Mephisto Genetics Organic & DWC with a side of COBs - 4 Mephisto strains

[derek420colorado]

Hey Derek! First, thanks for the feedback and advice! I appreciate the post and I wanted to detail my setup, just in case I missed something.

I had thought I had done my math right in getting this particular model. It seemed to put a shit load of air out for the water in my tank on my small photoperiod test drive, but that plant was only in the setup for a short period...
In your autoxtreme thread, you refer to liters per hour (LPH) but here you are referring to LPM. 10 LPM per gallon of rez water would be a LOT more than what I have by an order of magnitude... Can you clarify what unit measurement I should be looking at? Any pump suggestions for 5 gallons of water?

@derek420colorado

Yeah it is definitely liters per minute, if I said lph in my AX thread my mistake. And yes it is about 10 times more air than you have now. This is the one I have, well I actually have two but am only using one. This one is 200 LPM and with the manifold you can turn that down if need be. Or if you want to get one that is only going to run a 5 gallon rez this is the one to get. And honestly depending on how deep your trash can is your pump might not be enough now that I think about it, because you have to have enough bubbles to get to the surface to keep the rockwool cube damp. You have literally 99% of what you need to grow the biggest auto possibly ever lol the only thing missing is the air, and in my opinion the most important thing.

 

[derek420colorado]

Update!!!
All of my Mephisto seeds, except Heisenberg Special, have been germ'd and sprouted! Today will be DAY ONE!
I have pretty much given up on the Heisenberg Special seed. I will try to germ another tomorrow most likely. I use the paper towel method and my TV receiver. Basically the same method that Mephisto uses... This was my failed germination in 14 total seeds. I don't think I should be un-happy with that? Anyways...

Of the Mephisto seeds that have sprouted, the MBAP is taking off the quickest. Neck and neck with the BlackBerry Kush that I also germ'd with it. Currently running half of the COBs at around 40 inches with humidity domes on them. My house is general fairly low humidity and even with my small humidifier, I want more humidity at this stage. Last note, it appears as though one of my media's has introduced some fungus gnats. I have some fly catchers hung up and the problem has contained itself in my tent so far and does not appear to be worsening.

I shall post some pictures when things become a little more exciting.

Get you some mosquito dunks or mosquito bits and sprinkle them on top of your soil, it will stop the ole gnatty bastards

 

[MoreBerry]

Yeah it is definitely liters per minute, if I said lph in my AX thread my mistake. And yes it is about 10 times more air than you have now. This is the one I have, well I actually have two but am only using one. This one is 200 LPM and with the manifold you can turn that down if need be. Or if you want to get one that is only going to run a 5 gallon rez this is the one to get. And honestly depending on how deep your trash can is your pump might not be enough now that I think about it, because you have to have enough bubbles to get to the surface to keep the rockwool cube damp. You have literally 99% of what you need to grow the biggest auto possibly ever lol the only thing missing is the air, and in my opinion the most important thing.

Whoa! That is an absolute shit ton of air. I have been following along grows and DYI guides like this:
http://www.growweedeasy.com/high-yield-bubbleponics-technique

And I have 2 of these air stones... and the pump I originally posted, with the set up in the link about.

Amazon product

With that set up, do you really think I need 10x more air? I am not sure I will do DWC again or not, so I am hesitant to invest.

 

[derek420colorado]

Whoa! That is an absolute shit ton of air. I have been following along grows and DYI guides like this:
http://www.growweedeasy.com/high-yield-bubbleponics-technique

And I have 2 of these air stones... and the pump I originally posted, with the set up in the link about.

Amazon product

With that set up, do you really think I need 10x more air? I am not sure I will do DWC again or not, so I am hesitant to invest.

Yes you definitely need more air, maybe not 10x but you need at least 4 or 5 x what you have. I tell you what, if you get the pump, use it and don't think that it was worth it, I will buy it from you and pay to have it shipped to me. I promise you this, if you subscribe to my max O2 theory you will most likely never grow in soil again. I know it sounds crazy, "like whoa TEN times more air no one has ever said to use that much." I have my doctorate in Botany from the University of Texas and have done over a decade of research and work both in the classroom and in practical application, I am more confident in this method of growing that just about anything in my life period.

Get the 50 LPM pump that is 37 bucks that I hyperlinked above, add that to your pump that you already have and rock it out. The thing is at this point you have put a lot of effort, time and money into growing what we hope is a monster. If you do not add more air I think you will most likely have issues with your grow, get discouraged and ditch it. I have seen it happen way too many times, if you have ever trusted a stranger on the internet about anything let this be it lol. 40 bucks in comparison to what you have already spent is minimal and honestly it is the lynchpin to your setup. Please Please Please get another pump and I will guide you all along the way to make sure that when you are done with this one, I think you could easily be in the 1 pound per plant auto club. You know what feck it I will say if you follow the instructions and get the other pump we will get you there.

 

[derek420colorado]

Also @MoreBerry are you going to be using the manifold inside your rez? The little thing to pump water to the netpot? In all honesty I think those things are kind of redundant and take up too much space in the rez. If it were me I would forgo the pump inside the rez and just go straight DWC style. There are a couple of reasons I think those are over kill, one they take up lots of space in the rez that could be used up by roots. Two, the manifold and pump can and almost inevitably will clog up and stop pumping anyway(that has just been my experience if you keep your rez really clean it wouldn't be an issue, but that is a pain in the ass lol) also it adds unnecessary heat to the rez. The only thing that is doing is pumping water over the starter cube, keeping your water level at the correct volume does the same thing.

 

[MoreBerry]

I did some extra research and decided not to add in a water pump or manifold for the top feed.

I will go ahead and take your advice and purchase that 50 LPM pump. Any recommended air stones for that massive amount of water?
@derek420colorado

 

[derek420colorado]

I did some extra research and decided not to add in a water pump or manifold for the top feed.

I will go ahead and take your advice and purchase that 50 LPM pump. Any recommended air stones for that massive amount of water?
@derek420colorado

Just a couple more of the ones you already have will work fine, I cant remember how many ports that pumps manifold has but I think it is 6. So ideally you would get 6 stones but that is not necessary. If you have 2 and get 2 more you should be really good. Also keep in mind that this pump is going to be way louder than you are used to. Also it does get hot, so to combat this without getting into reservoir chillers and ice bricks you want to put your pump way far away from your stones. So if you can put it 30 ft away outside your tent go for it, you literally cannot put it too far away. I am glad that you are upping your air, I promise you will not be sorry. Another thing to keep in mind is to make sure that the water isn't too turbulent for baby roots. But you can take some pictures when it gets all setup before you put your bean in to make sure it is right

 

[MoreBerry]

Just ordered more stones and a 793GPH pump. So I should be running around 75LPM total, between the two pumps. I will have 6 air stones and the rez water is between 5 gallons and 7 gallons, because I have a 5inch net pot and it drops down pretty far... Next grow I will use smaller net pots, I think.

Plant Update!

I have started germinating another Heisenberg Special today. Hopefully she will be in soil soon!
The rest of the children are just doing their thing! All three are looking good. The entire tent is above soil now. I am just providing some light RO water mistings to keep things humid

The MBAP is getting extra mistings until the root reach my rez water line. I will be feeding it with low ppm AN Nutes soon.

 

[slowandeasy]

8 Cobs running 50 watts each in a 4x4 is a lot more light than you think. I have 5 cobs running 55W each in a 4x4 and it is more than enough light. Personally I wouldn't try to run that much light and trying DWC will be harder. Your water temps need to stay in check or you will have issues rather quickly. I would buy a bigger tent to run all those lights or not use all in a 4x4. More is not always better.

 

[MoreBerry]

Hey @slowandeasy prior to this grow, I successfully harvested around 14 ounces of buds (62% humidity cured) with my 8 cobs on my first ever grow... And made a million mistakes along the way ... It is my belief that those COBs enabled me to have an above average yield for a first grow and I will definitely continue to use them.

My 8 cobs worked phenomenally and I considered adding more at the advice of some well respected fellow growers. I fully intend for this grow to contain some extremely large plants and am well aware of how much lighting I have. I very carefully calculated the PPFD I was looking for and then built the lights around those numbers. According to many of the COB growers and builders, I should be looking for around 600 watts for maximum PPFD and yield in the space.
I was actually planning on adding in 2 more COBs because my drivers can handle them but I hate working on the framing and I might build some quantum board lights next.

Here is a pretty 'ideal' set up (PPFD/layout) for a 4x4 tent using clu048-1212 COBs:
http://timbergrowlights.com/600-watt-citizen-clu048-4x4-framework/

Unfortunately for me, I already had my blurple lights prior to researching COBs, so I stuck to those as supplementary lighting and saved some money by only going with 8 COBs.

As for the water rez temps, based on what I have seen, a methodically ran system can be ran warm without too many root issues. @HotBunz has definitely confirmed that!
To combat those concerns I will be changing my rez on a 10 day cycle, cleaning with H2O2, and running hydroguard. If I still have problems, I plan to build a peltier cooler, which appears easier to build than my COBs.

Please stick around and watch this grow!! I am hoping to make a lot less mistakes this time and am hoping to get closer to a gram a watt... With that said, most of this is new to me and I will not be disappointed if I fail miserably, as long as I learn!