icedrgn027
Well-Known Member
Wow, it's been a ride... And I am loving the world of growing.
I started my grow on Feb 14. Instead of buying flowers for the Mrs, we planted some. Medical users in Illinois are allowed to grow up to 5 and dispensaries are charging $160-200 for 14g. So after being raped on the price of flower and them never having more than 1 strain sporadically Ina larger hard for a savings. I hate paying 20/g. So... Here we are.
I purchased
1 - 4*8*9 coolgrows tent.
2 - 1000w bestva LED lights
5 - black 5gal buckets
5 - 6in netpot lids
5 - 3in netpots
2 - 4way air pumps(if it dies, I have a backup)
Black tubing
Suction cups
T-joints for the tubing
Digital space heater
Ph tester
Lux meter
TDS meter
Sheet of grodan rockwool
Flora series from GH
Hydroguard
Ph up and down
Cal/magic
Bag of hydroton (Pops had an extra)
Clip fan (Pops extra)
3 - fem northern lights seeds
3 - fem la confidential seeds
3 - fem gorrilla glue #4 seeds
3 - fem blue dream seeds
3 - fem tangie seeds
Now, when I began this, I knew I wanted as big of yield as possible and it had to be of strains that I know both myself and the Mrs love. I assumed I would grow 5 plants at the same time and stay in compliance with IL law. I had no idea what kind of journey I would be on. I found out that DWC while being an advanced grow method supposedly, also experienced better yields and grows with the risk of quick death if not caught quickly. This is also the reason I bought 2 pumps. I was terrified I would be in mid flower and have that pump go out in the AM and I don't notice until late at night and the plants have died. At least this way I won't have to procure one if the worst happens.
Either way, I did alot of reading across several forums. Preferred the "roll it up" reading. I don't have the link right here since I'm on my phone atm but there is a link on this forum that outlines a stone-less DWC. Air stones need be changed regularly and this was the only downside I saw for me at the time, so I loved this idea. I have had good success so far with this ring of air tubing I created that replaces the stones.
After building everything, it dawned on me. At some point I need to change the water in these buckets since I did not build a reservoir to make it easier. And I also did not build a tap to empty these. When I do the change I plan on just switching the buckets with a new one since I can easily disconnect. I worry about plant weight and trying to move the lid from one to the other. Well see...
So, I began by soaking 6 rockwool cubes for about 2 days in R.O. water. While also soaking hydroton in R.O. water as well. The pH is said to be too high on these straight out the box for cannabis. I was nervous about screwing something up somewhere and decided to just do it while reading up on each step as I went.
Since I like to save money where I can and since this lunchmeat tray had a nice red translucent lid. I washed it and reused it for soaking my rockwool in. After that and in the time I was putting everything together, I realized a 4 port air pump will not work for 5 buckets. So I planted straight into my wet rockwool 4 different strains. Basing it kinda on what I thought would be overall grow time. Trying to harvest at small different intervals to keep a flow of supply. Not knowing about topping yet.
In the picture above, you can notice that I only had one sprout. The northern lights... My first strain that me and my "adopted family" at 16yrs old smoked together in a "van down by the river." We went to outer space. My buddy was literally drooling on himself. Ah to be young again... And I'm not even 40 but I remember 20 dollar quarters that were fat and had red hairs(don't think those were the lights)! But Now... I want my very own! Let's cut out the middle man!
...Back to that sprout! With this being my first ever grow. I was clueless about rockwool and eager to make sure they got all the water they needed. You guessed it... It's a miracle I got even one sprout! I set my room temps to about 80°f, kept my R.H. at about 75% and had my light far enough away for my lux meter to read about 7k. I kept the rockwool soaked but once I only had one sprout (b.d. never popped, g.g. started to grow but got a "zit", and the l.a. looked like it had gotten stuck as a sprout and moisture rotted the crook of the sprout.) I relocated to my custom sprout lid for my bubbling dwc.
I quit watering but the bucket doesn't! After 2 weeks I replanted new seeds and still the BD did not pop. My favorite strain and here I can't grow it atm. The irony.
The empty buckets just have enough water in them to airate. One of them with the hydroton I'm still waiting to still use for this grow.
This first week I checked the water everyday and added neuts from GH Flora series. I was about at 550ppm, I wrote it down but am too lazy to go look in the other room at the journal I started on paper due to me being so obsessed with accidentally killing my prize crop and being down to my last seeds. Ph at 5.5. and about 22°c. I read that if I couldn't keep the temps down below 20° I needed a way to protect from root for and my research concluded hydroguard was the way to go. So far my roots are rice noodles white. I never thought I would see such fuzzy roots. Another unexpected beautiful view from these girls. I didn't take a pic. I've tried to keep the light off of the roots and water as if they were vampires!
Now I started taking daily photos to record my process and really document for my own feel-good but knew it would be the best way for others to help diagnose in a pinch if things got dire. So I'm going to go ahead and add some more photos here and discuss only as needed. I didn't change the water for 3 weeks. Seedlings don't really need the fresh changes as often and I was still scared about water changes. The northern lights stayed in the old water and I gave the new kiddos the freshest water thinking when they are ready for that first topping, I'll start with weekly water changes, I hope.
So excited NL is doing great it seems and my dwc seems to be working well. I rotate the cup in the tray every 12 hrs or so. This works the little stem as it bends itself around looking for the center of light. The rockwool has 3 new seeds of the previous strains with an open Ziploc over it. I lightly plugged the holes in the cubes with little pieces of an extra cube I had previously soaked to prevent any light from hitting any tiny roots traveling around.
It's the same time I have to refill the humidifier. I also learned the dehumidifier also needed distilled water. First night I thought I would save money and just use tap. Next day... Everything was covered in white residue inside the tent. Little fan made sure of that and Hard water will do that to you. Not good but switched and have had absolutely no residue since.
What's that?! Pretty sure that is not a sprout! Where are the condeylon leaves?! Horrified that I was going to be losing yet another of my 3 seeds of this la strain. I hit the forums. Scouring for anything about this Taproot showing. I decided emergency surgery was required. I had already split these cubes to check why my last seeds never sprouted. I kept pulling the plug to see if we had sprouts, always in a dim lit area of course and as gentle as humanly possible for fear of killing a baby sprout that might be pushing up like my Taproot buddy here.
Anyway, I undid the wire ties that were holding the 2 pieces shut. And found a sprout upside down that had already tried to right itself but failed and was doomed. The s shape of the sprout made it interesting to replant but thankfully the split rockwool was willing to help with that.
I replanted this little guy deeper in the cup. After my drowning I was nervous and pulled it up slightly. Risky now but she bounced back well. I just placed the small ball of roots in between a small layer of hydroton a little at a time. Doing my best not to beat them to death or accidentally break them trying to fill while holding this little lady up.
I started my grow on Feb 14. Instead of buying flowers for the Mrs, we planted some. Medical users in Illinois are allowed to grow up to 5 and dispensaries are charging $160-200 for 14g. So after being raped on the price of flower and them never having more than 1 strain sporadically Ina larger hard for a savings. I hate paying 20/g. So... Here we are.
I purchased
1 - 4*8*9 coolgrows tent.
2 - 1000w bestva LED lights
5 - black 5gal buckets
5 - 6in netpot lids
5 - 3in netpots
2 - 4way air pumps(if it dies, I have a backup)
Black tubing
Suction cups
T-joints for the tubing
Digital space heater
Ph tester
Lux meter
TDS meter
Sheet of grodan rockwool
Flora series from GH
Hydroguard
Ph up and down
Cal/magic
Bag of hydroton (Pops had an extra)
Clip fan (Pops extra)
3 - fem northern lights seeds
3 - fem la confidential seeds
3 - fem gorrilla glue #4 seeds
3 - fem blue dream seeds
3 - fem tangie seeds
Now, when I began this, I knew I wanted as big of yield as possible and it had to be of strains that I know both myself and the Mrs love. I assumed I would grow 5 plants at the same time and stay in compliance with IL law. I had no idea what kind of journey I would be on. I found out that DWC while being an advanced grow method supposedly, also experienced better yields and grows with the risk of quick death if not caught quickly. This is also the reason I bought 2 pumps. I was terrified I would be in mid flower and have that pump go out in the AM and I don't notice until late at night and the plants have died. At least this way I won't have to procure one if the worst happens.
Either way, I did alot of reading across several forums. Preferred the "roll it up" reading. I don't have the link right here since I'm on my phone atm but there is a link on this forum that outlines a stone-less DWC. Air stones need be changed regularly and this was the only downside I saw for me at the time, so I loved this idea. I have had good success so far with this ring of air tubing I created that replaces the stones.
After building everything, it dawned on me. At some point I need to change the water in these buckets since I did not build a reservoir to make it easier. And I also did not build a tap to empty these. When I do the change I plan on just switching the buckets with a new one since I can easily disconnect. I worry about plant weight and trying to move the lid from one to the other. Well see...
So, I began by soaking 6 rockwool cubes for about 2 days in R.O. water. While also soaking hydroton in R.O. water as well. The pH is said to be too high on these straight out the box for cannabis. I was nervous about screwing something up somewhere and decided to just do it while reading up on each step as I went.
Since I like to save money where I can and since this lunchmeat tray had a nice red translucent lid. I washed it and reused it for soaking my rockwool in. After that and in the time I was putting everything together, I realized a 4 port air pump will not work for 5 buckets. So I planted straight into my wet rockwool 4 different strains. Basing it kinda on what I thought would be overall grow time. Trying to harvest at small different intervals to keep a flow of supply. Not knowing about topping yet.
In the picture above, you can notice that I only had one sprout. The northern lights... My first strain that me and my "adopted family" at 16yrs old smoked together in a "van down by the river." We went to outer space. My buddy was literally drooling on himself. Ah to be young again... And I'm not even 40 but I remember 20 dollar quarters that were fat and had red hairs(don't think those were the lights)! But Now... I want my very own! Let's cut out the middle man!
...Back to that sprout! With this being my first ever grow. I was clueless about rockwool and eager to make sure they got all the water they needed. You guessed it... It's a miracle I got even one sprout! I set my room temps to about 80°f, kept my R.H. at about 75% and had my light far enough away for my lux meter to read about 7k. I kept the rockwool soaked but once I only had one sprout (b.d. never popped, g.g. started to grow but got a "zit", and the l.a. looked like it had gotten stuck as a sprout and moisture rotted the crook of the sprout.) I relocated to my custom sprout lid for my bubbling dwc.
I quit watering but the bucket doesn't! After 2 weeks I replanted new seeds and still the BD did not pop. My favorite strain and here I can't grow it atm. The irony.
The empty buckets just have enough water in them to airate. One of them with the hydroton I'm still waiting to still use for this grow.
This first week I checked the water everyday and added neuts from GH Flora series. I was about at 550ppm, I wrote it down but am too lazy to go look in the other room at the journal I started on paper due to me being so obsessed with accidentally killing my prize crop and being down to my last seeds. Ph at 5.5. and about 22°c. I read that if I couldn't keep the temps down below 20° I needed a way to protect from root for and my research concluded hydroguard was the way to go. So far my roots are rice noodles white. I never thought I would see such fuzzy roots. Another unexpected beautiful view from these girls. I didn't take a pic. I've tried to keep the light off of the roots and water as if they were vampires!
Now I started taking daily photos to record my process and really document for my own feel-good but knew it would be the best way for others to help diagnose in a pinch if things got dire. So I'm going to go ahead and add some more photos here and discuss only as needed. I didn't change the water for 3 weeks. Seedlings don't really need the fresh changes as often and I was still scared about water changes. The northern lights stayed in the old water and I gave the new kiddos the freshest water thinking when they are ready for that first topping, I'll start with weekly water changes, I hope.
So excited NL is doing great it seems and my dwc seems to be working well. I rotate the cup in the tray every 12 hrs or so. This works the little stem as it bends itself around looking for the center of light. The rockwool has 3 new seeds of the previous strains with an open Ziploc over it. I lightly plugged the holes in the cubes with little pieces of an extra cube I had previously soaked to prevent any light from hitting any tiny roots traveling around.
It's the same time I have to refill the humidifier. I also learned the dehumidifier also needed distilled water. First night I thought I would save money and just use tap. Next day... Everything was covered in white residue inside the tent. Little fan made sure of that and Hard water will do that to you. Not good but switched and have had absolutely no residue since.
What's that?! Pretty sure that is not a sprout! Where are the condeylon leaves?! Horrified that I was going to be losing yet another of my 3 seeds of this la strain. I hit the forums. Scouring for anything about this Taproot showing. I decided emergency surgery was required. I had already split these cubes to check why my last seeds never sprouted. I kept pulling the plug to see if we had sprouts, always in a dim lit area of course and as gentle as humanly possible for fear of killing a baby sprout that might be pushing up like my Taproot buddy here.
Anyway, I undid the wire ties that were holding the 2 pieces shut. And found a sprout upside down that had already tried to right itself but failed and was doomed. The s shape of the sprout made it interesting to replant but thankfully the split rockwool was willing to help with that.
I replanted this little guy deeper in the cup. After my drowning I was nervous and pulled it up slightly. Risky now but she bounced back well. I just placed the small ball of roots in between a small layer of hydroton a little at a time. Doing my best not to beat them to death or accidentally break them trying to fill while holding this little lady up.
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