First DWC grow

Using freebies I got from attitude as I don't expect them to survive, haha.

Seeds:
T H Seeds - MK Ultra
Dinafem - Moby Dick
Dinafem - Critical + Auto

Timeline:
Seeds germed and into RW -- 1-24-12
First sign of root out the bottom -- 1-26-12
Into DWC buckets -- 1-27-12

Tools:
PH down to 5.6 and letting rise to 5.9
30ml 30% h2o2 every 3-4 days
Ionic Nutrient line up Grow, Bloom, Boost
4ft 6tube ho t5 set 12 inches above tops

Room Environment:
78-80F
40% RH

Day One DWC (1-27-12):

Moby Dick, MK Ultra


Day 4:
Room Temps: 74F @ 38%RH with a low of 67F
All Res: 6.0 @ 64F no nutes

The bucket's PH are all stabilized for the most part. I expect a .2/.1 shift a day, manageable now compared to the .8 a day shifts from the start. From now on i'm not going to buffer and just rinse the stones. Im going to bubble with the growstones in for a couple days while I PH correct a couple times a day. That should prevent the plant from seeing crazy swings.

So far the auto is down, moby dick, MK ultra and a bag seed.

Bag seed was showing some lightening of the green so I gave it 75 ppm of nutes. The 3 ladies are still nice and green.

Tomorrow I will do h2o2 and take photos.

Day 5:
Room this morning 67F @ 36%RH
All res 64F

Moby dick was @ 5.8 105 ppm no nutes ill lower later
Mk ultra was @ 5.7 105 ppm no nutes ill lower tomorrow
Auto was @ 6.3 105 ppm so high because its one of the new buckets
Bag seed @ 5.9 205 ppm new bucket also...still showing yellowing at the tips. Ill get a clear photo later

They all have their tops tilted towards the center of the light haha

Nice selection there.....I just started my first dwc as well so I hope u keep us all updated on your grow.....

Dwc grower here! Welcome aboard nice start.

Ill do my best to put as much information as I'm also looking for help with future issues from readers this being my first time and all.

Thinking about getting some liquid silicone and liquid karma...anyone use it? Liquid karma is organic right? How would that work with my h2o2 dosings? I'm going to buy some great white inoculant. Some earth worm castings. And some aquashield and going to make my own tea following heisenbergs instructions so I can get away from the h2o2 dosings.

Welcome.. and time lines are loose guidelines. A lot of factors play into the growth and health of plants that you can only go by what you and your plants show you.

Good luck.

Thanks for stopping by...I know what anyone tells me to give my plants would be a guess. Not looking for that. I'm just explaining what I'm doing in detail so if any experienced growers stop by they can tell me if I'm doing something wrong. That's all I'm really looking for for advice.

You shouldn't ever go into a grow expecting to fail..

You're right...just losing faith in my abilities. I really think this will be my best go.

Just trying to be real with myself this time.

Subbed
+rep
+vote

VoidObject said:

You shouldn't ever go into a grow expecting to fail..

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Not to fail, but you should expect to make mistakes. And that's good when you recognize and learn from them - that's how improvement happens.

Welcome UCDWC, good to have you aboard, thanks for reps. I must spread out the love.

Day5(night):

Bag seed - 18.1C water, 6.2 PH, 209ppm, water level=3-1/2" from top, RW is too wet, took out 1cup
Auto - 18.3C water, 5.9 PH, 110ppm no nutes, water level = 3-1/2" from top, RW is too wet, took out 1cup
MK Ultra - 18.0C water, 5.8 PH, 110ppm no nutes, water level = 3-1/2" from top, RW is on the dryer side of damp
Moby Dick - 17.7C water, 5.8 PH, 107ppm no nutes, water level = 3-3/4" from top, RW is nicely damp

I top fed around the RW and onto the growstones 1cup from each bucket, I messed up and top fed the bagseed when its ph was 6.2 so I flushed 4cups through the growstones.

Brought all the buckets to 5.6 PH

No time right now for photos they'll be later. *EDIT* As promised.


Moby Dick---------------Auto-----------------MK Ultra-------------Bag seed(note the yellow tips)


Don't know if I should give up on these two. Been growing for like 6 weeks now. *EDIT* Gave up on em, its a shame when I pulled them out there was a lot of good root growth, but there was no going back at that point. Now i'm wondering, wtf caused them to look like that.

Day 6(morning):

Temps were 67.4F @40% RH
Day 1 of 18/6(was doing 24s before)

Bagseed - 5.9 ph(took down to 5.6), same ppm and temp. The rw was still a bit wet so I took another cup out
Auto - 5.7 ph, same ppm and temp. The rw was still too wet so I took another cup out
MK Ultra - 5.6 ph, same ppm and temp. The rw was still on the dry side of damp.
Moby Dick - 5.7 ph, same ppm and temp. The rw was on the wetter side of damp. Left it alone for now as I think it was from the top feed last night as before that it was properly damp.

Top fed each bucket again with 1cup going around the inside perimeter of the netpot so as not to get the RW too wet.

Day 8:

Temps were 75 with a high of 77 and a low of 60 (eeeek, since running 18-6 those 6 hours of lights out make that room COLD) RH was same, wicked low.

Bagseed - Changed the reservoir with 5.6 water and only 40 ppms of nutes, nutes are at 125(took 3 ml of ionic veg in my about 4 gal res tank). Temp was 16C right out of tap and 85ppm. Also put 4 drops of superthrive, hopefully I see some roots soon!
Auto - was 5.7/5.6 so i'm waiting today to change res if its at 5.9. gave it 1ml of nutes. didnt get a ppm reading, imagine low since I gave the bagseed 3 times more and it only raised 40. Temp was 17-18C
MK Ultra - 5.6PH temp was about 17-18C. gave it 1ml of nutes. going to change the res whenever it gets up to 5.9
Moby Dick - 5.6PH temp was 17-18C. gave it 1 ml of nutes. going to change the res whenever it gets up to 5.9

The bagseed looked like it was showing nute burn. Each one of those tips around the leaf margin had a black/reddish dot on it on one of the new leaves starting to come up. The plant is still lighter green than all the others. Wonder whats going on.

Seems like the MK ultra has some red on its new leaves coming up also. Between the veins. We'll see how things turn out.

I really think there must be something missing in my water that my plant needs. The dude at hydro store told me the ionic has everything I need. No additives except maybe cal mag if i need, but he didn't even say that. Just said no additives for now. Just grow, bloom and the boost to fatten up the buds later in flower like week 6 or 7

lookin good subbed

Welcome aboard matey.

I put a waterline into the room today, pretty excited. It's looking like a lab in there, which is exactly how I want it. Next task is building a drain out the room and lining the walls with 5.5mil poly.

Did some superthrive about 4 drops in all the plants since the bagseed did well with it. Running about 125ppm(40ppm of nutes) on the MK ultra, moby dick, and the auto. The bagseed is still light green and the tips are still a tad yellow but the new growth had sorta burnt tips around the margin so I lowered the ppm to 150ppm.

I'm wondering since my PH is rising slow, the auto, mk ultra, and moby dick haven't risen since I last checked them yesterday so I was wondering if it was ok to PH up the res to 5.7 and then 5.8 the next day if it doesnt rise. I just don't want to be stuck at the same ph for such longs periods. The bag seed rises from 5.6/5.5 to 5.9/6.0 every 24 hours. Wish the others would too.

Still top feeding, put clear cups over the plants to keep some humidity in and help build root growth, hopefully the superthrive helps with that too.

Growth is slow so no new pictures. I may clean up my room a bit tomorrow and take some photos of the setup I got running.

Don't know if you mentioned it, but what air pump are you running and how many buckets total off of it? A monster pump/controlled rez temps are the key to a successful DWC grow. Those plants that you gave up on look oxygen starved. Your temps seem fine tho, so I'm wondering what your method of oxygenation is. What airstones also? (not that they matter as much) Sub'd up I'll try to give you some tips since I know ionic line pretty well. I think your fine using little to no nutes at this time. But within a few days-a week you should probably use 1/8th str nutes. Dose is 4 tsp/gal so do 1/2 tsp a gal or slightly less. This should give you about 0.2-0.3EC of nutes. Are you using RO or tap water? If using RO you need to supplement cal-mag at about 1ml(small)-5ml/gal(full size).

firsttimeARE said:

I'm wondering since my PH is rising slow, the auto, mk ultra, and moby dick haven't risen since I last checked them yesterday so I was wondering if it was ok to PH up the res to 5.7 and then 5.8 the next day if it doesnt rise. I just don't want to be stuck at the same ph for such longs periods. The bag seed rises from 5.6/5.5 to 5.9/6.0 every 24 hours. Wish the others would too.

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Swinging Ph isn't a requirement...in fact you can stick the PH at 5.8 spot on and ionic will work wonders (as the bottle directs). Anything from 5.6-6.0 is perfectly acceptable. There are plenty of chelates which make the Ph not as critical. If you already used ph down, don't use up. You want to use 1 product as necessary not be running the ph around with up and down.

Man firsttimeare i didnt know you had,another journal going im here and subbed

Someguy15 said:

Don't know if you mentioned it, but what air pump are you running and how many buckets total off of it? A monster pump/controlled rez temps are the key to a successful DWC grow. Those plants that you gave up on look oxygen starved. Your temps seem fine tho, so I'm wondering what your method of oxygenation is. What airstones also? (not that they matter as much) Sub'd up I'll try to give you some tips since I know ionic line pretty well. I think your fine using little to no nutes at this time. But within a few days-a week you should probably use 1/8th str nutes. Dose is 4 tsp/gal so do 1/2 tsp a gal or slightly less. This should give you about 0.2-0.3EC of nutes. Are you using RO or tap water? If using RO you need to supplement cal-mag at about 1ml(small)-5ml/gal(full size).


Swinging Ph isn't a requirement...in fact you can stick the PH at 5.8 spot on and ionic will work wonders (as the bottle directs). Anything from 5.6-6.0 is perfectly acceptable. There are plenty of chelates which make the Ph not as critical. If you already used ph down, don't use up. You want to use 1 product as necessary not be running the ph around with up and down.

Click to expand...

I'm using an activeaqua 4 outlet 10L/min pump(12w I think) with the standard cheapo 6" blue stones. I know i'm a bit low on the 1w per gal. It's serving about 16 gals. One is actually using one of my micro-pore xl's since one of the cheapos already broke. Just running 4 buckets off of it. I have a 2 outlet one thats not running right now. Store didn't have 6 outlets when I went. The people at the hydrostore said it'd be enough and they usually give me the straight on shit instead of just trying to sell me stuff I don't need.

I got the temps locked down being in a basement in the winter and all. Floors are freezing(my room temps now that I switched to 18/6 are 60F lights off(thinking about getting a heater). Those plants were like that before I put them in the DWC, we'll see how these do.

I use tap water, not sure if it has cal-mag in it though. I already got about 40ppm in. My tap is low like 85ppm that brings it all to about .12 EC. Prolly .04 of that is nutes.

I was using swings but now since my buckets rise so slowly i'mma just do .2 swings from 5.6 to 5.8. New buckets seem to go like .6 in a day though so I like to set low and check often for the first week.

If I had used up, should I do a res change or just avoid it in the future?

Thanks for your input as always SG15

Welcome mister. I took your plastic cup idea to keep some humidity in for my plants.I'll post some pics tonight. Not much new growth, but whatevs.

**EDIT** here da pics.

Day 11:
Room - 60F low - 77F high - 75F current @ 40% RH
Bag seed still won't stabilize and was at 6.1 today, just like every 24h cycle


EC/PH/TEMP/PPM for all other tanks


Bagseed, still showing those yellowish tips. doesn't look like its progressing, but the overall color is light green in comparison to the other 3 fems


Critical+Auto, some darkness showing on its new set of leaves coming in. Don't know if you can see or not.


MK Ultra, still tilted, no new leaves yet.


Moby Dick, probably looks the best IMO



My new waterline and group picture. I'm missing a waterfarm kit. Going to get 6 of them next paycheck.

Got a World of Seeds Legends Collection Chronic Haze germing and a Seedsman Seeds Power Africa germing to fill up those 2 empty buckets

Day 14:

Switched back to 24's...those 6 hours were getting too cold(58-60F)
Temps around 72-77 lately with humidity still low at low 40's

The bagseed is still shifting like crazy from 5.6 to 6.0/6.1 most days depending on when I last checked it. All the ladies are solid .1 raise everyday. I'm probably just going to do 5.7/8 and let it rise to 5.8/9.

Bagseed is at about 150ppm and the rest at 130ppm with 85-90ppm starting water. Still using just Ionic grow.

Water level is below the net pots on all the plants and my RW is still getting pretty wet. Lotta spray coming from the air stones. No sign of roots yet...I keep looking through the net pot slots to see any in the rocks and I cannot. Growth is slow compared to other's grows, i'm guessing because I transplanted into the rocks as soon as I saw roots out the RW and it's trying to grow downward first before it grows leaves?

Well here are pictures I took on Day 13:


Bag seed. The yellowed tips didn't progress any further, think the nutes helped it out if but a touch on the strong side in the beginning at 200ppm.

Critical+auto. Around the midrib and the surrounding blade of the new leaves look light green.

MK Ultra. Her tilt is starting to straighten but the leaves got more droopy in the process. Slowest growth of all.

Moby Dick. Still looking the best.

Power Africa to the left and Chronic haze to the right. Power africa is already sprouted, seed casing is stuck nice and tightly too, FML, hopefully the humidity loosens it. These were put in 2/7/12.

firsttimeARE said:

Day 14:

Switched back to 24's...those 6 hours were getting too cold(58-60F)
Temps around 72-77 lately with humidity still low at low 40's

The bagseed is still shifting like crazy from 5.6 to 6.0/6.1 most days depending on when I last checked it. All the ladies are solid .1 raise everyday. I'm probably just going to do 5.7/8 and let it rise to 5.8/9.

Bagseed is at about 150ppm and the rest at 130ppm with 85-90ppm starting water. Still using just Ionic grow.

Water level is below the net pots on all the plants and my RW is still getting pretty wet. Lotta spray coming from the air stones. No sign of roots yet...I keep looking through the net pot slots to see any in the rocks and I cannot. Growth is slow compared to other's grows, i'm guessing because I transplanted into the rocks as soon as I saw roots out the RW and it's trying to grow downward first before it grows leaves?

Well here are pictures I took on Day 13:

View attachment 2049151View attachment 2049150
Bag seed. The yellowed tips didn't progress any further, think the nutes helped it out if but a touch on the strong side in the beginning at 200ppm.
View attachment 2049152View attachment 2049153
Critical+auto. Around the midrib and the surrounding blade of the new leaves look light green.
View attachment 2049154
MK Ultra. Her tilt is starting to straighten but the leaves got more droopy in the process. Slowest growth of all.
View attachment 2049155View attachment 2049156
Moby Dick. Still looking the best.
View attachment 2049157
Power Africa to the left and Chronic haze to the right. Power africa is already sprouted, seed casing is stuck nice and tightly too, FML, hopefully the humidity loosens it. These were put in 2/7/12.

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Just give them time for the roots to hit the rez. When they do they will take off...how deep are your netpots? Still no roots showing through at almost 2 weeks? that's kinda surprising when are you counting from?