Indoor Organic-experimental-tobacco&more-lowWatt-0maintenance(?)-12/12-breeding-outdoor-etc.

[Peacefulgarden]

Hi all, got booted off another site for being to peaceful (not kidding), so now you have to put up with me for a little while. I think best not to talk about it.

I just wanted to share and log my gro efforts, for myself and anyone else who may be interested (in a good laugh).

Medium/grow method: ph’ed to 6.3-6.4. organic soil mixed by myself. I used 3-4 different premix soils for cannabis and/or succulents, coco, peat, coarse and fine vermiculite, glacier rock dust and added chicken manure + alfalfa pellets (some wetted to break down, some left whole), to feed the soil for the whole grow. also dolomite lime, gypsum and whatever else I’m forgetting but I think that’s about all. Everything in ~1 gallon nursery pots, transplanted from solo cup sized nursery pots

Feed and supplements used: Whatever is in the premix soils + chicken manure and alfalfa pellets. All organic. See above

water source: City tap water ~300 ppm 7+ ph (not potable imo). No idea what’s in it.

Strain/age: Many, most autos, some photos and food/tobacco/flowers. Starting new seeds often.

light used: dayday hps 4000 (410 watt max dimmable, currently at ~200 watts). Always on 12/12 because of photos and to keep electricity down.

Climate: whatever inside of house is, I don’t believe I need to care. I believe if I can tolerate it, plants can thrive in it. Never below 60f (lights off) or above 90f (lights on), currently. Humidity lights on 40% lights off 75% approximately, getting lower as I cover the pots with plastic.

Watering method: Fully automated, custom, with no electricity used. I am keeping my plants watered using wick irrigation. This method uses rope/string/cord to get water from a resaviour, to the plants roots. Hard to find very much information on it, so a lot of trial and error but I just about have it dialed in (I think).

(Just to get idea, this set up doesn’t work, need to cover cord in plastic and not enough flow). 3/4” rope in plastic should solve problems. Auto pot bases below, filled from main res.

Plant on left is now displaying N toxicity, can see it starting in this pic (pic taken couple weeks-month ago).

Problems: Most of my trouble shooting has been around watering cord size and res. height, to keep the soil at ~ideal moisture content. I am waiting on 3/4” cotton rope right now, since I am slightly under-watered using 3x 5/16” rope.

Problems cont.: I want to only water the plants for the whole grow, never feed. I have been playing with how much additional alfalfa pellets I can add when transplanting from solo cup. It seems my soil mix is near perfect to add 0 additional pellets or very little, more than that and my plants are displaying N toxicity.

Problems cont.: nats. I am just covering all entry points to soil with plastic from old grocery bags. Seems to be working, over time. I can do it better if needed. Ideally pots with no drainage holes but I don’t have and don’t want more stuff.

Problems cont.: Alge in autopot bases. Knew it was going to happen, just unsure on how exactly I wanted to make the covers. Still a work in progress becaue I want it to be easy to add/take away plants.

Problems cont.: Grower is a lazy bitch.

Additional info: 4x4 tent with 4” intake/outtake, carbon filters on everything. Separate germination cabinet, heat mat with dome, also used for storage and where 5 gallon res. is located.

A look at the autopot bases, was getting algae, covered now, still need to customize covers for ease of plant’s wick going in/out. Have a few ideas, not sure which it will be yet

Few floods, autopot acting up, fixed now.

Additional info cont,: Most plants spend first month outside as well as inside to help rate of growth.

Most food plants will be planted outside come spring, so i will try and keep them smaller. I want to get more experience with them as well, so i am ready for spring, outdoors. Some of the seeds can take over a month to germinate as well.

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Hey Buddy,

First of all... to AFN
If you use common sense you won't have any problems here. Loads of nice people who are always willing to help a hand. And lot's of information to be found. Some call this forum the "growers bible", but do use the advanced search function.

Problems: Most of my trouble shooting has been around watering cord size and res. height, to keep the soil at ~ideal moisture content. I am waiting on 3/4” cotton rope right now, since I am slightly under-watered using 3x 5/16” rope.

If you really want to stay using the paracord, I would keep it as short as possible. One thing to try is use a bucket with a lid, poke a hole through the lid and thread the cord through the hole. PLace pot on top of the lid.

Problems cont.: nats. I am just covering all entry points to soil with plastic from old grocery bags. Seems to be working, over time. I can do it better if needed. Ideally pots with no drainage holes but I don’t have and don’t want more stuff.

Spinosad is a very good treatment against all pests. It is Biological in nature and doesn't harm your buds.

Problems cont.: Grower is a lazy bitch.

Ah...A stoner on this forum. What a surprise

Additional info cont,: Most plants spend first month outside as well as inside to help rate of growth.

That's the source of your pest problem. Try to treat your tent as if it is a operating theater. ie, keep it as clean as possible.


Regards,

Bob

 

[Peacefulgarden]

Hey Buddy,

First of all... to AFN
If you use common sense you won't have any problems here. Loads of nice people who are always willing to help a hand. And lot's of information to be found. Some call this forum the "growers bible", but do use the advanced search function.

Hi Bobje,

Thanks for the welcome. I think I had an account on here a long time ago but I may have just been here browsing the auto pot section when I first got them, for the most part. I like them but only have four, I hope to have many plants, so I need something/a system to accommodate that.

If you really want to stay using the paracord, I would keep it as short as possible. One thing to try is use a bucket with a lid, poke a hole through the lid and thread the cord through the hole. Place pot on top of the lid.

I used to have the watering corsds much longer, wasn't delivering enough water to the pots, moved them up onto the autopot pots (~15''), and I am just on the verge of enough water, with pretty small string. With 3/4" cotton rope, I am pretty confident I will have plenty of water, it's the size of a garden hose and not even a foot long. I am also about to start some ~the way you say (again), in much smaller pots, sitting directly on water source (1.5" above apx.), just for kicks.

Been working on getting my setup dialed in for a couple months now, think I'm just about to have it working well. Even with it not set up well, it's doing pretty well and ~never water anything. Water seed into solo cup with 150ml tap, then by the time that is dry, they are moved into the 1gal, with moist soil and watering string.

Spinosad is a very good treatment against all pests. It is Biological in nature and doesn't harm your buds.

Will keep that in mind if needed but I think closing off any access points should do the trick. Prefer to not have to but anything, also growing peppers, I doubt they would like pepper spray soil.

Ah...A stoner on this forum. What a surprise

I know, odd ball, again.

That's the source of your pest problem. Try to treat your tent as if it is a operating theater. ie, keep it as clean as possible.

Possibly, I'm banking on one of the soils used or more likely the chicken manure. Top soil is always dry so far but they don't seem to mind. Like said before, pretty sure they will be 'gone' soon as access to the soil is. I really like to let the plants get sun.

Regards,

Bob

Thanks again but this time for taking the time and the suggestions.

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Been working on getting my setup dialed in for a couple months now, think I'm just about to have it working well.

A tip to get there faster is...Set-up a timelapse camera. The cool thing with that is. You can speed up the lifecycle of the plants to where you can see when things go iffy...

Will keep that in mind if needed but I think closing off any access points should do the trick. Prefer to not have to but anything, also growing peppers, I doubt they would like pepper spray soil.

Ah, a fellow Capsaicin lover

I know, odd ball, again.

Possibly, I'm banking on one of the soils used or more likely the chicken manure. Top soil is always dry so far but they don't seem to mind. Like said before, pretty sure they will be 'gone' soon as access to the soil is. I really like to let the plants get sun.

Closing of will not help I'm afraid. And it's not the flies that are harmful, but rather the larvae that damage the roots. The same goes for your pepper plants

Thanks again but this time for taking the time and the suggestions.

Glad to be of service. That's why this is such a nice community. Everybody helps each other out here

 

[DDubs]

Welcome, interesting technic. If it works for 100+ foot tall trees, why not. Do you have to change the cord size to account for the up take needs of the plant or does the cord just keep the soil in check and in turn keep the plant in check?

 

[Peacefulgarden]

Update, more details on grow, responses and more

A tip to get there faster is...Set-up a timelapse camera

that’s a good idea but I don’t have any cameras and I don’t buy stuff anymore really. Took me a least a month to spend 15 bucks on some rope lol.

Closing of will not help I'm afraid. And it's not the flies that are harmful, but rather the larvae that damage the roots. The same goes for your pepper plants

Okay, so you convinced me and also made me remember that I have something that may help. See pics below. Thanks

Glad to be of service. That's why this is such a nice community. Everybody helps each other out here

Reminds me of another of my qualities, stubborn. Once I have a way I would like to do something, it’s hard for me to do it another way. But glad to hear and I can be influenced lol

Welcome, interesting technique. If it works for 100+ foot tall trees, why not. Do you have to change the cord size to account for the up take needs of the plant or does the cord just keep the soil in check and in turn keep the plant in check?

Hi thank you and I agree. Through my short research on wick irrigation, it is the most preferred watering by the plants themselves, which is partly why I’m putting time, effort and etc. into getting it just right.

Still learning about it, never seen a setup like the one I am making but when the wick has to go uphill, it seems like it will be very difficult to overwater. The rope is only at the bottom inch or so of the pot, currently, so, it seems very similar to a autopot set up to me, just it is always on/working, seems more natural

Downhill, I’ve made a few smaller setups, and it seems almost like a siphoning action going on, experienced overwatering. There are several ways to slow down the flow though, one being to put some sort of clamp on the watering cord.

Here (first pic below), is what I remembered I had for the nats, put half-full tsp. on top of each pot. Stuff is to much for me and it seemed like it was working and quickly on some solo cup plants I was testing on earlier today.

Plants are (left) unknown plant I found as seedling in my back yard, (right) bloody skunk x royal purple cross i made and Santa Fe pepper. Unknown plant is getting to tall, so I bent it over, came back up in a few hours, have it tied down now. The royal purple x bloody skunk was transplanted from hydro medium that ph was to low, now in good organic, just gonna use it to pollinate.

~younger plants. top to bottom. Left side- spineless ocra, weed plant, banana pepper, raspberry. Right side-tooth ache plant, weed plant, hopi sacred tobacco, weed plant, catnip. plants with bags on top not mentioned

germination and storage cabinet. You also somehow motivated me to start a bunch of seeds today. 16 seeds germination now, most food, 3 weed (all photos I think). Thanks!

Front left/right are sitting on res with string from pot to water them, will spend whole grow in those pots. The light here is just used for light, once plants break the surface I add them to the box I move from outside and tent during light hours.

pics of ~’environment control’ setup. Just keep the 2 ac infinitys set to 2 (10 is max), both with mufflers and carbon filters, they are nearly silent at the distance I am from them, big deal since it’s in a bedroom. First pic take before I cleaned up wiring, tidied up now. Still needs to be made better, but I need to drop the light (2nd pic), to straighten the ducting, hard angel not great, etc.

No pics of a few weed plants that I messed up in one way or another. 2 were to many alfafa pellets added at transplant and the other that is almost finished came from hydro medium that ph was in the 4's (I credit that to my soil ph pen, no longer in use), I just use a ph pen for liquids now, works fantastic.

custom window insert, everything inside goes uphill so no water issues.

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Nice setup brother! You don't have to spend a lot of money on this hobby. There's all kinds of stuff you can do the "cheap" way

• Seeds --> check out Linda seeds
• Nutrition --> you can make you're own tea's, or even use a tool like HydroBuddy to create a completely water soluble nutrition.
• pH/EC pen --> check out Aliexpress

 

[Peacefulgarden]

Nice setup brother! You don't have to spend a lot of money on this hobby. There's all kinds of stuff you can do the "cheap" way

• Seeds --> check out Linda seeds
• Nutrition --> you can make you're own tea's, or even use a tool like HydroBuddy to create a completely water soluble nutrition.
• pH/EC pen --> check out Aliexpress

Thanks, I am very happy with it. Designed by me, for me. Next to no bending over, just about my favorite part lol

For sure, the only things new here are the tent (70, used on amazon) and the light (100, 2 or 3 cupons on amazon, normally ~350). Everything else I had from before, I have 3 hlg 100v2's I can sell, and they pay for all new parts. I'm pretty happy with everything. Forgot, the light in germ cab was 30 bucks. Really wanted something with a dimmer for in there.

As for the rest of it (your post), I will share what I have in my next post.

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Good luck with your future grow buddy
That your harvests may be plentiful

 

[Peacefulgarden]

Got the 3/4” rope, actually 7/8”+ and everything ~ figured out and one pot finished

here is the cover for the auto pot base, holes here 1”, had to make them 1.5” for rope to fit.

here it is wrapped in garbage bag plastic, to keep light and debris out.

Drilled 7/8” hole into pot and all the way to the other side of the pot, then jammed the rope in. Went a lot better than I thought it would.

Bottom of pot and hose wrapped in plastic and connected to the auto pot base.

That’s all for now. Gonna have to share what I have later, cleaning and more work to do.