My 2nd 1st Attempt - Bubble Bucket Grow

[hydrofun]

So after a failed first attempt at a kessil grow(personal issues not the kessils fault) in hydroponics bubble I am back for my 2nd try and a my 1st completed grow journal. (Fingers crossed).

Any way I got a list of nuts and lights etc..
Nuts: Advanced Nutrients Grow, Micro, and Bloom (still havents seen evidence that PH perfect is working)
: Great White Liquid Mycryzyea
: Botanicare Aquashield
: General Hydroponics Rapid Root
: General Hydroponics ArmorSi
: Advanced Nutrients Ancient Earth
: Atami Bloombastic
: Advanced Nutrients Bud Blood
: Advanced Nutrients Final Flush
: Advanced Nutrients Carboload
: Advanced Nutrients Big Bud
: General Hydroponics PH Down
: General Hydroponics Ph 7.0 Buffer solution
Lights + Grow Gear: Kessil H350 Magenta (looks like @ 84W of real power)
: California Light Works 110 Bloom Booster (looks like @ 92W of real power)
:Total of @176W LED power. My plan is to add the kessil H380 sometime during this grow.
: 5 Gallon Bubble bucket, 2 4" airstones, 1 airpump, 1 extra bucket for water changes.
: digital waterproof PH meter and digital TDS meter.
: hydroton and rockwool cubes.

Seeds: 2 bag seed and 1 LSD barneys farm.

 

[hydrofun]

Ok I got 2 seeds sprouted both bag seeds. Lsd looks to be a no go. I started a new Lsd today. I put 1 seedling in the cube and in the bucket and 1seedling in the cube and in a homemade bucket with a mix of soil and hydroton. I am only using water Ph at 6.0 in the bucket and tap water in the dirt Ph@ 7.8. Hopefully I will be able to get eh LSD doing fast enough to get it into the bubble bucket. yes I am going to try and FIM and LST 2 plants in 1 Bubble bucket (crazy I know). I'll post pix later as these plants are know at 11 days.

 

[hydrofun]

 

[hydrofun]

This is my 2 survivors at 12 days I toped the tall 1 like 4 days ago tried to FIM it but it seems to just be getting taller. ANYONE got some thoughts on why? I hope its not a male. Can't tell if it topped or Fimmed it seems to be growing in 1 stalk again. Lasted night I added 1/8th strength of the my 3part AN, and an 1/8th of ancient earth, great white, aguashield, rapidroot, and 1/4 strength GH armorSi with new water 3 gallons. water temp is at 75 room temp 78. ppm including the water is 585. PH 6.0 I phed the water to 5.8 but it keeps rising back up. Anyone have an idea as to why. I did bubble my water and nuts together for an hour b4 PHing.

 

[Groovy Bud]

pH fluctuation on DWC is an internationally known thread. I've heard people say: constant bubbling is the cause (don't stop pumping your bubbles, seriously!), root rot, plastic being too new on the bucket and more. There is no definitive scientific answer yet, but usually people stop having those fluctuation after some time.

I don't have any experience yet, but seems you missed the FIM. With topping, you can't go wrong.

 

[hydrofun]

Thanks for the thoughts. I want to try and stay the FIM route so I can (hopefully) add less stress by all the toping this thing looks it may require due to getting to tall to fast. I don't think I can move the lights down that's how I burned the smaller plants first set of leaves. I sure hope it is not a tall male trying to get into position for dropping pollen on the shorter female. The 2 plants are the same age and from the same bag seed bud. Its alittle strange they look so differnet.

 

[hydrofun]

I bought a new 5 gallon bubble bucket yesterday and transferred my homemade soil potted plant into a hydroton by gently cleaning the dirt from the roots then adding cloning gel to the roots and putting into the bucket. If it survives which it looks to be ( at least it will slow it down for a week). added 1mil of cloning liquid to the water and 3 mils of AN grow. 3 gallons of water in the bucket PH at 5.9. Also the new LSD seed sprouted so I put into a presoaked rockwool cube and dropped into the bucket with a water bottle on top to protect it from the harsh lights. posting pics in a sec.

 

[hydrofun]

pixs of transplant and LSD add

 

[hydrofun]

OK heres pics from the end of week 2 day 2. First day of LSD popping out of the rockwool cube.

 

[hydrofun]

Kessil/CaliforniaLightWorks/Hydro

Day 4 after LSD seed sprouted and Week 2 day 4 of bag seed.
Today, I changed out the water for both buckets. Bucket #1, 1 bag seed plant. 3Gal water bubbled for an hour. In this order I added, GH Armor SI 3mil, Great White Mycryz 2mil, Botanicare Aquashield 10mil, GH Rapidroot 1mil, AN Ancient earth 10mil, 3part AN 10mil each. I actual see that when you use larger quanites of 3part AN the PH perfect is working alittle bit. My normal PH water is 8 and now wihtout treating it, it comes out to 7.0. So I added some GH Ph down got my water to 5.8 and bubble some more checked agian and added more PH down.
Bucket #2 has 1 bag seed and 1 LSD seed (barneys farm). 3..25 gallons water, bubbled for an hour. As the LSD is about 14 days behind the bag seed I only add 5mil Aquashield, 2mils Great White, and .25mil GH Rapidroot. I'll post picks later tonight.

 

[hydrofun]

Re: Kessil/CaliforniaLightWorks/Hydro

Heres pics of week 2 day 4 of bagseed and day 4 of barneys farm LSD seed.

 

[Groovy Bud]

Are you having high temperatures in there? If not, maybe lowering the height of your light source (LED) would drastically increase lummens applied (PAR) in that 2 plants area, having more light efficiency (as you kinda have a low wattage system going there). Such like CFLS that have low heat, they are meant to be close to the ladies so that they avoid "stretching" and build more vigorous branches instead of thin but high ones. Try doing this with your LED system since one of the biggest advantages of LED is the low temperature you get.

I think you may have sunk your seed way to deep and it looks like the plants are almost tucked into the hydroton. I can hardly see the main branch of which you may have topped.
How often have you/are you going to top?

Good luck out there, you seem to have quite some materials to make it work. I'm amazed @ so many nutes you're using

 

[hydrofun]

LOL ya the deep 1 is not even toped its just growing fat by itself. The scraggly looking 1 is the 1 I attempted to FIM but messed it up. Ya the deep 1 is just so damn bushy but if I showed you the first set of leaves underneath you would see they got completely burned up not by heat but light intensity. LEDs may be low watt but California light works uses 5w diodes and Kessil well they have soo many diodes compressed into a tiny spot the size of a quarter that it makes a beam of light you can physically feel when you pass your hand under it. Thanks for following my post your the first. Ya I use a lot of nuts but they do so many differnent things. ArmorSI is only silicate for raising Ph and increase the thickness of the stalk and branches. Great white just makes a colony in your root zone, Ancient Earth just helps the roots uptake nutrients faster and I see you use aquashield that's just to keep my water from getting algae. Rapid root is only for the first 2 waterings. I discontinue Great white at the end of veg. I discontinue ArmorSi at the first week of bloom. All the other nuts I use are for budding. I use Bud blood for first 2 weeks of bloom only. Weeks 3-6 bloom I use big bud and carboload only. Last few weeks I use bloombastic and carboload. This mixed with the 3 part AN. at the end I finalflush it then pure water for a day. Its a lot of nuts but all used at different times. The reason I sank my plants deep is that last time (and from the pics online) everything at the lower 1/4 of the plant iis small and useless growth so I figured I'll try going deeper so I get more budding area that's useful. I'll see if it works out. This is just a trial run that's why I am only using 1 LSD and 2 bag seeds.

 

[hydrofun]

So this I week 2 day 6. I rearranged to get more light reflection and easier on the cables. water temp is a little high I think 79.5F. Can I use a water bottle with ice in it to lower the temp anyone? Anyway here are pics the LSD is 6days out of the seed.

 

[hydrofun]

3weeks 1day (bagseed) 1week 1day from seed (LSD)So today after reading some stuff on THE site here I decided to install some hooks in bucket #1 (bagseed) to hold down the branches and plan for a big harvest (fingers crossed) PH 5.8 Room temp 79F water temp 79 (way to high)RH unknown but I live in a hot wet climate humidity outside usually between 70-90%. I added 3 drops from a pippete of GH silcateSi to bucket#2 (LSD and bagseed) PH was low so that was my reason to add some silicate and now the water is at PH 5.7 water temp same to high 79F. I added to drinking water bottles with frozen water to the buckets that is bringing the temp down to about 74 after an hour so hoperfully that will hold it if I can change them everyday. Anyone got a better free idea to keep the water cold? I already got mylar on top of the buckets not sure what else to do but add more than 1 water bottle per bucket. Here are picks from today.

 

[hydrofun]

Ordered some GH Calimagic today seems that accourding to the grow questions forums LED uses more calmag and it looks like GH offers the best % of the 3 brands I choose from. So tomorrow or Tuesdays at the latest. right at my next water change or b4?

 

[hydrofun]

3weeks 4days on Bagseed 1 week 4days on LSD. Today, I changed out the water for both buckets. Bucket #1, 1 bag seed plant. 3Gal water bubbled for an hour. In this order I added, GH Armor SI 8ml, Great White Mycryz 2ml, Botanicare Aquashield 15ml, GH Rapidroot 2ml, AN Ancient earth 8ml, 3part AN 12ml each.I added some GH Ph down got my water to 5.7.
Bucket #2 has 1 back seed and 1 LSD seed (barneys farm). 3gallons water, bubbled for an hour. I add GH ArmorSi 4ml, 8ml Aquashield, 2ml Great White, .75ml GH Rapidroot and 3part AN 6ml each. I also keep adding 1 16 oz frozen water bottle to the buckets, it seems to be the only way to keep the water close to 74F. I'll post picks later tonight. Looks like I may need to step up the nutrient mix, I am getting signs of nut defiency. Tough balance in 1 bucket with plants 2 weeks apart hopefully in a week plant will big enough to make it easier. well this is the strongest mix yet so I'll check tomorrow and see if looks to strong. Bucket#1 ph5.7 water temp 76.1f, ppm minus the water 747. Bucket#2 ph5.8 water temp 75.5f, ppm280.

 

[hydrofun]

3weeks 4days on Bagseed 1 week 4days on LSD. Got some leaf issues kinda dying back color is light I Hope its the nuts being to light. Still waiting on the cal mag.

 

[hydrofun]

3weeks 6days / 1week 6days. So the GH CaliMagic showed up yesterday and I added 12ml to bucket #1 Ph stable at 5.7 and I added 8ml to bucket#2, PH 5.8. Today I noticed that all the leaves are light and various problems which seem to reflect not enough of the 3 main nuts. NPK. So that I know for sure can anyone look at the pixs I post later tonight and tell me if you also see signs of all 3 nut deficiencies? I added to bucket #1 3ml of AN 3part base formula, the plant just looks to be screaming for nuts.

 

[Greenthumb J]

I will take a look at your pictures when you post them

Suggestion..?

Use more Aquashield and stop worrying about your water temperatures. 8ml for 3gal of water is below the suggested application.

I'm not sure you quite understand the benefits of Aquashield. It doesn't "build a colony" in your roots. It colonizes and innoculates your root zone allowing for faster uptake of nutrients and builds a stronger defense against foreign objects in your reservoir due to the wide range of Bacillus bacteria thats found in Poultry litter. It also is a preventative against Pythium and other root related issues such as high water temperature.

Botanicare changed the name back to Hydroguard but also has changed the formula to now be one specific strain of the Bacillus gene of bacteria, which is much more effective. In conjunction with beneficial bacteria such as Plant Success' Great White or (for a lower price) GH Subculture-M, these two work in conjuction to create a healthy, disease free root zone that can withstand temperatures higher than you are experiencing. The REAL issue you have to worry about with higher water temperatures is the levels of dissolved oxygen available for the roots.