Day 53 Overall Day 27 - 12/12 1330-1530ppm Ph - 5.7 - 6.0 I've decided to stay between 1450-1550 for the remainder of the grow, followed by 7-10 days of pure PH'd water. I'm sure there will be periods when it goes 1550+, when I'm away for multiple days, but i want to max the plants out weeks 4-7, maybe 8 depends on the tri's progression. I like that upper high! I've been keeping that light about 4-5" from the top of the nodes. I'll let it get closer until i see the first sign of any heat damage. Still no bugs or mold. Aqua Shield IS THE SHIT! 20-30% Rh doesn't hurt either.
Wow. I think this may be how I venture away from soil. I really like your setup. About how much would it take to get all the supplies for your system.
I had a bunch of wood boards at my disposal for the frame at no cost. Woods not that expensive. You can get away with a 1/2"-3/4" plywood board cut to your grow area dimension and some 2x4s for the legs and frames. You'll want to make it sturdy, 8lbs a gallon of water. I cut mine to 24"x34" because it was designed for a smaller area back on grow 1, but it still serves as a great base for a larger area. Airration: 20-25$ aquarium air pumps at walmart are about 11$ a piece last i checked and the stones were a 1$ a piece. Get 25' of 1/4 air tubing, a few 1/4" T splitters from home depot and 1 pump splitting into four single stones for each DWC tray. You can always add more pumps and more air stones later. I went form 1 pump and 4 stones to 4 pumps and 16 stones Top Feed Drip DWC: Go to home depot and check out their storage area with the plastic bins. Find four totes of the same size that will fill up your pre-cut plywood board, leaving a few inches in between each other. You'll need 4x 1/4" tubing connectors, 4x 1/2" Elbow join tubes, and the tubing 1/4"/1/2" tubing. 1/2" is overflow valve inserted at desired water line level in relation to netted pot bottom. 1/4" is drain line and is inserted at about 1/4" from the bottom. It is kept plugged for DWC option or you can put on a 1/2 gallons drip emitter at the ends for a ebb n' flow effect (not tested, just theoretical). Example: http://i510.photobucket.com/albums/s350/H8tter/100_1075.jpg Another: http://i510.photobucket.com/albums/s350/H8tter/100_1073.jpg Being Cleaned: http://forum.grasscity.com/attachme...dwc-2.11.11-clean-up-underside-hydro-unit.jpg - Best view Rootmass: http://forum.grasscity.com/attachme...w-dwc-2.11.11-clean-up-mr.-nice-guy-roots.jpg (one air stone from one shared pump) After you determine the height you want (mine is about 15" tall) the hydro unit to be, you can find a res tote that will fit directly underneath it and the trays. A single small pump is connected to a 1/2" tube that feeds to a 4 port 1/4" drip emitter that comes out a hole in the very center of the board. Cut a hole in central location of each individual tray tote for desired sized pots. Plus, i was lucky to have 1/2" insulating foam and mylar to cover the 1/2" plywood board. That's a pretty good barrier to keep the heat off my water. 65F almost always in res I'm guessing 100$ if you keep it on the small side and have tools/minor supply's available already. If you have the time and aptitude in building to make it, i've found it to be very effective and easy to maintain. Slight learning curve with Ph maintenance because you only can adjust the res tote and then let the nutes mix. One grow you'll have it down.
Day 58 Overall Day 32 - 12/12 1380-1550ppm Ph - 5.7 - 6.0 Almost to the end of week 5 and no signs of any problems. The plants have been drinking about 2 gallons every 24-36 hours. The buds were surprisingly dense and have a sweet odor. I pull out a few dead leaves every morning before work. First signs of brown hairs on the buds. I got a free sample of micro nutrients and added it to my res.
Out of curiosity, why did you do drip DWC versus just submersing the pots in one big tupper bin? Seems like a single, large, tupper bin would be simpler. But what you have now is nice and giving you good results so I'm not trying to discourage you or anything.
I built this thing when i first started growing. I loosely copied a diagram my roommate suggested and it resulted in this top feed DWC hydro unit. Ebb n' Flow would be easier but if your pump break or timer stops working the DWC feature gives you a few days to notice something is wrong before the plants start being effected and not having the hassle of doing multiple bucket ph/ppm maintenance.
Day 67 Overall Day 41 - 12/12 1350-1580ppm Ph - 5.6 - 6.3 A few things to note. I ran out of my PH down so i resorted to using lemon juice and vinger for a few days. Let me tell you, that stuff does not hold PH for very long. Less than a few hours before it started creeping back up. Spider mites finally found their way into the grow. Their presence is limited to a small section of the plants and there is only 2-3 weeks left in the grow so I'm not too concerned. I went to the hydro store at bought some Clearex. I'm going see if this flushing agents are worth using. The guy said you can flush in 2 days with this stuff in hydro systems. I sounds appealing because I'll be able to use full strength nutes up until the last few days instead of the typical 7-10.
Do you notice any ill effects from the ph being as high as 6.3? Is the lemon juice and vinegar a short term method? How fast did it climb after those few hours?
The plants seem to not have been negatively effected from the PH drifting from 6.0-6.3 over a period of 3-4 days. Lemon juice/vinegar was a quick fix until i could go the hydro store. I would PH adjust for 5.8/5.9 before bed and by morning the PH would be back to it's original value. 5.9--->6.2 or 6.3. I"ll have new pictures up tomorrow morning.
Thanks man, i feel like this has been my most successful, error free grow to date. Sadly i don't think i'll make a personal record on weight. Only three plants and the Mr. Nice Guy never was a big producer. I'll have new pics up in a few hours.
Day 74 Overall Day 48 - 12/12 1450-1650ppm Ph - 5.6 - 5.9 This marks the end of week 7 of flowering. The buds within a 6" radius of the bulb are super dense! I'd say 30-40% brown hairs. Spider mites haven't made much progress; only 7-10 days left so no worries! The root masses in my trays look like they're going to be massive. That's almost more exciting to me than harvesting the buds, is seeing my root ball after a grow. Oh, and BTW, Scrogs F**King Rock! I was hoping to get through this grow without any "spilling" accidents. One of my trays 1/2" drain valve got clogged with roots and it started overflowing on to the linoleum. Luckily, i caught it quick and not that much water had drained onto the floor. Might have to put a mesh screen over the opening.
Ive grown Natures way for years, but ive been really reading up on Scrogs and im very interested. I know you said that it f*cking rocks, but can you explain a few key factors about scrog that sold you? Just wondering how often did you actualy have to pull them under the screen? Was it an every night thing?
I was having some issues with keeping an even canopy as the plants developed. With the screen, i can simply keep pulling the taller branches under and spreading them out flat. This helps keep all the bud sites as close to the light as possible. After the plants started putting on some decent weight, the branches used to bend over under their own weight, falling away from the most intense light. This issue has been non-existent. Essentially it helps increase the quality of my buds because the bulk of the plants were LST to grow in and stay in that 12"-18" radious of intense lumens produced by my 400w hps.
So doing this method, how much of a percentage increase in weight do you think you got as apposed to letting them grow tall?
H8tter; Still following along....very nice results! What happened to your white balance (camera setting)? I wanna see those buds in color (not amber) Question about raising ppms....it looks like you started around 600-700 ppm at the beginning of veg and ended up around 1300. When you slowly raise it, do you notice results? Can you see the plants green up or grow faster? Is there a ppm level where you can burn the plants? I just don't know the right way to raise my ppm and what the ceiling is. IIRC, with hydro the plants only absorb the nutes they need so its hard to burn them(?) thanks...
I wish i could accurately answer that question. I've switched strains and can't give you an apples to apples comparison. I do feel like the amount of "popcorn" buds is lower compared to past grows.
When i put new clones in the system, i like to start at 50% strength (600-700 ppm). All i'm going for during the first two weeks is root mass production. If the bottom grows well, the top will follow shortly there after. After two weeks of 50%-75% strength and when the root mass hits the res, i turn it on full bore. I've read that you can start them out as high as 1100-1200ppm under the proper conditions (Strong HPS lighting, appropriate Ph and a good sized root mass for a clone). After the start, I base everything on color of the new leaves at emerging nodes. If the new node growth is a lighter green i know the plants can handle more. If the plants starts to become a dark shade of green, I'll try to dilute the solution or keep it the same until the plant grows a bit and can handle the same nutrient load more effectively. I've never had a nutrient burn problem because i've always felt it better to error on the side of not enough vs too much. You can definitely over fertilize with hydro; even more so because all the nutrient are readily available. The grower has so much more control over nutrient solution that if your equipment is working properly (ph/ppm meter) and you play it safe, this shouldn't be an issue. I've seen every weed growing video out on the market, but by far my favorite are the "See More Buds" especially the first DVD. Walks you through a hydroponic grow start to finish, showing the plants and ppm/ph at various stages of the growth. Plus, i just like the announcer for w/e reason. I was helping my friend with his grow and he fertilized them too early (in soil) and the leaves became a very dark shade of green. After a few more waterings over a week or two, the new growth was coming in at a perfect green shade and i pointed out the comparison between the "over fed" old fan leaf color vs the more ideal present leaf color. I'll be sure to get tons of awesome pictures for everyone before the end. Looks like 7-14 days left before harvest i do recall in my 2nd trial watering down the nutes cause the plants started to get too dark green. i actually kept a ppm record on notepad: -----Veg----- Day 1 - 550 Day 2 - 600 Day 3 - 700 day 4 - 700 day 5 - 800 day 6 - 750 day 7 - 750 day 8 - 730 day 9 - 730 da7 10 - 730 day 11 - 750 day 12 - 750 day 13 - 800 day 14 - 800-830 day 15 - 800-830 day 16 - 800-830 day 17 - 800-830 day 18 - 800-830 day 19 - 800-830 day 20 - 850-900 ----Flowering---- week 1 - 950 -1050 week 2 - 1050-1150 week 3 - 1150-1250 Week 4 - 1250-1350 week 5 - 1350-1450 Week 6 - 1550-1600 week 7 - 1600->900->600->450->300->250 (each day as i dupped the res and refilled with fresh water) As you can see, i tried about 800 during the first week and it was a bit much. Keep in mind this is specific to my strain/environment/nutes combo, not universal.
Lots of good info....thanks!.....and thanks for posting your ppm schedule. This is something I didnt pay close attention to at all on my first grow. Looking at your #'s its really obvious what the nutrient needs are of the plant through its lifecycle.