First Grow - Please Feel Free To Comment

[HydroFarmer72]

I am nearing the end of my 4th week on this grow and fealt that I should update anyone that is interested since this forum helped me get through a nutrient issue. Please feel free to comment or criticize...I welcome any input I can get. Here are the specs...

Homemade grow box of my own design...cost less than $40 to build
Stealth Hydro Bubbleponics system (10gal)
There are 6 plants (Northern Lights) growing now.
2 Dual Spectrum CFLs that seem to be getting the job done.
PH has been around 5.75 consistently (with slight adjustments)
Other than some slight nute burn about 10 days ago, I have had no issues.
Largest plant is about 10 inches and smallest about 4 inches tall.
I plan on going 12/12 in about a week to 10 days.
Currently on 21/3 with the lights.
Nutes are being delivered for 15 minutes every 3 hours.
Aeration disc in the resevoir to help deliver O2 to the root systems.
I added two 18" Fluro grow lights on the sides to help the lower branches.
Temp is in the low 70's at night and about 80 during the "lights on" cycle.
Humidity is at about 60%.
Nutes were provided with the kit (brand unkown). Using Micro/Grow righ now.
Will change to Micro/Bloom when I go 12/12.
Becasue of the earlier nute burn, I am only using 1/3 to 1/2 strength on nutes.

The yellow color in the pictures is just one of the CFLs. You can see how green the plants are on the right side...this coloring is consistent throughout. Some of the lower leaves are wilting a bit...my guess is from the lighting (becoming insufficient in the lower branches).

I just emptied the resevoir and re-filled with ph adjusted distilled water and a 1/3 dose of Micro/Grow nutrients. The plants are now sucking this resevoir dry in about a week.

Again, any tips, suggestions, comments, etc. are extremely welcome. If I can answer any questions for others, I would be happy to.

Enjoy my grow!

[Dude in the kno]

Nutes are being delivered for 15 minutes every 3 hours.

how does that work in a DWC? besides that the your plants look fine.

[HydroFarmer72]

This system pumps water through 1/4 tubing and was actually set up to continuously feed as per manufacturers directions. This seemed to be one of the main culprits of the nute burn, so I added a timer to the water pump and set it up on the 15 mins every 3 hours cycle. There is an individual hose going from the pump to each of the 6 net pots. They feed directly to the base of the rockwool cubes.

[Dude in the kno]

ok, so the roots of the plants hang in the nute solution and on top of that you have a water pump forcing water in from the top. i can understand having the water pump on for the 1st few days or till the roots reach the nute solution but after that there would be know need for it, the roots hanging in the solution get there nutes that way.

[harmless smoker]

hey man i was just wondering what the size of your grow closet is. and how many plants do you think you could comfortably fit in there. my closet looks to be close to your size and im growing in soil and i was wondering how many plants could you fit in there??

[HydroFarmer72]

My grow box is 4ft tall, with a small addition on top to allow for the lights to be raised flush with the top of the box. It is 2 ft deep and 2 1/2 feet wide. It's made of a fiber board similar to peg board but without the holes.

I currently have 6 plants in it. The box will definatley hold the plants...it's my hydro set up that I am worried about. All seems good at this point.

The box is in an unfinished part of my basement. The only draw back to this locatoin is that it sits right next to the central heat/air distribution so the smell is starting to become an issue throughout the house.

Let me know if you have any other questions. The box was easy to build and only cost about $40 total.