Archer12 Black Widow LED RDWC Grow To Perpetual - 2017

[Lazarus13]

Good find on vinegar. I see people using and know it shouldnt be done but couldnt remember the reason.
I use ANs line (and use a bunch of it) but for root expanders i love love love great white. It makes my roots beasty.

I actually use a combo of great white, hydroguard, sensizym and Z7 depending on what i happen to have but always have great white. Voodoo is good and all the others too from AN but so is a bunch of cheaper stuff. Hell, i use pondzyme sometimes 'cause that stuff is dirt cheap.

 

[ARCHER12]

That thing looks really cool.Id love one but for the moment Ill stick and watch ......


Always thirsty for knowledge!!!

Welcome Ziggii - I can't wait to get her going full strength!

Laz - Thanks for the advice. I'm going to order some small quantities of Great White, Sensizyme, and Rhino Skin so we'll see how they do. I want to seriously beef up the root system, and I think rhino skin will help with the light stress from this crazy strong light... turned a 3rd light bar on today - I have a feeling that rhino skin can't come soon enough haha

 

[illizm775]

Damn laz ur tap looks like its going to punch a hole into the wall. Beastly

to each their own and mine to smoke

 

[illizm775]

So ive got gw bennes and the someone recommended hydro gaurd. Was wondering if you were using rooting 'roids.

to each their own and mine to smoke

 

[Lazarus13]

I use great white from beginning to end. I dust my seeds with it when i start them and i soak my hydroton in a solution of great white, superthrive and rooting hormones when i first add my seedlings to the buckets. Great white at the beginning 2 weeks of veg and beginning 2 weeks of flower and whatever bennies i have in between.

 

[ARCHER12]

Unfortunately, I am reporting bad news. The filter I had placed in line with the pump had some bacterial growth in the filter that blocked the water flow and resulted in the pump running dry, as well as the water to not be recirculated for a day. Being that there was bacterial growth in the filter and the seedlings have been growing abnormally slow and showing a variety of nutrient deficiencies in the wake of being dried out, I decided to rip everything out, bleach it down, and start from scratch. New seeds going in cubes tomorrow so hopefully, I will have an update and a much speedier start to round 2 in the coming days.

 

[SHRuuM]

BOOOOO tuff luck mate, hope the next round is better for you.
P.S. I just couldn't "like" that post for what had happened

 

[ARCHER12]

Glad to say I am at about 8 or 9 days from seed! I germed 6 new black widows in rock wool cubes that were pre soaked with ph 5.8 water and super thrive. All 6 had sprouted within two days, and they were just loaded into the system yesterday. I will post a picture with an update in the next few days. I'm glad to be back in the saddle!

 

[ARCHER12]

I'm having trouble with the seedlings, so here's a recap and some pictures if anyone has any suggestions because I don't know what could be the problem with no feeding yet.

6 site RDWC
Black Widow Strain
Started in rock wool
Fluence Spydrx Plus LED 24/0
RH 65%
Temp 78-84
Water Temp 68
Nestle Pure Life Water ph'd to 5.8
Top watered every other day
No Nutes yet

All 6 seeds were started in rock wool that had been soaked in ph 5.8 water overnight with a small dose of superthrive. Popped after 2 days. In humidity dome for first week with heat mat. When I could see a solid collection of furry roots in bottoms of RW, I put into RDWC with growstones. After 2 days a couple plants had become droopy and after two days they now look like they do. One of the two tri fol has the worst of the problem. I have no clue what could be the problem.

 

[Poke Smot]

It looks your plants are either overwatered or under-watered considering if you have zero Nutes in your system

 

[ARCHER12]

It looks your plants are either overwatered or under-watered considering if you have zero Nutes in your system

I can't see how it could be a water issue with the cubes still being moist and the growstones draining so well. The net pots are submerged an inch with plenty of water bubbling up, and the cubes didn't have enough roots coming out that they aren't getting enough water from both the rock wool and the moisture from underneath.

Here are some pictures of them after getting worse. It looks like a P deficiency maybe? I don't know how there could be a deficiency though, so any advice is appreciated.

 

[ARCHER12]

The widows got worse before they got better, but I think I can safely say I'm out of the woods!

I got rid of the growstones after learning that many have had problems stabilizing ph, and seeing as how both these new seedlings and the first ones started experiencing problems as soon as they went into the growstones. An expensive lesson to learn, but I won't be using them ever again. I also changed out the nestle pure life ro water I started with because they add about 80 ppm of mineral for taste back into the water, and I thought going to straight ro would provide better stability.

I went ahead and started nutes as well at 1ml/L of Sensi A/B + 1ml/g Cal/Mag (botanicare because my hydro store had it). The seedlings are currently sitting in makeshift styrofoam rock wool holders with about a 1.25" diameter hole cut in the bottom to allow the roots to have access to the bubbling nutrient solution underneath. The ph started out at 5.0 and has slowly climbed to 5.2 over the last day - they appear to like the ph a little bit on the lower side, but I will keep an eye on them to see how they do as it goes up.

I also switched to CFLs to begin with as well to keep heat down in the room and make sure that the powerful spydrx wasn't frying the little guys. All in all, I'm pretty happy where things sit. I will throw some pictures of the seedlings up as they heal.

Stay Frosty Friends!

 

[Rider509]

Subbed in and not embarrassed to say I've got a bit of a stiffy. Your setup is first class. I looked long and hard at the Fluence line but opted instead for a DIY Cree 3590 build, only because it was easier to get the expense past the wife. Those Fluence lights are dead sexy and I'm excited to see how they perform for you.

I think your decision to seedling/veg under CFLs is a good one. I have both 600W MH/HPS and 640W LED, but the CFLs are the bomb for getting things started. These Gold Leaf photos have been under 65W 6500k CFLs since day one, but are coming down today because I need to flip them to flower.

I hope you get your slime problem locked down cuz I want to see your whole system kick some serious butt!

 

[Rider509]

Ahhhh, just noticed why your user name seemed familiar. I went looking for the "other" grower using the SpydrX and it's you! I got spanked by the mods for "promoting" the Fluence line when I posted a link on your thread. No affiliation, I swear!

 

[ARCHER12]

Haha I'm sure I was a few bowls deep when I read it, and never even noticed! I think you were right when you suggested the CFLs for a bit because they are much happier and seem like they're enjoying the colder temps as well. I researched the SpydrX Plus for ages before I pulled the trigger, so needless to say I am very excited to get out of the seedling blues, and see how they do under the big boy during Veg/Flower!

 

[HiddenGrow]

Hey Archer. I hope your seedlings are doing better. If I can say something from the photos, It looks like it the rockwool was too hot for those seedlings. how do you stabilize out the rockwool cubes before you put your seedlings? It looks like they are over-watered, but the burns on the tips of the leaves look burnt to hell. It has happened to me many times when I tried hydro. Are you set on using rockwool to start? I switched to rapid rooter plugs and it seemed to help them start.

I hope you get the formula right for these babies. I have been researching Mr.Nice's Black Widow seeds for some time. I can't wait to see the results. Once I get some BW seeds I hope you'll check it out.

You're planning on doing a perpetual garden. Are you planning on cloning or switching seeds and cycles?

Good Luck Man! I hope to see those babies grown!

 

[ARCHER12]

Well, fuck.

Just as things were looking up, I checked the containers yesterday night and they all have a significant amount of brown slime floating around, but it's concentrated in particular on the airstones. I'm guessing the airstones still had bacteria in them from last go around that fired up when I introduced nutrients, or during a momentary ph scare when I switched out the nestle water, I turned off the air pump, which is below the water level of the system (rookie mistake #657), to keep the "hot" water from splashing all over the roots, but when I did, the water backed up into the clear tube between the pump and the air diffuser which then grew this slime that was passed into each container through the airstones. So, fuck...

After reading how impossible it is to get rid of this brown slime once you get it, I have made a few decisions: I will decommission the RDWC, salvage what I can sterilize for the future SOG table (chiller, pump, etc...), and since the roots are still so young and have not made it into the contaminated water, I'm planning on rinsing them in H202 water and planting in FFOF soil.

I don't want to let DWC get the better of me, but I don't have the time or money to rebuild the system immediately for these current seedlings, so soil seems to be my best short term option. I am thinking Fox Farms Ocean Forest with 25% perlite in 5 gal pots, but since all my research up to this point has been hydro related, I'm welcome to any and all suggestions.

Woosahh...

 

[SHRuuM]

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger, I too had hell with DWC. I couldn't keep the PH stable from day to day to save my life. I went back to soil but my heart lies with ebb and flow hydro. Good luck on the next go around.

 

[ARCHER12]

The seedlings have all been put in 2 gallon pots filled with Fox Farms Happy Frog soil. I went with the Happy Frog because its supposed to be better for seedlings and rooting, and my plan is to transplant to 5 gallon smart pots with Ocean Forest when they outgrow the current containers. In the mean time, they are under CFLs until they get to a point when I can get the SpydrX Plus going. Lets get this show on the road!

 

[ARCHER12]

Subbed in and not embarrassed to say I've got a bit of a stiffy. Your setup is first class. I looked long and hard at the Fluence line but opted instead for a DIY Cree 3590 build, only because it was easier to get the expense past the wife. Those Fluence lights are dead sexy and I'm excited to see how they perform for you.

I think your decision to seedling/veg under CFLs is a good one. I have both 600W MH/HPS and 640W LED, but the CFLs are the bomb for getting things started. These Gold Leaf photos have been under 65W 6500k CFLs since day one, but are coming down today because I need to flip them to flower.

I hope you get your slime problem locked down cuz I want to see your whole system kick some serious butt!

Thanks for the encouraging words! I am going to take it apart and give it a thorough cleaning, and I'll give it another go after these babies are through when I can try out a new strain (I'm thinking Kali Mist for a nice indoor sativa). I think I'm only going to go from clones for now on in the RDWC - help avoid problems from different plants having different needs.

I'm looking forward to watching your gold leaf go though! I almost bought my first seeds from 420, and only went with Mr. Nice because I haven't smoked any decent white widow in forever!