DIY CFL Deep Water Culture Grow A

[MataGrowa]

12 / 08 / 09

Ok first time grower here. I'd like to start out by thanking all of the Deep Water Culture, especially Roseman, for all of the knowledge shared. After reading and following Roseman's DIY Deep Water Culture Tutorial and much more for the last couple of months I am almost ready to start my first grow. I have attached lots of pics. The cabs interior is 50" tall by 30" wide by 21" deep, painted entirely flat white.

For lighting I made a DIY CFL light out of pvc and metal flashing hanging from a chain for easy movement. I have eight 42 watt cfl's, starting with six 5100's and two 2700's and then going to the opposite. I will also have 2 clamp reflectors with Y splitters and two 42 watt cfl's in each for side lighting for a total of 504 watts total when at max.

For Ventilation I have an 80mm pc fan for intake blowing through pvc and onto the plants. For exhaust I have a 120 mm pc fan blowing out through a DIY carbon filter. I went with a bigger Exhaust than Intake so that my air leaks around the doors will become passive intakes.

And for my girls I have a 10 gallon sterilite tote, six 3" net pots, a 66gph submersible pump attached to a 6 port drip manifold, two 12" airstones attached to an air pump, rockwool and hydroton.

The seeds I ordered from attitude seed bank through a walmart prepaid visa and recieved my full correct order 7 days later. I ordered two Barneys farm feminized seeds 5 packs. Sweet Tooth and Morning Glory. Here are the links. Morning Glory and Sweet Tooth. They sent three free seeds, Dinafem Moby Dick, Dinafem Blue Haze and DNA Fem Hashplant Haze. For my first try I am going to grow 2 each of the Barneys seeds, and the Dinafem Moby Dick and Blue Haze.

 

[MataGrowa]

12 / 11/ 09

OK I have the seeds soaking in some lukewarm water. I am going to soak them overnight. I have them sitting on top of the cab with the light on inside the cab. No light is getting to the seeds but the top of the cab is warm from the light inside being on without the ventilation running. The pump and airstones I will soak overnight in some water ph balanced to about 6.0. I will fill the tub and balance that water to around 6.0 tonight as well and then let it run overnight. The rockwool cubes I will soak overnight in water ph balanced to around 5.0. Tomorrow I will put the seeds in the rockwool in the cups with hydroton.

 

[MataGrowa]

12 / 13 / 09

Everything seems to be going well. All the seeds have a nice taproot that is thickening and shooting its way down through the rockwool.

I checked the water today and after two days it had gone from about 6.0 to about 6.5 which seems very reasonable. I added a half gallon of 5.0 ph water to the res and then took a half gallon out. I rechecked the ph and it was back to the 6.0 range.

Hopefully another day or two and I will see 6 sprouts and move to the next stage.

I included the best pic I could. Hopefully pretty soon I wont need to zoom that much to see the girls. The seed in the pic is Abigail a Barney's Farm Sweet Tooth.

 

[gorillagrow]

Great looking set-up, I have offen thought of trying a Deep Water Culture system, their reasonably priced and seem to be easier to maintain. I be in for the ride on this one!

 

[MataGrowa]

Great looking set-up, I have offen thought of trying a Deep Water Culture system, their reasonably priced and seem to be easier to maintain. I be in for the ride on this one!

Thanks Gorilla I will be updating more soon

 

[Steve McStoferson]

looking good man, you have done your research and built a great system. You will be rewarded with amazing buds in no time. I like what you did with the pvc and the fan. How effective is it at passing air through the area?

 

[MostlyCrazy]

I like the light set-up. Wish I could build things!

 

[MataGrowa]

looking good man, you have done your research and built a great system. You will be rewarded with amazing buds in no time. I like what you did with the pvc and the fan. How effective is it at passing air through the area?

It is ok, I get a decent flow with the 80mm intake fan but I am currently looking into finding a bathroom fan for the exhaust. Then I will use the 120mm fan I am currently using for exhaust as the intake. Then it should really give me a nice breeze.

I like the light set-up. Wish I could build things!

Thanks MC good to see you again. Seems to me like you do pretty ok buddy.

 

[SteveMcGreen]

Pretty awesome setup. I was planning on a full CFL grow myself, but just bought a 400w hps after christmas. I couldn't help myself, good luck and I'm subscribed.

 

[MataGrowa]

Pretty awesome setup. I was planning on a full CFL grow myself, but just bought a 400w hps after christmas. I couldn't help myself, good luck and I'm subscribed.

Thanks Steve

As soon as this thread is relocated to the DWC/Deep Water Culture sub forum I will finish getting it up to date.

 

[MostlyCrazy]

SteveMcGreen,
That's what I do. Cfl in veg and fire up the HPS alog wit the cfls about a week before I go full 12/12. Allows me to check the heat and get the ventalation tuned in.

 

[MataGrowa]

12 /14 /09

Seeds started soaking on 12/11 and all popped within 24 hours. On 12/12 The seeds went into the system and today 12/14 I have four sprouts. One of the other seeds looks like it is definately about to sprout. The sixth seed was actually the first to pop while soaking but now seems to have fallen behind the rest but I will stay patient with it. Anyway I am going to put the lights on later today. Here are some pics of the sprouts

 

[MataGrowa]

12 /16 /09

Everything seems to be going well for 5 of my girls. This is there fourth day in the system.

They have all shed their seed and they all have one set of true leaves.

They are about an inch and a half tall and I saw a single root growing down from the bottom of two of the netpots.

The sixth seed appears to be dead. I don't believe there is anything going on with that seed at all. I will wait a couple more days before pulling that pot completely, covering the hole and just rolling with the 5 plants.

These pics are not the best detail but I will have a better camera going soon.

 

[MataGrowa]

12 / 21 / 09
So I started soaking my seeds on 12/11, put them in the system on 12/12 and on 12/16 I had 5 sprouts. The sixth seed which didn't make it was the one that cracked open within a couple hours of soaking. I don't know if it drowned or if it was just a dud to begin with. It was one of the free seeds attitude sent me with my order so no big deal, I am happy with 5 plants for this grow.

I actually started nutes this morning (12/21). I am using GH flora micro and flora bloom following the Lucas formula. For veg Lucas says 5ml micro and 10ml bloom per gallon. I used 5ml micro and 10ml bloom total so I figure that as 1/6th of full strength. I figure I will add another 1/6th every other day for a week and then next monday change the water out with 6 new gallons and a full dose of nutes.

For PPM I have the HM digital tds 3. It has a conversion factor of .5. Now my water comes out of the tap at 380 ppm and with todays dose it went up to 580. If it keeps going up at that rate ill be at 1580 with a full dose which seems too high. Should I be worried by this or should I try to go more by what my plants are telling me and not worry about ppm?

Anyway here are some pics 10 days after soaking, 9 days in the system and 5 days from sprouts.

 

[ol hippy]

Matagrowa, Wow what can I say I love that light set up , are you going to do a scrog ? If so how tall would you let them veg to ?,Would you use pvc for a frame for your screen ? Damn nice set up ! +rep for craftmanship...

 

[dahcwon]

I'm tuned in for this one for sure i love the home made Bubblepoics you have a great setup + great seed = great weed

 

[MostlyCrazy]

On the qestion about nutes. You have to figure your net nutes not including the ppm of your water so you'll be fine. Perhaps the GH flora hard water micro would have been a better choice. I too have high ppm tap water ( 350-400 and even higher lately) and the HW micro works for me but I don't use lucas. To further my education does the lucas formula not require the Gh flora grow since there is N in the micro?

How long are you planning to veg? 5 fems in that tank will get crowded.

 

[MataGrowa]

Matagrowa, Wow what can I say I love that light set up , are you going to do a scrog ? If so how tall would you let them veg to ?,Would you use pvc for a frame for your screen ? Damn nice set up ! +rep for craftmanship...

Thanks ol hippy. I think for my first try I am just going to go with a conventional grow.

I'm tuned in for this one for sure i love the home made Bubblepoics you have a great setup + great seed = great weed

Thanks dachwon. Looks like your doing pretty well yourself, thats a nice looking plant you have.

On the qestion about nutes. You have to figure your net nutes not including the ppm of your water so you'll be fine. Perhaps the GH flora hard water micro would have been a better choice. I too have high ppm tap water ( 350-400 and even higher lately) and the HW micro works for me but I don't use lucas. To further my education does the lucas formula not require the Gh flora grow since there is N in the micro?

How long are you planning to veg? 5 fems in that tank will get crowded.

MC great to see you again. Thanks for the heads up on the PPM. I actually am using the hard water micro. The Lucas formula uses no grow, just the Micro and the Bloom. The recommendation is 5ml Micro and 10ml Bloom per gallon during Veg and 8ml Micro and 16ml Bloom per gallon during Flower. You are exactly right on the thinking being you don't need the grow because you are getting plenty of N in the micro. You can google Lucas Formula and find lots of info. I plan to Veg for pretty much the full 5 weeks, I know it will be pretty crowded in there but for my first grow at least thats a problem I wouldn't mind having. Here are pics of my two GH nutes and some free samples the guy at my local hydro shop gave me.

 

[MataGrowa]

12 / 23 / 09

I added a second dose of 1/6th stength of nutrients late last night 36 hours after the first dose and everything seems well. I have now added 1/3rd of a dose total (10ml Micro and 20ml Grow total so far) and figure to add another 1/6th tomorrow morning which will be another 36 hours from the previous dose. Here are some pics 12 days from soaking and 7 days from sprouts.

 

[MataGrowa]

12 / 27 / 09

11 days from sprouts and things are going pretty well, no problems with heat (around 75 degrees although it is about 82 to 88 directly under the lights) or ph (staying pretty steady around 6.0). Water temps have stayed around 68* the whole grow.

Adriana, Alicia and Alison all look pretty much perfect to me.

Abigail is showing some signs of nute burn but she was previously located right where I was pouring my nutrient solution in. I mix the nutrients in a gallon of water and then add that but from now on I will be taking the top off entirely and letting that gallon really get mixed up with the rest of my water, while the roots get a nice airbath, before putting the top back on.

I backed off on the nutes a little. I was at half nutes (15ml Micro and 30ml Bloom total so far) and drained two gallons and added back two gallons of plain ph balanced water. My ppm is currently 730 but it started at 380 honestly I don't even know what that means at this stage but I plan to add another 1/6th of nutes back in tomorrow. Roseman was my main inspiration for this grow and he didn't seem to go by ppm.

Angelina got a little stunted when I tried to rearrange her rockwool in her netpot about a week ago after her tube had come loose. I didn't realize how much of a root sytem she had in there already and I guess the roots got crushed some. She seems to be recovering well now and looks to be just a couple days behind the others.

I got a much better camera to use now so here are a couple more pics from the top and bottom.