First Grow - Criticism Wanted

Love root porn almost as much as bud porn. This pic is typical of what I end up with after harvest.

Man that looks like it was a monster plant. I bet it would have sucked the bucket dry pretty fast.

NrthrnMichigan said:

Love root porn almost as much as bud porn. This pic is typical of what I end up with after harvest.

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That stem looks like its been on organic steroids. Not a stem... a trunk. . How long did you let it grow for?

5BY5LEC said:

Man that looks like it was a monster plant. I bet it would have sucked the bucket dry pretty fast.

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It was drinking about 2 to 3 gallons every 24 hours.

BaROne123 said:

That stem looks like its been on organic steroids. Not a stem... a trunk. . How long did you let it grow for?

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I usually veg between 5 to 8 weeks, here's a bigger one;

NrthrnMichigan said:

I usually veg between 5 to 8 weeks, here's a bigger one;

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That's definitely been reared on steroids. Excellent.

The shoot is bigger than most main stalks. It sounds like you really optimize your grow to get the most out of just a couple plants, right?
This is what I am shooting for. Maximize each plant.

So I turned my exhaust fan off for awhile while I swept the garage and stuff.....my wife came down wondering what the stink was. These plants are rank and they are not even into flower yet. It is like a sharp, cutting smell. Haha I have to keep the fan on. I underestimated the work the carbon filter is doing even at this point.
I saw a friends setup who was using a trash can pre-filled with nutes to refill his dwc buckets. I copied him and came up with this. I had been mixing nutes 5 gallons at a time in a water jug.

It's basically a res on wheels. I fill it up, dump the nutes in and let the pump mix for the day. When I get home I drain my system out and just stick the hose into my res and pump the water in.
The pump and cart were like 15 bucks from Harbor Freight and the Can was 13 at the Dirty Depot.

Also, here are the plants. I think four would have been too big for the tent.
I got a second ceiling pole because I am going to add the 2nd 315 LEC when I switch to flower here in a week or so.

Here are my stats at the moment
PH 5.8-5.9
PPM 450 ( Cal-Mag to 150ppm / Armor Si 0.75ML per Gallon / Orca/HG / GH Trio 2ml/Gal Each)
You can see the thermometer in the pic
Water is nice and chilly.
I am going to spray em down with some SM-90 for good measure before I flower. I have not seen bugs but just to be safe.
Any suggestions before I switch to flower next week?

So an update.
I decided it was time to put these girls to flower. I am going to stick with veg nutes for a week for two. I read the plants need nitrogen through the stretch so once I notice its over I will switch to bloom nutes. I went ahead and added the 2nd LEC. I had to build a new ceiling brace for the tent because I did not want to hang two lights from one pole. I hammered one out of 1/2 EMT. It did not crack being cold forged lol. I also added a scrog net. I got it for 4 dollars from the Depot.
It took me a couple hours to get the temps under control with the two lights but I ended up hovering right around 82-85. I think this is fine given the fact that I have a water chiller AND we are having a fall heat wave here.
I am not really sure what I am looking for but these are fem seeds so I am sure I will notice some buds soon. I am still more concerned with watching the leaves and what they are telling me.

PH 5.8 - 5.9 for the last day or two
PPM 450 and dropping by about 30 a day. I am bumping up the nutes slowly.
Really I have learned to just check the PH and PPM and if the plants are fine, I am fine.

Thats a 5x5 tent, so the front plant's canopy is about 3x3 right now for a sense of scale.

So I am about 6 days into flower. I am seeing some dark green leaves and a few spots here and there. I am going to post a picture up and in a new forum and see if anyone has any suggestions. I really don't think it is anything to get wrapped up about though. I think I am doing pretty well.
The things are sucking down water and nutrients like no other. Like 2 gallons a day and 50ppm drop a day. PH drifts around but never tanks.

I had my fan turned off for a bit so the temps rose a bit while I was taking photo's, in case anyone catches that.

So I have learned a ton about addbacks and keeping my res in check. I think I will let you all judge by the pics.
I also met someone who knows more about cannabis than I do so he helped my trim my plants.
I am at 1.0 EC or 500ppm and my PH drops up and down but never goes out of range of around 5.4 to 6.1

Note to self--Next time I am using 25 gallon totes. The fucking roots have filled the buckets. I would be surprised if there is a gallon of water in each bucket at this point.

The very last picture is last night. Switched em to flower on Aug 24

5BY5LEC said:

Also, my PH still drops about .1-.2 overnight but it is a really slow drift so I am going to read about it for now but it does not seem like a problem. No rot and the plants are taking water and nutes.
GH Trio drops my water to around 6.5 so I just add that to the res. Maybe I will add a ml of PH up to see if it is just a buffer issue or something.

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A slow drift is stellar imo. Gives a ph spectrum for the nutrients. As long as they stay within range, a drift like that you can really use to your advantage. 5.5-6.5 is your ph range? Different nutrients peak with plant uptake at different ph's (in layman's terms). A slow drift across this ph band lets your plants utilize the full potential of your nutrient solution. After the drift bottoms out, rinse repeat.
You can also play with it. During different stages of growth if you know which nutrients it needs most, you can dial in the ph to that nutrient to maximize it. There are ph nutrient scales, I'm to tired to post one.

Yeah I am learning about PH and PPMs.
PH will drift depending on your buffers and what the plant wants to eat
This explains why a lot of hydro guys talk about PH drops during flower
Its all about what they are eating and what they want

I have been reading more and more about nutes and NPK ratios, ph EC ect. I have learned enough to make a small change.
Not that what I have been doing was not working, but I want to try and really dial in my plants during flower.
I realized with the GH Trio I was giving a alot of nitrogen, I think my ratios were something like 10-16-24 after I added everything up.
I decided to go with a lucas formula of 1 parts micro to 2 parts bloom. This got me an NPK ratio of roughly 5-10-13 after. ( add some calmag at 1-0-0 and silica at 0-0-4). I think this is much closer to what my plants need during flower.
I mixed up my res at 550 or 1.1 ec. Ph'd it at 5.8 that night and in the morning it was at 6.1 and staying there.
PPM dropped to 500 by the next morning so I am good for now. I will look out for defs the next couple days but I think I did right with the nutes. I am upping it to 600 next res change.

I just read that and I am not explaining something correctly because 10-16-24 is the same as 5-8-12.
Nevermind for now, I have some more reading to do. Here are a few pics of them today. I did some trimming also a few days ago. I am not going to trim any more.
My leaves are reaching for the lights and look healthy as ever so I think they are just fine for now.
Take a second to look!