1st Grow/ Bubbleponics Basement Set-up!

xpac7007

Well-Known Member
Whats up guys this is my first ever! I decided to go with SH and the Bubbleponic system. The reason being it is very compact, good for beginners, and comes with everything you need plus support via SH. I would like as much input as i can get on this grow so everyone's opinions are welcome.

Tues, July 28 2009: My First Grow began!

My Noob Mistakes: I had very many problems in the first 2 weeks with my grow. I found myself coming to this site everyday for help. So i took a week and read up on everything this site had to offer and fixed alot of stuff because of it. So thankyou to everyone on here!

I didnt have covers over my net pots so i got alge in the tank. The temp was 65F at night and around 105F max during the day. Also i added nutes way to early. ( Not the system is in a shed in my backyard).

Sun, August 16: I move my grow to my basement. Add proxide to tank, clean everything, and made it look like new. I got thoes plants out of hell and now here are my specs.

24/0 light
ph: 6.0-7.0
temp: 72F min...81F max
Humid: 50-70%
Type: I belive it is top 44 but idk it looks Indica.
System: Bubblueponic Dual Spec II Kit, with SH nutes, powder PH up and down.

Here are my Pics:
These are my most recent pics.

(1): This is the pic of the setup in my corner

(2): General Plant View

(3): General Plant View

(4): My Bigest Girl Kimber. *I topped her*

(5): Kimber again * I topped her*

(6): Eden

(7): General Plant View

(8): Scale Shot
(The temp gage is only 1inch high)


11.jpg

22.jpg

33.jpg

44.jpg

55.jpg

66.jpg

77.jpg

88.jpg
Q: In pics 4 and 5 i topped the plant at the 5th node. I was just wondering if it looked like i did it right. Can anyone tell me?

Q: Do they look far enough along for the time? they started on July 28 and it is now Aug 20th.

Q: They are not very tall. Should i be worried or are the girls ok?

Please leave any feedback!
 

Roseman

Elite Rolling Society
Man, they are looking great, you have done your homework, and that move to the basement should really help with temperatures. I hope you read my post about Prepreation and bugs.
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Mistakes I made
 

ThirdCoast

Member
You are looking pretty good now that you have moved them to the basement. The only things I would suggest would be to maybe lower your ph a bit and be sure to check the temp of the water in the rez. I keep my ph between 5.5 and 6.2. Water in the rez needs to stay below 75 in order to allow for enough dissolved oxygen.

The girls look great. Hieght seems to be fine for an indica strain like top 44
 

funkydope

Well-Known Member
Ah a fellow Midwesterner welcome! First thing...your plants are looking great. My first system was the SH bubbleponics kit. I am now using the DWC buckets that I have converted to bubblers (More root space, you will see as you grow more). Good start for your first time.
Here is some advice if I can share.....Your PH is a little high. You should try to stay in the 5.5-6.5. I like to start at 5.5 in veg and let it drift up to as high as 6.3/6.5; this way the plant is using the whole range of nutrients (In Rosemans closet grow tutorial, He talks all about ph). Your temp would be easier to manage if you added a small fan to the mix. It will circulate air for you and allow you to cool your lights at the same time. This will also drop your humidity to a more manageable level. I like to stay between 40% and 50%. Just to forewarn you....5 plants may be hard to manage later in the life cycle. The first time I grew I started with 5 plants and was also growing Top44 (oddly enough)....I had 2 really strong females that started competing for root space in the tub and they actually stunted the growth of 3 other plants. Luckily two ended up being male and they were removed. But root space may become an issue with 5 plants. Now....on to your questions....

1.) As far as topping the plant....it looks good. In the future you may want to looking to methods that won't be so high stress to the plant. Try researching LST (low stress training), Fimming (Pinching and bending top of plant).These methods will also achieve the same goal of make more main colas, but without slowing down the growth of your plant because of recovery.It will take a few days for those plants to recover and continue growing...Here is a great link on LST...this is the method I prefer to use How-To : LST (Low Stress Training) - Page 1 - Grasscity.com Forums

2)If you started from seed... then they are looking right on track.
 

xpac7007

Well-Known Member
Ah a fellow Midwesterner welcome! First thing...your plants are looking great. My first system was the SH bubbleponics kit. I am now using the DWC buckets that I have converted to bubblers (More root space, you will see as you grow more). Good start for your first time.
Here is some advice if I can share.....Your PH is a little high. You should try to stay in the 5.5-6.5. I like to start at 5.5 in veg and let it drift up to as high as 6.3/6.5; this way the plant is using the whole range of nutrients (In Rosemans closet grow tutorial, He talks all about ph). Your temp would be easier to manage if you added a small fan to the mix. It will circulate air for you and allow you to cool your lights at the same time. This will also drop your humidity to a more manageable level. I like to stay between 40% and 50%. Just to forewarn you....5 plants may be hard to manage later in the life cycle. The first time I grew I started with 5 plants and was also growing Top44 (oddly enough)....I had 2 really strong females that started competing for root space in the tub and they actually stunted the growth of 3 other plants. Luckily two ended up being male and they were removed. But root space may become an issue with 5 plants. Now....on to your questions....

1.) As far as topping the plant....it looks good. In the future you may want to looking to methods that won't be so high stress to the plant. Try researching LST (low stress training), Fimming (Pinching and bending top of plant).These methods will also achieve the same goal of make more main colas, but without slowing down the growth of your plant because of recovery.It will take a few days for those plants to recover and continue growing...Here is a great link on LST...this is the method I prefer to use How-To : LST (Low Stress Training) - Page 1 - Grasscity.com Forums

2)If you started from seed... then they are looking right on track.
FunkyDope: Hey man thx for the input. I do have fans one on the bottom blowing upward and one towards the top blowing the air away. Also i have a normal fan that is oscilating (lol) i lil further back to get good air movement. Sry i just didnt have them in the pics cuzz i moved them.

Also about the Ph i know 5.5-6.0 is ideal for veg but my tank keeps wanting to stay in the 6.5-7 range. I use city water with a begining ph of 7.0. I check my tanks ph once a day and its usally 6.5 i add ph down them it goes to 5.0-5.5. i only mess with the ph once a day because i heard to increase or decrease in one day can shock the plants. I let no light through and always clean the dead roots from the tank. I dont know why my ph goes up so much.

Also i started with 6 seeds in the system of Topp 44. One didnt germ so now i am down to 5. Yes i am worried about growin 5 plants but i didnt have fem seeds. So i want to see if i can grow these 5 and if need be i cant tell the sex before they get out of control i will invest in some 5gal bucketts and put 2 of them in there.

Q: you were groing top 44 aswell i was just wondering if you would mind letting me know how many G's of dried manicured bud u got and out of how many plants in this system.
 

xpac7007

Well-Known Member
Man, they are looking great, you have done your homework, and that move to the basement should really help with temperatures. I hope you read my post about Prepreation and bugs.
Please visit my thread here and consider joining the BubbleHead Gang.

Roseman: hey man i will def hit the gang up. But i had a question since you use the SH nutes aswell. I looked at the nutes i have left and noticed that i dont have as many micro packets as grow and bloom packs. That means when i go to flowering i will only have 2 mico packs to 6 bloom packs. I only use one micro pack to every one full grow pack. Is this normal? What should i do?
 

Kaliix

Member
Hey xpac, I am looking to set up a grow cabinet in the basement. I have been thinking about the what the temperature is going to do to my plants as it is about a constant 65 degrees down there. What is the temp around your plants with the CFL setup you have going? Any other temp info that comes to mind, please feel free to dispense some knowledge to someone who wants to do essentially what you are doing in about a month...

funkydope, that was an awesome link to that LST tutorial! I was talking to a toking friend of mine today about setting up my grow and he was telling me about how he knew some outdoor growers who used to tie down there babies using croquet wickets in a nice circle on the ground. I was trying to imagine how that would work and that LST tutorial was just what I was looking for... Cheers!!!
 

xpac7007

Well-Known Member
Hey xpac, I am looking to set up a grow cabinet in the basement. I have been thinking about the what the temperature is going to do to my plants as it is about a constant 65 degrees down there. What is the temp around your plants with the CFL setup you have going? Any other temp info that comes to mind, please feel free to dispense some knowledge to someone who wants to do essentially what you are doing in about a month...

Kaliix: Hey man these CFL light stay very cool. I have only seen a 2-5 degree change of the temp when the lights are 2inches above the plants. it is normally 70-75F in the basement and the temp on the surface on the tank with light 2inch from plant is always in between 75-80 F with only 1 fan going. So they stay very cool and work very well. Also if you are going to start in your basement, if it is unfinished like mine then make sure you clean it good and def spray for bugs. I spent about 4 hours down there the first day cleaning the walls and cieling of dead bugs, spider webs, and other nasty things. Then after everything was clean i went out and bought some home deffense bug killer/preventer. It kills all insects around and protects from them coming back for 12 months. I sprayed everyother day for 1 week and made sure no bugs would come near my space. Havent had a bug problem yet!
 

xpac7007

Well-Known Member
Just Flushed tank. Ph is at 5.6.....Added 1/2 grow 1/2 micro packs. We will see what happens in the morning. Also i gave my roots a 20min airbath to dry them out and get the growth spurt when they are dropped back into water.
 

xpac7007

Well-Known Member
DW 4174: Hey man i just flushed my tank so there will be a huge growth spurt tonight so i will have pics up of the spurt around 3pm est...They grow fast...not so much up but you can def see a change in the size of the leafs everyday and new nodes every 3 days
 

DW4174

Well-Known Member
sorry dont mean to rush or anything but I like to see how people do with there bubbleponic set up. It interest me very much.
 

Roseman

Elite Rolling Society
ten days



12 days


15 days



17 days





20 days

Those first 3 weeks is when the feeding tubes really make a difference.
__________________
 

funkydope

Well-Known Member
FunkyDope: Hey man thx for the input. I do have fans one on the bottom blowing upward and one towards the top blowing the air away. Also i have a normal fan that is oscilating (lol) i lil further back to get good air movement. Sry i just didnt have them in the pics cuzz i moved them.

Also about the Ph i know 5.5-6.0 is ideal for veg but my tank keeps wanting to stay in the 6.5-7 range. I use city water with a begining ph of 7.0. I check my tanks ph once a day and its usally 6.5 i add ph down them it goes to 5.0-5.5. i only mess with the ph once a day because i heard to increase or decrease in one day can shock the plants. I let no light through and always clean the dead roots from the tank. I dont know why my ph goes up so much.

Also i started with 6 seeds in the system of Topp 44. One didnt germ so now i am down to 5. Yes i am worried about growin 5 plants but i didnt have fem seeds. So i want to see if i can grow these 5 and if need be i cant tell the sex before they get out of control i will invest in some 5gal bucketts and put 2 of them in there.

Q: you were groing top 44 aswell i was just wondering if you would mind letting me know how many G's of dried manicured bud u got and out of how many plants in this system.
Very good on the fans....i just wanted to make sure. About your ph.....my tap water is very much like yours. It can be anywhere from. 7.0-7.4. I noticed after switching to my bubbler buckets my PH swinging from the 6.0 I set it at, all the way back up to 7.4. I found that the SH PH down powder wasn't working well with my water. So I went online and bought a liter of the General Hydroponics liquid PH down for about $10, and I have never had a problem since. When I set my PH at 5.5 it will stay there for a few days while the plants are eating....then it will very, very slowly move as they eat more. This may work better for you...the GH PH dowm is buffered and very stable, and will mix better in your water since it's in liquid form.
Now for the the Top44....I started with 5 plants; had 2 males and 3 females. One of the females was a runt, but the other 2 were very strong. After everything was dried...I pulled about 3.5 oz off two plants and made some good hash from the runt. This was also my first grow, but the disadvantage I had was, I was by myself....I didn't know about forums back then. I just had my grow bible. So hopefully you will do better then me.
 

xpac7007

Well-Known Member
Ph is around 5.5-6.0 and everything is running great. Here are some pics to fill you guys in. Let me know what you think!

Pics:

#9: Side shot of Kimber my biggest plant

#10: Shot of all the girls

#11: (left) Eden (topmid) Lizz (right) Kimber

#12: (bottom) Mrs. Grubman (top left) Gina

#13: Where Kimber was topped

#14: Lizz

#15: Scale Shot
 

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funkydope

Well-Known Member
Ph is around 5.5-6.0 and everything is running great. Here are some pics to fill you guys in. Let me know what you think!

Pics:

#9: Side shot of Kimber my biggest plant

#10: Shot of all the girls

#11: (left) Eden (topmid) Lizz (right) Kimber

#12: (bottom) Mrs. Grubman (top left) Gina

#13: Where Kimber was topped

#14: Lizz

#15: Scale Shot
Looking great man
 
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