Indoor Mars Hydro grow journal: WildBill does Hubbabubbasmelloscope in EarthBoxes under MarsHydro SP3000

[simoiget]

Thanks man! I appreciate the input, especially the input on your grows with sips.

Yeah, like you, I wonder what it would have been like without the problem.

I do think the next grow with EBs I will cut back on the dolomite to 1/4 of EB's recommendation and figure out how much gypsum to add to get a total of half of what of the effect of the dolomite would do on it's own. ......if you guys get where I'm going with this.

I think erring on the side of a little too little of this particular element to the grow would be far easier to correct on the next run.

My plan is too stop using dolomite all together. I think it has potential to build up too much magnesium in the soil

I plan to replace it with a combo of oyster shell flour and gypsum

I will also run with no covers on at least one box and probably both boxes

I have been using BTI bacteria aka mosquito dunks in my non covered pots to control fungus gnats with great success so I feel like I can control pest issues that way

I will mulch with straw and canna leaves to help conserve surface moisture

 

[WildBill]

My plan is too stop using dolomite all together. I think it has potential to build up too much magnesium in the soil

I plan to replace it with a combo of oyster shell flour and gypsum

I will also run with no covers on at least one box and probably both boxes

I have been using BTI bacteria aka mosquito dunks in my non covered pots to control fungus gnats with great success so I feel like I can control pest issues that way

I will mulch with straw and canna leaves to help conserve surface moisture

On my next "All Wild Bill picked" run, I'll be testing something different with the EBs. I just don't want to try something new when testing someone's genetics. It'll give me more time to be more prepared too.

 

[WildBill]

AND LOOKS LIKE I
HAVE TO
FOLLOW THOSE
LEADS!

​

Yeah...........someone stinks!!! And not the good canna smell!

I figured this might come along during this grow. I think I found out why the right HBSS only took a half-gallon yesterday. Her rez "soured" on me. When I tipped her over to drain the rez, I smelled it. It's not stained very much at all, but it's there. Before the next run, I'm installing a drain on each one!

I'm pretty sure the right one is good. Her usage yesterday and iI tried tipping her over while still in the tent and got nothing because I can't tip it over enough, both lend credence to that thought.

I'm gonna flush both rez thoroughly. I'm just going to refil the right HBSS back with plain water..........even if she smells.

I think he left one needs a kinda leap of faith of sorts. After fully flushing, I'm using Terraganix EM1at 1/4 rate in the rez, continue to water the way I have been doing for 5 days and then drain and flush. That should clean things up in the rez and hopefully help reestablish the uptake and eat up the dead roots I suspect are in the wicking and lower areas of the media.
I really don't think just a simple flush will suffice. I might could get away with just that if I had only smelled something and not have a drop in uptake. That is serious. It should have rang a bell with me yesterday when I noted the 50% drop in one day.

The question is this...........Do I just do that simple thing in the rez or do I also give the plant/media a top inoculation also with the EM1?
The "safe me" wants to just fix the res to see if it fixes the uptake. The "pragmatic me" says to do both. If things go bad, that would just mean more room for the insane right HBSS to grow into. The left is pretty far behind in overall vegetative bulk. She's not really behind on peak height, just not as many at that height. If this does fully correct this problem and then the first problem.....doubtful, but very possible............I could apply it to the other girl.



What are ya gonna do about it? Cry? LOL!

Any ways...............yeah..........One thing leads to another!!

 

[WildBill]

Finally, finished everything and letting the growroom stabilize about 5AM before I got some sleep. Damn nerve pain decided to stop by and say hello!
Both EBs got the rez flushed. The slightly stinky girl got the EM1 at TeraGanix rec rate. I thought it best to try that and not waste a limited dose on the problem. I don't think there will be much uptake from 5AM to light's out at 11AM, although both girls were trying to pray at bit ago.

Yeah........two EBs with big girls is just too much for a 4x4! LOL! Especially with two 7gal pots.

I should have been paying more attention to LST and defol even with the problem. BOTH were just a plain HOT MESS! I'm not letting that happen again!

Both girls now have a clean lower canopy. I flopped the girlspositions in an effort to help even them up with the sides getting a lot of reflected light. I have the bigger girl kinda cocked in the tent for more room and wait until the different branched point back up from LST and go from there. I did take off a fair amount of material, but tried to keep it minimal, but useful. Hopefully, with all the stress, they don't hermie with this additional stress. This did show me that the imbalance did hold the progress back quite a bit. The harder hit girl was very significantly smaller and less thick in the volume of plant mass. Good news is that both girl's buds are making trichs quite nicely. Once they get growing for a couple of days, I'll move the girls closer to each other. I wish I had the additional side poles in the tent to keep the sides from sucking in too much. They've been too hard to find, but Gorilla has finally got their production back up and bringing out new products.

So I can get a pan under the overflow, I did add some to the platform they sit on and took off the wheels. It ended up very slightly higher for the box.

Stomper and Kong are just plainly doing their thing. They are going to be small girls, but VERY productive. Just plain pretty!


DARKSIDE OF THE MOON
The far end of the big girl not seen. A good example of reflected light. Note the darkness of the leaves that are older, but did go thru the discoloration.

THE HOTTEST MESS!

CLEAN LOWER CANOPY!
BIG GIRL

SMALLER GIRL

STILL A HOT MESS, BUT A LITTLE MORE ORGANIZED!

If this helps the smaller girl, the other will get a treatment.
On a positive note, my worms now have some good food they go nuts over in their bin. I REALLY need to start another bin and harvest this one.

 

[WildBill]

First light yesterday, the girls looked good and had perked up.

Big Girl

Little girl

As part of my dailies, I topped off the rez on the HBSS with a half gallon each.

Stomper with her sugar

Kong making herself known.............stanky girl!

Checked on them before bed..................a bit more perky.

Canopy...............Kong is really bulking up in mass and buds! Still only leaf tucks to both girls. I kinda like the minimal effort and work on these two ..................especially with the stupid pain levels the past two weeks!

An interesting thing I found while looking at the girls, I checked the moisture levels of the potted girls with Kong drinking more, easily tell when moving those girls. I checked the pH and it was right at 6.6 for each. So I checked pH in the EBs also. A few days ago, 18th, there was a discrepancy between the planted end and opposite end with the smaller girl at 6.7 and7.0 and the bigger girl 6.7 and 6.9. Last night both girls were 6.5 at all points!



This morning the girls are all hitting it hard!!! Yeah, HBSS coming up in height. I straightened out the big girl and moved her over towards the smaller for more room on the sides. She's still crowding Kong.

A big positive is a lot of the new growth on the big girl is MUCH greener with more darker green overall. Not outta the wood for sure, but maybe there's some pockets of light.

First light later today should give a good indicator of water usage on the EBs. Hopefully the smaller girl will show an increased uptake.

VPD RUNNING AT 1.18 kPa

So far I'm happy with the results from the work.

 

[WildBill]

At the beginning of lights on, I gave all girls water. I noticed both 7gal pots were light and the moisture probe backed that up.

The smaller HBSS had an improvement in uptake. She took 3/4 gallon, up a quart from the previous 24 hrs.
The larger HBSS kept up with her normal usage of one full gallon in 24 hours.
I try to water at the same time, so I can consistently monitor water usage.........if I reasonably maintain a even VPD during lights on period.

I gave Stomper and Kong 1/2 gal of plain water with a little yucca top watered. Went outside and mixed up and amended some new media with some changes as an experiment for a grow after Pinky test run. I came back in and gave them a half gallon in the tray and let 'em soak it up. Came back in 30 min and they took just over a quart each. I'm happy with that. Both are bulking up very nicely.

Looks like both HBSS are each making good progress in their own way.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

whats the cause of the yellowing?

 

[WildBill]

whats the cause of the yellowing?

The only consensus is following Earthbox's recommendation of one lb of dolomite in the regular EB. I thought it was too much and I guess I was right.
That's the only difference between the media of all the girls.

 

[Tom Bombadil]

Holy crap a pound? Hmm you might have to ditch that soil or mix it into another 3 parts of the same soil.. not sure how else to get rid of that issue if its from the dolomite.. Bummer

 

[WildBill]

Holy crap a pound? Hmm you might have to ditch that soil or mix it into another 3 parts of the same soil.. not sure how else to get rid of that issue if its from the dolomite.. Bummer

I'll just mix it up. I can throw a bunch of Humichar in with it to help with the mix.