Vertical Goodness and Other Batshit Craziness

[ttystikk]

Here's a shot of the 27 gallon tuffboxes on the other side of the room, still the same RDWC. This is where the plants will sit when I'm ready to hang up the trellis panels and clip the plants to them. As mentioned elsewhere, each trellis panel is 6' tall by 4' across and the plant is trained onto it in classic 2 dimensional espalier fashion.

Once the plants have filled in the trellis, I will lift them out of these tubs and carry them to the RDWC in the flowering room, plunk the roots in the water, stand up the trellis and hang it from hooks screwed into the rafters.

As you can guess, I can move these big ass plants wherever I want! My goal is to have each one produce as much as 2 kg/4.4lbs of finished flower. I haven't done that yet- but I've been working on it and I think I've got most of the bugs worked out. As always, the plants will tell me how I'm doing.

 

[ttystikk]

Bonus pic; I got this for free from someone who built it and then didn't want it anymore; the pump sits in the 27 gallon tuffbox and pushes water to the top pipe, where it runs down, NFT (nutrient film technique) style. I didn't know if this is useful for a cannabis grow but the price was right and I figured why not grab it?

 

[ttystikk]

Today's readings on the nutes in the big veg RDWC are; pH 5.7, EC 1.0, 63 F. I can run anywhere between 25-100 gallons of water in the system, right now there's about 75 gallons in it. The plants aren't very sensitive to the water level because the steady stream of water coming from the supply line in each bucket falls, splashes on the side of the netpots, splashes into the surface of the water in the tub and the roots get plenty of water from that action.

 

[Tvanmunhen]

I'm probably a couple weeks out from popping some seeds. It will be nice to see some plants going. Are you going to be using clones?

I like the setup

 

[ttystikk]

I'm probably a couple weeks out from popping some seeds. It will be nice to see some plants going. Are you going to be using clones?

Yes. I'm hunting this batch for females and then keepers and cloning those. I'll keep doing that and improving the quality and diversity of my strain library. Anyone who has a bomb clone is welcome to send it to me and I'll run it!

I like the setup

Thank you! I think you'll enjoy what's coming up. My setup is a gear junkie's Paradise lol

 

[ttystikk]

Jesus they're drinking a lot. The EC dropped as well.

I just added 40 gallons of water, plus;

100g of 5-12-26 hydroponic mix with micronutrients

100g of calcium nitrate

50g of magnesium sulfate, aka epsom salt

 

[ttystikk]

I was just reminded again today how much different my RDWC system is from nearly everyone else's.

For openers, no air pump and stones. No uniseals and rigid PVC. No big 2" or 3" holes for water to flow around.

 

[pinner420]

What model of light you have on the wall?

 

[ttystikk]

What model of light you have on the wall?

That's a light HLG was going to source from China but they were a pain in the ass to work with so I ended up with them for cost. They're dimmable 270W 3500K 4' long with mid power chips in them.

 

[ttystikk]

Today's adventure involved discovering that the replacement pH probe is finicky and does not like to be immersed like the BlueLab units do. Calibrated and found my nutrient reservoirs were both way high, upper 6 to low 7! Fixed that, added nutrients to the flood table res in the nursery and things look back on track tonight.

 

[ttystikk]

I'm not going to get rich doing what I'm doing. I'm just maybe going to be able to trade my business for a decent retirement.

But bad shit has happened in the past and America is not immune;

Great Chinese Famine - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

My tech may help people survive such disasters, be they natural or man-made in origin. If my ideas help even one person survive, I would consider the tech I'm developing a success.

The end of civilization keeps me up at night. This is my way of fighting back against the darkness.

 

[ttystikk]

I don't want to veer into politics too much but the bottom line is that everything we do has an environmental AND a political impact. Therefore, the thing to do is to align what we do in our day to day lives with the outcomes we want to see in the environment and the political world.

This is the existential problem of our time, assuming the United States does not start a nuclear war in a fit of pique over its loss of global hegemony. The Earth IS warming and burning fossil fuels is the cause. Those of us growing indoors using electric lighting and HVAC have to face our responsibilities in terms of contributing to the situation and take solutions seriously.

If we can reduce the average indoor growing facility's energy needs, every Watt we save is a Watt that doesn't have to be generated by fossil fuels. We all know that growing indoors generates a shockingly large carbon footprint and so any savings at all that can be replicated on an industry wide scale is absolutely beneficial to society and the planet- and it reduces cost of operation so win-win!

I didn't set out to save the planet. I just want to do my part. The less carbon we burn, the better, full stop.

Indoor gardening has a great deal to contribute to the well-being and resilience of humanity. I'm here to help maximize those gains by minimizing the costs.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program!