First Indoor Hydro Grow

[5chord]

Thanks Vlad! I raised the light to about 20" after finally finding some specs on the light and other 300w LED lamps. I added some Mylar strips on the top of the container for added reflection. the roots look a lot better, but not great either....The res does smell nicer though....The fresh hay smell is back......

I also changed the res again in response to a malfunctioning PH meter......According to the Hanna PH instrument, the res took a dive to about 3.5, so I threw a cap-full of PH Up and went to bed. This morning the PH had not changed so I changed out the res.....When the PH was still below 4.0 I realized it may need calibration. But it when I put the probe into the 7.0 calibration liquid, I couldn't adjust it up past 5.4 It's probably a battery...I leave it on a lot (too much)

 

[VladimirPutin]

Diligence is key, comrade. At least root rot came before she was well underway in flower. Check the battery on your PH pen.My own fight with root rot is just dying down finally and I'll tell you the PH took a real hit for me and the plant began to show the rainbow of different deficiencies. You caught it before it got bad. +1

 

[5chord]

Thanks again Vlad..........I'm going to add 2 more airstones to the mix when I go to the Hydro store tomorrow and I have a nute/fert question..... I'm almost out of BC Boost, completely out of Thrive Alive B1 Red and I won't have enough Awesome Blooms to finish......Since I need to buy nutes and at the flowering threshold, I could switch gears and try something new. What do you use Vlad? Have you experience with many companies? I was thinking Hibrix?

 

[VladimirPutin]

I am using standard 10N + 30P + 10K + 4 (secondary elements plus Magnesium) for flower. I don't put Hydro Perox or any other additives to the tank at any time, other than PH down. This one is the best I could find for now but would like to upgrade to an advanced formula for the next grow.

 

[5chord]

It's now 7 1/2 weeks since seed drop and the plants have been at 12-12 for 1 1/2 weeks. No sign of any flowers yet and I'm looking forward to a male I can pull and make some room in the crowded container. I decided to stop trimming fan leaves until they f;lower , if at all as I think it may be stunting their growth. They have almost no vertical growth in the past week and all the leaves I trim are replaced in 2-3 days. I've been trimming quite a bit to allow light to penetrate the canopy. There is a lot of conflicting advice on this, so I have to learn by trial and error

Do the leaves look healthy/

 

[5chord]

I also decided to stick with the Techaflora nutes throughout the grow and started an H202 regime every 3 days for the poopy roots....Hey that rhymes!.....Sort of

 

[420Steve]

Looking good 5chord, i had the same scare with root rot but i got to it before any damage could be done and it was because my water temps were going over 78f, what i did to combat mine was just put a few small ice cubes in untill i got the desired water temp. I recently brought 4 cheap fish aquarium thermometer from ebay for less then £10 (Great value), its a small investment but will help me manage the water temp. I dont have any H2O2 regime as mine didnt get too bad, i just adjusted accordingly.

Plants look great and i cant wait for them to bud and see what you yeild, from what i have read i would try and keep your water temp between 68f - 78f and to make sure your water is very oxygenated which i can see you have done great.

Also dont be afraid to experiment, put the lights close if your plants dont like it move it away inch by inch untill they do, its the same with the nutes and everything thats what i am doing, maby get some string and slightly bend some of the branches to the lower leaves can get some light i have done that and you should see how big mine has got i will do and update soon.

See you around the forum fella sorry for my usless info haha GREAT JOB!

 

[5chord]

Thanks Steve! I definitely need to watch the res temps. Right now it's probably 65-70, but it's going to get a lot warmer around here in the next few months.

When I first got the LED I put it right on the plants, thinking that it was like CFLs or tubes, but it actually punched holes in the leaves! All manufacturers recommend that LED lamps need to be 18"-24" away even though they are practically cool to the touch. They must emit some kind of harmful radiation if kept too close. I can feel it warm the back of my head when inspecting the plants. Everything I ever learned about plant lighting (Not really very much) went out the window with LED. So how's your grow doing??? Pics??

 

[VladimirPutin]

Thanks Steve! I definitely need to watch the res temps. Right now it's probably 65-70, but it's going to get a lot warmer around here in the next few months.

When I first got the LED I put it right on the plants, thinking that it was like CFLs or tubes, but it actually punched holes in the leaves! All manufacturers recommend that LED lamps need to be 18"-24" away even though they are practically cool to the touch. They must emit some kind of harmful radiation if kept too close. I can feel it warm the back of my head when inspecting the plants. Everything I ever learned about plant lighting (Not really very much) went out the window with LED. So how's your grow doing??? Pics??

Your plants look properly hydrated, no sign of that nightmare that is known as the claw! keep it up

 

[420Steve]

Any chance for an update im looking forward to hearing your feedback what you doing how often you are adjusing the ph ect ect..?

 

[5chord]

Well it's exactly 2 months since I dropped seed and...........ALL females! They probably gave me feminized seeds by mistake or were out of regular because I'm never that lucky. All males, maybe but never 6 out of 6 females! I'm VERY psyched

It took a long time to flower!! I started cutting back an hour a day week five and had the plants at 12-12 for 14 full days before I saw a hint. That was yesterday. I had been hacking off tons of fan leaves every Wednesday and Sunday since week 3 for light penetration and I'm pretty sure I stunted them a bit so I haven't trimmed a leaf in 9 days

Now things are getting interesting!

Steve, I'm adjusting the PH daily and calibrate my tester weekly.....Other than adding nutes, water and trimming too many fan leaves that's pretty much it

 

[420Steve]

Well it's exactly 2 months since I dropped seed and...........ALL females! They probably gave me feminized seeds by mistake or were out of regular because I'm never that lucky. All males, maybe but never 6 out of 6 females! I'm VERY psyched

It took a long time to flower!! I started cutting back an hour a day week five and had the plants at 12-12 for 14 full days before I saw a hint. That was yesterday. I had been hacking off tons of fan leaves every Wednesday and Sunday since week 3 for light penetration and I'm pretty sure I stunted them a bit so I haven't trimmed a leaf in 9 days

Now things are getting interesting!

Steve, I'm adjusting the PH daily and calibrate my tester weekly.....Other than adding nutes, water and trimming too many fan leaves that's pretty much it

Hey man, all is looking good i see, is she showing any signs of flowering white pistles ect and have you had any problems. Cant wait for her to start budding so we can see some bud porn!

 

[5chord]

Thanks Steve, me too! It's been 8 days since the first female hairs appeared and I stepped it up a bit. First I chopped about 2-3 ounces of fan leaves. It was so thick in there! The leaves were becoming hypoxic and deformed as they became starved for oxygen and light. I needed a plan fast. I decided to LST the plants with paper clips and rubber bands, bending the tops over and pinning them to the outside lid of the container.

(sorry the first pic is upside down and I would love to know how to edit pics on here if anybody knows)

The plants seemed to like the Apollo LED 3x100 I had purchased but the mods at 420 Magazine doesn't like me posting threads about LED lamps that are not official 420 Magazine Vendors . In fact they removed 2 threads I started asking if the lights were any good. I don't really blame them and they were nice about it, so I checked out Mars Hydro (official Vendor)and found the identical lamps for $40 less! So I bought 2 for $202......

By bending the plants over, I had increased the footprint of the grow considerably so I added a second (Mars Hydro) lamp and turned them 45 degrees.

Today I removed the rubber bands and continued to bend the stalks down and pin them directly with the clips

They seem to be holding up fine. I am continuing my changing theres out weekly followed by a feeding of Technaflora nutes as well as h202 every 4 days and Hygrozyme regiment

 

[5chord]

It's now 9 1/2 weeks after seed drop and the warmest day of the year so far.

So far so good!

 

[5chord]

It's now 11 weeks since seed drop and the girls are looking really nice. I've had no real problems and have been sticking to the same Hygrowzyme and H202 regime

5 Weeks to go!

 

[VladimirPutin]

hey 5chord, how's the grow going? Mine grenaded in my face and had to start over. I've decided to mothball DWC systems forever and move on to aeroponics, because of the damned root rot that DWC is famous for. Are your plants still okay? Should be only a couple weeks from snip snip puff puff pass.

 

[VladimirPutin]

:oke poke::

 

[5chord]

Hey Vlad! Sorry to hear of your not-so-good ending. I'd love to hear more about the aeroponics. It's now only about 18 days until the first harvest! The plants are doing great, heat stress is my current issue.....At least 20% of the leaves have burnt tips.....the temps have been in the high 80's and low 90's in the bloom room with very low humidity. I'm rectifying that with more fans pulling colder air from the basement into the grow areas....I also added G10 from Humboldt for the final weeks of flowering

I recently changed (at the Hydro Guy's insistence) from Hygrozyme to Complezyme......That and H202 to keep everything in check.....

I also have 5 plants in a 14gal res ready to be put in the bloom room when these ladies get chopped. Four of them came from the "Free" seeds I got with my White Widow order and one is a rooted WW clone. Only 7 out of the 20 free seeds made it to seedling size. I also have a seedling in Coco, two rooted WW clones in 3 1/2 gal pots and one 3 week old Free Seed plant that's a two foot bush, outside! And an experimental Rapid Rooter cloning tray with 4 healthy (unrooted) clones....One from the late flowering plants and 3 from the new free seed plants........All for my next thread: 5chord's First Perpetual Grow

 

[VladimirPutin]

Well done comrade. I´m liking what I see. Looking forward to your next thread.
yea my little plant suffered too much because of crappy management of the DWC setup. I have higher hopes for this grow that I´m working on now as a continuation to my ongoing journal. Let us see the pics when you get your buds ready for jars!

VP

 

[5chord]

Thanks Vlad, I am convinced I would have had a disaster with root rot if not for Hygrozyme, H202, diligent res changes and most of all good advice from folks like you!