Effects of 'Manifolding' on Seed Development?

[McDdd]

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Couldn't leave it alone: added the lighting here.

I have actually got six of those 28w LED's on order... The 'UFO' is suspended at three points, which I'd intended to utilise to hang the 28w's. Another three certainly looks better on paper – much more well-balanced – prettier; but it will be a job to fix the buggars... And is it really worth it; are they really needed?

 

[McDdd]

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New and improved (again):

 

[McDdd]

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Here it is on the basis of 5x⌀20cmx25cm (⌀7.87"x9.84") fabric pots. That means two-gallons. Has anyone got experience of using two-gallon pots? What's it like? What happens when they get root bound; they just stop growing? Are they able to flower like that?

I've put all of the 6x28w LED's in here, as well. Don't know how the hell I'm going to rig them up (Jerry-rigged wiring is one of the most off-putting things about the whole endeavour. And it's why the wife closed the whole thing down last time.) but I'll find a way.

 

[McDdd]

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Actually, although I couldn't do this with dinner plates on the kitchen table, because fabric pots are soft they can be squeezed together, so I could, in fact, get 5x three-gallon pots in there if I get rid of the manifold frame; just need to put a ring with holes in it at the top of the pot to fix ties for training. (Actually, that would probably work better than the frame, in any case, anyway.) Does this look like the best setup?

Questions, comments, suggestions? All feedback welcome.

 

[Aloner]

With fabric pots, cramming them together like that would, I think, increase the risk of mold/mildew because the sides will dampen every time you water. You want air circulation on all sides.

 

[McDdd]

Good point, thanks.

I need to see what 1x 2-gallon in the middle, surrounded by 4x 3-gallons would look like, then; and/or vice versa, i.e. 3-gallon in the middle surrounded by 2-gallons. But that will have to wait until tomorrow now.

 

[McDdd]

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OK, I can do this one straight away – just the one circle to change.

Looks like that would work, doesn't it?

 

[McDdd]

I need to find a way to move four of those 28w LED's out over the centres of the three-gallon (surrounding) pots; make some kind of suspension frame.

 

[McDdd]

No Title

OK, I've repositioned the lights here – using all six 28w's, spread them out over the centres of the surrounding pots (need to build a suspension frame – there's no way around it), added handles (which are actually present on the pots, in any case) and deleted the canopies for clarity. This looks pretty good, but I'm wondering – if I've built a suspension frame, anyway – whether it might be sensible to get another 2x28w's to fill those gaps in the middle at the edges (top and bottom).

Doing that, though, would start to make it get expensive, and money is important everywhere now. Put that together with the ham-fisted, homemade look of a jerry-rigged suspended lighting frame and I start risking the wrath of something more dangerous than the law: the wife. It might look a lot better and feel a lot more balanced, but I don't know how much difference they would actually make; 2 is 33 1/3% of 6, or 25% of 8... Hmmm... Pondering. And the big one in the middle is an unknown.

But all these new LED's are unknowns with Chinese entrepreneurs utilising their new confidence to explore innovation, making new-and-improved units pop up like mushrooms after an autumn rain, responding to demand of the world's largest economy, where growing cannabis is actually legal in some places now. (Nothing like a bit of hypocrisy to keep the wheels of commerce and industry turning!) Yes, we live in interesting times.

 

[oldjarhead100]

MCddd just curious where are you at

 

[McDdd]

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Right, I've revisited the single-pot route now, having made so many modifications to the five-pot plan. I kind of like it, rather inclined to go this way. I think it should be easier to keep water under control (off the floor) which could be a really big advantage if push comes to shove with the wife over safety concerns. I've just had an electrician in to put a surge protector on that line, but it's still hard to beat not having water on the floor and walls of the tent in the first place; I like the pot-in-a-pot concept. No need for a manifold frame, either: just secure ties through holes drilled in the rim of the outer pot.

I've already had an idea about how to keep the roots of the central plant from being wetter than those of the surrounding plants: I'll put an airpot with nothing inside it upside down in the middle of the floor of the fabric pot, directly underneath the central plant, cover it with a few centimetres (couple of inches) of soil and sow the plant there, so water can drain away to the sides and the roots can grow around it. Might be a problem with the air inside the airpot, which will be trapped by the earth around it, going stagnant? Do I need to make vents? Probably wiser to.

The question now is how far from the wall of the pot I should put the surrounding plants. Any ideas?

 

[McDdd]

MCddd just curious where are you at

Well, I don't want to actually use the name of the country here. They pride themselves on cyber security and I'm sure any direct mention like that is likely to set off alarm bells in the Big Brother HQ Control Centre. (Paranoid, or what?!) Ours is one of only three countries in the EU North of Italy (Norway isn't a member of the EU.) where Sensi Seeds will not send seeds. (Because they, like me, know they won't get through and have experience of unpleasant consequences. And if they are allowed through consequences may not be evident until the grow is well established.) See here: https://sensiseeds.com/faq/country.asp.

 

[McDdd]

No Title

Actually, there are four including Luxembourg, but they don't count because they're one of the Benelux countries, and they're all so rich there they can just jump into one of their Rolls and drive to Holland to get seeds, be there in half an hour or so and go to see what's new in the coffeeshops at the same time. No point taking stick from Germany, like the Dutch do, for having it legal; they earn Brownie points with the prohibitionists and get to eat their cake, too! Iceland doesn't count, either.

Anyway, this is it (attached PNG). I reckon this is the way to go. Couple of minor points, like do I need two vents to get a cross flow of air...? But nothing major, I don't think; I reckon this is pretty much what we're going to do. Maybe we'll take some pictures while we're putting it together and make a tutorial to go online?