WaterFarm 400 HPS Lemon Kush. Modified Scottyballz.

sunny747

sunny747

Well-Known Member
We were inspired by the ScottyBallz threads and started our own Waterfarm grow around the first of the year. So far so good.

Some observations and tweeks to the system. While Scotty's system worked awesome for him we found that following generally accepted practices for hydro worked better for us and eliminated some issues and unknowns.

Rate of growth:
  • We thought we'd be able to fill the scrog in 30 days as Scotty did, but we're on day 45 and about ready to flip and add the screen. Growth has been vigorous and lush, but not quite as rapid as we had anticipated.

Starting off:
  • Seed was sprouted in a Root Riot Cube under CFL's then added to the farm allowing a little water to hit the cube.
  • We did drill larger holes in the top part of res to allow roots to grow through.
  • You should do a really good job of cleaning the clay pellets. Make sure to soak them in PH'd water for a day after cleaning the crap out of them. Rinse and re rinse until they are clean then PH.
  • The tinfoil over the res didn't work for us. It was too much light or heat early on. i'm sure we could add the foil now.
  • The pump runs 24/7. We purchased the pump from Walmart. I believe it's a 50 gallon.
  • Seedling was grown under CFL for a few weeks then under 400 MH.
Nutes and PPM:
  • As for Lucas Formula, We had some deficiencies early on so we abandoned Lucas Formula and bought the Floranova Veg nutes.. In all honesty, why not spend the extra $15 and have the best nutes for the stage of growth and eliminate some unknowns. One of you guys put it best by saying something about Lucas being a cheap hippie. That convinced me to buy the veg nutes:)
  • Starting ppm around 200 (or 1/3 tsp of nutes per gallon).
  • Week 3 we were at 700 ppm or so. (1 tsp per gallon Floranova veg)
  • Originally, we used bottled RO water plus a cup of well water. We ran int CalMag issues around week 3. So we bought some Calimagic and the issues cleared up right away.
  • Reservoir gets changed once per week. When we top off the reservoir we use water with nutes rather than just plain water.
PH:
  • We do PH the nutes and reservoir. To not PH a hydro grow seems sort of irresponsible. Yes your better nutrient lines will PH buffer, but if you're under a few hundred PPM then your PH could be off.
  • PH of the reservoir will slowly creep higher during early veg so its adjusted lower every few days as needed. A little PH creep is fine and beneficial.
Training
  • At week 3 the plant was topped at the 4th node (We removed the 5th node). The two lowest shoots were removed so we were left with 6 shoots to work with. All shoots were tied down (LST).
  • In week 5 all shoots were topped again.
  • We are at end of week 6 and preparing to flip and add the screen. I'm very happy with the shape and size thus far.

Light: 400 MH/HPS. May supplement the side of scrog at some point with CFL or cheap LED's
Strain: Lemon Kush
Nutes: Floranova and Calimagic
Water: Hauling gallon jugs of RO water into the house every few days. A real pain. Testing our rain water to determine if this might be an option.
Environment: 40 x 40 closet grow
Ventilation: 6" vortex fan and carbon filter vented out a window. Fresh air is pulled into the space by a 6" hole cut into the wall from an adjacent room.
Temps: a small space heater keeps things warm when lights are out. (It's winter here)

Pics to follow as soon as RIU has the feature enabled again.
 
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horribleherk

horribleherk

Well-Known Member
I started using waterfarms a few grows back & have now ended up with 2 of them side by side with a 43x30 Scrog also using the bottom reservoir from an 8 site waterfarm system on my 2 farms for a total nutrient capacity of 8 gallons I use the 3 part flora series nutes simple schedule I replaced my 400 hps with a Johnson led the waterfarms & the led has a learning curve to it just as you did I had to make some adjustments cal-mag solved a lot of my feeding problems I think I've got it dialed in scottyballs inspired me as well fortunately for me I had a few friends with dwc experience to help me through my first waterfarm grow made a few mistakes but I'm getting better IMG_0798.JPGIMG_0802.JPG
 
sunny747

sunny747

Well-Known Member
horribleherk said:
I started using waterfarms a few grows back & have now ended up with 2 of them side by side with a 43x30 Scrog also using the bottom reservoir from an 8 site waterfarm system on my 2 farms for a total nutrient capacity of 8 gallons I use the 3 part flora series nutes simple schedule I replaced my 400 hps with a Johnson led the waterfarms & the led has a learning curve to it just as you did I had to make some adjustments cal-mag solved a lot of my feeding problems I think I've got it dialed in scottyballs inspired me as well fortunately for me I had a few friends with dwc experience to help me through my first waterfarm grow made a few mistakes but I'm getting better View attachment 3895560View attachment 3895561
Click to expand...
Looks great! I like the idea of a larger res.

Maybe you can answer this.. Why do we put 600 ppm into the farm and when we test the ppm from the waterarm a day later we have a ppm of 1200??? Seems weird to me.. Only thing I can think of is a buildup of sludge in the bottom of res?
 
horribleherk

horribleherk

Well-Known Member
sunny747 said:
Looks great! I like the idea of a larger res.

Maybe you can answer this.. Why do we put 600 ppm into the farm and when we test the ppm from the waterarm a day later we have a ppm of 1200??? Seems weird to me.. Only thing I can think of is a buildup of sludge in the bottom of res?
Click to expand...
I thought I was the only one that happened to before I had the res. a good aggressive larger plant in hot weather sometimes would drink up 1-1/2 gal. a day I couldn't leave to go camping for 3 days so a friend bought the 8 site system & built his own res.& I enherited the pieces ,used it on a single farm first it really stabilizes ph when I went to led lighting my 29x29 Scrog that fit the 400 hps was no longer large enough for my 6- cob led without a long veg time to fill the screen so now with this strain 43 days veg time & 2 plants is working the strain is called doubledream (dreamstar-x- bluedream) I'm gonna run it again & increase the veg time my new Scrog is 43x30 I'm looking forward to a better harvest as I'm learning the waterfarm & the Johnson cx- 6 cob led that pulls 340 watts at the plug
 
Yodaweed

Yodaweed

Well-Known Member
sunny747 said:
Looks great! I like the idea of a larger res.

Maybe you can answer this.. Why do we put 600 ppm into the farm and when we test the ppm from the waterarm a day later we have a ppm of 1200??? Seems weird to me.. Only thing I can think of is a buildup of sludge in the bottom of res?
Click to expand...
Evaporation, when the water evaporates from dripping it becomes much more concentrated.
 
horribleherk

horribleherk

Well-Known Member
I have a mark in my reservoir I top off with water & let it circulate for a few hours then take a ppm reading to determine how much nutrients the plant has actually consumed since going over to the led lighting I actually find water on my leaves that they weep out I've got to keep an oscillating fan going to keep them from the possibility of molding
 
sunny747

sunny747

Well-Known Member
horribleherk said:
I have a mark in my reservoir I top off with water & let it circulate for a few hours then take a ppm reading to determine how much nutrients the plant has actually consumed since going over to the led lighting I actually find water on my leaves that they weep out I've got to keep an oscillating fan going to keep them from the possibility of molding
Click to expand...
Which Light did you buy?
 
horribleherk

horribleherk

Well-Known Member
sunny747 said:
Which Light did you buy?
Click to expand...
I'm running a Johnson cx-6 I had a galaxie switchable 250-400 the led kicks ass this will be my first complete grow with it that being said the Johnson works good but if I had it to do all over I would get the timber 400 w. 4- cob vero29 v7 square framed light that will be my choice when I fire up another setup but I'm pretty happy with the Johnson for only drawing 340w. it's doing good here is a pic of the headband I vegged with the hps & flowered with the johnsonIMG_0313.JPGIMG_0310.JPGIMG_0314.JPGand my old 29x29 Scrog got 7-1/4 oz so there is room for improvement as I'm learning the waterfarms as well as the led I wasn't using the light to its capacity now 2 plants & a larger Scrog should do better & next grow a longer veg time yodaweed is really knowing when it comes to waterfarms
 
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