First Indoor Hydro Grow

[5chord]

Ok it's done and harvested.......The weed is sweet and strong but the bud density and harvest wasn't quite what I had hoped. But maybe my hopes were not realistic? I ended up with 52 grams of manicured bud and 56 grams of popcorn buds, 5 grams of bubble hash and almost a gram pellet of pressed kief.

Seeds dropped in rockwool Feb 3rd 2015 harvest May 29th
This journal is complete

 

[VladimirPutin]

Congratulations man. PM me when you start a new one! I'm sure you'll get denser buds next time with more lights.
Cheers!

VP

 

[lootznbootz]

Awesome thread man glad to see you make it through i just started my own dwc and a journal for it. Im no expert and this is more a question than anything but as far as your yeild do you think its was because all of them turned out to be females as i know your werent expecting that. Was there not enough room for each plant individually as in did they have enough water per plant space in the res for root? You think if you ended up with the 2 or 4 females like you had planned they would have had more room to flourish i know for a fact they had more than enough light for all 6. Also were your girls stressed much after trimming after 12/12 switch? Could that have stunted them from yielding more? Thanks for the tread man gunna look out for your next grows

 

[5chord]

Awesome thread man glad to see you make it through i just started my own dwc and a journal for it. Im no expert and this is more a question than anything but as far as your yeild do you think its was because all of them turned out to be females as i know your werent expecting that. Was there not enough room for each plant individually as in did they have enough water per plant space in the res for root? You think if you ended up with the 2 or 4 females like you had planned they would have had more room to flourish i know for a fact they had more than enough light for all 6. Also were your girls stressed much after trimming after 12/12 switch? Could that have stunted them from yielding more? Thanks for the tread man gunna look out for your next grows

Thanks guys! I must say I have learned a lot from this grow and hopefully will have better results each and every time

Lootz, all good questions! First off 6 plants is way too much for a 10 gal container. The competition for light and nutes probably hurt me from the start. Like most noobs, I over-nuted and added way too many things to my res. When I thought I was fighting heat issues, I was really burning the leaves with too many ferts. By the time I added a TDS meter it was too late. I was shocked at the numbers I was getting. When I finally harvested I couldn't believe it but the roots were BLACK! Not brown, no rot, but just burned black.

Also, I defoliated way too much, not just after they were blooming, but before as well. All in all I'm very lucky with the harvest that I got.

While I was blooming the White Widow, I was getting my next res (5 plant 14 Gal) ready in a grow tent. I had 20 "Free" seeds with my order of WW and set about germinating them. I also managed to get 4 rooted clones from my WW. I put 2 outside in Pro Mix and the 3rd in the larger res and the best one in a 10 gal container by herself as the "Mother" plant. Out of 20 "free" seeds 7 germinated. Two died as seedlings but one was an out-of-control Sativa I had to put outside as it outpaced everything I had. I put the other 4 with the lone WW clone in the res under 315W of CFL. For the next few weeks this was a lot of fun! They all grew at an amazing rate; the WW stretching to compete with the lanky Sativas that the "Free" seeds turned out to be.

After just 6 weeks the outdoor Sativa turned out to be an "Autoflower male! A week later I harvested the WW and put the new 14 gal res in the bloom room. The WW started throwing white hairs after just 2 DAYS at 12-12. And 3 of the Sativas showed male flowers a few days later. It was down to one Sativa and the WW clone. The last Sativa was a HERMIE! So the "Free" seeds actually cost me a lot in time and nutes. BUT, the lone WW is absolutely HUGE in the 14 gal res! I should get a similar yield with just ONE plant! Obviously the bigger the container, the bigger the plant. Less is more.

 

[lootznbootz]

Awesome thanks for the reply. I too just downsized my res. I first went with a huge like 30 gallon tote filling it with 22 gallons i figured that was plenty of room for say 6 to 8 plants ... But as i found out its actually more of a pita trying to keep that much water from going stagnant even tho i had 2 12 in airstones plus a submersible water pump it was just too much water i think if my plants were drinking it wouldnt have been so bad but after changing the res because of mildew smell and cleaning it out completely as in i started all the way over filled her back up checked it less than 12 hours later and the smell was not only back but stronger than before i quickly realized as you said less is definitely more i downsized to a 19 gallon tote that only holds 14 gallons (just to the bottom of my net pots) did away with any and all tubing from my water pump at first i did away with the pump completely and ran just the 2 airstones but after more reading and talking to my local hydro vendor i opted to put the pump in one of the corners on the wall to create an undercurrent effectively keeping my water moving so its got even more oxygen and stays cleaner longer since switching im yet to have any problems and my plants boomed right away. Im keeping it simple and leaving it alone as ive found out the hard way to leave them alone and let them work their magic i just habe to lead them to the water theyll drink it anyway again thanks for the response and thanks for the knowledge i will definitely be watching out for more grows from you

 

[5chord]

Awesome thanks for the reply. I too just downsized my res. I first went with a huge like 30 gallon tote filling it with 22 gallons i figured that was plenty of room for say 6 to 8 plants ... But as i found out its actually more of a pita trying to keep that much water from going stagnant even tho i had 2 12 in airstones plus a submersible water pump it was just too much water i think if my plants were drinking it wouldnt have been so bad but after changing the res because of mildew smell and cleaning it out completely as in i started all the way over filled her back up checked it less than 12 hours later and the smell was not only back but stronger than before i quickly realized as you said less is definitely more i downsized to a 19 gallon tote that only holds 14 gallons (just to the bottom of my net pots) did away with any and all tubing from my water pump at first i did away with the pump completely and ran just the 2 airstones but after more reading and talking to my local hydro vendor i opted to put the pump in one of the corners on the wall to create an undercurrent effectively keeping my water moving so its got even more oxygen and stays cleaner longer since switching im yet to have any problems and my plants boomed right away. Im keeping it simple and leaving it alone as ive found out the hard way to leave them alone and let them work their magic i just habe to lead them to the water theyll drink it anyway again thanks for the response and thanks for the knowledge i will definitely be watching out for more grows from you

Ah, I forgot to tell you one of the most valuable lessons I learned! Bleach is your friend. About 6 weeks ago when changing out the res on the mother plant, I noticed chunks of crap draining out the hose. Closer inspection revealed an out of control slime/mold situation. Slime and some kind of mold coated EVERYTHING in the tank including the roots of the mother plant which at the time was showing stress and I really thought it might be over for her. I had nothing to lose so I took her out of the res (something I had never done before) and rested her in a 5gal bucket while I cleaned the tank.

Between the warm water and all the nutes I was giving her, I had manged to create an environment that grew numerous strains of mold! Some brown, some multicolored!! Scary but fascinating! I scrubbed the tank with dish soap and followed it up with bleach and water. The Airstones (4) had the stuff all the way into them. By the time I was done the res was squeaky clean. I ran the airstones and suds poured out for a few minutes before they finally produced clean bubbles. I rinsed the roots off and set up the res once more, this time adding a cap full of bleach. I was rewarded with new beautiful white roots sprouting out just days later. She is super healthy right now and has more good clone sites than I can take. I repeated this with my other 2 tanks. Bleach will be a huge part of my hydro grow from now on.

 

[tucker99]

While you title the thread: First Indoor Hydro Grow it is easy to tell you are an experience grower. Reading your last posts very carefully, it seems you're biggest mistake was too many nutes and additives in general. Being a newb, I'm spending a lot of time with research and have made several files on lighting, etc. Hands down, the common problem guys have is adding too much "stuff" to their res. This has a domino effect and screws up Ph values, causes root rot, and on and on. Why is this? Does everyone follow instructions? Are the instructions wrong? Is every grow different and values have to be changed depending on strains, etc? Or do nute manufacturers try to optimize usage so they can sell more product? Great job! I've learned much!

 

[5chord]

While you title the thread: First Indoor Hydro Grow it is easy to tell you are an experience grower. Reading your last posts very carefully, it seems you're biggest mistake was too many nutes and additives in general. Being a newb, I'm spending a lot of time with research and have made several files on lighting, etc. Hands down, the common problem guys have is adding too much "stuff" to their res. This has a domino effect and screws up Ph values, causes root rot, and on and on. Why is this? Does everyone follow instructions? Are the instructions wrong? Is every grow different and values have to be changed depending on strains, etc? Or do nute manufacturers try to optimize usage so they can sell more product? Great job! I've learned much!

Hey Tucker, thanks for the note! I have grown before but I learned more in my first indoor hydro than all of my other grows combined. Yes I agree that moat people just add stuff thinking more is better when the opposite is really true. If I knew then what I know now, I would have saved a bundle on nutes, ferts and other needless additives. You can't really blame the manufacturers but I'm sure they don't mind if you spend double what you really needed to get the best results. I also think the "placebo effect" comes into play here as well...People may think the latest and greatest fert increased their yield by whatever percent, but most really don't do an honest comparison.

The best of luck to you and if I can ever be of help, feel free to PM me or just reply to one of my posts

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Thanks for sharing this grow with us.

Please head over to the 420 Strain Reviews forum and post your smoke report there too.

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Sending you lots of love and positive energy.

 

[tucker99]

Good Morning 5chord, So to confirm, you are running bleach with every grow now? You say a capful in your res, how big is your res? roughly, how many milliliter is a capful? So why did you pick bleach instead of peroxide? Did you run bleach in the last couple weeks before harvest and can you taste it in the bud?