First grow - my setup

Discussion in 'Hydroponic Growing' started by Da-Lu, Feb 25, 2014.

  1. #1 Da-Lu, Feb 25, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 25, 2014
    Here is my first grow.
     
    Four of the plants (in the ecogrower) sprouted on Feb 10. The rest sprouted in between Feb 16-19. The first four I had some stretching issues as I didn't get them under a light quick enough. They fell over but I have staked them up with bamboo and they are recovering nicely. I have two straight going right now. Three of the big plants are Thai lights, the rest is God Bud(7 total). I made a rookie mistake and ordered regular seeds ( I have since ordered feminized AK-47, White Widow, and Hash Plant for my next few grows - Only going feminized from here out) and realized its going to be a pain in the ass to rip the males out of the ecogrower! Other than that I think I'm on the right track.
     
    Equipment:
     
    SJ DR150 tent
    Lumatek 1000w digital ballast
    CoolStar Aircooled hood w/ 24" batwing
    600w Solarmax MH
    6" Can Fan outside tent blowing cool air through CoolStar out the other side
    4" Can Fan blowing across plants
    GH EcoGrower
    GH WaterFarm
    GH Flora series nutes - Lucas Formula
    pH 5.8-6.1 both systems
    ppm 680-700 both systems
    tap water ppm 210
    1/4 strength GH micro and bloom in EcoGrower 
    1/4 strength GH BioRoot in WaterFarm
    1/4 strength GH ArmourSi in both
    Res temps 69-71
    Air Temps 71-75
     
    Do I include tap water ppm in my nute strength ppm, or subtract it? I find different answers every where I look.
    This is how I started the second batch, worked great

     

    Attached Files:

  2. Any help or constructive critism is appreciated! Feel free to chime in. I guarantee everyone of you has more experience than me. I have just read words on the internet!
     
  3. Looking like a great start.
    You would subtract the tap water PPMs from the total to figure out your nute strength. (210 is a pretty high measurement for your water compared to the 30 PPM my water comes out at.) Maybe others with your water issue can chime in to let u know if you need to move to RO water.
    One thing I will suggest is to dilute your nutes in half (at least) for the stage of growth I see in the pics. Hard to see for sure but I may be seeing the initial symptoms of over fertilizing which include leaf twist. I feed young plants at 200 to 300 PPM until I see they could use more

    GL with grow
     
  4. looks great for first grow, wish I had even half as much at my first, don't think I had even a 1/4 of the needs and know how :)
     
    have you try left the water sit over night or longer, my water is 200ppm from tab, usually drop to close to 100 after I let it sit around for a week
     
  5. #5 Da-Lu, Feb 25, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: May 21, 2014
    I actually do let the water sit over night before I put it in. But I just got the ppm meter today and just test water straight out of the tap to see. I will hgo check to see what water that has sat for 24 hours is. Also good idea on dropping the nutes, I didn't think 1/4 strength would bring it this high ( as stated before just got the ppm meter today, I was by ml to gal of nutes before) Thanks for the help and comments guys much appreciated! I did lots of research on equipment and grow styles before doing the purchase. I figure this is the easiest method. Automatic watering, automatic lights.
     
  6. #6 lowryderrocks, Feb 25, 2014
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2014
    wish my girlfriend can do that, all she wants to know is how it taste and how much we got there :D lol
     
    oh and how strong is it :D
     
  7. #7 Da-Lu, Feb 25, 2014
    Last edited by a moderator: May 21, 2014
    I took your guys advice promt and ran down and did a quick partial water change. I brought the Ecogrower with the older plants down to 590 (380 after you subtract tap water ppm) and the waterfarms are down to 540 (330 subtract tap water ppm). We will see how this goes. I think the twist in a couple of the leaves is because I had them jammed in between 3 bamboo stakes for a couple days, impeding the leaf's growth!

    Edit: Also tested water that had been sitting out for about 48 hours. It's ppm was still around 210. I hope this isn't an issue I read once you get closer to 300 than that's when you should get an RO Unit. |I might grab one just to be safe.

    Also, is a light mover worth it for a tent this size with the size bulb I'm running. I have a Solarmax 600w HPS super and a 1000w plantmax HPS I can use either or for flowering.

    Sorry for all the questions it's great to get as many personal opinions as possible. Even though I have done hours upon hours of research!
     
  8. Forgot to mention I'm watering the waterfarm 24/7 and the ecogrower gets one hour on and 3 hours off during lights on, and once halfway during lights off. Also running the lights 18/6. The ecogrower has two 4" airstones in it and the waterfarm was left as is. I read so many different opinions on watering schedules with these systems I decided to try a two different schedules as an experiment. Both seem fine so far! Over watering signs are they start to curl and turn yellow at the tips, and under watering they start to droop right?
     
  9. Update: ppm in waterfarm is now 500 ( so 290 minus tap water) and ecogrower is 590 (380 minus tap water) we will see how this goes!
     
  10. Looks ok but 10 plants in that tent looks like they will be very crowded when they get into flowering. Looks like maybe 6 would be about right. How big is the tent?
     
  11. The tent is 5x5x7. I have the same concern actually, but its too late to stress now so I will see how it goes. I was thinking of trying out 7 next time.
     
  12. Update:

    I have some concerns, the one oldest god bud in the ecogrower seems to be drooping/leaves curling slightly.
    All the others ( 3 older Thai lights and 2 younger god bud ) seem to be doing fine.

    Also the ph in the waterfarm system was 6.5 this afternoon so I dropped it to 5.9
    The ph is the ecogrower was 5.2 so I bumped it up to 5.6

    Waterfarm was being watered 24/7 but I switched to 18/6 today.
    Ecogrower is 1 hour on 4 during lights on and once in the middle of the night for 30mins

    Waterfarm nute strength - 300ppm
    Ecogrower nute strength - 390ppm
    image.jpg image.jpg
     
  13. Well last night I dropped the watering time to 30 mins on 4 hours off and took away the lights off watering. I also took the fan off them and raised the lights about 8". I bumped the nutes up to 430-440ppm. Check the plants a couple hours ago and they have perked up quite a bit!
     
  14. Any thought?
     

  15. Quick update:

    plants seems to be doing well. I was gone for a week and the pH was a tad high 6.3-6.4 in both systems, so I dropped it to 5.5. Nute level in the waterfarm was a bit high - 370ppm dropped it to 300ppm. Also I fimmed the 4 oldest plants today.
     

    Attached Files:

  16. Quick update!
    I work away from home for two weeks at a time so I only get photo updates! Anyways looks like I have my systems dialed in!
     

    Attached Files:

  17. Looks like you're pretty good so far... I did notice it looks like you keep your clones near other plants. It may be a good idea to keep them away from any sort of other plants to prevent any bug issues...
     
  18. Thanks for the reply! They are all from seed though! That's a good tip for my future grows!
     
  19. Here's another update:
    Added a 4" airstone to each one of the waterfarms. I'm sure they will take off. Plants are doing good it seems. Next grow I will only do 3 in the ecogrower for sure. Overall I'm very pleased with both systems.
    image.jpg image.jpg
     

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