Indoor kfigerm tries his best

[kfigerm]

some movement in the tent, not too much.

The three girls in the back are the ones that will be kept in the tent.
Very different growth atm, the runts shows some yellowing in the center.
I have put lights to the default grow schedule, so perhaps they get a little too much already. But I want to definiutely keep them smaller this time - no need for a monster harvest - stash still is full for long time.
I can now further optimize on spending less money and even less time on them.

The last days I just kept them moist by spraying the pyramids, so they don't become too dry to on the surface.
Today I fed them the first time with just an EC of 0.900 - should be enough as they were presoaked and should have enough nutes inside.

In the front there is the Dos Si Dos in the right pyramid - she will be placed outside once big enough and weather is better - I guess mid may.
The baby is as old as the others and I told you - no one will be left alone. She is really a lqazy little thing, nearly no root developement.
So I won't waste a pyramid on her if she doesn't catch up, but i will place her outside as well. She deserves to live, as long as she's trying to.
Not further mentioning her offspring, the cultivar doesn't deserve bad press ;-) .

Cheers!

 

[kfigerm]

Hello fellow gromies! Happy 420 everyone.
A little update for the date

the girls do their thing - today i fed them with EC 1200 until runoff.
The little one on the left decided to push roots out the bottom of the cube now, so i just let her also chugg along slowly with her sisters.
She got settled on an old reused pyramid.
Today some automatic watering will arrive. As i want to keep all with 12V and hopefully easily replacable i chose this one
rainpoint wifi at amazon
Anyone knows that thing? Any experience and hints?
It' seems not that expensive and if it works, it will be worth the money. DIY takes too much time and i want to keep it simple - KISS!
To prevent problems with the height of the water column and even distribution, each plant (3) will get her own - that makes it a little more expensive in the beginning, but makes all more predictible and flexible.
Once that is set up, i'll go for a small container that catches the runoff of all three and a syphon pump, to recirculate all runoff immediately to the reservoir.
If that works out i will gain another 10cm more headroom for the ladies to grow.
There are plenty of pumps for caravaning availabe, just have to pick one that fits the 6mm pipes and is small but powerful enough.
If someone has some advise, please feel free to share it with me.

Cheers and have a puff extra today!

 

[kfigerm]

Hello guys,
today i was busy - postman brought some stuff to integrate.
As told above, the three automated pumps arrived.
The water in and outlets look very delicate and may be very soon clogged. I will have to watch that. Everything else looks OK, no metal, solid devices and a lot of parts to adjust waterflow.
Chinese quality, but what do we expect. We all rant about chinese stuff, but no one here builds locally what we need.
So here is what it looks like now

ant the res container now has the pumps attached

each one marked to identify them for manual handling.
Now i have to narrow the best schedule and feed times/cycles once they are working automated. The pumps are said to pump 30l/h, so to deliver 1l it should be around 2 mins - for starters i set it to 2:30min...but that's just an initial setting and will be adjusted to reality.
You see water on the floor, but that's just because all fell over while installing. everything is sealed and OK.
The right button on each device is for manual on/off switching, all the other stuff is done via app.
The setup was easy, but the automation is not too intuitive. I have an interval on a group schedule, but no starting time. But setting up the single devices , you can set proper times. But thats just software.
The devices itself look OK, except the very narrow water in- and outlets. I guess I have to watch out for some pipe cleaning amendments to my res..what do you recommend guys?

Once all runs and i trust that stuff, i will move over for a bigger reservoir container and will head to even more days off.
In May i will visit London for a couple of days, that will be the first live test.

Cheers! and still happy 420!

 

[kfigerm]

Hi all,
a very wet and cold week has passed here and the first days of the networked-waterpunps is OK.
The programming is a little couriuos - if you schedule a group, the group data stay empty/zero, you have to check each device for next run, and such stuff, but it works.
And soldering around and programming an arduino is for others, not for me. So do these things work and are worth the money? Too early to say, but it looks promising.
If anyone has a a better DIY to sell - go market it, I'll buy! But this was the only thing i found that fited to usb/12v charging and network cvontrolled stuff. But I guess it relies to much of the cloud and one day will stop working, when the cloud has a problem.

The ladies themselves develop very differently. While the runts is leading, the scc is smallest - had that vice versa before, but i don't care.
The more of light they get due to reusing the last run's lighting schedule for late flower from start gives me some calmag splotches and some stressed plants. They will work that out.
They now sip on 7-6-0-4 of my adapted nute mix - EC 1300, PH swings 5.8-6.0

I guess I have not more than 3 weeks to put the two in the front outside in the garden, before it will be too crowded in there. So lets hope for warmer weather here. The smalles one has grown massive roots in the pyramid - it may well/still be some day she catches up.

Next week will be topping time.
Cheers!

 

[Bob's Auto's]

Cool pumps! And even freakishly affordable bro!
Was thinking about building something to automate watering, but this kind of device would do just a-ok

 

[kfigerm]

hi @Bob's Auto's - We'll see if it all works out and if they are woth it. I hope the cloud and programming will work properly once i understand it - i set it to run daily in the evening but for some reason it also runs in the morning. idk, perhaps some kind of scheduling problem, cos the group schedule is not visible and perhaps that differs from the setup of the (single) devices.
Still some mystery there atm.

But also "handwatering" is now easier, cos i don't have to reach to every plant with the tube like before. And because every plant has her own pump and the same waterflow, it is really predictable what each plant gets - no messing with tube heights, or pressure loss.
I kept the tubes long enough to be able to rearrange the ladies and even take them out of the tent without removing them from the pyramid.
For now I think it will be OK, but i fear, that one day i trust them, the tubes become clogged.

Cheers!

 

[Bob's Auto's]

And because every plant has her own pump and the same waterflow, it is really predictable what each plant gets - no messing with tube heights, or pressure loss.

I was first thinking about using a perestaltic pump, for that reason. This way I could measure the amount of water I gave to the plants. But a better variable to know is how wet the soil is. So I'm going to "marry" a ESP12 device to a inductive moisture sensor and use that as input variable to open a valve/run the pump.

hope the cloud and programming will work properly once i understand it - i set it to run daily in the evening but for some reason it also runs in the morning. idk, perhaps some kind of scheduling problem, cos the group schedule is not visible and perhaps that differs from the setup of the (single) devices.

At page 28 you can find the explanation on how to set the 'automatic watering mode'.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0612/6292/1970/files/RainPoint_WiFi_Water_Tank_Pump_Timer_IK10PW-User_Manuals.pdf

 

[kfigerm]

@Bob's Auto's thanks - of course i have got the manual and read it. I have also found my mistake - there was a scene set, which was active and i forgot - that scene was additional to the schedule. As so often, the problem was in front of the device
for your moisture meter - there is also a rainpoint solution with wife - look for
RAINPOINT WiFi Soil Moisture Sensor for 2.4GHz WiFi Irrigation Computer, Accessories for Plant Sensors, App Control
also for the integrated tech not too expensive if you don't need to many of them.

 

[kfigerm]

another week has passed and there was a holiday yesterday here. The weather gets better and warmer now at last.
The girls in the box do their thing. This time they grow very different.
I was trying to save some nutes, but quickly recognised that too little is not good - combined with forgetting to put the mg mix in, things went wrong really fast on the fast growing runtz.

you see the big lower fans very fast dried out and have these splotches now - missing mg and too much light/growth combined.
This is the runts that outgrows the others this time and took off great. The last runts weren't that fast at this stage.
Having/keeping these big lower fans saved my arse another time.
As always I will keep them as long as possible to show me the direction and they do their duty as reservoirs and "ass-savers" well.

After seeing that mess on saturday morning i really acted fast and the other girls were not harmed - they are much slower growin also.
You'll also notice that the runts' growth above is not affected - all fine there.

°the "regular" planned-to-stay-in-tent girls are in the back. in the front right the dos si dos catched up, but the little one in the front left will be no more than a dwarf.
The dwarf and the dos si dos go outside as soon as the waether stabilizes above 20°C.
I don't know how to keep an even canopy yet.The growth is so different this time it will be hard.
Also the automated feeding is still a hard task, because they drink so differently. The smallers are fed 2 times a day 3.5 minutes with these pumps, the runts needs two times 6 min to have runoff. I have to find a way (syphon pums) to feed them with more runoff with recirculation soon, i guess.
The nute mix is still the same, but EC 1300 again and that's fine for all now.
Cheers!

 

[kfigerm]

Hi guys and gals,

today is day 29 and some development is going on.
The runts took the light schedule very well and is the tallest girl now at 62. the mxo and the scc are about 30 cm and they reacted to the light stress as intended - they grow smaller.
The two late babies do well also - the dos si dos surprises with overtaking the scc and mxo - shes at 45 cm.
The little dwarf still is there and goes slowly at 20cm now

and the 3 showed sex at last yesterday

so i decided to switch nute mix to NPK 8-6-12 (4-5-5-4 of mix ratio) for the next weeks.
Late, but the ladies took their time to show sex this time - perhaps also a result of the light schedule.

Due to the size of the runtz i have to decide other than before what plant goes into the garden - the runtz and the dwarf...the other three do better for an even canopy.
But the weather is still not good enough so it'll be crowded in there for a while.
Except that all goes as intended and the watering also goes smooth with those new pumps. The runts drinks like hell and gets fed two times a day 9 minutes, the others twice 7 minutes. The dwarf and the dsd are hand watered.

So we are near half and the most boring part is over, now we head into the stretch and with all the tech I'll try to keep it boring.

Cheers my mates of the house of have-a-puff (just watched harry potter and my stoner brain made this up an i laughed my ass off, but no one else )!