Kratky/Cannabis growing experience

Kratky was originally designed to grow leafy greens with one growth phase.

Cannabis needs two growth phases.

Veg and bloom.

All I’m trying to do is perhaps tap some real-life experiences.

Last year I started indoors kratky then planted in pots and ground outside. Can you just add an airstone? I would rinse roots well and drop an airstone in bottom of bucket but don’t fill it as high as you normally would.

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Butch, using an airstone will surely break the whole point of Kratky by making the Ph in the solution to become highly variable over time.

One thing I’ve noticed.

Female plants seem to thrive in a stronger solution whereas males get nutrient leaf burn.

This could be a strain-specific effect.

But hands-on direct observations point to males needing a weaker solution to thrive.

My seed generating grow is extremely small scale.

In no way should anyone act on my gut-feelings without doing their own research.

Thank you for participating and sharing your experiences.

Best regards and good luck.

O’whee

Good luck to you also. I will be following this thread please let us know how you make out. I don’t think I have ever seen anyone do Kratky from start to finish with mj. I’m also interested in breeding. I tried getting some seeds from last grow but I think the pollen wasn’t viable when I used it.

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Butch, my health is not good.

This may affect my research and experiments.

However, I feel heartened that you might consider the path less travelled.

I will indeed keep you informed.

Good luck,

Jack

So sorry to hear about your health. I have been reading a great thread on another sight about using cannabis for many ailments. I have great interest in cannabis as medicine and specific strains for certain conditions. I think there is so much potential and so much research to be done.
Best of luck.

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Butch

I’m still working and researching.

Jack

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Started to explore the copyright/tradename… but gave up.

Turns out to be a timeless observation and already owned by life-it-self.

Feck

If I was young.

I’d register the domain and cater for 80% of failed growers with sympathy, online hugs and charge a monthly fee for therapy.

Art of The Steal

Increase revenues by employing aggressive direct salesman working on a commission only basis.

Developing an aggressive, outrage position that bucks the normal cultural position of tolerance, empathy and human emotions.

One thing that might stop me.

Values.

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I watched your video. Great job. Very low maintenance and they grew well. What nutrients did you use? I vegged mine with masterblend and they loved it. Stuff is so cheap too. I did some tomatoes last summer kratky and airstones. They both did extremely well. I think I will try doing an outdoor kratky this summer with a blueberry auto. My only complaint about outdoor is the solution gets sucked up fast when they get huge. I was adding 1-2 gallons a day. I’m going to grow my tomatoes in a bigger container this year and use the 5 gallon buckets for the auto’s.

Hello there Butch :smile:

I did not publish the video the boyo at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY9fXBAxze6K3kfLGHF3edg produced it.

Managed to hobble up-the-hill and through the bog to my covert grow today after 10 days sick.

Relived to find that all is fine and the plants are responding well to the stronger veg solution.

Your outdoor plan sounds good to me.

I plan to use an 84ltr storage container with 4 heavy-duty wheels for my outdoor grow:

image

My thinking container a lower profile that is easy to rotate or move under cover would be ideal for my covert grow.

I’m going to update my thread at Outdoor Grower TRYING Indoor Winter Grow with some photo’s in a couple of days and will notify you.

Good luck, be well and keep on planning.

O’wee

I will check out your thread. I strictly grow outdoors as stealth as possible. The planning never stops. I can get away with starting indoors but can’t finish inside. I have some autos and fem photos so I’m looking forward to this summer. It will be the first time I actually know what strain I will be growing. The storage totes work well. I use those for my veggies.

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Butch

Interesting article about greenhouse growing and light manipulation.

I’ll have to work on off-grid solutions to keep my nutrient tanks cool and additional ventilation in the hotter periods of the year.

Grindo: Indoor Quality, Outdoor Quantity, Greenhouse Grown

In a greenhouse, you have the ability to cultivate plants efficiently with indoor quality

From <https://ilgmforum.com/t/outdoor-grower-trying-indoor-winter-grow-2019/27458/15&gt;

I’ve used this low tech (off-grid) way of cooling a water bottle by wrapping in wet cloth and then tieing a string to the neck and swing it around and around my head to generate airflow. It does work.

Coolgardie safe

The Coolgardie safe is a low-tech food storage unit for cooling and prolonging the life of whatever edibles were kept in it. It applies the basic principle of heat transfer which occurs during evaporation of water. It was named after the place where it was invented – the small mining town of Coolgardie, Western Australia, near Kalgoorlie-Boulder. Coolgardie was the site of a gold rush in the early 1890s, before the Kalgoorlie-Boulder gold rush. For the prospectors who had rushed here to fin…

It wouldn’t take much effort to adopt such a system to my grow tent. and nutrient tank.

I need to build some kind of lightproof Venetian blind ventilation system and combine it with a fan to get the air moving inside the tent and activate the Coolgardie system.

A man with a plan

From <https://ilgmforum.com/t/outdoor-grower-trying-indoor-winter-grow-2019/27458/15&gt;

Update pictures.

2 males and 2 females. Hopefully, this will give me a stronger genetic mix for the 2 male, 1 fem Kumaoni and my best Jamaican Pearl fem.

A bad case of “end-of-grow-jitters”…

Respect to Professor Kratky.

Non-Circulating Hydroponics can produce a reasonable cannabis crop.

I made a number of mistakes during the grow and will improve and refine my techniques with my next grow.

I de-seeded my dried Komaoni and put the seed husks into a jar for curing.

Not much product.

My next grow will be all female.

On the plus side; I’ll never have to buy seeds again.

I cut and trimmed my Jamaican Pearl. She is heavy with Komaoni cross seeds.

I put 10 of the x seeds in water and paper towels to test for viability and 3 of them not only sprouted tails but tiny green leaves after just 48 hours.

A test for Komaoni Landrace seed germination rates produced 9 out of 10 seedlings which have been planted in soil.

Happy days.

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The Komaoni Landrace Sativa seeds have grown strongly in soil and will provide a benchmark for my second Hydroponics grow.

The taller plants are almost certainly male while the shorter with less node distance is sure to be females.

I know this from my previous grow.

Learning from my first Kratky grow and carrying out much more research has led me to the following conclusions.

  1. I’m a fecking slow learner and stubbornly stick with a bad plan to the bitter end.

Kratky is a viable method for growing one cycle green leafy plants. However, when growing cannabis the method does need a few tweaks and additions to take into account the two cycles of growth, veg and bloom phases.

Using a pure form of Kratky will produce a harvestable Cannabis crop. The yield will be significantly affected due to poor root growth.

The nutrient temperature must be kept between 18c - 22c (24/7) and the Ph between 5.5 and 6.5

I’m going to try a Kratky + Bubbler system as I believe this will improve root growth and produce a healthier root system and improved yield.

This smart man has published a number of experiments that coincide with my conclusion.

Good luck with your grows.

Follow on to the previous post.

I germinated a Komaoni seed and grew on in a light potting compost about 3 weeks ago. After a week, I transferred the seedling to a Kratky pot with a small bubbler. In just 2 weeks the plant has caught up with the earlier soil planted Komaoni.


Unfortunately, I used a male seed so, he’s going to get chopped.

It’s going to be an interesting few months as I’ve got a few other experiments underway or planned.

Happy days

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I’ve updated my thread at Outdoor Grower TRYING Indoor Winter Grow 2019 - #55 by jackowhee It shows how Kratky + Bubbler can improve root growth.

The soil-grown benchmark has shown remarkable growth rates in a very short timeframe.

The shovel is about 3’ 8" in height.

This means my nine soil-grown boys and girls are far and away the best performers.