First Proper Grow Attempt - DWC Vs Soil Testing

[Guy Cavallero]

Thanks a lot dude! It gets way better after page 4 haha.

Cheers for stopping in.

Thanks for having me. Now I also have some ammunition as to why dwc is not as good as soil in order to harass my little brother LOL. I never thought about the reservoir changes, never thought about not being able to go away, never thought about the taste in the smoke Etc..... Learned a bunch and only on page 4 LOL. I have never done a dwc grow, now I likely won't LOL.

As I stated before, great Journal!

 

[GlaucomaMeds]

Thanks for having me. Now I also have some ammunition as to why dwc is not as good as soil in order to harass my little brother LOL. I never thought about the reservoir changes, never thought about not being able to go away, never thought about the taste in the smoke Etc..... Learned a bunch and only on page 4 LOL. I have never done a dwc grow, now I likely won't LOL.

As I stated before, great Journal!

Haha yeah the DWC is a pain in the ass alright. I gotta go buy more bloom nutes for it on Friday. Its almost drank 1L already! The res changes are a major pain, but I figure it will be worth it in the end. And the DWC setup cost me about £20 I think, so you know, could have spent more to make things easier on myself .
If I grow more DWC again I'll get a proper RDWC setup, a seperate res would make all the difference.
I've heard loads of people say the taste won't be the same as soil, but I can't comment havent smoked em yet. I also mix baccy in my joints so I doubt I could tell anyways.
The upside of course to all of it seems to be absolutely crazy mental steroid-like growth . Its a fair trade off I think.

Thanks again buddy.

 

[Skullman420]

I honestly notice no difference at all with soil grown weed and hydro grown weed. Actually I think the hydro ones is slightly stronger in THC

 

[GlaucomaMeds]

Today's Flower Update:

So temps still fine, humidity made it up to 75% so I did some more defoliation today. Tried to be aggressive, but not excessive with it. Hoping it pays off.

The leaves I plucked (looks really sativa heavy to me with the long thin fingers):

I fucked up and didn't really get a good photo of the canopy, but I'll get one tomorrow when the room is not sealed up again. PH was stable at 5.8 in the res however EC had risen a little to 1.7 I topped up with just PH'd water and EC is back to 1.4 now.
These are the buds forming now.

With the soil plants I shuffled them around a little again today as I put in a bigger fan. Swapped the other fan at the back for a bigger one that used to be at the front so net result 2 big-ish fans in flower and small-medium fan moved to veg. Small fan that was in veg will go in bottom of drying tent for small amount of air movement.

I also culled the p.o.s. today and chopped most of it up for hash. Saved the 6 best buds (but even they are tiny, about the size of a lighter when fresh trimmed)

All this above shenanigans did have a purpose as it has allowed me to (just about) free up enough space in the flowering tent to fit the Red Cherry Berry in there. It does mean the Auto isn't going to get the prime spot it had under the LED, but I'd prefer the light to be used on a bigger yielder anyway.

Things are very tight in there now, its a bit like plant Jenga in there to be honest. I worked it out on my calender though and allowing for 2 weeks stretch + 8-9 weeka flower + drying time means I need to get it in there soon if I want to hope to smoke some at xmas. So I made it fit . I figure as they grow and bush out they will likely get overcrowded, but I also hope to be harvesting 3 of the other plants (2x Sensi Soil plants + The DWC) in about 4-5 weeks tops. Once that happens there will be a shit load of space in there for them to enjoy as the DWC alone takes up just over half my total space!

Here's the new arrangement:

As for the 2 soil plants here's a couple of bud shots of the two soil girls:

The mutant:

The Tangerine Dream has been stretching for about 2 weeks now and is starting to show signs of wanting to bust out into some frosty nugs soon. The tips of all the braches have changed in appearance and are just (only just) starting to grow buds .

Anyone wondering, I don't have a massive Powdery Mildew problem! Its Diatomacious Earth on everything .

Also I've been holding out on saying anything about them until I was atleast fairly certain, but I haven't seen a single thrip for about a week. No new damage that I can see on new leaves and the plants that were added in the last 2 weeks have no signs of any thrip damage at all. I don't want to say I've dealt with them 100% just yet, but there aren't many left now, if any!

{Also in keeping with my more accurate records from here on in:
(This bits more for my own use, but if it helps people then even better)
>Temps - 20.2 - 26.7°c
>RH - 51 - 75%
>No feeding/watering today on anything soil based, some signs of nute burn on Soil 1 will use plain PH'd water next feed.
>DWC - PH 5.8 / EC 1.4 - Buds are growing nicely now and more defoliation done today. Tiny bit light bleached directly under center of light, can't raise any higher.
>Soil 1&2 6 weeks 12/12 - Soil 1 bit behind Soil 2, but picking up a bit now in terms of bud growth.
>RCB Day 1 of 12/12.
>TD Day 13 of 12/12 - estimated 8" stretch so far plant was ~15" tall when flowered}

I'm not guaranteeing these details every day, but I'll do my best to keep accurate records from now on of temps feedings etc.

Getting excited to make hash now that I have a little bit of trim . I think it will be better to wait till I have more though as I guess some will inevitably be lost in the process of making it. And if I only do a tiny batch that will have a proportionally larger impact on yield, so for a few more weeks yet, we wait.

Little ones feeling lonely now. They'll soon be filling that space hopefully. Going to transplant the RCB cutting tomorrow, I've done enough today I think.

I want to try to rearrange my carbon filter so I can raise my LED tomorrow also, but its going to take some figuring out so for now I'll smoke on it, then sleep on it. Come to think of it that's a damn good solution to most of life's issues .

Hope everyone is having a great day!
Take care all.

 

[Tony Urban]

Whew! Putting in some work GM! Looking fantastic. Those soil buds look tasty. Should be interesting to see those dwc girls explode in flower. Good times are ahead lol

 

[GlaucomaMeds]

Whew! Putting in some work GM! Looking fantastic. Those soil buds look tasty. Should be interesting to see those dwc girls explode in flower. Good times are ahead lol

Thanks a lot Urb!

Hehe that's just 1 plant in the DWC
She's fucking HUGE. Same age as the 2 soil ones too haha. DWC seems to be some kind of wizardry/steroid based thing for plants. Its just so much work with my cheapy setup lol.

I hope you are right about the good times ahead, I'm really looking forward to seeing her just gain size and weight for the next few weeks now too. I'm sure with the help of all you awesome folks on here I'll be ok though

Cheers

 

[Scoooter]

Wow man you worked your butt off today on your grow. Looks great!

Any way you can move your carbon filter to the end of the line instead of in the tent? I'm thinking of doing that myself.

So no signs of bud rot at the high temps and humidity? I'll be tackling the same problem coming up.

Keep it up bro! Payoff is getting closer.

 

[GlaucomaMeds]

Wow man you worked your butt off today on your grow. Looks great!

Any way you can move your carbon filter to the end of the line instead of in the tent? I'm thinking of doing that myself.

So no signs of bud rot at the high temps and humidity? I'll be tackling the same problem coming up.

Keep it up bro! Payoff is getting closer.

Thanks dude, it was a busy one in there today .

I can't move the filter to the other end sadly, but I might have a solution. By flipping it through 180° I may be able to squeeze it up into the space kinda to the side/above the rail I hang my lights off.

No signs of bud rot at all no, hoping it stays that way. The strains in mid flower now are all outdoor hardy strains from Sensi so 'touch wood' they should be fine. I got 2 big fans in there and will get the humidity down if there are no leaves left then so be it .

My biggest worry now is sound. With the bigger fan its noisy now. Not at all noticeable in the day with all the background noise. Lying here past my bed time at night however I can hear it loud and clear, which means my neighbour probably can too if she's awake.

Still should hopefully get some money in the next week or two then 4 rolls of this is in order. Should be enough to encase both tents and add some along the wall that joins our houses together.

Always something eh?

 

[Scoooter]

Yeah that should help. More often than not it's the lower frequencies that people hear. Those wavelengths are much longer in length (think of big rolling waves as opposed to a choppy sea) and are harder to deal with. When soundproofing a room an airspace between materials used can help with low frequencies. Sympathetic vibrations occur through mounting methods also. Mount with bungee cords for isolation.

Just my $.02 from days in the recording studio. .

 

[GlaucomaMeds]

Yeah that should help. More often than not it's the lower frequencies that people hear. Those wavelengths are much longer in length (think of big rolling waves as opposed to a choppy sea) and are harder to deal with. When soundproofing a room an airspace between materials used can help with low frequencies. Sympathetic vibrations occur through mounting methods also. Mount with bungee cords for isolation.

Just my $.02 from days in the recording studio. .

Yeah I have everything in there that can be, already hung up on bungees, its just the freestanding fans I can't hang up and the air pump for my dwc res. It is the low noises just as you say. Hopefully I can work something out with that soundproofing stuff, but I have no idea how effective it will be. According to a sound meter app on my phone, its 59Db inside the tent. Thats pretty loud at night!

 

[Guy Cavallero]

Sound meter app....wtf, lol? I just saw a day counter app too.......like a growers dream lmao.

 

[GlaucomaMeds]

Sound meter app....wtf, lol? I just saw a day counter app too.......like a growers dream lmao.

Haha there are some pretty nifty apps nowadays for growing. Not many are intended for growing, but still.

I can even turn my phone into a 'green light' to check on plants during lights off

 

[GlaucomaMeds]

Quick veg update:

Re-potted RCB Clone into a 12L fabric pot. Added Great White directly onto roots inbetween pots. Also sprinkled some in hole that the plant was going into. I'm really happy with all the roots I'm seeing considering it was still attached to its mother 18 days ago!

I watered it in well with a feed of 1.5L water containing 2ml of BioGrow + Great White PH 6.1

The two B.dogs were pretty dry so I gave them their first ever feed. 1L each with sprinkle of Great White and 1.5ml Biobizz Fish Mix per litre. PH 6.2

The TD clone doesn't need anything right now, the soil is still nice and moist so I just left her to it.

That's all on the veg tent today folks.
Flower update later, hopefully I can get my carbon filter moved.

 

[Skullman420]

Wow! That's really amazing roots after only 18 days.

 

[GlaucomaMeds]

Flower update.

Sadly ran out of time today to get my carbon filter moved so it will have to wait. With all the plants in there it took me 1hr to just do normal DWC maintenance .

Temps are still fine, humidity was down from 75% to 70% so some more leaves are going to have to go. Again not today though. No time. Starting to come round to the idea of forking out for a dehumidifier now though. I don't like this heavy defoliation lark. My view is they grow those leaves for a reason so taking them off won't help.

Still got a few pics of the beast.

There is one bud in particular on her in the back left of the last photo that looks like it will be huge! Its already a good 2" across and 10" long .

As for the 2 Sensi soil plants they are still doing ok. I think feeding them with properly PH'd water is helping they just look healthier to me as a result. I fed Soil 1 with 1.5L of feed today. Soil 2 wasnt ready so she can have a feed tomorrow.
Soil 1

Soil 2

The Amnesia XXL Auto is small, but healthy looking to me.

Td is coming along really nicely. Beautiful flat level canopy of tops on her, I couldn't have done much better even if I'd known what I was doing .

Finally the RCB is doing really nicely still too. Tucked a couple more branches today as they had already shot up from 12hrs of being under a good light. Again couldn't be happier with how she is looking, filled the ScrOG out nicely for a first try. A second branch has now made it to one of the very out corners .

Overview

No time to write out my detailed report right now sorry, I'll try and get it done later tonight I have the info saved atleast.

P.S. very rushed forgive any typos etc etc

Have a great day everyone.

Peace.

 

[GlaucomaMeds]

Quick question.

I know its cheap (which is often not great) and only has a 2L tank so I'd have to empty daily, but would this be ok for my flower tent? It can remove 750ml per day from the air. My room is approx 132 cubic feet/3.74 cubic metres in total volume. The reason I like this one is that it has a humidistat built in so its much simpler to use.

Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated, I can't afford any more than that right now, but if its just a waste I'd rather save the money towards a better one.

Thanks!

 

[Skullman420]

Not sure really. been wondering about the same myself. Have been looking at a 10 liter per day one

 

[Scoooter]

I have a 20L one and in testing it does really well in my 4x4. Still in veg so haven't used yet. I have the AC to offset the hot air it puts out but your room is bigger so maybe it won't be as bad.

Here's a mod I did with mine though. I drilled a hole in the front bottom of the waste tank you pull out. Glued in a 1/2" hose barb with acrylic adhesive, built a platform for it high enough to fit a bucket underneath. Popped a hole in the bucket lid for the hose and voila... my little reservoir just became a 5 gallon one. If I do end up using it I will put an inline valve to shut it off in order to empty the water without some spilling out.

If you can get from a local store I would get it and try it. (No hole poking yet) If it doesn't work well enough then return it.

 

[Skullman420]

Most of the 10 liter per day and higher ones, will have a connection where you can connect a hose that you just put in your drain - if you have one that is.

 

[GlaucomaMeds]

Could I re-use the water from one rather than dumping it? Should be clean water right?