After a few months of hiatus, it's time to start a new medicinal grow. My mom was diagnosed with cervical cancer two weeks ago and is currently undergoing aggressive chemotherapy. I am dedicating this grow to her and I hope to achieve a bountiful harvest that will go towards reducing her nausea and pain. I am using the same system that I used in my previous grow (http://forum.grasscity.com/hydroponic-grow-journals/1289374-strawberry-og-kush-400-watts-recirculating-dwc.html) but I upgraded my ballast/lights to 600W instead of the smaller 400W that I was using. My System: I have an undercurrent/recirculating system that I built from scratch. My 18 gallon reservoir pumps a slow trickle of nuted water into the tops of my buckets and gravity pushes water back into the reservoir from the bottom of my buckets. (4) 5 gallon buckets, each with a fill and drain system and an air stone. (1) 19 gallon reservoir with a pump and air stone. 600W ballast w/ 600W MH/HPS bulbs depending on the grow cycle. 1 cool tube 1 exhaust fan pulling air through the cool tube. If you read my other grow journal, you know I am somewhat anal about my updates. Please enjoy OR skip to the end; I post in real time. DAY 1 (DAY 1 of VEG STAGE/ 18 onx6 off) CURRENT PPM: 930 CURRENT PH: 5.9 PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS: N/A CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Full CURRENT TEMPS: t's nice and cool, hoovering in the high 70's during the day to the high 60's at night RH: N/A (still haven't set up my temp/humid reader) HEIGHT: Brand spanking new Blue Dream clones. JOURNAL ENTRY The genetics shop near my house is pretty popular; I was hearing pallets of 80 - 100 clones being sold to folks calling in. They had all kinds of crazy strains but I was there for Blue Dream. I have grown BD in the past and really enjoy it;'s medicinal properties AND it's resiliency. It's a pretty badass strain. We'll see how it goes this time around I've never used a 600W ballast before, but it does have a dimmer switch that allows me to adjust the power setting so I can readjust to 400 if I chose. I'll sick with the 600 this time around and see what it does.
Loving the set up mate, nice, clean and straightforward. Very high ppm though, did that work ok for you last time?
Hi GoldGrower. Yeah, I started out at 850PPM last time and bumped it up to 950 within a week. This time I am letting it hover at 900 right off the bat. I am using my own tweaked version of the Lucas formula and really the plant--and the adjustments of the ph/PPM--will tell me if I need to raise or lower the PPM so I am keeping a close eye on those components. I am using just one nutrient the entire grow, a 12 dollar bag of MaxiBloom, a dry nutrient. I had amazing results the last time I used this method, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this go around. I want to eventually rebuild this system using the same design but with PVC piping instead of the softer rubber tubing I am currently using. The rubber tubing tends to keep a curve that causes minor annoyances. -TPM
Using just one nutrient through the whole grow interests me. I was planning on doing the same one day. What are the element ratios of that nutrient ? I follow this way of keeping my ppm correct http://forum.grasscity.com/hydroponic-growing/1198022-how-determine-what-your-plants-preferred-nutrient-strength.html its given me perfect results since the first time I started doing it. This is what I use when flowering. But I will one day try it for vegging too as my veg bottle is pretty much the same
DAY 2 (DAY 2 of VEG STAGE/ 18 onx6 off) CURRENT PPM: 920 (this is actually about .10 lower than where I left it at night which accounts for the PH shift noted below.) CURRENT PH: 5.8 PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS: .01 upwards from 5.9 to 6.0. CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Full CURRENT TEMPS: It's nice and cool, hovering in the low to mid 70's during the day to the low to mid 60's at night RH: N/A (still haven't set up my temp/humid reader) HEIGHT: Recently transplanted Blue Dream clones. I don't start measuring growth until I see roots pop through the net pot. JOURNAL ENTRY A little bit of PPM reduction and raise in PH last night. The trick now is to keep the PH set to where I like it (5.8 for veg) until the PPM drop levels out. That will be the sweet spot and the number to maintain in both ph and PPM level.
DAY 3 (DAY 3 of VEG STAGE/ 18 onx6 off) CURRENT PPM: 920 CURRENT PH: 5.8 PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS: .02 upwards from 5.8 to 6.0 CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Full CURRENT TEMPS: RH: 30% Cab temp: 81F HEIGHT: I spotted two gangly roots popping out of a netpot in the back row. That's a good sign. I will start to measure the growth once a few more pop out. JOURNAL ENTRY The PH raised a little bit last night so I lowered it. With root growth recently spotted, the PH will adjust itself for these first few days. I am also in need of calibration solution which should be arriving in a day or so so my PH may be slightly off. The biggest change I made last night was switching my ballast down from 100% full power to 75% power. The heat that 600W bulb was producing was pretty intense and my exhaust was spewing out very hot air. I bumped it down to 75% and the exhaust air is MUCH cooler. I may bump it back up again as the ladies grow and the outside temps get cooler, but seeing as I am accustomed to using a 400W setup in this very same tent, I think the 75% setting will work just fine. No photos this time because there's not much to show. I will snap a pic of the roots once they pop in the front row. -TPM
HI PurpleMonkey, I've been a lurker here at the city for a while, just recently started being more active. Do mind if I grab a seat and follow along?? Pahly
DAY 4 (DAY 4 of VEG STAGE/ 18 onx6 off) CURRENT PPM: 920 CURRENT PH: 5.8 PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS: .01 upwards from 5.8 to 5.9 CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Full CURRENT TEMPS: RH: 20% Cab temp: 72F HEIGHT: n/a. JOURNAL ENTRY Still waiting for roots to pop out. I can't be certain my PH is being measured correctly until I get my ph 7.0 solution in the mail, but I believe it's sitting at 5.8 Not much excitement on only day 4. -TPM
PurpleMonkey, I just started reading your past journals, and was wondering, will you be doing LST with the Blue dream or doing some other form of training like a scrog? Also are you using the MaxiBloom nutes again? Pahly
I've done LST in the past and I think it's one of the best and most efficient methods of growing. That said, the tent I have does not allow for much access to the back row of plants and LST requires a lot of access for bending and tieing. So for this grow, I am just going to do some creative bending in order to mimic some of the benefits of a true LST but it should be a mostly vertical/standard grow. Once this tent has another grow or two on it I'll retire it and get a better one that's more suited for LST. Yes, MaxiGrow (the dry nute) is the one and only nutrient that I am using. I use tap water with a relatively high PPM of 250 - 300. I let it sit for a day or two so any chemicals that can evaporate will dissipate. I had fantastic luck in the past with this same setup....we'll see what happens this time. TPM
PurpleMonkey, I was looking at your recirculating system and I was wondering, does the water flow in at the bottom and then overflow out the top tubes or does it move in the opposite direction? One other question I have is, how quickly does it cycle the total volume of solution? Pahly
@ Otroo, I believe it is a 4'2" by 4'2" by 7'. I saw it in a previous journal I was recently reading. TPM can correct me if that is wrong. Pahly
Pathly, my system has a gravity run drain at the bottom of each bucket leading back to the reservoir. The pump-located within the reservoir-pumps a very slow trickle into the TOPS of the buckets. I have been told this is now called an “undercurrent†recirculating system. Basically water is entering from the top and naturally draining from the bottom. My space is about 4 1/2 feet wide/deep and 7 feet tall. =TPM
Purple Monkey, Thank you, for the reply, I ran a rdwc setup my past few runs, it had 1/2" feed lines that entered at the bottom and then returned through 1" overflow drains at the top of the bucket, back to a waterfall into the res, the entire volume of the system was recirculated 13 times an hour. The thing I noticed was the faster I cycled the nutrient the lower the ppm needed to be to keep the plants happy. What I am wondering is if you noticed a drop in the ppm value your plants needed to stay happy when you went to rdwc? Ie a plant in a single dwc bucket would be happy with a 800ppm level, but in rdwc would be as happy at a 500ppm level. Pahly
DAY 5,6 and 7 (DAY 7 of VEG STAGE/ 18 onx6 off) CURRENT PPM: 920 CURRENT PH: 5.8 PH CHANGE OVER THE PAST 12 HOURS: 0 CURRENT WATER LEVEL: Full CURRENT TEMPS: RH: 20% Cab temp: 78F HEIGHT: n/a. JOURNAL ENTRY I've been a little busy and not much has gone on growth wise so I've slacked off a little in my journal entries. I am on day 7 now and I an finally seeing some consistent root growth. I tried to snap a pic of the tiny roots starting to poke out. The babies are clearly growing upwards and fleshing out. I have moved the light even closer to the tops of the plants, just a few inches away, still at 75%. It's very cool weather at the moment and the lights aren't causing much heat. I was very pleased to see some roots popping out of my two front plants. My last grow--in much warmer weather--produced roots a little earlier in the grow but the plants look healthy and roots are starting to show. All in all, I suppose 7 days is not that long of a wait for roots to pop. I am always pleased to make it one step closer to harvest, mindful of past grows that went perfectly at the beginning but failed miserably towards the end. I circled the roots in red in the attached pics. I have added about a gallon or two of non PH's tap water over the last day or two in an attempt to slightly lower the PPM's. It didn't do much but the PH is now standing firm at 5.8 which is a good sign. When the PH and the PPM's remain pretty stagnate, that's the Lucas formula working....at least, that's how it went for my previous grow. I used to be extremely manic and obsessive about nutrients and spent a LOT of money on the many available options. Now I just use this dry nutrient and keep the PPM's/PH ratio at a certain level and the end result is indistinguishable from the fancy nutrients (in my opinion). -TPM
Hi Pahly, Nearly all of my previous grows utilized nutrients and feeding schedules; I didn't need a PPM meter or use one because I wouldn't have known how to make adjustments one way or the other. For example, when using FoxFarm nutes, I simply mixed and added the listed nutrient to water suggested in the catalog. This helps to explain why my grows were so random in success. When I got brave and attempted a smoke Lucas grow-no fancy nutes and regular tap water-I began to learn about PH/PPM ratio and balance. I run (4) 5 gallon buckets totaling about 16 gallons when they are full (no one really puts all 5 gallons in there because it would overflow) and they are all hooked up to an 18 gallon reservoir. When I was running straight DWC grows-no recirculation or return, just individual DWC units-I would need to change out the water once a week. With a huge reservoir in place, more than the buckets need, my PH and PPM levels stay level for a LOT longer. The sheer volume of water/nutes means you won't notice too much of a change if some goes missing. So my short answer to your question is yes, I do notice I don't need to adjust the PPM's too much, even when they are a little low, because there is such a large volume of nutrients to draw upon. EDIT: I'll also add that with the Lucas method, you don't need to ever empty out the reservoir (at least, I didn't need to). You just keep the water level, PH. And PPM at certain levels and just make simple adjustments throughout the entire process. Very easy, you just need to clean the pump once a month. -TPM
Thanks PurpleMonkey, I'm kind of going in the opposite direction, I've gone from recirc to individual buckets, at least for now, trying to grow different strains on different time schedules. I'd ideally like to take down a plant every 2 weeks. I also used the lucas method and absolutely agree with the simplicity and stability, I wouldn't even worry about or check my plants for 4 or 5 days at a time. I didn't even change out the res other than the odd time when pH would start dropping, I did addbacks by subtracting actual from target ppm and dividing by target then multiplying that by the number of gallons in the res. It is amazing how well it works and understanding the ratios and applying them. Your plants are looking great, do you track the temp of the res at all?? I keep an eye on mine by putting the "outdoor" probe from my indoor/outdoor thermometer into the bucket. It's always exciting to see the roots reach the water, you know growth is going to explode. Pahly
Hi Pahly, Wow, it sounds like you have a very exciting and structured grow going on there! If I had the space, I'd also do several staged grows at the same time. As it is, I must wait until one grow is complete before starting another. This year I sm going to take some clones and root them for a friend. In trnm he'll sdoil plant them and in a few months, after I harvest (fingers crossed), I can take cuttings and re-grow the same strain. I am still very much a novice and the idea of learning one strain and its characteristics appeals to me, so we will see what happens. I used a fish tank water heater in one of my winter grows with good results. I may need to dig it out of storage and hook it up if this cold weather continues. [SIZE=11pt]I am very excited [/SIZE]to see roots. As you say, once the roots hit water the real growth begins. -TPM