Yarddog's WaterFarm - White Widow Grow

[YardDog35]

Hello all! to my General Hydroponics Waterfarm grow! This grow is a White Widow clone.

Here is the standard journal info:

What strain is it? White Widow. Indica/Sativa cross.

Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Vegging

If in Veg... For how long? Been home for almost 3 weeks from a 4" clone

Indoor or outdoor? Indoor. Grow tent in the closet.

Soil or Hydro? Hydro. GH Waterfarm with a bunch of extra holes punched out of the bottom. Running three round air stones in the tub also.

Size of light? 8, 23 watt, 6500 kelvin CFL's

Temp of Room/cab? 78-81*f max. Low 70's at night with the lights on 24 hours.

RH of Room/cab? 52% with a humidifier.

PH of media or res? 5.5 after water change, generally rises to low 6's in 4 days.

Any Pests ? NO! Knock on wood...

How often are you watering? Starting to add water daily as she is drinking more.

Type and strength of ferts used? General Hydroponics Flora Nova "keep it simple plan". FloraNova grow, FloraBlend and Floralicious plus. Also using GH's Subculture B and Subculture M for root growth and care.

 

[YardDog35]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

I did a few things wrong when I brought her home as a freshly rooted cutting. I was so focused on how much to feed I messed up on some basics. Namely, lights a little too close, fan blowing down on the plant a little much. I went back to a great thread that covers all the basics and re-read everything.

The last week or so has been great for her! She is growing so fast now, it's a beautiful thing!

Time for some pictures!

Here is the set up
Modded Waterfarm

Awesome air pump

The tent

Two of these 78 cfm dc computer fans keep the tent at only 2.5* warmer than the whole room.

This is 7 days ago, right before her second topping

7 days ago, a little root!

Right after her second topping

7 days ago, after a nice cleaning and water change

 

[YardDog35]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

Last nights water change also included a little more nutes and I added 2 more cfl's to the mix. Now I'm running 8 23w 6500k cfl's. That gives her 12,800 lumens. I'm also folier feeding with Floralicious plus, once a week.

And here she is as of 10/09/2010. After two different toppings, I have 4 main top shoots and five outer shoots on her. That should give me 9 good colas with 4 being large.

 

[Planter]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

lookin good mate

 

[YardDog35]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

Thanks staffy!

 

[PitViper]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

water farms work till you get a big plant that drinks about a gallon a day then watch your ph and your ppm you will need to fill everyday at the end of bloom

 

[YardDog35]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

water farms work till you get a big plant that drinks about a gallon a day then watch your ph and your ppm you will need to fill everyday at the end of bloom

That's no problem! I get very involved in my grows and check everything daily anyway. My last do-it-yourself DWC res was only two gallons. It's actually optimal if you think about it. One plant only needs two gallons in DWC. Why wast money on nutes mixing 5 gallons when she does not need it?

I enjoy the work

Thanks for the input though.

 

[YardDog35]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

Added a little water. PH is holding strong, rising to only 5.9.

She is starting to get a little bushy so I'm doing a little intentional stretch. I raised the light array up, going to keep it up that high for 36 hours. That way I get a little separation of the nodes to allow a little more light in. This will really help when growing with cfl's.

 

[YardDog35]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

As a proud papa, I had to take some pics. Had her (I need to name this girl) out for a misting and ph check/refill.

Come to think of it...I will name her Jessica. After Jessica Biel. Fitting cause every time I open the tent to see the White Widow I say DAMN! Just like when I see Jessica Biel...haha!!

See how long that stays up

:focus:


Jessica is doing great. Tomorrows water change is going to be 'aggressive growth' strength nutes. She looks very healthy! The intentional stretching worked great. If you look at the pics in the last post compared to these you can see what a difference a day or so makes in light height.

 

[YardDog35]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

Update...

Topped her for a third time. She is almost too bushy now. A few pics taken last week after the topping

Root ball finally forming. Next time I'm going back to my DIY DWC set-up. I like the Waterfarm but it takes too long for the roots to reach the bubbly water.

A pic of the res, cleaned and ready for fresh nutes

With some food added, first gallon. Next gallon has the Subculture in it.

I built a little bubble cloner on Sunday. Have four cuttings in it now.

Here she is as of today. You can see the cutting in the left hand side. Tent is 78*F with 65% RH, should be good enough for clones too.

Those with a good eye will notice I ran into a little trouble about a week ago. It looked like a classic case of over-watering so I changed the timer to half hour on-half our off (for the drip). Then I noticed my drip ring was clogged so half was not spitting water...cleaned it. THEN I noticed some nute burn after last weeks water change/feeding. Tips were curling down with needle sized brown spots on the tips. The middle leaves show the worst damage.
Any who, the new growth is beautiful so we are back on track.

Ordering a "cool tube" in two days so I can use my 400 watt hps with Lumatek ballast. I plan on running it for a week or so to let Jessica adjust, then 30 hours of darkness before 12/12 starts. Don't ask me what I'm going to do with those clones...


YD

 

[YardDog35]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow




Well here we are, November first. Time goes by so fast!

Things are going well with this little grow. I put her into 30 hours of darkness with fresh water and a little FloraKleen on Saturday Oct 30. Started 12/12 on Halloween at 10 am

The lighting...I really wanted to buy a cool tube for my 400w hps, however work is getting slow this time of year so I'm forced to use what I have on hand.
Running 2, 65 watt 2700 kelvin cfl's rated at 3900 lumens each (Lowes has them), 1 45 watt 2700k rated at 2000 lumens (I think), and 3 23 watt 2700k rated at 1600 lumens. That gives me 14,600 lumens using 244 watts. Usable lumens is a different story, that depends on how close I can get those bulbs to the leaves.

Thought I would share my nute line-up...the FloraNova Grow will not be used after week two of flower. I'm thinking of replacing the Floralicious Plus with Floralicious bloom, again money plays a factor...

I received the AN Bud Blood from a friend, free trial for me!
The Sub-culture from General Hydro seems to be doing its job. Roots are healthy!

With the addition of the lighting my grow tent warmed up some. I am using the "lung room" method for exhausting now. I had a bathroom fan that puts out some good cfm's. Its sits on the floor outside the tent to draw cooler air, 4" ducting moves the air into the bottom of the tent. Pressure sends the hot air out of the top port as a passive exhaust. Ideally I should have a carbon filter with an in-line...someday. Anyway, all of that keeps things at 81*F, 47% RH, during the warmest part of the day.

As for Jessica...

Those were taken today during a PH testing and cap off of water. PH is at 5.9 now. With the 3 different toppings she is very stout with some nice shoot coming up the outside, not far below the height of the main tops.
I'm anxious to see if the Bud Blood really speeds up bloom...

Thanks for checking it out all! YD

 

[Planter]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

wow man she has gotten really big. good job. are you bending down any branches to allow more light in the middle?
intake and outtake is very inportant, i lost a crop last grow do to powdery mildew, the cause, not having a good enough intake. so i bought and inline that puts in more cfm tahn what i need and a filter. hopefully this time i should be good.

good luck

 

[YardDog35]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

Thanks staffy!

The root ball is finally getting to be a good size in the res. so growth has been great during this transition to flower. I might consider bending down some branches soon, she has started stretching good this last week. I'll post some pics tomorrow when I have her out for a water change.

I hear ya on the intake. When I saw the video from Advanced Nutes with the 'lung room' tent I was amazed at the idea of pushing in enough air to create pressure rather then 'pulling' air out.

Good luck to you also!

 

[Tmac12]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

Looking real good!

 

[Planter]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

Thanks staffy!

The root ball is finally getting to be a good size in the res. so growth has been great during this transition to flower. I might consider bending down some branches soon, she has started stretching good this last week. I'll post some pics tomorrow when I have her out for a water change.

I hear ya on the intake. When I saw the video from Advanced Nutes with the 'lung room' tent I was amazed at the idea of pushing in enough air to create pressure rather then 'pulling' air out.

Good luck to you also!

takes some pics of the root ball. never done hydro so i think it looks awesome

im gonna have to check out this lung room, never heard of it. pics are always great!
thanks bro
later

 

[YardDog35]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

Looking real good!

Thanks T!

takes some pics of the root ball. never done hydro so i think it looks awesome

im gonna have to check out this lung room, never heard of it. pics are always great!
thanks bro
later

Will have a few pics posted tonight. Root balls are cool! More root, more fruit!
The lung room thing was on an Advanced Nutes video with tips on growing. They were using a grow tent, much larger than mine. The concept is...you force a lot of filtered air into the bottom of the grow space. The space is then pressurized forcing heat up and out of a passive vent on top. Nothing un-filtered enters the space and the heat is forced out. Works great!

 

[YardDog35]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

First week of flower is done!

PH at 5.9, tent is ranging from 79*F-84*F with the 2 large 65w cfl's, plus the others.

Growth is spectacular! She has grown an inch a day since Friday, up to 16" tonight. My local hydro shop (one of them, but my favorite) had TDS meters for $35. Money is tight but I think its a must have at this point in my learning curve of growing.

Bushy girl is stretching out some

The flowers are showing just after a week!

Root ball

Tucked in for the rest of the night

 

[YardDog35]

Two weeks in flower!

Second week of flower was over last Monday, took some pics when I had her out Sunday night just no time to post.
Flowering is looking spectacular at this point. She has a nice Christmas tree smell, mild but sooo good.

Here are the pics from Sunday night.

21" tall

Pulling her out tonight for a res clean and fresh nutes, I'll take some pics.

Oh...got my cool tube! Running 400w hps now

 

[Tmac12]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

She sure is looking good and healthy Yard. She likes how you are treatin her!!!

 

[YardDog35]

Re: Yarddog's Waterfarm-White Widow grow

She sure is looking good and healthy Yard. She likes how you are treatin her!!!

Thanks Tmac!

Plus rep for your positive vibes!