My First Grow: Soil, DWC, & Aeroponics

Finally, like so many great men before me, I enter the world of Marijuana Cultivation. I can honestly say that weed changed my life for the better. I'm less stressed, it helps my back relax, it has even motivated me to work out, get my shit together and cleaned up. Believe it or not, I actually lost about 35 pounds thanks to weed!

Well, now it is time for me to give back to the community that has given me so much.

I have been perusing rollitup for a few months now and have learned a lot (that plus an experiment with my friends plant. Lessons learned: a 36" plant CAN NOT go a week without water, even in soil; a proper cure is absolutely critical; you only get about .3 of hash out of said tall, skanky plant.) Anyway, unbeknownst to them Skunkushybrid and Tek are now mentors of mine, and I really think they know what they are talking about.

I actually just started the construction & germination phase of my grow. Right now, I'm planning to build a small operation in stages so that I can have myself a decent-sized, continuous stream of nugs (come on, we ALL smoke A LOT more than normal people if we are dedicating this amount of time to the craft).

Basically, mainly due to finances, partially due to waiting for my little girls to grow up, I will be building in 3 stages.

1. I'm building a simple DWC system for my clones and seedlings. I will use some florescent grow tubes with a couple CFLs for good measure. This will later become the top half of my grow cabinet. I will post pics and the detailed process as I go, starting tomorrow (I started building last night but left my F*ing camera at home when I left for work. And yes, they gave a stoner a well-paying job that has more down-time than work-time and is completely unsupervised. Unless you consider 3 calls during the course of the day as supervision.)

2. I'm going to build a simple aeroponics system. If you want to see these plans, check em out at: projects.bootstrap - Aeroponic Unit V1.1: Final Assymbly
I'm also gonna purchase a ballast and HID lamp, that is where the debate will be.

3. Assembling everything into one large metal file cabinet, line with mylar, fans, ducts, air purification, the whole thing.

Right now I am estimating a total cost of around $1500, but we will see...

I'm starting out with bag seed, we will see how it goes. It was overall, really good as far as regs go, but these plants are really EXPERIMENTAL. I'm gonna bend some, top some, top some over and over, whatever. My clone tray will hold 8 plants that I will grow this way. I'm gonna flower a few immediately as well. I'm also gonna order a few seeds from www.peakseedsbc.com; these guys seem legit and that Northernberry is calling my name!

Also, if I could plug a company, Alternative Gardening Supply has a store near my house, and they are awesome! The guy in the store answered all of my questions without questioning me! It was great. You can check them out at OpenDNS

So here is the question: What HID Light setup should I go with? Here are the options I see:

1. Buy a 400w HPS ballast so I can flower, and currently use my floros for my initial veg. Later I would plan to buy a MH for my single aeroponic mother unit (a future project).

2. Buy a switchable ballast to take advantage of the bushiness that the MH produces, and then flower with the HPS. Worry about my mother later.

3 Buy a 400w HPS ballast with a 430w Son Agro bulb. This bulb is theoretically awesome. For those of you unaware of this light, it is a HPS with 30w of Blue added and can run on a 400w hps ballast. The Son Agro bulb shows the shortest internodal length of all bulbs and basically has the advantages of the HPS and MH in one bulb! You can use this setup for all stages as well! I was all set to go with this setup, until the guy at the store told me that I would be lucky to get half of the life of the bulb out of it and recommended to just go with the HPS.

Thanks to a little motivation from my vaporizer, the first, most basic step is up and running as of 2:54 am CST. It is pretty sick if I do say so myself...

I will put up more later. And a big thanks to darkarms for solving my problem trying to post. Man, it can be difficult to find things when you're high.

-Solo-Man-

Personally, I'd go with option 1, but that's just me. It'd be the cheapest way right now, and be easiest to upgrade. If you're flowing some right off and vegging others, a switchable wont do much good, you'll need two growing areas. Son Agro would be cool, but again if youll have two spaces, why not get them each exactly what they need, instead of mixing what they need with some of what they dont? CFLs are fine to use (IMHO) as long as you have enough. Best of luck.

Soloman said:

1. Buy a 400w HPS ballast so I can flower, and currently use my floros for my initial veg. Later I would plan to buy a MH for my single aeroponic mother unit (a future project).

2. Buy a switchable ballast to take advantage of the bushiness that the MH produces, and then flower with the HPS. Worry about my mother later.

3 Buy a 400w HPS ballast with a 430w Son Agro bulb. This bulb is theoretically awesome. For those of you unaware of this light, it is a HPS with 30w of Blue added and can run on a 400w hps ballast. The Son Agro bulb shows the shortest internodal length of all bulbs and basically has the advantages of the HPS and MH in one bulb! You can use this setup for all stages as well! I was all set to go with this setup, until the guy at the store told me that I would be lucky to get half of the life of the bulb out of it and recommended to just go with the HPS.

Thanks to a little motivation from my vaporizer, the first, most basic step is up and running as of 2:54 am CST. It is pretty sick if I do say so myself...

I will put up more later. And a big thanks to darkarms for solving my problem trying to post. Man, it can be difficult to find things when you're high.

-Solo-Man-

Click to expand...

Wow soloman that shit is awesome! You made me wanna build one almost immediately lol. Looks easy enough though, you explained it well on that other site.

Good luck to you, I'll be watching your journal!

Okay, it has been a while and I have made a lot of progress that I can't wait to share. But first, I find it necessary to clarify a fsomething. I did not post those plans, just the link. I have done a lot of research on the internet and came up with a few sweet spots to figure stuff out. I will post my step-by-step project here so all of you can follow along in kind.

I have started my grow and am well on my way. I have built my DWC system and it is running great! I started out with 7 germinated seeds in the DWC system, but two haven't turned into a plant (I'm thinking it's a lost cause) and one of my two prize sprouts was tragically and fatally wounded by a bug. I squished him good though! Of the four remaining: one is awesome, one looks like it could become awesome, and two are turned to the side (imagine a person standing with their ear to their shoulder while standing up).

So far I am pleased. My paycheck got lost somehow, so I've been strapped and have been growing them on two $11 floros from Meijer, but they seem to be working for now. I was concerned that the rock wool wouldn't stay moist if not touching the water, but was wrong. It is all working really well.

I'm going to make a concerted effort to find the cable for my camera so I can post pictures soon and my step-by-step directions.

-Solo-Man-

Oh, and as for the soil, I started out with a few combos of organic soil and pearlite with 3 of the other seeds that germinated. But then some chipmunk, obviously sent by Satan, dug into all my pots!

I suspect the chipmunk for two reasons: a dog couldn't climb onto my balcony and he had been hanging around recently.

But God smiled upon me and smote my enemy! I saw him dead next to the dumpster...

Turns out that pearlite is not part of a complete breakfast. Solo: 1- Chipmunk: DEAD

-Solo-Man-

soloman, how big can those plants get in that contraption? When they're too big to fit, what method do you use next?

how often do you turn it on, and what kind of nutes do you use?? Sorry so many questions, but we're curious, thinking of trying it.

Soloman said:

But then some chipmunk, obviously sent by Satan, dug into all my pots!

Click to expand...

P.S. - Sorry to hear about your plants... but something obviously took care of that chipmunk lol

Okay, I've got my camera hooked up finally so here it goes....

I started germinating my seeds by putting them in a clear tray filled with water. Out of all the methods I've tried, this is by far the simplest. I put them in the light at first and had several sprout after a few days. I left it in the light because my friend once threw a seed in a shot glass to germinate and forgot about it (he has a real problem). When we "found" it two and a half weeks later, it was a little plant growing out of the glass. Don't germinate in the light! Think about it, in nature seeds start in the dirt in the DARK, then grow into the light. I put my next seeds in the dark instead, and they germinated overnight!

A. Prepare the Rock Wool

Rock wool is really Basic, so you have to balance it out by soaking it in Acidic water for 24 hours. It is recommended that the pH is 5.8, but my pH kit only goes to 6.8(? I'm not looking at it). So I added pH down to a gallon of distilled water and got it a little more acidic and ran with it.

B. Prepare the Hydroton

Put the expanded clay pellets in some net pots and run tap water over them until the water runs clear. You don't want all the dust to contaminate your resevoir.

C. Assemble the DWC unit

I bought a simple, shallow rubbermaid container ( approx. 24"x18"x5", 41 qt?). First thing I did was spray paint the bottom of the container black to prevent algae. Then I cut holes in the top using tin snips. I'm not sure how I figured out the measurements, but I made a template out of cardboard and cut out 8 holes using tin snips. Don't make the hole so big that the net pot hangs in all the way, just so all the net part does and the solid part is above. Note: when cutting this particular lid, I found it would crack if you cut in a straight line. I recommend starting in the middle and spiraling out to make your hole. Or just invest in a hole saw. Next drill a hole slightly larger than your air hose in the top. Then rinse it all out with water and wipe it out with hydrogen peroxide for good measure. I used a T-coupler to hook to airstones to my air pump.

Fill with distilled water and you are done!

This part is pretty simple...

A. Prep the Net Pots

You need to fill your pot so there is hydroton at the bottom and the rock wool is surrounded on all sides by it with a thin layer on top. Rinse the rock wool with distilled water before you put the seeds in.

B. Drop the Seed

Drop the seed in the rock wool hole after widening it slightly with a screwdriver. Make sure the root is pointed down so the seed shell can come up through the hole.

C. Lights!

I am on a budget and bought two $10 floros at Meijer... Man are they awesome. I put one on the wall with a couple nails and hung the other one right over the center about 6 inches above the tops of the pots.

I bag the pots with baggies Until the plant bulks up some

I germinated on Jun 25th, and haven't kept track of time like I wanted to, but it was probably around Jul 1 that my seeds became sprouts. A lot has happened since then. I'm in a hurry and I'm gonna summarize one line at a time.

7 germinated seeds in Net pots, 5 make it to sprouts.

2 sweet plants real quick, 3 ok lookin ones.

Bug infiltrates my baggie and kills my favorite plant.

I avenge plant- kill bug. Now have a personal vendetta against any thing with wings that eats plants.

Other plant looks sweet now, 2 sweet plants and 2 ok.

Find seed in bag of diggity-dank-out-cold-on-the-couch-weed. It germinates over night and is a sprout 2 days later!

Find a shitty white seed and throw it in a rock wool cube! It germs and sprouts in 5 days!

Find sign of life in soil pot! It looks yellow at first, but put it under the light and it is perking up!

Count is now- 2 bushy plants, 2 ok looking plants with potential, a sprout from a bag of dank, and a purp sprout plus the plant in the soil. Life is good.

I made a jug of Nutrient water for my plants. Once they have 4 leaves I give them a cup in the morning of Nute water and a a cup of distilled at night to prevent any salt build up. I used Fox Farm Nutrients Grow Big and Big Bloom at 1/4 dose in the same jug of distilled water. I use a small cup and just give them a little pour out of the same cup. Don't over do it with the nutrients! or the water! This can overflow.

I have roots on the bigger plants hanging in the water already.

After poking around here, I rummaged around the house and an almost complete trip to home depot and I will have a new CFL Light set soon.

Check out the pics!!

Let me know if you have any questions. I'm stuck using the internet on my phone mostly.

Sorry my very last update sucked... I was very tired, very hurried, and very high.

To answer some questions...

I leave everything on 24/7. Rock wool well keep a consistent moisture level appropriate for the plants. The air pump and stones add oxygen to the reservoir to keep the roots healthy and the bubbles explode and get the water to the rock wool to keep it all good.

I am leaving the lights on 24/7 for a luscious vegetative cycle. Two of the plants (the good ones) are certainly females, which I'm excited about.

The plants should be able to get fairly large in this unit, I'm thinking between a foot and 18" before I will need to move them. This is largely an experiment, though. I have read a lot and participated in a previous experiment, but nothing like this. So, basically, that is yet to be determined.

A real lot has changed since my last post. I almost lost my plants twice; once to algae and once more to bugs. I managed to salvage my purple seed once again. The bugs eating it actually topped it.

First thing I did was change my lights. I've added four 100w equivalent cfl's. The two I like I got at Home Depot for about $6 each and are a brilliant white that said it was closest to daylight (invision brand?). The other two I got are more yellowy and I want to replace them ASAP. The plants love all the light!

When the algae started to take down my plants, I had to change my water and added a 1/6th dose approx. of FoxFarm Grow Big and Big Bud. If you are using this system, change the water every 2 weeks and check the pH daily. Things can change quick and (if you are like me) you get major anxiety attacks when your plants look like death and all you can do is wait and pray they make it. Also, a daily splash of H2O2 will help combat algae.

The plants are amazing. I finally got up the guts to top my plants and wow! You would think it would shock the plant or treat it like an injury but it keeps growing right where it left off. I have now topped all my larger plants several times. I'm hoping for some bushes.

I will post pics soon.

Sorry, my laptop is getting repaired and I just eradicated a virus from my bro's laptop just to post.

-Solo-Man-

My prize plant just keeps getting bigger. My system has a very mild nute mix with FF Grow Big and Big Bloom.

My Plants are all doing ok after changing my water and giving regular treatments of hydrogen peroxide. I am also using a more powerful mix (still milder than the recommended dose) in a spray bottle for foliar feeding.

I have been spraying and bagging my plants at night. I use the nute water for the fuller plants and distilled water for the seedlings. All of my plants have roots hanging in the water.

The first month was a terrible wait. I germinated around Jun 24th and July was rough, but now I'm seeing results.

Check it out! The pics are from 8/17/08.

-Solo-Man-

I realize I'm posting a few weeks behind... f*ing computer malfunctions.

I believe that my plants are a true testament to the high quality of growth produced by a DWC system and fueled by FF organic nutrients.

I have now seen several other people with plants. (Apparently some dude in my area will sell you a 3 ft. tall plant for $150... but they look like a Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.) Mine are by far the most luscious. This pic is of my setup one week later.

-Solo-Man-

I tried something new about the time of my last pic and kept my plants bagged all day with the exception of the few hours between the time I got home and when I went to bed (9pm-midnightish). During the next few days I have experienced tremendous growth, especially from the areas where I topped the plant!

I started this as an experiment for lots of things, one of them was to test topping. After our last experimental plant and now this, I have found one great truth: If you are not topping you're plant, you are wasting your time.

I have topped the main cola 2x giving me a total of eight main branches. I have also been topping the side branches as well. That combined with a very close light source have made this a bush. (Note: I keep a standard 16oz. Plastic Party cup in the pics for reference. These pics are from 8-27, look at the pics in the last two posts for comparison.) A couple leaves dying off here and there have topped a few plants naturally.

And here is the best part:
This is a "bag-seed" grow. Most of my plants are from a bag of 40's that looked like a bad cure so I'm really unsure how this might turn out. But one seed is from a bag of alleged "Purple-Skunk" (Who knows and who cares? It is some sick, fluffy, tasty purple bud with a cerebrally stimulating high that lasts.) The bag seeds are doing well, but my purp has struggled. It was a shady white seed to start but sprouted quickly. It never really grew and then suffered a near-complete loss with my second infestation. I was distraught. I couldn't sleep at night. But something wonderful happened! With the right love and care, it is now healthy and growing again. I keep it bagged 24/7 (as with all small sproutlings) and it is doing well. But nature gave me a bonus. It only had 4 small leaves and was about 1/2" tall when it was attacked. Those leaves have since died and fallen off and been replaced with two main colas! Nature topped my plant!

Last night I made a higher concentration for foliar feeding. I made it according to the instructions. I'm gonna give just that to the prize plant and alternate the other plants with distilled the purp sprout gets 1 spray a day and a lot of distilled.

Have my seeds set up to order! Northernberry! If only my bro would get off his ass and order them...

I have also made a budget of the next stage of my grow op. If anyone is interested in expenses, let me know and I'll post the spreadsheet.

-Solo-Man-

lmao i got the same DC's as you....nice setup though

They were looking a little rough there for a while with the necrosis on the leaves but they are looking MUCH better, good job!

It is amazing how much these are capable of growing in one day. I work from 10-8:30 during the week, but with travel tends to be 9-9. The only good thing about that is that my plants experience huge growth while I'm gone.

My plants are all doing really well at the moment. I noticed some algae in the reservoir last night, so after work I'm gonna clean it and put in stronger nutes (only at about 1/12th strength).

I'm also gonna cover the top of the res. with silver tape or spray paint. I think silver tape because I don't want the plants out too long and the fumes from paint will linger and kill my plants.

I had to rearrange my plants last night because the big one is reaching over the ones near it. I love it.

I have also decided to take a couple clones off my big plant tonight.

Here are a couple pics. The smallest one is my Purple-Skunk seed (who knows really?). I topped it again last night. I can't wait until I get home from work. 4.5 hours to go!

I like what I'm seeing =]
Sounds like your having a lot of fun too.
Can we get more pics of your cab?.. and what are you doing for air circulation?
good luck man.. and keep us updated
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Yea I've been reading along too....good stuff bro, thanks for the journal. I'd love more pics of the cab too. Look forward to reading more