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juanitos 2017

My goal this year is to make a system with minimal maintenance while also being easy to setup and process plants.
 
Getting your medium ready can be messy / time consuming with potting mix. So this year i went with coco plugs. I simply had to put them in the trays give em some water and they are ready to go. They will be easy to handle without making a mess in 3 months when i package them.
 
The biggest part of maintenance is watering / nutrients. In the past when i was smaller i just individually watered 1020 trays. While this works it is slow / can be messy. Spraying everything with misters is an option but that makes everything super humid and can affect electronics (like led strips) in the area. I have been using bottom watering for forever why not stick with that... but how?
Instead of watering individual trays.... just get some big ass trays. with a 8x4 ft tray i can bottom water 16 trays at the same time! 
 
Hauling water over there in the winter when the hose is frozen can be annoying... So in comes a reservoir. This will hold enough water for a week or more. 
 
Moving that water up into the trays can be messy / dangerous if i spill on any electronics... So in comes water pumps to pump the nutrient solution from the reservoir to the trays. and might as well put timers on them so i don't have to turn on the pumps manually..
 
Lights are controlled by a timer.
 
The heater is automatically controlled by a thermostat.
 
So there is 0 daily maintenance in this system. Just weekly maintenance of the reservoir, check tds / ph / water level and amend accordingly.
 
The only thing DIY is the supports for the trays and the led wiring. So it's easy to reproduce if i need to scale up $_$
 
= medium =
32mm coco plugs
72 ct plug trays
 
= nutrients =
hort americas hydro
ph down
great white myco
 
= equipment =
patton milkhouse heater
30a 12vdc power supplies
3014 204/m led strips
hurricane 16" fan
botanicare 8x4 lt trays
botanicare flood fittings
70 gallon res
eco water pumps
electric timers
 
= area =
~ 50 sq ft shed in my backyard
 
= vars =
biquinho
aji dulce
 
joes long
lemon drop
pimenta de neyde
sbs purple ornamental
 
thai hot

malaguetinha
cumari do para

paper lantern
MOA
west indes red
 
Scotch Brain
BBM
JPGS
chocolate moruga
trinidad scorpion
SB7J
BOC
 
+ a few other randoms
trying to keep the list smallish
 
January 19th
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January 27th
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Hey question what coco plugs do you recommend using a brand or link would be great I used rapid rooter plugs and they dry out so quick and don't work well in my experience so far.
 
I'm more excited to follow your grow than I am my own haha. Just out of curiosity is there a reason you did not participate in the growdown this year? I think you would make a great contestant.
 
G.G Allin said:
are those the same bags as last year?
yea i'm trying out reusing them.
 
i got 15 new ones as well. i can tell the difference the older ones are more broken down.compacted while the new ones have the bigger chunks are are more fluffy.
 
Hybrid_Mode_01 said:
Damn. Your grow area cleaned up good!
 
     Do you cut holes in the mulch to encourage/allow roots to grow into the soil underneath it?
nope, could do this grow on concrete, kinda a waste of the garden plot lol.

PepperAaron said:
I'm more excited to follow your grow than I am my own haha. Just out of curiosity is there a reason you did not participate in the growdown this year? I think you would make a great contestant.
lol.. I have 8 lemon drops =]
 
---
 
had some severe thunderstorm maybe a little hail? put holes in some of the leaves i was hardening off. Plants are still alive and healthy so it's ok, they dont look purty anymore tho.
 
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Congrats on selling out of plants. I don't know which is more profitable for you but that should help fund the nutes for the season at least. 
 
Jesus Jan I hate them things with a passion, if I find em I throw them over the woods at bottom of the yard ,
Your layout looks better than ever this year buddy.
Your MOA cardi seeds still the best pheno iv seen grown. I brought from you 2 years OK and always recommend.
Yard looks like your ready to rock n roll. Great work.

Sent from my VFD 900 using Tapatalk
 
sbs purple looking good
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scotchbrains, i wonder if they got accidentally crossed with paper lantern because the stems are a little  hairer than normal
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most plants are branching out 1-2 ft tall.
gotta get my trellis lines setup ASAP.
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put the tomatoes in the coco this year too my dad is interested to see if they taste like crap (like grocery store) since they are hydroponic :D i think that taste problem is from when they are picked too early then artificially ripened at the store. so these should still taste good.
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I haven't seen those grow bags before - what size are they?
 
I checked them out online and I see they have different water
holding capacities - which are you using?  Nutrients?
 
How many seasons do you think you can get from them?
 
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