1st Journal - Unknown Strain - DWC - 400W MH/HPS

[BakedAlaskan]

Okay, time for some tent porn.

Before starting, I want to say that I have an uncanny knack for working in the tent when the timer trips off. It has happened three times since the flip - and again last night! It is almost a running joke now. So this morning I got up, made my coffee, then grabbed my SLR and macro lenses in order to get some 420-worthy shots. My light will be on from 7am to 7pm so I knew my timing was good.

Well, I could not simply head out to the tent without calibrating the camera! I decided to practice on a hempy-style tomato growing in front of my new mothers. For those of you skimming the thread without reading first, YES, I know this is a tomato flower! I didnt get scammed by my clone supplier!

Test shot - Adjusted for light, light color, and distance:

Looking good - now on to the tent!

Not sure why, but the ladies looked a little droopy this morning. I fed perfectly-measured BPN-"Bloom" nutes last night along with some Cal-MG. My previous feeding was a pseudo-flush comprising of GH-Organic "Root" solution (1-1-1), and some Cal-Mg. I have 7.5 PH water coming out of my well, and instead of using PH-Down to reduce the PH I use Cal-Mg which is rather acidic. Anyway, maybe I am being over-sensitive but I like to believe that the girls "tell me" when something is wrong. Your thoughts?

Adjusting to the HPS light was trickier than I thought. I need to break out the manual on this camera and locate finer adjustments in the white-balance. Anyway, here is a shot of what I believe is the 1st sign of flowers. Please comment on this one - This is my 1st experience and dont know what I am looking for.

I could not resist a composition shot of one plant on the background of the others - Cannabis really is a magnificent and intricate example of flora!

Finally a portrait of everyone posing for the camera. Even though I topped the ladies, sprouts and sprigs of new growth continue to push upward. Some of my clones are slow to take, but that is okay. They were an experiment to determine if I could do it. They will probably stay in the tent longer than the for main plants.

I am really excited to get the 1st set of clones from Mrs. Vanilla Kush. She is showing slower growth than her buddy planted on the same day, but I am still satisfied she is doing well. Must be the strain. She dips down in the evening before the lights shut down (18/6), and then perks back up in the morning.

Finally, here are the results of my last cloning attempt. Some are struggling, and others are taking off. It is interesting to note that all six of my rockwool clones not only survived but are growing faster than the aero-cloner plants. My theory is that the AC-plants didnt get huge roots. I plan to adjust the cloner with updates sprayers and add different nutes to the water next time. When the 1st offspring from Vanilla Kush (VC) and Blimburn Tijuana (BTJ) go into the cloner, I want to have huge roots. That will be a new journal.

Hey.. one more technical thing.. If you are using a phone or a high-tech camera supporting location data, PLEASE get into the manual and disable GPS EXIF information. That goes for shots you upload to any site or store for your own purposes. To learn more about what that is, read up on the GEOTAGGING WIKI page for it.

I wish you all happy and safe growing. Please comment if you get a chance.

Cheers!

 

[BakedAlaskan]

Got a question.. looking for advice.

Yesterday I re-potted a lot of my clones. Some of the clones were showing poor root development. For instance after ~2 weeks a couple had not extended roots past the rockwool. I have three products in my arsenal under consideration -

1. Great White
2. GH - "Bio Root"
3. Seaweed extract (some canadian brand)

My goal is to build massive roots in this stage. Now that I am moving to Aero-cloning I am interested in building a cocktail for the cloner from these or others. Cultivator provided a recipe last week, but before I go and buy more product I wanted to ask if the stuff I have on hand might work too.

Hmm.. I guess that was two questions.

Thanks!

 

[BakedAlaskan]

Good news, everyone!

I learned more about the strains I am growing. There are three potential strains -

1. Willy's Wonder
2. Blue Dream
3. Q3

Now the hard part is that the clone donor could not tell me which plant corresponded to which strain. As we get further into flowers, I will need your help to make the identification.

Cheers!
Ty

 

[BakedAlaskan]

The flowers have arrived!

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.

.

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I had a heater suspended from the top of the tent, and it came crashing down earlier this week. It partially crushed a couple of the plants . I took it up and braced the broken branches, but we did suffer some losses.

In other news, I started the clones from the Vanilla Kush and Blimburn Tijuana plants. More on that later, but probably will be in a new journal.

Cheers!

 

[GreatLife4All]

Your latest pictures look great. Looks like you will be very successful with this grow.

Those flowers look awesome.

 

[Alaskan1]

Re: 1st Journal - unknown strain, DWC, 400w MH/HPS

hey man, i did a dwc grow my first time out similar to yours and i had the same problems. everyone and their brother told me it was ph. by the time the symptoms really manifested, it was way too late to do anything about it. you sir, have root rot.

that snapshot of your roots in your second post is not a good indicator. your roots are supposed to be white as snow (check out the link of my first dwc grow. you will see my first root pics, they were gorgeous and white. as the pics progressed, they got brown and slimy, and began to clump together) and they aren't supposed to cling to one another like that.

root rot is pretty tough to fix and what i ended up having to do was cut my plants at the base and clone them. when new, fresh roots developed, i was able to repot them.

if your res temps are above 68-70, root rot or any other problem related is nearly inevitable. if you're sayin you got temps of 81, well... there's no way. when water heats up it's ability to hold oxygen diminishes. your roots need the oxygenated water (hence the airstone) to transport nutes to the plant. if the water's too hot, it's not going to hold near enough oxygen and your plants will begin to show signs of what appear to be nute lockout. many will say "check your ph". in essence, it IS nute lockout, but the cause is not due to your ph. it's because your roots are suffocating. even two degrees is enough to make a difference. my res temp averaged 74.

after looking at your pics, i'd bet money that that's what you're dealing with.

Hopefully it has been covered but the best thing you people who do hydro of any type is to purchase Dutch Masters Gold Zone and use it. It has saved me SO many headaches and I no longer get root rot AT ALL no matter what the res temps reach. Granted, plants start to lock out nutes when the temps either become too high or too low but it won't kill your plants. Root rot WILL kill your plants. I use 3 tablespoons in my 55 gallon res to keep it sterile. Sorry I am late to the party folks!

 

[Alaskan1]

Got a question.. looking for advice.

Yesterday I re-potted a lot of my clones. Some of the clones were showing poor root development. For instance after ~2 weeks a couple had not extended roots past the rockwool. I have three products in my arsenal under consideration -

1. Great White
2. GH - "Bio Root"
3. Seaweed extract (some canadian brand)

My goal is to build massive roots in this stage. Now that I am moving to Aero-cloning I am interested in building a cocktail for the cloner from these or others. Cultivator provided a recipe last week, but before I go and buy more product I wanted to ask if the stuff I have on hand might work too.

Hmm.. I guess that was two questions.

Thanks!

Get Clonex, that stuff is the shitz for root development.

 

[Alaskan1]

Re: 1st Journal - unknown strain, DWC, 400w MH/HPS

Dude that first picture up top is beautiful tomato or not. Wish I had that knack.
ONE more tidbit of advice before I leave. You can purchase green bulbs from home depot or lowes and put them in the room. You can use these lights while it's lights off time in flower and it will not affect the plants and you can still get stuff done during the plants dark cycle. Been using this and it has worked like a dream.

 

[BakedAlaskan]

Re: 1st Journal - unknown strain, DWC, 400w MH/HPS

Dude that first picture up top is beautiful tomato or not. Wish I had that knack.
ONE more tidbit of advice before I leave. You can purchase green bulbs from home depot or lowes and put them in the room. You can use these lights while it's lights off time in flower and it will not affect the plants and you can still get stuff done during the plants dark cycle. Been using this and it has worked like a dream.

Thanks for the tip on the green light! That will be a must for me. Do you mean something like this?

 

[Alaskan1]

Re: 1st Journal - unknown strain, DWC, 400w MH/HPS

Thanks for the tip on the green light! That will be a must for me. Do you mean something like this?

I'm talking about something like this

Satco S6091 - 25 Watt Green Party Light Bulb

except in a higher wattage. Just found them at walmart for you if you have one near by. I don't know where you live so if there is no walmart you may have to look for other options out there.

 

[KingJohnC]

subscrbed

 

[BakedAlaskan]

subscrbed

Welcome! Glad to have you aboard

 

[BakedAlaskan]

Well I got back from my business trip and wasted no time checking on the ladies. They are pretty happy and showing their stuff!

...and one of them all!!

I have no idea if this type of growth is on pace for 21 days into flip. I am in the final BLOOM schedule for BPN at this point. Any recommendations for additional additives for the final stretch? I am really happy with BPN so far and I am inclined to stay the course on just that, but wanted to open it up for comments. Speaking of.. I am 3 weeks in.. I think it is safe to assume there are five more weeks in front of me before harvest, right?

-Ty

 

[onlypotent420]

Hey BA I have been following your grow as I will becoming a DWC grow soon as my first grow is over seeing all the great advice on yours has been helpful but I have a question it's kinda not relevant to the stage u r in on your grow but I can't get it answered after searching diff threads after germinating your seed in say a glass of water can u put the seed directly into the net pot with your grow medium

 

[BakedAlaskan]

Welcome OP!

I baled on the DWC in lieu of hempy pots. Ill try DWC later, but for now this was the safe way to go. I have germ'd seeds and taken clones and would have to say that you have two choices for cracking seeds destined for hydroponics... (1) - Crack them in rockwool and plant them in the net pots after you get lots of roots peeking out of the rockwool. If you really want to crack seeds with a paper towel / water, then you can drop them into rockwool at that point or put them into a cup with some perlite / vermiculite at 3:1. You will want to dust them with some fungus powder like Great White to get the roots kicking off. After they are stabilized and grabbing the media well, you can pop them out and drop them straight into the net pots. Are you using clay pellets, coco, or some other media?

Hey BA I have been following your grow as I will becoming a DWC grow soon as my first grow is over seeing all the great advice on yours has been helpful but I have a question it's kinda not relevant to the stage u r in on your grow but I can't get it answered after searching diff threads after germinating your seed in say a glass of water can u put the seed directly into the net pot with your grow medium

 

[onlypotent420]

I'm not growing DWC yet but I'm probably gonna use hydrotin or or a mix of perlite and pond rocks I saw somebody do it with there DWC and there plants looked pretty good

 

[GreatLife4All]

I have germ'd seeds and taken clones and would have to say that you have two choices for cracking seeds destined for hydroponics... (1) - Crack them in rockwool and plant them in the net pots after you get lots of roots peeking out of the rockwool. If you really want to crack seeds with a paper towel / water, then you can drop them into rockwool at that point or put them into a cup with some perlite / vermiculite at 3:1. You will want to dust them with some fungus powder like Great White to get the roots kicking off. After they are stabilized and grabbing the media well, you can pop them out and drop them straight into the net pots. Are you using clay pellets, coco, or some other media?

I saw a video on Youtube where a guy just dropped seeds on top of his hydroton and got them to germinate. Don't know that I would trust that.

My thoughts are that you should go ahead and get the seed opened up, and then you can place the seedling into a neoprene collar with the tap root headed down. It should start just fine using this method. You can put hydroton into the net pot that the neoprene collar is in - and the roots will go right down in and start growing. When I did this method, I used a 2" net pot and just left it empty. I then placed the net pot into my easy cloner. Once I had good root development - I transplanted into a larger net pot with hydroton.

I only did this once, so it could be an anomaly.

My normal process is much like BA described. I use a 75 / 25 mix of Perlite to Coco placed into a small container (those Jiffy Starter Cell packs). I then use a heat mat / temperature controller under the cell pack and turn the temp to 75. I get 100% germination on viable seed using this method. And as BA mentioned, you can do this same thing with Rockwool or Rapid Rooter cubes.

After the seed is 3 to 4 inches tall, I will wash the roots using clean tap water and then transplant into hydroton. If you use Rockwool or Rapid Rooter cubes, you can skip this step.

The important point about any of these methods is that you have to get the roots to the bottom of the net pot for placement into the DWC. This will ensure that they take off quickly.

 

[onlypotent420]

I saw a video on Youtube where a guy just dropped seeds on top of his hydroton and got them to germinate. Don't know that I would trust that.

My thoughts are that you should go ahead and get the seed opened up, and then you can place the seedling into a neoprene collar with the tap root headed down. It should start just fine using this method. You can put hydroton into the net pot that the neoprene collar is in - and the roots will go right down in and start growing. When I did this method, I used a 2" net pot and just left it empty. I then placed the net pot into my easy cloner. Once I had good root development - I transplanted into a larger net pot with hydroton.

I only did this once, so it could be an anomaly.

My normal process is much like BA described. I use a 75 / 25 mix of Perlite to Coco placed into a small container (those Jiffy Starter Cell packs). I then use a heat mat / temperature controller under the cell pack and turn the temp to 75. I get 100% germination on viable seed using this method. And as BA mentioned, you can do this same thing with Rockwool or Rapid Rooter cubes.

After the seed is 3 to 4 inches tall, I will wash the roots using clean tap water and then transplant into hydroton. If you use Rockwool or Rapid Rooter cubes, you can skip this step.

The important point about any of these methods is that you have to get the roots to the bottom of the net pot for placement into the DWC. This will ensure that they take off quickly.

Ok appreciate the advice I just got every thing to build today I will make a thread later on for u guys to check out my set up and tell me what u think. To make it easier on my self I just took a clone. That's almost done rooting.
Great and BA both u guys rock thanks for the info.

 

[onlypotent420]

Hey guys here is the link to my DWC let me know what u think 2nd Grow 1st DWC

 

[KingJohnC]

you should add the link to your signature so its easy for people to find.