Azcruiser - Our First Hydro Grow

[azcruiser]

I still need to do some small work around the grow area. (1 or 2 days now)
We won't start the seeds till area is ready, I don't like to work above my plants.
We did ok in the dirt, I hope we do good in water.
Well this is what we have to work with this time, dwc seemed like a good way to go for us.
I had planned on going with the 24 hr in water in the dark then the paper towel thing for germination and then to Hydroton with ReadyGro Super Plugs
(Sponge like material, made of composted tree bark and organic materials).
Please look it over and let us know what you think, or something we missed or doing wrong.
The number of lights used depends on room temp, I have something like 12 extra 42w cfl's.

SEEDS
Afghan Kush Ryder
Red Dwarf
Purple Haze
Spicy White Devil
El Alquimista
Supersonic Cristal Storm

Nutrients - ???????? need help here!

GROW ROOM
DWC-1, 4 - 5gal buckets with 10” net baskets, 18gal res and controller box.
Lights : 1-62w CFL 8-42w CFL’s
DWC-2, 4 - 3gal buckets with 6” net baskets, 5gal res and controller box.
Lights : 130w XtremeLED & 6-42w CFL’s
DWC-1 buckets are inside the grow tent.
DWC-2 is in the veg/autoflowering area(closet) with the DWC-1 res.
The 2.7’X2.7’X5.11’ (3.5' vert grow space) GL80 grow tent sets at the foot of my bed and vents to closet.
The grow tent is the only place I can keep dark for 12 hours.
The tent has 2-6” in-line vent fans.(1 in/1 out)
The room is vented to crawl space above the closet with an 8” in-line vent fan, heat is a problem as the grow is cooled by house a/c, but it should be ok this time of year.(it's only in the high 80's now)
I use the closet for veg/autoflowering.
Air stones in all water and fans all over the place
2-5gal tubs to remove the chlorine from the tap water.
2 CO2 bags.
2 humidifiers
We also have chives and pepperment growing in soil in both areas.

 

[azcruiser]

Re: Azcruiser - DWC, CFL, LED, Blue Cheese, Nebula, Pineapple Express, Green Poison

Well we did the overnight thing and 6 of the eight had baby sprouts. They are all germinating nicely in paper towels on a germination station hot pad.

 

[azcruiser]

Re: Azcruiser - DWC, CFL, LED, Blue Cheese, Nebula, Pineapple Express, Green Poison

As of right now four of eight have sprouted in the ReadyGro plugs. Sure hope the other 4 sprout up soon.

 

[253Chiefin]

Re: Azcruiser - DWC, CFL, LED, Blue Cheese, Nebula, Pineapple Express, Green Poison

Good luck on your grow. Id give u advice on nutes but im in the same boat. I wanna find the best nutes for next time. right now im using the general hydroponics flora series, which works fine for me. But theres guys on here been doin this a while. Ill he tuning in to see how this ones goin. Post more pics when u can

 

[azcruiser]

Re: Azcruiser - DWC, CFL, LED, Blue Cheese, Nebula, Pineapple Express, Green Poison

Good luck on your grow. Id give u advice on nutes but im in the same boat. I wanna find the best nutes for next time. right now im using the general hydroponics flora series, which works fine for me. But theres guys on here been doin this a while. Ill he tuning in to see how this ones goin. Post more pics when u can

Thanks for looking in, sorry it about the delay but we should be ok now.
Going to stay with FF.

 

[azcruiser]

Re: Azcruiser - DWC - CFL - LED - Blue Cheese - Nebula - Pineapple Express - Green Po

OK I'm back now after life kind of got in the way for a bit.
Had a hard time with the seeds, running about 45% failure this batch.
In mid-November we started having better luck with the seeds, and this is what we have now.

DWC 1 (grow tent, lights 18/6)
Purple Haze, November 12
El Alquimista, November 12
Supersonic Cristal Storm, November 12
Spicy White Devil, November 20

DWC 2 (closet, lights 20/4)
2 Afghan Kush Ryder Autoflowering, one on November 12 and one on November 20
2 Red Dwarf Autoflowering, November 20

The Supersonic Cristal Storm is a lone seed found in the feminized Supersonic Cristal Storm Automatic seed from our last grow.

The ph, ea and the scs were sprouted and put in grow plugs then put in the 10 inch baskets in dwc1.

The Spicy White Devil was added to dwc1 on November 29th, I moved her with her 3.75" net basket from dwc3. (dwc3 is part of the nursery)

dwc3

About the plants in dwc1, well I almost dropped 3 of them at birth, it was just the sprouted seeds in the grow plugs.
Now I don't know who is who in dwc1 except the swd in the front right of the tent, the scs and the ea both are fast growers and that may help.

Just to see what would happen we took a seed from our stash of bag seeds popped it in a wet grow plug.
Then stuck it in dwc2 covered it with thick black paper with a light on it for heat and kept it wet.
3 days later it popped up and did very well but then I needed the space it was in.

We went with FoxFarm GrowBig 3-2-6 and TigerBloom 2-4-8.
On December 5 six of eight plants had nice white roots in the water.

We use a BlueLab Combo Meter for: PH, TEMP(c and f), PPM, EC and CF
The local water is the pits but it's what we have, the water temp is about 66f this time of year.
PH 7.5 to 8.2
PPM 650
EC 1.3
CF 13

Outside temps are: lows 40s highs 60s



Any help or comments welcome.

 

[azcruiser]

Re: Azcruiser - DWC - CFL - LED - Blue Cheese - Nebula - Pineapple Express - Green Po

All 8 plants have roots in the water now.

1 Afghan Kush Ryder Autoflowering

2 Red Dwarf Autoflowering

3 Afghan Kush Ryder Autoflowering

4 Red Dwarf Autoflowering

5 Supersonic Cristal Storm ?

6 Purple Haze ?

7 Spicy White Devil

8 El Alquimista ?

 

[azcruiser]

Re: Azcruiser - DWC - CFL - LED - Blue Cheese - Nebula - Pineapple Express - Green Po

Really nice pictures. I can't believe how fast and extra green they are in water as opposed to soil.
Trisha

 

[azcruiser]

Now about the 3 that were mixed at birth, still don't know for sure.
But this is what I think.

Supersonic Cristal Storm

El Alquimista

Purple Haze

 

[azcruiser]

Time to update.
I like this dwc stuff, the plants grow like crazy when the roots hit the water.

The autoflower girls are all good.

The grow tent looks full

I like the thick stems you get with dwc.

 

[azcruiser]

We are switching in mid grow.
I don't like what FF does to my water, I'll give AN a shot

The autogirls have small buds.
The grow tent went 12/12 on monday.
I'll flush out the old and start the new.

 

[azcruiser]

Just watching the girls grow.
The scs showed his balls to the girls so I took an ax to him.
I just love the growth with dwc.
The autogirls are getting big now, one red dwarf is at about 29", so much for short plants.

This is our 29" red dwarf, the other one is only 24".

 

[azcruiser]

We added 1 200w 2700k light to the autogirls in dwc2.

 

[azcruiser]

The autogirls are doing great.
This is a better shot of the best part of that red dwarf.

Afghan Kush Ryders with flash in the dark.

 

[QueenTokelove]

Looking very nice, indeed Az. I have thought about doing dwc but it just sounds so complicated with the air pumps, air stones and so on. I like using soil but now have switched to using coco. And I am loving it so far. I had used FF with my first grow but often had nute burn, don't know if it was the FF or just me making noob mistakes.

 

[azcruiser]

Queen Tokelove: Thanks for the good words. The DWC sounds harder than it is once you get the hang of it. We didn't have nute burns from the FF but some strains are more prone to them than others. Checking out your grow now.

 

[Louis]

Everything looks super cool. I would like to one of these days switch to a hydro setup but for know will stick to soil. Keep it up man and nice good clear photos too.

 

[azcruiser]

Thanks Louis

I got tired of lugging that dirt in and out.
With dwc it's cool to watch how fast the girls grow and how big, that red dwarf is over 30' now.

 

[azcruiser]

Update:
It's all good in the hood.


The tall one(red dwarf)
At 30" tall, and it looks like the side lights are helping.

 

[azcruiser]

We are going to add 2 more plants to dwc2 at the end of this grow and bring it up to 6 Autoflowering per grow.