First Grow, sick stealth grow cabinet, Journal posting OFTEN!

[stilalive2029]

hymee- how do you go about changing out your rez? I am using the lucas formula without changing water until after harvest... I may do the change every 2 weeks or the addback idea, your thoughts?

[hymee]

Originally Posted by stilalive2029

hymee- how do you go about changing out your rez? I am using the lucas formula without changing water until after harvest... I may do the change every 2 weeks or the addback idea, your thoughts?

You aren't going to be able to go start to harvest without changing the water dude.
I had to customize my tub for drainage while I was greminating. They don't come, and I'm sure you noticed this, with any way to empty them unless you take the top off and dump them out.
I drilled a hole in the bottom side and put a drain plug in there. You'll need to change the water completely every week to two weeks but monitor PH daily especialy when the plants start growing fast.

I spent a couple months researching hydroponics systems, growth aspects, and everything else I could find before I started.
Your roots will grow so fast from the start with that fogger that your PH will be low as hell in 5 to 6 days. The faster the plants grow the faster they make the water more acidic. I mean LOW...below 4. After I had rockin roots I took the fogger out. It just uses up electricity.
Also...I couldn't see but, do you have the ten gl set up or 5gl? I have a 5gl tub with 14 sites. Holds 3 gl of nute solution. The reason I ask is because, my plants are almost 3 weeks old and my reservoir is almost half way full of roots. I'm going to have to flower early so I have room the the complete root system. So, if you have the ten gallon set up and you want to grow them the full vertical length of the cab I wouldn't use every site on the system. I'm building a new DWC now for next time out of a ten gl tub with 6 sites because of this.

[smoove]

Nice lookin' "stealth cab." It seems like you're pretty stoked on your new hobby so just keep at it and you'll be harvesting quality herb in no time. Your first time through will require a bit of patience but once you get dialed in and the weed starts growing like... a weed, it's a great feeling.

I have a very similar closet setup. The few differences are: I don't use a fogger or drip irrigation, I use rockwool instead of rapid rooters, I added a humidifier because my climate is super dry, I don't have a MH bulb only HPS, and I use different nutes.

I have a few suggestions with regard to the questions you were asking a few days ago about: pH, yellowing leaves, under/over watering, and deficiency. It's my opinion that you should first focus on significantly lowering your nutrient strength. To give you some kind of perspective, I have plants that are about 2.5' tall currently running at 490ppm (also @ .7 conversion) When my plants were about the size yours are (in your pictures from 3/29) they were running at about 70ppm. PH is important but if you keep it in a range of 5.5-6.2 it really shouldn't be an issue. If your roots are coming out the bottom of the netpots and receiving moisture from the fogger or a bubbling reservoir then I wouldn't worry about over or under watering. Howerver, you also don't want to keep your growing medium around the base of the stem overly saturated because stem rot really sucks.

I do hope this information is helpful to you, but I'm no expert so please take this post for what it's worth. Oh, a couple more suggestions: Taking it slow is a good thing. You'll be surprised how little it takes for these plants to flourish in a DWC system. Also, I'm sure that at some point in all your researching you came across the "KISS" method of growing? You know, Keep It Simple Stupid. Well, I once was stupid... and so now I keep it simple. It's been workin out for me so far.

Good Luck!!

[stilalive2029]

Hymee - I put 10 gallons of water in my rez, but it holds more like 13-15 if i were to fill it up, there is a good amount of room for the roots, but I am only growing 4 plants. How many do you think I could grow in here? I plan on starting with 4 and seeing how that goes for the number on the second grow.
Smoove - have you not read anything by lucas? http://www.cannabis-world.org/cw/showthread.php?t=892 His idea goes along with the KISS idea...he keeps everything very simple, even talks about people using their same rez water for 3 whole grows, uses 0-8-16 for the whole grow is his idea for best grow herbs, using GH nutes...its a very good read, i highly reccomend it to anyone using dwc or other hydro ways

Thanks for the feedback guys, I appreciate the interest

[hymee]

Originally Posted by stilalive2029

Hymee - I put 10 gallons of water in my rez, but it holds more like 13-15 if i were to fill it up, there is a good amount of room for the roots, but I am only growing 4 plants. How many do you think I could grow in here? I plan on starting with 4 and seeing how that goes for the number on the second grow.
Smoove - have you not read anything by lucas? http://www.cannabis-world.org/cw/showthread.php?t=892 His idea goes along with the KISS idea...he keeps everything very simple, even talks about people using their same rez water for 3 whole grows, uses 0-8-16 for the whole grow is his idea for best grow herbs, using GH nutes...its a very good read, i highly reccomend it to anyone using dwc or other hydro ways

Thanks for the feedback guys, I appreciate the interest

COOL! You got the big DWC system. You can probably use all the sites on there. The four you have going now will have no problems getting HUGE. With ten gallons in there you wont have to change the water as often as I have to, but you should still monitor it often. I let it go for the first couple days after changing the water but after that I check every day.
I don't know about Lucas formulas. I have FloraNova but I don't like how thick it is. I can't just throw it in my reservoir. I have to premix it. I have been using Advanced nutes grow-micro-bloom, floralicious, and spray n grow. It's been rocking for me. My plants are growing extremely fast. Out of twelve I have 9 awesomely healthy plants, one with a little bit of burning but lots of fresh new folage growing every day, and 2 that are a little on the whimpy side.

[stilalive2029]

How big do you grow your plants? fairly small i guess if you are just using the mini cab, thats a good SOG cab isnt it? you keep a lot of short plants? How much are you yeilding on average?

[hymee]

Originally Posted by stilalive2029

How big do you grow your plants? fairly small i guess if you are just using the mini cab, thats a good SOG cab isnt it? you keep a lot of short plants? How much are you yeilding on average?

This is my first time with the mini cab. The reservoir for it is relatively shallow. I had to start my plants flowering three days ago so I have room for all of em. But I'm using 12 sites. I have three feet of vertical grow space, so theoreticaly I should be able to get a good harvest. It's supposed to be a good sea of green cab, we'll see. I bought white russian seeds for my next grow. From what I've seen and read they get about 65cm fully matured so they should work nicely in my mini. I already built a 6 site DWC system out of a 10gl rubbermaid tub to use for next time too so I can veg them longer. I might get planter to fit the bottom and just set up a EBB/FlOW though. Either way I figure I should be able to fit as many in there as I can safely, flower them after four weeks, and get at least 3/4 of an ounce per/plant. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[smoove]

Originally Posted by stilalive2029

Hymee - I put 10 gallons of water in my rez, but it holds more like 13-15 if i were to fill it up, there is a good amount of room for the roots, but I am only growing 4 plants. How many do you think I could grow in here? I plan on starting with 4 and seeing how that goes for the number on the second grow.
Smoove - have you not read anything by lucas? http://www.cannabis-world.org/cw/showthread.php?t=892 His idea goes along with the KISS idea...he keeps everything very simple, even talks about people using their same rez water for 3 whole grows, uses 0-8-16 for the whole grow is his idea for best grow herbs, using GH nutes...its a very good read, i highly reccomend it to anyone using dwc or other hydro ways

Thanks for the feedback guys, I appreciate the interest

Yo stil.

"have you not read anything by lucas?"
-Yes I used the lucas formula for my last grow. My current grow I use a modified Lucas Formula.

"using their same rez water for 3 whole grows"
- Not for a 10 gallon DWC setup... there's no need to even consider it. With your setup I'd shoot for at least 4 res dumps throughout your entire grow.

"uses 0-8-16 for the whole grow"
- I think the "whole grow" part was throwing you off. Here's a quote from one of Lucas' posts: "I suggest General Hydro nutes at 0grow-8micro-16bloom in milliliters per gallon as the mix for established, 12" tall clones with well developed root systems." - This formula really starts to shine once the plants can handle it but you have to take it slow in the early stages and ramp them up to full strength, especially since you're starting with seeds and not clones. "Whole grow" does not include seedling or very early vegetative stage. You'll be very hard pressed to find any experienced hydro growers recommend a 1000+ppm nutrient solution for a 5 inch tall plant that barely has it's third set of leaves.


How are the plants doin now? Hope all is well.

[stilalive2029]

The plants are actually doing really well, looking very strong and healthy, all good green growth...I will play the rez by ear, how do you guys go about emptying out your rez? I have a pump that will get most of it, but like 2 inches of water are left at the bottom.

I am watching the ppm very close, its at a little over 900 now, as long as it is not hurting the plants and they are growing so fast, i am not going to change somethign thats not broken. I will probably just let it drop another 200, then up it back up to 900 or so...

I will post up pictures either tonight after the KU game (HELL YEA) or tomorrow so you guys can see these guys

[stilalive2029]

i just topped one and fimmed one...i am going to see how the new growth looks before doing one of the techniques to the other large one right now...and then i will also do it to the smaller ones when they are old enough

[stilalive2029]

ok so update finally, sorry about the hiatus...I am left with 2 Super skunk, one doing really well, and one being a little runt, and then I have 1 bagseed, that is doing pretty darn well considering.

I had some problems early on, heat was an issue...got an a/c, not enough oxygen...got a better pump and air stones, the damn root starter cubes helped cause stem rot on one plant real bad...so i bought rock wool...

So things are going very well in my cozy little closet here, where i love to spend all my extra time I am so addicted now...well things are going so well, i decided to upgrade a little... I have the 3 going in the cab, well i started another dwc with a t5 flouro with some haze x skunk freebies and a bagseed...

I was going to veg these for like 2 months while i flowered the ones in the cab, but then decided that was too long, and i am worried about getting too many males/hermies for the stress i have caused them...so i decided to veg the new guys for only like two weeks give or take and then throw them in with the cab, and just flower them all at the same time...

Then a couple of weeks into flowering I will take clones of the ones I want to keep and I will veg those while the others flower, then after harvest they will be moved into the cab to flower... Sorry if that was long and didn't make sense, but I sure hope it did because I have thought this through really hard with a couple bowls, yes sitting and staring at my plants


This one is of the cab, with the three that have been vegging for a little over a month... the big one is super skunk, living up to its name, the little one is super skunk, not living up to its name,and the medium one is bagseed



This is of the new dwc tub, 4 seedlings going, 3 hazexskunk and one bag (the littlest one in front)

I hope to be posting more, I am really getting excited about this whole growing thing

Peace

[stilalive2029]

so i think that i came up with an excellent way to tie plants down, when gthere is nothing to tie down to...I am not sure if it will work well, as i have never done it and I came up with the idea over a couple bowls in the grow room....

So what you would do is attach zip ties (probably 4 or 5) around the net pot, like through the top holes, and having the ring hang out above it...these are your grounding points, and all the branches you want tied down can either have multiple linked zip ties together, or you could use rope/string and still just tie it to the base... but what i really have in mind is a self contained zip tie lst...there would be like a web of zip ties by the end, all linking together to form the most perfectly shaped plant


I would love any and all constructive criticism, or other idea of how to lst and still be able to move the plant (because with this method, if you pick up the plant, all the tie downs come with the net pot...) and i need to move my plants from veg dwc to flower dwc, so it HAS to be self contained....


Peace

[stilalive2029]

bump...anyone around?

[stilalive2029]

sorry for wasting your alls time

[GANJAWON]

SHIT MAN I'M WATCHING POST SOME MORE SHIT UP MAYN DON'T BE SCRRD

AND FOR THE ZIP TIE LST ING. SOUNDs LIKE IT COULD WORK DONT SEE WHY NOT!