The Great and Secret Garden of Ganja Ged - Indoor-Ebb&Flow-LED-2 Tent Perpetual

[GanjaGed]

Added:

10gal RO

48ml Cal/Mag

36ml Micro

70ml Bloom

5 cups H2O2


Res has been running 22 days, steady PH and PPM,

I'll get some pics tomorrow.

[abadtrip]

That's awsome I like your set up nice and high that's one thing I hate about all this is getting on my knees to tend to the girls.

[oldjarhead100]

that was very interesting GG if I ever decide to grow hydro thats the way I would go great writeup

[alltatup]

Very smart, very inexpensive!!!

[D.A.A.S.69]

I agree with Aloner ,Ganj looking nice. Sure hate to hear about TomPetty , they were an awesome band, especially if you ever got to see them play live.

[Aloner]

Great how-to! Thanks GG!!

[GanjaGed]

"There's perfect harmony, in the rising and the falling of the sea." ~Ronnie James Dio

Ebb and Flow:

A recurrent or rhythmical pattern of coming and going or decline and regrowth

As with many Hydroponic Systems you have the choice of purchasing a complete set-up, buying the various pre-fab pieces and assembling, or DIY.

Pre-fab parts and systems come with some issues, especially for those growers who use tents. Many of the measurements are based on the inside measurements of the tray, this means the rim and lip of the tray, as well as the stand are not accounted for so some systems advertised as a 3’x3’ may actually be as large as 40” which makes getting it into a 3x3 tent a bit difficult, although doable usually.

There’s also the cost. A 3’x3’ tray alone can run nearly $100 and a complete system in the $600 range. Don’t get me wrong, many of the systems are quite nice and work great, but $600 might be a bit much for some, plus if we could get that price down that’s extra money that can be put into a different budget, say lights, environmental control, or ourselves!.


Note: This is my current set-up as of 10/6/17, and is itself the 2nd gen. version. It was made with my grow system in mind, to be modular, to use easy to find items requiring the fewest tools and DIY ability possible. The 1st gen. was a little cheaper than this one but the overall quality is better now.


Materials

• Wire Shelf Unit (3 shelves 23x13) $20
• 2 - Sterilite Storage Bins $15
• 15+ Gal. Reservoir Bin $10
• 2 - Ebb and Flow Fitting kits $30
• 1 Submersible Pump (180gph) $20
• 1 Barbed T-Fitting $1.00

You can almost certainly bring the cost down by shopping around but these are pretty standard prices.


Assemble 2 of the shelves as single units. The 3rd shelf is extra and can be used as a drying rack, modified for a ScrOG frame, etc.





I made a set of both 2" and 3" sizes. Easy to switch out between grows. In general I prefer to run the smaller trays.



Make a "T" off the pump up riser to feed both trays at the same time.



Note how all 4 fittings are over the reservoir. If a leak occurs the water will simply pour back into the reservoir causing no damage. I put a small bead of silicone around the base of each fitting. The stripes of silicone on the bottom sides is actually outside just to hold the trays steady on the shelf.

The back 2 fittings are to prevent overflow and drain back into the reservoir like a waterfall.

The front 2 fittings are the fills and once the pump cycles off they also drain into the reservoir back through the pump, no waterfall.



A look at it all set in place.



Tent A with ScrOG screen.

[oldjarhead100]

those are looking great GG , I cant wait to get home and check on my girls but wifey would get upset if we left early so I will have to wait until Monday to see them

[GanjaGed]

Did some tie downs on the NL.

Added 5gal RO/24ml cal-mag/12ml micro/24ml bloom.

Res is running smooth natural ph flux between 5.8-6.2, running ppm in the 800-1000 range. Last res change was 9-18 (16 days) with the light change. This top off should give a week or so, which will be a "triggered" change to flush out the grow solution.

I should probably write up how I do my reservoir. May be after I make the Dyna-Gro switch so I can show the entire basic nutrient/maintenance regiment I do.


Thoughts on this grow:

This grow is a huge step up from the last one, as it should be

Up-grade factors include:

Genetics - There's no question these genetics outstrip my Death Star genetics, which aren't terrible to begin with, lol.

E&F System - I can't praise this method enough. Barring a chance to grow outdoors with organic methods I can't imagine ever growing without the trays again. It's certainly not for everyone but for me, yea, it's the fucking cat's meow!

Things to work on, improve

The correct answer is always everything but the top of the current list is:

Training - Right now this is my most pressing limiting factor. I knew this already from the last grow and I also knew it wasn't going to improve much this run. I did simple topping and some LST on these as the goal was to see the strains in action as well as see the growth phenotypes express. The Tent A run is going to be 2 Wonder Woman under ScrOG which should work well with that strain. My next run of Northern Light will likely be a single topping SOG style or a more "natural" grow with some cages or something. The Candida I'm not sure yet. It could almost certainly be run with the Wonder Woman on a ScrOG but it wouldn't be optimal imo. I haven't really decided but it seems a companion to run with the WW in some fashion.

Light Distance - This still needs to dialed in better but with the current grow I'm kind of forced to deal with an uneven canopy. The good part is the NL has shown I can get closer, at least to it than I thought.

Nutes - With the switch to Dyna-Gro I'll be adding some things beyond the base grow/bloom/micro solution and dialing in better ratios per strain. I'm really looking forward to doing some grows with each tray having it's own res while in the same tent, being able to isolate the res while all other factors are the exact same should have some interesting results.

A couple of pics from today:






Couple of shots of the canopy





Wonder Woman Budlet





Northern Light Budlet




Candida Budlet.

[GanjaGed]

Thanks OJH!

I'm just glad the stretch is about done, I'm literally out of horizontal space. Fortunately I was thinking straight and left in a little "unaccounted for" head room, but the NL is throwing the canopy out of whack.

Next grow is going to be 2x Wonder Woman ScrOG which should work out beautiful.

[GanjaGed]

Thanks DAAS, you too!

They're crazy, lol. You can't really see it but there are 2 "marker ropes" in the tent. The lower is 12" from the top of the tray, the upper is 12" above that.

In the first pic the plants are like 3"-4" under the lower mark. You can see the mark in the second pic, that's the upper one, so around 15" growth since then, even more for the NL which has colas 3" above the upper marker. It's closing in on 2.5x stretch in 12/12.

[oldjarhead100]

wow GG those have blown up they look fantastic

[alltatup]

I support your switch away from Scotts products.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Boy they have really grown haven't they Ganj ? Looking nice ,keep it up!! Glad to see you back Ganj.

[GanjaGed]

Thank you for the thoughts

He was in his late teens, I don't know exactly how hold anymore.

His story with us began when Jeanette was at the grocery store one day and the cashier told her about a kitten that was out back left in the dumpster. He was way to young to be away from momma cat, his eyes weren't even open yet. The cashier and Jeanette were friends so Jeanette was telling her what she'd need and stuff to try and nurse it along and to call if she had any questions.

Sure as shit at like 2 in the morning the chick calls, her husband won't let her keep it. So off we go to pick up him up and take him in. Jeanette was literally his momma.


Last time we were here Tent B looked like this



and now it looks like this




You can clearly see the different growth between the 3 strains.

The front right corner is the Candida, an Indica Pheno. Slower, lower growth, little stretch

The front left and back right corners are both Wonder Woman with Hybrid Phenos. Vigorous Veg growth, little stretch but bulks up at 12/12

The back left corner is Northern Light a Sativa Pheno. Decent but not impressive veg growth, much more "open" with longer branches and definite stretching, currently a tad more than double.


Res has been running for 16 days, added 5 gal of RO and have maintained PPM by adding nutes as needed. I feel like I could be actually running a bit higher on the nutes but I'm just trying to stay in the middle somewhere with different strains out of the same reservoir. I'll dial the dose in with single strain runs.

In a way it's good the White Widows got scrapped, there simply isn't room for them, the tent is full! Actually it's a bit too full, or more accurately isn't trained correctly. Which is ok, that's what this grow was about, learning the strains and getting an idea of how they grow. I knew that was going to come with some difficulty and problems. I choose "easy" strains to make those less, for example I didn't want to risk having something needing a high nute and another needing low nute solutions. Those can come later, when the tents are dialed in a bit more.

I'm gonna do one last tie down on the NL to try and get it back with the rest of the canopy, or at least some of it, there really isn't enough open spots for all of it, lol. I think I could super crop a bit but it's getting a bit late for that.

Pretty much we're on cruise mode to harvest.


As for Tent A

I have nothing going for it atm. I had some clones ready to go, but then there was a shipping delay and some indecision on my part about how I really want to run the tents, grow etc. so I just shut everything down.

The delay is over, the last of the order arrived today, which is better than Nov, which was the prior expected date....

I now have the Ebb and Flow all set up for it, built a ScrOG dog for the tent and it's good to go, as soon as I upgrade the light. I think I'm just gonna add a second 300we LED rather than going up to the 600we, but I won't need that until flower.

So as soon as I make some kind of decision, I'll fire it up.


As for what's on my mind, lol.

I've made the decision to switch nutrients, from General Hydroponics to Dyna-Gro, fora couple of reasons. I'm in no way a "militant" enviro-nut or anything, but if I have pretty equal factors on both sides I land on the "good" side, lol. Scott's bought GH, and Botanicare btw. and Scoot's while not a Monsanto company is a closely working partner with them and I'm not a fan of Monsanto, so no love lost there. I ran Dyna-Gro all the time I was practicing growing because it was the one nute I was clear could be used in both soil and hydro, the GH company name is a bit confusing when you're first starting out, so I know it grows weed well and I'm familiar with it.

What I've really come to appreciate about Dyna-Grow is that using their complete line of products is only 4 bottles plus 2 limited use. The basic formula is only 2 bottles. Those 4 bottles are grow, bloom, silica, mag/sulpher. No need for Cal because it's already covered in the base nutes. This allowed them to use the mag product as a booster for P also. The silica acts as a PH down if needed to help get away from those additives. The other 2 bottles are a root enhancer that you use on seedlings/clones and the first 3 weeks of veg and the other is an enzyme to help maintain water quality and help bio waste breakdown.

I guess basically ease and lower cost are the main factors for change with some added benefits

As far as the second Tent (A) I'm not sure how I want to end up growing, lol. The choices I'm looking at is either run one as a nursery and the other as the grow or to run the side by side as grows with one in flower and one in veg at all times.