Morning all, thought I'd start a log of my first hydro grow so if I run into any problems along the way I will have the community here helping me out. Thanks in advance for that. Little background first.... Equipment -Dealzer 3-ft grow box (Yes I know its too expensive and I shoulda got a HPS light, but this is what I got, so please dont beat a dead horse.) -(1) 23w and (2) 14w 6500k CFL bulbs for vegging now -2.5-3 gallon resevoir (havent filled it up yet to see), instead of the original 1 gallon container that comes with the box. I travel a few days at a time and need to make sure I have something that won't dry up to quick. Chemical - Whatever nutes that came with the grow box, opinions or recommendations on these appreciated. - pH ing the water down to about 5.5 - Adding 3 mL/gal of calmag for the resevoir Subject - (1) White widow, I forget which seed bank I bought from, I'd know the web page if I saw it again. Whichever bank it is, the seeds are essentially unviable. Out of 15 seeds to attempt germination, 2 germinated. One of them a few months ago and sadly it died to a calmag definciency which I learned about on this forum. The other 1 is now. I used paper tower method, which didn't work. The only 2 that germed did so by putting the rockwool in a small level of water inside a small tupperware. Made sure rockwool was saturated and left a little water below for them to soak up. Pictures are of Day 1, the old resevoir compared to the new one, and day 2.
looks good. i know you said not to say anything but my only concern is that when they get big that 3 gal. res will empty real quick. mine drink a gallon a day almost and i have 2, 5 gal. res. check my sig. oh and don't want rockwool too wet. just moist. too wet and roots will drown. jm2c
Day 5, 6, 7, 9 The last photo, the leaves look a little droopy, is this something to worry about/remedy? Thanks
Guess the droopiness was nothing to worry about, sprang back up today. Added 1/10 nutrients this morning and am letting the roots out of the resevoir to air out for a little bit.
Havent been around in a few days but all is going pretty well on this end. The other day I decided to germ one of my new seeds from Herbies Head shop. A feminized royal queen sour diesel. Because the Widow was from a batch of regular seeds I don't want to grow for a month or so only to find out its a male. She hasn't broken the surface yet but updates will come when she does.
Explosion! Upped the nutes by about 300%, left town for a few days and it took off. The new SourD is poking up and has a couple real leaves opened up too.
Been upping the lights a little too. I now have 5 CFL's. (3) 6500K bulbs putting out a total of 2450 Lumens and 42 watts, (1) 5000K Bulb, 1600 Lumens and 23W, & (1) 2700K, 900 Lumens, 14W. This totals out at 79W and 4950 lumens. By the time they go to flower I hope to have another box built so I can build it a little bigger and move them over and start a new duo in the smaller box. So these wattages will only be used for the vegging stage. [EDIT] Check out my new box here, http://forum.grasscity.com/grow-room-design-setup/1211666-2nd-box-perpeutal-grow.html
So did a flush today, got what I think is decent root growth on the widow, the SourD is still pretty small. Upping the nutes a little more to about a 1/3 cup, 1/4 cup proved the plants can handle that well. On Day 22 from germination for the widow and day 7 for the SourD. Going to start some LST on the bigger one today too.
The widow has responded well to the training so far and is really looking good IMHO. There is a slight crisis however. I was gone most of the weekend and my resevoir emptied out to much for the SourD. I came home this morning to a droopy girl. Poured some water right on the rockwool cube and refilled the resevoir and she seems to be recovering. Just a slight delay in her growth I hope.
Well, after trying to nurse the sour diesel back to health she just refused to continue to grow so I ended up pulling her today. Heres to hoping the widow turns out to be a female. In regards to the survivor it has taken well to the LST and since I have a bunch more room available fimmed it this morning so it can branch out a bit. Been upping the nutes a little at a time and no sign of nute burn yet. Main stem is nice and thick and new nodes are popping open about every 1/4-1/2 inch. The newer sets of fans have 9 leaves too, so overall pleased with the progress. Day 30 from germination
Switched over to 12/12 yesterday in the new box. Tied all the branches down to help spread it out. Looks like I might have a little cal/mag deficiency developing, dropped in a few extra mLs and see if that helps take care of it.