Himalayan Gold, Drip-Tray, newbie journal

Hello folks, this is my first time with Hydroponics. I have decided to journal this grow because it is my first stab at hydroponics and ongoing input would be a good thing. One other thing, I have seen very few drip emitter grow journals online, so this may help others.

I will be growing Himalayan Gold this time out. This strain is a heavy producer and I got a mother for free from my friend which is always a bonus!

This strain buds 8- 9 weeks with a yield between 600 and 1000 gr/sqm, from Green House seeds of Amsterdam.

I also started some pure, old school northern lights from four year old F1 seeds I had stored. Glad I started them now, only got three seeds to pop out of six. I presume this is from them being old. I expect I will get at least one female out of these three babies.

I vegged the Himalayan Gold mother for about ten days on eco-grow powder 10-5-7 at a half teaspoon per gallon. I got 15 nice cuttings off of her. I didn't really do much leaching before I took the cuts. Gave her about a half gallon of distilled water night before.

It has been 11 days since I took the cuttings and I noticed roots on six of them last night so apparently I am on my way.

About choosing a drip-tray setup. I did this for a couple reasons.

After doing a lot of reading and watching of videos, I decided to go with drip tray setup because it is cheap and it is relatively low maintainance (for hydroponics). I work and go to school, so i will only be able to check them once a day, most days, so I dont want to spend endless hours messing with them if possible.

I found a pre-made 4'x2' drip table setup for 179$ US. It came with a Grow tray and cover, 24 emitters, a pump, a bag for the waterpump (so as not to clog), a half gallon of nutes and eight grow pots.



The TDS meter I bought last night seems not to work so I will go and refund it and get another. I will post some pics of my setup when I get back.

Toodles for now

nice one, might buy myself something like that next year

i'll be here, if ya need comment, help ^^ i'll try

peace.... i am a noob so.. dont expect much rofl

OK, I got a replacement meter, the batteries were dead. New batteries are under warrenty for a year. Im good to go, PPM meter wise.

Here is the model I bought, 75$


GOOD NEWS!! After calibration my tap water came back at 30 PPM. If I am understanding things correctly, I wont need to buy a reverse osmosis filter! Cheaper = better, saved about 125$ there. I will just need to let the water sit over night to dispell the chlorine before I put it into the system.

I have taken some pictures of the grow area and plants. Rooting rack:



This is my 175 watt metal halide street light that I use for the mother and the Northern lights. The northern lights are about 1 month old at this point and will be transplanted tomorrow. I just love this picture!



Here is my 'system' .... simple right out of the box.



Here is my 'contraption'; because I share a chimney with a furnace, I dont want gas fumes or exaust backing up through my vent system into the room in case of power outage. I have a cheap baffled vent inside the bucket, thus air can only move one direction...OUT!



Here are the rooting cuts. As of today I have found 8 with roots, two more than last night. Note some of them appear to have buds forming at the tips? They are actually little tiny leaves, no pistils. Not sure what is up with that but I presume it is stress related. This appeared when I put the light closer to them for a couple days. I will deal with the issue later



Well lookie what I have here! Hydroton! I have six inch pots to start them in. Will transplant into 8 or 10 inch pots about ten days into flowering.



This has to be the bluest spectrum halide Ive ever seen. The guy who gave me the mother (Himalayan, in rectangle bucket) thought it was a halogen until I turned it off and showed him the bulb (and reminded him that he gave it to me a couple years ago.)


Now I have to begin actual construction of the room. I plan on doing this tomorrow. With a 2 x 4 tray, I figure, when all is said and done, it will fill an area about 3' x 6' with overhang.

I have a frankenstein conglomeration of lights including a 1000 watt halide and two 400w sodiums. Will be lots and lots of light. Heat may be an issue, we will have to think on that one.

THis grow will be done on the cheap! As soon as I have 12 with roots, they go into the system. Still undecided how many to grow, either 8 or 12....hmmmm, better make up my mind quick! Probabally will be ready to go in a day or two!.

Well, that is about it for now, more tomorrow!!

Today I did a bunch. First, I went to the hardware store and picked up some stuff. I got a nice dryer hose for intake. The room will be small with several lights going so it will need a very cool source of fresh air. I am growing in an unheated basement that is very well insulated. The basement never gets below 55 degrees in the winter and never gets over 70 in the summer. Whatever heat it gets is absorbed from the upstairs. The dryer hose will be run to a cool area of the basement to assure a steady supply of fresh cool air coming into the room.

The walls of the room Im growing in are unfinished sheetrock. Because it is unfinished, I can see the sheetrock screws where they attached it to the studs in the ceiling and the walls. This is nice because I know where the studs are so I can attach stuff through the sheetrock. I ran a 1"x4" board lengthwise along the center of the ceiling, which I will attach either the lamps or the lightmover. Havent decided exactly yet, but given that I have two 400w HPS and one 1000w MH in a 5'x7' growing area, I dont think moving the lights will be necessary. If anything, i willl have too much light. I plan on putting the 1000 watt in the middle and the two HPS on the ends. Sort of like a light sandwich.

I have decided to grow 8 plants. In a 2' x 4' drip tray, that should be plenty. I am big on bending so I will fill about a 4' x 6' area when all is said and done.

I will be getting water from an unfinished utility room with new cold/hot water spigots coming from the wall. These spigots have never been used before, so I had to flush them out. Imagine my horror when I turned on the spigot and the water looked like watered down milk with particles floating around in it. I figured the pipes needed a good flushing, so I ran a hose to a sewer drain and ran the spigot full force for about ten minutes. I took another sample and it came out crystal clear! I broke out the TDS meter and tested it. 29 PPM, better than from my faucets upstairs!

The cuttings seem a bit water logged so I will let them dry out fairly well. I gave them some weak fertilizer solution (ecogrow 10-7-14) because they were spreading roots rather slowly. I plan on getting the system up and going in four days.

Tonight I will flush my hydroton for an hour or so outside. I will pop some holes in the bottom and just let it flow for a while. I will then let it drain for a few days.

That is all for now.

Peace

Well, it has been a month since I have updated this journal. I got frustrated and stopped posting in it when I put my plants in my system. I expected immediate results but instead got nothing. Not at first anyway. The problem is that they had almost no root system. I had them idling for 9 days at about 150 ppm under the single 1000 watt halide. Upon talking to Earl and others, I learned that they must spread their roots before you can crank the nutes.

At about 9 days, I noticed root tips hanging out of the bottom of a couple planters. Woohoo! There was no real growth above ground, but below ground they were busy beavers. Some here and at cannabis culture suggested that it was time to turn up the nutes, definately music to my ears. I turned up the nutes to about 250 ppm for a day, then popped it up to about 475-500 ppm. Within a day, I noticed growth. Kaboom! Finally! In three days time, they went from about 3" - 4" tall, to about 8" tall. I kept an eye on the PH and kept knocking it down to the low sixes. I was having to knock it down a couple times a day.

Then it happened. I was gone for over a day. Had to work and go to school and didnt check the plants for 24 hours. Last time checking, they had highish PH. No biggie, I thought. When I checked again, the main growing tips were having weird, really thin, growth. They looked like long spider legs! I checked the PH and it was off the charts, over 7. Who knows how long it had been there! They really looked like shit.

Lesson learned? Keep the PH below 6, particularily if I am going to be gone for a day or two. If it is going up, up, up, knock it way down before I take off so it can have some room to climb without doing damage.

It took about a day to get it back under control. By the third day, they were in full blown growth again. Cranked them up to about 550 ppm.


Will have some pictures up later tonight!