1st Hydro - LED Grow With Crop King White Widow From Seed

[Bamalabrat]

Hello and thanks for looking at my journal. I have never attempted to grow anything indoors, with LED's, or in hydro. This will be all new to me. I do keep a flower garden and vegetables and herbs, however this is all outdoors and pretty low maintence stuff. Pretty basic from a gardening perspective. So I have been inspired by so many talented and generous users of this website to try my hand at it. I would not being doing this had it not been for so many great people here posting their experiences and opinions. And also a big thank you to 420 magazine in particular for providing such a great forum for activism and sharing of experiences. So with out further delay, the journal

 

[OldMedUser]

Welcome Bamalabrat

I haven't used LEDs but have a lot of experience in hydro. Both DWC and soilless.

L8r

 

[BajaBuds664]

look forward to following ur grow. im almost ready to start my first dwc grow just waiting on the rockwool. good luck bro

 

[Bamalabrat]

Ok, I will not be starting the actual grow until next weekend and it will be slow going in the beginning because I am starting from seeds. However, I wanted to start this now as I will be spending the next few days putting together all of my equipment and tent and collecting data on my grow environment before I start the actual growing. So if it gets boring or slow in the beginning I apologize. Please check back in a week or so and there should be more to look at. So let me start by laying out the parameters of my grow:

What strain is it? Crop King Feminized White Widow seeds
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? It is a hybrid mostly Indica
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? I will start from seed
Indoor or outdoor? It is indoors
Soil or Hydro? Hydro
Size of light? Advanced LED XML 350 diamond series
Is it air cooled? It is not air conditioned but it is filtered and exhausted using 6" filter and fans as well as using 3 clip on fans
Temp of Room/cab? I will be starting in the low 90's during the day and low 70's during the night. But the ambient temps will be declining starting at the end of August.
RH of Room/cab? I will be using a dehumidifier to bring the RH down to ~50% and monitors to make sure.
PH of media or res? I will be using pH meters to keep the pH in a range of 5.6 to 6.1
Any Pests ? None but time will tell
How often are you watering? It is a recirculating DWC setup. I will be changing the res probably every three weeks and also between the veg and flower cycle. I will also change the res at the flush.
Type and strength of ferts used? I am using Canna Nutrients along with their line of supplements.

I would like to list my priorities for this grow at this time. I will also list my metrics that I will be using to judge the relative success/failure of the grow.
1) To successfully complete the grow.
A. Successfully germinate seeds.
B. Successfully complete a vegetative cycle.
C. Successfully complete a flower cycle.
2) To attempt to use best practices for hydro grows and indoor gardens
A. Use a Scrog to fully use up available square meters of space (9.7 meters square)
B. Keep canopy at an even level across the space.
C. Evaluate the effectiveness of the very expensive yield booster supplement by using it on half of the plants and using the other half as control.
D. Use the flush method 2 weeks before harvest.
E. Use a microscope to examine the tricome's to judge when to harvest and achieve the desired effects of the "high"
3) Gain experience and have fun

I enjoy looking at data and then interpreting what it all means and designing experiments just to see what will happen. Therefore I am really looking forward to this grow because I will be able to control so many of the variables (hopefully). Now let me lay out my metrics or standards by which I will measure success. It is important at this point to also state some givens.
The following are the assumptions that I will be using during this grow.
This strain from Crop King is advertised to have the potential to yield 400grams/meter squared. Of course I assume that this is in an ideal setup with a master in charge of the cultivation and processing of the harvest.
This strain is also advertised as having a high thc level and possibly even couch lock.
That the strength of the Advanced LED lights are accurate.
That the nutrients are effective and are of a high quality.
So with those stated givens here are my expected outcomes as well as varying levels of success:
A yield of 100gram/m2 of my control group.
A yield of 250gram/m2 of my supplemented group.
A high concentration of thc in the final harvest (I will not be using the proper lab equipment for this. Just careful observation under a microscope)
A very intense high with couch lock properties.
A very smooth smoke.
Predictable behavior and results under given environmental parameters.

So there is a large degree of subjectivity to my victory conditions but that is acceptable. I will be relying on input from other 420 users to help me interpret the data and visual indicators to judge the progress of the grow as well as to judge the finished product.

Again thanks to everyone who stops by to give this a read. Hope everyone gets something out of it even if it is to just shake their head and say "stupid noob". lol.

 

[Bamalabrat]

Welcome Bamalabrat

I haven't used LEDs but have a lot of experience in hydro. Both DWC and soilless.

L8r

Thank you so much for stopping by. Please feel free to comment/advise as you see fit. I will be doing my best to articulate what I am planning to do to allow input as to that is a good idea or that is boneheaded dumb. Thanks again for stopping by.

 

[Bamalabrat]

Thanks for stopping by Baja. I am still waiting on a few items (the tent and the seeds) but both should be here before next weekend. So I will just be cleaning staging and calibrating my space and equipment this week. Let me know when you start your journal and I would love to see what you do. I have learned a lot from just following journals the last two months.

I am not going with rockwool. I decided on using starter plugs and a tray to start the seeds and seedlings. I will then transplant to 5 gallon buckets with 6"netpots and hydroton (expanded clay). It was just a judgement call on my part. My thinking is that the less I have to move the plants the more they will appreciate that.

 

[Bamalabrat]

While I was typing up my long winded second post, two people already stopped by. Thanks so much for that. I just apologize as this will be a pretty boring slow week, I will make up for it with long rambling posts. lol

 

[Bamalabrat]

nevermind

 

[CronicHempHog]

subbed

 

[Bamalabrat]

subbed

Thanks cronic. I am very happy to have you on board. If you do not mind me asking, can you tell me what your temps were for your white widow grow? I have started looking at my temps in the space that I am planning on growing and I am getting 95f with 40% rh. I am thinking that my temps during the day are going to be to high, but I would like to confirm that. Is the white widow tolerant of high temps? I will be keeping the res water below 72 f and can raise or lower the rh very easily, however the ambient temps around the grow space are going to be hard to over come unless I break down and buy an air conditioning unit. I will test fans tomorrow but I do not beleive they will bring the temps down during the day more than 10 degrees. I will have to really consider delaying the start of my grow until the end of August if I can come up with a way to lower my temps with out going out and buying an expensive ac. Thanks for any information you may be able to provide on this matter.

 

[CronicHempHog]

I have to run a ac for my water temps mainly
is also why im led's the highest it gets in my tent during
the hottest times of the year is maybe mid 80 ish
which is coming up here in august which is usually the hottest time of summer here
I have never got into the 90's and hope never to be there

 

[Bamalabrat]

I have to run a ac for my water temps mainly
is also why im led's the highest it gets in my tent during
the hottest times of the year is maybe mid 80 ish
which is coming up here in august which is usually the hottest time of summer here
I have never got into the 90's and hope never to be there

That made me laugh. I can ensure my res temps stay cool but the air temps are concerning me. I do not like any of my choices at the moment if my test of the fans does not lower the air temp by 10 degrees or more. It should only be for the next four or five weeks and then I have a nice long fall with perfect weather (highs in the 60 -70's and lows in the 50's - 60's). So if i go the super cheap route I can just postpone for a month, but that means a longer wait and I would really like to have a harvest and a cure done before thanksgiving. looking foward to a very merry holiday season this year! but first have to decide what to do about these temps.

 

[CCOiler]

Subscribed Bamalabrat, I'll just pull up a chair next to Chronic. I'll have to go back and read from the start in the morning.

Okay I've read the start of your journal. Maybe Chronic or OldMedUser will jump in and set me straight. If you can keep your root zone at the right temp. then I believe you can go a little higher in your grow area. If it takes about two weeks to get the kids to the early veg state and a couple of weeks before you need to start thinking of lowering temps would this not put you closer to Sept?
Lots of pictures please, this will help you for your next grow and the other great growers will be able to help you better.
This is probably the most writing I will do here but, I will follow like a hound checking for clues.

 

[Icemud]

Hey Bamalabrat!!! I'm here for the show count me in

 

[Bamalabrat]

Subscribed Bamalabrat, I'll just pull up a chair next to Chronic. I'll have to go back and read from the start in the morning.

Okay I've read the start of your journal. Maybe Chronic or OldMedUser will jump in and set me straight. If you can keep your root zone at the right temp. then I believe you can go a little higher in your grow area. If it takes about two weeks to get the kids to the early veg state and a couple of weeks before you need to start thinking of lowering temps would this not put you closer to Sept?
Lots of pictures please, this will help you for your next grow and the other great growers will be able to help you better.
This is probably the most writing I will do here but, I will follow like a hound checking for clues.

Hey RSOiler and thanks for posting and any comments will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Bamalabrat]

Hey Bamalabrat!!! I'm here for the show count me in

Thanks for joining Icemud. I really do appreciate all of the great help and work that you and so many others do. And it gives me a lot of confidence going forward on my grow.

 

[Bamalabrat]

Just a quick note. I have a problem with my first choice of grow space. The temps are too high to attempt to grow there. I have decieded to move my grow to a different space where I have a lot more control of the temps. So I still plan on starting my grow Friday or Saturday. I know that I need to add some pictures but at the moment there are only going to be pictures of equipment and nutes and things like that. There will not be anything more really unless I have a spectacular fail when testing something. However I will post some pictures tonight of my hydro system and nute line. That way there is at least something to look at.

 

[OldMedUser]

If you can keep the nutes down to 68 then I'm pretty sure the plant can handle 90+ OK. Just going to be topping up the rez with water more often.

Maybe start the plants now with some fluoros. They'd grow fine with CFLs or even old T-12 shop lights for a month and you'd be a month ahead of the game.

I have my DWC tub wrapped with a layer of white fiberglass wall insulation to help keep the heat away from it and the cool in. Doesn't shed glass fibers like the pink stuff. A long piece of baling wire around it does the trick. You could do the same with your setup using some of that silvered bubble wrap stuff or cut up space blanket or . . .

 

[Bamalabrat]

I just got finished uploading some pics of my equipment and set up and test. There are no plant pics yet as they have not been started. I want to post these so that anyone that reads this and has never started before and is looking for like and equipment list or pics may find this helpful. Also for any of the "old hands" if you see something that could be done better or will give me problems, please feel free to say something.

And here is my recirculating DWC setup

It took me about 40 minutes to assemble and wash and then fill and turn it on. The pumps make no noise. This is not where my grow will take place, I was just setting up and cleaning and testing everything.

I am still waiting on my tent and my seeds. They are scheduled to be here by thursday. So really not going to have much to show or report until after I get those. But wanted to put a little something to look at in this journal.

 

[Bamalabrat]

If you can keep the nutes down to 68 then I'm pretty sure the plant can handle 90+ OK. Just going to be topping up the rez with water more often.

Maybe start the plants now with some fluoros. They'd grow fine with CFLs or even old T-12 shop lights for a month and you'd be a month ahead of the game.

I have my DWC tub wrapped with a layer of white fiberglass wall insulation to help keep the heat away from it and the cool in. Doesn't shed glass fibers like the pink stuff. A long piece of baling wire around it does the trick. You could do the same with your setup using some of that silvered bubble wrap stuff or cut up space blanket or . . .

Thanks for the ideas Oldmeduser! I was fully prepared to use insulation and anything else that I already have. The thing is the forecast for the weather for the foreseeable future is all 94+f during the day and only ~70F at night. With those temps I am not sure I can keep the heat off the plants. I have never grown WW before and do not know what range she likes. So if my secondary grow site works out with the dimensions I will start there and then maybe close to october move the grow to my first site. But I am not sure. I will have a better idea by friday.