BrayneGro's Aquaponic Grow

You don’t want us to help you when we see a problem? @BrayneGro Ok bro it’s your grow. @Donaldj you can disregard, he is all set!

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All good buddy I was pretty sure he had things handled I am under educated in Aquaponics :wink: I will be watching with interest but would need a bigger shed to keep fish around and my plants

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@BrayneGro, I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!!!
Man thanks for doing this grow journal man! I REALLY appreciate it and am gonna soak up as much info from an aquaponics veteran as possible. So get ready for a ton of questions! Lol.

So first series of questions!
About the molasses and pumpkin seeds for iron. Do you grind the seeds and dilute the molasses? Are they added to the soil or the bed? Or both?
Do you ever use chelated DTPA iron? What are our thoughts on it?
I would love to be able to use things like pumpkin seeds and molasses. I feel like it’s more natural then dosing chelated DTPA iron.
What about things like epsom salt for mag and baked ground or baked and mixed with vinegar eggshells for calcium?
I really want to make a veg ferment and a flower ferment. If you could elaborate on ferments more that would be MUCH APPRECIATED!

The thought of transplanting from veg into the flower beds is something I’m not sure how I’d do it. Mainly how do I get all the media cleared away in the spot the pot is gonna go? Or do you just place the pot on top of the media?
I’ll stop with those “few” questions lol.
I have a ton more.
Props again man!

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I’d bet BrayneGro is one of the most aquaponic educated in this place!

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No problem man questions are welcome. That’s why I’m doing this. So for molasses, in non dual root zone, I do dilute it with water or just add in lactobacillus serum which is half molasses. The thing about this method is it’s sort of wasteful with the molasses because it’s only a quick dose and not very potent. On the plus side, the molasses causes the microbial life in your beds and root zone to explode. With my system it’s a drain away style so my beds flood and then don’t flood again for hours so I usually will do a feeding through a pump sprayer in between flood cycles and drench the root zone. With the powdered pumpkin seed I have to admit all it has done is stabilize the condition so I hit it with a pretty big dose today and watered it in to where it should be in direct contact with the roots, using some peach fermented fruit juice and wood ash for potassium to see if I can bring it all the way back around. I was adding about a tablespoon every other day and it seems to have improved some but it hasn’t made a full recovery but we shall see what she looks like tomorrow. If it doesn’t work then I’m going to probably go ahead and order some dtpa this weekend. I also started a fermentation of sorts with the pumpkin seed. I mixed the powdered pumpkin seed and lactobacillus serum 1:1 to see if I can make it more bioavailable and after about a week or so I’m going to start foliar feeding that. I never have used dtpa iron before. I actually have been wanting to get some for my system but I like to experiment with natural sources to see if I can find substitutes for things like dtpa. One product that I actually came across that I found through using for another purpose, to destress my fish, actually has a highly available form of iron is Jungle brand Aquarium salt. It doesn’t say what it contains on the packaging but I know an iron deficiency when I see it and when my plants recovered after using this product I was shocked and intrigued. I do use Epsom salt for magnesium. For calcium, I use crushed oyster shells simultaneously to keep my ph from crashing but crushed eggshells would work exactlynthe same way. As for the vinegar and baked eggshells, there is actually a Korean natural farming technique that will net you a water soluble calcium phosphate. Perfect for foliar feeding during the first couple weeks of flowering. Get your baked/ burnt eggshells and mix them with a natural form of vinegar like apple cider or brown rice and let that ferment for about 4-7 days until you stop seeing the eggshells rise and fall. The blacker the shells, the higher the phosphorus. Whiter will translate into higher calcium. Strain off the liquid after this time and you now have plant available calcium phosphate. Use @ a dilution ration of 1:1000. After the fermentation I just throw the leftover shells into my growbeds . For transplanting, I grab the whole root ball, or pot if it’s drz, with the media still attached, clear away media in the spot I’m going to put it with about an inch of media between the bottom of the root ball and the bottom of the growbed. There’s actually a technique I have seen used for transplanting in aquaponics media beds. Dude gets a bucket, cuts off the bottom and cuts a line all the way down one side of the bucket. Stick it into the bed where you are going to transplant. You can now remove all of the media from that spot and put your plant in place of it. If the plant is small enough, pull the bucket up and the media will fall into place, if it’s big, the cut down the side will allow you to pull it sideways instead of up.

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12-5-17
NF3 is doing awesome. I guess my soil food web is working overtime 'cuz I hardly have to do anything with these drz phenos. I tied her down yesterday and the canopy already looks waaaay better. I’ll probably transplant her into flowering in a few days. Fed FFJ and wood ash today.



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12-5-17
Day 2 of flower- NF2 (non dual root zone) is growing at a rate I feel my dosing isn’t keeping up with and now that we hit the stretch phase I’m going to have to make up for that margin.
Fed 4 tbsp of pumpkin seed, peach FFJ @ 1:500, and 1 tsp of wood ash today. I guess the right color doesn’t really come through in the pictures. The new growth looks better than yesterday but is still a bit yellow. Increased pumpkin seed dose by 4x today. Watered in around root zone.



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12-5-17
NF1 still doin awesome. Day 2 of flower. Gave her what will probably be the last trim she is going to get until harvest time. Got 30 grams of leaves which I will use to make a topical for pain. Nothing goes to waste.




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Thanks for the responses to questions man!
I use Recharge it has molasse and all kinds of other micorrizal fungi and beneficial bacteria.

You dont feed everyday multiple times a day between floods cycles do you? Or do you feed and drench roots just once a day?
The pumpkin seed, peach FFJ and wood ash you talk about adding every other day. You’re adding it to the planter bed?
I have tones of eggshells and pumpkin seeds and can make some some foliar feed!
I’d like to get into ferments and LABS. I made the rice wash and then the milk serum but I haven’t added an molasses to it or strained the cheese out yet. And now the cheese is getting a pink layer on the top of it…
Do i need to add the molasses in order to be able to use it as and call it LABS?
Does using fruit in the ferment give you bloom nutes like P and k?
I’m supper intrigued by living soil web. And would even like to use some bio char in my soil. And I like the idea for transplanting using a bucket! It’s kinda a pain in the ass to try and get the hydroton balls cleared away!
I have tons of saltwater and freshwater fish keeping experience and was wondering if aquarium salt would add mag like epsom salt. But iron is great too, I think I used to much DTPA and turned my tank water yellow… but the plants are still getting better and it doesn’t seem to have made anything worse then it already was. Lol.
I’m gonna be trying out a ferment soon and try making some bio char. But I need to do a lot more research before I try it.
How do you like your galaxy hydro lights? I started with galaxy hydro fixtures and ended up switching out the led’s for cob’s and reused the drivers. I like the results are whole bunch!
Do you have worms in the planter bed too?

@Indica_Dogo as far as beneficial mycos and bacteria I use the Korean natural farming method to capture the ones that are indigenous to my area. I tagged you over in a post I recently made on Korean natural farming so you can check that out a little more. I usually only feed a couple times a week and just once in between flood cycles. What I do with the pumpkin seed and wood ash is sprinkle whatever amount I’m feeding into the growbed around the roots then water them in with the water and ffj mix. With ffj you do get more flowering based nutrients and minerals like phosphorus mostly. Depending on what fruit you’re using you can get some potassium as well plus the sugars and other carbohydrates that will attract the microorganisms that will break it down and make it more bioavailable. Im experimenting more and more with dried fruits. As you know I’m using pumpkin seed right now but I guess I can go ahead and reveal that I’m drying pumpkin as well. coincidentally, the mineral it’s highest in is potassium. Pumpkins are about 91% water, 7% sugars and carbs and 1% protein and about .5% minerals. The protein will translate over into a very small amount of nitrogen while the carbs and sugars will feed the soil food web, and growbed microbes, and worms (yes I have worms in all of my growbeds btw). the minerals it has include potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, calcium, and very small amounts if iron, sodium and zinc.


EDITED: anyway, it looked like a good regular feed that i can add a couple times a week so I’m definitely going to try it. I almost have a pickle jar full of powdered pumpkin and still have lots of pumpkin still to process.
When you make your labs, you can feed the cheese curd to animals and even your fish. I would strain out the curds personally. If it’s growing a pink layer I wouldn’t feed it to anyone or anything but I wouldn’t worry about using the serum at all. To be honest the molasses is just to stabilize it for shelf storage. You can store the liquid in the refrigerator to keep it fresh or mix it with molasses and store it at room temperature. I’m thinking about making a new batch and substituting the molasses for the pumpkin powder I made that way not only will it be shelf stable due to the sugars and carbs in the pumpkin but it will also have more plant available nutrients and minerals. It will be like a super-lacto, if you will. As for the galaxy hydro lights I feel like they are great lights to get your feet wet with but don’t really produce the growth you could get from some of the more expensive lights on the market. For LED I feel like the diy kits with the cobs and the krees are the way to go short of spending hundreds on a spectrum king or some other name brand light.

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Sounds like pumpkin is a good fruit to use. I will read through your korean natural farming thread now.
Have you tried pumpkin it in your ffj?
Do you think I’d be ok to add some of the Age Old Organics brand bloom nutes to the grow bed?
I’ll post the ingredients in my thread and some updated pics.

Thanks again for taking time to answer my many questions!

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I have not tried pumpkin in an ffj. I gotta be honest again I don’t feel like ferments get everything you are actually aiming for. That’s why I have been trying out drying fruit and grinding it down to a powder then adding it to my growbed , or in my current case, allowing the lactobacillus to break down the leftover organic material and hopefully make everything more available to the plant. If you think of the physics, phosphorus, potassium or iron don’t melt or boil until they reach a really high temperature so they should all be present in the final product if I’m drying it to a powder. More reliably so then if you fermented a fruit then still had the leftover junk to throw into the worm bin or growbeds whatever. Idk. This is why I like to experiment in different ways and this is also why I thought to myself to try to turn it all the way into a powder first then try to ferment the final powder with lactobacillus serum and see how that turns out instead of doing another ferment. Anyway I feel like pumpkin is a good place to start for this since it is abundantly being wasted right now and just so happens to have a pretty decent lineup of minerals. Btw I edited the other post and also realized that behind potassium phosphorus comes in 2nd in minerals so it seems like this could have a really good chance of doing what I need it to.

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Everything looks outstanding my friend hope to see you this evening on the podcast keep up the great work and thanks for the help with @Indica_Dogo

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Your a busy man

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@Hogmaster my pleasure man. I should be on the podcast tonight. Lol I just woke up and saw I had some more questions and whatnot to reply to. The grow is going great and I’m pretty excited to finally be flowering out some cannabis again!

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They look great I will be glad when I’m done working all this overtime and get back to the podcast with you guys

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I’ll be listening to the podcast like always! Lol.
Na but thanks BrayneGro you’ve been super helpful and even more inspiring to me. I’d love to hear how your powder turns out!

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12-11-17
Bad news unfortunately. So I had an extremely costly hiccup with NF1. I guess while I was running the pump manually on what must have been on 12-8-17 I tugged on the power cord just enough to barely unplug it, so the she went a full 24 hrs with the water pump off. I went to check on her the next day, 12-9-14, and saw little to no progress since the day before and knew something was up so I checked the pump and it wasn’t turning on. I checked the cord and saw that it was slightly unplugged and my heart completely sank as soon as I saw it. It looked better this morning but just when I got off of work I saw that she finally looks like she is back on track. Still, this is going to cost me HUGE when harvest time comes. :cry::cry:


1a

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With NF2 I am still not seeing much improvement with the iron deficiency and I when I tested my ph it read @7.0 so either I tested my ph before I let the potassium, magnesium, and calcium circulate through the system or the pumpkin powder is buffering my ph up. Fast growth is still occurring but I have to get my ph corrected before I can expect the iron deficiency to clear up so I will be doing a water change on Wednesday when my new pump comes in. Going to order some dtpa as well in case it is the pumpkin powder that is pushing my ph up.

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No complaints from NF3. She’s just cruising along and begging to be flowered out already. Preflowers are coming in heavy. Might be flipping her in the next couple days.


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