Greetings, growing is fun again! Even though I kept simplifying there were lots of loose ends that were annoying, and I feel that the key to the whole puzzle came in the form of new lights specifically putting lenses back over the diodes. It was all the unanimous YouTube videos that were all equally astounded by the almost perfect light distribution.
And just when I decided to retire my qb96's and purchase a couple, Viparspectra started auctioning them! What a stroke of luck so I ended up with four. And then there is the hanging system, it truly is genius in its simplicity, which enable the unit to be tilted in any direction.
I was mulling over the idea of another 2x2 to grow 4 pyramids to wait for their turn, then when that was rejected due to adding complexity, I thought I can hang another two lights on the edge of the tent on the side that is open. So I got some more tables and cut the legs to all be equal and give me space to store the buckets underneath.
However after setting up the final light I have discovered that I don't even need more lights. So this is a whole new level of simplicity, the lights are so even and so sensitive to angular positioning that, even though I'm using only 3/4 of these lights power, I am able to light all the plants, all the flowers with 60k lux, all the new Pyramids with whatever they need, plus two other mini pyramids, and I'm still struggling to keep them out of the light!
I always wanted to have an actual perpetual grow but that never works out with autos, now this new system eliminates all that by being able to adjust to anything that the bean does. So I intended to grow 4 Super Lemon Haze this grow, but now there is two SLH one of which looks like it is going to grow big, there is a Double Seeds Northern Lights, which will likely be compact, and there is a Tre Lime Sorbet by Terp Treez which could get to 35in. Not only that but they will likely finish differently.
With my hydro set up this was just impossible because new beans have to wait not only till everything if finished but all the tubes and pumps and clay balls all needed washing. But now it's no problem because the lighting is so tightly controlled with four separate sources that if the sizes vary wildly if I run out of height, I can lower the floor!. If the beans go out of sync, it doesn't matter because I can simply begin a new bean when one plant looks like it has three weeks to go.
Because of this I don't have to rush plants, like one of my current Jedi Kush, the tall one, looks like I could harvest the ripe buds and let the rest continue, without upsetting everything. And if I get a dud plant occasionally it won't matter that much.
And I think I have finally cracked the code to hand watering these pyramid, both large and small. That is they need to be treated like coco with 25% run off where they are watered 2 or 3 times a day or more even. Now I don't know what people do with this run off but I go a bit further I use the logic of when I grew in SWC. There I had a 30L res and simply topped it up and changed it every two weeks, if the ppm dropped I'd add a bit o concentrate. So that is what I'm doing with the pyramids but they get changed more often.
I mix up a 9L bucket of nutes and that is enough to go through all four pyramids each watering, After pouring it back into the bucket I top it back up with water and add bit of concentrate to bring the ppm back up to what it started at. I like doing this because you can see how much ppm the plants are using. With the ones that are now finishing. I'll make up a bucket with say 10ml of micro 10ml grow and 30ml of Bloom, then as the ppm drops I just top up with bloom concentrate only. If I feel the nutes do not really have time to become unbalanced.
The only work I have to do now, is watering them, which takes some time three times a day but it's like a meditation and gives me a chance to do continuous micro defoliation.
So that is my plans going forward.
@Drownomatic, thanks for the rep, yes if you like lots of resin then you cannot go wrong with the Jedi Kush, when I grew them years ago it was a totally different plant, more sativa like bendy with small tight nuggets dripping of resin. Now they are producing squat plants but still loaded. The two phenos on the right are just starting to get the external frostiness of the other two. The one on the left has what I term a fluffy look and is similar to other Sort Stuff boutique strains that do that, like Pink Grapefruit. But the tall one is probably my favourite phenotype, chunky and juicy not so stacked that they get bud rot. This is a shape that I could happily let ripen without fear. Probably need to be a bit more cautious with the ones on the right.
And just when I decided to retire my qb96's and purchase a couple, Viparspectra started auctioning them! What a stroke of luck so I ended up with four. And then there is the hanging system, it truly is genius in its simplicity, which enable the unit to be tilted in any direction.
I was mulling over the idea of another 2x2 to grow 4 pyramids to wait for their turn, then when that was rejected due to adding complexity, I thought I can hang another two lights on the edge of the tent on the side that is open. So I got some more tables and cut the legs to all be equal and give me space to store the buckets underneath.
However after setting up the final light I have discovered that I don't even need more lights. So this is a whole new level of simplicity, the lights are so even and so sensitive to angular positioning that, even though I'm using only 3/4 of these lights power, I am able to light all the plants, all the flowers with 60k lux, all the new Pyramids with whatever they need, plus two other mini pyramids, and I'm still struggling to keep them out of the light!
I always wanted to have an actual perpetual grow but that never works out with autos, now this new system eliminates all that by being able to adjust to anything that the bean does. So I intended to grow 4 Super Lemon Haze this grow, but now there is two SLH one of which looks like it is going to grow big, there is a Double Seeds Northern Lights, which will likely be compact, and there is a Tre Lime Sorbet by Terp Treez which could get to 35in. Not only that but they will likely finish differently.
With my hydro set up this was just impossible because new beans have to wait not only till everything if finished but all the tubes and pumps and clay balls all needed washing. But now it's no problem because the lighting is so tightly controlled with four separate sources that if the sizes vary wildly if I run out of height, I can lower the floor!. If the beans go out of sync, it doesn't matter because I can simply begin a new bean when one plant looks like it has three weeks to go.
Because of this I don't have to rush plants, like one of my current Jedi Kush, the tall one, looks like I could harvest the ripe buds and let the rest continue, without upsetting everything. And if I get a dud plant occasionally it won't matter that much.
And I think I have finally cracked the code to hand watering these pyramid, both large and small. That is they need to be treated like coco with 25% run off where they are watered 2 or 3 times a day or more even. Now I don't know what people do with this run off but I go a bit further I use the logic of when I grew in SWC. There I had a 30L res and simply topped it up and changed it every two weeks, if the ppm dropped I'd add a bit o concentrate. So that is what I'm doing with the pyramids but they get changed more often.
I mix up a 9L bucket of nutes and that is enough to go through all four pyramids each watering, After pouring it back into the bucket I top it back up with water and add bit of concentrate to bring the ppm back up to what it started at. I like doing this because you can see how much ppm the plants are using. With the ones that are now finishing. I'll make up a bucket with say 10ml of micro 10ml grow and 30ml of Bloom, then as the ppm drops I just top up with bloom concentrate only. If I feel the nutes do not really have time to become unbalanced.
The only work I have to do now, is watering them, which takes some time three times a day but it's like a meditation and gives me a chance to do continuous micro defoliation.
So that is my plans going forward.
@Drownomatic, thanks for the rep, yes if you like lots of resin then you cannot go wrong with the Jedi Kush, when I grew them years ago it was a totally different plant, more sativa like bendy with small tight nuggets dripping of resin. Now they are producing squat plants but still loaded. The two phenos on the right are just starting to get the external frostiness of the other two. The one on the left has what I term a fluffy look and is similar to other Sort Stuff boutique strains that do that, like Pink Grapefruit. But the tall one is probably my favourite phenotype, chunky and juicy not so stacked that they get bud rot. This is a shape that I could happily let ripen without fear. Probably need to be a bit more cautious with the ones on the right.
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