SH Bubbleponics grow, 400w MH/HPS, 3 Sour Diesel, 3Northern Lights

Well everyone, it's time to tell you what I'm up to.

I've been reading the forums here for a few weeks now and am in the second week of my first grow! I put the clones in the rock wool on 10-31. I've read Roseman's tutorial on Bubbleponics and feel ready to give it a try. I've grown outside in dirt for years, it's time to bring the show inside!

I bought the system from SH, I bought the 400w HID switchable light. I set up my grow closet in my garage, 30" x 48" x 90". I've got a 6" inline fan for cooling, oscillating fan, I wasn't able to find one small enough for my closet so I bought the 12" and made it a 6" (tin snips do the job!), and a vaporizer for humidity (Colorado can be very dry country!). I feel I've got adequate ventilation, but my temps still want to stay in the low 80's, hopefully with winter coming on heat won't be a problem, though my garage is insulated and heated, of course now heated with a 400w MH light!

I'm growing 3 Sour Diesel and 3 Northern Lights. I wasn't real happy with the dispensary I bought my clones from, they had been started in peat pellets so I had to strip all the peat off them before placing them in the rock wool. I'm sure this stunted their initial growth, but Roseman said to be certain there were no organics in the reservoir so I felt I needed to make sure no peat made it into mine.

As you can see they are taking off nicely, I've got some great root growth. I have been pretty cautious with the nutes, though I think I can pick them up now, possibly to full strength. I guess that's my first question, can I go to full nutes now at 10 days with rooted clones? I'm thinking I can.

I just finished my first drain and replenish. There was sediment on the bottom of the res. from the airstone so I completely emptied the res. and wiped out as much as I could with paper towels. When I refilled I added 2 tsp of the grow and 1 tsp of the micro nutes. I'm planning to add another 1/3 of the nutes every other day until I have them at full strength. Then in a week I drain and replenish again but this time with full strength nutes from day 1 of the replenish.

I don't seem to be getting much air out of the airstones (I bought a second on Roseman's advice) so I'm thinking I'll head to the fish store and buy a bigger pump.

Next question, when can I remove the water pump? From what I hear I can remove it after the roots have hit the water which they've all done now, but how much is enough?

That's it for now. I hope a few of you will follow and give me a few of those much desired tips from time to time. I've been reading lots of threads picking up what info I can, but every now and then you need to ask a question.

As you can see I do tend to be a bit talkative, hopefully I haven't talked your ear off. Hopefully I can get some pictures loaded, first time for everything!

Sounds to me like you've done your research so good job on that. As for the nutes, your plan sounds good, but keep an eye on them because they may not be ready for full strength yet. Remember under-nuting is a lot better that over-nuting. Roots look very nice. When they are a couple inches in the water (which it looks like they are) you can remove the water pump and tubes. I subscribed so I'll be around if you have more questions. Best of luck!

Lt Shiny Sides said:

Sounds to me like you've done your research so good job on that. As for the nutes, your plan sounds good, but keep an eye on them because they may not be ready for full strength yet. Remember under-nuting is a lot better that over-nuting. Roots look very nice. When they are a couple inches in the water (which it looks like they are) you can remove the water pump and tubes. I subscribed so I'll be around if you have more questions. Best of luck!

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Great to hear you're watching over my shoulder, I look forward to a great grow!

Wow, here it is day 12 and things seems to be going just fine.

I couldn't believe the growth this morning. I hadn't measured them before last night, they were 4" tall for the most part. The tall one back left is 6" and the short on on the back right is 3", the other 4 are all about 4" tall.

Well that was last night. I measured first thing this morning and the 4" plants were 5" tall. I've definitely hit the fast growth period. And all but the back left are looking real tight and compact.

Today I will be adding more nutes, 2 tsp of grow and 1 of micro to the res. They are still not at full strength as I only added 2 and 1 when I did the drain and replenish two days ago. I'll add more nutes on Saturday to bring them up to full strength. As it is the plants are not showing any stress from over nuting so I think I can move it up a notch w/o problem.

I believe now is the time I need to think about the first topping. Obviously the one at the rear left is ready for topping, and the rest probably also, they all have at least 4 leaves coming out. But my question is they are not growing leaves in pairs as the mother plant they were taken from was obviously mature and sending out one leaf at a time. Do the same rules for topping apply with plants like these?

Enough for now. I'll add some pictures for a record of their progress.

Things seem to be going just fine so far. Today I drained the res. and then refilled with the same water. The nutes still weren't at full strength so today I added the last third of those so now they are at full strength. I gave them 1/3 at the water change last Tuesday, then another third on Thursday and the last third today. I'll drain and replenish (with new water) the res. next Tuesday that being 7 days after the first.

I think this time I'll give them 1/2 nutes at the water change, then the rest on Thursday. I'm thinking they are ready to get hit with nutes, they've been growing so fast! I'm glad I took pictures last Tuesday, seeing how much they've grown in just the last four days is amazing.

The close up is of the northern lights in the front row middle, I think this and the sour diesel to it's left are the two best plants. Hope you like the pics!

im doing the same grow as you,you might want to invest in another bubbleponics system,its going to get real crowded in that one,i think 1 bubbleponics is suitable for 3 plants max,i have 4 in one of mine,an three in the other...im going to have to yank one an put it into a dirt pot as a mother plant...nice grow,im subscribed,keep us up-to-date l8r

What are the demensions on that bubbleponics resivor? How tall, wide, and deep? Also how many gallons is it?


Just tryin to figure out if i can fit one in my cab

ROBBIE313 said:

im doing the same grow as you,you might want to invest in another bubbleponics system,its going to get real crowded in that one,i think 1 bubbleponics is suitable for 3 plants max,i have 4 in one of mine,an three in the other...im going to have to yank one an put it into a dirt pot as a mother plant...nice grow,im subscribed,keep us up-to-date l8r

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Bingo! You've hit the nail on the head, you're thinking exactly what I'm thinking. This might be sufficient if I was doing a Sea Of Green, but I've decided that as long as I'm this far along I may as well see just how much I can get from these plants.

So now I'm investigating what I can do to bring each of these plants to it's optimal maturity as efficiently as possible. From what I've learned the bulk of the advantages of the SH Bubbleponics system are realized in the first two weeks of the planting life cycle. So it looks to me as though I have started them correctly, but from here I need to place them in another system to continue their growth to obtain optimum performance.

So for today I'm investigating just exactly which system I should transition to. This Bubbleponics system is obviously a great way to start the plants, but they are way too close together. I need to split them up, but do I go with one plant in a 3 gal. bucket, or two in 5 gal? How do I connect them all, I could feed them all together in one irrigation system, drain and replenish every day? Lots of questions to answer.

I am researching as we speak, I'll let you know what I come up with.

Here's the pic I told you about. Hopefully a picture is worth a thousand words. If this doesn't work for you let me know, I can get you better pictures, but it is getting pretty late on a Friday night and I just got back from a benefit for a friend who is a musician and just had a bi-latteral hip replacement. Yes, I'm not a spring chicken either, I got my new knee almost 5 years ago.

Hope this helps.

Michael Phelps said:

What are the demensions on that bubbleponics resivor? How tall, wide, and deep? Also how many gallons is it?


Just tryin to figure out if i can fit one in my cab

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Probably the best I can do is give you a link to the web site. The way they have set things up it works in a standard clothes closet (I'm a licensed Architect, this fits within the typical dimensions of a standard closet).

http://www.StealthHydroponics.com/product.php?xProd=183&xSec=54

Let me know if I can be of any more help.

FryingPanFlyer said:

Probably the best I can do is give you a link to the web site. The way they have set things up it works in a standard clothes closet (I'm a licensed Architect, this fits within the typical dimensions of a standard closet).

http://www.StealthHydroponics.com/product.php?xProd=183&xSec=54

Let me know if I can be of any more help.

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One more thing, you can buy all the parts "off the shelf", but I bought the kit as they sell it for the convenience. I doubt I'll buy any more kits from them, I will make many variations of their system, but they have sent me in the right direction.

SH "nutes" appear to be the real deal, I've used them and my plants are growing like crazy!!! I'll keep buying those from them.

Hey thanks for the pic I got it together and just waiting on my bulbsocket from SH. I also bought a buckateer to grow 2 plants. I plan to only plant 4 in the bubbleponics system in the corners and leave the middle empty.

I cant believe how those clones took off! I think I am going to have to learn how to clone. Nice job man, hope mine turns out as good as yours.

P.S. Subcribed. +REP.

ToWeRdog said:

I cant believe how those clones took off! I think I am going to have to learn how to clone. Nice job man, hope mine turns out as good as yours.

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This setup is pretty amazing. From what I understand, using clones cuts two weeks off the growing time. These plants are now well established (after just two weeks) and I'm trying to decide what to do with them, they will outgrow this box in the next couple of weeks.

I'm thinking of using this system to get the plants going possibly through vegetative stage, then move to larger buckets for the flowering cycle. I'm thinking I'll grow these for at least one and possibly two more weeks before going to 12/12.

Glad to hear you're subscribed, hopefully this grow will be a good lesson for everyone following along, myself included. Please feel free to speak up with suggestions, though I'm trying to follow Roseman's advice to the letter this first time at least.

FryingPanFlyer, Your plants look great ! I'm at the same place first time bubble ponic 6 plant tub Etc..Big difference with cloneing your plants look much bigger and taller ! I like your idea of moving to a 3 or 5 gallon bucket give the girls room to really grow !! Check out stealth hydros setup with multiple buckets and a stacked resevour all can be made diy for a fraction of the cost..Use the 6 hole tub for starting your clones.. Oops I'm rambling.. good luck love to check back and see how there doing..

ol hippy said:

FryingPanFlyer, Your plants look great ! I'm at the same place first time bubble ponic 6 plant tub Etc..Big difference with cloneing your plants look much bigger and taller ! I like your idea of moving to a 3 or 5 gallon bucket give the girls room to really grow !! Check out stealth hydros setup with multiple buckets and a stacked resevour all can be made diy for a fraction of the cost..Use the 6 hole tub for starting your clones.. Oops I'm rambling.. good luck love to check back and see how there doing..

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Hey ol hippy, thanks for the note. I'm with you on the diy system. I need to find what the local hardware stores carry. I'll be running aroung town looking to see what I can find.

I was also thinking of building some sort of reservoir custom sized to my grow space. The big advantage to this set up would be a single res. meaning many fewer parts, fewer things to go wrong, one res to add mutes to, just sounds more simple to me. I definitely subscribe to Occams Razor. I can build a plywood box and line it with chloraloy, the membrane we use to build a shower base.

Just thinking out loud, lots more research to do, but I've gotta dot it fast. Gotta get the next crop in.

If your going to veg them for that long and then move them to another system. I have heard that if the roots get tangled together getting them apart can damage the plant. I made my own bigger version of the SH system. Hopefully my girls will have enough room. Bigger tote=more water and nutes. I will be following closely, learning all that i can.

ToWeRdog said:

If your going to veg them for that long and then move them to another system. I have heard that if the roots get tangled together getting them apart can damage the plant. I made my own bigger version of the SH system. Hopefully my girls will have enough room. Bigger tote=more water and nutes. I will be following closely, learning all that i can.

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Thanks for the thought, but from what I've read it's really not a problem. Roseman addressed this in his diy bubbleponics tutorial. Go to page 46 and look at posts #455 and #456, it's pretty amazing how much of the root ball you can cut with no adverse affects to the plant.

But I do intend to move them before they get anywhere near as rooted up as in the tutorial, hopefully by this weekend. The pictures he's showing are of a 5 gallon bucket with three plants. One was a male that he needed to get rid of.

Link to tutorial:
https://www.rollitup.org/showthread.php?t=234626&page=46

Well I guess that proves that everything that you here on RIU needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Sorry for the misinformation. You obviously know your stuff and have done your homework. I am very new to this, rather then misinform you I will be along for the ride and learning experience. How bout some pics?