highchome

16 hours ago, Dookie69 said:

Sonoff will eventually continue with its schedule after a power fail and return, when a programmed or environmental state is reached.

I understand it starting up with the switch off. But waiting for one of the programmed time events before correcting seems strange, if that it what it is doing. Those chips are more than powerful enough to work out what the current state should be

It really is insane. Its not just me though, I've tested in a friends place on the other side of town. So its definitely the municipal water in general. I'd guess that must be cause by the dams filling up with run off now during the rainy season. But even so its a crazy number and I'm not sure how to reasonably deal with it  

Wow this has been quite the messy grow for me. I'm glad I pulled out when I did. Also found out that my tap water now has an EC of over 1300 (https://www.420sa.co.za/topic/5960-very-high-ec-tap-water/). Most annoying

There are some great looking plants, well done everyone (else :) )

I'm in the Western Cape and for the last month or so our tap water has had an EC above 1300! Normally it was below ~300. 

Of all the things to consider when doing a coco grow, this is one thing I never though of. My clones/mothers seem to be doing ok enough with the water & hydro-mix. But my flowering plants are not happy at all, and various signs of unhappiness (e.g. some very dark leaves)

With the ferts mixed to a bit below normal strength I'm at an EC of 1800. I suppose I should stop mixing calmag into the hortimix and hope that the buffering I did + whatever calcium is in that 1300 base EC will be enough to avoid issues. 

I guess there are not many practical options for me at the moment. But wondering if anyone else had experienced similar issues?

2 hours ago, CreX said:

Those dip switch timers are the absolute worst for our applications where we need higher dependability. 

Ja and I actually decided against using the DIY electronic timer I had made, becaused I wanted something more tested for the competition. LOL!  
(I think the sonoffs use an esp8266. My DIY one does too, so I really should have gone that way)

The mechanical ones are also a total pain with loadshedding. So yeah, I'm going to move over asap.

2 hours ago, CreX said:

I am sure you can continue posting here and if you really wanna pull out, then we will just stop issuing warnings for late diary entries... No biggie. 

Thanks. Yes I think I must pull out, it seem the most reasonable option for me. I'll keep posting though, as it will be interesting to see how and when they finish now.

3 hours ago, Totemic said:

That sucks man. I've had so many issues with timers in the past that I simply don't use them anymore, and I'm my plants timer. Means I need to be home at certain times daily without fail. 

It does a bit :) But at least now I know what is going on. My main goal with entering the competition was to learn more. Between the fertilizer and this its been more than worth it for me. So I'm chilled.

Thanks everyone :)

Update: Week 6 of flower  (mechanical failure )

I've still been checking for light leaks / timing issues on and off. Today I had some time and removed the timer to give it a proper test, and  mechanical failure...

My lights are supposed to be on from 21:00 for 12 hours. But it looks like there is an issue with at least the pins between 20:00 and 21:00.
Which means that effectively I've had lights on for 13 hours instead during flower. 

I think this pretty much screws up the comparison with everyone else in the competition. So I think I'm going to pull out.  (@420SA how do I make that official?)
I'm obviously miffed but things break... Between my fertilizer issues at the start and this its been a bit bumpy but I'm still very happy with what I've learned, so all good.

@420SAI'd like to keep posting updates, what is the best option. Closing this and linking to a new grow diary?

@TotemicFYI disregard my long flowering time in your feedback. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction there.

Final pics then

I'll comment more when I know where I should post further updates

I'm considering moving one of the two competition plants and one other to finish flowering outside. That will give me space to flower the other three I have that are ready to be flipped

Those three in the bottom right are the other three from @totemic's 2021 Summer pack (Chocolate Gelato, Palomino. Cherry Gelato CBD). Look at the size of those leaves compared to my other mothers/clones in my clone tent. Insane.

Good luck @Batista. Please do continue to post updates, I'm interested to see how it goes 

On 7/27/2021 at 7:37 PM, donnob said:

Just a little update... we have bloom!

Looking good. Also seems to be about as far as mine are now. Good news

Nice pic :) 

On 7/28/2021 at 2:37 PM, Pants said:

So finally, after 3 weeks they are flowering.

Yay :) Yeah seems to be very much on the same timeline as my two

Update: Week 5 of flower 

The plants are getting pretty big now. Flowers are starting to come along as well.

I'll try get a few pics of these two outside in the sun tomorrow morning if possible. Hard to see the full plants like this

Update: Week 4.5 of flower 

Ok, quite a bit more happening in few days since the last photo

@TotemicI cant see any light leaks... With my lights on full, and all other lights off I cant spot any signs of light coming out or under the tent. Ideally I'd climb in the tent and do it that way round too, but its a bit tricky with the raised floor. Perhaps I'll try make a plan this weekend.

I've also check the timer and it seems to be working fine, no accidental on periods. And when I randomly check during the day its always off during the times I'd expect.

I wont rule issues out completely, light can be sneaky. I'll keep looking, but nothing obvious at the moment 

3 hours ago, Totemic said:

I'm trying to understand why the genetics are doing that in your space... 

I'll check for light leaks tonight if I can. But also wondering if it could be related to the cold? 
My grow room is in the garage and its been pretty cold in the lately. Probably 13-23 most days, with a few dips to 12 and peaks to 25 (maybe). 

Odds are its me, but checking anyway :) 

1 hour ago, Totemic said:

Something must be up with your environment to do with light... Perhaps a light leak or the light cycle is too long? 

I'm on 12/12 so the cycle should be ok. Light leaks are always a possibility despite what I've done to prevent them. So if you are worried I think I'll go double check everything (including the timer) and see if I can find any problems.

Thanks for the help 

Update: Week 4 of flower 

First signs of pistils :). I thought they'd be a bit further along by now, but at least they are looking really healthy.

And some pics to show scale, quite a burst of growth over the last week.

The issues I had at the start seem to be entirely resolved now, though its probably why the plants are not as far along as some now. Still its been really great to see them recover so well.

One thing I forgot to mention when I repotted. I also repotted some of my mother plants for the first time in a long time. It was amazing to see the difference between the roots in fabric pots vs plastic. The plastic ones were all root bound, the fabric pots showed almost no signs of it, nice solid root balls all the way though. I know that is the theory but fun to see :)

Hope everyone and their plants are surviving the cold this week

Update: Week 3 of flower 

Not much to say this week. Its been really cold, as low as 12 in the tent, plants are still looking healthy and growing well. I'm pretty sure there will be pistils to take pics of by next week

17 hours ago, PsyCLown said:

I always use a wetting agent when I spray, only exception is when I spray cuttings.

Which wetting agent are you all using?

1 hour ago, DamDave said:

Live and learn hey. Is it weird that I'm really enjoying this challenge though.

No, that is great, it is such a good opportunity to learn. I'd do whatever you think would help you learn the most. And I'm sure that everyone will keep watching long after the competition so you don't have to worry about feedback later on either.

Update: Week 2 of flower 

I moved to larger pots and did a bit of cleanup of the leaves. The two remaining plants are looking good, most of the signs of nutrient deficiency are sorted now. 

Its pretty cold at night though at times, which is not ideal. But I'm happy enough with how they are doing so I'm not going to worry about that too much for now.

I've started using the GHE FloroCoco ferts. Its a bit too soon to tell, but lets see how they do. However after figuring out what was going on with the hortimix I've also noticed a big improvement with my mother/clone plants. 
As @CreX says above the GHE is a lot more expensive than hortimix. I'll also only be using it during flower and after I have an idea of how far its going to go I'll decide if I'm going to stick with it. Perhaps only use it for special grows. I'm wanting to to a perpetual grow so I'm concerned it may end up being unnecessarily expensive. But we shall see.

(I'll use a ruler in the next photos. hard to judge scale here)

Yes

Wow flip day arrived quickly! I switch the tent over to 12/12 (21:00-09:00) with T2 and T3. T1 is still lagging and has been moved to the clone tent.

 Some more testing with the mixing looks good. I'll look at how cost effective GHE is when the bottles arrive, I'm considering continuing to use hortimix for the clones + mothers. They are all looking fantastic, its a pity that they are not the competition plants. Perhaps I should show the two going into flower what they look like to create some envy...

I did tiny bit of trimming this morning, just trying to keep things even before the stretch.

There are a couple of signs of nutrient issues in a couple of the leaves. I'm very surprised that I've not seen that until now given the nutrient/precipitation issues I've been having. I expect this should not get much worse now that I have a good idea of what is going on and the upcoming nutrient switch.

On 6/29/2021 at 8:16 AM, highchome said:

I've bleached them and will try a new res later this week to see. 

I mixed a full batch again, giving the silicon several hours to dissolve first and as soon as I added the A mix in the water still went cloudy. Then I remembered that when I purchased the new silicon at the beginning of the year there was a not about it on the hydroponic.co.za. I just checked at its still there "As from mid October 2020, we have witched to a new supplier of Silicon Plus...".
 

So I think its reasonable to assume that the new supplier's silicon is reacting with the A due to some difference in some way and that has been the actual issue. Possibly with some bacterial issues as I mentioned above. I should then be ok using only the A+B+MPK from now on.

However I've decided to give GHE FloraCoco a try in the near future, thanks for the push @PsyCLown:) I've still got some other plants in hydro outside, I'll continue using hortimix there. I'll note in an update here when I switch these plants over to GHE

Update: Week 7 of veg 

I've been trying to see what combination of the nutrient mix was causing the white precipitate. So far nothing . I'll keep those for a bit longer to see if anything changes. I'm beginning to wonder if it was not just the silicon that I had not let stand for long enough before mixing in the A+B.
Then the cloudiness a few days after the mixing could simply be a bacterial bloom. I usually clean out the res, but I've not been cleaning the airstones. This could be an issue as they are ideal places for bateria to grow. I've bleached them and will try a new res later this week to see. 
Feels like some progress at least, seems unlikely its a bad batch of nutrients at this point :)

The plants are looking good, filling out nicely now. T3 is still the smallest of the three, so I think I'll keep that for clones and only flower the other two.

14 hours ago, PsyCLown said:

When I tried Hortimix I kinda just did my own thing and used their chart as a rough guide.

Used my EC pen to get more accurate dosing as well

Yeah, same. I found using an EC meter was simpler and more accurate that trying to stick to their schedule. 

14 hours ago, PsyCLown said:

I'm using GHE now and don't see myself moving away anytime soon. It's effortless, just works and oh so easy to dose.

That sounds like its worth looking at then. Thanks

Perhaps this needs a new thread... but I'll ask here for now.

1. Are you using the FloraCoco range?
2. Just the three (grow + bloom + micro?) or did you go with the six?
3. Are you mixing just enough for a day's watering or do you keep a small res? 
4. Are you following their chart or again using that only as a guide?
5. I assume that the FloraCoco ones follow the Flora series chart https://edge.generalhydroponics.com/www/uploads/20210121184300/FloraSeries-Basic-Feed-Charts.pdf, I don't see a coco specific one. Seems like they should

Time machine?