Hi all, new to the city and first attempt at a journal, I am going to try and keep this journal updated weekly perhaps more often if time allows. My goal is to keep track of the progress and timing and general notes on what I have done with the grow so that I can review later. Also to get opinions and advice. A bit about the grow, The plants I am working with are a (White Rhino x NL5)fem x (Creeper)male this plant was started from a bag of seeds I've had since about 1997 I had 40 seeds I had saved from a grow I had to shut down to move so I used the only male I had and made seeds. Out of the 40 I had only one germinated, it is about 3 weeks old now and has roots in the DWC bucket. I also have some seeds from an accidental cross of some clones I was sexing they are Joey Weed C99 and Joey Weed White Widow females and an unknown male. I had far better than expected germ rates on the C99 but the white widow only had a couple crack and come up. they are about 10 days old, growing first set of leaves but no roots out of the rapid rooters. I'm using a 3ft x 3ft x 6ft tent to grow in at the moment for the DWC bucket with a 600w MH switchable/dimmable ballast running at 50% I'm using a 240cfm exhaust fan pulling through a carbon scrubber and pushing through an air cooled hood. Temps in the tent are running around max 75f and min 68f Humidity is below 20% . Water temps get up to 73f by lights out. Seedlings are sitting under a single CFL till they show enough roots out of the rapid rooters to be placed into solo cups till I can sex them, or decide which ones to place in the tent. not sure what do with them as I only want to run 4 plants in the tent at a time and was hoping to stagger them by two weeks. I'm working with GH flora series and have a few additives that I may use. any questions or comments are welcome. Pahly
Day 14 Seedlings Day 28 DWC Temp: Max 73f @ 16%Rh Min 65f @ 40%Rh Found: Res temp max 73f min 67 680 us/cm (340ppm .5conv) 6.1 pH 72 f Adj: 250ml of Ro (160 uS/cm 80ppm) 10ml of Aquashield 18 drops pH down New: 658 uS/cm 329ppm 5.6 pH 72 f Plant measured: 26cm w x 9cm h
Day 15 Seedlings Gave the seedlings their first feeding. 453 uS/cm (225ppm .5 conv) at 6.1pH added some Aquashield and a drop of B1 supplements Some have roots showing outside of the rapid rooters.
Well I had some time to spend with the plants, so here is what I did. Prepped a bb for one of the White Widow seedlings, first I rinsed the hydroton with hot tap water and then with ro. then with boiled ro. I set it aside to drain while I scrubbed out the bucket with Comet, and then gave it a rinse. Next I put 4L of RO water in the bucket. Starting: 7.2pH @ 149uS- added 5ml GH CaMg+ 5.8pH @ 471uS- added 1gr of Epson salt(9.9%magnesium/ 14%sulphur from magnesium sulfphate) 5.8pH @ 729uS- 3ml GH Micro 5.8pH @ 908uS- 3ml of GH Grow 5.8pH @ 1015uS- 3ml GH Bloom 5.8pH @ 1086uS- 2 drops of vitamin B supplement 5.9ph @ 1100uS- Diluted mix with 2.5L of RO 6.3pH @ 711uS-Total nute mix is 6.5L added 16ml of Aquashield 6.3pH @ 713uS- 25drops GH pH down let sit for 1/2 an hour 5.7pH @ 723uS Removed 750ml to set water level just below the rapid rooter, just enough that the splashing from the bubbles will keep it wet. Checked the height of the water 8cm from the top of the bucket. Added the air stones. set seedling into the bb, ready to grow! There were a few more seedlings with roots showing out of the rapid rooters, so I decided to transplant them into coco solo cups as I have too many to put them all in BB, I had a slight mix up when I was watering them and crossed up a few of the rapid rooters and am not sure whether they came from the c99 cross or the white widow. Hopefully I'll be able to tell after they have been growing for a while. I think the smell will be the identifying factor. C99-1 transplanted yesterday 12/14/14 C99-2 transplanted today 12/15/14 C99-3 transplanted today c99?/ww? one of the ones I'm not sure of. I placed the 4 coco plants in the tent with the WW in the BB. I also switched my single outlet pump out for one with dual outlets, it is rated at 4.5 watts and 2.55psi. is this enough aeration for 12L of water?? I also turned the 600w MH up to 75% yesterday. Thanks for viewing, Pahly.
Well it has been about two weeks since I last started seeds, time to get the next round going. I put 11 seeds of KC Brains Haze special into a shot glass to soak a couple days ago, today 9 had sunk and 2 were still floating. I placed them in paper towel in a dark place that stays around 76f and will leave them there, then check them every 24 hours to see if they have cracked and grown tails. Day 18 Seedlings not much change, they must be busy growing roots instead of foliage. Solo Cup Seedlings C99-1 C99-2 C99-3 C99?/WW? Day 32 DWC Tent Temp Max73f @ 12%RH Min 63f @ 47%RH Current 70f @ 12%RH Res Temp Max 72.6f Min 64.0f Current 69.4f WW seedling No roots out of the basket yet, hasn't grown much up top, busy growing roots. No change in the food level, but a rise in pH. The plant is too small to use an appreciable amount of nutes but I want them there ready when the roots hit the water. Found: 6.7pH 728uS Adj: pH down New: 5.8pH 744uS NL cross in DWC Plant measured 31cm W x 13cm T Found: 4.0pH 602uS water level at 10 cm The plant is growing well no signs of deficiency. slight droop to the leaves, most likely due to the low pH, It is using nutes as there was a drop of 50uS which is a good sign. Bumped up the feed about 100uS see how it likes that level. Adj: added 1L of RO water added 6ml of potassium silicate (K 2.55% SiO2 6.68%) this will hopefully help stabilize the pH and add some silicate. added 15 drops of CaMg+ 6.2pH 613uS added 15 drops of GH Micoro 6.2pH 673uS added 15 drops of GH Grow 6.2pH 717uS added 15 drops of GH Bloom 6.1pH 754uS added 10ml of Aquashield 6.1pH 758uS added pH down 5.7ph 770uS New: 5.7pH 770uS water level 8cm Thanks for viewing, Pahly
Just to make this thread a lil bit more interesting here is a bud shot of some AK47 I grew a while back. Enjoy, Pahly
So last night after doing my update I decided to brew some beneficial microbes, I added a small amount ( aprox 1 tsp) of GH Subculture and some botanicare ZHO along with some earth worm castings and Aquashield, and white sugar for food. Added to a gallon of RO water, left it brew for 24hrs. No foam as of yet, I think this stuff will work as well as the aquashield at a lower cost, going to give it a try and see if it works. Checked the Haze seeds, one has cracked but hasn't shot out a tail yet. should be ready for the rapid rooters by tomorrow night. Did a quick check on the NL cross as it had a low pH last time I checked it and wanted to be sure it hadn't dropped too low again. Found: 5.8pH and 670uS. Plant appears to be eating as the nute strength dropped 100uS and the pH rose by 0.1 . Leaves are also standing back up praying to the light. That is all for today, thanks for looking in, feel free to comment. Pahly
Ok So this update is actually from December 22nd, I have been busy with the holiday season and now have a bit of time to catch up. First off the Haze special seeds didn't germinate, they cracked but did not shoot out any tails, I will be soaking more tonight. I'm going to try a couple of things to see if I can help them along. I am going to skuff them in a sandpaper tube and then soak them in a mixture of rooting hormone and ro water for 24hrs, then into the paper towel. Same KC Brains Haze specials. I checked my bag of seeds and the my label was from march of 06 so hoping I can get some of these to germ. Also the beneficial tea I had started brewing began to smell like old sweaty gym socks, so I flushed it and washed and sterilized the bucket and stones with boiling water. I will start more tonight and not let it brew as long. Day 23 Seedlings Rapid Rooters These ones have been getting watered daily with plain un pHed water, yesterday (Dec 21st) I gave them a feeding of the tea, before the funk smell. 9 of the 11 seedlings have roots showing out of the cubes. I transplanted 3 to coco solo cups. I also watered them with a feed of 715uS at 5.8pH. Coco Solo Cups These plants haven't needed any watering since they were last fed. C99-1 C99-2 C99 -3 WW?/C99?-1 Flushed all the coco solo cups with plain RO water along with the 3 new transplants and then gave them a feeding of 715uS at 5.8pH The unknown one seems to be leaning towards the WW as it is showing deformed leaves, a trait I recall from when I originally grew this back in 2010, they grow out of it after a few sets of leaves. DWC Plants WW Seedling Day 6 in DWC Found: 788uS @ 6.5pH depth 9cm Adj: 500ml of RO water 21 drops pH down 12ml of Aquashield New: 762uS @ 5.8pH depth 8cm First root has hit the water, growth should really speed up now and the nute levels should start to drop. So far the plant hasn't been taking enough food from the water to make any appreciable difference. I believe the rising pH is due to the potassium silicate. This plant is showing the deformed leaves I mentioned above. NL Cross Day 37 Found: 700uS @ 4.1pH depth 13.5cm Adj: Discarded nute solution as the pH kept falling. Made new nute solution as follows Starting- 164us @ 6.4pH 4 litres of RO 5ml of Liquid Rock (potassium silicate) 289uS @ 9.1pH 7ml of CaMg+ 733uS @ 7.9pH 12 drops pH down 735uS @ 6.1pH 5ml of Micro 1296uS @ 6.0pH 5ml of Grow 1558uS @ 6.0pH 5ml of Bloom 1744uS @ 5.9pH 2 drops vitamin B supplement n/c Removed 1.5L of solution (diluted and used some to feed all seedlings rest is stored in a cool dark place till needed) added 3.5L of RO water total 2.5L of Nutes and 3.5L of RO = 6L 15ml of Aquashield pH down to 5.9pH New: 860uS @ 5.9pH depth 8cm Plants leaves looked a bit droopy, due to the low pH, they perked back up by the next morning once it adjusted to the new soup. I'm happy with the root growth and will have to place this into a 10L pot next res change. Things to do: Rinse more coco for the remaining seedlings to go into cups brew fresh tea, soak seeds Thanks for viewing, Pahly
Dec 28th Update ( a day late) NL Cross DWC day 42 Previous: Depth 8cm 860uS @ 5.9pH Found: Depth 18.5cm (measured down from rim of bucket) 300uS @ 6.1pH Adj: New batch of nutes 4L of RO water 143uS @ 6.4pH 5ml of LR (silica supplement) 247uS @ 9.0pH 10 drops pH down 270uS @ 8.0pH 7ml of CaMg+ 690uS @ 6.1pH 5ml of Micro 1223uS @ 5.9pH 6ml of Grow 1608uS @ 5.9pH 4ml of Bloom 1832uS @ 5.8pH 3 drops of vitamin B supplement n/c removed 1L of nute mix (3L remaining) added 3L of RO water total 6L of nutes 5 drops pH down 15ml of Aquashield New: Depth 8cm 1017uS @ 5.8pH A few things I noticed, the plant is now putting out 9 fingered leaves, the roots are almost filling the bucket, and the really exciting discovery female preflowers! I will definitely have to move it to a larger bucket soon. I was pleasantly surprised at how much she has eaten over the last 5 days almost 5 L of water and dropped the ppm below half. WW Cross Day 12 in DWC Previous: 762uS @ 5.8pH depth 8cm Found: Depth 9cm 775uS @ 5.9pH Adj: 500ml of RO 4 drops pH down 15ml of Aquashield New Depth 8cm 728uS @ 5.8pH The plant now has a decent amount of root into the bucket, I expect growth should start to really take off over the next week. The deformed leaves have stopped and regular 5 finger ones are appearing. This plant appears to be polyploidy, it looks to me as if there are three nodes at each internode. I will be interesting to see the structure of this plant as it develops. I will be updating the seedlings in another post, I didn't have time to get to them last night, so will be doing them real time tonight. Thanks for viewing, comments welcome, Pahly
Ok so I've been slacking on updates and still not quite back to real time yet. I've had a nasty head cold and also busy at work so I've been resting. This is just a quick update from the 29th to keep things on track. Seedlings Day 30 I needed to transplant the remaining seedlings into coco solo cups as they all now have roots showing out of the rapid rooters. I began by taking a quantity of coco off the compressed brick and letting it soak in some warm tap water to expand it, breaking it up as it moistened. Once it was moist enough I went through and broke up any lumps that remained. Once it was separated I rinsed it with plenty of tap water and squeezed out the excess. When that was finished I poked holes into the base of the solo cups and filled them with coco. I then rinsed the coco in the cups with RO water, doing the already transplanted plants cups as well. Once that was done I transplanted and labeled all but one of the seedlings into the solo cups. I had some nute water left from mixing nute solution for the NL & WW buckets along with the 1L leftover from when I made fresh nutes for the NL. I mixed the three of these together and pHed it to 5.9, I also added 2 drops of vitamin B supplement and 15 ml of Aquashield. The final stats for the mix was 725uS @ 5.9pH. Each plant was then given 250ml of the soup. The single remaining seedling will be going into it's own bucket on new years day. It is a C99, this will give me three DWC plants all about 2 weeks apart. I plan to veg them till I can either sex them by preflowers or take clones. The NL cross is a confirmed female so I will be taking clones of her new years day. As soon as those are rooted and doing well I will begin flowering the NL. I will veg the plants in a separate area and cycle in another plant every 2 weeks, trying to harvest at 2 week intervals. That is the plan as of right now. I have also been soaking some seeds of KC Brains Haze special that I've had since March 06, I tried one batch of these earlier that didn't work out, they cracked but didn't shoot tails out. I tried a couple of different techniques this time to help them sprout, firstly I scuffed them in a rolled tube of sandpaper, next I soaked them in some diluted rooting hormone water till they sank. When the seeds sank I rinsed the rooting hormone water off and placed them into moist paper towel and have left them in a warm dark place and will check them tonight, it will have been aprox 36 hours in the paper towel. Sorry for the lack of pics, If I am feeling better tonight I'll try and get some posted up. Pahly
Thanks PurpleMonkey, Glad you could make it over for a look. I'm really happy with the way the roots are coming along. I think it is a good sign when I see the little haring bone shoots coming out. Pahly
Hi Informant, Thank you for your interest. My humidity is very low, it usually doesn't show on my temp/rh meter, except at lights out. I'll check the max/min values and start reporting them in the updates. it is very difficult to raise it due to the furnace running and low ambient rh levels. Not sure how to deal with it other than by living with it. So far in previous grows I've done without the tent it hasn't been disasterous, certainly not ideal though. Pahly
Nah, that's good. Keep the humidity low - allows for better transpiration. If you have a naturally low occurring humidity you should pick up a small canister of CO2 and see if you can get the PPM of your tent to 1200-1500. During veg that will noticeably boost your plants growth. The lower the humidity, the faster the plant can breath in CO2, the more CO2 the plant has to breathe in the faster the photosythesis, the faster the photo... oh whatever - you get it.
I would like to use CO2 one day, unfortunately I don't think it is feasible with my setup, the small volume of the tent requires that I vent constantly to control temp, and I wouldn't be able to maintain the ppm needed. the other obstacle to me using it is the availability of the equipment in my area, the nearest hydro store is a 400km drive away and the cost is more than I can afford. I don't sell, what I grow is strictly for personal use. I do agree it would speed veg time though and work well with the low humidity. Thanks again for your interest. Pahly
Jan 1st Happy New Year!!! (Real time, yay) This head cold is really taking it out of me, I'm moving slow so it's taking me a lot longer to do things than I normally would, I cut corners today. I'm rarely sick, maybe once a year, I really hate it. Seeds Checked the seeds that I had left in a moist paper towel and found one had cracked, no shoot yet, will check again tomorrow night. Condition in the tent. Turned the light to 100% 2 days ago. Temp: Max 89f Min 63f Current 66f RH Min 10% Max 50% Current 27% Res Max 73.4f Min 50.9f current 65.2f Seedlings Day 33 from germ. Newly transplanted seedlings and ones previously transplanted appear to be doing well, not much to report. As an observation, the previously transplanted ones, which went into rapid rooters at the same time are further ahead, telling me I should have transplanted them all sooner. DWC plants WW Day 17 in DWC Only did a visual inspection no stats to report. Plant looks healthy, leaves are flat and up, new growth is looking good. Roots are coming along nicely. NL Day 47 from seed Previous: Depth 8cm 1017uS @ 5.8pH Found: Depth 17.5cm 496uS @ 7.2pH Adj: New batch of nutes 8L of RO 150uS @ 7.5pH 7ml of Silica 222uS @ 9.0pH 21 drops of pH down 233ph @ 7.7pH 10ml of CaMg+ 472uS @ 6.8pH 7ml of Micro 843uS @ 6.2pH 7ml of Grow 1100uS @ 6.1pH 7ml of Bloom 1260uS @ 6.0pH 4 drops of Vitamin B supplement n/c 8 drops of pH down 1264uS @ 5.8pH 20ml of Aquashield n/c New: Depth 8cm 1264uS @ 5.8 pH Noticed the drop in nute strength again, from over 1000 to less than 1/2 that. This plants appetite continues to amaze me, I've not had a plant that would eat this much before. I'm continuing to increase the nute strength as long as she asks for it. I moved her to a larger bucket which holds 2 more litres of solution. I'm going to give her a couple of days then take cuttings. As soon as the cuttings are rooted I will begin flowering her. Notes I prepared the cloner today. I have one seedling in a rapid rooter still waiting to go into a bucket. I'm considering options for the tent as tending to the plants in separate buckets is proving to be more challenging than I had anticipated, and is only going to increase as I add more plants to buckets, I'm also thinking about possible damage to branches during flower when they are heavy with bud. I was thinking about it and I will have at least 5 or 6 to deal with at a time with veg and flower plants. That will require more time than I have, working full time and having social commitments. Lots to consider. Pahly
Everything looks great Pahly! What type of cloner do you use? When I ran a DWC I set up a bubble cloner: super easy and about 85 - 90% success rate every time. All you need is a two gallon bucket, an air stone, and some foam of some sort (pool toys work great). Take the 2 gal bucket lid and drill small 1/2 inch holes (or so) into the lid. Make about 6 of these in the center. Cut the foam to fit the holes like corks, and then cut a slit in the cork from the outside to the center. Cut your clones, dip them in clone rooter, and suspend the cuttings in the slit of the cork, with the stem poking out beneath the cork. Place the bubble stone in the bucket, full the bucket with water and a DAB of nute/root growth formula and place he lid over the bucket. Place your clone corks into the holes and bam: instant bubble cloner. The bubble stone will create bubbles that splash the bottoms of those hormone covered stems. In other words, you don't want the stems submersed in the water you just want the water level high enough so that the bubbles splash the stem. The stem is bombarded with nutrient, oxygen rich mist constantly and a root ball pops on that thing within a week or two. Perfect for DWC systems and about 25 bucks to build. -TPM
Hi PurpleMonkey, Thanks for the info on the bubble cloner. I tried using one before but I left the stems submerged, probably why it didn't work for me. The cloner I have is what I think is called an aero cloner, it has a pump with a manifold and little red sprayers, the lid has 36 neoprene inserts like what you describe, it seems it would work similar to the bubble cloner spraying the suspended stems which are hanging in air, I have had success with it but never really great results, I've not tried using rooting hormone in it though. It would be easy to convert it to a bubble cloner, I'd just have to remove the pump and manifold and replace it with air stones. I may try a couple cuts in rapid rooters just to see how that works. Thanks for stopping in. Pahly
Hi Pahly, Your aeroponic cloner uses the same principle as the bubble cloner; a fine mist of water spray constantly bombarding a cutting to induce root growth. If you decide to try out the bubble bucket, make sure the water line is about 1/2 inch or so below your stems so that the bubbles pop and spray the stem. You will also want to dip the stems into a rooting hormone (dry or gel, it doesn't matter). You will also want to add just a drop or two of a nutrient (I cant remember what I used the last time: some sort of old timey formula I found at a local hardware store. Only needed ONE TINY drop) into the 2 gal bucket. If all goes well, in about a week or so you will notice the bottoms of the stems getting white and swelling up, almost like a pimple that's about to op....and it DOES pop, but with roots Good luck with your cloning! -TPM