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First Time.

Moshmen said:
I don’t scrog but if I were to try I would hit up granny
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That's what I've been told. I was hoping she might see that link and set me straight. That's just the general plan I've had in my head from the beginning. This is why I say I'm not married to the idea, just using it as a starting point. If she wants to grace me with some scroggin' knowledge, I wouldn't mind one bit. She made an appearance here earlier, but I'm not sure if she's following along.
 
Ppm(500) - 330
Res Temp - 72
Ph - 6.0
Tent temp 74-75
Rh - 65%

Just top-feed tonight. If it's still 6.0 in the morning, I'll probably let her run. The potassium silicate should be here Saturday. Fulvic and Orca on Monday. With as slow as it's creeping up, i feel like I'm pissing phDown into the wind with a res change coming in under a week.
 
My silicate arrived today. Should I be planning on starting a new batch of nutes this weekend, or should I wait for the Fulvic and Orca to get here? They should be arriving early next week.
 
GrumpAzz said:
My silicate arrived today. Should I be planning on starting a new batch of nutes this weekend, or should I wait for the Fulvic and Orca to get here? They should be arriving early next week.
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Orca and fulvic can go in later. I'd get er done this weekend.

Roots yet?
 
Moe.Red said:
Orca and fulvic can go in later. I'd get er done this weekend.

Roots yet?
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Awesome, I'll pencil it in.

Nothing underneath but the growth has been noticeable. Slow, but noticeable. I figured if she was gonna keel over, she woulda done it by now.
 
GrumpAzz said:
Awesome, I'll pencil it in.

Nothing underneath but the growth has been noticeable. Slow, but noticeable. I figured if she was gonna keel over, she woulda done it by now.
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So in this method you will see all the energy and growth in the root zone searching for water at first. Then when they hit the water, you should see the roots almost double daily in early veg. That will take a minute, then the green part takes off.

Next time I recommend that you start the plant and have roots showing out the netcup prior to putting in the RDWC. This 2+ weeks of coddling a seedling is time wasted in your RDWC. That should be for vegging and flowering by all rights, not a nursery. You can absolutely do it that way, but over 4 grows a year at 2 weeks per grow, you are losing 2 months of bud growing time. If you were to figure out a small veg tent and in the RDWC only flower, you will gain a significant yearly yield. Essentially 2 harvests per year.

First step is start your seeds in rock wool cubes under a dome. Water only, no nutes. I'd do 3-4 seeds and pick the best one to transplant to the RDWC. Something to think about for the next cycle.
 
Good advice, thanks man.

Another pitfall of me joining the Farm as you were leaving. I was asking all these questions and rarely got any sort of advice. I ended up just saying screw it, and dove in. I knew there were better ways but couldn't get anyone to tell me why I shouldn't. I have a peat pellet germination dome but I didn't see the harm in going straight to hydroton. I only took temp and humidity into consideration. I am now a little wiser.

These are good mistakes to make. Not terribly detrimental but a great opportunity for a learning experience. We'll talk more in detail on right way to go about it when we get towards the end of this run.

I'll have to think a little more about a seperate veg tent. I'm not even sure where I'm gonna hang and dry this harvest. Come Christmas time, I'll have some disposable income to be making the necessary uprades I left out initially. Maybe by then I'll have a decent idea about what the hell I'm doing.
 
GrumpAzz said:
Good advice, thanks man.

Another pitfall of me joining the Farm as you were leaving. I was asking all these questions and rarely got any sort of advice. I ended up just saying screw it, and dove in. I knew there were better ways but couldn't get anyone to tell me why I shouldn't. I have a peat pellet germination dome but I didn't see the harm in going straight to hydroton. I only took temp and humidity into consideration. I am now a little wiser.

These are good mistakes to make. Not terribly detrimental but a great opportunity for a learning experience. We'll talk more in detail on right way to go about it when we get towards the end of this run.

I'll have to think a little more about a seperate veg tent. I'm not even sure where I'm gonna hang and dry this harvest. Come Christmas time, I'll have some disposable income to be making the necessary uprades I left out initially. Maybe by then I'll have a decent idea about what the hell I'm doing.
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Good point on dry space. Time to think about that is now. And not everything needs to be a tent that 1” thick foam insulation board is cheap and so is duct tape.
 
Moe.Red said:
Good point on dry space. Time to think about that is now. And not everything needs to be a tent that 1” thick foam insulation board is cheap and so is duct tape.
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Also.. I saw you were sick so I hope you're feeling better, bro
 
@Moe.Red
Alright. Let's talk potassium silicate. I just got a pound of it and am curious of any precautions I should be taking.

Also.. a couple questions

Being hygroscopic, I assume it should be stored in an airtight container. Can I still mix it in the same room, where all my resevoirs are?
You said a pound would be a lifetime supply. What would be the recommended dose/gallon?
Do I use measuring spoons, or go by weight?
Do I only use it in the RDWC or should it be continuously added by the top-off res?
Ph close to 11, then down to 5.8, then set overnight, right?

Some of those may be silly questions or easily answered by google. I overthink things and also find it much easier and efficient to get my info from someone interested in sharing it. Sifting google searches can be a nightmare. Maybe there's a sticky for it?
 
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GrumpAzz said:
@Moe.Red
Alright. Let's talk potassium silicate. I just got a pound of it and am curious of any precautions I should be taking.

Also.. a couple questions

Being hygroscopic, I assume it should be stored in an airtight container. Can I still mix it in the same room, where all my resevoirs are?
You said a pound would be a lifetime supply. What would be the recommended dose/gallon?
Do I use measuring spoons, or go by weight?
Do I only use it in the RDWC or should it be continuously added by the top-off res?
Ph close to 11, then down to 5.8, then set overnight, right?

Some of those may be silly questions or easily answered by google. I overthink things and also find it much easier and efficient to get my info from someone interested in sharing it. Sifting google searches can be a nightmare. Maybe there's a sticky for it?
Click to expand...
It’s 5:00 am so I’ll come back and elaborate later but we are going to add the silica and the ph will head very high. We need to let that circulate for a day if possible. Then add ph down to 5.8, whatever that takes. Those 2 things together create a pair of byproducts a ph buffer and phantom available monosilic acid. Then go in the nutes and finally bennies.

Probably need to figure out how to pull your net pot and keep it on life support while you do this until you get the ph down in.

Remind me your total water volume.
 
Moe.Red said:
It’s 5:00 am so I’ll come back and elaborate later but we are going to add the silica and the ph will head very high. We need to let that circulate for a day if possible. Then add ph down to 5.8, whatever that takes. Those 2 things together create a pair of byproducts a ph buffer and phantom available monosilic acid. Then go in the nutes and finally bennies.

Probably need to figure out how to pull your net pot and keep it on life support while you do this until you get the ph down in.

Remind me your total water volume.
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Haha no worries.

As far as pulling the netpot, I planned on doing the mixing in my top-off resevoir, so shouldn't affect the plant res, correct? I'll just keep the float from filling with the solution.

I'll mix into 30 gallons. That's the capacity of my top-off res. The lower two hold approximately 15 gallons, together. Once mixed, I'll drain the lower two and pump in the new batch. That process takes ten minutes or so.

Makes sense to let it activate (or whatever) overnight and THEN bring the ph down. I'm not sure why I was thinking to bring it down THEN sit overnight.

After filling the lower two, I'll still have approximately 15 gallons above. I assume the silicate continues being added by the drip-feed, so that would be my final step. If not, I'll mix my original batch with a little more than 15 gallons, so it all gets used, then mix a new batch for above. But that batch wouldn't have the buffer? That's why I'm assuming it keeps getting added from above.

I too am in the central time zone and am running on no coffee as of yet.
 
GrumpAzz said:
Haha no worries.

As far as pulling the netpot, I planned on doing the mixing in my top-off resevoir, so shouldn't affect the plant res, correct? I'll just keep the float from filling with the solution.

I'll mix into 30 gallons. That's the capacity of my top-off res. The lower two hold approximately 15 gallons, together. Once mixed, I'll drain the lower two and pump in the new batch. That process takes ten minutes or so.

Makes sense to let it activate (or whatever) overnight and THEN bring the ph down. I'm not sure why I was thinking to bring it down THEN sit overnight.

After filling the lower two, I'll still have approximately 15 gallons above. I assume the silicate continues being added by the drip-feed, so that would be my final step. If not, I'll mix my original batch with a little more than 15 gallons, so it all gets used, then mix a new batch for above. But that batch wouldn't have the buffer? That's why I'm assuming it keeps getting added from above.

I too am in the central time zone and am running on no coffee as of yet.
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Yes bro, you got it. Mix it in the 30 gallon top off will be perfect.

And yes, you will be feeding with buffered solution, which is great for veg.

At the point we get to flower, we will take a look at the plant and see what it needs. If it does not need more stalk strengthening (depends on genetics and the stretch) we will start to phase out silica sooner. You do not want to be in the full on flower bud fattening stage with much if any silica tho, it doesn't play well with buds IMO. We want those nice and tender.

And yes, time is critical to the proper mixing and getting the buffer set. And it needs to be set before putting in nutes as swings can cause your nutes to fall out of suspension wasting nutes and your silica.
 
Moe.Red said:
Yes bro, you got it. Mix it in the 30 gallon top off will be perfect.

And yes, you will be feeding with buffered solution, which is great for veg.

At the point we get to flower, we will take a look at the plant and see what it needs. If it does not need more stalk strengthening (depends on genetics and the stretch) we will start to phase out silica sooner. You do not want to be in the full on flower bud fattening stage with much if any silica tho, it doesn't play well with buds IMO. We want those nice and tender.

And yes, time is critical to the proper mixing and getting the buffer set. And it needs to be set before putting in nutes as swings can cause your nutes to fall out of suspension wasting nutes and your silica.
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You're so cool man. Much respect.

I'll get the silica mixed tonight and in the morning we'll be on track and ready to rock and roll.

How quickly is the ph affected by the silicate? Should I mix well and wait several minutes to check it?
 
GrumpAzz said:
You're so cool man. Much respect.

I'll get the silica mixed tonight and in the morning we'll be on track and ready to rock and roll.

How quickly is the ph affected by the silicate? Should I mix well and wait several minutes to check it?
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When you put the silica in, the PH will shoot up to 9 - 11 range. Just leave it there for a while. A day would not hurt. It will initially be cloudy, this is because it takes time to become fully mixed up in the water. Especially with RO.

Now bring it down to 5.8 with PH down. The conversion to monosilic acid is nearly instantaneous. stir it for a bit, verify the PH is stable over 10 or 20m minutes of stirring, then proceed.
 
Moe.Red said:
When you put the silica in, the PH will shoot up to 9 - 11 range. Just leave it there for a while. A day would not hurt. It will initially be cloudy, this is because it takes time to become fully mixed up in the water. Especially with RO.

Now bring it down to 5.8 with PH down. The conversion to monosilic acid is nearly instantaneous. stir it for a bit, verify the PH is stable over 10 or 20m minutes of stirring, then proceed.
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Perfect. I'll keep you in the loop and up to date. Thanks again dude
 
I mixed 8g KSiO into a quart of 5.2 pH RO. Mixed it well and let it sit approximately 10 minutes while the rez filled. Then, I slowly poured and mixed it into 30 gallons. I mixed with my paint mixer for 10 minutes. After 20-30 minutes, the ph reads 9.5

I'm gonna do a few dabs in here and head to bed. Nutes in the morning. Night ya'll.
20230428_230349.jpg
 
Hey @Moe.Red ,

Am I good to add the nutes in there or should I have put more Silicate in? We had talked about getting the pH up towards 11 but is that still the case, since my RO is coming out close to 5? Is that drop from 9.5 to 7.5 normal? I found a post of yours talking about mixing 15-48g/gallon and then 38ml/gal of that solution. 38 x 30 came out just above a liter so my mixture was in the middle of that range. 8 grams in a quart, mixed well, added to rez.

We've got a garage to clean out today. Spring cleaning has arrived and our little town has set out the dumpsters.
 
Did you add the ph down? That is next if not. Then after you are stable at 5.8 goes the nutes. Cal mag first. Micro second.

Then after that is stable add bennies.
 
Moe.Red said:
Did you add the ph down? That is next if not. Then after you are stable at 5.8 goes the nutes. Cal mag first. Micro second.

Then after that is stable add bennies.
Click to expand...
No down yet. I wanted to make sure I was clear to proceed at the 7.4 mark. It just seemed a little low compared to the 11 recommended, so I was looking for some clarification. Thanks for the quick response.
 
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