1st Grow-13 plant DWC

Ok I shoulda started this sooner but better late than never i guess, lol
 
I planted 13 seeds, pretty much bag seeds, on 1/7/14. By 1/12/14 all 13 sprouted. I wasn't expecting all to sprout. i used rockwool cubes. I soaked the cubes  5.5 ph water for a few hours and then planted the seeds into them. i also used a seedling heat pad and humidity dome. i had a 125w CFl light over the seeds on a 18/6 schedule from the time i planted.
 
i believe i waited too long to transplant but i ended up moving all 13 plants to a DWC set up on 1/16/14. I think i waited about 2 days too long because the roots were about 3" long out the bottom of some of the cubes. I used 2 30 gallon sterlite totes and one 5 gallon bucket for the plants. One 30 gallon holds 6 plants. The 5 gallon has just one plant. The totes were originally dark gray but i painted the outside flat white to help block more light and reflect light as well.
 
This project was kinda a rushed low budget project. I am trying to learn by experience i guess. i done a lot of research but i learn better with hands on experience. Also i know i still have very much to learn.
 
So at this point the plants are almost 3 weeks old. i got a lot of strange growth going on and i think i am not getting enough oxygen to soem of the roots. Another thing is maybe I started nutes too soon. there is a ton of different opinions online and i went with a very small amount at 2 weeks old. On here I read somewhere nutes should be started around week 4. I also read somewhere else to use nutes from day one but it seemed like that wasn't the popular opinion.
 
The objective of this grow its to hopefully get 3 to 6 females to harvest. Eventually i will transfer the plants from the 30 gals to individual 5 gal once i find out sex of plants. This is kinda a crash course grow so bare with me if i am doing something obviously wrong, lol. I am no sure exactly when i will flower. I was planning on waiting til plants got about 12" but i maybe just switch to flowering at 4 weeks. i just wanna quick grow as healthy as possible. Next grow i will definitely get some feminized good genetic seeds.
 
Things i know i need to work on:
-Getting more air to roots
-Getting res temps lower
-Figuring out how to better light proof room for flowering
-Research, research, research

 

Some more info: I am using 8 23w cfls(4x2700k and 4x6000k) and a 125w cfl over the 30 gal totes. I have just one 23w over the 5 gal bucket plant. The room temp ranges from around 70 degrees F to 80 degrees F. Res temps are around 73 degrees. the PH is around 6.0 to 6.2 in all res. i have 2 12 inch air stones in each 30 gal tote powered by a 4w(71 gph) and 3w(120 gph) pump, and a 3 inch diameter air stone in the 5 gal powered by a 2.5w small pump.
 
Heres close up pics from today of all the plants.
 
 

 

Another thing the one i put into the 5 gallon was the last one to sprout. i thought by putting it into the 5 gallon by itself worst conditions to grow in but now its the healthiest plant i have going, lol. I gotta think its due to the amount of air its getting. also tomorrow i am planning to switch out one of the 30 gal res. i am filling up the water tonight and adjusting PH and nutes tomorrow. i use furniture dolleys to move totes when they are full. i also had to add a couple screws to each side of the lid of the totes because the water weight pushs off the lids if i don't. Because of this problem i think next time i might use smaller totes. too hard to get in and out of tote. i pull the net cups out now to check ph, ppm and temp. Not sure if i am doing damage to the roots but i know once they get bigger they will not come out too easy.
 
i will try to get some pics of the res change to better explain what i got going on.

 

i been doing more research and i discovered a few things i really need to address.
-my res temps are too high
-my fans were too strong on plants
-my nutes are probably too high for this stage /300ppm
-i definitely need more air in my 30 gals

i fixed the fans. i have a bunch of 2 liter bottles frozen with water i am gonna try to incorporate some how to get my res temp down. the nutes i may leave out when i switch the res out tomorrow then start a small dose in about a week. i cant get another pump until end of feb, hopefully getting res temps down will help promote oxygen.

heres a pic of some of the roots on one of the plants. most look the same except for the one in the five gal that ones looks alot bigger then the rest.

 

ok i switched out one of the 30gal res. i noticed a little bit of orange on a couple of the roots. i decided to just ph adjust water and leave nutes out. to keep res temps and room temp a little cooler i put a portable evaporative cooler in room facing towards the res. i need to work on light proofing and enclosing closet very soon. i think biggest issue is air bubbles at the moment though. i am most like gonna order a 20w pump from a website my friend told me about. the pump is only 23 bucks. i paid 20 for my 3w at a local hydro store. htgsupply.com is the site.

anyways heres a few pics of my best looking plants. 1a, 2b and stella, lol or as i labeled it before 5g.

 

i ran into a problem a couple days back. it seemed i started getting a root rot problem. i bought some hygrozyme and added it at half recommended strength. seems like the plants are doing better now. i also think i have been using too much nutes. i notice what looks like nute burn on some of the plants. i will post pics from today shortly. i am gonna switch to flower in the next few days.

i think my next attempt at hydro i will do a direct top feed set up. seems like a better set up if done right. also i wont do so many plants.

 

Here's some pics from today. There is some nute burn on some of the leaves i believe and 3C i accidently let light get too close. they are just over 3 weeks from being planted. 24 days to be exact. Tomorrow i am gonna make sure room is light proof so when i switch to flowering there is no issue. My bigger air pump was just shipped today should be here around Feb. 4th.

 

i am still dealing with some root issues but the plants seem to be doing better. i got my bigger pump today so i have over 3x the air i had before. i also tried adding 2 liter frozen bottles of water to the reservoirs today and it cooled them down to under 70 degrees. i will probably have to do that at least twice a day to keep temps in check.

i am starting a new time schedule over the next week that will have me into flowering schedule but next tuesday. i am doing a slow transition into flowering but also setting up my lights to run at night when its cooler.

 

today is day 29 since planting seeds. they are all growing pretty good in my opinion but some seem to have some sort of issue. i am giving it a few days before i try to make any nute changes. i believe a lot of the issues came from too high temps and too low oxygen. i am pretty sure i solved that now.

heres a pic from today.

 

here is some pics of the roots from a few days ago. they got pretty bad. i hope the new changes i made reverse the damage.

 

so i thought i would give a little update. i am still battling higher res temps and root rot but plants are still growing pretty strong. i will begin my flowering cycle tuesday. 5 weeks after planting seeds. my biggest concern at this point is the plants are way too big for their container now and i have to keep them in the same containers until their sex shows. honestly i am happy i got them this far but i really hope i can finish this grow some what sucessful. i will definitely be doing a recirculating dwc set up next grow. and i definitely will not start with this many plants, lol.

another week or two in this set up seems scary since they are already crowding badly but i dont really have any other option. this project already got me into some what of money issues and i cant afford anything else until another few weeks and even then i gotta play catch up on other things.

i got just enough to get up to six plants in individual 5 gal dwc set ups, and their nutes. hopefully besides the stuff i need at harvest thats it for a month or so.

 

heres a few pics from tonight

 

well for a little update. the plants are 5 weeks and 4 days from being planted. i am looking for a quick small grow so i switched to flowering nutes and flowering light schedule on last tuesday. i am just waiting for them to show sex at the moment and fine tune where the nutes should be. my ppms are pretty low so i plan to add nutes tomorrow. i also hooked up my vent/filtration system and added a 400w hps for flowering. the 30gals looks like a jungle atm. the crowding is pretty bad. also now all the roots are connected so separating when i find out the sex is gonna be pretty stressful for both the plants and me, lol.

i will try to add some more pics soon.

 

heres a couple pics from today. 5 weeks 6 days from seed. i got a hell of a crowding problem. its been almost a week since i switched to flower no definite sex signs so far. the only way this grow will make it to harvest if they live through the root separation i gotta do when i find out sex of plants. hopefully they all dont hermie on me afterwards either.

the biggest plants are around 14 inches i have 3 that are really short compared to rest around 7-8 inches. they all look pretty healthy but seem a little droopy.

 

thanks for subbing. yeah this was kinda a crash course for me. i started with way too many plants. i planted 13 expecting probably 10 to sprout but all 13 sprouted. i am still just hoping to get to harvest and get a little out of the whole thing. i think the bigger air pump and adding ice to the containers helped a lot with root rot issues. i dont know if i am in the clear yet though. also i add hygrozyme too but i am already almost out of the 22 dollar bottle. if this whole grow does fail i feel i still learned a lot. next try i will go feminized seeds and probably 6 plants. a six site recirculating dwc would be ideal, with a controller bucket for water adjustments and stuff. one of the harder things about this set up right now is getting to the water for ph/ppm/temp checks. i made a little siphon system that helps a little but its kinda a pain.

good luck with your grow. i will check out your link.

 

yeah after i committed to the 30 gal i realized water weight was gonna be an issue and water changes would be interesting. so to solve that i bought furniture dolleys from harbor freight. the bigger dolleys which cost almost 45 dollars but i figure i needed them. i also bought three 30 gal totes. when i do water changes i fill up the 3rd tote to my goal water level. 24 hours later i add nutes and hygrozyme, if i use it, then ph adjust water. then i take plants off dirty water tote and inspect roots real good and set them on the new water tote. i take air lines and air stones out from dirty water tote and set plants back on the dirty water and set up air for new water. then finally place plants on new water tote. also water weight caused the sides to push out harder than i expected so i ended up using a 1/8 drill bit and added a screw to each side of the lids. i have been trying to res changes every 2 weeks.

i was kinda learning as i went with this set up but the dolleys i think made it possible to get this far. i am hoping the roots tangled doesnt kill this grow once i cut but it might. it could possibly turn them all hermie from things i read or just kill them. i also read a couple posts from people who have done it and plants still thrived. i will definitely update when i cross that bridge.

 

today is excatly 6 weeks from planting seeds. i identified 4 males tonight and 2 with female signs. i am hoping they all show soon cause one of the males is like a super male, lol. well it has a ton of sacks. also these plants are drinking a lot of water now. the five gallon drops almost an inch a day it seems. the 30 gallons dropped about 3 inches from last tuesday.

the massacre is coming soon once i get them all sexed. i will update more probably tomorrow. from the pics i ided earlier in this journal all of plants in column 3 are males i am pretty sure and 1b is definitely a male. 4c and 5g/stella have girl signs. my phone cant get good pics of them but i will try to get more soon. i got one of 1b though and one of from under the canopy of the stems.