http://forum.grasscity.com/hydroponic-growing/1279600-noob-grow-planning-ahead.html Hey ya'll, thanks for joining. I'm starting this journal 5 days in to my first ever grow. I am using a DWC system with only one reservoir, using Purple Kush (here-on-out known as PK) bagseed sprouted in rockwool grow cubes. You can check the other forum that I have posted for my beginning research and all of the extras, but I will go ahead and give the rundown on here as well. My Reservoir: 12 gallons of PH'ed water fills up to the bottom .5 inch of the net pot. 5 holes in the lid, 4 with pots in them, one for access. 3 pots have PK in them, the other is a reg bagseed that I wanted to play with and see how it turns out. 127 GPH air pump with 4 lines going to 4 air stones in the res. Lots of bubbles. DO NOT YET HAVE, but I will be adding a small water pump to run a top-feed drip system. Lights: For you experts, I would turn away. This is pretty depressing. Right now, all I have is 2 CFL's, one 6500k and one 2700k. Both 65 actual watts. I am going to purchase a 2 ft T8 strip for a nice veg light for now, then getting a 400 watt MH/HPS when I get the money. My room: I am using half of a bedroom closet for this grow. It's small and in an apt, so bear with me. Using a 3x2 space, with about 6 ft of height, more than enough for my expectations. I'm lucky and have the hanging bar for clothes to hang my lights from. Plenty strong. Nutes: General Hydroponics FloraGrow, FloraBloom, and FloraMicro. Guy at the hydro store recommended it. I have no PH pen or PPM meter yet. No $$$ to play with at the moment. Plants were germinated Feb 15, and all 4 were sprouted and in the reservoir by the 17th. We will call today day 2 of vegetative state, since the first set of leaves were fully formed 2 days ago. That's the rundown!! Thanks for reading. I'll come back later with plant updates and hopefully pics of the setup. Indy
Nice one, exciting isn't it? Man i know you say you have no cash for ph and ec meters atm, but shit man they are important. Look on ebay and buy a cheap one for now even, you could probably get a ph and an ec meter for under 30 bucks delivered, dead serious you need to find a way to get your hands on them imo. Inb4 you get people telling you you don't need them. Good luck on your grow!
Yessir, I do understand how important those meters are. Tuesday is the next paycheck, so I'll have them before too long. Thank you!! Indy
If you plan on getting the 400 HID lamp anytime soon, I would just skip out on the T5's and just buy the HID first and save the money in the long run. Since I bought my MH bulb and electronic ballast, I haven't even looked at my flouro bulbs and just think of all that money I spent sitting there wasted.
Thanks chereokee, i actually just found somebody with a used 1000 watt ballast and all the amenities, so when the check gets here tuesday i will have that set up. Indy
Im in here man. Anxious to see some pictures of the grow. GH nutes will work well for you. Yeah just skip the Floro and get HID. You def want to get a Ph meter ASAP. Your plants dont need nutes until week 2-3 so no need for ppm until then.
Care if I join the convo? I have a similar setup. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Join away, Cookiemonsta. I stopped updating recently, but I will get back on track here soon. Just a quick one, here's how things are going: I just checked Ph for the first time since start last night, and it was at 8.3. The plants all look healthy, except for one small burn spot on the reg plant, and I lost the bottom two leaves of one of the PK. I gave them the first real dose of nutrients as well, and response so far seems good. I have them in a rubbermaid tote, it's about 18 gallons I believe, but i only have +/- 10 gals of water in there now. 2 CFL's still, both 6500k, 65 watts. I have a T5 fixture, but I have yet to wire it in and put it up. No res change since the start, and have had no problems. I am getting ready to make a huge move with these plants. I just got my own place, and I will have to move these girls from their current location to the new house. It's only a 10 minute drive, so it isn't too bad, but i'm worried about drying out roots and what not. Are there any tips on how to keep the plants healthy during this 'trip'?
Sounds good. Ill get back on here tomorrow as well. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
The first two are my whole setup. I'm looking down and into the closet that it is in. 2 bulb T5, 28 watts. 2 40 watt CFL's. The blue tubing is a DIY drip tube i kinda just put up for now. Like i said, getting ready to move the whole setup, so nothing is permanent yet. The empty pot was a PK plant, but i lost it obviously. The other open spot is just an access so I don't have to lift the lid. And that's my little grow. For now The two purple kush are on the outside, the reg plant is in the corner. all doing fairly well.
That's really growth from what I can see. I'm excited to see my results but I'm only a little week into it. That's not a bad setup either. Ill post a picture ones I start getting cuts for cloning so 4-5 weeks I think. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Just did a little bit of lst on the plants, and topped one of the PK. They are looking even greener tonight, and growth really is quick. I checked the PH again, and it's back to 8?!?!!? I don't understand how the plants aren't reacting to this... They show no signs of yellowing anymore, and the burn spots have all healed. There is the slightest bit of taco curling on the upper leaves, but i am keeping the lights fairly close to the tops. I think everything is rolling smoothly!! I'm excited that my first grow is going well, and i'm looking forward too more. Hydro is definitely the way to go!
I'm in for this one, Indy. Curious: are you going to run all three of the GH nutes, or just Micro and Bloom with Lucas? I'm in my first DWC grow and using Lucas and love it. Started out with the sample pack the guy gave me at the hydro shop. Haven't had any complaints. Did have what I am 99% sure was a micronute deficiency a couple weeks ago. Someone (maybe dishphead?) mentioned that some people have had micronute issues with GH nutes. Thankfully mine bounced back when I let the ph fluctuate some. I think I was locking out zinc, and possibly manganese as well. I was pretty religious keeping my ph at 5.8. But I started letting it dip down to 5.6 and I think it did the trick. Either that or the addition of Big Bud, or a combination of those things. Either way, keep diligent notes and keep us updated and we'll get any problems you may run into sorted out and get you smoking some product soon! Good luck brother.
I will be running Gro, Micro, and Bloom for the duration. I'll probably add a bud booster or other nutrients as needed, but other than that, nothing special. I'm still stumped as too how my PH jumped 2 points in one day and the plants showed no unhealthy response. I'm keeping an eye on that closely... Thanks for the support! Indy
I would look into adding a sugar (e.g., Bud Candy) and a top booster (e.g., Bud Ignitor) the first two weeks of flower. Then a P/K boost near the end for a hardener (e.g., Big Bud). Other than that you don't need much else. I do consider enzymes a must in all my grows for the duration of the grow (I use Sensizyme). And I will probably always use Silica Blast as well. Especially as much as I pull and twist and snap and break my plants, the silica helps with good, sturdy branching and resilience (and nute uptake as well). The only other thing I would add is pay attention to possible cal/mag deficiencies. I had a little one early but I caught it in plenty of time. So I run CalMag too. Did you get your PH pen yet or are you using strips or the solution drops stuff? Regardless of what you're using, it could have been a faulty reading. Make sure your pen is calibrated (if you are in fact using a pen). At the same time, I've had ph plummet or skyrocket in one day and the plant didn't show any signs of stress. At least none that I saw. I think it's very possible for it to change two points in a day and not show much or any stress if you catch it and correct it soon enough. I could be wrong, just my two cents.