In your opinion

[spyro]

Hello all. This is my first dwc grow. As you can tell from the photo, things have gone pretty well so far. I have 2 females (from baggie seeds) in 5 gallon bubble buckets. Since outdoor grows are all I've ever done until this point, the idea was to get a feel for all the new equipment and to develop good maintenance habits for future grows. This way, once I start obtaining seeds from a seed bank, I will be more able to address issues and not be faced with utter disappointment for failed crops. So they are now on week 3 of flowering. I have a 600w dimmable HPS (running at 100%) with an air cooled reflector, 6 inch inline fan and carbon filter (vented outdoors). I also have three 9 inch fans for circulation. The current temp is 70°F with RH of 63% inside my 4x4x7 tent. I'm using expanded clay pellets with Advanced Nutrients pH Perfect Micro, Grow, Bloom and Cal Mag in RO water which I use obsessively. Their nute water gets changed religiously every 7 days. I never get a pH above 5.7. I am also using 2 dual output 8L air pumps per bucket for extra oxygenation and to (hopefully) drastically reduce the risk of root rot, etc.

And so I must ask:

Does anyone notice anything wrong or anything that I'm doing incorrectly?

Any pointers on what I need to do from here to maximize yield and potency?

I openly welcome your input .

 

[spyro]

Re: In your opinion....

 

[dr.h00k]

Not familiar with the growing style...but seems well thought out...and your plants look great...h00k...

 

[spyro]

Not familiar with the growing style...but seems well thought out...and your plants look great...h00k...

Hey thanks h00k. I myself was surprised at their growth pattern, even from the very beginning. They both started getting extremely bushy at only about 6-8 inches tall. Very unique.

 

[Mcjoint]

your set up is fine. keep the ph between 5.5 and 6.5

 

[spyro]

your set up is fine. keep the ph between 5.5 and 6.5

Sweet, thank you Mcjoint. I have not had to use pH adjustors until yesterday. Strangest thing. The girl on the right was perfect, 5.6. The one on the left, however, was 5.1. So I pH upped it to 5.7. I haven't done anything different or changed anything. Nute water change is coming later tonight anyway.

Hey thanks h00k. I myself was surprised at their growth pattern, even from the very beginning. They both started getting extremely bushy at only about 6-8 inches tall. Very unique.

 

[OlderGrower]

Nice set up I am doing my 1st DWC grow as well though I am only 1 week into flower, I need to follow your grow so I can see where I should be in a few weeks. Our grows are very similar except I have 4 buckets and a 6 port air pump My tents a bit bigger then yours but not as tall mine is only 5x10x6 1/2 and right now I am wishing I had those extra 6 inches you have Like you I change out my buckets every 7 days and scrub them out with bleach before I put them back into service, I too have a big fear of root rot. One thing you may consider doing is to move your air pumps out of the tent, granted their a small electrical load but all electrical loads create heat and heat is our enemy especially right next to our buckets. How is your root development coming along? Other then that I would have to say you have a very clean set up and right on track.

 

[spyro]

Thank you so much! I wanted to get the feel for DWC growing, so I thought that using only 2 buckets would be a bit more manageable. And boy, am I glad I made that call! These 2 girls really took off faster than I ever expected. Especially after switching to 12/12. My light is now at the maximum height.
Good call on the air pump placement, by the way. I've been looking for ways to decrease the tent's temperature since I began flowering. Before my next grow, I'll be upgrading to one of the more powerful air pumps, which I'm sure is one like yours. It will definitely be positioned outside of the space next time.

The root systems on these girls are massive!

I'll be sure to keep my progress posted. Today starts week 5 of flowering. I'm sticking to full strength nutes (Advanced Nutrients pH Perfect Grow Micro Bloom 4ml/L and Cal-mag 2ml/L in RO water), which has continued to work wonderfully.

 

[spyro]

I added 400 more watts of HPS for the girls, and I am now leaving them open to air to control the temperature and humidity in the room. The humidity stays in the 40s since I'm running a dehumidifier. The temp fluctuates between 70 and 78 now that I've put in the extra light. The whole room is air conditioned, and the exhaust system is doing a great job too.

 

[madmarv0525]

I noticed heat and humidity were hard to control when I ran dwc the growth is amazing with them but they don't taste quite as good as the plants in my soiless mix. Those look great though dwc definitely gets you a vigorous growing bushy plant though good job

 

[madmarv0525]

You should probably start looking for ways to tie those branches up they will break off when they start packing on weight

 

[spyro]

I noticed heat and humidity were hard to control when I ran dwc the growth is amazing with them but they don't taste quite as good as the plants in my soiless mix. Those look great though dwc definitely gets you a vigorous growing bushy plant though good job

I totally agree with you. But I have found out that my temp and humidity issue stems from my exhaust system not being set up the best way possible. Too many bends in my duct, which vents out of the top of my tent DOWN to the floor. I am definitely going to have to fix that before my next grow.

Do you have anything in mind as far as what I'd use to support these soon-to-be heavy buds? I've only ever grown outdoors until the beginning of this year.

 

[OlderGrower]

there are lots of ways you can support those branches, you could use yo-yos or you could go all red neck like me and just use string tied to the top of the tent on the cross bars

 

[spyro]

Thank you OG! I'll try that. Yours are all looking so beautiful, btw.

Here are a few photos of my ladies...

The photos above are of both of them. I had to prune some of the leaves, so they're thinner, but it allowed more light to the lower limbs of each. They're starting to flower quite nicely.

I am thinking this one, which sits on the right side of the tent, might be from the skunk family.

This one, on the left side, has a fruity smell, one like I've never smelled before. Very aromatic!

Trichomes of my "skunk"

Trichomes forming on my "fruity"

Skunk again. This one has turned out very nice.

This is the "fruity". She got off to a slower start at flowering than the skunk, but she is doing wonderfully.

We are in the middle of week 6 right now. I backed off of the nutes to about 3.5ml/L instead of 4. No signs of nute deficiency, as you can see. Humidity stays between 30-50%, temp stays between 65-75° F. I had to add a dehumidifier to achieve this though. My pH is currently 5.7, and it pretty much stays between 5.6 and 5.9.

The skunk will obviously finish flowering first. I am thinking it'll probably flower for another 3 weeks or so. I may start flushing her NEXT Sunday. I am watching her trichomes carefully. Once she's out, the fruity can have the tent all to herself until she's ready. This project went a lot quicker than I imagined!

 

[spyro]

Here we are, middle of week 7 of flowering. Not exactly where I thought they'd be by now, but I'm continuing to be patient..

So here are new pics of both of my girls, whose strains remain a mystery:

"Skunky"

This one is growing way faster than the other. Notice the difference in the amount of trichomes. I did something really foolish to her yesterday, but I'll get to that in a sec....

This next one is a pic I took of the BEST looking cola on her. I broke it yesterday while changing the nute water . I hit the light with it. I was totally heartbroken! It didn't break off completely, so I secured it back in place with hopes that she'll heal .

"Fruity"

This one is turning out to be a beauty. She is now developing bigger buds and more trichomes.

As you can see, my temp and humidity are within normal limits. Oh by the way, I took photos of the trichomes with my phone fully zoomed and a magnifying glass. Works pretty well.

I'll update my photos again in a week.

 

[mypassion]

Looks awesome. You could have pulled some of the lower growth off but that is a nice forest.

 

[spyro]

Looks awesome. You could have pulled some of the lower growth off but that is a nice forest.

You know, I thought about that. But honestly, I was afraid to overdo it. Since I have been pruning the bigger fan leaves away to allow more light through, I felt like thinning out the lower growth itself might be overkill. This experience, being my first indoor grow, has taught me a lot about timing and planning. That said, and after reading many journals and tutorials, I doubt I'll ever grow without training my plants again.

 

[spyro]

Could someone please tell me what is going on here?

I've read that it could be N tox or water stress. But I just wanna be sure how to treat this. I just changed the water, and I noticed this in the process.

Any help is really appreciated.

 

[spyro]

Okay well, I found out that the claw like sugar leaves were most likely caused by nitrogen toxicity secondary to me thinking it was okay to top off with nute water. I'm giving them a good flush with pH'd RO water and Cal Mag.

 

[spyro]

My skunky girl . her hairs are beginning to turn orange. Her trichomes are starting to get cloudy (sorry for the horrible pic). It won't be long before it's time! Does anyone have any suggestions as to when I might start flushing her?