Atavistic Ape
Active Member
Hello 420Magazine! Long time smoker, first time grower (who tends to make things a little more complicated than necessary). I’ve looked around at many other forums and this seems the place and community for me. Since I’ve been lurking around here and gleaming great advice, I figured I should give back a little. I am open to, and appreciate, any and all questions or advice. Because this is my first grow I wanted to document as much as possible. I’ve been working on this journal for a while already so this is going to be a long, multi-post start - if you decide to settle in, you might want to grab a snack and a drink first.
Just the facts:
Strain: Nirvana Seeds Aurora Indica and Green House Seeds Pure Kush
Type: Mostly Indica
# of Plants: 6 (three of each)
Stage: Veg
Where: Indoor (desert region)
Soil or Hydro: Hydro (RDWC)
Bucket Size: System one – five 5 gal buckets (16gal water), System 2 – three 5 gal buckets (12 gal water)
Medium: 5” net pots with Rockwool and hydroton
Light: Two - 4’ 4 bulb HO T5s @6500k for veg, and Two - 300w (278w actual) 11-band LED Grow Light for bloom
Temp of Room: 79-84°F average
RH of Room: 35-40% average
PH of res: 6-6.5 (trying to keep it around 5.7 but it seems the nutrients want it at 6.5)
Type and strength of nutrients used: Dutch Master line Grow/Bloom A/B, Silica, Add.27, and Zone – all used at ¾ strength.
The long and not so short of it; stumbling through my first grow:
I started out thinking, after months of online digging - I was going to grow in DWC. The plan was two 4’x4’ tents in a 12’x10’ room. First tent was going to have two 5 gal buckets for mothers and a smaller tub to veg four plants/clones in a perpetual cycle. The second, flower tent, I was going to hold off on until I learned a few lessons from building the veg tent.
First lesson learned after I read up on ideal water temps for growing, it’s too damn hot (you might have noticed that the water temp says 86°F). Since I live in a desert, and it was heading into summer (avg. outside temps range from 110-115°f), DWC was a non-starter. It costs an arm and a leg just keeping the house at 81°f (central air). I checked out recirculating DWC systems and decided to try it due to the ability to cool the reservoir with frozen bottles instead of each individual bucket (also cheaper – my thinking was - than a water cooler or a separate AC running all summer). So I got me some buckets, some bulkheads, some tubing, etc. and started on my way.
The idea was to build a five bucket system for vegging four plants (fifth bucket being the res/control) and a three bucket system to house two mothers. I was going to jam all of this into a 4’x4’x7’ tent with two 4ft 4-bulb T5 HO 6,500K lamps.
5 Bucket System:
• 5 - Five gallon buckets
• 10 - 3/4” bulkheads
• 50’ Black ¼” tubing
• 1 - Top Fin Air Pump 8000 (would not buy again)
• 1 - Hydrofarm 15 liter air pump (much better than TopFin)
• 5 - 8”x ¾” plastic sprinkler pipes
• 25’ Hydrofarm black ½” tubing
• EcoPlus 396GPH Submersible Pump
• 5 X Med air stones
• Fittings – 3 - ½” uniseals, 3 - ½” elbows, 5 - ¼” elbows, and a ½” T
The three bucket system is the same except less of most everything.
Now that I got it all set up I added water and crossed my fingers. No leaks, not a one (and I barley measured anything, lots of eyeballing). The hand tightened ¾” bulkheads worked perfect, even with the curve of the bucket (although I wouldn’t go any larger).
Now it was time to do some water temp testing while I waited for my seeds.
The 5 bucket system holds 16 gallons and the three bucket 12 gallons. Room temp is 79-84°f (house AC set to 81°f) while 24” below the lights, at the bucket tops in the tent, it is around 91°f with the T5’s on. I turned two lights off on each lamp. I also opened up two sides of the tent and have two small fans blowing air out, and into the tent. The temp now stays at 81-84°f at the top of the buckets. The water in the buckets, after everything is running for two hours, is around 80°f.
First Test:
5 Bucket = System 1 (or S1)
3 Bucket = System 2 (or S2)
All ° in Fahrenheit
Adding 1 gal jug of ice to S1 and one frozen two liter bottle to S2
The results were a bummer, man. There was no way I could keep up with the amount of ice needed to maintain anywhere near the desired 68°f. The good news was I had some seeds to soak. It was time to smoke a bowl and ponder.
Pure Kush seeds in distilled water. 07/06
Maybe, I thought, it was the initial high temps melting the ice so fast. Perhaps once I get the water down to temp, the ice will last longer, and the temps will be easier to maintain. Also a little insulation couldn’t hurt. Time to wrap these buckets up and run another test.
In the pic below you can see the two systems. The S1 (5 bucket system) is on the left, and the S2 (3 bucket mother system) is on the right. S1 res has the submersible 396GPH pump pushing water down a ½” hose to a T at the back. This pushes the water down and through ¾” pipes at the bottom back to the res. S2 res has the same pump but only pushes it to one bucket and back to the res via ¾” hose. Each bucket has its own air stone.
07/07
After soaking for 24 hours I gently placed the seeds into 2” Rockwool cubes (at the time having no idea that Rockwool raises your PH). I placed these cubes into a clone dome and put them under the lights.
Gave them a little spritz of PHed water with just a soupçon of Superthrive.
Time for another water temp test:
I decided to add the dome temps of where I was going to start the seeds and clones.
S1 = 1 gal ice
S2 = 2 liter ice
There seemed to be a little hope on the horizon. I didn’t have the insulated tops on during the test, just the plastic tops with the 5” net pots. I figured this meant the temps would maintain even longer with them on. There was only one problem, I started to feel less and less comfortable putting these bottles (right out of my packed freezer I use for food) straight into my res. I also thought of the pain in my ass it would be trying to keep these bottles clean - going in and coming out of my freezer. Another bowl and more pondering ensued.
Meanwhile, seeds are sprouting. Under 24 hour light. 07/08
(I took them out of the inserts because it was a pain figuring out how moist they were without squishing them)
Looks like I didn’t plant them deep enough.
I wet the shells a few times until they slid off.
Kinda screwed the pooch on the first seed that popped. I didn’t remove the seed cover soon enough and it seems to have stunted it a little bit. So far all three Pure Kush Seeds have opened. Just waiting on the Aurora Indica now.
The plants are getting larger and I still can’t decide on what to do about water temps.
You can see the runt above on the right.
And growing….
07/11
The roots started to stick out of the bottom of the Rockwool so I just stuck them into the 5” net pots with hydroton (which I rinsed the crap out of but wish I had rinsed it in H2O2 as well) and watered when I thought appropriate (once to twice daily).
07/11
The AI seeds still haven’t sprouted yet.
Mixed up a nutrient concoction for the little ladies. I’m using Dutch Masters Grow a, Grow B, Silica, Add .27, Cal-Mag, and Superthrive (which I might stop using because it knocks around my PH too much). Most likely jumping the gun by starting nutrients. Mixed a gallon of ¼ strength nutrients and watered plants.
7/12
Two Aurora Indicas decided to show themselves. The Pure Kushes are doing well, except for the runt.
So far so good with watering with ¼ strength nutrients. Got a little freaked out when I noticed white stuff on the hydroton.
After frantically looking online I have come to the conclusion it is just some left over nutrients. I flushed with just PHed water and it went away.
I keep seeing people suggesting that Rockwool should be covered so as not to get algae. I figured it couldn’t hurt.
\
Just the facts:
Strain: Nirvana Seeds Aurora Indica and Green House Seeds Pure Kush
Type: Mostly Indica
# of Plants: 6 (three of each)
Stage: Veg
Where: Indoor (desert region)
Soil or Hydro: Hydro (RDWC)
Bucket Size: System one – five 5 gal buckets (16gal water), System 2 – three 5 gal buckets (12 gal water)
Medium: 5” net pots with Rockwool and hydroton
Light: Two - 4’ 4 bulb HO T5s @6500k for veg, and Two - 300w (278w actual) 11-band LED Grow Light for bloom
Temp of Room: 79-84°F average
RH of Room: 35-40% average
PH of res: 6-6.5 (trying to keep it around 5.7 but it seems the nutrients want it at 6.5)
Type and strength of nutrients used: Dutch Master line Grow/Bloom A/B, Silica, Add.27, and Zone – all used at ¾ strength.
The long and not so short of it; stumbling through my first grow:
I started out thinking, after months of online digging - I was going to grow in DWC. The plan was two 4’x4’ tents in a 12’x10’ room. First tent was going to have two 5 gal buckets for mothers and a smaller tub to veg four plants/clones in a perpetual cycle. The second, flower tent, I was going to hold off on until I learned a few lessons from building the veg tent.
First lesson learned after I read up on ideal water temps for growing, it’s too damn hot (you might have noticed that the water temp says 86°F). Since I live in a desert, and it was heading into summer (avg. outside temps range from 110-115°f), DWC was a non-starter. It costs an arm and a leg just keeping the house at 81°f (central air). I checked out recirculating DWC systems and decided to try it due to the ability to cool the reservoir with frozen bottles instead of each individual bucket (also cheaper – my thinking was - than a water cooler or a separate AC running all summer). So I got me some buckets, some bulkheads, some tubing, etc. and started on my way.
The idea was to build a five bucket system for vegging four plants (fifth bucket being the res/control) and a three bucket system to house two mothers. I was going to jam all of this into a 4’x4’x7’ tent with two 4ft 4-bulb T5 HO 6,500K lamps.
5 Bucket System:
• 5 - Five gallon buckets
• 10 - 3/4” bulkheads
• 50’ Black ¼” tubing
• 1 - Top Fin Air Pump 8000 (would not buy again)
• 1 - Hydrofarm 15 liter air pump (much better than TopFin)
• 5 - 8”x ¾” plastic sprinkler pipes
• 25’ Hydrofarm black ½” tubing
• EcoPlus 396GPH Submersible Pump
• 5 X Med air stones
• Fittings – 3 - ½” uniseals, 3 - ½” elbows, 5 - ¼” elbows, and a ½” T
The three bucket system is the same except less of most everything.
Now that I got it all set up I added water and crossed my fingers. No leaks, not a one (and I barley measured anything, lots of eyeballing). The hand tightened ¾” bulkheads worked perfect, even with the curve of the bucket (although I wouldn’t go any larger).
Now it was time to do some water temp testing while I waited for my seeds.
The 5 bucket system holds 16 gallons and the three bucket 12 gallons. Room temp is 79-84°f (house AC set to 81°f) while 24” below the lights, at the bucket tops in the tent, it is around 91°f with the T5’s on. I turned two lights off on each lamp. I also opened up two sides of the tent and have two small fans blowing air out, and into the tent. The temp now stays at 81-84°f at the top of the buckets. The water in the buckets, after everything is running for two hours, is around 80°f.
First Test:
5 Bucket = System 1 (or S1)
3 Bucket = System 2 (or S2)
All ° in Fahrenheit
Adding 1 gal jug of ice to S1 and one frozen two liter bottle to S2
The results were a bummer, man. There was no way I could keep up with the amount of ice needed to maintain anywhere near the desired 68°f. The good news was I had some seeds to soak. It was time to smoke a bowl and ponder.
Pure Kush seeds in distilled water. 07/06
Maybe, I thought, it was the initial high temps melting the ice so fast. Perhaps once I get the water down to temp, the ice will last longer, and the temps will be easier to maintain. Also a little insulation couldn’t hurt. Time to wrap these buckets up and run another test.
In the pic below you can see the two systems. The S1 (5 bucket system) is on the left, and the S2 (3 bucket mother system) is on the right. S1 res has the submersible 396GPH pump pushing water down a ½” hose to a T at the back. This pushes the water down and through ¾” pipes at the bottom back to the res. S2 res has the same pump but only pushes it to one bucket and back to the res via ¾” hose. Each bucket has its own air stone.
07/07
After soaking for 24 hours I gently placed the seeds into 2” Rockwool cubes (at the time having no idea that Rockwool raises your PH). I placed these cubes into a clone dome and put them under the lights.
Gave them a little spritz of PHed water with just a soupçon of Superthrive.
Time for another water temp test:
I decided to add the dome temps of where I was going to start the seeds and clones.
S1 = 1 gal ice
S2 = 2 liter ice
There seemed to be a little hope on the horizon. I didn’t have the insulated tops on during the test, just the plastic tops with the 5” net pots. I figured this meant the temps would maintain even longer with them on. There was only one problem, I started to feel less and less comfortable putting these bottles (right out of my packed freezer I use for food) straight into my res. I also thought of the pain in my ass it would be trying to keep these bottles clean - going in and coming out of my freezer. Another bowl and more pondering ensued.
Meanwhile, seeds are sprouting. Under 24 hour light. 07/08
(I took them out of the inserts because it was a pain figuring out how moist they were without squishing them)
Looks like I didn’t plant them deep enough.
I wet the shells a few times until they slid off.
Kinda screwed the pooch on the first seed that popped. I didn’t remove the seed cover soon enough and it seems to have stunted it a little bit. So far all three Pure Kush Seeds have opened. Just waiting on the Aurora Indica now.
The plants are getting larger and I still can’t decide on what to do about water temps.
You can see the runt above on the right.
And growing….
07/11
The roots started to stick out of the bottom of the Rockwool so I just stuck them into the 5” net pots with hydroton (which I rinsed the crap out of but wish I had rinsed it in H2O2 as well) and watered when I thought appropriate (once to twice daily).
07/11
The AI seeds still haven’t sprouted yet.
Mixed up a nutrient concoction for the little ladies. I’m using Dutch Masters Grow a, Grow B, Silica, Add .27, Cal-Mag, and Superthrive (which I might stop using because it knocks around my PH too much). Most likely jumping the gun by starting nutrients. Mixed a gallon of ¼ strength nutrients and watered plants.
7/12
Two Aurora Indicas decided to show themselves. The Pure Kushes are doing well, except for the runt.
So far so good with watering with ¼ strength nutrients. Got a little freaked out when I noticed white stuff on the hydroton.
After frantically looking online I have come to the conclusion it is just some left over nutrients. I flushed with just PHed water and it went away.
I keep seeing people suggesting that Rockwool should be covered so as not to get algae. I figured it couldn’t hurt.
\
