should, which negatively impacts plant growth.

If the air is too humid and moisture isn’t leaving the leaves, the plants can’t take in carbon dioxide like they should, and they’ll struggle to get moisture and nutrients from the roots. Plus, standing water on leaves increases the risk of developing bud rot and powdery mildew.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, if the air is too dry due to little water vapor in the air, plants will transpire too quickly and run the risk of accumulating too much nutrient salt in their leaves. This results in leaf burn, which is a condition many growers are familiar with.

“The more comfortable the plants are, the better,” Tomasini said. “Avoiding extremes is important because you risk infection and disease any time you neglect the grow environment. Air circulation and humidity management are pivotal.”

I think this sums up my grow environment nicely. Dry in winter, humid in summer, etc. But it's the winter dry that was hurting me. I need to go look at the dates on the pictures that I have that exhibit the browning of the leaves. I was sure that all my stuff was in spec for light and feed and watering and I never did figure out why I suffered so. I bet the dates will coincide with low humidity times.