Indoor Testing the eazyplug pyramid mini.

[The Iconoclast]

Banana Purple Punch
So ThePlan was to grow same strain in large pyramids for my main grow. And maybe throw in a few mini pyramids when the space is there. I had pretty much discovered that fb provided an entire batch of rubbish gorilla cookies and had written them off but I got tricked by their bs 30% THC ad. Anyhoo so I researched this strain and was worried would 3 beans in big pyramids fit into a 5 foot wide tent by 32in deep. Turns out that these can be big or small. So this is a test to see if I grow three contemporary fb beans in perfect conditions and identical conditions am I going to get three good plants or will there be a piece of shit amongst them. Spoiler alert POS.


At the moment it looks like one is a dud. Two of them are very vigorous so that the first internode with the single leaf is usable and stem is very thick with normal internode spacing. I haven't seen anything grow this thick for a while. However one of these two is taller and more vigorous than the other but still very similar. And then there is the suspect bean, where the leaves are small and crinkly she looks stunted but she is not stunted still growing normally normal development, normal height, but half the stem and leave thickness such that I don't have to do any tucking. Curiously the root system is growing normally coming out on four sides and apart from being small (not short) she looks healthy and normal.

But as I said earlier I have outsmarted the beans because I wanted to have at least two similar normal beans, I was worried I would not be able to fit three this one weedy one has made no difference. Had I just planted two and one was the bad one i'd have been pissed. But she still might be ok just a thin pheno. However because the bad bean is in a big pyramid and I already suspected it at two weeks, so I'll grow her out because she's still growing OK, and see the final result, if it's bad all the way through then I will have more confidence to rip out bad plants, because I don't have the space to waste on an unproductive bean.

This is at one week the best one is looking normal in the middle, nothing special yet, the one on the right is a bit slower but the first one, you see a twisted leaf, this is a big red flag for me



Below is the three beans at 14 days twisted leaf one has smaller leaves



Soon it develops bubbly textured leaves, but it's still growing at normal pace, so let's see what happens.

 

[The Iconoclast]

BPP at three weeks today. All caught up.

 

[BarelyMillennial]

Hi again both of you,
Thank you very much for the replies. And Nice harvest pics. Iconoclast, if I can grow just half the size of what you got I would be so happy!

I am currently waiting for a new QB lamp and EC/pH meter after your recommendations. As for nutes I got GHE nute trio of Tripart Grow, FloraMicro Soft water, Bloom - These pyramids are too good to half-ass which is why I will be taking my time and be patient. Once everything is in order, I will begin to share/contribute/document my process in this thread as well. Thank you again for your contributions, this will be very exciting for me especially as a new grower.

By the way, would you compare the pyramid as coco in terms of difficulty and time consumption? I only have experience with soil so curious to hear how it compares

Sincerely, BarelyMilennial

Disclaimer:
(THIS IS ONLY INTENDED FOR PERSONAL USE WITH NO INTENT TO SELL AND POSESSION OF 0.2% THC CONTENT IS ENTIRELY LEGEAL!) - Sorry guys, it's 'illegal' where i live. So i just wanted to highlight/clarify this, should things be tracked or used against me before I proceed.

Preface
Hi again y'all, it's been 2 years. Long story short. My soil grow luckily finished around the same time i had to intern at a company back in 2022, I realized how busy it was so I set the legal cannabis hobby aside, since then i've moved to a new apartment block with a garden. All these things have been stored away unused in boxes for all this time until a few weeks back I decided to do an outdoors grow. I only have 2 grows under my belt, 1st grow was high school, 2nd was college, and this will be fresh outta college!
My yields were like between 18-25g which I was very happy with since I don't smoke much so these yields were great in my micro-conditions and there was somehing fun about growing it by oneself.

Basically the landlord started some legal seeds in our common garden and I was reminded of all the pyramid stuff, nutes and equipment I had ready in a box in the basement, so I thought this would be a fun thing to do!
Which brings me to this third grow: The Ez Pyramid!

This post will show how far I am, explain a bit about what I learnt from you guys. I will be asking for a comprehensive suggestions for nute schedule based on the information i will be providing further down. Any other tips that i'm missing that would be good to know further down the road will be much appreciated. Please note that I am still a newbie so I could use some advice that isn't too complicated or too time consuming. So advice that might not be perfect or optimal but might fit my purpose is very welcome!

(There is a slight possibillity that the project will be terminated because the landlord is in the midst of having 4 plants with 30l soil each. He's not well versed in nutes, soil, temps but hes and oldschooler so what do I know. But if the authorities will get involved, the project will be terminated.)

Introduction
The seed/plant is a legal EU-Certified CBD hemp strain that meets the EU standards of not exceeding 0,2%thc HEMP legality not intended used for consumption but rather for aromatherapy and religious/ceremonial purposes.
I'll also discuss the fictional idea of the seed is NOT. Sweet Seeds - Black Cream Auto. Because that would be very illegal!! Anyways I would totally choose this because I think purple flowers are very pretty to look at!
What Iconoclasts posts showed me was that genetics is an important factor aswell. I only sprouted this one legal seed. Hypothetically if I had the sweet seeds one which seems reputable, I would have to hope to win the genetics lottery. I don't have big resources to spot good genetics. I want to keep this simple as possible, I am willing to sacrifice that it will not grow big if it makes it simpler.

The Pyramid
At 5 days old

I used BioBizz Root Juice + T.A(GHE) Soft nutes. I watered at 6ph. 500ppm. As Iconoclast started with on the very beginning of the thread. This I did until day 8.

This is day 8:
I'll explain a little bit about my nutrients and set up
I have Calmag, T.A TriPart as shown and Ph down.

So on day 8, I wasn't sure if I should increase nutrients but I made a new blend.
My main water is mineral water, because tap water is very hard and at 300ppm. Also cheaper than RO/Distilled/Demineralized

The label of the mineral water says this:
Mineral content per liter:
Hydrogen carbonate140 mg
Sulfate 3 mg
Chloride 11 mg
Magnesium 13 mg
Sodium 10 mg
Nitrate <1 mg
Potassium 3 mg
Calcium 22 mg
pH 7.6
So this is the "base" that i start from.
I made two bottles. One is plain 2liter ph'd down to 6 and ppm is by default a bit over 100.

The second 2liter bottle had 3ml Soft, 0,75 bloom. It was estimated at 900ppm and EC at around 0,8. I readjusted PH to 6 because adding nutrients slightly changes the PH. I was confused with what to ratio go because there was a millions of suggestions and long texts and journals across this thread and online. I was sure, then in doubt, then sure, in doubt, then sure. I got enough and went with this.

I was afraid of jumping the gun, because I had a feeling it was still too small for such amount of nutes. At 8 days old I couldn't decide between the big or the small pyramid. Since I have no experience other than soil, I choose to cut the top of a mini pyramid and combine eazy blocks together. It was wired together as per. Iconoclasts idea. I put them together as soon as I saw a single root poking out.

I watered only the plain mineral water on top. I let maybe 50milliliters of nutrient solution soak a bit on the eazy mini pyramid before joining them together.

(The block when dry had those dry white spots which i assume is evaporated calcium)
Before joining the blocks, I made sure to water until runoff, which was the first time i did it with the eazy block since germination.
The EC is 1472 but I observed that high runoff is normal with these pyramid and it shouldn't be a problem.

I could save this for the big pyramid, as they don't have a plug bottom so I can perhaps just stick 'em together. Well to the box it goes.



Today is day 12.

At day 11(Yesterday) I soaked about 100ml of the nutrient solution on the sides of the bottom of the pyramid and around 200ml of the plain solution. Not to the point of dripping but to make them moist but not dripping soggy wet.
I noticed first the youngest sets of leaves having a slight twist before watering. I saw Iconoclast post about genetics and them being weird sometimes. However today now the second sets of leaves are twisting. I'm not sure if they're just being weird or if I have messed something up, or if it's confused by the growlights/sun combo. Or maybe if i'm moving it too much around. Hard to tell, prefer not to overanalyze this.
Worth noting, I observed that one root is already poking out of the mini pyramid today.

This is what I currently do:

The weather outside is 22c or 71f. during the daytime hours.
It can get to 10-12c - 50-53f at night so it take it inside.
I place them outside at 8.AM
I take them inside at 8.P.M where it's under a 100w light for four hours until 00.00 where I turn it off.
I try to meet the 16 hours of light. I feel that after 8p.m theres only shadow and not powerful sun and the sun slowly goes down at around 9.30pm.
I repeat this process. It gets 12 hours of light outside and 4 hours inside under 100w.
Sometimes it can be thick clouds and if it's cloudy/rainy/cold all day, I take it inside until the weather get better. I don't have a light meter but I use my eye, if I feel this sharpness of the light hitting my vision when I look at the clouds. then they stay because sometimes sunlight can go through clouds. But if I don't feel this "sharp feeling" of the sun hitting my retinas/corneas, I take them in until it gets better.

What do you think so far? Am i missing something? Is the extra light overkill? I expect days to be longer and warmer in following next month

What kind of nutrient solution/blend should i prepare for next at this stage of growth?
Right now, the medium is still moist, however I am not sure what I have to give her. I feel the 900ppm solution might be too strong and unbalanced.
Can anyone help me create a better suited blend based on the ingredients I have? I will only give her the 6ph plain mineral water once she gets dry again. Pretend i'm a simple idiot who wants this to be a relaxing side hobby grow, which I am, hehe. Also I don't understand 1:2:2, 30:31:21 when people talk like this. Can you try to mention 1ml of this, 1 ml of that, 1ml = equals 1:1:1 when explaining. Maybe I'll finally understand better. I tried to understand Lucas formula a few times but I didn't become sure of that.

At day 19 I will be travelling for a week so a kind neighbor will water it for me. I am not sure what blend I should prepare for the neighbor. The water must not be intense but not be weak, as I try to just tell her "Give this water until you feel this pyramid is moist" - What should I make here? If defiency/nute burn occurs, she is not able to troubleshoot, so I need to find a foolproof amount of ml each for this.

Like: 2ml soft 1ml bloom per litre at week 2. At week 3 increase by this amount... I am open to all suggestions because I am in a bit of analysis paralysis now. The thread's become big and it's hard to jump between pages, but do you water until runoff every time? I haven't so far. And do you use a bucket to contain the rest of the leftover water and put them back in their resevoirs/bottles/containers to be used again?

I will not be topping it as I don't have many options for mistakes and I will be vacationing on the crucial moments of the "topping window" so this is out of the equation. I think also upon research of the hypothetical seed, it is not known to produce a lot yield and lots of diaries does not top this type. So it's by these factors i'm not attempting this.

By the way, it's amazing that it's still going after 2 years. Very cool, it's become super advanced and next level for sure.


Any feedback is much appreciated in advance
English is not my main language so I apologize in advance for any spelling/grammatical mistakes.
Sincerely, BarelyMillenial

 

[The Iconoclast]

@BarelyMillennial, I had to do a quick refresher. I thought this thread had come to a natural conclusion but after going back to hydro, I have since ditch the hydro and gone all in with the hand watered eazyplug so I am now trying to understand these plugs even more. It took me a long time to comprehend that genetics is everything and there is the luck of the draw as well. But this is what trait I like the most about the pyramids; the perfect root structure that is held firmly in place and ensures maximum and efficient nute uptake means that the plug is very honest. If you get a shite result from one plant out of a few of the same strain under the same external conditions when the others are perfectly fine then you know for certain that it is genetics and not something that is happening under the soil that can vary from pot to pot, for example maybe the soil shifted and damaged roots, or a dry pocket formed and so on, none of this is possible because they constantly redistribute whatever moisture content they have perfectly evenly.

So early on when I was trying to attribute bad genetics to an external cause I made some bad assumptions. Like I might have tried a micro grow bloom ratio of 1:2:1 and then got some twisted mutant bean and wrongly attributed this to the nute ratio. But now I have come to the understanding that if you have good genetics and more importantly you don't have a dud bean, then you will get a good result because the plug is very forgiving. What I'm now saying is that these plugs can have wild swings in ppm and pH and not bat an eyelid.

This is what I am now seeing with my current 3 BananaPP, they are nearly four weeks old and I flushed them with plain water and got a run off of 3000ppm and a bit too acid. Nevertheless they are perfect in every way not the slightest mark on any leaf on any of the plants. So I flushed them all with two buckets of plain water at about ph 7. They were receiving a ratio of 1:2: 3/4, of MGB. But now I will switch to a more flowering friendly 10ml 5ml 30ml MGB in a bucket. So what I'm saying is that fine adjustments of pH or nutrients do not seem to make a lot of difference.

Now one of the banana PP, has leaves that curl up at the edges then curl down as they mature, they have a thick leathery texture that is dull and very bubbly that flattens out to a finer texture when mature. There are no spots or other imperfections other than the curled leaves and strange texture, she is growing at a normal rate but poorly.

Because of the other good BPP I can confidently know that this is not a nutrient or other problem. However if I imagine planting just that bad one only, you can easily see how one would attribute that so some pH or other issue. Incorrectly.





I found an air fryer rack in the local shops which had little handles on it, so I could easily move it around. Then by a stroke of serendipity this rack perfectly fits over a black rectangular tub I already had, and this is how i water the big pyramids. I should mention that I found this to be annoying with the eazy block on top of the pyramid, and I have grown short plants with the block and large plants without the block, so I plant directly into the pyramid so I can be a bit more rough with the plants and move them without worrying about damaging anything. My main goal is the best plant for the least amount of work.



I prepare the pyramids by soaking in a micro grow bloom mix of 5ml each per bucket.

During the first week or so if they need more moisture I'll just use plain water. After two weeks then I'll be using a micro grow bloom ration of 1:2:1 and that will be 20ml of micro 40ml of grow and 15ml of bloom. in a standard bucket. That is a fairly strong mix, I pour it on the sides with a jug until it's soaked enough fluid in then I pour the overflow back into the bucket. I have now begun to introduce a two bucket flush towards the end of the vegging period with the aim of trying to ween off the N.

I don't bother about the algae or moss or calcified chemicals or fungus or mould, but I do sometimes scrape the sides with a serrated knife and give them a rinse down.

 

[The Iconoclast]

Just to clarify, when I speak of ratios like 1:2:1, I'm not referring to NPK, I am referring to Micro, Grow and Bloom 3 part always in that order. And when I talk about a bucket, I'm referring to a standard 9L bucket. I also have a 5L container of 6% H202, and I add 10ml to a bucket when I remember.

So even though the pyramids already have enough nutrients for a while, I still soak them in a weak solution of 1:1:1 to around 300ppm, they will only need plain water up till 14 days.

From around 14days on I will mix up 20ml, 40ml and 15ml of Micro Grow Bloom, in a bucket. I will be alternating with this mix and plain water throughout veg.

At 28 days I'll back off the N with 20ml 10ml and 30ml of Micro Grow Bloom in a bucket.

After that it will be either plain water or a bucket with 15ml Micro and 30ml Bloom, or maybe more of each depending on how the plant looks.

These numbers are flexible and not really that important because the plug appears to hold a buffer of some kind. These days I am going to be giving them a couple of buckets of plain water at the end of veg so I can check the runoff and clear out the nutes for the flowering nutes. I've just done that on the BPP so see how it goes.

Depending on the level of evaporation that will affect how often plain water is used depending on the strength of the nutes. At the moment I'm using a strategy of a strong solution for vegging which seems to be fine but I'm giving her a big flush before flipping. But another strategy is weaker nutes and less plain water. I think you have to play it by gut feeling.

 

[kfigerm]

@BarelyMillennial perhaps open up an own thread for your questions and to follow your grow. This is @The Iconoclast s thread about the pyramids and not for special questions, even He is so kind to let us enter it to brief our own experience with those things. So 'I see it as a collection on thiongs about the pyramids and not for questions about the nute ratio etc. Go and cerate your own thread and we will go further into deep. You though can find some clues here in this thread, how to use them. I use them like i would use hydro and do all nute mixes according to that method. If you want to know about NPK ratios I use, look into my thread, i do post them regularly and you perhaps can adopt it yourself to your nutes.

It is really relatively simple. You got the NPK Ratios on the bottles - they are given in mass ratios, so grams/kilos are used, not the fluid litres/millilitres.
If you weigh the fluids, you'll get the exact ppm ratio - ie one litre weights more than 1000g. Most fluid fertilizers are not too concentrated, so they are near 1000g. So you can forget about a heavy calc, just mix them according to what is printed on them.

If you want to make it more exact, and go for ml then fill a special amount of your nutes, weigh that and make a rule of three to get the litres' ppm - then you have the more exact ratio. Do it on each part and then mix accordingly. The Lucas formula has some calculator sheets for ghe on the internet i think. Perhapy ChatGPT may help also, but beware, it is a bad calculator
Your take off seems to be good! About PH...just narrow it ...the pyramids are indeed very forgiving. On EC, better stay on the high side, they expell excess, buzt whats not there they cant give to the plants.

Cheers!

 

[The Iconoclast]

4 Weeks today for Banana Purple Punch. I pinned one branch back with an LST clip yesterday and today I pinned the rest of the branches. I am very pleased with this plant. The shorter one has exactly the same structure but there is not enough room to insert clips. The third one is an embarrassing horror show but still growing well which is confusing. These plants do all their stretching week 4 to 6 from what I've seen.

I was very worried when I first decided to plant three BPP in my 5 foot wide by 2.5 foot deep tent that I would get three plants like the big one, but thankfully Fast Buds did not let me down, and now I am only faced with the dilemma of what to do about it because it takes up a lot of floor space. I'll decide whether to keep it or not in two or three weeks.

Top photo was 10" at 4 weeks before clipping. Lower plant was 7 inches and in fact still is. They both had some light defoliation to try and get the inner branches developed but all the giant fan leaves were tucked until they couldn't tuck no more. I appear to have suffered no ill effect from flushing 15 litres of pH 7.5 through them and pulling the ppm down from 3000 to 1300ppm. When they begin to try they will be getting their transition to bloom mix because they are all beginning to flip

Transition mix in standard bucket is 10ml Micro 5 ml Grow and 15ml Bloom.

I haven't been able to clip any plants like this since my Jack47 XL in a mini pyramid, which got over 4 oz, so I have great expectations from this one particular plant. Curious to see what the shorter one does.

 

[The Iconoclast]

The Gorilla Glue #4 (expert seeds freebie)
is at nearly 10w and still fattening up. All the leaves are plum red and the new flowers are like little green emeralds hiding in the buds and it's quality buds all the way down.

Green Crack (seedstockers freebie)
may not have stretched but she is also fattening up and the trichomes are large and bulbous. Even the mixed seeds in the large pyramid, at 9 weeks have thrown up some pretty decent buds, but they also complement each other and look nice in their autumn colours. Even the large lightly flowered BigBudXN.L also a freebie, should be good for putting through my Slug33 Fat Mac, because it doesn't do well with my best buds, I think it needs more moisture to push out the resin.

The other three in there are a Taste Buds Cherry Pie and Orange Cookies. I can't be sure which is which. But they all look very attractive and that is what is most important as i spend a lot of time rearranging them and admiring them, and visualising the future and seeing it unfold.



The three BPP, are pretty consistent. Right from day 1

I could see there there was one red stem and two green stems. And by day 7 it was apparent that there were two strong plants and one very different. And at 4.5 weeks it has so far come to pass. Of the two strong plants one is clearly showing red flowers,
while the other one is still flipping and yet to reveal any secrets.





The third one with the bad leaves and sparse form is the tallest and the stems are very bendy but I don't want to spread her out. Even the new leaves around the forming flowers are curling up at the edges like every single leaf on the whole plant. Still very curious as to what this quality this will produce, will she have curly bracts?


So far there are no spots or marks at all on any of the leaves which is kinda remarkable seeing as I gave them a good soaking a couple of times and flushed them out when they flipped. I have been playing fast and loose with how I mix the nutrients trying to get the NPK mix where I want it. One day when I get two plants that are identical as they go into flower then I'll do a comparative nute test, but at this rate, I'll never see two the same. Last batch, all five different, this batch all three different.

A couple of Double Seeds Blackberry Gum gemming in the little tub with the orange rim. they will go into mini pyramids.

 

[The Iconoclast]

5 weeks for the banana purple punch. The two short ones look like like are going to remain short. blackcurrant type flowers appearing on one, unfortunately the tall genes all went to the worst bean, however while the leaves are rubbery and thick and haven't needed any defoliation like the other two, all three nevertheless have a thick covering of trichomes on the bracts that I can see which are just barely visible on the two green phenotypes.

Two blackberry gum, in two pyramids look normal so far, will aim to germ 3 Jedi Kush in a few weeks. Meanwhile all other plants have been chopped.

 

[The Iconoclast]

7 weeks now and purple pheno is chunking up severely, thank fuck that we have entered a prolonged dry spell with low RH, the similar shape but not purple pheno is chunking in a similar fashion but it appears to be 10 to 12 days behind! Right now I can only see some deeply buried calyxes, on the other hand the purple one is very frosty and sweet smelling. The third one with it's thick curled textured and leathery leaves with pale green/yellow colouring, is beginning to chunk up, not like the two short ones, but enough to make it worthwhile to have keep it.

The two short ones had extensive defoliation, and the bad one had none and so much light still gets through the crappy shrivelled leaves that the moss on the pyramid is bright green and completely covering it. Some dark purple is showing through the buds so they have an interesting look, I can see a good covering of trichomes though. The purple one had short fat pistils, the not purple has green/yellow pistils, and the bad one has skinny white pistils.