starting another journal after learning a LOT of stuff on my first 3 grows. here's my plan: grow room is 5x5 with a 9 foot ceiling, all walls covered in white poly sheeting germinating/vegging with t5 high output flouro 4 ft lamps using a 4 bubble bucket system with reservoir located outside the grow room planning on using the Genhydro expert feeding system all the basic stuff (carbon filter hooked to exhaust fan, 2 oscillating fans, temp/humidity sensor, etc once plants are growing well, i'll put together a 4x4 scrog screen from PVC piping and make it vertically adjustable. temp. is consistently 74F and humidity is around 37-43% each bubble bucket will have 2 airstones in them, and there will actually be 2 pumps in the rez, 1 pump per 2 buckets currently, the seedlings are 2 weeks old. they were germinated using the papertowel method, and transplanted into small rockwool cubes that were presoaked in 5.2pH distilled water. the bubble bucket system isn't quite all hooked up, I still need 2 more grommets for the rez. So, I'm currently hand feeding them. today I mixed a 150 ppm nute solution and hand watered them. I've been watering as the rockwool starts to get dry. Normally, I don't give nutes til around week 3, but the leaves were beginning to yellow, so I mixed a very VERY mild solution, as I dont want them to burn. I'll post some pics in a minute, looking forward to another journal. my last grow had a veg room and a flower room, but I only got about 5-6 oz. off of 2 plants. The problem was that plants were pretty bushy at the lower parts, and a lot of the lower limbs didn't get enough light and they sucked up too much of the plants resources, thus the scrog this time.
here's the room, access to front and back by zippers, also, once they get about 4 weeks, I'm switching over to a 400w HPS to veg. and moving the buckets into a square shape
my main reason for having the journal is to help people learn as I learn, so thanks for the kind words. On my last flowering batch, I used that recirculating bubble bucket setup with the rez. outside the flowering room, and it was SO much easier. It almost made it too easy, and I got bored, haha. I think the key to big yields in the space that I have (and the meager 400w HPS light) is scrog. especially when I see all those lower branches not getting any light. I'm not interested in spending any more money on lights, other than the new full spectrum hortilux bulb I just picked up yesterday, and I'm using it from veg. to flower. currently, temp is at 75F, and 51% humidity. light is 16" above the seedlings. I noticed roots at the bottom of one of the net pots, so it's time to sanitize the recirc. system, and fill with a mild nute solution. I bought 2 airstones for each bucket and have 2 decent airpumps with 4 outlets on each one. Once I get it done, I'll post some pics.
here's some pics after filling the rez/buckets and adding airstones. good bubble action. I just used tap/well water, at 240 ppm, after nutes, at 660 ppm. just got batteries for ph meter and realize I need to calibrate it. usually that GH stuff in distilled water is really stable pH at 5.7ish with no up or down needed, so I'll assume its in range and I'll get calibration sol'n tomorrow. also, after today, I'll be picking up distilled water for the next Rez change
pH meter calibrated, and pH was around 7, so I lowered it to 5.8. I had an oopsy, and when I thought I was adding pH down, I actually had the bottle of flora bloom and had added about 3 ml of it before realizing. no big deal however, because it is about a 16 gal. rez. plants look great, they all have roots that are outside the bottom of the net pot/lid. these thing are growing quickly, and the nodes are VERY tight. I'll post pics later tonight.
fuck! I went to check the system this morning and somehow the water leaked all over the floor around the rez. I didn't have time to find from where it leaked though so I'll have to figure it out tonight. my guess is that one of the grommets leaked from the Rez. in the meantime I'm adding shut off valves on the return lines so I can at least fill the buckets back while I repair the rez
ok, I found out that the grommets and fittings just weren't tight enough to keep the rez. from leaking, probably more due to the thin wall of the storage tote, so to fix, I drained the system, and replaced the tupperware storage tote with a 5 gal. black bucket, the same as the bubble buckets. The buckets seem to have thicker walls, and it shouldnt be an issue. I did put shutoff valves for each return line, so in the future if I have to do work on the rez, or a different bucket, the shutoff valves should help, as I've found it's a pain in the ass to completely drain this system without them. I will finish it tonight and post some pics. also, I'll probably refill the rez. using distilled water with nutes. Currently, the 24 hr. 400w HPS isn't generating too much heat, so I'm keeing the light about 16" above the plants. they are growing roots very quickly, and if I could get this stupid rez. issue fixed, they would probably grow even quicker.
here's some pics, I'm calling them 1-4, starting with the 1 o'clock position. I filled the rez with tap/well water, before nutes 315 ppm. added mild growth nutes and after add 1400 ppm. next Rez change will be with distilled water.
pics on day 28. I topped them all a few days ago. roots look healthy and leaves are not curling after keeping closer eye on pH. it's been drifting up, but I'm keeping it down around 5.9-6.0
here's the beginning of the 3x4 scrog screen. just 1/2" PVC with holes drilled in it and packaging twine/string. 2 inch squares, tight as I could get it. plan is to put the screen at 36" off of ground. leaving 36" above the screen to grow which leaves 16" from the top of the max growth to the light. I plan on flipping 12/11 when about 75% of the screen is full. when the stretch happens it should fill the rest
as promised, pics of my new DIY scrog screen. I have 24" removable support legs that can be replaced with 36" legs so the screen can be adjustable vertically. during my daily check I found the pump supplying the 2 buckets on the right was plugged so I rinsed the filters on both pumps. good thing about having them connected, if pump goes out it's not a huge deal because airstones keep the nutes oxagenated
day 36 updates, thinks are starting to bush up from that topping, still got a ways to go to fill that screen 80%, then I'll flip to 12/12
day 43 update: things are looking good, starting to fill the screen, I'll probably flip the light cycle to 12/12 later this week. I changed the rez last night, ppm at 1220, rez temp is around 76f. this recirculating system is the easiest system I've used, it's almost boring it's so easy! I think it might be a challenge to keep the humidity down during flowering, it's been around 43% and I'm not sure how I'm going to keep it lower other than buy a bigger exhaust fan but I'm not sure that will even do it, any suggestions?
day 46 - switching to 12/12 today humidity is staying around 51% not sure if I should be concerned with this or not? I think as the plants grow it's only going to increase. the humidity in the basement is around 61% so not sure that a bigger exhaust fan will help but, if need be, I'll put a small dehumidifier in there to keep it under 50%. also I'm going to leave veg nutes for 1 week of 12/12 then switch to flowering nutes. I feel pretty good about this and think it will be my biggest yield yet. hoping for around 10-12 oz. from the crop. what do you guys think? feasible?