First Grow, 400W MH/HPS, Nirvana NL + Wonder Woman

[DubbleDutch]

First grow, first post. First thanks go to Roseman, I stumbled upon your guides on .org and followed you here. Your guides have been extremely helpful for me, a first time grower.

Equipment:
Harvest pro elite 400W switchable ballast
Yield Master II Supreme 6" reflector
Hanna Combo EC/PPM/temp

Seeds (nirvana fem):
northern lights (1 currently in grow)
wonder woman (adding 2 soon)
blue mystic (adding 2 soon)

I started with 1 seed in 1 bucket. I've never grown before so I needed confidence that I could get 1 started successfully before adding more. Once I get little northy sprouting I plan to start the other 4.

Some pics...

Early on I was having trouble keeping res temps stable. I moved the air pump outside the room where ambient temp is a constant 64 degrees. Since doing that, I can keep res temps stable at 69.

This is like a science experiment to me Picked these up at a local science shop to house my PH up and down

 

[DubbleDutch]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

Log so far:

5/11: Started germination, used heating pad.

5/13: Root tip was about 1/2" long. Moved to bucket. The seed was pretty much at the top of the rockwool, I didn't want to force it down and damage the root. Not sure if the seed being so high up is good/bad/neutral.

5/15: PH 5.99, RH 56, res temp 75.8 (too high)

5/16: PH 6.09, RH 56, res temp 69. Cooled water down, moved air pump outside room.

5/17: PH 5.99, RH 60, res temp 70 (finally under control)

5/19: PH 6.07, RH 62, res temp 69.4.

Some green stuff is poking out the right side

 

[VapedOutJoe]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

Good looking setup. Good call on keeping those res temps down. You want them under 72, and if possible under 70.

 

[DubbleDutch]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

Day 9 - germination

air temp: 77
humidity: 60
ph: 6.1
res temp: 70

Adjusted the PH slightly down to 5.98, first time I've adjusted it in 3 days.

All seems to be going well. Here the root is poking out the left side and goes down into the cube.

Should I be shielding that root from the light at all? My light is 32" away from the top of bucket. By my calculation that is 5050 lumens.

DD

 

[DubbleDutch]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

Now that I feel confident I can keep 1 going, I want to put together another bubble box and germinate my next 4 asap.

All the seeds I have are feminized and I was thinking of doing 2 wonder woman and 2 blue mystic.

Is it a big deal to have different strains in the same bucket? I've read some people say they keep them separate because the nutrient requirements could be different, like one strain is doing OK but the other is showing signs of nute burn or something.

I'd like to do the optimal thing so please tell me your thoughts.

Here is what I was thinking on doing:

Or should I get 2 more 5 gallon buckets and put 2 in each?

DD

 

[Trunk5]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

you can have them all in one to start, but since you have the room to play with. i would separate them all into there own 3gal bucket. but wait to do this untill you have some roots developed and the plants can support them self running on just dwc. then your free to give each plant what it wants, move them around, lst them easier and so on. but having them all in the same bin for me wasnt a problem with feeling more so then finishing times. cuz if you have an 7-8 week indica in the same bucket as a 10-11 week hybrid thats when you run into problems. hope this helps.

 

[VapedOutJoe]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

From everything I've seen, I think it's just best practice to keep strains seperated. They do have different needs, especially if you have and indica and a sativa going at the same time. If you seperate them into buckets, I recommend 5 gallon buckets, unless you want to be a slave to the watering needs. My plant drinks a gallon a day, in a 3 gallon bucket, I would be worried about how fast it would be drinking that water down, since you will have less then 3 gallons of water in the bucket. I run 3 gallons of water in my 5 gallon bucket.
Oh and I like the wierd science vials too!

 

[DubbleDutch]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

Cool, I'll get 2 more 5 gal buckets and put 2 in each.

 

[TheAnswer1776]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

Nice looking setup! I recommend the 5 gal. buckets for ease of use and huge plants. I am currently growing out some Wonder Woman as well. They look to be a good yielding strain, as I am about 50 days into flower, with some nice looking buds. Best of luck to you!

 

[Roseman]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

Now that I feel confident I can keep 1 going, I want to put together another bubble box and germinate my next 4 asap.

All the seeds I have are feminized and I was thinking of doing 2 wonder woman and 2 blue mystic.

Is it a big deal to have different strains in the same bucket? I've read some people say they keep them separate because the nutrient requirements could be different, like one strain is doing OK but the other is showing signs of nute burn or something.

I'd like to do the optimal thing so please tell me your thoughts.

Here is what I was thinking on doing:

Or should I get 2 more 5 gallon buckets and put 2 in each?

DD

4 in one tank would be easier to take care of, but more crowded than 2 in a 5 gallon bucket. AND don't mix strains.

Welcome to 420 bro, very glad you're here. I 've subscribed and will be watching. You can trust the Deep Water Culture and Grow Mods here to give great advice.

 

[DubbleDutch]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

theanswer, how tall did your wonderful women get?
Nirvana categorized it as "low" so just curious what I might be able to expect.

Roseman, thanks for the welcome

 

[grownavy1091]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

theanswer, how tall did your wonderful women get?
Nirvana categorized it as "low" so just curious what I might be able to expect.

Roseman, thanks for the welcome

When I grew wonder woman all 4 of mine were well over 3 ft. Tall. Check out my journal and if u hav any questions don't hesitate to ask welcome to 420 bro

 

[TheAnswer1776]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

theanswer, how tall did your wonderful women get?
Nirvana categorized it as "low" so just curious what I might be able to expect.

Roseman, thanks for the welcome

Not sure why they did that, cause one of mine is over 4 foot tall and the other is over 3 foot tall!!! They stretched alot under the 600 HPS.

 

[grownavy1091]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

I had a bad Mg def. Early on, an d I was only using a 430 hps. I haven't graduated to the big leagues yet. Lol

 

[Chevyman]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

nice looking room man.got all the right gear and gadgets. def. looks and sounds like you know what ur doing. keeping the temps under control and all that stuff really pays off. and all the guys here give great advise. i agree to keep the strains separate. personally i like to give one plant the room in its own 5 gal bucket. with a full net pot, the size of the of the lid. the sell ones that sit on just like a lid. and they do take a lot of hydroton to fill. but welcome to 420 man

 

[DubbleDutch]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

Thanks Chevy!

I decided to go in between. Last night I constructed 2 more bubble buckets out of 10 gal totes. I figured this would give the plants a little extra legroom over a 5 gal bucket.

I started soaking my other seeds this morning and will put them on a heat mat in paper towel tonight when I get home from work.

 

[DubbleDutch]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

Got some green showing over the weekend:

This is 12 days from seed.

When should I be thinking of moving the light closer? It is currently 30" away for ~7500 lumens.

 

[Wing King 903]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

move it within 4 inches right away


EDIT: thats CFL rules i think

 

[Olias]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

""" URGENT""" GET THOSE FEEDER TUBES DOWN IN THE HYDROTON HALF WAY UP THE ROCKWELL CUBE
YOU ARE EXPOSING YOUR RES TO LIGHT GOING DOWN THE TUBES

 

[DubbleDutch]

Re: First grow, 400w mh/hps, nirvana NL + wonder woman~

Thanks olias. I will do that as soon as I get home from work. The feeder tube is shielded a little bit as I put a styrofoam bowl around it (was removed for the photo op). But you are right it shouldn't be on the surface.