Too small? Help!

[Mr Jane]

That's interesting and also a bit worrying El Where did you find that bit of info? I wouldn't mind reading a bit further into it.

 

How's it goin Merl1n? I haven't actually got the material for the net yet, I was thinking 2"X2" light gauge steel, I did buy a trailer net but the squares are waaaay to big. If I had my time again I would go about it exactly as you just described ha, I don't think I'll take cuttings this time around though and yesterday I fimmed everywhere I could.

 

"DO NOT WEAVE YOUR GROWTH THROUGH THE NETTING"- Thanks for that tip, I was wondering how the hell you'd get your plants out to flush once they were all tangled and vined. Yeah I've come to realize you can't put expectations on a plants growth, they just grow how they grow and we just have to look after 'em So I'm forgetting about time and going by feel from now on. Thanks for the help as always!

 

Here's a pic of a nice Dutch Tulip I rolled earlier for your efforts

 

[-SLIPPER-]

Hi Mj , you still won't be able to take your plants out to flush whichever way you scrog.

You will need to work out a system to do it in situ.

Scrogged plants normally stay where they are from the time you start tying down till harvest.

[merl1n]

Hi Janey,

Slipper is correct in that you won't be able to move her once ya SCROG her. And you really don't want to once she's in bud. Any damage to the bud and you'll be having problems with mould. Where the leaf on the bud connects to the stem it weeps if damaged, and the excess moisture in the bud supports mould especially as the dense bud won't allow any airflow, the bud may look OKish from the outside but inside black mould will flourish. All my flushing thru grow and head is done within my grow space. The only way I could remove my plant from the room would be to remove a whole wall .

As for your mesh, sounds good. Mines about 4in x 4in light fencing mesh.

 

Merl1n

[Mr Jane]

Hey Slipper, Oh right, well.. that's going to be a little tricky, when I put them in to thier final pots I might have to think up a run to waste system or something like that. Do you think a 20ltr pot is big enough to flower in?

 

G'day Merl1n, When you put all the science behind it, it makes a lot of sense not to go handling your plants during flower. What kind of a system do you use to avoid this btw? I'm about to read through the forums and have a good look around for some ideas, but as always words from the pro's are unbeatable in my opinion!

 

No Dutch Tulip fans in the house? I thought it was pretty impressive ha

[El Gato]

I liked ya tulip homes.

 

As for pots, the bigger the better. More roots = bigger plant = bigger & more buds.

Everyone grows different though, but big pots work well for me, so that all I can advise on.

[merl1n]

Hi Janey,

I have to say here that everybodies setups are different, the way they grow is different and their results also differ, but this is what works for me.

My system is a perlite recirc with a pump sitting in a plastic tub, the reservoir or the heart, pumping nute to the top of the plant draining out the bottom and returning to the heart. Pumping 15min/hr 24hrs a day.

When flushing, each fortnight, I throw out the nute in the heart, fill it with straight water (pH adjusted) and pump that around for an hr throw that and repeat sometimes 3 - 4 times until my salt levels are around 400. Then refill my heart with nute and away I go for another fortnight. I check and adjust ppm and pH twice daily over the fortnight.

 

Now Im using a black plastic tub as my heart but Ive seen setups where they just used a bucket with a sealed lid, inlet and outlet, with an airstone and a pump. Done. Just so long as light cant get to your nute, if light can get to your nute you'll start growing algae in your heart. One bloke's bucket is covered in gaffa tape to keep the light out. As for your pot size, have to agree with El Gato, the bigger the better. I use 50ltr pots and still run out of room, thats also to do with my setup. But for you go the bigger pots, if you're going SCROG and you end up needing to change pots cos the ones you got aint big enuf, you're in trouble. It is a bastard of a job. I kno, I did it, so don't piss around, bigger is better.

 

Merl1n

[Mr Jane]

Jeezus! No internet for what has seemed a lifetime! I guess that's what you get for living in the sticks though.

 

Alright I've taken your advice El and Merlin and have set up a 50L recirculating system, without the aid of the internet I was a tad confused.. But like a trooper I pushed on.

 

So my system is made up of a 100L reserviour, 100W pump, airstone and a water temp controller.

 

I Ph'd 50 litres of water last night after completing the set up, half filled the reservior and turned it on.. now comes the problems

 

1. When I turned on the pump, the pressure just blasted the hose right out of it's socket, and I can't get it to sit in satisfactorily.. I was thinking maybe silicon or a couple or rivets might do the trick there though.

 

2. The pump, pumps the water out a lot faster than it can return, so I had to turn the pump off for a few minutes, wait till the water returned to the reserviour.. repeat process (very annoying). My thoughts on this is, instead of having all four drainage outlets connected to one hose running back to the res, I could split it into 2?

 

3. I was not aware of pot socks So as the water does return slowly to the res, it is very murky, the return lines don't seem to be getting clogged though, so I'm just not sure weather this will have a negative impact?

 

4. As the res drained itself so quickly, my water temp controll was above water level, for about 15 minutes.. is it fucked now?

 

I am currently seeking answers for myself, but I feel time is crucial at the moment, so if I could get some quick advice i would REALLY appreciate it!!

 

Thanks guys, here's a couple of pics of the system, sorry for the not so good quality shots!

 

 

[jaikai]

Did`nt read the whole thing top to bottom but as to the pump, here`s a trick...

 

just after the pump, before top of the res, put a Tee-piece in it with a smaller spout coming off. You can get 19thru19 with 13mm Tee and 13thru13 with 6mm Tee. Use the size you need according to pump pipe size. put a bit of pipe on the spout pointing back into the res so no fountains etc and even a tap to adjust the flow rate to suit your return rate... Benefit is also a bit of extra aeration.

Oh, and that calming waterfall sound...

 

Cable tie all connections too, clamps are useles over time.

 

JAIKAI

[merl1n]

Hi Janey,

JK is on the money with the T-piece, that is what I do. The T will also lessen the pressure and thus less likely to 'blow off'. JK is also correct about the plastic clamps, they are shit. My resi is outside my grow area and for the external connections I use steel hoseclamps but ya can't use them in water as they rust and alter your pH and nute. Zippy ties work a treat.

Now if your plants are small and you are having problems with your return flow, when your pots are full of roots you're gonna have problems with floods. You need to sort this out now so your flow in equals your flow out. Why do you think the a pot sock would make the return flow quicker? Personally I dont use socks, just a piece of shade cloth in the base of the pot is all I use

You say your return is murky. Do you mean like cloudy?? If so did you wash your perlite and clayballs before you used them? Washing it is highly advisable as the grit from the perlite acts a bit like a grinding paste on ya pump, but its a bit late for a remedy to that now that you're already on the grow.

As for your water heater, I use a fishtank heater. BUT Be very F%$kIN careful. I had a similair problem that my resi dried out, when the fluid returned to the resi, the cold nute hitting a very hot glass heater the thing cracked. Now I didn't know it had cracked and I put my hand in the resi. Luckily I have a safety switch which blew cos otherwise Id be dead and not able to tell you this.

 

Hope it helps

Merl1n

[Mr Jane]

Thanks for the quick reply men, I can always count on ya's! I'm off to the shop tonight, so I'll let you know how everything goes either later tonight or tomorrow.

 

Merlin I'm growing in a coco/perlite mix, this is probably the reason for the cloudy water, also I never washed the perlite I didn't really think the socs would improve flow, but i thought they would have kept little pieces of perlite running through my waste lines is all.. preventing clogging and things of the like.

 

I will definitely be checking my water temp controller very thoroughly after your near miss, that's really fucking scary! Glad you didn't end up toast though mate!

 

MJ