Sea of Green: Get a harvest every 2 weeks

[DrDee]

Al-B,

That surprises me that aeration made that much difference in your grow. But I'm a total hydro newbie. I'm in hydroton and with the flood schedule I'm on (5 x 15 minutes) I'm sure I'm getting plenty of O2 to the roots. I'm using non-organic nutes which are very stable and my air pump is pretty strong and really bubbles up that hose and into the tray while flooded. I'm really not worried about aeration. I'm going to stick with the same strain on the E&F table until I get it dialed in and that sounds like something that's worthy of a test. One run with 24/7 aeration and one without.

 

One of my local grow buddy is an AN user and what he does is to have the air pump come on 10 minutes before application. He said it really helped with his pH management. Much more stable. All very anecdotal though.

 

If I can lay my hands on that AN newsletter I'll forward it to you...

Cheers,

Dee

[Al B. Fuct]

That surprises me that aeration made that much difference in your grow.

 

Hey, I was just as surprised!

 

One thing which masked the negative effects of the pumps quitting was my application of H2O2 (50% grade, 1ml/L every 3-4 days), which is a very fine solution oxygenator, though my primary purpose for it is pathogen suppression. When I'm religious about adding H2O2, the absence of oxygenation with pumps/stones is less noticeable- but sometimes I forget to dose the tanks. Yields are better with 24/7 aeration, probably because it provides oxygenation if I forget to do it with the H2O2.

 

I ran without air pumps for several months, not thinking it was that much of a problem... but when I put new ones in, the difference was immediate and dramatic.

 

I didn't note any pH management differences with vs without aeration.

[Al B. Fuct]

I've been thrashing the same 130 or so 175mm pots in my system for about 7-8 years now. Many are cracked or otherwise damaged. Bought them so long ago that the place I last got them from has gone out of biz.

 

Could not find plain old black 175mm plastic pots to save my life at Bunnies, dollar shops, Kmart, not even at my local, usually-way-too-expensive-so-last-resort-only Flower Power shop.

 

Hit the web, found these guys:

 

http://www.gardencityplastics.com/

 

Whoomp, there it is. Every possible size and colour.

 

2 stacks of 70 black 175mm pots cost $63 cash money off their whse dock, $0.45 a pot, about 1/3 the price for near sized pots elsewhere. Bargain.

[ff069]

very impressive.

[iCann]

For those who don't know, the Big Blue Bastard is a 5 tube UV fluoro ioniser... which is still on my workbench, waiting for me to work out why a 16W fluoro tube connected to an 18W ballast pops the ckt breaker on my workbench's 240V power supply.

 

Hey Al,

been following your threads around, all i can say is...

I'm really interested to find out how did the Big Blue worked out for you, as I'm looking at one myself

Edited November 23, 2008 by iCann

[Cool cat 13]

Hi Al, great thread. My grow isn't that dissimilar from yours and I've been doing it for years, but you have some nice efficiencies that I will definitely be looking to emulate next time. I grow in rock wool with drippers, but am now gonna think carefully about swapping to ebb and flow, those drippers are a real pain. A couple of questions in case you are still floating around on the forum: when do you transfer your clones into your pots, is it before or after you put them in the flower room? Also, if it is after, how do you find their roots develop without any vegging? Finally, is there any reason why you don't grow straight into Rockwool blocks instead of using those pots?

[Stanley.Beamish.]

 

Errrrm...... 9 year thread revival..........

 

Good luck with that one Cool...................

[Cool cat 13]

Never know your luck if you don't try. Either way, it's a good thread and deserves any attention it can get.