Indoor 1Sky's Mephisto, COB (Amare) & Fastbuds GrowBattles: BioTabs vs Adv Nutes & AutoPots vs FiberPots

[Ryker604_BT]

I'm doing Bio PK in my grow with Autopots and I top feed, no other way to do it I suppose .

Top feed is every 5 days for me, with a dry cycle of 1,5 day right before the watering (mostly to prevent the Autopot valve from flooding, but to get some air to the roots too).

Hope that helps.

 

[Biotabs F69]

Pow! Nice set up dude! I am amazed at how organised some folk on here are! Your seedling trays and labels and such make me jealous! I am a bit of a sucker by nature

I think for P and K the compost tee is the one to go for. @Biotabs F69 will correct me if I'm wrong but I believe the tee is stronger than the bio pk?

IMO getting that PK boost for later flowering will really really help your biotabs set up as already said.

Also do you know if the GP Dense is organic? I think it is, and I am itching to have a go with it after lots of comments from people like The A of Sir Train

Big kudos to you mate for doing this awesome comparative grow. Gonna be really interesting to watch this unfold.

Good luck buddy!

Indeed the PK compost tea can be more potent, due to you are in control how strong you tea brew will be.

With the Bio PK 5-8 you can add higher quantity's, but with the Compost tea you are brewing your own lively bacteria habitat.
So the strength of it all depends of the quantity of powder uses, brewing time, and quantity of air-ration.

Have a good grow man!

 

[Biotabs F69]

@hippy71 & @Ryker604 - hey guys, thanks for the comments & support, and following along on this grow.

My only very real concern about Bio PK and the tea is that I'm running the BioTabs part of this grow in AutoPots -- which use tiny tubes and valves to bottom feed the plants from a reservoir. I could periodically top water with the compost tea, I just have to turn off the reservoir for a while and make sure that I don't add so much that I get run-off. In fact, I think the BioTabs website cautioned against using the PK Boost in drip irrigation systems. @Biotabs F69 -- any comments on use of these products with AutoPots?

Hippy71 - I don't know if GP Dense is organic, there isn't much info on their website. But I can tell you that I'm getting VERY dense buds with fiber pot (Mephisto) grow that is just finishing up.

Yes to be sure your tubes don't clog with the Bio PK 5-8, it is beter to top feed it.
But if you have many plants to water.
It is handy, to let you pots dry out a bit like 2/2,5 days.

With autopot, I always like to play with the tab a bit, so that it is not constantly wet, in those dry periods, you are giving the roots the chance to be more active and get bigger. Big roots big fruits!
Although we have had many grows with the tab constantly running, great results aswel.

Lets take a 100 Liter tank as example. with 50 plants hooked up to it.
fill it with 25 liters of water, add the Bio PK 5-8 (50/ 80 ML) depends how big the plants are.
and open your tank.
If your post are dried properly, they wil suck up those 25 Liters in a moment.

And you will have a empty tank again.
Fill that baby up. open the tab again.
And in a way you are flushing the tubes with clean water again. and at the same time adding the extra water they are craving for.
If you have used the Bio PK 5-8 many times during a grow.
In between each grow clean the tubes, or if you are feeling fancy replace them.

Have a good grow!

 

[Only1Sky]

I'm doing Bio PK in my grow with Autopots and I top feed, no other way to do it I suppose .

Top feed is every 5 days for me, with a dry cycle of 1,5 day right before the watering (mostly to prevent the Autopot valve from flooding, but to get some air to the roots too).

Hope that helps.

Yeh, thanks. Its good to hear that you're using this successfully with AutoPots. Thanks for sharing your approach. I'm seriously considering it.

 

[Only1Sky]

Yes to be sure your tubes don't clog with the Bio PK 5-8, it is beter to top feed it.
But if you have many plants to water.
It is handy, to let you pots dry out a bit like 2/2,5 days.

With autopot, I always like to play with the tab a bit, so that it is not constantly wet, in those dry periods, you are giving the roots the chance to be more active and get bigger. Big roots big fruits!
Although we have had many grows with the tab constantly running, great results aswel.

Lets take a 100 Liter tank as example. with 50 plants hooked up to it.
fill it with 25 liters of water, add the Bio PK 5-8 (50/ 80 ML) depends how big the plants are.
and open your tank.
If your post are dried properly, they wil suck up those 25 Liters in a moment.

And you will have a empty tank again.
Fill that baby up. open the tab again.
And in a way you are flushing the tubes with clean water again. and at the same time adding the extra water they are craving for.
If you have used the Bio PK 5-8 many times during a grow.
In between each grow clean the tubes, or if you are feeling fancy replace them.

Have a good grow!

Hello F69. Many, many thanks for these long and detailed responses to the questions of AutoPots with Bio PK 5-8 and PK Compost Tea. This is very helpful and much appreciated.

Since I have a small number of AutoPots, it will be easier for me to top-feed, but it is nice to hear about this strategy of using the reservoir when a large number of pots are involved. I think I will get some of the Bio PK 5-8. Also interested in the Silicium Flash too.

 

[Only1Sky]

No updates since germination --- I felt like sparing us all the boring photos of tiny seedlings. But at exactly the 2-week mark since sprouting, its time to document the status.

First, the two Fastbuds - LSD & Blackberry. Over the past 11 days they've gotten misted 3 times with Boom-Boom and once with Optic Foliar, and they've been fed on day 12 and today (day 14) with a half liter of the AN/GP nute program. Here they are on day 6 and again on day 10:

You can see the LSD is starting to show some yellow around the leaf tips. At day 12 they were transplanted into final fiber pots. But they are still hanging out about 6" under a T4 light --- waiting another day until a tent frees up and I can get them into proper position under the Amare light. Here's today's day 14 photos:

Not only are they are slow and small for 2-weeks, but clearly they are stressed and not liking the current environment. Not sure what's wrong -- maybe too close to the T5?

 

[Only1Sky]

Now for an update on the 6 Mephisto girls, again, all at two weeks since sprout.

Besides daily misting with RO water, by day 10, they had all gotten 3 different days of misting using Boom-Boom spray, and two different days with a .5 liter feeding of Roots Excellerator. Here they are at day 10 under the Amare light at 22":

I felt that they were getting too leggy and stretched out. So on day 11 I lowered the light down to 18". I got a bit nervous with that, so today (day 14) I raised it back up. Light is now 22" above the shortest plant and 20" above the tallest.

One set of Crinkle & Bubbly ladies are prepped for a BioTabs run. Today they got their 1st shot of .5 liter of Orgatrex. Here they are at day 14:

The other two sets of Crinkle & Bubbly are on the Advanced Nutrients / GreenPlanet program. They've all had a first .5 liter feeding from Phase "5-20" of the nute program as well as a spritz of Optic Foliar. Here they are at the two week mark. The two in AutoPots followed by the two in fiber pots:

In general, I'd say these 6 gals are doing OK. Not great, just OK. The size is not impressive for 2 weeks, and most are showing some leaf mal-formations. I'm not too worried so long as this doesn't continue with the new growth. Also, I think there is still some adjustment all are going through regarding the environment. Humidity domes came off yesterday, and now I'm tweaking the tent's humidity to try to get the Vapor Pressure Deficit into the "green zone" -- currently, humidity is too low relative to the temperature.

That's all for now. Thanks for following this grow. Any comments greatly appreciated.

 

[Only1Sky]

Just for reference, here is the nutrient program that I'm using. Thanks to @A-Train for this . I tried it on my previous grow and really loved the results.

 

[Ryker604_BT]

Have any idea why the seedlings look like that? Low humidity maybe?

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[Only1Sky]

Have any idea why the seedlings look like that? Low humidity maybe?

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The seedlings have been under humidity domes until 2 days ago -- and the leaf deformations happened while under domes. So I'm not thinking humidity is the problem. I'm thinking either the positioning of the light (which seems unlikely) or maybe a reaction to some of the early nutes & sprays. Really don't have a good idea.