Second grow, first log: DWC under LED, Mars vs Meizhi, DNA Genetics vs Paradise Seeds, W/ Fox Farms+

What's up everybody. I'm new to the forums so please bear with me here. I'm starting this log in hopes that some more experienced growers will help me and my girls through any issues we might run into. First grow started out with some bag seed from some Bruce Banner (strain) under a desk lamp. Graduated to a tent and a 45w cfl bulb, then to a hot ass shop light, then rapidly progressed to a Mars hydro 300w. I ran into a problem during early flower, bruce turned into the hulk and busted out of my 5 foot tent. Probably could've made it work with some training (I'm new to it and don't really know wtf I'm doing) and putting it in a shallower pot but I got the seeds today and I am beyond excited to get this project going. So I'll be running a deep water culture system in 5 gal buckets with..

• Apollo 4x2x5 ft tent ($65)
• Mars 300w /132 to the wall ($75)
• 1.5" Rockwool cubes 45 pack ($12)
• 10 L hydroton clay pebbles ($18)
• Propagator ($17)
• 50 air hose tubing ($11)
• trellis netting ($7)
• Fox Farm nutrients 3 part ($39)
• Bud Factor X & Bud Candy 250ml ($30)
• Urban Farmer digital timer ($12) x2
• 6" Rhizocore net cup lids for 5 gal buckets by HTGsupply ($10)
• Ecoplus Supreme Air: 2 Outlet - 320 L/H - 4w ($18)
• 8" Pawfly airstone ($20)

vs a....

• 9" AIT Spider air ring (super impressed by this) $12 (ended up returning the pawfly and using 2 of these)
• Honeywell fan I already had. Moves some air.
• 6 in clip fan ($10)
• Carbon filter: maximum horticulture ($29)
• Ac infinity exhaust fan. ($90)
• 25 ft ductwork ($13)
• Vivosun hangers (lifesavers) ($8) for 4 if I recall
• 3x Black buckets ($11) at Home Depot
• pH up down kit ($9)
• pH & ppm pens ($30)
• 3x pairs of snips: curved, straight, prunners ($23)

Might get Hydroguard by Botanicare and another 300w led. I'm looking at the Meizhi right now but I am open to suggestions. Might even add some T5s on both sides to get the edges of the canopy. My theory is that if I only have so much money to spent on lighting, my best bet would be to get the cheaper 300w and space them out. Depends how much space I have in the tent all said and done.

I'd really appreciate some feedback on what nutes work for you or what ratios work well at what times. Not fuckin around with the nutes. I plan on saving up and going straight to Garden of the Gods line-up, then graduating to whipping up my own based around that formula if i like the results (I have a background in chemistry so this shouldn't be a problem).

I'll update later with some pics of the setup and which strains we're going to be rolling with.
I'll be updating once a week other than that update. Peace out.

 

Thanks! The height of my tent is really going to turn out to be a problem for flowering without some serious training. Just got a scog the other day so that should help out but how much space do you need vertically with an HPS under the ballast?? The bucket stands about 15" and i was able to rig my light 9" from the top of the tent. Keep in mind it stands 60" tall, so with the bucket and the light I'm left with 36" of grow room. Take into account the minimum distance from the light (12" for flower) I'm only left with 24" of grow space. My max plant height can only be 2 ft. Really wish I had space for a bigger tent but I'll make it happen. Hows the grow quality of the Meihzi btw?

 

Day 1.

Sykesy89 brought up a good point, using indicas for a smaller tent. So we’re busting open only 1x Florida OG G.Y.O. by DNA and 1x Acid from Paradise Seeds both feminized.

For germination I’m soaking the girls 12 hours in 5.75 pH lightly distilled tap water. When the money is right I plan on using a RO filter with cal mag but for now, it’ll do boo boo. The shit they feed us here is right around 500 ppm. A Britta filter knocks it down to around 250. Let me know what you use. I’m in that experimental phase.

After the 12 hours I’ll be dumping them on a plate in a paper towel to soak until they’re ready.

They’ll be moving into 1.5” Rockwool cubes soaked in pH’d water in a propagator until it’s time to go straight into the net cups. I’ve been reading it might be a good idea to transplant into 3 “ or so rockwool first. Idk.






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Day 7.

Transplanted to rockwool on day 4. 100% germination rate.

Rockwool was soaked 30 min in 5.72 pH water with a few drops of Big Bloom. Maybe I shouldn’t have introduced nutes just yet, I was thinking a light dosage of around 100 ppm would be a good idea.. maybe, maybe not.

First feeding was yesterday, day 6, with the same mixture as before. pH was a little higher this time, not much.

For lighting, I fucked around and bought another 300w. Went with the Meihzi. Which I’m using for the seedling stage. Introduced the lighting at 18 on-6 off in at day 4. Changing to 20 on-4 off today.

I am on the lookout for some pieces of reflective sheet metal. I watched a video with some guy testing the umol rating on all the edges of the canopy with and without reflectors. Wasn’t much of a difference in an already reflective tent but it did increase the total light penetration.


Florida OG on the left is looking a little brown. Nute burn?


Correction: initial post I mentioned Garden of the Gods nutrient line, I meant Nectar of the Gods. We have a beautiful park out here in CO called Garden of the Gods, got them mixed up.



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Update: Florida OG also had a seed shedding problem. Didn’t want to let go of it.


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I am really glad somebody just told me this. Thank you. I saw them when I was buying the old 300w but I just assumed the eco model pulling less wattage would be less effective. Didn’t even double think it.

However, I have decided to make a project out of the lighting whenever I begin to have problems with these leds. Or whenever I have time and money laying around. What can you say about quantum boards?


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Day 14.

Transplanted from propagator directly into 5 gam reservoir on day 11 @ 9pm.

4.625 gal in each res (the net cups I used have a 3 in or so stand for the rockwool so to reach that I had to overfill).

Average ppm 350

Average temp 83

Average humidity 28

Very light on the nutes, I went with a little less than half strength for week 1 with the fox farms. Plus I added hydroguard. 2 ml per gal.


Big change in climate for the girls.. mainly did it because I was having a high temp problem in the propagator and the main root was about an inch out of the rockwool already on both.

So where we are growing has a very difficult climate to perfect. Our humidity drops down below 5% here in the winter months. I’m talking waking up with bloody boogers, yeah. So to combat this, I’ve placed the tent in the best place to maintain humidity. Still doesn’t do the trick. The bubbling from the dwc can actually maintain the humidity around 30% in the tent as long as it stays closed.. but then the temp gets too hot (upper 80s). Safe to say I’ve run into my fair share of problems so far.. or you can look at it like I’ve learned a lot of shit so far.

I’d like the humidity around 50-60% for this stage of growth but until I have a humidifier, it’ll do. I have noticed a slowing of growth when the temps rise.

Problem #1
No nutes until I see the first set of 3 leaves (well I might introduce them early again, just very very small amounts).

Problem #2
Too damn hot. Average temps in the temp are 83 lights on WITH BOTTOM VENTS OPEN AND TENT CRACKED WITH FAN POINTING OUT OF TENT (it’ll get up to 90 tent closed fans on).
Temps drop to upper 60s low 70s with lights off.

A carbon filter and fan will be added to suck the heat from the top of the tent and help with smell when it becomes an issue.

Problem #3
Musky mildew smell. Fucckkkk. More than likely from the high temps? I was worried it was coming from in my buckets until I realized water was evaporating out of my buckets and dripping out. Not a problem I guess, I turned the bucket to where it drips on the fan to add some moisture to the air.

Problem #4
Hydroton got moldy. Completely white covered caps. I took those out hand by hand and washed the rest religiously.


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Update: sent the 8” pawfly back and got another ait spider. Seems to work better, cheaper, and I don’t have to mess with the 3/16 - 1/4 tubing conversion. It’s a mars ve meizhi grow now.

 

Day 21.

Got back from a trip 2 days ago. The girls are doing well, I think they could be further along if the temp wasn’t 88 in the tent when I got back but oh well.

I will be changing the res today for the first time. There’s a little clay dust from the hydroton in one of the buckets and the ph has risen to above 7 in both. Other than that I just wanted to up the strength on the nutes.




It seems to me that the OG on the left (under the meizhi) is pulling towards the Mars light. Maybe you’re seeing something different but it certainly looks like the mars is whoppin ass on the meizhi. Might flip the bloom switch here on out on the meizhi. Which brings me to my next question. Is a veg and bloom switch really necessary on these leds? Shouldn’t the goal of led manufacturers be to emulate the sun? The sun doesn’t have a bloom switch so why should the lights include one? If by the off chance a manufacturer or someone in the industry happens to read this, try adding a dimmer. Replicate the sunrise and sunset with like a 30 min before and after dim addition. The sun does do that. Just my 2 cents.

Other than that, everything is lookin good and most problems taken care of. Except the high temps but that’s waiting on a ventilation system. I picked up a strip of rope caulk to use around the rim of the net cup in hopes of stopping the dripping out of the buckets.
Peace out

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Update.

View attachment 2418649

Went with half strength on the fox farm hydro schedule for week 2 of veg.
Ppm=500 average
PH= 5.8 average
Gal= 4.5

Tent has been open all day with temps varying around 80.
Left the tent open and the room door closed, the climate got closer to where it needs to be. Hovering right around 82 degrees and 30% humidity.

I also took a cup of mixed water and slowly soaked each of the rockwool cubes.

Note: Light greening around edges of leaves. Curious what caused this.
Did the change at the end of the light cycle not to overexpose the roots to the light.
Used the aeration from the air stones to mix the nutes, do the bubbles effect the ph and the ppm meters?

 

Day 28.

Getting closer to figuring this whole thing out.

Temps and humidity have been relatively stable, (76-83 F, 20-30% H)

Ave ppm=720

Ave pH=5.85

Gal= 4.5 estimated

Res temps= 76-77

I spoke with someone at a local hydro store and recommended I check my res temps. Sure enough, they’re too high. Might have been playing a role in some of the yellowing leaf tips. So the recommended water temp is 67-69? I dropped a few cubes in.

The girls did start to show some signs of stress. My possibly wrong, self diagnosis is either nute burn or my ph getting too high. The pH did fluctuate up in the 6’s before I got some more pH down.

I read somewhere that week 1 of veg doesn’t start until the seed leaves (cotyledons) fall off? That would make a big difference in when I begin my nutes. I should probably know this.

Moved the air pump outside the tent, only dropped the water temp about a degree.

Root development looks good, looking into getting a root booster for the next grow.

I set the scrog up, maybe a little too soon. In hopes of trying to hold some of the branches down, letting some light in.

I’ll upload the weekly pics when their artificial sun comes up.


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Update: 3:30 pm day 28
View attachment 2421725
View attachment 2421726
View attachment 2421727

Why are my photos locked now?

 

Day 42.

Things are going great. Loving the rapid growth spurt of the dwc system. The smell is starting to become a problem so we went ahead and ordered a cloudline T4 by AC Infinity and a cheap carbon filter. I’ve been reading that you can repack them with better particle trapping carbon? The T4 is has a digital climate control display with automatic temp control settings.

Temp: 80F
Humidity: 36%

Average ppm: 710
Average water temp:77
Average pH: 5.46 (5.65 &5.27)

Side note: when I say average I mean I’ve logged everything on excel and I try to keep both buckets fairly consistent. They have been about the same so far. And questioning the accuracy of the ph pens.

I’ll be doing a res change later today with half strength week 3 fox farms hydro schedule. PH’d 5.8 or close.

Right now there’s about 8-10 main tops on each, give or take if some of the lower ones will make it up or not. I topped at the 7th node. I’ve read most people say around the 4th node should be the first top but the girls weren’t looking ready yet. They still had some burnt leaf tips. Also defoliated a few of the dying lower leaves that were not getting any light on day 40.

Florida OG on left




Acid on right


Can anyone diagnose this?
PH in that bucket was a little low 5.27 but again I should calibrate my pen.
View attachment 2427964

 

Day 49.



You might’ve noticed the ventilation that was added this week.

You would be correct, the cloudline T4 came in yesterday. Hasn’t completely removed the stank, but at least I can leave my tent closed with my temps under control. I mounted the fan up in the ceiling, the probe dangling to canopy height in the tent, and the display monitor on the counter. Very happy with AC infinity on this.



Temp: 77
Humidity39

Water temp: 74

Ppm: 780

Ph: 5.8

Girls are starting to get thirsty. I’m talking white girls on Molly at Coachella thirsty. Drinking close to a gallon a day already. I’m about to add a gallon of plain, filtered tap water. Ppm 160 ph’d to 5.8.

The water I am using comes out at around 58-60 degrees. Which helps lower my res temp which continuously is on the rise. Keeps it close to the idea range 67-69. Otherwise I caught the water temp closing in on 80.

Back to last week when I asked what could possibly be going on with the OG on the left and the picture didn’t appear...

Still unsure. Lots of factors it could be.

Overall, super happy with how everything is going. I’ll be flipping to flower in 5 days or so, on 420. It’s only right.

Florida OG


Acid


For those reading who are unaware of the power of the DWC system...


Peace out. Thanks for viewing.





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Day 56.

Short n sweet.
First official day of flower.
36 hour dark period now they’re on 12/12.


Got dehydrated yesterday and I’m still feeling like shit. So I’m not running any tests.


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Update: alright I’ll get up and do the pH