I was using some old school POSes without that ability but fuck that would have made life so much easier. I ended up dropping temp by about 15 degrees to low 70s/low 60s at night, decreased co2 and knocked off 2 hours off the cycle and it started the process fast enough for me to feel comfortable cutting in a day or two after switching it up. I think if I can get used to the nuances with this type of feeding this will be quite the new method. Totally by fucking accident, too but now there’s parameters I can copy like a shitty student sitting next to the A+ nerd…
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I have been playing with dry backs for a year or so now but really with out the necessary equipment it’s all guess work. I was letting them ride the line of wilting in veg and was seeing some decent lateral growth but have been over watering in flower from what I’m seeing here I cannot achieve with hand watering
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we bought moisture meters (bluelab bluetooth ones) and have been metering at least 400 flowering plants a day. we grow in #7 hard pots, probably 6.5+ gals of coco and perilite mix.
electronic sensors are awesome but all have different levels of accuracy, i would absolutely NOT trust sensors to be accurate to within a 10% moisture reading.
the tried and true method has worked far more accurately, lift pot and determine weight… HA. this is so low tec but is faster and more accurate than probing our pots, especially or those of us who have been lifting pots for a decade.
if i spent a half mil on sensors for every single pot in my room (and then for every room) i might start getting data that i could “trust” to make decisions on drydowns.
just a note, our plants drink every 2-3 days while in flower, and 3-4 days in veg depending on how close to transplant they are. we apply 3-3.5 gals of watergift to the pots. We run HPS in flower, 60,000watts per room. Our plants should be between 2500G-3500G wet 3/4-1LB dry (strain dependent as always).
Running less substrate with higher frequency drydowns and less watergift per feed is a totally different animal.
Watch your calendars and watch your plants, make informed decisions according to past experience and current conditions. just having sensors wont make anyone hit 4-5 a light.
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Thos are nice numbers seems a bit long of a time To go between watering but I’m in a smaller pot same substrate mix tho.
Timing is definitely crucial thats where the data seems to be handy, I have seen a different hand held moisture meter I’m not sure of the name looked expensive.
I saw @RockSteady get the new troll master a while back how’s she doin for you I know you like that data
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I used to do this and it’s a bitch on that scale.
Let me know if you guys ever decide to go hydro. It’ll save you so much time and stress
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I’ve been running coco in 2g pots and multi feeding up to 7 times a day. Analytics and pot moisture data would really make this system shine. A ppk system from what I’ve seen really keeps the rootzone at that perfect moisture level.
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coco is an inert substrate and thus already Hydro?? do you mean DWC?
we are pretty happy with our whole setup, not much i would change at all.
coco is also forgiving so we feed all 200 plants in each room at once, sometimes split the room into two groups if we have some cultivars that dry down a little slower/faster than the other group. we try and run similar size cultivars in the same batch in each room.
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Not trying to pitch a different way of doing things. Just saying that hand watering plants is time consuming and expensive. Especially if you have to pick them up.
You gain a lot of freedom to handle other shit when the plants get watered automatically.
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Are you in Oklahoma?
Oh man I would not want to have to hand water 60 light rooms
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Pretty much the same. I had a different system I ran for smaller veggies but when it was time to transplant them they got dumped out in 7’s and attached to the drippers. My buddy saw them one day and freaked the fuck out thinking they were about to drop but the girls were sticking straight up praying and looking good. I have no complaints about the health after doing this in both cycles, fucking SICK results. This is probably going to be my regular way of doing things because it seems like i’ve happened into the perfect timing for the pumps and such and considering the drippers control how many gallons per hour it’s easily interchangable. Fucking love it.
I was a caveman. But then I saved money on my car insurance.
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Forgive me if this is a stupid comment/question, but I haven’t seen anyone talking about root growth (unless I missed it).
If your pot or cube is stacked with roots, obviously your dry down would be much faster than less root growth. so would it be best to keep your containers smaller for this method and really get close to the point of being root bound before you hit flower? Is there a sweet spot?
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By the time you flip you should have decent enough root mass that it’s kind of all the same. Overall the root growth should scale with the pot size you’re running at the current moment so you don’t get rootbound and have to do all that voodoo root breaking shit to get it back on the right track. Good question, but with proper foresight isn’t an issue. I place my drippers in the middle of the rootmass-ish without hurting any roots at an angle about 1 inch in so it can sort of bloom out if you will since coca acts sort of like a sponge.
See that’s another thing that people seem to focus the on wrongly (not saying you are, since you’re talking about roots in specific), say you water, people focus on the areas that are no mans land for roots but want to make it look uniform. With this sort of method it’s nerve wracking to an extent because if you’re one of those guys, which I was for a very very long time and was taught to be, you’re fucking up, right? But with this way you’re focusing on where the roots ACTUALLY are and they’re getting the moisture first and foremost at a rate where it’s not really drowning it. I am very interested to crack into the pots at the end of this cycle to see how thick they are compared to the last one because I was pleasantly surprised last time and I only did it in the grand scheme of that one for a very short time.
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That would be great if you could post some pics of those when you do crack them. This method really has my mind going right now and I’m starting to sink into the rabbit hole lol. I appreciate the reply.
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No problem at all, bro. If you’re asking questions like that you obviously care enough to level up your knowledge! We get sidetracked by these small things that we seem to perceive are more important than what really is. I am an extremely old school no bullshit no tricks grower but this is effective enough that it’ll probably be my regular routine from now on
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Day 14 in flower, 18 day veg , been running temps at 75- 80 during the day I’m lacking the mini split to keep it that warm at night obviously I don’t want fluxuations higher then 10 degrees I really don’t want any flux at all but I gotta work with what I have. it dips as low as 65 that’s definitely a draw back , humidity sways from 62 to as high as 81 my thought behind running high humidity is the surface temp on the leaf isn’t hitting the same numbers as an hps set up. also lacking c02 I had to get new burner for my titan.
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Sling blade and Romulan on the left
Gelato and Mendo Breath on the right
That room also has 2 gavita 1600s and 2 model Hs if anyone wants to see a side by side
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How many plants per room?
Words to grow by from a wise man.
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Bro they look beautiful! Great job!
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The new trollmaster setup is greaaaattttt way overkill for my personal 12 plant caregiver grow; but you know what they say; ain’t no kill like overkill. I like having my room automated as possible; I’m never home; I trust this setup enough to leave for weeks at a time to consult and license tek out; it’s nice being able to see parameters for everything even when I’m on the other side of the country. thankful for my partners back in MI who pop in once every few days to make sure the joint hasent burned down or my plants arent dead 
I’m a noob grower; my setup and partners carry me😜
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wasnt the 1700 1-1