Shane's 2016 sort-of small grow log...

Pulpiteer · Mar 7, 2016

It's great to see you doing a glog again!
I just loved the tomato can hole cutter. That was wonderful!

And look at you all high tech with the led's and hydroponics! Nice set up. I'll enjoy watching what happens!

stc3248 · Mar 8, 2016

Trident chilli said:
Nice set up .... looking forward to seeing some roots ... all the best for a great season

Thanks!!! Soon...very soon the roots will be ready.

OCD Chilehead said:
Wow!! You've been very busy Shane. I too have grown many years. This past couple of years I've been starting some plants in my Aerogarden's. I was amazed the rate they grow. I'm starting all my starts in the Aerogarden's and transferring to soil. I'm trying to gather parts for a LED Cob build. I'll build something like you've built and be able to start everything at once. Here is a pic of some plants I started around three weeks ago. Just put them in soil a couple days ago.

Good luck and thanks for sharing.

Chuck

image.jpg

Very nice Chuck! Can't deny the results for sure! I have just begun putting peppers in there this week, but I'm seeing some crazy results with lettuce and Bok Choi thus far. I am trying to figure out a hydro seed starting method for next season...pics to follow.

Jeff H said:
Looks like it has been a couple weeks since I stopped by. Things are looking great. Love the hydro set ups you have going on. I'm doing some of that this year myself but I am limiting it to Herbs and lettuce that I can conveniently grow in my flood table. Start them in the aero garden and move them to the flood table.

The lettuce is doing very well so far...I put some in soil and some in the hydro setup from the same starts and the Hydro plants are at least twice the size already. I will have to post a few pics this weekend.

Pulpiteer said:
It's great to see you doing a glog again!
I just loved the tomato can hole cutter. That was wonderful!

And look at you all high tech with the led's and hydroponics! Nice set up. I'll enjoy watching what happens!

Andy!!! So glad you stopped in! This season is looking up for sure! Almost "gang's all here" Still missing a few key players. Your grow looks crazy over on your glog!!!

stc3248 · Mar 8, 2016

So I added this adjustable aquarium thermometer to one of my hydro setups for seed starting...

Needed to add a couple makeshift domes because the top of the rockwool was only getting up to abour 73 degrees...after the domes they are 81 which is the same as the water temp and not quite 4 days later...

Boom...Next season I plan to do a larger scale version. These are 3" net pots which means I can just move the whole net pot to its new hydro home once I am done germinating it.

Also transplanted a couple of the Farmer's Market Jalapenos Jamie sent me into the same hydro station.

Two other store bought Jalapenos went into an outdoor DWC...on the left is a Mammoth Jalapeno and on the right a Mucho Nacho.

Still got some in soil too...

BBG7 X PDN (Meatfreak)

MOA (JW)

Primo X

Devil's Brain (Romy6)

Yellow BBG7 (Meatfreak)

That's all for now!!!
Shane

chocolatescotchbonnet · Mar 8, 2016

Very nice grow! I like the cheap hole saw!

N8thaniel · Mar 9, 2016

The one thing I hate about hydro is the noisy air pumps.

This is an exciting thread for sure!

I see you have 2 mars11 and what are the ufos?

meatfreak · Mar 9, 2016

Somehow I missed this one, good luck this season Shane. Looks great already and love the setup. Good to see your growing out some stuff from me :cool:

The Reaper x BBG7 and BBG7 x PDN are not mine though, those are crosses that Jason made (GA Growhead). Think the 7 Pot Mustard is coming from me to.

stc3248 · Mar 9, 2016

chocolatescotchbonnet said:
Very nice grow! I like the cheap hole saw!

Hey Joe! I am all about doing more with less! I guess I have been in the military too long!

N8thaniel said:
The one thing I hate about hydro is the noisy air pumps.

This is an exciting thread for sure!

I see you have 2 mars11 and what are the ufos?

Thanks N8! The grow tent is in a room that we don't hang out in...plus the tent does a pretty good job of containing the noise. The LED fans, my circulation fans and the pumps can't be heard outside that room. 2 Mars is right and the two UFO's are cheap ebay 150w (probably only pulling 90w) knockoffs...they are more red than the Mars, which was unexpected, but I think will make a nice compliment for when they start fruiting. Very cheap though I paid $93 for a pair! I am also supplementing with 3 23w 6500k CFL's in clamp fixtures...may add more of those later on.

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

meatfreak said:
Somehow I missed this one, good luck this season Shane. Looks great already and love the setup. Good to see your growing out some stuff from me The Reaper x BBG7 and BBG7 x PDN are not mine though, those are crosses that Jason made (GA Growhead). Think the 7 Pot Mustard is coming from me to.

Hey Stefan! Ahh....maybe Jamie got the seeds from you...which you got from Jason??? Anyway I will go back and update that for sure thank you for clearing that up! The 7 Mustards had very good germ rates...but tiny cotys and slow out of the gate...now that they have some true leaves forming they're picking up some steam! Does Jason have a glog this season? Haven't seen him around...

Thanks for stopping in everyone! Here are a few pics I didn't post yesterday...

Here's one of the 3 Seven Pot Mustard's from you Stefan!

Another MOA...

Hard to make it out among all the other greenery...but this is a 2 year old Cap 1530 from Pr0digal_son

Current list of plants...
UBSC (Romy6) 3
7 Mustard (Meatfreak via Romy6)
Devil's Brain (Romy6) 2
Yellow Bubblegum 7 (??? via Romy6) 1
BBG7 x PDN (Ga Growhead)
Reaper x BBG7 (Ga Growhead) 1
P Onore (Pr0digal_son) 1...but it had fused coty's and may not make it.
Orange Primo (Romy6) 7ish???
Primo X (Me) 3
Brain Strain 2
Charapita Yellow 1
Heritage Big Jim 3
Big Jim 3
MOA Scotch Bonnet (Romy6) 2
Jalapeno 4 (2 from Romy6 and 2 store bought)

Thanks for looking in folks!!!
Shane

Devv · Mar 9, 2016

Wow! Just Wow!

I'm in love with what you're doing here.

Do you feel like a kid in a candy store????

Talk about taking it to the next level :onfire:

I'll be learning from you for sure.

Good luck and keep it green!

Scott

stc3248 · Mar 10, 2016

Devv said:
Wow! Just Wow!

I'm in love with what you're doing here.

Do you feel like a kid in a candy store????

Talk about taking it to the next level

I'll be learning from you for sure.

Good luck and keep it green!

Scott

Thanks Scott!!! I just hope you're not learning what NOT to do. :pray:

We shall see...and all lessons are worth learning I guess!!!

A couple more popped this evening including 1 SB7J!!! Had a really hard time getting them to pop the few times I tried to grow them. This is the very first one so I am super stoked. So many very cool new varieties but that one and the UBSC (wasn't that from Brandon?) are very exciting to me.Heck...those two crazy BBG7 crosses too... :dance:

First year with MOA bonnets...grown many other bonnet types but never the one and only! Two grow challenges this season...Peruvian Serlano for Jamie and Kevin's OG grow down for the tallest plant. The other is the biggest jim competition. For that one it is the largest Big Jim pod, with a side challenge of THP growers vs a Facebook pepper group for a team challenge. Should be fun and it is open to anyone that wants to join that is growing Big Jim or Heritage Big Jims.

Thanks again for stopping in!
Shane

Trippa · Mar 10, 2016

Exciting things for the new season ahead bro!! Looking forward to it ... Best of luck ... :cheers:

millworkman · Mar 10, 2016

SHANE! Looking great buddy.

stc3248 · Mar 12, 2016

Trippa said:
Exciting things for the new season ahead bro!! Looking forward to it ... Best of luck ...

Whatup Trippa? I am knee deep into some stuff I know almost nothing about! Gonna be fun and educational for sure!

millworkman said:
SHANE! Looking great buddy.

Thanks Noah! Glad you found this! I'll need all the input I can get on all this new crap!

So one pic and one video for now of some of what I worked on today. I am wanting to convert my swimming pool to a pond/aquaponic system...on a very big scale. I decided to go small to start...

Did the best I could to replicate a couple auto-siphons I've seen online...I made some minor changes to the main design I was following but by no means deserve any special credit for this design...

This is just a test operation in a small tote I found...

I have already mounted it into a new larger tote and it seems to be working well. The small pump I have right now has a hard time getting the siphon started, but I have a larger pump coming. I will snap a few pics of the setup and the fish that will be feeding the system tomorrow.

Thanks for checking in!
Shane

stc3248 · Mar 13, 2016

So here is the new aquaponic sysstem...

Two aquarium...a 10 gallon on the left and a 20 on the right. The fish are housed in the 20 gallon. The water is pumped up from the 10 gallon into the grow bed...

I built and tested both the "auto-siphon" U siphon design above and a bell siphon. They both work equally well!!! I left the bell siphon in there for now. The "media guard" is a 1# nursery pot and the "media" is lava rock.

Here is the "bell" part of the bell siphon 2" PVC with a cap. The slots cut in the end allow water to flow in to create the siphon and then also allow air in to break the siphon once the water level drains to the top of them...then it fills again...then empties...you get the picture.

Here is the down pipe, 3/4" pipe with a 1" adapter to widen the mouth.

Here is the outflow pipe...which empties into the 20 gallon tank. 3/4" that narrows to 1/2" toward the end. Going from the 1" opening to 3/4 then to 1/2 makes it easier to form the suction necessary to get the siphon to work with a minimal flow rate.

Here are the ends of another U-siphon that keeps the level of the 2 tanks close to the same. The shorter leg is in the 10 gallon tank...with both legs equal the 2 tanks don't equalize due to the difference in volume. This completes the circle...then it is pumped back into the grow bed to repeat the cycle.

3 of the 4 fish in the system...I will add more as the system starts to show signs that the system is working. It can take a little time for the beneficial bacteria to start breaking down the ammonia produced by the fish waste into usable nitrites and then nitrates the plants can use...

The plants are some iceberg type lettuce and a couple Bok Choi cabbage. I will probably have to give them a few weak foliar feedings to keep them healthy until the system can provide their nutes.

Meanwhile, this volunteer unknown cross (very sweet and pretty damn hot for an annuum) does just fine in some good old fashioned soil...with some OG sunshine instead of all the synthetic stuff...

Thanks for checking in...if anyone wants a more detailed play by play of how this stuff works or can be built please let me know! Hope you all had a great weekend!
Shane

chocolatescotchbonnet · Mar 13, 2016

cool setup! I've been looking in to using compost tea for my NFT hydroponics system. any ideas?

edit: using rain water

PaulG · Mar 14, 2016

Going like gangbusters, Shane! You have some great projects going on.

Can't wait to see a swimming pool sized aquaponics system :party:

Devv · Mar 14, 2016

Great work Shane!

I'm sure you're loving it, new adventures are what keeps us young. I'll be following

millworkman · Mar 14, 2016

Ambitious, but I would love to see the pool turned into a HUGE aquaponics setup. Floating rafts of lettuce and pumps out to beds of everything else. Cant wait dude.

Pulpiteer · Mar 15, 2016

Man I love this idea with your pool...
I've not put a lot of time learning aquaponics, but I'm really curious as to how it's done. I love the concept. Thanks for taking us on the ride!

stc3248 · Mar 17, 2016

chocolatescotchbonnet said:
cool setup! I've been looking in to using compost tea for my NFT hydroponics system. any ideas?

edit: using rain water

Very nice! I would be lying if I said I knew any better than you about that. I am thinking about adding an NFT section along with the other stuff I have going on. I have watched a few videos comparing traditional Nutes Vs AACT for DWC systems...and the Nutes win out each time. I think if you added an airstone and a few goldfish to your rainwater container you may do better? Make sure you let me know how it works for you!

PaulG said:
Going like gangbusters, Shane! You have some great projects going on.

Can't wait to see a swimming pool sized aquaponics system

Lol...gangbusters...not so much. Just like trying new crap and learning new things

millworkman said:
Ambitious, but I would love to see the pool turned into a HUGE aquaponics setup. Floating rafts of lettuce and pumps out to beds of everything else. Cant wait dude.

Hey Noah...I can't wait either, but my wife sure can! I doubt I can pull of the lettuce rafts without some sort of aesthetics appeal...which I will have to work on. Debating on fish type...Tilapia are the go-to for most folks, but I am really thinking about doing Channel Catfish instead. Both have a fast growth rate, but the cats should be less picky about temperature. I think I will also keep the Jacuzzi which is attached as a nursery area for adolescents and more gold fish. We shall see. Don't want to get too ahead of myself.

Pulpiteer said:
Man I love this idea with your pool...
I've not put a lot of time learning aquaponics, but I'm really curious as to how it's done. I love the concept. Thanks for taking us on the ride!

Hey Andy...I have been researching like mad trying to figure it out myself. The basic cycle is: Fish produce ammonia which bacteria convert to nitrites...then nitrates which the plants pick up as nitrogen. So the fish feed the plants and the plants clean the water for the fish. The only thing that you add to the system is fish food. One of the beauties of the system is that overfeeding usually causes the water to become toxic and kills your fish. With this system the leftover food is added to the available nutrition for the plants.

Here is a short(ish) video of how it works...

Thanks for stopping in!!! I need to actually update you all on my pepper plants...which are doing very well.
Shane

Devv said:
Great work Shane!

I'm sure you're loving it, new adventures are what keeps us young. I'll be following

Almost left you out Scott! The new adventures may do that...but my kids and the new bootcamp graduates age me twice as fast to make up for it!

millworkman · Mar 17, 2016

Dude, catfish is the bomb. Seriously. And just paint the styrene foam floats for lettuce. Whatever she wants, pink=done, purple=done, green...well just wait for the algae to set in.

Are you home for this whole season?

Do the tanks not get too hot?