GreenThumb J's White Widow Clone Run RTF/DWC

[Greenthumb J]

Welcome GreenThumb J is back with another Journal!

I just finished my first run in my BC Northern Lights "Producer" model grow box. For anyone who didn't read at least my first post on my first journal let me break it down for you.

Its a self contained, fully automated grow cab, capable of flowering 18 plants to maturity

What the 18-site Hydrotub looks like as I clean it out and get it ready for the Clones

the view from above. The white tray is the clone shelf that sits under the CFL:

ONE intake fan and ONE exhaust fan, as show in the picture below. Intake, left. Exhaust, right. Carbon filter attaches to exterior exhaust vent:

The Producer has TWO 400w ballasts mounted internally that power the TWO 400w MH or HPS bulbs that are positioned like the picture below. there is also a 125w self ballasted CFL that sits above a cloning shelf:

Each light is housed in its own chamber that draws the hot air from the electrical compartment as well and vents it out these fans. One light either side of the box, one fan per light. Looks like this:

Each light has a half-ass reflector built into the compartment lid as seen below:

These holes are where the colder air in the electrical compartment gets pulled through:

The electrical compartment has the fan that draws in the fresh air to cool the lights. The left switch shuts off the air pump:

And, yes, that is a co2 intake. The override switch is on the front. The grow box came with a regulator as well, i just need a tank:

The lighting is controlled via internal timers based on what stage of the plants life. Vegetative or Flowering. The light schedule is controlled by 2 rocker switches on either side of the display. Left side switch controls vegetative lights only (CFL) and can be switched to 18/6 or 12/12.
The water override switch on the lower left used for reservoir changes as it turns on the water pump for 20 minutes MAX!:

Irrigation is controlled by the internal timer that kicks the water pump on to irrigate for 10 mins @ 845am each day.

The reservoir holds approximately 35L as per the specifications and feeding schedules provided.

Water is aerated via an internally mounted air pump that powers FOUR 12" airstones in the reservor

Industrial strength lock on the door, and castor wheels for easy moving if needed.

Plug and Grow basically (plus the setup obviously!)

So Lets Get To It!!

What strain is it? Greenhouse Seed Co. White Widow (clones)
Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages? Indica/Sativa Hybrid
Is it in Veg or Flower stage? Vegetative. Cut 12 clones 07/03, 6 surviving have rooted very slowly. Took 5 more cuttings 07/21 from Large Widow plant in veg currently
If in Veg... For how long? First set of 6 clones cut 18 days ago, and slowly rooting. Second set of 5 clones taken 07/21 in a totally new fashion for me
If in Flower stage... For how long?N/A
Indoor or outdoor? Indoor
Soil or Hydro? Hydro. 3" rockwool cubes. Combination of RTF and DWC
If soil... what is in your mix? N/A
If soil... What size pot?] N/A
Size of light? 125w CFL and 2x 400w MH for vegetative. 2x 400w HPS for flower
Is it aircooled? Yes
Temp of Room/cab? 19-30c
RH of Room/cab? 30%-60%
PH of media or res? Reservoir pH 5.5-6.5
Any Pests ? None so far
How often are you watering? Not watering clones. Misting clone dome as needed. Will transfer to hydrotub when established roots emerge from rockwool, then will hand water until a heathly root system is seen. Then grow box will automatically irrigate the root zone for 10mins @ 8:45am each day
Type and strength of ferts used? Gen Hydro's 3-part flora series is being used starting at 2/3 recommended dose for seedlings and working up to full dose by mid-vegetation cycle. As well, Gen Hydro's SubCulture-M is being used as mycorrhizae supply along with Gen Hydro's Rapid Start root enhancer. Will soon also be picking up some Gen Hydro Floralicious Plus and ArmorSi. I'm currently using a variety of Botanicare products as well. Botanicare Pure Blend Compost tea, Aquashield and Cal/Mag+ will be used throughout the grow.

Gen Hydro's 3-part Flora Series

Gen Hydro's SubCulture-M

Gen Hydro's Rapid Start

Gen Hydro's Floralicious Plus

Gen Hydro's Armor Si

Botanicare's Pure Blend Compost Tea

Botanicare's Aquashield

Botanicare's Cal/mag+

The water pump i think is malfunctioning in the grow box.. will check at 845 if it is watering. if not, then a replacement will be ordered.

I will be germinating some seeds for an upcoming journal that will be starting in about 2 weeks. So once this journal gets enough followers, i will invite everyone to the Journal! It will be a doozy!

Everyone who follows along with this one. I hope to have much better results on my second round in this grow box.

Greenthumb J Out!

 

[TheAntagonist]

Sweet cab.

 

[Lester Freeman]

Subscribed

 

[KingJohnC]

Subscribed

 

[Radogast]

Really good write-up on the cabinet. I see features I hadn't absorbed before.

Subbed.

Too bad it didn't come with a clone setting !!!


I want a robot hydro-Grow system.
I want one with a sexy voice that says "Please add ph down, Master. I love it when you adjust my ph."

"My nutrients are losing their sparkle. FEED ME SEYMOUR!"

 

[stealthgrow]

Subscribed Greenthumb, good luck with the grow.

 

[Greenthumb J]

Sweet cab.

Thanks Antagonist! Glad to have ya here for this one!

Subscribed

Thanks Lester, and Welcome! Glad you decided to follow along!

Subscribed

Welcome back your highness!

Really good write-up on the cabinet. I see features I hadn't absorbed before.

Subbed.

Too bad it didn't come with a clone setting !!!


I want a robot hydro-Grow system.
I want one with a sexy voice that says "Please add ph down, Master. I love it when you adjust my ph."

"My nutrients are losing their sparkle. FEED ME SEYMOUR!"

This box actually comes with the "Sensory Overload" package. Its an additional $2G or something stupid. Comes with a crazy touch screen interface and sensors that monitor and can adjust PH, TDS, maintain humidity levels, air temp and water temp. Personally, i can get all the same stuff for WAY less than what they charge for that package. It might not be controlled by some fancy touch screen, but for $90ish bucks i can get a monitoring system that sends text alerts to me when temps rise too high or RH is too high or low. and for another $220ish i can get the nutra-dip tri meter that does water temp, PH and TDS. So for 1/7 the price i can get all the same readings. I just might have a bunch of wires and sensors all over the place in there haha!

The Bloombox model has a separate vegetative side from the Flowering side and holds a mother plant in soil or hydro. has a cloning shelf and a 12 site hydro tub for vegging clones and seedlings. then the 9 best get moved into the flowering chamber once they are big enough. This system is not bad if you only want 1 or 2 decent plants, every, whatever 4-6 weeks or so.

My Producer has only one chamber, so i'm forced to have a veg area in my bathroom as you know, but i have the ability to do like 4 decent sized plants, that can be trained properly to bush out and produce a very decent yield i think. And if i'm running clones, i can do a SOG and keep them short and do possibly 8-12 plants, but of much smaller stature, but probably pull in the same yield as around 4-6 slightly bigger plants. I'd prefer less plants, but grown bigger, so i have a smaller number plants to trim, taking up less time in my day, hopefully!

Thanks for those who are subbed already. The clones will take off real soon and i will have updates of them in the system!

Also again, once i have a few more people subscribed, i will reveal some exciting news!

 

[Greenthumb J]

ALSO... Checked the water pump when i woke up very late this morning... maybe it was afternoon.. haha. Anyways, when i checked inside the box, there was water everywhere on the hydro table, so i'm assuming there was a watering at 845am. So i attached the 1/2" drain tube thats attached to a 50gal or something Rubbermaid roughneck tote with a 1/2" drain tube with shut off valve, used for mixing nutes and draining hydro tub. And Voila! the water started pumping out of the reservoir!

We are ready for liftoff!!

I am germinating some seeds for my Secret journal, as well as for the upcoming 1200w Big Tent Show. Might actually take it up to 2000w if i can get a water chiller for cheaps! probably not tho, so will be staying at around 1200w for the Big Tent Show.

Now we just need the clones i cut to take off and be ready for the grow box!

 

[Greenthumb J]

As of 1:30pm today, i began germination of the seeds produced in my previous grow. 5x Great White Shark x White Widow and 15x GWSxGWS self pollinated seeds. Hoping those ones dont turn out to be hermies! I also have 9 feminized GWS seeds left to sprout as well if the self pollinated seeds dont pan out. Actually fuck it, i'll pop them later tonight.

GreenThumb Out!

 

[Greenthumb J]

BTW, thanks for stopping by Stealth!

What i deemed earlier to not be fungus gnats as turned out to in fact be fungus gnats. Killed one of those suckers, got in there with the jewelers loupe, and sure as shit it was a gnat.

Will get some h2o2 as well as some mosquito dunks. If those dont work, will try some hydroponics-safe remedies from the hydro store.

I noticed that i forgot to post some pics of the clones that i have right now. I tossed one of the original i cut. Its been almost 3 weeks and it had the tiniest little shoots coming from the stem, then i think it damped off and died, cause it stopped producing any roots. the other 5 left are rooting well, albeit it took them a long time. 3 will be ready for transplant into the hydro system in a week or less. Thats like almost a month from cutting! I will make a bubble cloner or something of the sort and see if that can get me some rooted clones that i can transplant sooner than a month after i cut them!

Anyways, heres some pics of the clones!
Heres the new ones i took last night:

The old ones on the left, newer clones taken that night on the right:

Heres the originals i took:

I dont like the small rockwool starter cubes, however, they are great i'm sure for going into rockwool croutons, which i will be doing in the Tents

That is all for tonight folks.

Goodnight

 

[Cannabis 1]

Looking awesome GT! I use the grodan Rock wool cubes. They are individually wrapped to keep the blocks from falling apart...

And I see that you are watering the roots once @ 845 am. I found that if you keep the roots wet, they will develop quicker. I originally had my plants feeding at 30 mins on 90 mins off while the lights were on. I changed it to 15 mins on 45 mins off for every hour the lights are on, and I have to tell ya, the growth rate exploded when I did this. The point Im trying to make is to feed them more!!

Anyway, everything is lookin great man, cant wait to see a cabinet full of ladies!

 

[Greenthumb J]

Looking awesome GT! I use the grodan Rock wool cubes. They are individually wrapped to keep the blocks from falling apart...

And I see that you are watering the roots once @ 845 am. I found that if you keep the roots wet, they will develop quicker. I originally had my plants feeding at 30 mins on 90 mins off while the lights were on. I changed it to 15 mins on 45 mins off for every hour the lights are on, and I have to tell ya, the growth rate exploded when I did this. The point Im trying to make is to feed them more!!

Anyway, everything is lookin great man, cant wait to see a cabinet full of ladies!

Glad ya made it C1! The clones aren't being fed anything right now. They sit in the humidity done until roots are propagated then I will hand water them until root system is established then I will turn on the automated watering @ 845am. Will contact grow box company about reprogramming the CPU to allow more waterings

 

[stealthgrow]

 

[Greenthumb J]

pass that over here! Munchie time!

 

[Greenthumb J]

Checked on the clones today. The originals are rooting, very slowly! they're showing some decent roots from the stem, but still nothing out the bottom of the rockwool yet! I did just put them into the larger 3" blocks a few days ago so will have to wait some extra time for the roots to emerge from them.

Placed a seed order today! I'm very excited about this particular order. I found a site that specializes in single seed sales to Canada (they do worldwide, except USA unfortunately, but you Americans have many respectable companies that will import seeds, or are US based even!)

They are based in the UK, but their specialty is seed sales to the Great White North! i'm sure they have no problems getting through customs, as Canada is a part of the british commonwealth and all, and probably looks less sketchy than a package coming from the Netherlands or something like that. I hope the link doesn't get obliterated. if you dont live in the states i think they aren't bad for getting your seeds

Anyways heres the strains that i have ordered.

2x Bomb Seeds THC Bomb (fem)
2x DinaFem OG Kush (fem)
2x BC Bud Depot Girl Scout Cookies
4x BC Bud Depot SweetTooth

I am currently doing this journal, but am working on getting 2 new journals going in the next 2-3 weeks.

The first, is not a secret or anything, its the 1200w Big Tent show! Featuring 5 month old White Widow, and maybe Malawi Gold if i decide i wanna wait 4 months to let it flower.

I currently have 20 seeds germinating, and i dont know what i'm going to do with them if they all crack. Since i last checked, i have 1 GWSxWW that has cracked and 2 or 3 GWSxitself seeds that have cracked.

I just came home with yet another tent! its 4'x4'x6.5' and its for another upcoming journal that I will release the details of in about a week or so.

Next week, i plan to buy 2x 6" inline fans 1x 6"x21" carbon filter for the big tent and 1x 4" inline fan and the matching filter for the smaller tent. Once these things are purchase, i am ready to set everything up and get growing in my new tents!!

Fingers crossed the clones take root! i've moved them from under the sativa's branches to in the grow box, on the clone shelf in the clone dome underneath the CFL. The manual says this should be used to propagate roots from cuttings, so lets just hope all goes well and i end up having at least 4 good clones to run in the grow box. If none of the clones do anything, i have a seeds germinating right now! i can just take what i need thats cracked and sprouted and run that in the grow box.

One of my newer clones looked like it had mold on a part of stem that came into contact with the snips.. i snipped it off, gave it a quick wipe and place it back in the rockwool.. the rest of the clone looked fine tho. so hopefully nothing else will come of it.

anyways that is all for today. I have a feeling i will be updating less on this journal. Unless this grow gets spectacularly awesome, which i doubt since it will all be automated an shit, then i will be focusing my time on getting my 2 new journals up and running while deciding whether or not i wanna flower out that damn sativa!

GreenThumb Out

 

[Radogast]

Hey hey don't be running off to your other journals until you answer a few questions.

Um..

Well..

Just one.

Can you explain RTF ? (or pass out a link)
I searched the hydro section and got no hits on those initials.

Cheers and thanks

 

[Cannabis 1]

4 Months!!! Damn!!!!! Im sure it would be worth it!

Cant wait to see the new set up, and good luck with your coming venture..... Can't wait to check that out too!

Looks like you will be plenty busy the next few months. So how many tents total do you have now? I will be getting another one soon as well. I need a dedicated Veg room.....

I had a brief mold problem on my rw cubes. I found that the best solution is to cover the rock wool with some aluminum foil to block the light from getting to it. It will keep the cubes nice and clean......

Anyway, keep us posted on the new journals brother!

p.s whats GWS? I know ww is white widow.......

 

[Cannabis 1]

Hey hey don't be running off to your other journals until you answer a few questions.

Um..

Well..

Just one.

Can you explain RTF ? (or pass out a link)
I searched the hydro section and got no hits on those initials.

Cheers and thanks

I'm thinking Recirculating Top Feed....RTF......

If that even makes any sense....

 

[Greenthumb J]

Hey hey don't be running off to your other journals until you answer a few questions.

Um..

Well..

Just one.

Can you explain RTF ? (or pass out a link)
I searched the hydro section and got no hits on those initials.

Cheers and thanks

RTF = Recirculating Top Feed

Heres a link i'm sure you've read before!!

The Capn's guide to Simple Hydroponics

He says he starts off doing top feed to waste in veg, but personally, i think thats a huge hit to the wallet on nutes! Doing a recirculating top feed allows your plants to use up all the minerals and nutrients that you are putting into the water regardless of the stage of life the plant is in. He then states he changes to RTF for flower and states something along the lines of it being costly to be throwing away nutes like that as well as the plants can use up all the nutes they can get in flower as well. Haven't read the article in a while so i'm not 100% as to what it says.

Either way, my grow box is built to automatically irrigate the growing medium for 15 mins @ 8:45am every day. That 15 mins of constant watering drenches the rockwool, and the run off goes back into the reservoir. Rockwool is PH neutral as well, so no need to worry about the Rockwool raising the PH level in the water

On another note. I got an email today saying my seeds have been shipped! thats less than 24 hours after i placed the order and they are shipping them to me already...? i have to say that is some speedy service.. With international shipping, i should receive my seed in 5-7 days, says the site.. so sometime next week i will have a note on the front door of the building saying i have a package to pick up at the post office.

Also on another note, i have 6 seeds that have cracked open and a taproot has emerged, a couple have rather long taproots that will be planted later on this evening when i am home from work and possible a few more have cracked their shell

1x GWSxWW has a 2cm taproot from the seed
1x GWSxWW that has cracked open. it has a brown taproot tho, but looks healthy, if that makes sense? I soaked my paper towel in aquashield and Subculture-M and let it aerate in a jug for a few hours so the beneficials can thrive. The paper towel is brown as hell cause of the mycorrhizae, but the seeds are popping and producing large taproots, in a timely fashion, so i think my method of germinating is working

I used the Capn's guide to germinating seeds... minus the GH Florablend, cause i had none, and developed my own recipe. I read up on Gen Hydro's Subculture-M and it states to start the beneficial bacteria relationship as early as germination, so i added a tiny bit to my water, poured some Aquashield in, popped an airstone in the cup, waited a few hours then soaked my paper towel and put it into a sandwich baggy and on top of my playstation 3 with a towel over top to keep light out.

in just over 24 hours theres 6 of 20 cracked or sprouting a taproot. Last time i did seeds, i soaked them in PH balanced water for like 48 hours before moving into paper towel and the seeds finally cracking open. Not doing the seed soak this time!

Hopefully by next week or week after, i am all set up with the 2 tents and 2-4 new journals on the go! Its going to be some fun times here at GreenThumbs apartment!!

I also have something else coming in the mail next week that i'm super excited to announce!! so st

 

[Greenthumb J]

4 Months!!! Damn!!!!! Im sure it would be worth it!

Cant wait to see the new set up, and good luck with your coming venture..... Can't wait to check that out too!

Looks like you will be plenty busy the next few months. So how many tents total do you have now? I will be getting another one soon as well. I need a dedicated Veg room.....

I had a brief mold problem on my rw cubes. I found that the best solution is to cover the rock wool with some aluminum foil to block the light from getting to it. It will keep the cubes nice and clean......

Anyway, keep us posted on the new journals brother!

p.s whats GWS? I know ww is white widow.......

Oh C1... You're a smart cookie! RTF does in fact stand for Recirculating top feed. Its how TheCapn grows, and its how i am going to be growing. No need to fuck around with roots dangling in warm water anymore!! thats what i'm experiencing with my 2 huge plants in veg. The water temp in the buckets keeps creeping up. Duno what it was but the sativa looks better now.. She started stretching like crazy last week i had to top her in 2 places and i topped the Widow in 3. I dont know what the hell was wrong with the sativa, but she seems to have righted herself out and growing normally again. All the new growth is nice and green with the older shitty stuff waiting for me to take it off.


GWS = Great White Shark. Its the strain that grew a female pollen sack about mid flower and pollinated itself as well as a nearby widow plant.

I now have 2 tents that need to be set up haha.. One is 8'x8'x6.5' and the other is 4'x4'x6.5. I was thinking of also getting an 8'x4'x6.5' tent for a veg area cause the GF wants the bathtub back or something!! haha ya right hunny!

i also have 2 600w air cooled HID set ups waiting for a couple fans to keep the tubes cool, and to get the hot air out of the tent via carbon filter.

whats over top of FJC? 600w? times 2?