My super skunk Hydro grow journal

Hi Fellas,

This is my grow journal. It is my first attempt at hydroponics. I am only growing 6 plants to start with, as I learn the ropes.

All comments, tips, advice welcome.

My equipment is as follows:

2m x 2m x 2m Ezi-Grow Tent (Mylar lined)
3 x 600W HPS lights in cool tubes
1 x 4 foot carbon filter
1 x large exhaust fan connected to carbon filter
1 x intake fan bringing in cool air to the tent from outside
1 x intake fan bringing in cool air to the cool tube lights and extracting the hot air out the other end
1 x 80 litre reservoir
6 x pots including top and bottom pots

Method is recirculated drip system, the bottom pots are all plumbed back into the reservoir.

Growing medium is straight Hydroton.

Growing from seed. Strain is Super Skunk, seeds from buydutchseeds.com

My problems so far have been heat related. I started off without the cool tube lights and found out quickly that the room temp shot up to 40c. So I swapped my normal reflectors for cool tubes and can now keep the tent at 26-27c.

Im using nutes called "THC" and they are in Part A, Part B form. I intend to use these through vegative and flowering and might also gets some additional flowering nutes. Im starting off at 300PPM although at the moment the res has risen to 500PPM so I need to give it a flush out, the current water in there is about a week old.

Im using root repair formula called AU60 Root Repair, at 1ml per litre.

My seeds were germinated in 2 inch rock wool cubes, and then the cubes were put into the pots in the Hydrotron.

At the moment they are 1 and 1/2 weeks old.

Here are some pics to kick things off. I will put up some better pics of my setup as I get a chance. One of my plants is starting to get yellow leaf tips and im not sure why yet. The other 5 all look healthy.

Light cycle at the moment is 18/6.

I plan on veging for 8 weeks then flowering for 8 weeks.

Hoping for at least 1 oz per plant (dry).

Some more pics of my setup

Just noticed some brown algae in my res (see pic).

From what i've read, brown algae is dead algae, it isn't growing any more. Do I still need to flush? Whats best, h202? What is that anyway?

Clean setup son I dunno much about hydro but they look pretty healthy what I do noe is algae grow wen light is allowed into tha res. Imo flush to get tha shiet outta there

kryptakrOnic said:

Clean setup son I dunno much about hydro but they look pretty healthy what I do noe is algae grow wen light is allowed into tha res. Imo flush to get tha shiet outta there

Click to expand...

Thanks mate im going to flush it tomorrow.

Bitch of a job, I wish I thought of how I was going to flush it before I put the system together. I need a tap on the res or something. Im using the pump at the moment to pump it all out into a bucket, then lift the pots so gravity sends all there res water back into the main res, then keep pumping and emptying buckets!

Can no light at all get into the res?

If you have a look at my pics you will see I drilled two holes in the res lid, one for my feed line and one for my air line.

The air one is a fair bit bigger than i needed so there is a little bit of light able to get through there.

Also is opening the lid every day to check Ph etc enough light to cause algae probs?

Thanks for the tips. Keep em comin.

looking good....
sorry cant help soil grow here

Flushed the res today.

Filled it back up with 65 litres of water, then Ph'd it to 5.9

My nutes say full strength is 3.5ml per litre, so I put in roughly 1/4 strenth, ie 1ml per litre.

PPM is now 300 and Ph is 5.8

Will see if my plant with yellow tips improves now.

A few hours after flushing my res and pots out thoroughly with fresh water, my res has got a brown film on the bottom again. Its only very light but its only been a few hours since I flushed it.

I suspect that its not algae, that its just dust from my Hydroton, even though I washed it 3 times thoroughly before i used it.

Can any Hyrdroton growers confirm?

Pics attached

its likely that and the nutes will produce a film at the bottom of the res. iused foxfarm nutes and i have brown film on the bottom of mine..

Yeah I have decided not to worry about it (only cause I can't work out how to get rid of it)

PPM has risen slightly to 350PPM, but plants are looking more healthy, most are just starting to get their third set of leaves. I'll leave it another day or two then upload some more pics. Today is day 11 since they sprouted.

Ive added some pictures of all 6 plants.

For 4 of them this is day 11, and for another two its only day 7 because they took a bit longer to sprout.

They all have yellow leaf tips because my PPM was too high (over 500), I have reduced it to 350PPM now so im waiting to see if that fixes the yellow leaf tips. At least I think that is the reason, any tips from anyone welcome.

Room temp is 27c. Humidity 50%.

Plant 1: 11 days old. The tallest, about 4-5 inches.

Plant 2: 11 days old, about 3.5 inches.

Plant 3: 7 days old, only 1 inch, seems to be stunted.

Plant 4: 11 days old, this one has the most yellow leaf tips out of the lot, but its 2nd tallest at 4 inches i hope it will recover ok.

Plant 5: 10 days old, looks ok. About 3.5 inches.

Plant 6: 7 days old only 1 inch, seems to be stunted.


The little short 1 inchers (Plant 3 & 6) seem to be stunted, I think I put them under lights too soon after they sprouted (about 1 day after they sprouted). All the others I left in darkness until 3 days after they sprouted.

I like this setup, well done how any grows have you done in the past? I use Hygrozyme to kill Alge & pathogen.

iloveit said:

I like this setup, well done how any grows have you done in the past? I use Hygrozyme to kill Alge & pathogen.

Click to expand...

Thanks. Two outdoor grows this is my first indoor.

The plants all look to be recovering from the Nutrient burn. They are all getting their 4th set of leaves, its only the 1st set of leaves that has the burnt tips, none of the new leaf growth looks burned.

Question, will the tips on the 1st set of leaves ever recover or will they stay burnt?

Hi

Height is going to be an issue for me, im limited on space because im in a tent.

I am not sure when I should stop veging my plants and switch them to flowering. I don't want them to get too big and get too close to my lights when they are flowering.

So a few questions:

1) When I switch my plants to 12/12 for flowering, how much bigger is the plant likely to get? Double the height? Three times the height? I was told by the guy at the hydro store that he can sell me something to put in the solution that will stop there vertical growth. Is this good to use?

2) I have attached a pic (Pic 1) of my setup, I measured between the globe/lamp and the top of my pots and the total distance I've got to work with is 52 inches. I have 3 x 600W HPS lights in 125mm cool tubes cooled by a centrigual fan. How close can the plants get to my lights given they are in cool tubes? I've read 18 inches elsewhere but thats not for cool tubes, I can't find any info on how far for cool tubes. I've only got 52 inches to work with, so im hoping I can get nice and close to the cool tubes without effecting the plant?

3) Say I grow them to 45 inches high, which would mean they were 8 inches from the lights.....45 inches it doesn't seem very high, what kind of yield could I expect from them if I top them all so I have 4 colas? Strain is Super Skunk from buydutchseeds.com

And also pic 2, 3 and 4 are just updated pics of a few of the plants. They are all getting there 4th set of leaves and the nute burn is fading. They are on day 14 since sprouting.

Cheers

* bump *

Can anyone help me with distance from lights?

Today is day 16 since sprouting, here are some pics (taken in darkness). Most plants are just getting there 5th nodes.

Going to top them soon back to just above the 2nd true node (so I get 4 main colas per plant as per https://www.rollitup.org/advanced-marijuana-cultivation/151706-uncle-bens-topping-technique-get.html).