First Time 100% Perlite Hydro Grow.

[BaccaRacca]

I have started to travel a little bit, which caused me to investigate automatic drip irrigation. I use fairly inexpensive Moistenland irrigation pump/programmable timers that you can see sitting on 5-gallon pails in the grow room. Initially I bought a couple for $30, but the price has risen on the latest model. Right now I'm running three pumps & pails (there is a third pump & pail in the seedling cabinet [middle], which feeds the plants in the cabinets on each side. I do not irrigate seedlings.

I have totally done away with peat moss as a buffer, now that the pumps give me the ability to irrigate 4-6 & more times a day. Ph Down, Cal-Mag Plus and my regular mixture of nutes.

I have posted exterior photos of the cabinets. The tall double-cabinet is 2'x4' and is used primarily for flowering. I use a pair of Vipar-Spectra XS-1500 lights. They are ideal for my micro grow, replacing my old VS-450s. I'm getting tighter buds from them.

Anyway, here is the basic set up:

[BaccaRacca]

Well, that's the basic set up above. Inside I use 2.5-gallon pots with pure coarse perlite, then a build "irrigation harnesses" with 4 drip irrigation emitters for each pot. Every pot has a pump.

I grow the seedlings or clones until I have seven good laterals. Then I spread and tie the laterals to bamboo shish--ke-bob skewers that I push through drilled holes in the pots. Usually this happens around 6-8 weeks.

I've included better views of the interior of the cabinets plus the three White Widow plants I'm growing.

Photos are from last week, August 25th.

[BaccaRacca]

Well now, I'm pretty much caught up with this post. It has been a busy week.

The cuttings I took before I spread the White Widow plants went to the cloner and developed roots very quickly. I planted two. These are two females from non-feminized plants that I'm planning on dousing with collodial silver and make some male flowers for breeding feminized White Widow seeds. As you can see I grow these under some old, cheap blurple lights. With the way LED lights have improved I may need an upgrade. But for producing seeds, this has worked well.

I also dropped a Dos-Si-Dos seed and that looks like it is growing nicely.

All three of the White Widow plants that I spread and trimmed last week are doing well. The nute mixture seems fine.

[Bluey]

That's a cool looking setup.
How does the air changeover and air movement in the grow space work?
My setup here is automated but I only have 1 tank of 60 gallons so growing different strains becomes a compromise..

[BaccaRacca]

Thank you Bluey.

For the three boxes, Breed, Seedling and Veg air movement is simply convection. I have 4" holes at the bottom of the cabinets all aligned with each other to allow cool air to enter and holes above the lights to allow hot air to exit. On the 2'x4' flower chamber, where I'm running two Vipar-Spectra XS 1500s, I'm venting with a 4" blower. With the solid walls of the cabinet I don't need a 6" blower. I'm growing in an old coal bin in a basement and it is naturally cool so I can keep the space locked and enclosed without further ventilation. There are two approximate 4" holes between a couple of joists that span the room that provide ventilation into the basement as a whole. I do have another 4" blower I could use to vent the room if it got too hot and humid, yet to date there has been no need to run it.

[Mollisol]

Thats a very cool set up.

[BaccaRacca]

Thank you, Molllisol!

[BaccaRacca]

Just doing a bit of housekeeping. Thought these photos might be useful and show what I have going on.

The seeds were standard White Widow Extreme that I bred from standard. White Widow Extreme that I purchased from Amsterdam Marijuana Seeds. E-Z P-Z. The plants were courteous enough to expose gender at about 6 weeks. I planted six seeds and from that I got 3 confirmed females, 1 hermey and 2 boys.. I've attached photos of both girl feathers and boy balls. Shot with Nikon Z-30 with Tokina 100m F2 Macro lens on a tripod.

The plants are spread and tied down on pots that have been drilled to accept , 3- 12" bamboo shish-ke-bob skewers, upon which I tie my lateral branches. Usually I will lash 6 down and set up a 7th in the middle of the plant.

Instead of using a net or mesh screen to support the plants as they mature and buds get heavy, I use a 20" round flower support, which is supported by legs attached to the middle ring. I have included a plant-free pot to show how the support system works. I use the flower supports to make the pots portable, so I can move the plants between veg, flower, and seed-breeding stations.

As fast as the plants are growing, I should install the round supports this week.

[SoOrbudgal]

Thank you for the very helpful tips. I'm going to use the idea of drilling holes into the top of my 15gal outdoor pots and place small diameter dowels similar to yours. I'm 66yrs old and this site just brings out some very good tips. I'm useing strong clamps which work well but i dig the idea of longer length sticks protruding out further to spread the branches wider. Man that's just a lovely setup you've done, big kudos

[BaccaRacca]

Thank you SoOrbudgal. Sometimes after a lot of trial and error, this blind pig finds an acorn or two!

[BaccaRacca]

It's been five days since I took progress photos on the continuous grow (three days since I posted the photos). The plants are continuing to grow and fill out better than expected with this new system.

Wate/Nutersconsumption using the 2.5-gallon pots with the Moistenland drip irrigation system is between 1.0 and .7 gallons a day depending on the plant. Very similar to the water consumption I had using my 12-gallon pots, only I water more frequently and use less water/nutes per cycle. Right now on the thirstiest plant, I'm 1 pint every three hours, or 8 times a day. Indeed all plants, except the seedling and the "White Widow Feminized Pollen King," which are hand watered at the moment get 8 feedings a day with only the amount of water varying.

I'm really amazed that by taking advantage of the Moistenland's ability to perform short, frequent watering/nute applications, that I'm -- so far -- able to grow a plant as large as what I've been growing with a much larger pot.

Photos are showing five days growth since last post.

[Bluey]

That looks like a pretty good grow with plants thriving.
.
Do you get much runoff and is that going to waste or being recycled?

During lights out do you decrease the amount you fertigate or get more runoff or no change do you know?

[BaccaRacca]

Bluey, Thank you, and good questions.

Initially I run the system until I get a bit of runoff, which goes into the compost pile. Between all three plants I have not had more than a gallon of runoff, and that was early.

I dial back from there until I get a mild damp spot that dries off quickly. I also get a feel for how heavy each pot is, and fortunately with 2.5-gallon pots they aren't too heavy even when all loaded up.

This article on GWE is very good: https://www.growweedeasy.com/how-to-...annabis-plants

My biggest fault with the Moistenland system is that it comes with clear tubing, which grows algae under bright lights. You'll see I've been moving to food-grade black silicon tubing to avoid the issue.

The Moistenland system does not allow me to dial back. I have seen no overflow from evening watering. If there is any it is absorbed by the plant and the surrounding environment very quickly.

The big advantage I'm hoping for with this experiment is to grow plants that fill their 2x2spaces without too much crowding and deliver yields in a smaller pot than what I had been using. I save on materials, the posts are very easy to move around (and photograph), and very easy to flush.

[Bluey]

Thanks Bacca.

Will be interested to see how this goes for you through the stretch into flower.

Not much water/nute storage/buffer in perlite so will be keen to learn if this makes it harder to manage or not.

[MagicMike66]

They’re looking great so far, filling out the space nicely

[BaccaRacca]

Thanks for following, MagicMike66. So far, so good with this experiment. I keep running to the grow room hoping the thing doesn't crash some how.

[BaccaRacca]

Quick update.

I did some understory trimming and pruning of do-nothing stems, also pruned back anything outside my 20" circle. At left my seed queen and to the right my two flower girls.



I did notice some slightly burned leaf tips on my Seed Queen, checked EC and PH: 1400/8.0 Yikes! Brain fog strikes again (not cannabis; Xtandi induced). Threw 2-gallons of ph-adjusted-to-5.8 tap water through it and tossed the drain water (EC around 480, with a tap water base of 200) out on the compost pile. Now running EC 680, Ph. 5.8. through it using my base nute, with no nitrogen boost. We'll see what happens.



On my future flower babes, things are looking like my nitrogen is a bit hot and twisting the leaves. Plant on the right is very dark with twisted leaves. So I dialed back a bit. I used to run EC as hot as 1100 with a 20%-30% peat buffer and often did pretty good, but now I'm armed with auto watering and the addition of a decent Ph. meter and left naked with no buffer, I'm going to be sensitive to any abnormalities. Now running between 700-800 EC.

[SoOrbudgal]

Yes i would say you over did the high N feed. How come you like MG for feeding MJ ? Just asking because i used to use it before i found a couple other brands that did'nt show the burn & twist that MG does. I guess you could go much lighter per gram of that stuff. I still use it in my outdoor sprayer for my flowers an roses. But there's better when it comes to weed.

[BaccaRacca]

SoOrbudgal, that is a good question. Initially (50 years ago) I used the standard MG yellow/green box (24-8-26 very hot nitro) because I grew deep underground and that is all there was, I felt, to avoid detection. I used a heavily doctored mix and got away with it.

About 8 years ago I switched to MG Vegetables & Herbs, with a label showing 18-18-21, with some of the nitro derived from organic soy hydrolysates. And that attracted me. I could use partially organic derived nutes in my hydro system without mucking stuff up. It has worked very well for me as a base nute. If I need more nitro, which I didn't here, then I add a touch of MG Green & Yellow box.

My mistake here is I used a bit of yellow and green and didn't need it. And I should have known better. I've grown White Widow before without the additive. My last harvest of GG gave me 10 oz of bud in my 2'x2' space under 150-watt Vipar Spectra VS 1500s, without it, too. We called the girl, "Godzilla." As a micro grower, that's the max I want to harvest, and the pantry better be bare. I work to stay Michigan legal.

Oh, and I'm a cheap-butt. I can buy 2#s of this stuff for ten bucks, Base nute mix has been 1 tsp./gal. But now that I've gone totally naked with no buffer, I'll be using a bit less.

Thanks for asking, and thank you for your support of my little experiment.

[BaccaRacca]

It was Flush and Flip weekend at Casa Bacca Racca.

First part was the flushing.

I had run som too-hot nutes through the system so I knew my runoff would measure high, plus I'm using nearly as much solution on these 2.5-gallon pots as I was my larger 12 gallon ones. I think I measured as over 3,000, on one pot; lowest number as around 1900. So flush we go!

First thing I do is drain my nute pots and rinse them out well. Thenrinse with Ph-adjusted tap water running through the system. My tap water is running around 7.6 right now, and EC meter says I'm running 170 ppm of solids out of the tap. I add 3/4 tsp. of Ph Down to a gallon of water to get things down to around 6.0.

Then I simply detach my growing pot from the irrigation system, replace its standard saucer with a clean saucer with pour spout, I run a gallon at a time on the manual setting so the pump runs constantly. It takes a few minutes.



Time for a bowl.

Then I come back and measure my vitals. Drain and repeat until vitals look good. It took about three gallons a pot to get the numbers (and me) calmed down. Notice how the shelving system helps make the draining easy for this old man. I just pull the saucer out and tip it a bit. Works well.

Oh and speaking of easy, in order to keep things well trimmed inside my cramped 2x2 and 2x4 spaces, I use these lazy susan ball-bearing sets under each saucer. They rotate really easily. My concern is that I don't want to block air circulation along the inside walls of the boxes. Too, I don't have a way of supporting heavy buds at the edge.



Get Ready to Flip!

After the flush, I added my circular perennial support, in place of a true screen. Again this is done for portability reasons. Each pot is its own little world.



You'll note that there is still some drain water in the trays in the first photo. That is from dialing in the drip system to the right rate. I ended up replacing the algae-clogged clear tubing, which came with the system, with a black, food-grade hose. The black should keep the algae down as it does not transmit light. Turned out it gave me a bit better flow, so I had to turn things down a bit.

Pretty much the same story with "The Seed Queen," which I've left to flip in what is traditionally just a veg box. However right now the best use of space is to flip this girl to 12/12 so I can have flowers soon for breeding seeds. She will eventually go to the "Seed and Breed" box where I'm preparing a couple of cloned for the collodial silver treatment so I can get "feminized" pollen.

The "Seed Queen" looks a bit weak at the moment. She endured the highest amount of over-nute, had some browned tips, and I had to flush her a couple of days ago pretty good. Also because I'm using her for seed, I don't need her that big. So I cut back the light to 25% for a couple of days. I was also having problems with the pump rate with the drip irrigation system on this plant, so running less light until I could get more nute solution wasn't a bad thing to do.

She'll perk up, I assure you. She already has as I write this.



Also going on in the "Seed and Breed" cabinet is this foot-tall female I'm spraying with collodial silver in order to get pollen that will breed feminized seed. It doesn't need to be large; a lot of pollen goes a long way!



All these were flipped on Saturday September 9. First time I've had 5 of my 2x2 spaces on 12/12. Very exciting times!

Oh, and finally. Next up is this Dos-Si-Sos that popped its cap on 8/25. Two weeks in, she is looking good. Near time to transplant.



That's about it for flush and flip day!

BR

[BaccaRacca]

SoOrbudgal, thank you! So far so good.

[Ckbrew]

Looking good. Your support is a what kind of device as known in the garden center? The reason for using 100% perlite is for increased irrigation ability?

[BaccaRacca]

Ckbrew Amazon sells something very similar to what I have and they call them Peony Support Cages.

https://www.amazon.com/Gray-Bunny-Support-Diameter-Supporter/dp/B07Y44PKVC?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&smid=A2PEQG4OIUFAFW&th=1

Their model has four support legs where mine only has three.

As for 100% perlite, a bit of experimentation. Really, a whim. Short answer, yes, increased irrigation abilities.

Long answer I'm trying to mimic DWC while keeping the pots very mobile -- having the ability to go from cabinet to cabinet, move for life cycle changes and even for photo purposes.

I'd had some really great crops using 30% peat as a buffer for my alkali tap water, but I also had a couple of stinkers. I suspect, for environmental reasons my tap water was fluctuating wildly and the buffer would either over or under correct. This happened almost exclusively in my 2.5-gallon pots. On larger pots there always seemed to be some place the roots found comfortable.

But I wanted to go to smaller pots and see what these drip irrigation systems can do. Once I bought into the EC and Ph meters (and maintaining them) that just seemed like the way to go.

So far, so good.

[BaccaRacca]

Midweek photos. Four days after flippin' we have break through the screen. Always a bit of an exciting time -- seeing how evenly the primary and secondary stems come through the screen.

Ph. in the bucket for the plant on the left was running a bit hot at 6.5, so I brought it down with 3/8 tsp of Ph. down. Now at 6.1. Both pots are down about 3 gallons in four days, with 2 gallons left.

Currently using MG Vegetable & Herb at a rate of 1.0 tbsp. per five gallon bucket (.6 tsp. a gallon), giving me readings between 750-800 ppm with tap water reading 170 ppm.

[BaccaRacca]

S-s-s-t-r-r-r-e-e-e-e-tch!

Week 1 since 12/12 flush & flip and the plants are doing well.

The plant on the left (Gertrude, White Widow Extreme standard seed from AMS interbred for more standard seed) has been my healthiest plant, grew about an inch a day, taking in about 12 oz. of nute solution 8 times a day. Measuring her runoff I got a reading of 1850 on my EC meter, but that was in a dirty saucer. I changed out saucers, ran a couple of gallons of ph-adjusted water (6.1), and measured things at around 450, with a tap water base of 170.Then started with a nute base of 1 tablespoon MG Vegetable & Herbs 18-21-21 and 1/2 tablespoon of MC Bloom, 10-52-10, for an overall nute ratio of 2-5-3 and EC at 1050 ppm.

The plant on the right (Brunehilde, sister seed of Gertrude) had shown signs of heavy nitrogen fertilzation and tiny brown leaf tips, and is racing ahead of her sister. She grew about 2 more inches than her sister this week. It seems like all that nitrogen that gave her deep-green, twisted leaves went right into stretching. Her runoff measured at 850 in the clean saucer, which was about what the nutes going in were. I flushed her with a couple of gallons of ph-adjusted tap water before giving her the same nute treatment as her sister.

Currently, Gertie is 12" below the Vipar-Spectra XS 1500 lights, and Brunie is 10" below. No signs of heat stress.



Something to note on the middle stem. Originally they are the shortest ones, shorter than the six on the perimeter of the pot, but because I run a single VS XS 1500 above each plant, the light is stronger in the middle of the space. The middle stem actually grows even during stretch as you can see.



Here is the flush set up, EZ-PZ. And, yes, those are Blue Lab EC and Ph. pens, kept meticulously calibrated:



Meanwhile, another sister, The Seed Queen sits in her own 2x2 box under Vipar Spectra XS1000 lights. They are 100w lights compared to the Xs 1500 lights, which are 150 watts. I had stunted her growth intentionally before the flip with five days of light at 25%, with reduced nute solution. I don't want her too big. She will give me all the seeds I need. Because her nute takeup has been less than the other two larger plants it has not been time to measure runoff or flush. I will do that sometime today.



Inside the Breed Box I have two Seed Kings growing, the larger is stretching and doing so well that the smaller girl was killed. It was grisly; I will not show that.



And finally, in the germination/early veg box I have my Do-Si-Dos doing well and ready for transplanting.



So far, so good with this little experiment.

[BaccaRacca]

Week 1.5 Into flip. & Big Things are happening.

But before I get into it ... To anybody new. Or anybody trying the 2'x4' grow space I'd like to recommend NebulaHaze excellent LED Grow Journal: Mars Hydro TSL-2000W vs Spider Farmer SF-2000.

It's a good read. I added the link to this post. I ran across it while putting this grow together. I'm doing some things different here and there, but also doing a lot of similar -- and picking up a few tips, too! So, if you're interested in this kind of space, how to grow in it and the kind of techniques and lighting you'll need for a good grow, take a look.

One thing that's piqued my interest in that article is that I'm using similar, yet different lights, 2 Vipar-Spectra XS 1500 lights, drawing 150 watts for a total of 300 watis.. I'm interested how these perform against that test.

And, of course, I have this obsession with using 100% perlite with frequent fertigation. And that is different, so we'll see how that works out as well.

It's really helpful to have that measuring stick out there, coming with a lot of good advice.

So back into the 4x2 box.

Both Gertrude and Brunhilde (White Widows from seed) have stretched 14 inches over the past 10 days -- 1.4 inches a day. And at least a doubling in size in that time. Gertrude was at 13 inches and Brunhildde at 14 inches before flip. Now they are 27" and 28" respectively, and fully fill their space. So they've done well and seemed to have adapted to the new nutes. Growing like crazy and already showing early flowers.

Breeder of the original seeds says maturity in just 8 to 9 weeks, so, maybe the stretch period is short as well. Maybe they done. We'll see tomorrow morning. Might be time for a cut.

As for watering, I'm averaging about 5 pints of solution a day, fed 10 ounces at a time, 8 times daily. That's eight days of watering using a 5-gallon bucket.

One thing I have to note is that while Gertrude grew as fast as Bunhilde while being a bit shorter and weaker, it is crazy Brunhilde with the once-twisted leaves that showing more viable bud sites. Of course she is. I like having anywhere between 16 and 21 good bud sites in one 2x2 space. Gertie looks to have around 16, and Brun, a bit more. We'll see after defoliation.

Gertrude:




Brunhilde:




Lights on the Vipar-Spectra are kept between 10"-16" above the canopy.



Flowering seems to have started in earnest.



Also. I murdered the Seed King's sister. She wasn't keeping up. It had to be done. Seed king stands alone. Plenty of little bud sites for dousing with collodial silver and harvesting girl pollen.



Seed queen has bounced back after the "runting" I gave her. And she is only under Vipar-Spectra 1000, 100W lights. I'm keeping her small on purpose. I don't need lots of seeds.



And finally Do-Si-Dos waiting, patiently, in the seedling chamber until space opens up once I have male flowers on my female plant.



So far, so good!

And be sure to check out Nebula's grow journal, too!

[Bluey]

Great article.

Both great lights. Both great grows but I suspect any difference is merely down to the plants individual characteristics rather than the lights performance.

[BaccaRacca]

Bluey, yes, both very good lights. We'll see how the Vipar Spectra's hold up. Heck see if the grow holds up.

The big difference I took away from the article was Watts/Gram. And it appeared the Spider Farmer's were the winners there. With her using clones of three different varieties I think she did a good job washing out potential strain differences.

With my grow using seed, an entirely different strain, a different irrigation system, and different lights there is a lot of variability there, but still a good measuring stick she's provided.

Oh, BTW, something I omitted, and really should be in the text of the journal. Since using these little irrigators is one of the big points of the grow. I'm averaging about 5 pints of solution a day, fed 10 ounces at a time, 8 times daily. That's eight days of watering using a 5-gallon bucket.

[Bluey]

Watts/gram can only be accurately compared when you have the same wattage and same canopy size/grow space. I'd guess a more powerful light is always going to fair worse than a light better sized for the same canopy size/grow space and it appears to me that is the case here more so than the performance of the light. What we can conclude is all things being equal a 200watt light of a certain size performs better than a 300watt light of that size in a 4x2 grow space with a full canopy on a watt/gram basis. That is what I can take away from that grow.

It's still a great comparison and a ripper grow. I chose a couple of SF7000's for my grows and no complaints although the connectors get quite warm and that is a serious concern. Google "Spider Farmer fire" and you'll see what I mean. They do need better quality connectors or modified to reduce resistance.

[BaccaRacca]

With the plants bloomin' all over I thought it was time for a trim. Defoliation always makes me nervous. I try to follow the tutorials, but still am never quite sure of myself.

Anyway here are Gertrude and Brunhilde, side shots.



And their new canopy shots:



Seed Queen side view and canopy shot after the trim:



Thank you for subscribing and viewing!

[SoOrbudgal]

Well you are able to post pictures, wonder what's up with my end. Anyhow sorry about the loss of your other plant but it looks like she's gonna hog the whole tent. A real beauty.

[BaccaRacca]

Thank you SoOrbudgal for playing along!

Killing plants is a sad thing, but necessary when growing from standard seed. Also, if I need one clone I often clone a few, pick the best, and compost the rest. You know the scene in Fargo where the body is getting sent through the wood chopper. It's that grisly, only on a smaller scale.

[BaccaRacca]

S-s-s-t-r-r-r-e-e-e-e-tch 2!: Week 2 After Flip.

Plants went from 13" & 14" tall at flip to 31" to 32" tall yesterday. They seemed to have slowed the stretch now. Whew! I was running out of room. I had forgotten that this was the strain that taught me late-session LST, LOL! Still, I never imagined that plants so short at flip would add 18" of stretch.





The one plant that has not stretched much is the Seed Queen, which I had dwarfed by reducing nutes and cutting light back on the Vipar-Spectra XS-1000 to 25 for three days. While this showed up a small bit in veg stage, it really showed up during stretch. Seed Queen is only about 17" tall. Perfect for Seed Queen.





Irrigation

It's interesting to note that since I pruned these plants three days ago, nute solution uptake has not changed appreciably, both are taking up 10 ounces, 8 times a day, or five pints total. After removing so many fan leaves, I'd expect less uptake due to less transpiration. Water must be going somewhere. Building flowers and new leaves?

Nutes

Changeover to flower nutes appears to be doing well so far. I've had a good stretch in the second week and early buds are coming in well. Nothing has died.

Current mixture in 5 gallons of water: 1-tablespoon Cal-Mag, 1-tablespoon Miracle Gro Vegetable & Herb Fertilizer (18-21-21, including Soy Protein Hydrolysates), 1/2-tablespoon Miracle Grow Bloom Booster (10--52-10), ph. adjusted to 6.0. PPM on EC meter at 1050.

At the current level of fertigation I see a slight damp spot from the evening cycles, which dries up during the day. That seems to be the right balance for delivering nutes round-the-clock.

Pruning

Brunhilde, the plant in the 2x4 box on the right got the most severe pruning mid week, and since then it has grown a few more shaders and sweaters that I'll need to remove. Plus I may take out some more suckers. Shaders and sweaters and suckers, Oh My!

As for Gertrude, to her right, she did not receive as severe a pruning as Brunhilde, and she will get more of one now that the stretch has slowed down.

That's it for now. So far, so good. Thank you for following!

BR

[SoOrbudgal]

Oh i see that now BaccaRacca oh well there's one in every family LOL

[SoOrbudgal]

Oh i see that now BaccaRacca oh well there's one in every family LOL

[BaccaRacca]

LOL! That's funny SoOrbudgal. My brother decided to talk politics on a long road trip. Last time I saw him I'd left him and his luggage at a bus stop in Athens, Ohio.