HunHash's 1st Grow Ever, Wilma Hydro Autoflower Grow Journal, 2020 Stayathome

HunHash

Active Member
Hi everybody,

After 20 years of fantasizing about it, the time has come for me to start my very own grow. I started this project because for the last year or so I fought a hard battle with depression, and my wife (God bless her soul) supported me because she saw that this project of mine gave me something to be happy for. The funny thing is that I started to collect my equipment about a month ago, and things already started to get better (just this week I got 2 job offers). :)

Before I start to describe my setup and strains and all, I have to tell you (if you haven't noticed already) that English is my second language as I live in Central Eastern Europe, so my wording and grammar might be a little childish. Please, don't hesitate to correct my grammar or the phrases I use (or should use). If I can learn the language and growing at the same time, then I can kill two birds with one stone.

Because I'm in a budget, I decided to go with a Wilma hydro system (50l reservoir, 11l pots, clay pebbles).
My grow space is limited, so I bought a 1m x 1m x 2m Monster Garden grow tent.
I bought a fan (Black orchid mixed line 125mm 220/280 m3/h) and an FV carbon filter PRO-ECO 240/360 m3/h 125mm
For the lights, I fell in love with the Lumatek Attis 300w model so I purchased it from England and hoping that it was a good decision. Does anyone have experience with it? Is it as good as I hope it is?
20200414_163955.jpg


The strains:
I purchased 3 autoflowering strains and got a 4th as a present. It's cool because I wanted to start with four different strains but run out of money when I ordered the seeds.
1st: Cream Mandarine XL Auto (Indica/Sativa/Ruderalis 35%/63,4%/1,6%) 9 weeks to harvest
2nd: Gorilla Girl XL Auto (Indica/Sativa/Ruderalis 42,1%/57,5%/0,4%) 9 weeks to harvest
3rd: Sweet Gelatio Auto (Indica/Sativa/Ruderalis 44,2%/55%/0,8%) 8 weeks to harvest
4th: Bloody Skunk Auto (Indica/Sativa/Ruderalis 62,4%/32,9%/4,7%) 8 weeks to harvest

I decided to start with the first two, but of course, on day four I broke poor Gorilla Girl in half, so I had to start germination again. The Cream Mandarine is 9 days old, the new Gorilla girl is 5. I'll wait for 2 more days and start the other two because I want them to finish together, and I only have one reservoir to flush them.

Nutrients:
20200419_174814.jpg


They under a 18/6 light cycle. For now, I give them 40% of light power until they get stronger. I decided to let them sleep from 11 AM to 5 PM because we don't have an AC and this period will be the hottest in summer.
For now, I mixed 1/8th of the recommended amount of nutrients (grow A&B + B-52 + Tarantula + Rhino skin). I used 20L of dechlorinated PH balanced tap water (PH5,6), but when I measured its PPM (it was more than 300ppm) I immediately ordered 70l of distilled water. It's quite an expense, so I have to think about an RO filter shortly, but for now, I don't know which hand of mine I should bite.
My problem is that the PPM is constantly rising, and I can't work out why. I understand that the plants are too small to drink up all these nutrients, and in every watering, the water evaporates, but I added more PH balanced water and it didn't bring the PPM down. (it has gone like this: 585, 706, 840, 890, 884 the day I added 5L of fresh water, 903 today). I can't wait for the delivery of that distilled water.

So today stats are: 903PPM, 6,5PH, water temperature: 23,4C, Air temp.: 24,8C, RH: 44%

20200419_174841.jpg

20200419_174853.jpg


20200419_175011.jpg


As you can see, the CM is a bit unsteady. She can't decide if she wants to stand or not. I decided not to help her because I want to LST her anyhow, so it's not a big deal.

Well, that's it for today. Hope some of you will join me for this ride.
 
Hi everybody,

After 20 years of fantasizing about it, the time has come for me to start my very own grow. I started this project because for the last year or so I fought a hard battle with depression, and my wife (God bless her soul) supported me because she saw that this project of mine gave me something to be happy for. The funny thing is that I started to collect my equipment about a month ago, and things already started to get better (just this week I got 2 job offers). :)

Before I start to describe my setup and strains and all, I have to tell you (if you haven't noticed already) that English is my second language as I live in Central Eastern Europe, so my wording and grammar might be a little childish. Please, don't hesitate to correct my grammar or the phrases I use (or should use). If I can learn the language and growing at the same time, then I can kill two birds with one stone.

Because I'm in a budget, I decided to go with a Wilma hydro system (50l reservoir, 11l pots, clay pebbles).
My grow space is limited, so I bought a 1m x 1m x 2m Monster Garden grow tent.
I bought a fan (Black orchid mixed line 125mm 220/280 m3/h) and an FV carbon filter PRO-ECO 240/360 m3/h 125mm
For the lights, I fell in love with the Lumatek Attis 300w model so I purchased it from England and hoping that it was a good decision. Does anyone have experience with it? Is it as good as I hope it is?
20200414_163955.jpg


The strains:
I purchased 3 autoflowering strains and got a 4th as a present. It's cool because I wanted to start with four different strains but run out of money when I ordered the seeds.
1st: Cream Mandarine XL Auto (Indica/Sativa/Ruderalis 35%/63,4%/1,6%) 9 weeks to harvest
2nd: Gorilla Girl XL Auto (Indica/Sativa/Ruderalis 42,1%/57,5%/0,4%) 9 weeks to harvest
3rd: Sweet Gelatio Auto (Indica/Sativa/Ruderalis 44,2%/55%/0,8%) 8 weeks to harvest
4th: Bloody Skunk Auto (Indica/Sativa/Ruderalis 62,4%/32,9%/4,7%) 8 weeks to harvest

I decided to start with the first two, but of course, on day four I broke poor Gorilla Girl in half, so I had to start germination again. The Cream Mandarine is 9 days old, the new Gorilla girl is 5. I'll wait for 2 more days and start the other two because I want them to finish together, and I only have one reservoir to flush them.

Nutrients:
20200419_174814.jpg


They under a 18/6 light cycle. For now, I give them 40% of light power until they get stronger. I decided to let them sleep from 11 AM to 5 PM because we don't have an AC and this period will be the hottest in summer.
For now, I mixed 1/8th of the recommended amount of nutrients (grow A&B + B-52 + Tarantula + Rhino skin). I used 20L of dechlorinated PH balanced tap water (PH5,6), but when I measured its PPM (it was more than 300ppm) I immediately ordered 70l of distilled water. It's quite an expense, so I have to think about an RO filter shortly, but for now, I don't know which hand of mine I should bite.
My problem is that the PPM is constantly rising, and I can't work out why. I understand that the plants are too small to drink up all these nutrients, and in every watering, the water evaporates, but I added more PH balanced water and it didn't bring the PPM down. (it has gone like this: 585, 706, 840, 890, 884 the day I added 5L of fresh water, 903 today). I can't wait for the delivery of that distilled water.

So today stats are: 903PPM, 6,5PH, water temperature: 23,4C, Air temp.: 24,8C, RH: 44%

20200419_174841.jpg

20200419_174853.jpg


20200419_175011.jpg


As you can see, the CM is a bit unsteady. She can't decide if she wants to stand or not. I decided not to help her because I want to LST her anyhow, so it's not a big deal.

Well, that's it for today. Hope some of you will join me for this ride.
I use advanced nutrients ph perfect myself trio in coco . You should make sure Yoru ph downing to 5.5 ish ph will rise I've heard over time. I use general hydroponics pH down to keep my ph stable I use two water myself out it is 7.8 ish and ppm of 170 ish .

Got the first few weeks I should be using mixing distilled water to my tap water 50/50 would bring my tap water down to 80 ish ppm.

I will sub in a good friend @Pennywise has some experience with Dwc what you thinking bro .


Hey welcome to the mag btw :420::passitleft:
 
I use advanced nutrients ph perfect myself trio in coco . You should make sure Yoru ph downing to 5.5 ish ph will rise I've heard over time. I use general hydroponics pH down to keep my ph stable I use two water myself out it is 7.8 ish and ppm of 170 ish .

Got the first few weeks I should be using mixing distilled water to my tap water 50/50 would bring my tap water down to 80 ish ppm.

I will sub in a good friend @Pennywise has some experience with Dwc what you thinking bro .


Hey welcome to the mag btw :420::passitleft:

Hey Kingjoe83,

Thanks for the tip about mixing the distilled water with tap water. I'm afraid my PH is rising because of the extremely high percentage of minerals (at least I read sg about this before).
I decided to bring my PH down to 5.5 and let it rise around 6.5. Then bring it down again. I don't want to add a lot of acid to my res because salt levels are high enough already.
 
Hey @Kingjoe83
Welcome to 420 @HunHash
Here’s a chart that will explain what’s going on with your rez.
If you have any questions let us know.


Hi Pennywise.

Thanks for the chart. It's really cool. I save it to my computer as I feel I will make good use of it in the future.
At this point, I don't think the plants are using too many nutes or water. They are too young. I'm thinking it's because of the relatively low RH here (around 30% in the room). I water them every 3 hours for 15 minutes. The pebbles help to evaporate quickly. I think this brings up the RH to 44% in the tent.
What I don't understand is how I can't bring it down when adding PH balanced tap water (ppm around 300).

For now, I don't think it will cause any problems, and this week I will change the whole res with distilled water mix. We'll see what happens then. :)
 
Adjust the nutrient mix itself, not ph balanced water.

I guess you are right. I just saved 20l of tap water to let it sit for a day. It's better to change the res than lose two plants.
 
Hey Kingjoe83,

Thanks for the tip about mixing the distilled water with tap water. I'm afraid my PH is rising because of the extremely high percentage of minerals (at least I read sg about this before).
I decided to bring my PH down to 5.5 and let it rise around 6.5. Then bring it down again. I don't want to add a lot of acid to my res because salt levels are high enough already.
Yeah after that chart looks like try bringing your ec levels down a tad
 
What's your opinion about her? Maybe I don't give her enough light? Why is she laying down? Lights Lumatek Attis 300w (40% of power at the moment) 50cm away (as recommended).
PH5.5 temperature 25C, The colour of the leaves looks ok. She stretched a lot today, but as you can see in the two pictures, in the afternoon she tried to stand up (second pic) but now she leans back again (first picture).
I'm thinking it's the lack of light. What do you think?
20200420_004352.jpg
20200419_174853.jpg
 
Definetly need more light, you may need to water from the top a little. Her roots haven’t hit the Rez yet.

Thanks, mate. I turned up the light at 80%. Of course, the temperature has risen to 28C. What will happen at 100% later?

I'm a bit afraid of the summer. As I told you we don't have an AC system and the summers can get really hot here.
It's a top feed system. I water them every 3 hours for 15 minutes.
 
Do you have an exhaust fan set up?
Yep. It's on the same electric circuit as the light. It runs 18/6. I use negative pressure to get fresh air in (I read that for a tent this size it's ok).
I use a small clip-on fan (I just repositioned it because it blew directly to the light and the air got hotter at the bottom of the tent than at the top part.)
 
After yesterday I went to the shop and bought 20L of distilled water, and changed my res entirely. Man, changing the res in a Wilma system is not as easy as I thought it will be. Anyhow, I did what I had to do.
The new stats are:
PPM: 315
PH: 5,7
RH: 40-50%
Air temp: 28,7C
water temp 22,8C

The lamp is running with 100% and for the moment it looks like the girls like it.
 
It's time to start the other two. These two should take 8 weeks from germination, Starting now. :)

20200420_232535.jpg

20200420_233434.jpg
 
Back
Top Bottom