First time'er showing off new grow

Blent

Well-Known Member
Man I like that. The ease of having a 30gal res is just a fucken beauty.
Take some pictures.
Just finished installing... Feels so good! it's taken me a long time to get this small scale set up complete but here I am...
This is all I need...
Yeah actually ends up the tank is only holding about 20gal
 

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Bearijuana

Well-Known Member
Nice. I was just now checking the solutions and thinking how nice it would be to not have to pull 3 plants out of the buckets every time. I only mind now that I know what I know.
 

Laughing Grass

Well-Known Member
Thank you @Thundercat

Week four update. They bulked up this week.

This strain is very different than what I’ve seen on other peoples photos. The shoots from the lower nodes grew straight up rather than out, making the center of the plants an impenetrable mass of crinkled, pale leaves. So this week ended up being a crash course in LST. I think I did an okay job and light is now penetrating the canopy.

I had a couple hiccups this week as well. I was leaning over the plant in the front right to check the ph of the plant behind it. I must have pressed on the plant with my chest because I heard an audible snap. On closer inspection I could see there was a 3cm split running vertically down the stem from where it was topped. I used a twist tie to hold it together and it’s healed nicely, but it’s significantly smaller than the other plants.

I also managed to drop my ph/ec/temp meter in the ro reservoir. I put it in rice for three days, but I think it’s done. It immediately turns off after pressing power. I purchased a blue labs ph and ec meter. They’re pretty nice and stabilize a lot faster than my old meter. Money I didn’t really need to spend at Christmas.

I planned on staring flowering this week but they are a bit shorter than I expected. Tallest is 8”. Do you think I’m good to start or should I wait another week?


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Laughing Grass

Well-Known Member
thanks @Thundercat I had just assumed you topped them and they bushed out on their own. Next time I'll start training about a week earlier.

I started flowering on the 25th. I noticed that the reservoir is getting down to 65 at night and not getting any higher than 67 during the day which is nice. During veg with little leaf cover, I was starting to get close to 70.
 

Laughing Grass

Well-Known Member
Happy New Year!

Thanks @psychedelicscorpion I was looking at @firsttimeARE's tutorial for doing a scrog in dwc (https://www.rollitup.org/t/dwc-scrog-diy.909759/), but I don't think it would fit in my 3x3 tent.

I'm thinking I'm going to bail on dwc and go with coco coir for my next grow. In my research for getting the largest yield, I never really considered the negatives of dwc, namely the daily heavy lifting. I figure I'm moving north of 400lbs of water around every time I do a res change. That includes moving out of the tent, dumping and slugging to the laundry room, refilling and then moving back into the tent. It's taking me about 2 hours to do a res change with a toke break half way through. I also cannot really access the plants in the back of the tent now so I have to move the front two out and back in daily which wouldn't be bad if they a bit lighter and you didn't have to pick them up with your fingertips. Maybe some DIY handles would make it easier.

I snapped some pics over the weekend after four days flower. They're a bit bigger than this now and I can see pistils on all but one of the plants. I discovered I do have a humidity issue, but it only seems to be happening when the lights are off. The tent was getting to about 85% rh. When I checked the plants in the morning over the holidays I noticed that the leaves were very wet wherever they overlapped each other. I put a small dehumidifier in the tent which seems to have brought that problem under control. A hole has formed where I split the stem a couple weeks back. You can see in the last photo. I was thinking of giving it a gold hoop earring. Plants need bling too. :)

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Thundercat

Well-Known Member
It would suck having to move all that water. Thats one reason I do flood and drain with a big res less constant water moving. I also ran hoses in and out of my room so I can pump clean water in and dirty water out to the drain when I need to. I pump out and clean my res every few weeks usually and in between top it off with either nutes or plain water depending on what is needed. Running the hoses changed my world though. No more lugging water.

In your set up I bet you could fill a seperate res bucket and then use that to pump water into your grow buckets without moving them.
 

firsttimeARE

Well-Known Member
You will always get that sweat from the leaves where they touch. This is a good thing. They are transpiring and not dead lol.

You can customize those screens to fit whatever size you want. The thread was more a means and methods.

Lifting buckets is good. Since switching to rdwc I've lost arm strength lol. I too was going up and down stairs with buckets. Then I put a waterline in my room and a hose. Then I switched to rdwc and I would never go back to regular buckets. Way too little buffer. pH swings of a full point overnight. EC swings. Way too much upkeep.

Now I have a doser that regulates my pH automatically. This would have never been possible single buckets without destroying your wallet.
 

Blent

Well-Known Member
Yup.. like everyone else you need to take some time and make a plan on how to automate your system to rdwc. This means you can get away with 3 to 4 total Res changes during the cycle. Since I did mine I've never been happier... One big Res that tops up the 5 gals, the 5 gals overflow back to the main Res. I change to big Res quarterly and keep it sterile and within range... Youd be shocked at how much water a small 20$ submersible pump can move.
 

Airwalker16

Well-Known Member
I don't change res once. Besides from Veg tent to flower tent.
Yup.. like everyone else you need to take some time and make a plan on how to automate your system to rdwc. This means you can get away with 3 to 4 total Res changes during the cycle. Since I did mine I've never been happier... One big Res that tops up the 5 gals, the 5 gals overflow back to the main Res. I change to big Res quarterly and keep it sterile and within range... Youd be shocked at how much water a small 20$ submersible pump can move.
 

Bearijuana

Well-Known Member
man those are going to fill that grow area. I'd give one away or juice it or something so you have room to work and grow. I have a 4x4 tent and I only plan 3 plants in there leaving room to work and a large oscillating fan and I don't think Ill push 4 plants in there.

I converted from DWC to a RDWC system and am blown away how awesome it is working. No more fucking around filling buckets and lifting plants and root balls and lights to do checks. I went with a 100L external reservoir though I only fill it to the return drain line which is 40L though I could go to 60L. No going back, its fucking pro.

My research made cococoir Drain to Waste very appealing for said reasons but I love hydro and I absolutely love RDWC!!!:leaf:

Lookin good man.
 

Laughing Grass

Well-Known Member
thanks @Way2-High @Beachwalker I'll give them a look. I'm keen to use something that's more biodegradable than rockwool.

@Thundercat I wish I could run hoses. My tent and laundry room are at opposite ends of the basement and it's completely finished in between. I run a 40 foot 1/4" hose to fill my ro bucket, but it's not something that I can keep there permanently, my dog is a numskull and likes to chew on rubber hoses. A rdwc is probably the ticket and maybe reducing the frequency of reservoir changes. Filling isn't the most painful part for me, it's getting rid of the waste.

@firsttimeARE when I ran my hand through the canopy it was wet. Not just a few drops, but like totally soaked. I don't think it would be very much help to reduce the size of your scrog. With the size of my tent opening, I would have to make the scrog 12"x12" which isn't worth the bother IMO. I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum from you for lifting, I don't want the gross bulging veins that lifting gives you in your hands and arms.

@Blent When i bought everything for this grow, I included everything necessary to build a rdwc. I'm just really nervous about having a problem that's spread to all the plants. If I can successfully get through this grow and meet expectations, that may increase my comfort level.

@Airwalker16 I assume that's easy when you know what your doing and can read your plants. I still have to clue what I'm doing and just following advice and exercising a lot of caution right now.

@Bearijuana it's already a jungle in there. I'll have to post a more recent photo over the weekend.
 

bfatal

Well-Known Member
Yeah having a top off tank is super nice!
I use a 55 gallon barrel hooked up to my system. I filled it up last night around 3am and by 1pm today they had drank nearly 10 gallons. It's insane. I have 9 plants that'll finish week 8 of flower tomorrow.
I'll be waiting for the pics.... :weed::joint:
 
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