New Grower SPZ's Mephisto Triple Automatic Redux

In for a penny in for a pound. Ding, ding, ding round II. Looking forward to it. let me know if I can help out in any way.


Round Two, LIGHT! Welcome, brother!

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Thanks, Nosias, they are coming along nicely so I'm happy! Can't wait to see what they do this week!

You got it. When they get the air and bottom feed watch out. It always amazes me when I see the light ones and then see them grown up. I can't believe my eyes when they are bursting out. It is be grand to behold..
 
Day 17

Mini update. The girls look great. Since I turned on all six lights it seems like they turned a shade paler for a day or so and then darkened back up. I want to push them so I just lowered the lights an inch or so to 26" (the plants had grown up to 27-28" from the light). I'm trying to stagger the cobs so I get good coverage, one of the advantages of the Autocobs. I don't want to give the girls a cal/mag deficiency, just dial in the distance they can take the cobs at comfortably. Here is NCH 4

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You can see odd striation on the cotyledons if you zoom in. I think this is related to the paling with the increased light. I'll monitor and read up on it. I understand these leaves usually yellow and fall off naturally.

My friend mentioned that root zone temperature is an issue to pay attention to. He usually puts his pots on a pallet to keep warm grow room air under them, that way he looses less heat to the floor through conduction. So while I was in the tent I put the autopots up on some shims so they have a layer of grow room air under them. I'm eventually going to rig up a probe so I can measure the root zone temperature, but for now I already had the shims and I figure they can't hurt.
 
According to the schedule, I was supposed to water yesterday and then turn on the AutoPots today! But I am putting things off for one day, the reason being the day before yesterday I noticed a gnat in the grow tent! I went on a campaign to eradicate any insects from the tent, set out fruit fly traps, extra fly paper, the works. In total I killed about 6 random bugs including two fungus gnats, a fruit fly, a weird green thing, and a translucent spider looking thing.

I think these were just some random bugs that wandered into the tent. I triple checked the plants and I don't see any signs of infestation and haven't caught anything with the traps for a day. We have TONS of gnats and no-see-ums around here so its not a surprise, really. I'm stepping up my grow tent quarantine protocols, and just letting the media dry out for an extra day to try to dry out any eggs those gnats might have laid.
 
Day 20

I waited to water/feed the plants an extra day to try to eradicate the gnats. Despite my best effort a few are still showing on the traps. Not infestation numbers but not zero either. I'm planning a full household assault over the next week to rid the house of them, and I may treat the plants with something if I can't shake them with good hygiene. At any rate, the plants noticed the lack of water and they were drooping like crazy! Here's NCH 2 right after her feeding


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This watering I bumped up the nutes to 1.5ml/l and the cal/mag up to 1.25ml/l. The watering can that I use splashes the plants and I think that is a problem now with this concentration nutes in the water. Here's a pic of what I think is nute burn on the same girl:

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I sprayed that plant with plain water in case it was due to the splashing of nutrients. It could also have been the shock of going from underwatering to boosting the nutes all at once. It's moderate and that is the only spot that I found, so I'm going to continue with this concentration per Hans' schedule as the plants are growing like crazy!
 
Day 22

Big developments! The girls took a field trip out of their tent to another corner of the basement for the first time. The reason being that I made some adjustments to the tent today, including adding a custom raised floor(!), improving the airflow, running the tubes for the autopots and airdomes, and setting up the reservoir and air pump! None too soon, they are drinking like crazy now, went through a liter each in two days and want more. Here they are in their improved digs!

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The autopot reservoir and air pump are in the foreground. I think you will find this battle station is fully operational.
 
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