My first hydroponic white widow grow

Ok, this is my first hydroponic grow and Ive done tons of research and of course welcome any tips, criticism and the like.

My flower room is not done yet, Ive got a 400w hps and a 4" centrifugal fan / carbon filter and that side is gonna be an ebb and flo system. Ive got some time to build that tho so im not worried.

On my vegetative side Ive got two four foot two bulb fluorescent with a cool white and a warm white in each one. The system is a rock wool recirculating drip system.

What i have growing so far, and they seem to be doing quite well, is the two on the right are my white widows, the 4 on the left are bag seed of haze. not sure of exact kind, but i know i like it.

The bigger ones are the ones i had started first, i think my nutes were a bit too strong the first go and i was a little worried about them, so i quickly started a new batch of seed just in case, and those are the smaller ones. So if the solution was a bit strong, they seem to have bounced back once i changed the solution. And the ones you see in the dome, those are 4 white widows that just popped. (If you look close see how they are yellow tinged? im thinking maybe too much nitrogen? hopefully they will be ok.) took a little bit longer than the haze.

and now im just maintaining them, they've been going for about a week now.

Looking good. whats your current drip cycle? how many times a day. approx how many drops per sec?

hicksy said:

Looking good. whats your current drip cycle? how many times a day. approx how many drops per sec?

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That is the one thing that i could not find a satisfactory answer for. Right now im on 18 hours of light. on at 5am off at 11 pm. I have a 160 gph water pump that waters 3 times a day, 6 am, 2pm and 10 pm. figured id just split it up evenly cause i cant find a straight answer on that. And thats the other thing i wasnt sure of...i found these drip spikes, you just plug in the 1/4" line and it drips down the sides of the spike, which then hit a little bar half way down the spike that kinda disperses the water. so, its kind of a constant flow, but not hard, very light, and it seems to just serve the purpose of saturating the rockwool for 15 minutes, 3 times a day.

If theres any other other tips and suggestion out there please post thanks

Looks good, though I'm not too sure that this is your first rodeo...

heh. Good luck.

dudeoflife said:

Looks good, though I'm not too sure that this is your first rodeo...

heh. Good luck.

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LOL i swear to you this is my first time. i took a horticulture class YEARS ago, and besides a basic garden ive had no other experience. especially with hydroponics, but the concept seems extremely simple, ive done studying and research up the ass, and now im putting it into affect. see how it goes thanks

yeh 3 times a day is what i've currently got mine set to. u can check some of my other post. Thinking i might have to add another 15 min cycle in there as some of my roots have hit the bottom of my tub

for the most part. A few minor details that ive got plenty of time to take care of.

The flowering room is finished, aside from throwing up some mylar and putting the last piece of plastic sheeting to seal off the area completely. The ebb and flow system that will be in the flowering room is not complete yet either, but ive got all the parts i need already. One thing i am worried about is the table ive got in the flowering room might be too big. I wont want to put that hps up too close to the ceiling, but i got a 170 cfm in line fan and carbon filter venting out, should be plenty of air flow for the 4 x 3 area.

Also, the babies are doing amazingly well so far. I was a little worried about them all at one point, thought i gave it too much nutes in the beginning to start out, but it looks like i changed it early enough.

Keeping the ph down is definitly proving to be a bitch, every day it seems i have to add some ph down.

I just upped the nutes today to mild growth....keep my fingers crossed there

great stuff mate. just came to look for some updated pics

what ppm are ya on now? my grow is on 4 waters per day now

hopfully bumping nutes up some more. its currently EC 1.0 (700ppm)

what u using to get ph down?

hicksy said:

great stuff mate. just came to look for some updated pics

what ppm are ya on now? my grow is on 4 waters per day now

hopfully bumping nutes up some more. its currently EC 1.0 (700ppm)

what u using to get ph down?

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I dont have a ppm meter just yet, for the simple reason that i just haven't been able to afford one. So, ive just been going by General Hydroponics nutrition schedule for a 16 gallon tank and i change the reservor every 12 days and its got an air stone in there. I figure that should be just fine, and it definitly looks like it is, cause they are growing so fast and good, im amazed really. And i test the ph everyday and i use GH ph down. The problem with that is there no good directions on how much to use, so i just kinda squirt like 7 ml in there if its lookin like its going up. I keep it around 5.8, but it fluctuates almost daily so....i dont know, im not too worried about it.

7ml of the ph down? hopefully u get a ppm/EC meter soon. ebay have em fairly cheap and its WORTH it.

u may find sometimes with too much ph down it increases PPM/EC (salt) levels.

I went to the hydro store and got some ph down ultra concerntrated for about $3.50.

few drops (prolly less than a mil) and it drops ph down quite a bit. Bad ph down was causing me major headaches in the beginning.

i must admit i splurged on my EC metre went and got a proper bluelab nutrientr truchneon bout $120 but ive seen some on the ebay for around $40-$50

i was finding that even if i followed my instructions down to a T, EX/PPM was still off lol.

EC wand solved it all lol

but hey as long as your babies are happy and healthy your doing it right

OK! look at em grow! I think im on the third weekish?... Its on the calender but i dont feel like checking. /takes another puff

Ive topped the two big white widows off today. It really killed me to cut em But I know id be really stupid not too. Im thinking of taking one and just topping it like 10 times, just for fun. The others are getting a few more days till their topped, and ive already picked out my mothers. I havent really decided if im gonna keep 2 for mothers or 4 for mothers. At least 4 are gonna go into flowering while i wait for the others to grow more so i can clone them. I figure if i leave only one of the white widows and one of the haze, and one of them turn out to be a male im screwed. So to be safe i think ill keep four out and hope for at least one female. Meanwhile, while im waiting for the mothers to be able to be clones, i will have the other 4 flowering.

I do plan on getting a ppm meter very soon. But im still not even sure i understand the whole thing, i definitly have to do some more research on it.

I just threw 3 of the white widows and one of the haze in a bucket of clay pellets today. 2 of the widows and the haze are gonna be the candidates for mothers, and the extra white widow is gonna be topped a few times just for fun. The other 4, 2 haze and 2 widows are gonna go into flowering this weekend

OK, ive got my 4 plants in my flowering side, pictures included my mothers are also doing well.

Oh my god, im amazed at the growth! in just 2 days that it has been in 12/12 it has grown 2 inches. Im lovin it. I will be pissed if they are males....

Ive got the nutes at half strength transition phase right now, next week im going up to 1/2 strength bloom. Ive heard it suggested to only use 1/4 strength nutes when using general hydroponic nutrients, but ive also heard thats not true, so im gonna go with half strength and see how they respond.

This is purely for personal use, im sick of having to get my supply from scumbags, getting ripped off or just getting shit weed. connections come and go so quickly, its just one big pain in the ass and a complete waste of money. I like this idea MUCH better and so, because of that, and also because this is my first time, im not concerned with quantity, i will be happy just to grow something. And im Definitly feeling good about it!

Everything is looking pretty good...Although, when i got home today my light wasnt on! I dont know what happened, but it should of been on at 7 am, and i when i got home at 5 the light wasnt on....Im really hoping it will be ok, im not sure exactly what i should do, but i figured id leave the light on from 5 to 11 or so, and then just let it come back on regular time tomorrow and hope it doesnt mess up the flowering cycle or something.

Another small problem im having is leaves on my haze plants, they seem to be drying up and wilting. The worst is that my widows are flourishing (although i think one of them is a male) So i dont even know what im doing wrong. I thought that the fan might of been blowing too close to them, so i moved that way. It almost seemed like the constant blowing every few seconds was drying out the leaves. But, you can see in the picture, the haze is kinda wilting up a bit...im just hoping for the best.

I think all of my plants took a little bit of a hit cause my ph had to of been fluctuating like crazy. I finally got a PH meter, so the ph is now correct, but not nessesarrily stable..It bounces from about 5.6 to 6.5 daily, everyday i have to add some ph down. Is it normal for it to rise a point every day?

So in one week i have had tremendous growth. my mothers are thriving. What im gonna do, once i weed the males out, the one i topped 3 times is going to replace at least one of the males. I think i see one if my widows starting to form little tiny balls. so that could suck. But, if anyone has any suggestions on why my leaves are so messed up on my haze plants please let me know.

So, i think its safe to say that the two white widows i have in flowering are females The haze is still a little hard to tell, i think i have two very different strains growing at the same time, and ive heard that haze can be tough to ghrow and also heard that it takes longer. Im hoping for at least one male, cause one of these need to go, ive got the one white widow thats been topped 4 times to go in its place.

But, im definitly seeing some little white hairs on the two widows, hopefully in a few more days they will be goin good.

Ok, 2 weeks into flowering and i have 3 clear females with nice white hairs coming out on them. I took the one male, which is the only one with zero hairs on it and a few things that could definitely look like balls, i feel very confident it was a male. So, i took him out, and took the white widow thats been topped 4 times and put that one its its place. I took a few pictures of the buds, but only one came out where you can see them good. Ill get some better pictures soon.

Im using half strength bloom nutrients right now, 8 gallons and im changing it once a week. Im doing that cause i dont want anything to go wrong, and this is the surest way to make sure of that.

And now that ive got the one widow out of the mothers den, theres a lot more space for the mothers who are lookin good and should be ready for cloning any day. The mothers are 1 1/2 months old so far.

OOO yea, take a look at em. 2 1/2 weeks into flowering and they are going like crazY! Im hoping they stop growing soon. Im running out of light raising room!! The next step will be cutting the legs off the table. But i can only go up and down so much farther and im gonna be in trouble. Im hoping at some point they will stop growing up and concentrate on producin some buds and the last picture is of the new widow, been in only a few days but has had a lot of growth already and it should have about 8 main stems. grow baby grow!

So, its been 24 hours since the mothers got chopped up and the clones are definitely lookin wilted but still nice and green. I hope they survive. Its about 80 degrees in there and i shut the fan off and have the clones spayed down with 1/4 strength nutes and the heating pad underneath.

I also cut the 3 inches off the table, bringing the plants right down to the top of the reservoir, and I was actually able to lower my light. I keep the light at about 22 inches, and its got about 8 inches or so that i can raise the light and then thats it. So im really hoping they stop growing up and start growing out.

Oh, yes, also, the one haze is still not doing much of anything. Im leaning towards the signs that it is a male. But its been 3 weeks and theres no real good signs of any sex, yet the widows are gettin some huge buds on them already. Let me know what you think.

So, i ripped out the last haze I have which was clearly a male today But, on a better note, the thriving widow that has 6 tops is female So, i have 3 large white widows and they are in FULL bloom. A few more weeks and ill be ready to harvest