Tap Water v. Water Softener Water

 Tucson city water is hard with high calcium. A salt based water softener will remove most of the calcium but the EC is higher than tap water. This AM tap water EC 0.87, softened water EC 0.92. When I ran tap water thru a ClearO2 RV filter the EC was 0.83. I'm letting a beaker of tap water sit and will test a hourly intervals to see if the Chlorine will boil off.

Bottom line Tucson tap water is on the high edge of usable EC for Cannabis. I'm trying to avoid using distilled or RO water because of the monkey motion and cost so with the new setup I'll just run a hose into the house to fill the water storage tank as needed and watch EC levels as the plants take up nutrients. When the EC goes too high to control by adding water I'll just drain the system and start over. The new system makes that reasonably easy.     

The Things You May Learn From Testing

 Being able to easily and reliably check flower for THC content has taken much of the guesswork out of what works and at times it can change what you do. Today may be one of those days.

My workflow is to dry whole until the colas feel "right" (wish I could help but after being on both sides of "right" when trimming you know when the colas feel right) then trim with a bowl trimmer. The bowl trimmer is a recent addition and the only question is; "why did I wait so long". The bud on top gets weighed, jared, and put up to cure. The trim in the bowl below was usually given to friends to make edibles.

Because testing is so easy I've started testing the bud as I trim. Today I tested flower from both the bottom and the top of the plant and was surprised to find they both tested the same 19% THC, also much better than others from this grow that all tested 11% plus or minus 1%. The real surprise came when just for grins I decided to test the trim. I didn't pick thru for buds, just reached into the middle of the pile picked up enough to fill the test vesel. The trim also tested 19% THC. One way to look at the results is instead of 2 oz of smoke the plant produced ½ lb of smoke.

The last plant of the 2023-2024 grow will be ready to trim next week. It was a much heavier flowering plant both in number and size.

I can't wait to find out what testing tells me.  

RDWC System Setup

 I cut the last plant this AM, cleaned the tent and moved a few things around then set up the new RDWC system. I wish I'd had something like it several years ago when I first started growing legal Cannabis.

Tent is still a mess but with minimum effort it will be ready for the next crop. Next up is installing the water chiller.

If the last two DWC plants from this year's grow are any indication of what will happen with better EC and temp control, four plants will supply all I and the neighbors need for a year. If not then a second grow will not be a problem.

The Artisun Technology system comes with two submersible pumps, one to recirculate the water between the grow buckets and one to empty the buckets when the water needs changing (every two weeks or sooner). Big pipes with no leak connectors (and no break connectors). Truth is as much as I would like two more buckets in my 5'X5' tent, four is a better number six would crowd things.  

If you can't tell I'm impressed with the system it answers all the questions and concerns I had about hydroponics from last years grow.  

2023-2024 Is Finished

 Empty tent, time to make needed changes:

Last two of 2023-2024 grow hanging to dry:

These last two plants may save this years crop. Up till now every plant has been underwhelming I think mostly because I didn't understand where the problems with DWC would bite you on the butt. The two biggest problems are root rot (water too hot) and EC build up. With RDWC a water chiller will fix the water temp problem.  The EC problem may not be so easy. Our house water has a basic EC of 1.0. Starting EC should be <0.35 EC and for mature Cannabis plants EC should be under 2.2 max. The two easy answers are bottled water or a reverse osmosis system. Right now I'm not sure which way to go.

I expect the next few days will involve cleaning and making planned changes to the tent. Unless something changes the next grow will start mid October once we are back from Oregon.

One To Go

 The 2023-2024 grow is truly in the short rows with just one GG4 Auto left in the tent.

Most of the stigmas are still white with maybe 5% brown. Some believe a 60% white 40% brown ratio indicates a mature ready to harvest plant. I like a little more brown and at least a small percentage of dark trichomes. This plant is getting there, maybe a couple more days to a week to go. Whatever this sucker is going to be a massive producer for a meter tall indoor grown plant.

Its buddy, the next to last plant harvested from the 2023-2024 grow is drying as I type. Between the two of 'em the 2023-2024 grow may turn out to be OK, I expect close to a couple of pounds of flower the only question is THC content. I'm not sure if it is this cultivar or other grow factors but up till now this crop's THC production has disappointed. I've grown GG4 Auto before and THC tested in the low to mid 20% so far no plant this grow has produced more than 18% THC, most were much lower not even making it into the teens. It is not a total deal breaker, truth is 11% THC flower gives a pleasant "high", it's just not as good for making FECO or other products. 

When this plant is hung up to dry the tent will get a good cleaning, changes to the inside support systems will be made, and the new RDWC system with a water chiller will be set up in prep for the 2024-2025 grow season starting mid October. The 2024-2025 grow is planned to have two parts an inside the tent grow of four Dutch Passion "Power Plant Auto" and a later grow starting mid February outdoors with six plants of Barney's Farm "Sour Diesel Auto". That's the plan, now let us see if the Cannabis gods allow it to happen.

See you on down the road, next up is a month in UK with MsBubba and the kids then two months Camp Hosting at Harris Beach State Park outside Brookings, OR and I expect a proving run with the motorhome sometime before heading to Oregon. 

More Short Rows

 To make the mods and ready the tent for next season's grow I need to harvest the last two plants from the current grow. For reasons only the Cannabis gods know these two ain't going there.  Two weeks ago I figured from the grow history and the plants appearance they had at most a couple weeks to finish. Two weeks later they are still at least two weeks out, maybe more:

 Two weeks ago the Stigmas were white with a few (very few) amber ones, today the white/amber ratio is unchanged.  The Trichrome story is the same, most are cloudy but amber ones are rare.

One difference of concern, both plants have started "foxtailing", the one on the right more than the other.  

The classic reason for foxtailing is the tent is too damn hot. Temp control has been a battle. The tent has two exhaust ports with fans and two air inlets also with fans. One of the inlets was the AC unit and one of the exhaust ports was used by the AC unit. The problem with that setup was the heat from the exhaust duct work negated the cool air from the AC unit. The easy answer is; move the AC unit and duct work outside the tent.

To do that was the cause of major butt scratching, some orders shipped from Home Depot, building a frame to hold the duct work to the AC unit, and a lucky glance at the shop's 8" Jointer. The jointer's dust collection plenum looked to be perfect for the AC unit.

It was, and now works a treat with the AC unit and duct work outside the tent. A few minutes online and a new jointer plenum is on the way. Joy to the world.

It ain't pretty but it works. About the only downside I know of is the built in thermostat doesn't work.

Did I ever tell you about the time I used duct (100mph) tape to fix the horizontal stabilizer on the plane so I could fly it to the repair shop?

Once the last two go the pan will come out and cleaned, the tent will be "bombed", and a couple of small changes to the aux equipment in the tent. The last big change will be setting up the RDWC four grow bucket system.

Long post, maybe because I made gummies today from FECO. The FECO was planned to have around 2500mg of THC giving about 50mg/gummy. From the effect of the "test" gummy I tried I believe we hit the mark.  
    

In the Short Rows

 Only two GG4 Auto plants left in the tent. These two illustrate this grow, all the plants were from the same cultivar from same seed bank, started at the same time, and have had the same light and feed schedule but two different plants from fan leaves to flowers.

I'm looking forward to harvesting these last two so I can get on to prepping for next Fall/Winter grow. Most of the gear is in the shop still in boxes but once the last two plants are hung to dry it will come out to play. 

The big changes will be: The eight bucket DWC system will be replaced with a four bucket RDWC system. The AC unit will be moved to outside the tent.  A water chiller and a reserve H2O tank will also be added outside the tent. Smaller changes will be moving the AC power center from the back of the tent to the right side and routing the wires so there is little interference with the plants.

Maybe you noticed the change from an eight bucket system to a four bucket one. I've had a wrestling match with myself over number of plants for a couple of grow seasons. Bottom line while a heavy user, I do not use very much. While this is slowly changing, my go to method has been a bong and with a bong you use very little good weed. There's still a ½ kilo of weed left from the first grow after retiring and I waste a lot playing with making tinctures, infusions, and carts. BTW, the cart play is starting to work and as hinted above carts may become my goto method.

Anyway a long way around to I do not need the PITA more plants can be, four good producers should be enough for a year's supply plus some and if not retail Cannabis is pretty cheap.

One other appliance I expect to add is a small freezer, one that will go to -40C to use for a better quick wash extraction. As I noted above I'm moving away from smoking weed, whether bong or joints. Carts, gummies, and infusions are becoming prime so extraction tech is also gaining importance.