White Widow - Bubbleponics DWC - 400W - BudBox

Hey all,

So I'm new to this site and figured I'd go ahead and start a grow journal here. This is my second time growing and my first grow wasn't exactly a success (problem whilst curing).

I'm on week 2 of my grow so I'm starting this journal a little late. Anyway, to the good stuff.

Current Setup

-\t1 x Large BudBox
-\t1 x 400W Ballast
-\t1 x 400W MH bulb
-\t1 x 400W HPS bulb
-\t1 x Air Pump with 4 valves
-\t4 x 5 gallon buckets
-\t4 x Air-stones inside each bucket
-\t1 x Intake vent
-\t1 x Outtake fan
-\t1 x Outtake vent
-\t1 x Digital pH tester
-\t1 x Digital EC meter
-\t5 x White Widow Feminised seeds
-\tpH Down, pH 7 buffer, EC calibrator, nutes

I've attatched some pics of my girls today. They are 2 weeks old and some are looking better than the others, WW3 being the biggest. I've uploaded 2 extra pics of WW3 as she is the prettiest of the bunch.

This is my first time growing with DWC and everything seems to be going smoothly with it. The only real problem I'm having at the moment is heat. My BudBox gets incredibly hot during the day and we've been having very hot days here too, which doesn't help.

To try and help this I've switched my light schedule so that my girls have 6 hours dark during the hottest hours of the day.

As you can see though, they all seem to be having slight problems, ranging from yellowing leaves to small brown spots. If anyone feels they might know what is wrong with some of them, please feel free to share.

All feedback is appreciated and I'll upload more pics tomorrow.

 

Thanks for the input, man. The reason my grow journal is 2 weeks late is because I started it on another site that was extremely hard to get any sort of feedback or input.

Glad to see this site is a bit more active than some.

 

So it's been 3 days and they seem to be coming along nicely. They all have a steady pH and I've recently added some organic nutrients.

2 out of the 4 plants have grown bigger than the other 2. They seemed to have had a growth spurt and hopefully the smaller ones will too.

Anyway here's some pics. I've started to LST the bigger ones as you can see.

 

So I checked the baby girls today and the pH level and PPM level had raised quite a lot. The pH levels were about 6.6-6.7 and the PPM levels were about 700.

One of the girls leaves was starting to curl, so I promptly lowered the pH.

From what I've read and researched, this indicates that the plants are drinking more water than nutrients? If anyone could clarify this it would be appreciated. And should I be lowering the PPM at this point?

Thanks.

 

The thing is that both the pH and the PPM had risen over night. They seem to be doing fine with the PPM at 700 but I can see minor leaf curling in 1 or 2 of the leaves on the plants.

If they seem to have worsened tomorrow, I'll clean out each res and will add fresh water and nutes.

I'll post pictures of them tomorrow.

 

So the girls seem to be doing great. As I predicted, another of my plants have gone through a growth spurt. I now only have 1 smaller plant, which I'm hoping will follow its sisters footsteps.

My previous biggest one has now been taken over by the other 2 which had growth spurts. As you can see in the pic they have lovely big indica-looking leaves.

How often do you guys recommend cleaning out the res with fresh water and nutes? I've been told once a week.. once every 2 weeks.. and that I don't even have to?

Considering this is my first hydro grow, I'm quite suprised at how easy I'm finding it. If all goes well, my future grows will be DWC too.

 

Just a quick update. All girls are doing great. The stems are looking nice and strong (hopefully to support the big buds soon to come).

I'd say they've grown quite quick since the beginning of this journal 1 week ago today. I'm planning to flower them when they're about 1 and a half to 2 feet tall.

Here's some pictures.

 

Thanks. I wish I could help with your problem but to be quite honest, I'm clueless when it comes to diagnosing problems with plants.

They sit in the 5 gallon buckets with the water filled to about half an inch under the net pot.

I can't remember the exact name of the grow nutrients I'm using, but I'm also adding small amounts of Bio-Bizz Grow organic nutes to their solution. I've been trying to keep the PPM at around 500 but they seem to be taking in more water than nutrients at the moment, rising the PPM to ~700. So I'm debating whether or not to lower the PPM of their water as I have some free time tomorrow. But they seem to be doing fine at ~700PPM so I may just see how they go.
I'll keep this journal updated.

 

Quick update.

Here are the girls today. Some minor issues I'm trying to figure out. The first issue being that the fan leaves on the girls are kind of turning on the edges. Anyone know why this is?

Also, the slight browning on the leaves. Any ideas?

Here are the pics:-

 

Pics of the brown markings and curled fan leaves:-

 

So I cleaned out and changed the girl's water today.

Here's the rundown on the water:-
PPM - 650
pH - 5.9

They've really starting to bush out and I'm quite stunned with the growth I've been seeing. So far I'm really glad that I decided to go with DWC for this grow. It's been a lot easier to maintain than my first grow which was with soil and ended up being a disaster.

Here's how the girls are looking today.

 

I've started to tuck some of the leaves on my girls to promote growth on the lower nodes. I'm hoping that these nodes become strong enough to support some big buds.

I'm thinking that 2 more weeks will be enough veg time for these girls and they should be at a reasonable height.

Here are a few pics of the girls after I tucked a few leaves. Kinda funky lookin'.

 

So in the last few days my girls have had slight (i hope) problems.

Firstly, the leaves have started to turn yellow at the tips of the new growth. At first I though it must be nute burn, but that didn't make sense as they were at the same PPM as before they showed these signs.

I now believe it to be heat stress from the light. I haven't adjusted the light in terms of height since they were 2 inches tall and the yellowing is only affecting the new growth. I've now moved the light up about 18" above the canopy. How long will these leaves take to turn green again if it is heat stress? Or will they not change colour again?




Secondly, the air pump, which creates bubbles for all 4 of the girls was turned off for their whole dark period, which is 6 hours. The roots now look browner than they did, but I'm thinking this has something to do with them sitting in the brown coloured nutrient solution for 6 hours without moving. They also seemed a lot soggier and soft. It doesn't seem to have affected the growth on the girls though, so I'm hoping they'll recover soon.





Other than that, I'm planning on flowering them within the next few days. I'm just curious about the best method of making the switch. On my last grow, I just changed the lighting over after their 6 hours dark and I started feeding them bloom nutes. Does anyone have any suggestions on a better method? Or will this method be just fine for them?

 

So today is the day I've switched to 12/12. I added their first dose of molasses but I haven't switched to bloom nutes yet. I will be waiting until I can clearly see preflowers before I add any.

I will take some pics of their progress tomorrow morning, before they sleep for the day.

This is where the fun begins.

 

Update on the girls. They're doing just fine. They still have yellow tips on some of their leaves, but it doesn't seem to be affecting the growth at all.

This is the second day flowering. Here's some pics. I've already identified 2 females.