Hi Everyone and happy Quarantine to you! I have grown outdoor a few times (not extremely successful as last good gorilla grow was raided!) However, with the downtime that I have now and the equipment that I slowly accumulated over the years I have started a small indoor operation and would like to post my updates here for comments/criticism/viewing, and also so that I can look back on it and improve for my future grows. Setup: 2 x 4 x 5 VIVOSUN Mylar Hydroponic Grow Tent (amazon link) BESTVA SAMSUM Series 2000W COB Led Grow Light Full Spectrum (amazon link) VIVOSUN Air Filtration Kit - 8 inch Carbon Filter (amazon link) 3 HydroPod DWC 5 Gallon Buckets (cheap amazon kits-- I wont be using these again) (amazon link) Bluelab Guardian Monitor for PH, Temp & Conductivity (this thing is awesome but $$$) (amazon link) 2 Small Oscillating Fans Another small fan/air purifier/dehumidifier (not using the dehumid just yet) US Energy AD5 Reflective Foam Core Insulation (amazon link) On the way: 4 Inch Stone Disks (amazon link) 35W 65L/min 6 outlet Air Pump (amazon link) Nutrients: I have a ton of different options here as I've acquired some stuff from buddies who have done this a few times. I am still trying to figure out which are best: General Hydroponics: FloraGro, FloraBloom, & FloraMicro VEG + Bloom Dirty SHINE Bloom Additive Cal-Mag Plus Recharge Tribus (Rhizobacteria Promoter) Great White Mycorrihizac Humboldt Nutrients Verde Growth Enhancer Humboldts Secret Base A & Base B Humboldts Secret Golden Tree Fox Farm Grow Big Obviously, I am not going to use all of these different nutrients and am posting them so that you all can give me thoughts on which are better and help me setup a proper feeding schedule. Environment: Temps/Humidty: I live in the tropics and its very hot and humid here. I have been working to get my grow tent temperatures down with all the fans, doing some rigging on my AC units to block the vents to non-grow rooms and filter as much air as I can into the grow room. The grow tent temp was running pretty warm up to 84 degrees until I made some changes to my AC and added all the fans and now I have it to about 76 during the day (todays the first day since the changes). The water was running very warm up to like 78 but i have since then insulated the buckets and am rotating big ice packs in and out of the water. The humidity has been in the 40-50% range which is surprising because its normally about 80% humidity outside of my house. I think that all the fans, the ventilation, and the heat from the lamp are making that about 45% on average which seems like it should be ideal for now. Water: Unfortunately I do not have access to RO water, so I have been using tap and running it through a brita filter to lower the EC. Tap Water Reading: PH of 7.4 PPM (ECx700) of 160 EC/CF of 0.2 (Which of EC readings is standard in hydroponics?) Brita Filtered Water Reading: PH of 6.6 PPM (ECx700) of 110 EC/CF of 0.2 Grow Medium / Germination: I am using the rockwool that came with the DWC buckets and I really am disliking it. For the netpots I have them filled with Grow rocks. I also do not really like these as I washed them down very good for about an hour prior to adding them and I have found that they are still altering the current water readings and causing the PH to rise. I have ordered some Root Riot starters for the next round of seed germination. 1st Attempt: I started one of my seeds (Sleepy Yoda Autoflower) using paper towel method (4 days) and after it sprouted about 2 inches I inserted into the rockwool and let it germinate for another day and then added it into the grow tent / net pot. 2nd Attempt: The next round I started 3 seeds (Pineapple Express Autoflower) directly in the rockwool inside of a container that I have that is for creating clones - however I am using it to enclose my rockwool that has been presoaked in a balanced PH water. I put a little water at the bottom to keep it moist and stick it in a dark room. All 3 of these seeds sprouted in the rockwool however 2 died shortly after I moved them into the grow tent. I believe that it was due to the very high heat which I have since then fixed. 3rd Attempt: Currently have 4 Wappa Autoflower seeds that I soaked for 24 hours in PH balanced water and have since then added to the rockwool like the above attempt and will hopefully be adding 1-2 of these seedlings to the grow tent. Genetics of Seeds: Sleepy Yoda AutoFlower (Philosopher Seeds) Pineapple Express Auto Flower (G13) Wappa Autoflower (Paradise Seeds) Pics of Grow Setup: Week 1 Analysis: I have been battling with the PH of the water constantly rising. I have also been battling with keeping the heat down. Today both of those have finally somewhat stabilized. April 8th Tent Reading: Tent Temp: 77 F Tent Humidity: 49% Water Temperature: 69 F Water PH: 5.8 Water ppm: 280 So I am constantly checking the water PH and Temp and it has finally begun to stabilize. On April 6th (2 days ago) I added the following nutrients to the buckets: 5ml of FloraGrow (into about 4 gallons in each bucket) 1ml of Tribus Rhizobacteria Each of their PPM readings were right below 300 PPM Today, April 8th (2 days later), the readings are 280 PPM (sleepy yoda) and 270 PPM (pineapple express) Over the past few days i have been adding PH Down to each as they keep rising to close to 7 PH after I set them at 5.5 12 hours prior. Today's rise wasn't as much as I believe that the air rocks have finally fully diluted and the temperature control is better. I added 5ml of Calmag to each container prior to the above reading Pictures of the Seedlings: Plant 1 (Sleepy Yoda) 12 Days Old - Birthday 3/27 Under the LED light set to VEG the new leaves are looking a little yellow/brownish. In the pics without the lights on it looks good The roots are popping through the rockwool pretty nicely however haven't made it down through the netpot. I have the water level about 1 inch below the rockwool bottom so it is getting some splash from the water bubbling Plant 2 (Pineapple Express) 8 Days Old - Birthday 4/1 Still small but the coloring looks good on this one The roots are popping through the sides of the rockwool but still need to grow a bit to reach the reservoir. Summary / Comments / Questions: I apologize for the very long winded and information overload on this original post just wanted to document everything throughout the process. I have been running the LED light 24 hours a day but have it turned off right now to allow the tent to cool and give the little babies a break. The standard pumps and air rocks with these DWC buckets are not very good so I am patiently waiting for my new air-rocks to arrive with the stronger pump that will fit all 3 of my buckets rather then having 3 separate pumps adding to the electricity and heat. Wrapping the DWC buckets in the foam insulation and adding ice packs have seemed to really make a difference! I have made a few mistakes with the heat and not letting the seedlings germinate long enough before putting them into the buckets, I am letting this next batch get a little larger before putting them in the tent. Some of my questions: Which nutrient combo should I use and in what doses? Should I add CO2 exhale bag to the tent to help offset some of the high temp? How long should I wait until moving the rockwool or root riot seedlings into the netpots? What is the optimal lighting schedule for DWC? Anything else that I am missing?
Here is my journal, it's documented good. Will answer your questions if you take the time to read. It's kinda long Last one for a while
Updates April 13th 2020: 3 days ago I started the first nutes for these guys. For both 5 gallon buckets that are live I assumed that each had about 3-4gallons of water in there and I added this which was about 1/3 of the recommended: 5ml of Humboldts Secret Base A 5ml of Humboldts Secret Base B 2ml of Humboldts Golden Tree 1/3 Scoop of Great White 2ml of Tribus This brought brought the PPM on the reader up to about 350 on each. This number has stayed pretty much the same on both plants up or down about 20 PPM here or there. It seems like my bigger plant is taking more of the nutes because it has a smaller reading down to 320 now. Pictures of the Seedlings: Plant 1 (Sleepy Yoda) 17 Days Old - Birthday 3/27 PPM: 330, PH 5.7, Water Temp 67, Tent temp 74-82 depending on when the light is on Under the LED light set to VEG the new leaves are looking a little yellow/brownish with purple stem. Some of the tips of the leaves are a bit brown - is this caused by nutrients, the light being too powerful, or heat? The roots have grown a ton and are multiplying The plant is still pretty short and it seems like the system that top feeds it is splashing it a lot I hope that its not overwatering Plant 2 (Pineapple Express) 13 Days Old - Birthday 4/1 PPM: 380, PH 5.8, Water Temp 67, Tent temp 74-82 depending on when the light is on The leaves are not looking like they are doing great as they seem thing and curl both and down depending on the temp and if the lights been on for a while Roots still have not reached through the netpot which kind of worries me as its in rockwool. Is it ok to adjust the hydroton and move it around if its drowning itself? I added the new pump that and better airstones have also been icying the water down which stays constantly around 67-69. I have gotten the tent to 74 degrees when cooling / lights off, it gets up to about 80 at its highest - still working on keeping the room a couple degrees cooler. The humidity has been steady 40-50%. The PH ticks up every day but usually just from 5.5 to 5.9 and i drop it down every day or two to 5.5 Questions that I have Does the nutrient mix that I went with seem like its a good ratio to start with? Are the PPMs at a decent level for being 13 days and 17 days old on these plants? Can the top watering system on these DWC buckets cause overwatering? It seems the leaves are always wet - I have been playing with turning this off half the time. My LED light thats 2000w with a 400w pull is 26" above the top of the buckets (the plants haven't grown past the bucket rim) is that the right distance? (I bought a lux meter to get a valid measurement that I will report back with) Can you recognize any issues with either: heat/nutes, defiencies, and watering? I have created another bucket of PH balanced water with the same nutrient mix and I'm adding a cup or two each day depending on how much water has been consumer. Is this method ok to use? The LED light has is 2000w led but a 400w pull - it has a veg and bloom switch - its a few degrees warmer with both on. Should I be running just grow or should I have them both on? Sorry for the long post again - just really want to get this started off properly! CHEERS
Right, where do start then? Lots of info there lol. Well first thing is the turn off the top feed. The bubbles popping in the res should keep it wet enough. The roots take ages to grow if they don't have to hunt down for a drink. Ec is the measurement to go by. That s universal. Ppm can have different values depending on the meters calibration. Your ec not including your water should be about 0.4 for now. So if your water is 0.2 then you set the res to 0.6 Don't be scared of underfeeding. They go a bit yellow from the bottom up to tell you. Up the dose and they fix themself. Over feed them though and the damage is done by the time you see it. Ph fluctuations. 9/10 times it shifts how you described it's just not been mixed properly. Mix nutes. Stir like crazy. Ph adjust. Leave for am hour to settle then check and ph adjust again if it's needed. Hmmm... what else was there? Ach that'll do for now. It's 6am and I've only got one thumb. Chopped the top off my other one last night but can't go to a&e cos of the plague thing so just had to glue it back on. Quite hard to type with 1 thumb as it turns out lol.
Once you have a few roots reach the water in the buckets, you can stop the top watering or just pour a couple cups per day on each bucket if you think they are drooping. I don't top water, rather side water. My fill lines come in around the top of the buckets, so I just scoot the net pot lids right to the side where the water comes in, then pour a couple cups per day till roots hit the water. Then at that point I'll go to 350 -- 500 PPM's for a couple weeks, change the water to transition to flowering, bump up to around 600--700 for a couple weeks. By then the plants will have established a feed pattern you should recognize, eat more ppm's drop ph raises, eating less ppm's go high ph drops. Find the sweet spot your plants wants and keep it there, no more, no less, they will tell you if you pay attention and keep notes.
Sleepy Yoda: 23 days old Tomorrow is clean out day... I raised nutrients 3 days ago from 250 ppm to 500ppm currently its down to 420ppm meaning they drank some nutrients. I have kept the res water at 63-69F, the tent is at 76-82F. Tonorrow when I change the water out for this one should I do anything to offset this droopy looking leaves? I have made sure to cool the res twice a day, the tent a few degrees cooler and bring the water level 2 inches below the net pots just recently. please check the pics and give me advice for Sunday feeding: FAA7FED7-B653-48DE-B591-9A08965A7E55 by elrojo posted Apr 18, 2020 at 10:48 PM
Sleepy Yoda: 27 days old During clean out I realized there was a ton of brown sud at the bottom of the bucket.... most likely from the hydroton but I also noticed a bit of root rot see pic below: So I cleaned and sanitized the bucket really well. I sprayed a little bit of H020 onto the roots and rinsed them out really well. I also decided to say screw the humboldt secrets a&b + golden tree as nutes as it seemed to not have alot of documentation. i swapped to the GH VEG + BLOOM + MICROS + CALMAG PLUS (also using Great White --- I am waiting for my hydroguard to add to this plant and the 3 others that are 1 week in or just seedlings.) On this plant which is 4 weeks old: I brought PPMs to 500 (it has in the last 12 hours came down to 460) (My water source is 180) PH is at 5.7 Water Temp is at 64-68 Tent Temp is at 75-80 I moved my LED 2000W light up to 28 inches above the top of the DWC buckets. Here are the pics of when the plant looked droopy before I started to take action on the root rot: 2 Days ago (day 25): TODAY UPDATE (DAY 27): Today after the bucket deep clean, h2o2 to the roots, and then re setting everything with the new nutrients: So its not that visible but the leaves seem to be turning upwards not full taco but the edges, also the top leaves are much lighter in color than the bottom leaves --- however the bottom leaves are a bit blueish green and seem like it was caused by overwatering and root rot. The root rot has seemed to clear up quiet a bit from the bucket clean and the h2o2 applied directly to the roots where they were tangled and brown. My questions are: Does the plant look under/over on nutrients? I have a 2000w LED light listed above and have it hanging now 28 inches above the tops of the buckets (the plant in picture is maybe 3-4 inches above that now so still about a good 2 feet... is this the proper amount? its at the top of my tent am I going to need to plan to get something that goes up a few feet to adjust while this grows / stretches? I want to start LST but I am not sure if this plant is too stressed to handle it. Also, since it's an autoflower, should i avoid topping it? I have been adding in ice packs to keep my water temps down to the 64-68, does this in anyway affect the roots if they directly touch the ice packs? I have been running the Veg+Bloom on the LED for a few hours during the light schedule then swapping back to just veg to let the tent and plants cool down similar to a hot afternoon and cooler morning/evening --- should I keep doing this or choose one or the other? I have hydroguard coming to help with any potential root problems that are here, any suggestions on how to introduce this to the mix? I have been running this light 20-18hrs on and 4-6 hrs off depending on how the plant performed the previous day (ie. if it looks droopy more sunlight, perky then less) THANK YOU!
1. Over- set res to 300ppm. 2.post a link to the light so we can check the specs. 3. If the 4th node is there to cut off by day 17 then they're growing hard enough to take it. If not don't. Not an exact science but that's how I judge it. Topped loads of autos and that seems to be the magic time to not hurt them. You'll get a pretty similar result just from LST alone too so look into that maybe a better option. (Edit) just double checked your pics. Don't top them. They're too small. 4. Don't know but probably. 17-22*c whatever that is in Fahrenheit. Folks need to get decimal like it's 2020 ffs. Use h202 in the feed at 0.3ml/L to keep it clean. Don't have to worry till it hits 25*c if your sterile. 5. Light on full power then litfa. 6. Use hydroguard as stated. It's bacteria, not nutrients so the dose on the bottle is the correct dose. 0.5ml/L. Use h2o2 with the feed untill you get that then clean the roots and empty the res before using h/g. The h202 kills the good stuff in that too. 7. 18/6 then litfa.
I just got done with ma first dwc grow. Unfortunately all I can say is what I would do. Not to include the dozens of environmental questions that could be asked to give a better context. I'll leave the real advice to the pros. 1. No tip burn. From what I can tell by the lighting, not too dark green. No spots. Maybe a bit of leaf edge curl but that could possibly be from the light and or temps but was minor; if anything at all. Is there a chance there are heat spikes you're unaware of? Ide second that the initial drooping was onset of root rot, unless my dissolved o2 was shit. Which could exacerbate the root rot due to more anaerobic conditions. But your water temps are cold enough and using great white, which should significantly reduce chances of root rot, but I've read of poeple getting root rot even tho they use sterile cleaners or bennies; most with poor w-temps, some as well with cold w-temps. I've even read a post of someone who tried EVERYTHING in his dwc setup to get rid of root rot. It would always prevail. At the end of the thread he states after getting his water source tested, there were baddies in his water all along. One reason poeple get their water tested or choose RO in DWC. enjoyed using RO. 2. I would go with what the manufacturer states. Is it 2k true watts? Just incase you're unaware of the near false marketing of chinese leds. It might actually be 400watts. If its 2k then I'd love to know what company it is. 3.not familiar with autos, but I wouldn't want to top a plant during possible root troubles. 4. I use probe chillers drilled in my bucket, after a bit the probe is like forever cold ice. It passed my mind if it might affect the roots closest to it. Roots seemed fine and alive around it, hugging and wrapping it. Is that the same as you putting ice packs? Maybe not. But close ide bet. 5. I'm not sure it matters. I personally would do whatever requires least effort by me. Would just keep both specs on and reduce my workload. Unless you need to do this to manage temps. Then that sucks. 6. Hydroguard. The last thing you do to your water. Nutrients(possible sub-order here) , pH, then hydroguard. It doesn't affect pH. I understood bennies are always the very last thing to go in the water. 7. Like #5, not sure, but would do the simplest, most easily automated approach. All IMO. Dwc noob to a dwc noob. All I can do Cheers Sent from my SM-A102U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Thank you so much for the feedback. I can't wait to flower and harvest this stuff. I have 5 other plants lined up behind these first ones.
Fuckin sweet ^.^ same here Stick around man, dont disappear! Hehe Sent from my SM-A102U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Sleepy Yoda: 34 days old PPM: 460 (down from the original 500 I set a week ago) PH: 5.7 and pretty steady Water Temp: 67 on average (have been using ice packs) Tent Temp: 75 on average (cooled ac) Tent Relative Humidity: 35-45% This thing started to grow out of control but is looking very short and bushy... After swapping last week to General Hydroponics feeding schedule (watered down a bit) and adding in hydroguard, the roots are looking much more healthy. Please see the random pics I just took: Questions: How low should I let the water get? Its currently about 3-4 inches below the netpot, its been drinking alot but I have been purposely leaving it lower to get more oxygen going to the roots. Should I start to tie down these nodes/branches - or even remove some of the big fan leaves? They are beginning to grow out of control almost. How can I tell when this plant starts to flower? It has been going for about 5 weeks now and I have been running the lights 18/6 (was originally 20/4 but was battling some heat so toned it down a bit). When it starts flowering is it ok to leave it at 18/6 (its an autoflower plant) Any chance this could be a male?
Pineapple Express Auto 28 Days Old PPM: 360 (down from the original 420 I set a week ago) PH: 5.7 and pretty steady Water Temp: 67 on average (have been using ice packs) Tent Temp: 75 on average (cooled ac) Tent Relative Humidity: 35-45% I moved the light up a few inches and started letting it run both the VEG + BLOOM as advised earlier in this thread and this plant started to stretch a bit more than the other plant. (MAYBE its normal because the other one is looking rather dwarf like). I decided to top the plant a few days ago and it's still growing nicely. Originally when this one started growing some of the leaves were a bit mutated looking but the new ones are coming in strong. Here are some photos of this plant just taken: Questions: Do you see anything wrong with this plant that I should change? (It seems to be growing better than my other one its only a week behind and not as much growth - but this 4/5th week seems to have explosive growth on the last plant so I am not all that worried about it.)
Sleepy Yoda: 37 days old PPM: 760 (reset the nutrients a bit higher as it drank the previous batch down from 500 to 320 a of today) PH: 5.9 (probably will have to ph down tomorrow as it usually spikes after I reset the nutrients) Water Temp: 67 on average (have been using ice packs) Tent Temp: 75 on average (cooled ac) Tent Relative Humidity: 40-50% PICTURES: Pineapple Express Auto 31 Days Old PPM: 620 (reset the nutrients a bit higher as it drank the previous batch down from 420 to 300 a of today) PH: 5.7 Water Temp: 67 on average (have been using ice packs) Tent Temp: 75 on average (cooled ac) Tent Relative Humidity: 40-50% After topping earlier this week and it starting to recover I have done a bit of LST as pictured below to pull the plant to 3 different points on the bucket. To my surprise its quickly already started to grow back to towards the light even when the branches/nodes are bent pretty drastically. PICTURES: Questions: How does the growth on both plants look? Should I be doing anything differently? My PPMs on my tap water filtered are about 180ppm, so with the nutrients i have added about 600 to the older more developed plant, and 440 to the younger one that was topped and LSTed. Is this too much? The reason I upped it was that I noticed the newer growth was a bit yellow greenish and the PPMs were being sucked out of the water pretty quickly.
Sleepy Yoda: 39 days old PPM: 570 (had this set at 720 on the most recent bucket clean/reset) PH: 5.9 Water Temp: 65 on average (have been using ice packs) Tent Temp: 75 on average (cooled ac) Tent Relative Humidity: 40-50% Pineapple Express Auto 33 Days Old PPM: 550 (had this set at 620 on the most recent bucket clean/reset) PH: 6.0 Water Temp: 65 on average (have been using ice packs) Tent Temp: 75 on average (cooled ac) Tent Relative Humidity: 40-50% Update: Sleepy Yoda is growing like crazy and its also sucking down the PPM's big time. I didn't have time to do a full bucket reset today so just added in a gallon of premixed water that was set to 820 PPM. It absorbed the nutrients down from 720 to close to 500 before I topped it back up to 570. I will reset it to a higher number later this week but I figured it's probably best to do that in small increments rather then cause any toxicity. This plant is very bushy and growing taller closer to the light. Originally, I had the light at 26 inches above the base of the bucket, i have raised it up to 30 inches above the base of the bucket, but the plant is now 14 inches tall so its only 16 inches away from the bucket. I have limited space as to how far I can move the light with the tent only being 5 feet tall. Is it too late for me to start LSTing this plant? Pics: Pineapple Express it has survived LST and topping just fine, it is growing what sideways and all the future colas / tall growths are starting to reveal themself. This plant isnt drinking water nearly as fast as the other one but its sucking down the nutrients from 620 (2 days ago) to 530 and was topped back up to 550. This plant is more stretched out looking and less bushy the the other but I think that will be good with my current grow setup. Pic: PS. Forgive for all the information overload that I have been posting, however I am using this to make notes so that I can look back in my future grows.
You’re in good hands with @Spanish@rcher in DWC. He makes it sound so simple. I hate growing in buckets, only with clones
Lookin decent. Anxious to see how the PE auto turns out. Today is day one for mine...popped overnight. Who is the breeder on your pineapple express? Forgive me if it is above and I missed it while reading… I'm pretty high. Mine is FastBuds. My first try with them, but I hear lots of good stuff. Cheers