Greenthumb J's BCNL Producer Grow - 800w DWC - First Grow Ever! Multi-Strain

[Greensmurf420]

harvest

 

[Greenthumb J]

Thanks GreenSmurf! It was a load of fun! Stay tuned as I'm about to start setting up my 8'x8' tent and my 600w cool tubes x 2.

I will be starting a new journal in the next couple of weeks so everyone stay tuned to the GreenThumb J Show!

 

[Cannabis 1]

YEA!!!!! Again, great job GT. Now that you have a grow under your belt and know what to expect, you can fine tune your rooms and strategies.

Let us know how that harvest tastes!!!

 

[Greenthumb J]

i just pulled 8 mature seeds out from the Great White Shark plant that pollinated itself. I now have a total of 12 mature seeds i have pulled from this plant.

I have checked all the buds in the box and the stems are too damp still. The buds are starting to dry up nicely and it should be a few more days before i trim the buds off the stems and jar them all up and give everyone a rough dry weight! Then it should be about a week before i go and sample anything to allow some curing time. Everything smells really nice tho when you smell up close. when you first open the box tho, it has that drying plant material smell you know?

 

[Greenthumb J]

okay so i found a few more seeds.. i think that is all i can find tho.. 15 total mature seeds and about 8 seeds that didn't fully mature, although i think a couple of them have matured enough, just didn't develop that tiger striped look on the seed.

 

[Cannabis 1]

Yea, almost like a cut grass or wet hay type of smell. That will be gone very shortly!!!

Thats some good luck with those seeds. You should try and breed with some of those

 

[Radogast]

okay so i found a few more seeds.. i think that is all i can find tho.. 15 total mature seeds and about 8 seeds that didn't fully mature, although i think a couple of them have matured enough, just didn't develop that tiger striped look on the seed.

Fifteen. 15.

That's almost twice as many as eight

Congratulations. You did a lot of things right this grow.

 

[Greenthumb J]

Fifteen. 15.

That's almost twice as many as eight

Congratulations. You did a lot of things right this grow.

Thanks C1 and Rado.. I actually forgot that i had pulled a couple mature seeds as i harvest the GWS, and put them on my bookshelf to dry out a bit.. I am going to put them into a sealed baggy and save them later for a breeding project once i have gotten my 8x4 tent and my 4x4 tent.

I've started unboxing the HID light kit. For $200, i think i got a hell of a deal. I cant vouch for the quality of these products that i got, but hell, for the price, along with a 3 year warranty on everything? i would say i am on my way to see an amazing ROI! (return of investment....) and if anything cant be replaced by warranty, not like it was very expensive in the first place, plus this place is a 15 min drive away, with a warehouse full of these products. 8x4 tents for $200 and i seen them set up in their show room. Very study. Metal support poles rather than PVC, so i feel i will get a bit more rigid structure out of this and allow me to hang heavier duty equipment from the rafters in the tent.

Heres what i got for $200:

1 - Iponic Zone Terra 6" air cooled tube reflector
1 - Iponic Zone 600w Dimmable Digitial Electronic ballast
1 - Iponic Zone 600w High Output HPS bulb
1 - Iponic Zone 600w HO MH bulb
1 - 24hr Timer
1 - Yo-yo light hangers

i think for the price, its not bad.. I haven't seen anyone use these products, but clearly they manage to sell and haven't seen a bad review anywhere, so they cant be that bad..


anyways i'm off to the hydro store to reload on important things... Like AQUASHIELD.. fuckin shit is like gold for hydroponics i swear!

until later my friends, stay green

 

[Cannabis 1]

Sounds like you got a killer deal! The ROI and then some is icing on the cake. Lets see the pictures!

 

[Greenthumb J]

Pictures coming guys! i'm going to set up my tent tonight as well, at least i hope i will!

So i just got back from the hydro store, and i was crushed to see they were out of aquashield and stopped carrying it cause apparently its not very popular up here in BC. The guys there said they would happily order it in for me in the 1gal jugs, which will be in early next week. I have just enough to get me through until next week, then i'm right out. Might even ask them to get a larger jug i think its 10gal. Honestly, if you run a hydro set up of any kind, Aquashield is a must, especially in DWC or aeroponics. (hint hint C1 if you aren't using aquashield in your hydro, you are running the risk of serious root problems.)

I bought a GH product that they said is the Gen Hydro's version of Aquashield. however upon further reading the finer print on the bottle, it states not to use with their Subculture products (which i am using Subculture-M for my mycorrhizae supply) So i now have to go back and return the Flora shield when the Aquashield comes in next week. I will also be buying a large ass box of grodan grow cubes for like $100. its an insane amount of rockwool cubes and i cant wait to start growing Capn style!

on another note, my sativa is looking awful and i'm not sure it will make it to flower by the time i have everything purchased and installed and ready for plants.

 

[Cannabis 1]

1 gallon is 70 bucks!!!! I will look into that though. Thanks for the tip. What exactly is its purpose? Add oxygen to the water?

I actually found a gallon for 25 bucks....

 

[Greenthumb J]

1 gallon is 70 bucks!!!! I will look into that though. Thanks for the tip. What exactly is its purpose? Add oxygen to the water?

I actually found a gallon for 25 bucks....

yea its hella cheap here in BC.. Botanicare makes the 1gal and i dont think its 70 bucks here.. but trust me its better to buy in bulk! Aquashield is a liquid compost solution that breaks down any dying material in your res and turns it into useful products for your plant. Its also a preventative against Pythium and other root issues as well as its one of the main ingredient in Heisenbergs tea.

i had an issue with root rot in my original DWC tub that came with the grow box and once i applied Aquashield the root rot issue was dealt with and never came back. I since then have never stopped using it for its preventative uses. Unfortunately, i am basically out of aquashield and have stopped using so many beneficials, and my plants are suffering!

 

[Twilight LED]

Good journal, Greethumb, I am in.

Hello Everyone!

to my very first online Grow Journal!

I am welcoming everyone on to follow along on my first endeavor into cannabis culitvation. I am hoping to pick up lots of useful and priceless information to better my skills and grow some top shelf marijuana.

I am going to start with my grow set up. I thought long and hard (not really actually) about how i should grow. I wanted it as stealth (mainly just smell) free as possible as i was going to grow in a rented basement suite i lived in. I quickly moved cause it was a shit living arrangement. I originally wanted a grow tent complete with lights and a hydro set up. i'm thinking now i should have gone this way cause i would have less height restrictions as i do now. I opted for a more compact and self contained unit from a local company here in BC called BC Northern Lights. They sell tents (which i was originally going to get, complete with their automated hydro set up and lighting and shit) but the sales rep made a good point that if i ever need to dismantle my grow in a pinch for some reason, moving large plants around and taking down a tent would take some time i may not have. So i spent the extra money and purchased their "Producer" model grow box. It wasn't cheap and it took me and my girlfriend a long time and some hard work and long hours to save up for it. Its also taken a huge financial toll on our upcoming trip to Las Vegas for Electric Daisy Carnival next month in June. Literally no money in savings! thank god the festival tickets are paid for! (albeit expensive VIP!! i love to spend money it seems!)

Here she is. The T5's on the top there are not being used in my current setup of this box. They will be however once the plants stretch in flower, and lower bud sites need light, and they wont burn the leaves that come into contact.

So heres some stats for ya:

-2 400w ballasts that power each 400w bulb on either side. Came with PlantMax 400w HPS and MH, 2 each.
- Air pump and water pump controlled by internal CPU, lights on automated timer also controlled by CPU. Light cycle controlled at flip of a switch (and change of the bulbs too!). 18/6 is from 6am-midnight. 12/12 is from 9 am-9pm
- 35 litre, 18 site hydrotub that does DWC and top feed. Automated watering every morning @ 8:45 via water pump thats controlled to pump via internal CPU
- T5 light upgrade. Two 4' T5 lights that sit on the hydro lid providing light to lower canopy and bud sites. would burn young bushy plants that hit the t5's. ideal for plants that have grown above the t5's
- Veg upgrade included the 2 400w MH bulbs mentioned before as well as a 125w sunblaster CFL and a nursey tray and propagation dome.
- "Silver" package of Nutes. Future Harvest Plant Life brand. Grow(1-2-5), Common(2-0-0), Flower(0-4-4), Bud Boom(0-6-5), Carbo Blast(0-1-0) and Super B+(0-2-1). Also got some rooting gel for cloning. Also currently using Aquashield in my water res.
- Can-250 carbon scrubbing filter. 10lbs
- co2 regulator and built in distribution maintained @ 1600 ppm supposedly.

The Nutrient line up:

Carbon Filter and co2 regulator

I currently have 4 strains growing: (in order of quantity of plants, will post a pic and current age with each strain.)
After i describe my strains i will describe the problems they dealt with at a young age.

- 6 Malawi Gold from Malberry Seeds. Started with 12 regular seeds, 6 survived, and i think theyre all female.. at least. Research tells me these seeds are African landrace sativas from the Malawi region of Africa. Very long flowering time. Have read people having flowered this strain for 14+ weeks before she was ready for harvest! thats crazy!
They are currently 41 days from seed. From what i have read about others grows and how this strain grows, i should have put them into flower WEEKS ago cause they are going to stretch like crazy and i have height constrictions! although i snapped a top off LST'n one of them so we will see how that grows out.

This picture is of them yesterday, a day after their first LST. Theres a White Widow on the top right in the pic.

- 4 White Rhino (feminized) from Greenhouse Seed Co. Started with 10, 4 survived. 1 is 5 days older than the other 3 and one is a runt, but now starting to explode. Probs nute lock out. They have been getting a much higher dose of nutes than they should be getting, mainly cause i have had them in the same DWC tub as plants that are 2-3 weeks older, but it hasn't seemed to affect them one bit, except the runt i think. I really want to clone these plants or buy some more of these seeds.. most likely take clones because they look amazing.

Here's an overview of them. Theyre centre frame. The middle one is the oldest. the runt is hiding behind the Widows.

- 3 White Widow (feminized) from Greenhouse Seed Co. I Started with 20! This strain was supposed to be my first grow.. all 20. My grow box grows 18 (it used to!) plants to flower so i planned to pop all 20 seeds and have 2 mothers for clones. I had some issues with damping off with some after they popped. the rest that died were because the water res in the grow box wasn't able to be cleaned properly, so it provided a perfect place for some root rot to develop. The widows that were salvageable were saved with Aquashield, also the Malawi gold that suffered root rot were saved using AquaShield.

Here is the 2 largest Widows, they are all 48 days from seed:

That is my strain count.

The problems they had when they were young seedlings was mainly the hydrotub they sat in.. Here's a picture for you to get an idea of what it looks like. Excuse my lazy dog sleeping on it.


That thing is large and next to impossible to give it a proper cleaning. You cant really take it out once you have rooted plants in there cause its pretty damn impossible to take out your plants from the box to clean the water res. its 4ft wide! I'm almost certain that it caused a case of root rot in my plants, and i didn't act soon enough in getting some Aquashield and lost a bunch of plants.. that is why i have plants that are like almost a month apart from when i popped the seed. Plants died and i hurried to get plants germed and into their new homes so i can make a full 18 plant harvest from this and hopefully see some return on my huge investment, inculding my seeds i paid a load of money for.

However, i was unhappy with the way the hydro tub was just to inconvenient to change the water and clean out properly so i didn't have any more root problems. So as you can see in the last picture, its sitting on my patio catching sun rays (raindrops mostly here in BC) while my babies are loving their new homes.

I made simple DWC containers and utilized my existing air pump in the grow box that powers Four 12' air stones to provide so much air to the water res and roots, they dont' know what to do with themselves.. I went to Walmart and got 3-38 litre Rubbermaid roughneck totes in dark blue and drilled 8-3.5" holes in 2 of the 3 lids, as i only have 14 plants at the moment. Cut a V in each of the lids and the containers so that i could put my airline tubes into the containers without pinching the air line, while also making sure that there are no light leaks.. seems relatively good so far. Each DWC container has 2 - 12" airstones inside, one for each row of plants, and have 7 plants per container. I only give a light top watering once i feel the rockwool start to get dry-ish on the top. i have block covers, and the bubbles in the containers keep the rockwool very moist. Top feeds occur every 2-4 days? i'm thinking that i can go a couple more days without having to water them from the top.. i think that would make it 6 days. humidity is up around 60% cause i had a container of water to evaporate into the grow box cause i was worried humidity was too low earlier in growth.. guess its actually not as dry in there as i thought. Took the water out of the grow box and humidity is around 50%ish

Here's a picture of my ladies new homes:

The clone dome thats in there is trying to save a top that i broke off when doing some experiment with LST on my sativas cause i keep reading that they like to stretch in flower and can grow like 9-12ft tall outdoors.

Just about 2 weeks ago, my Girlfriend came home from the hydro store (on my request of course) and returned with a MagniWing fixed socket light shade all wired up, a 600w Gavita dimmable digiatal ballast, a new PH and TDS pen (although the tds pen says CD600 on it and my ph pen says PH600. i'm hoping the hydro guys gave my GF the right meter. But its all good..) they threw in a $30 yo yo system for my magniwing for free.. she forgot to get hydroton rocks for my cloning goals, but that can come next check. i dont have calibrating solution for TDS pen so i'm not sure if any readings with it will be accurate but it does read measurements of PPM so i'm guessing the hydro guys gave my girl the right one... I do have 7.0 buffer solution for my ph pen, and it was bang on calibrated. So maybe the TDS pen is too. They are made by the same company (Milwaukee) She also brought home 36 2" net pots for my cloning set up i plan to build. and i think that it all she got.

Here's the new "grow expansion 1.0" gear:
MagniWing fixed socket

Gavita Dimmable digital 600w ballast

I've since bought a cheap hygrometer from Walmart for like 9.58 or whatever. It seems like its shit, but i guess it works cause i place it in front of my intake fan in the box and the temp goes down. Move it to the other side and temp n shit adjusts accordingly.. Temperature stays around 24 degrees (72F i think?) consistently. RH in the grow chamber is 50%, was a little higher cause i had some water in a container to raise RH cause i thought it was too low.

I plan to buy individual DWC containers for my mother(s), or use a large ass one as i already have the tote for it, and drill probably 5" or 6" holes into the top for the net pots the mothers will sit in. i only have 3" rockwool cubes and the larger cubes by Grodan only have a 1.5" hole for the starter cubes in the middle.. no good for transplanting 3" cubes. So i'm thinking i will probably use Hydroton clay pebbles for the mother plants with the 1" cubes in the middle from transplanted clones turning into mothers. i'll have to top feed more often i'm sure, but by this time, i wont be working so full time as much and i can focus on my grow My goal is to have 4 moms growing happily in a huge DWC container that fits nicely in my ensuite bathroom in my master bedroom. I have a separate shower, and the bath doesn't get used at all. I am going to build a wood frame that sits on top of the tub and holds my Magniwing shade. It will have a black curtain that will block as much of the light as possible so i'm not being blinded while i take a crap. The frame will also implement a screen to keep the bushes tamed so i'm not having to bushwack just to take a shit. Thinking like tomato cages or a nice Scrog and lots of topping and a vertical screen beside the toilet to keep them from growing that direction.

I also am thinking about building new DWC lids.. Currently the lids i have are 8 site lids and i am currently able to do 16 plants with the 2 constructed lids. i could make one more lid and do a total of 24 plants with the 3 totes i have. I have 4 airstones in the grow box so i want to get a 4th DWC in there some how.. i have a way i could fit a smaller container that holds 4 plants, maybe 6 if i could fit that many. If i made new lids for the tubs i have already and made them 12 sites each instead of 8, i could essentially get 36 plus whatever extra from the smaller DWC tub. 3 DWC tubs of 12 would fit perfectly in the box and give me double the 18 site hydrotub would, just one tub would get an extra airstone. I am not sure what to do.. I want to build my own power cloner.. saw a video on youtube of a dude building a pvc frame inside a rubbermaid tote that had sprayer tips and misted the clipped end of the roots.

My main Dilemma is my very quickly approaching Las Vegas trip. The sativas take a long time to flower.. i am expecting 12 weeks. The rest of my plants have an 8 week flowering time according to the breeder. If i flipped on Wednesday, i could start the flush the regular day i change water before i left and my friend whos apartment/dog sitting while i'm on vacation can keep an eye on the plants and do the second week of flush, and when i come back i can literally harvest, providing my triches say its time to harvest! This is what i think i am going to do. Flowering time is coming soon!


Some Questions i have for anyone reading this is:

**Should i switch to flowering now?** thats my big one.. i'm leaning towards so the sativas dont become a jungle in there.

Should i remove the 125w CFL from my grow box and use that in the MangiWing fixtire, or one of the 400w MH bulbs i will take out once i switch over to HPS and leave the CFl in the grow box for a different light spectrum?

Should i use an existing plant for a mother? or use a clone? Im' thinking a clone as i will be able to train it much better to stay confined in my bathtub Veg area.

Do i switch over to flowering Nutes right away? the feeding schedule that BCNL gave me as well as the nute bottle says i'm well past the veg time and should be into flower by almost a couple weeks for the White Widows. Should i give them the veg mix i have given them for another week after the flip then switch to flowering feeding?

I've read that lots of people are against the taking of clones after the plant has gone into the flowering stage. Any insight to this? if its cool then i'm in. i want clones of these babies cause i was frustrated with my seeds i purchased and lost half of.. I have to say i still have 9 Great White Shark beans sitting on my shelf and i want to get my hands on some Girl Scout Cookies seeds (fem) as well as Chocolope (fem) but i dont have funds to spare on more seeds. I want to go from clone next time and hopefully be able to get a nice sea of 30+ plants in my Producer.

Another inquiry on cloning; i want to build a power cloner. A DWC-ish tub with enough water to recirculate by the water pump (not sure if the one i saw had an airstone in the water res.. i'm sure it didbt and he had a couple with some decent clones going in ones he made previous) and misters on a pvc tube that mist the cut area of all the clones. I liked this idea the moment i saw it, regardless if it actually worked. I'm going to add a nursey tray dome that is large enough to cover the whole cloner. I am only able to clone in rockwool at the moment as rooting gel and 1" rockwool are in no shortage but i dont really like my experience with rockwool in early stages of growth. Once past the fragile part tho, it seems very stable and easy to keep moist (less frequent watering) For my clones i'm going to use the 2" neoprene plugs to hold the cuttings upright in the 2" net pots while they develop roots, then i'm going to transfer them into hydroton clay pebbles and the 3.5" net pots i already have and then into the flower chamber.

Okay i think that is everything!! i am going to delete the older journals or abaondon them and link this one in my signature because i dont think I capture the essence of what i'm trying to do here in the other journals.. and thats learn!! Not enough questions were asked.. I want as much knowledge as i can get so i'm more prepared the next go around. I have poured out my heart into this Journal to give you as much details as i can so you can give the best advice that you can! I hope to have some awesome people help me make it through my first endeavor into growing. I might try a soil grow next time in this grow box, probably will stay with the less messy, hydro tho!

I for taking the time to read all this and happy growing!!

-Greenthumb J

 

[Twilight LED]

have a good harvest!!!

 

[Greenthumb J]

sorry for the lack of pictures, some friends came over that we haven't seen in awhile and me and the Mrs been hanging out with them.. I did take some pics of the light unboxing and i will post those tonight some time.. I may get to unpacking some of the tent and maybe will set it up, depends when friends leave and how many drinks i end up having hahaha!!

 

[Greenthumb J]

have a good harvest!!!

Thank you so much! are you a 420 sponsor? i have never actually seen your products online, but i am very interested in trying LED's for a future grow! I will do some research on your products and the prices in comparison to other LED's

Care to sponsor a grow with some of your LEDs? hahaha i had to ask since i see so many sponsored journals!

thanks for subscribing! i actually just harvested on sunday. everything is in the grow box drying and waiting to be put in jar.

I asked about a sponsorship because i just bought an 8'x8'x6.5' grow tent and a 600w HID set up. the summer gets so hot here in my apartment and people always say LED's run cooler, but i think the heat just vents into the grow environment and makes everything warmer..

care to make an argument?

again, thanks for subscribing!!

 

[Greenthumb J]

have a good harvest!!!

didnt really read your picture and such to see that you were a 420 sponsor! thanks again!

 

[Greenthumb J]

okay i unpacked the tent, and it looks easy as hell to put the frame together, its putting the actual tent material over the frame that will be difficult i think haha

oh well.. I will get to it tomorrow.. Also i am placing a seed order tomorrow as well. so stay tuned, it should be a glorious day tomorrow!

 

[Cannabis 1]

Its a little late in my grow to use the aquashield, but will use it net grow for sure! Thanks GT! I am also interested in going the LED route. My HID'S are a little to hot for the summer time, but I manage........ Maybe I can get a sponsor down the road.......

The tents are extremely easy to put together. The biggest pain is slipping the actual tent over the skeleton. Mine took 2 people because of the size, but you should be able to do it by yourself.....

 

[Greenthumb J]

C1.. its never too late in your grow to use AqualShield, especially if you have warmer growing conditions for your hydro setup. Even tho you cant raise the Dissolved Oxygen when the water gets warmer, you can take steps to reduce the risk of Pythium outbreak in out hydro. even tho it will eventually happen when your water gets too warm, you can at least slow down the infection of your roots while you can remedy the warm water problem.

off to work..

ps it says 4 people needed to put the skeleton together (put top piece on the bottom piece.. its 8x8 so i doubt 2 could do it!)