Dread's Indoor 400w DWC

[Doctor Dread]

Greetings 420 guys and gals! I'm starting my new project and I cant help but make a journal to document it. I have a 10gal, six plant DWC setup in my closet. I will be using my 400w HPS the entire grow. I'm growing bagseed, as always. I do not have the means to order seeds or buy clones locally, so I will be making do with what I have, which are six seeds from various bags of dank.

I germinated six seeds altogether. I placed them into a glass of water and as they cracked, I planted them in rockwool cubes. Once in the cubes, I placed them on a heating mat and they were above the cubes in a day or two. Then it was into the system!

This brings us to the next item: Nutrients. I am using FoxFarm nutes. Grow Big Hydro, Big Bloom, and Tiger Bloom. I will also be using Open Sesame, Beastie Blooms, and Cha Ching once I begin the flowering cycle. I am following FF's hydro schedule and will see how that goes. I also use Hygrozyme for root health, and will be using Floralicious Plus once they have gained some size. I use a TDS and PH meter to check water quality daily.

My first attempt at hydroponic growing ended in all male plants. I had some soil plants growing at the time and was not prepared to handle both mediums, so I gave up on hydro. I now have the instruments and nutrients required to be succesful at hydro so it's time I said goodbye to dirt.

My system is just a basic 10 gallon DWC tub. I first gave the tub a few coats of black spray paint to block any light. I also put duct tape on the lid for the same reason. It has two 5'' airstones on the bottom of the res to oxygenate the solution. I bought the best dual output pump the hydro store had, and it was well worth it. The amount of air this thing cranks out is insane! All six plants have roots in the solution already. I am using my 150w HPS until they gain a few nodes, then it will be time to fire up the 400w!

Right now I'm running a ppm around 600 and a ph of 5.8.

I always wanted one of these...

Questions and comments are always encouraged!!

 

[DroJo]

Are you usin hard water?(jus wonderin)

Good luck growin some sweet sensi Dread!

 

[Doctor Dread]

Good question man! Yes, I am using hard water. I checked the ppm straight out of the faucet and its reading 153ppm.

 

[DroJo]

Good question man! Yes, I am using hard water. I checked the ppm straight out of the faucet and its reading 153ppm.

That's wasssup. I've wanted to do a hydro gro for a couple weeks now(you might have seen me babbling about it), but I was just telling my bud Labrat that i didnt have the $$ to get an R/O filter that wouldnt take 2 days to fill my tubs. So ill definitly be watching this grow.. as a matter of fact

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booyakah

 

[number1]

Gotta watch this one coz its gonna be mad lol. I bet 5 out 6 will be fem's. what light schedule you on

 

[Doctor Dread]

Gotta watch this one coz its gonna be mad lol. I bet 5 out 6 will be fem's. what light schedule you on

Hey man thanks so much for your optimism! If five out of six are female I will be a very happy man.
My lights are on 24hrs at the moment. I'm gonna break out the ol' 400 next week sometime. When that happens, I'll be giving them some time to rest everyday. I will most likely set it to 18/6, maybe even 20/4.

 

[The Weed]

More great work, More Contest winners in progress! By Doctor Dread! Will Enjoy Watching!

 

[Aberration]

Fantastic!

 

[Siscokid]

Im in like flynn! Cool set up for your closet. BE checking in now and then my friend, good luck!

 

[Doctor Dread]

Thanks so much The Weed! It's great to have you aboard.

Thanks for peekin at my setup Ab. Good to see you.

Sisco, I'm glad you made it. I will be watching your current project with interest! Cant wait to see what the Papaya Wreck looks like in a month!


DON'T MISS OUT!

If you have been wanting to order seeds then now is the time to act! The Attitude Seedbank is having a christmas special from December 4th-9th only! They are teaming up with DNA Genetics and are unveiling five new strains! Heres the kicker: They are all absolutely free. With every purchase, they will add three regular seeds of each following strain:

Kush Berry X Skunk
LA Woman X Skunk
Kandy Kush X Skunk
Sleestack X Skunk
OG18 x Skunk

I am certainly taking advantage of this offer! If you are in need of seed, I encourage you to place an order and give these new kush/skunk hydrids a try with me! GO DNA!!

 

[Siscokid]

Thanks for the heads up

 

[OldMedUser]

Hi there Dr. Dread!

Your set-up is just like mine. I don't paint or tape my tubs and have never had a problem after many grows. The light that does get through the plastic is stripped of anything useful to algae. I've always wondered how well it works when starting from little ones like yours so I'll be checking it out on occasion to see how it compares to mine. I've got two tubs under two 400W lights with 28 Kush plants from seed. I put them in the tubs on Nov.12 so far only one, maybe, male. I went 12/12 on Nov.24 and they're all girls! Well maybe one isn't. But the rest are! A guy I know gave me about 200 Kush seeds and damned if they aren't 90% fems or better. My last grow was 1 male out of 10 seeds and the buddage was huge.

Good luck! I'll be seeing ya around.

 

[Doctor Dread]

Thanks for the heads up

No problem my man! I cant wait to try these new skunk crosses out!

Hi there Dr. Dread!

Your set-up is just like mine. I don't paint or tape my tubs and have never had a problem after many grows. The light that does get through the plastic is stripped of anything useful to algae. I've always wondered how well it works when starting from little ones like yours so I'll be checking it out on occasion to see how it compares to mine. I've got two tubs under two 400W lights with 28 Kush plants from seed. I put them in the tubs on Nov.12 so far only one, maybe, male. I went 12/12 on Nov.24 and they're all girls! Well maybe one isn't. But the rest are! A guy I know gave me about 200 Kush seeds and damned if they aren't 90% fems or better. My last grow was 1 male out of 10 seeds and the buddage was huge.

Good luck! I'll be seeing ya around.

Thanks for stopin by LabRat. With regards to the tub, I just assumed it would be best to have zero light in the res. I'm sure your right though, any light that manages to get through the plastic will not be beneficial to algae... Well hey, at least my tub is pimped out!

90% female is an amazing ratio bro! You should send some of that luck my way!!

 

[wolfman68]

hello doc.. is it really possible to grow 6 planst on ur setup? seems like that would save alot of space for me if i could grow 6 like that..
thanks..

 

[Doctor Dread]

hello doc.. is it really possible to grow 6 planst on ur setup? seems like that would save alot of space for me if i could grow 6 like that..
thanks..

Hello Wolfman, welcome to my thread! I do believe it is possible to grow all six plants in the setup... Although if I were going to keep all six in there, I would probably up the tub to a 20 gallon. I'm not using feminized seeds, so I'm estimating I will have 3-4 females flowering in the setup.

Heres a small update. They have been in the tub for seven days total. 750ppm, ph 5.8.

 

[Be Irie]

Looking good Dread man.. I hope to see some ladies in there soon...

And the Attitude christmas special ends tomorrow, the 7th... You are going to love the DNA genetics..

 

[OldMedUser]

Hey Doc. That middle plant in the bottom row looks like a triploid. Supposed to yield high because of the extra node configuration. I'd sure try to breed that one if it keeps growing like that.

Looking good so far.

 

[NEchronic]

Hey man, just checkin up on the new project. I noticed the same thing as lab rat; you've got a triploid going on. Never heard of them until I ended up with one. In a 12/12 grow where all the other plants are no taller than 12" that trip' grew to about 27"! Ive had to supercrop and bend the hell out of it and its slower than all the others...BUT there are more bud sites than I can comprehend...3 at each node, plus 3 branches/node in the lower portion of the plant. I just hope the potency is still on par...Anyway can't wait to see how yours grows up. Good luck man!

 

[Doctor Dread]

Looking good Dread man.. I hope to see some ladies in there soon...

And the Attitude christmas special ends tomorrow, the 7th... You are going to love the DNA genetics..

Thanks Be! I hope to see some ladies as well... Can't wait to try out the DNA packs. I ordered the Greenhouse White Widow and White Rhino Mix... So I will be using pollen from various DNA strains to selectively pollinate the WW and WR girls...

Hey Doc. That middle plant in the bottom row looks like a triploid. Supposed to yield high because of the extra node configuration. I'd sure try to breed that one if it keeps growing like that.

Looking good so far.

Thanks alot man! You are correct, the bottom middle plant is a Triploid. We shall see if keeps throwing three branches per node...

Hey man, just checkin up on the new project. I noticed the same thing as lab rat; you've got a triploid going on. Never heard of them until I ended up with one. In a 12/12 grow where all the other plants are no taller than 12" that trip' grew to about 27"! Ive had to supercrop and bend the hell out of it and its slower than all the others...BUT there are more bud sites than I can comprehend...3 at each node, plus 3 branches/node in the lower portion of the plant. I just hope the potency is still on par...Anyway can't wait to see how yours grows up. Good luck man!

Thanks for checkin in NE! Thanks for the heads up on the trip', I'll be keeping a close eye on that one.



Well I decided to fire up the ol' 400 today. They are already growing very rapidly, but I hope to see an increase in the rate of growth over the next few days. I have the light 22'' above the plants currently, but I will be lowering it to 12-14'' over the next few days. There is quite a bit of twisting going on with a few of the plants. I suspect the hardness of my tap water has something to do with it. The ph has always been very stable at 5.8. PPM has been at 650-750. Reservoir temperature never exceeds 70 degrees. The only other factor I could attribute the twisting to is the fact these are bagseed strains and the genetics are probably not very stable.

 

[OldMedUser]

Hi Doc

I wouldn't worry about that little bit of twisting. It's probably stress induced as they settle into their new home. Just keep an eye on the new growth. If it grows in OK forget those older leaves. They'll be dwarfed soon enough by the new stuff coming and end up dead anyhow.

It's looking pretty fine so far. In two weeks you won't even recognize them and two weeks after that you'll need a machete. lol

I don't think your water is too hard at 160 or whatever it was but the composition of the water can definitely have a big influence on your babies progress. High carbonates leads to high pH that you end up endlessly trying to bring down which messes with the water chemistry. Whatever is in the water you use will just become more concentrated as the plants use the water and leave the contaminants behind. Just like the crusty crap that plugs up your coffee maker. Problems won't show up until later when the plants start using lots of water. As minerals in your nutes build up, more of the total PPM becomes junk your plants can't use and less actual nutrients they need. Frequent nute changes can prevent that but you end up wasting a lot of time, energy and cash for more nutes. If you start with RO or distilled water the only dissolved solids in your nutes are ones you put in there yourself. I plan on changing nutes for the first time a week from now when the girls are at 21 days of 12/12, boosting the PPM to 1200-1400 with Big Bud added. reducing to 300 about 4 weeks later in preparation for harvest.

It's gonna be fun watching your babies take off!