White Widow, 150 W HPS, DWC, Cabinet Grow

I started a CFL Cabinet grow a few months back and have been having a blast playing around with it. A friend of mine saw what I was doing and offered me a 150 W HPS to play with. I had an old cabinet in the garage so I though I would do another that was similar but different. My other grow is a CFL Ebb and Flow setup, this will be an HID DWC setup. Both will be ScroG and cabinets but that's where the similarities end. You can check out my other grow here.

So, this was my starting point. I left the outsides of the shelves in the cabinet for strength and just trimmed out what I didn't need. The second shelf is 12 inches above my media, I will be either mounting a piece of steel screen or putting in screws and running string around them. I have 2 140mm computer fans on top and I have the holes on the sides to add 2 more fans but I am going to try passive intakes for now.


Here is my little lady. She went in the media on Sun, Feb. 9th!


This is the 12,13,13 already showing roots. The 15, 15, check out those roots! Then today. Amazing how fast the roots grow in these hydroponic systems.


Any questions or comments, and suggestions are welcome and encouraged.

Party on,
Jack

I might be just as excited for this grow as you are. Another excellent-looking cabinet setup.

So no tiny flowers on this new clone? What gives?! kidding..

SunnyJim said:

I might be just as excited for this grow as you are. Another excellent-looking cabinet setup.

So no tiny flowers on this new clone? What gives?! kidding..

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Thanks, I know it looks kinda funny. LOL I am also looking forward to seeing the difference, especially in things like light penetration and the size of the buds. I can already see it is much hotter than the cfl's, and I don't believe much of it is from the built in ballast as the lamp housing doesn't seem hot but under the bulb is much warmer than my CFL's. I am seeing temps almost 10 degree's hotter than my CFL cabinet. I am adding fans that blow in to see if that makes a difference.
This is the 17th, 18th,


Unfortunately, after talking in my other thread about being patient, I screwed up. I saw how fast it was going and decided to go with a full strength nutrient solution and I got nutrient burn.

And today, starting to look a little bit better.


I did change my nutrients back to a 50% solution like I was running before so I should be okay at this point. Off to update my other thread. Any questions or suggestions please chip in.

Party on,
Jack

Sorry to see you having heat problems with the switch. I swapped from 200w of CFL to a 250w HPS and my temps actually went down. My ballast is mounted outside the box though.

Everyone learns the over-feeding lesson, so don't beat yourself up over it. You know now that it's much more safe to under nute rather than over nute your plants. And adding more nutes does not speed growth or increase bud size because plants can only make use of x amount of nutrients. Anything above that threshold and it becomes 'toxic' to the plant. The effects of overfeeding are quick and aggressive, whereas a plant can survive for a decent period of time on nothing but water. I never use the maximum recommended amount of nutes Vitalink says I should use. I rarely go over 75% strength.

She looks fine, I was trying (unsuccessfully) to make a joke about this clone not being taken from a flowering plant, so it doesn't have tiny flowers like your Kush had. This clone looks in way better shape for a good start.

I hope you manage to decrease your temps.

Jim

SunnyJim said:

Everyone learns the over-feeding lesson, so don't beat yourself up over it. You know now that it's much more safe to under nute rather than over nute your plants. And adding more nutes does not speed growth or increase bud size because plants can only make use of x amount of nutrients. Anything above that threshold and it becomes 'toxic' to the plant. The effects of overfeeding are quick and aggressive, whereas a plant can survive for a decent period of time on nothing but water. I never use the maximum recommended amount of nutes Vitalink says I should use. I rarely go over 75% strength.

She looks fine, I was trying (unsuccessfully) to make a joke about this clone not being taken from a flowering plant, so it doesn't have tiny flowers like your Kush had. This clone looks in way better shape for a good start.

I hope you manage to decrease your temps.

Jim

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Yea, I got the joke, sometimes I get a little too focused on the grow. My wife says I am too intense, LOL. She's probably right. Anyways, this one has grown 3 inches in 2 weeks, because of the issues my other one didn't show any growth till 4 weeks into the grow, then 3 inches in the next 2 weeks after that, so yes, she is already looking better than my first one. I am running 50% nutrients at this time.

After adding both other fans it didn't change the temp at all, and my reservoir temp was running hotter than I wanted. I was looking at it and grabbed the top of the blue bucket and realized how hot it was. I grabbed some of my leftover Orca Film and cut out a piece to fit around the stem of the flower and cover all of the top. Not only did it lower the temp in the bucket it also lowered the temp in the grow chamber. Very pleased. Temp in the grow chamber went from 90 to 78. Reservoir went from 74 to 70. Both are the same as my CFL Cabinet.

This is a picture of the piece I cut out and in placed in the cabinet.


Looks like I have solved all of my new grow issues so far and everything appears to be under control...fingers crossed. Back in a few days.

Happy Trails,
Jack

Spanky's Monkey said:

Sorry to see you having heat problems with the switch. I swapped from 200w of CFL to a 250w HPS and my temps actually went down. My ballast is mounted outside the box though.

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I think I have them solved. The amount of heat that the top of the DWC was releasing back into the grow chamber was very high. After putting some reflective film on top of it problem seems to be solved. Thanks for the input.

Jack

Nice to see you get that worked out. Now you relax a little and just let her grow.

Great looking grow center there brother. Hope you grow some big girls with fat frosty buds.

Spanky's Monkey said:

Nice to see you get that worked out. Now you relax a little and just let her grow.

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Thanks for stopping by! I was looking at your 250 W Cab. Thats a nice setup you have there. I have a friend that might be giving me a 250 to play with soon. Should be fun.

Party on,
Jack

Maxed Out said:

Great looking grow center there brother. Hope you grow some big girls with fat frosty buds.

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Thanks for taking a look! I have high hopes for some big frost buds. LOL

Party on,
Jack

Been busy lately and haven't had time to update as I should. So here we go. One problem I have found with this grow that I don't have with my CFL's is the lines in the pictures I take, I guess from the ballast. So I don't take as many pictures as I should. This plant is growing awesome. I am using a top feed DWC and WOW is all I can say. The Ebb and Flow in my other cabinet is easier to deal with but this DWC setup is out growing that one for sure. Could be the strain, I know the OC Kush in my other cab is a slow grower compared to the White Widow but until I can try both in the same setup I won't know for sure, but I am impressed. So after 27 days of vegging she is going to flower mode.

These are from the 22,22,25,25,25,25.

,

Good looking roots and all the nutrient burn is gone.

These are from the 28,28,28, then on to March 2nd,



Then the 5th,5th.



And finally today, the first day of flower.



It has gone crazy the last 2 weeks. I am very pleased. Please feel free to post any comments or questions you may have.

Party on,
Jack

wow.. nothing like a clean, organized, healthy garden..plant looks awesome . respect and rep my man !

lee harvey said:

wow.. nothing like a clean, organized, healthy garden..plant looks awesome . respect and rep my man !

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Thanks so much, I checked out your cabinet and that is a nice place to grow some ladys. And I love your avatar. It is one of my favorite Stephen King novels.

Party on,
Jack

joebowler said:

Been busy lately and haven't had time to update as I should. So here we go. One problem I have found with this grow that I don't have with my CFL's is the lines in the pictures I take, I guess from the ballast. So I don't take as many pictures as I should. This plant is growing awesome. I am using a top feed DWC and WOW is all I can say. The Ebb and Flow in my other cabinet is easier to deal with but this DWC setup is out growing that one for sure. Could be the strain, I know the OC Kush in my other cab is a slow grower compared to the White Widow but until I can try both in the same setup I won't know for sure, but I am impressed. So after 27 days of vegging she is going to flower mode.

These are from the 22,22,25,25,25,25.

,View attachment 3016247View attachment 3016256View attachment 3016258View attachment 3016260View attachment 3016262View attachment 3016264

Good looking roots and all the nutrient burn is gone.

These are from the 28,28,28, then on to March 2nd,

View attachment 3016266View attachment 3016267View attachment 3016268View attachment 3016269View attachment 3016280View attachment 3016281

Then the 5th,5th.

View attachment 3016282View attachment 3016283

And finally today, the first day of flower.

View attachment 3016284View attachment 3016287View attachment 3016288

It has gone crazy the last 2 weeks. I am very pleased. Please feel free to post any comments or questions you may have.

Party on,
Jack

Click to expand...

Explosive growth I will say. Damn, that's sweet looking bush you got going there. Hope those buds fatten up like that girl has.

Really nice, love the setup, clean and tidy, good job

Sent from my Hudl HT7S3 using Rollitup mobile app

Dcheald said:

Really nice, love the setup, clean and tidy, good job

Sent from my Hudl HT7S3 using Rollitup mobile app

Click to expand...

Thanks for the props, I appreciate it. I am super pleased with the progress so far. Stick around and see how she turns out.

Party on,
Jack

Maxed Out said:

Explosive growth I will say. Damn, that's sweet looking bush you got going there. Hope those buds fatten up like that girl has.

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Thanks Maxed Out. I was really surprised at the growth. They say that is 1 of the features of DWC and i now believe them. I will really get to compare with my next grow on my other cabinet as it is ebb and flow versus this one being DWC. That cab started out with a clone that was in full flower. I reverted it back to veg but it added 3 weeks to the grow, I will start that next one with a proper clone so I can compare apples to apples.

Later,
Jack

Looks like it's time for an update. To say I am very pleased is an understatement. I just hope the buds grow at the rate that the plant has grown. Starting on March 10th, you may notice a different screen setup. Well, me, who is known among my friends as someone that always thinks things through and doesn't usually make big mistakes, made a big mistake. As my lady got close to the screen and I went to do a reservoir change I realized that once in the screen I would have no way to get the plant out of the bucket to do changes. Thank goodness I realized it before intertwining the tops in the screen. The first pic is my original setup before mounting the screen, the second pic is after mounting the screen and just before I realized my problem, and my solution. Now with my wife's help I can slide the whole thing out and lift the screen and plant out and set into a second reservoir I have ready to go, then slide it back into my cab. Piece of cake.


These are from the 10th,10,14,14,14,16.


Then the 17,17,18,18,18.


And the clones for my next batch. And a pic from my other cabinet.
View attachment 3026869


Any questions or thoughts are appreciated.

Party on,
Jack

Time to get in an update. The lady is growing like crazy. Don't know if it's the DWC or the strain but it is growing like a weed(pun intended). Both of my plants have been wonderfully free of any drama with pest or nutrient issues that weren't my own noob doing (Like going 100% nutes in the second week). Fingers crossed that that continues. So on to the pics.

These are from the 20th.


Then the 21st.



And the 22nd.



Then we have the 24th. Sorry about the last few pics.



And then we have today. She is really stretching in the last pics. Hope it doesn't go to far.



And a pic from my other grow and a new project I'm working on. Yep, a computer case grow with DWC. I think I will go a week on 18/6 then flip to 12/12, unless you guys think I should flip it now. LMK what you think.



Party on,
Jack