Northern Lights xBig Bud in RDWC

Here I go on my first legal medical grow.

I snagged some Northern Lights x Big Bud autoflower seeds and will be growing with DIY RDWC in 2x 18gal totes. I am going to attempt 3'x4' SCROG in my 5x5 tent.

Equipment:

5x5 Tent

600Watt HPS

148watts combined CFL (6500k)

2x 18 gallon totes each holding 2x 6" netpots
2x 4 port air pump
4x 4" airstone
4x 6" airstone
180gph recirc pump

"Blue" 3 meter monitor (PH, TDS, Temp)

Air temp/RH monitor

Ventilation fan & carbon filter

Day 1:
PM: Placed 4 seeds in 8oz distilled water.

Day 2:
AM: All 4 seeds floated. Moved to damp folded paper towels in a ceramic dish with lid. Placed on top of my VCR. (Yes...I still have a VCR).

Day 3:
PM: Wow! Seeds popped allready! Moved to rockwool cubes (ph'd to 5.4) and placed in an updide down tupperware bowl / lid. Placed the "greenhouse" under a 6500k 23W CFL.

Day 4:

PM: Got the tent warmed up into the 70's and moved my rockwool in tupperware into the tent.

More equipment pics:

Subbed. Love the set up, looks well thought out and very neat. Can't wait to see how they turn out!

Thanks Brian!!

I am a bit excited today....

Day 5:

I have my HPS dimmed to 300w and vent fan on as low as it will go. Temps holding 77-79F and two of my girls have sprouted!!

Day 6:

I am a bit concerned that only the first two have grown well out of the rockwool. Number three looks like it may be trying to push out. Number four shows no visible activity.

Any input on the later two would be appreciated. I am thinking about germinating two more seeds.

Couldn't get the pic to stay in my post...

Day 8:

Well I guess I was worried over nothing. 3 & 4 have sprouted. A bit puny compared to 1 & 2.

Temps running 71-80F. Humidity sitting at 30% in the tent. Not to worried about RH yet as my sprouts are still in a covered container to keep the humidity up.

I have my CFL's (6500k) down close to the plants but have kept my HPS raised and dimmed to 300w. I have never worked with a dimmable HID before. Seems to work as advertised..

Edited by FarmerJames, 24 March 2012 - 08:16 PM.

Day 14:

It sure seems that since the girls first sprouted that things have slowed a bit. I expect they may pick up again as I moved them into thier new home today. They look tiny in the 6" net-pots. I have good roots out of the bottom on 3 of them. The 4th is a bit smaller than the rest and no visible roots out of the rockwool yet. The larger 3 have thier second set of regular leaves showing.

Temp: 77F
RH: 34%
Resivoir temp: 65F
PH: 5.9
TDS: 500

Lucas Formula: added 125ml Micro & 250ml Bloom to nute res.

Edited by FarmerJames, 30 March 2012 - 11:11 PM.

They do look small now, but I bet in no time they will start to fill in the net pot perfectly. AIso, I do remember you saying you had at least 2 different strains, this could very well be why some are slower than others, but it's nothing to worry about. just a little patients and I'm sure number 4 will have a good root base too. I bet now that the beginning roots are in, you will see a pick up in the growth time. Looking good!

::

Hey Brian!

Thanks for the encouragement. They are all NL x BB. I do expect a good shot of growth as soon as the roots drop into the nute solution in the buckets.

I am having a bit of a challenge with the humidity. I am begining to suspect my RH meter. it has been showing 30% unchanged for days. I had a minor mishap and spilled about 2 gallons of water in the tent while it was closed. It was a few hours before I discovered it and the indicated RH was unchanged. I grabbed the shop-vac to clean it up and while I was working the RH went up to 31% for just a moment. I am going to look at a new meter and a vaporizor to bting the RH up.

Day 21:

Three of my girls are starting to show notable growth. Number four is concerning me a bit. I posted a Q on the Indoor Growing forum:

http://forum.grassci...ml#post14311552

Update:

I have been dealing with some troubles. I wound up removing the river rock that I had placed in the netpots. I replaced it with well washed lava rock. I changed out my nute solution. I have mamaged to get my RH up into the 43-48% range.

Temp has been running 69-76F until today. An unseasonably warm day and temp in the tent is up to 84F. Weatherman says it is going to cool back off tomorow.

Girls are looking some better. The "runt" still looks pretty rough but improving.

Plants seem to be doing well. Big difference since the last update! As far as the runt goes, it could just be the luck of the draw if all conditions are the same. Maybe try directing a far to point right at it to strengthen it up, if not maybe topping if will help it take off.

Day 41:

I could use a little input again. Attempting to make the girls happier I have changed a number of things a few at a time and some things I have little control over changed in the middle of it all.

After changing the medium and new nute solutiuon I bumped the PPM up a bit. Got the PH down and raised the water level in my buckets a bit. I also added an air pump & stone to my res. As I watched for change we had a mini heat wave. Temps in the tent hit 90F. Nute temps hit 85F so I added ice to my buckets and res to bring temps back into the 70's.

The Girls took off. Fastest growth I have seen so far. I leveled of the PPM at about 850 (120ppm tap water). They were looking fantastic. I went ahead and bumped PPM to 950. Weather settled down and tent temps are running 69F-76F.

Now I am noticing that the new growth is looking a bit twisted and yellow. I really am not certain if the new growth has been looking this way all along and I just noticed or if it is new.

Today:

Temp: 75F
Nute Temp: 67F
PH: 5.6
PPM: 950

New growth a bit yellow & twisted. Also new growth "feels" a little dry & rough. Not smooth & slippery like larger leaves.

Could you take a look at the pics and let me know what you think?

Looking nice man, still going to scrog her?

Hey Beerow!

I have been watching your journal. I think your girls are going to be a fair bit bigger than mine. I think the media trouble I had set me back quite a bit.

I don't think I am going to SCROG this time. Just trying to keep them healthy is enough of a challenge right now. Next grow will likely be LST or SCROG.

How did your new growth look? Did you see anything similar?

Thanks for stopping by.

FJ

Hey Beerow!

I have been watching your journal. I think your girls are going to be a fair bit bigger than mine. I think the media trouble I had set me back quite a bit.

I don't think I am going to SCROG this time. Just trying to keep them healthy is enough of a challenge right now. Next grow will likely be LST or SCROG.

How did your new growth look? Did you see anything similar?

Thanks for stopping by.

FJ

Mine is only probably over a little over a foot tall, 1 main cola and two smaller 'colas'. Yeah I was going to LST mine, but I ran into pH problems so I spent more time getting her healthy than lst'ing.

My new growth looked basically identical, except when I was getting veg growth it clawed up. (ph problems)

How long are you going to veg her?

Mine is only probably over a little over a foot tall, 1 main cola and two smaller 'colas'. Yeah I was going to LST mine, but I ran into pH problems so I spent more time getting her healthy than lst'ing.

My new growth looked basically identical, except when I was getting veg growth it clawed up. (ph problems)

How long are you going to veg her?

These girls are auto's. They should begin flowering anytime.

The "clawing" problem that you had, did the leaves curl under or to the side?

These girls are auto's. They should begin flowering anytime.

The "clawing" problem that you had, did the leaves curl under or to the side?

They actually curled up They were healthy leaves too.

My auto started getting pistils around day 19 I think it was.

any thoughts on that last set of pics?

The problem is getting worse. I changed out the nute solution last night and bumped the Micro nutes a bit.