I drilled my Ebb/Grow through the wall! WR and Chronic

[growtek]

Hey all. Back to try 'er again.

This is not as crazy as you might think. I welcome all comments.

I have the Ebb/Grow system and because I get return water wanted to try a new technique to keep down root zone temps.

PIC 1 I basically drilled the two water lines through the wall. There's no breaks in this flexi tube so any leaks will happen at the ends (and the ends are pretty solidly tied with plastic ties).

(pulled back to show detail)

PIC 2 This runs into the grow room and controller, bringing outside "chilled" (67-77F water regularly) to the system.

PIC 3 I made some minor modifications to the E/G. Each bucket has it's own airstone.

PIC 4 Here's the root temp monitors. In this pic the room air temps were 83F.

 

[growtek]

PIC 1, 5 Here they are under a small fluro cab at week 1. White russian the four on the left, Chronic on the right. Pic 4 White Russian Seedling closeup.

PIC 2, 6 They were undernuted in a variety of ways at transplant (Saturday). You can see how yellow they were.

PIC 3, 4 These are from Thursday. Does that make it four or five days later? Whatever, ba-hoom. The coloration, growth have all rebounded excellently. (White Russian on the left and detail pic 4; Chronic on the right).

 

[Budders Keeper]

Very cool growtek. I'm excited to see this in action. Your oxygen levels must be crazy good in that system.

 

[growtek]

Thank you Budders Keeper. Yes, from the little I know, O2 associates/dissociates very rapidly so having the stones as close to the water getting to the plant is key.

I'm posting this as a full week from transplant. After this I'll do an every Saturday update.

The growth is taking off. Tallest now at 7". The WR side (left) is really going banana's but I'm really pleased with both.

Will do my first topping at 12". I don't do LST or SCROG but will train a nice SOG using weighted sticks, nylon string and paperclips.

 

[growtek]

Here we are; got too bzzed last night and forgot to take the pic heh.


One week n' a days worth of progress


The reason there's one 'runt' is the airstone got disconnected; reinforcing how vital this little addition is.

 

[growtek]

One week update

Despite everything looking hunky-dory, trouble was brewing.

First was the front right plant started showing signs of heat stress. Since the roots were in the right temp zone I couldn't figure it out. I checked the roots and they looked discolored, but the roots always are a little discolored from the nutes.

Over literally a day and a half I watched them dissolve and slime up as shown in the first pic.

Prior to the grow I disinfected but something must've gotten missed. I also didn't put any airstones in the 55 gal res or the controller bucket, both of which have standing water. DOH!

I was up till 2 cleaning out the res, disinfecting, flushing. Then I replaced with this;

Treatment Regimen

1.5 ml/gal 35% H202*
1.5 ml/gal SM-90; also SM-90 foliar in case of systemic involvement
Discontinue Cannazyme; substitute Hygrozyme
Discontinue Superthrive (reacts with SM-90)

Nute profile (NPK and other micro/macro nutrients) at 50% strength. I also added airstones to places that didn't have 'em.

The res was changed out every 1-2 days initially. All the buckets were cleaned out. Parts that could be sterilized were (all to take down infectious burden).

The whole week I was dragging, bumming about my plants. Sometimes my life is so chaotic and stressful the only thing that brings me joy is the grow.

I read many sad stories about root rot, I was prepared to start over.

Then things turned around.

This is the best shot I could get trying to balance a plant on the bucket. 4 days after I started treatment the brown gunk is mostly gone and all the roots have nice new feathery growth (pic 2 ).

The plants have shown a great burst of growth topside.... scroll up for last week comparison.

Looking to start flower at two feet.

PS: I chopped the 'runt'. After losing the airstone and suffering this infection it just couldn't recover.

*You'll say, I can't get this strength. True. 29% is highest avail in hydro stores. Just adjust accordingly (8% higher measurement).