Second Grow: DWC / Casey Jones & Headband

Well I have popped my cherry with my last grow and I really enjoyed it. So now I've decided to introduce myself to hydroponics, and after some research I believe Deep Water Culture is one of the most simple setups, aside from Hempy Buckets.

I'm basically using all my same equipment from before: FoxFarm Nutrients (gonna finish them off, probably change up nutes once their gone), HomeBox XL, Diamond Nectar. This time I wanted to try HID lighting to experience the difference, so I have a 600w metal halide.

I decided to grow two different strains this time rather then just one. I went with Casey Jones and Headband. I do know CJ is more sativa dominant and Headband indica, so I'm planning to use Bushmaster to help keep CJ from stretching and taking off vertically from the Headband.

I put about an inch of silica rock into my net pots, then put my clones on top, and filled the rest of the pot with hydroton.

December 22, 2009



I had to buy a more powerful air pump to handle four buckets.





To be honest the clones didn't look real great to me when I bought them. I had planned to go to Harborside in Oakland, however I've met someone who grows big and always has clones, so I figured I'd save myself a drive.









December 24, 2009



As I might be able to see in my picture above, my temp is low. This is posing the biggest problem for me right now. In the beginning I had super low temps around 50 degrees. So as a quick fix I got a heater to put in my room which helped, but I know will cost more money then my HID.







December 25, 2009

I got an additional thermastat because I want to have two readings to get an realistic idea.



Also put my fan in to get a little air flow going through the tent, I don't want to put my inline fan yet because I need a bug net and I'm still working on getting temp to the right place.











I've taken out the heater, I'm going to try and insulate the tent with some safety blankets I have, and I also took off the lense for my reflector. I'm also going to try and buy a dimmer and use it for my fan to lower the speed.

I'm hoping to see some really impressive growth with this DWC because as I said its my first hydro experience. And I love seeing the plants take off

December 26, 2009





December 28, 2009

Plant is taking what it can from bottom leaf, but doesn't seem to be making new foilage.



One of the healthy plants.









December 29, 2009

Well some good news, I figured out my cold issue. Here I am trying to put safety blankets and rolls of carpet around my tent to insulate and all I needed to do was turn a knob; my lumatek ballast can controller wattage emitted so I had it on 300w/50% and as soon as I bumped it up to 75% i got 73 - 75 ft temps.



It appears that the I may have powdery mildew, like its just beginning. Also looks like some spots on that leaf which may be spider-mites I'd assume.





December 30, 2009

My friend from the local hydro store came by my spot to help me out. Apparently I didn't have enough water in my buckets, so that may be why the plants seemed to struggle. Also I did not have enough hydroton in my net pots which was allowing light to penetrate into the water. Well nonetheless we fixed it up, put much more water, and more hydroton. I'm glad I had someone with experience and knowledge to come by and help.



Still not looking very good at all. I'm going to give it like two days to recover from my mistakes and see how it goes, but I may be getting rid of this clones.



My friend told me the powdery mildew is just beginning and pulled off some leaves on two clones.







December 31, 2009







Still looking like shit...