Sayin hey...Wompa's first attempt.

[wompawon]

Hey everyone! I'm new to Grasscity. I went and bought an indoor set up for my first time. I don't plan on growing on a big scale or anything so I just have a little 4 plant DWC.
I don't know much about nutrients so I just looked some up and chose Advanced. It's three bottles. Seems like a lot of mixing to me. The system I got was supposed to come with nutes but they are back ordered I guess.
The light is 400 watts HPS.

I only have about three feet of space for them to grow verticaly so I was thinking about putting them on 12/12 right away after they start. Is that a good idea?

I have seeds germinating now. I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow probably.

Glad to be growing here, it looks like there are a lot of people in here that know what they are doing.

[basementhydro]

I wouldn't go 12/12 quite that fast - I've never tried it but from what I've read everyone says to go a few weeks veg at least. You know what "alternating nodes" are? Wait till you get those, then go to 12/12 and flower. That's about as fast as you want to do it. (Alternating nodes is where instead of two branches coming out of the same spot on the main stem, one grows out one side and the next grows out the other side.)

You might want to do some LST or something if height is a problem. Read up on the various things people do to grow short plants.

For now just do 18/6 and read, read, read.


Oh, and if you have any trouble at all with your nutes, just give AN a ring on the phone (it's safe). The number is on their website. They'll help you even if you're not using their stuff!

[doob3r]

you can go 12/12 from seed no problem, you dont have to wait for "alternating nodes" thats not even a description of alternating nodes at all, your way off dude.


just read some guides and take it easy on the nutes, none at all for the first few weeks, when growth picks up and you around your 3-5 leafset you can start at 1/4 or 1/2 strength bloom nutes and work your way up to full strength, you dont want to burn them, blooming nutes have a bit more P

also go to the absolute beginners section and read some guides on LST and sexing, pretty much all the sticky threads,

[wompawon]

Thanks for the advice doob.

So I did 12/12 from sprout pretty much. I had them on 24 hours of light for four days and then switched them.
All in all they have been under light for 15 days.

They started to wilt like they were over/under watered and I looked in the res and saw pond scum. In the days leading up to this I noticed my PH was going up to 7 - 7.5 over night from a cozzy 5.7.

So I drained everything and soaked then in hydrogen peroxide/water for two hours, two days straight. Then I took everything out and cleaned the reservoire with bleach water.
I had a water pump in the res until this. I think one of the reasons I started getting pond scum was the heat from the pump. As well as light leakage. I have a big ass air pump and a small air pump going to two 12" air stones and one 6" stone so I hope that lack of aeration isn't one of the probs.

Either way, since I rinsed I've noticed a change. They aren't nearly as droopy as before. The roots still look poopy though.

I bought hygrozyme today hoping that it will help with new root construction and stop my PH from skyrocketing. As well as keep the pond scum from coming back.
We'll see though. My res has been as 5.6 for the past two hours since I changed the water again and added nutes and hygrozyme.

[Unclenugs]

hey man, interesting little grow you got goin' on. i like your set up. what is your res water temps? and why are there towels on your bucket? just cleaning up? or are they there all the time?

[wompawon]

Originally Posted by Unclenugs

hey man, interesting little grow you got goin' on. i like your set up. what is your res water temps? and why are there towels on your bucket? just cleaning up? or are they there all the time?

I would like to keep my res temp below 70.....since I don't have a chiller I have to deal with climate conditions. It's usualy at around 72-75 while the light is on.

I put the towel on there because it seemed like the aluminum foil tape had a lot of hot spots, which were heating up my res also. I put the dark towels on the sides to keep light out and the white ones on top hoping they will at least keep my res a couple degrees cooler.

Thanks for stopping in and taking a look!

[wompawon]

Hey everyone!
The roots look a little better after a day in the hygrozyme. There is a lot of new root growth coming from the bottoms of the pots. And a lot of new growth on the plants themselves. They still look droopy though.
The pond scum doesn't seem to be coming back. I'm pretty happy about that. That was some nasty stuff.

Does anyone have any suggestions about aerating my res better? The 2 air pumps I have are rated for 125+ gallon aquariums. I keep thinking that, with that much air, I should be able to make the whole thing bubble. I just don't know what to use to do it.

Any comments appreciated!

Here's some pics from today.

[AugustWest]

good luck dude.. never did hydro, but they seem to swear by that hygrozyme for root issues. Plants are coming along nice

welcome to GC

[wompawon]

Originally Posted by AugustWest

good luck dude.. never did hydro, but they seem to swear by that hygrozyme for root issues. Plants are coming along nice

welcome to GC

Thanks man, I appreciate you checking it out.

[IMgreen]

it's probably better to NOT have to use hygrozome, am suprised you needed it so early

get a LOT more air into that bad boy - slime from algae and fungus can't thrive in a cool well oxygenated res

try to keep your temps about 76 at most, it should feel cool all the time

warm water will jack up your grow

GL man!

I am finishing up a 4 plant DWC right now (about 7 weeks of flower) and love the end results

using the lucas formula with floranova bloom and nothing else so all I have to do is keep the ppm, ph and temps good and the plants just thrive

Its fool proof

[wompawon]

Originally Posted by IMgreen

it's probably better to NOT have to use hygrozome, am suprised you needed it so early

get a LOT more air into that bad boy - slime from algae and fungus can't thrive in a cool well oxygenated res

try to keep your temps about 76 at most, it should feel cool all the time

warm water will jack up your grow

GL man!

I am finishing up a 4 plant DWC right now (about 7 weeks of flower) and love the end results

using the lucas formula with floranova bloom and nothing else so all I have to do is keep the ppm, ph and temps good and the plants just thrive

Its fool proof

Thanks for the input dude!

Yeah the hydro store was surprised I needed it too. Haha.

I think when I was light proofing my res I did a half ass job about it. Light was getting in all around the top of it for the first week and a half. Plus my lighting was 24 hours for the first four days so the temps in the res were getting up in the 80's surely. I worked PPM's from nothing up to 600-650 over the part two weeks. They don't have any burns what so ever.

I have some of that FloraNova one part stuff grow and bloom. It's just seems so thick and gooy. Is that what you are talking about using when you said Floranova Bloom?

They are better today from yesterday too. No slim or pond scum has come back since I blocked the rest of the light getting in there and put white towels on top. Air temps are in the mid 80's while the light is on, but when I stick a finger in my res the water is cool. I hope it stays that way.

I WANT MORE AIR...I really, really do. I'm just tired of spending money on air supplies that aren't doing the trick. I have 3" disks, 12" stones, diffusers....
The two 12" stones and the 8 or 9" diffuser that I got seems to be doing more than the others were. I've got two air pumps. One is for 30+ gallons and the other is for 125+ gallons. I only have two gallons of solution in my res.

Any ideas would rock!

I'm going out of town for a couple days tonight. I'll post more pics when I return to the city. Peace.

[wompawon]

I figured I'd go ahead and take some pictures today since I'm home all day anyway.

The roots are looking ten times better. There is fresh white tips growing from what's in the water and from the bottoms of the pots. It's a relief. I hope it continues this way.

I did a water change and topped three of the plants today. I wanted a picture to compare with for when I get back in town. PPM's were brought up from 600 to 900. I slowly moved them up to 600 to begin with so I'm hoping that they wont get burnt.

Anyone got any advice or comment? Enjoy the pics!

[IMgreen]

Floranova bloom is micro and bloom in one bottle, dunno what your's is but it is a thick brown syrup like stuff (almost)

you'll be able to go a bit higher than 900 ppm under that light, but get there slowly since they are young

(if they have a few sets of leaves now you'll be fine, like 7 or more, if not drop the ppms down a bit if you can)

you can probably go 1250 ish once they are past seedlings safely under hps

my plants spent most of flower at about 1350 ppm (sometimes a bit higher) they didnt start to burn on the tips til I hit 1500 or so I only went that high once (looking for the upper limit)

[IMgreen]

yo, looked at the pics you posted again

they are kinda young for 900

addback some plain water and bring it down to about 6-700 and keep it there until they have twice the nodes they do now then go up slowly from there

[wompawon]

Originally Posted by IMgreen

yo, looked at the pics you posted again

they are kinda young for 900

addback some plain water and bring it down to about 6-700 and keep it there until they have twice the nodes they do now then go up slowly from there

Will do. Better safe than sorry.

Good looking out dude.