The Traveling Grower - The Struggle From the Road

Too funny! I would like to say I’m better, but that would be a lie. Unfortunately learning the hard way are lessons we never forget. And it’s better to have have struggled and learned than to have not done anything at all in my book.

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I’m leaving the plants alone today (I looked at them, made sure everything was running smoothly and looked okay); trying to see if I can go three days without topping them off (simulating upcoming work trips). I will check PH and PPM today (probably after my current conference call gets over).

In the mean time, I have been reading about arduino and decided to buy an arduino kit ($35 on Amazon) that comes with a bazillion sensors. I am going to try and make my own wifi enabled temperature and humidity sensor. First step is just understanding how arduino works and how the IDE works, then building some simple things to best understand how the data flows, can be parsed, etc… plus the electronics side of it. Once I figure all that out, I’ll work on adding features like WIFI, power controls, etc.

@dbrn32 you played with arduino at all?

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I went down and checked PH and PPM. It’s too early tell, but I might have finally cracked the Gold Leaf. Her PH was at 5.95 with a PPM of 729. Looks like she consumed almost a gallon of water since yesterday.

The SSH was another story. She was at a PH of 5.59 and a PPM of 930. Doesn’t look like she drank much water. I adjusted her back up to 5.81 with some PH Up and will keep an eye on her.

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No, not really. I do plc’s though, which is pretty much the fancy industrial stuff that arduino was modeled after. Not to say they’re the same or anything like that, but I can possibly help with a few aspects of it.

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I decided today I would just top off the plants with plain water. This is the first addition of water to their totes since Sunday when they each got a complete reservoir change.

Today marks the 95th day since the seeds sprouted. It marks the 32th day since the lights were flipped to 12/12. It marks the 17th day of first sign of pistils.

I didn’t check PPM and PH prior to topping off the totes. After the top off, the plants were as follows:

  • Gold Leaf: PH 5.85, PPM 667
  • Super Silver Haze: PH 5.81, PPM 927

You will recall that I set the PPMs on these plants at the following on their last complete reservoir change:

  • Gold Leaf: PH 5.85, PPM 870
  • Super Silver Haze: PH 5.79, PPM 1070

PH appears to be drifting up on the Gold Leaf now, but down on the Super Silver Haze now. I think the GL will be happy around 900 PPM next time I add nutrients, and I should probably set the SSH at 1100 again and not go up.

Here are a bunch of pics from today:

Both plants together under just my COB rail light:

An assortment of Gold Leaf pics:

A couple of Super Silver Haze pics:

The Gold Leaf is just a really pretty plant.

Also, check out my environmental numbers:

My humidity has been much better since I put the humidifier back in the basement.

Have a great day all!

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Everything looking good. If you hadn’t already, you can probably start working that cob bar down a little.

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Awesome - I was going to ask you about that today! I think the SSH would really appreciate it being closer.

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Yep, but like to go a few inches at a time and give everything about 5 days or so to acclimate and see how they respond.

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Due to the continued clawing I keep seeing on the GL, I’ve decided - with @Majiktoker’s guidance - to flush the GL’s reservoir. So I emptied it at lunch and refilled it with a Florakleen mix (10ml/gal). I PH’d the water to 6.0. PPMs are at 116. I’m going to let it do it’s thing until tomorrow, then get back on the nutrient train.

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Your girls are looking great @Bogleg. I had numerous issues with my GL, from problems with leaf curling to spider mites, which seemed to love the GL way more than the other plants. They were beautiful until they weren’t. I know the genetics are great but maybe not my cup of tea. My plants had to finally be taken down way too early and they taste awful, smoke even worse. I thought a few months curing might at least help them a little but if anything, they are worse now than they were just after being taken out of drying. Stay on top of those GLs, they are tricky ladies!! :slight_smile: :green_heart: :seedling:

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Full-ish update today since we are in the middle of trying to figure out why the plant has routinely clawed throughout this grow. @Niala is helping me figure it out, and it appears I might have too much intake and exhaust going on. I ordered an interval timer switch on Amazon and am going to set my fans to run for one minute and shut off for two minutes repeatedly and see if that will help with transpiration/humidity/etc.

Today marks the 96th day since the seeds sprouted. It marks the 33rd day since the lights were flipped to 12/12. It marks the 18th day of first sign of pistils.

This morning I replaced the water in the Gold Leaf reservoir. It is now set at 5.89 PH and a whopping 475 PPM, which is comprised of the following:

FloraMicro - 3ml/gal
FloraBloom - 6ml/gal
Liquid Koolbloom - 2ml/gal
FloraNectar - 5ml/gal
Armor Si - 2.5ml/gal

Calmag is getting delivered today, so I will add that this evening.

The PPM on the Gold Leaf tote was 159 after about 18 hours in a FloraKleen solution.

Since I was down there running the transfer pump, I figured I should try and raise up the Super Silver Haze so that the canopy is more level with the Gold Leaf. This wasn’t super easy to do, but it’s done and I don’t think I did any damage to the plant. I’ll have to keep an eye on it today as I have squeezed my heater into an even tighter spot and I need to make sure it’s not touching anything - hard to tell with the plant in there.

Anyway, after I removed all the water in the SSH tote, raised the plant, and put the water back in, it had a PH of 5.88 and a PPM of 1000 on the nuts. I left her alone and didn’t top her off with any additional water.

You can see now they aren’t exactly even, but are pretty close. I should note that I had lowered the lights about 2" yesterday, and the SSH really responded. She really opened up as a result.

I have now raised all my lights so they are more or less even at 14" above the GL canopy. Going to keep a close eye on them to determine if I need to raise them back up or not.

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@Bogleg soo sorry bro i just saw the tag and you had heat issues
Did you get that worked out ?

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I’m good for now - what I was wondering is whether or not I can drop a line from my main forced air duct, which runs right over the top of my tent. My house has zoned heating and AC (forced air) with a zone for each finished floor (first floor and second floor). I was wondering how I could tap into my forced air system to provide heated and/or air conditioned air to my tent.

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You should be able to do that no problem
Take a picture and post it for me if you dont mind let me see what tour working with
Im at work so i may need a few minutes to respond
i would take a 4 inch flex line and run it to bottom of tent @Bogleg glad your all good now
What was the issue hot surface igniter no good?

Looking good amigo!

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Apparently there is some kind of air hose that goes from a controller box that monitors the intake from outside. That little air hose has a sensor attached to it that tells the controller whether or not the furnace can vent properly, and it froze up, so the furnace stopped igniting as a safety measure. At least that’s how I understood it.

Here is a pic of my tent with the duct work going over the top of it:

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The big main over the top of the tent is the forced air out into the house. The return is a little shorter and runs side by side with it but doesn’t extend all the way to over the tent like the main does.

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So yeah pick up a 4 inch take off and some 4 inch duct youll have no issues
I wouldn’t put a line to return your whole gouse will stink lol bot that i mind the smell lol

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Have any recommendations for a thermostat driven damper? I am thinking it might be nice to have a damper that opens and shuts based on the temps in the tent…

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Let me find a link fir you brother
https://www.amazon.com/Acme-Miami-95006-Motorized-Damper/dp/B005279G1K

Something like this would work its a 6 inch tho
You should take air off side of duct fyi fir best airflow it not recommended to take off bottom of duct
I onl look quickly tho so you may be able to find it cheaper
This is spring closed so only need to be powered up to open

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I recognize that link and may yet buy one just not in fudget

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