Grow Version 1.0 - Reserva Privada Hurricane - LED - DWC - Mainline

[cogreen]

Hi all,
This is my 1st grow and I’m jumping in head first with a DIY cabinet for DWC. I’ve tried to do a lot of homework on growing topics, but lack the hands-on experience. So I decided to start this grow journal to record what I’ve done/did and also to hopefully gain some knowledge from the grow veterans on this site.


Thanks in advance for any tips / help.



Grow Method
--------------------------
* Hydro DWC (traditional)
* Germination: Rapid rooter w / humidity dome until roots are formed and ready for DWC.


Grow Cabinet Specs
--------------------------
* W x D x H: 39” x 29” x 48”... 7.85 ft of floor space and about 31 cubic feet of airspace.
* Air cooling: 80mm fans x 4... 2 on bottom pushing air in and 2 on bottom pulling out. 52 CMF per fan. Note -- all in/out vents are covered with activated carbon filter sheets.
* Interior circulation: 80mm fans x 2 and 4” personal fans x 2. Placed as needed.
* Reservoir cooling: 1/10 HP EHC200 water chiller by Elemental. I use “wort chiller” style method to cool reservoirs. About 3 gal of tap water on recirculating system flows through the chiller. Chilling coils (home made with 304SS tubing) will go into each rez. I also have a few copper coils I used in the cabinet for air cooling (blow a fan through the coils).
* Lighting: EnviroGro FLT28 2-Ft, 8-Tube Fixture, T5 Bulbs… 6400K bulbs for veg (now) and 2700K bulbs for flowering.
* Grow area: home basement in Colorado; fairly low RH and mild temps (usually).
* Reservoir: 2 gal “stacker” coolers; 1 plant per rez.
* Air pump: Hydrofarm AAPA15L 6-Watt 15-LPM Active Aqua Air Pump with 4 Outlets… Will have 2 lines + large stones in each rez.


Strains (all from seed; no clones used)
--------------------------
* White widow (unknow bank)
* Super Sour Alien from “The bank” cannabis genetics (local to CO)

Nutrients
--------------------------
* The complete fox farm (FF) line-up (hydro). I’m following some of the advice as per peppers "Very Simple And Very Safe Effective Fox Farm Nute Chart For Hydroponic Systems" which is basically a ¼ strength version of FF’s generic hydro feeding schedule.
* PH: 5.7 - 6.3.. shooting for 5.8
* Plan to use a little h2o2 to help keep the roots white.
* All water is tap waters; filtered (just a britta filter) and PHd.
* Note: germination is done without any nutes. I don’t plan to feed until 1st set of true leaves at which point the plant will move into the hydro setup.


Overall Approach
--------------------------
* Germ 2 of each strain using rapid rooters using "Xlr8's seed germination technique - germinating in Rapid Rooter plugs ".. NB: no nutes planned until 1st set of real leaves.
* Once into veg, pick best plant of each strain.
* Each plant will have it’s own res so if needed I can feed on separate schedules.
* I plan to use “mainlining” on these girls as per nugbuckets tutorial on-line. I know this will add some veg time.


Here's some pics of my current grow setup for ref:

 

[cogreen]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC And T5 CFL

I germinated the White Widow last Friday (July 17, 2015) using rapid rooters (as per "Xlr8's seed germination technique - germinating in Rapid Rooter plugs" method). As shown in the pics, these girls have their heads up (rear set of rapid rooters in pics). The smaller of these (very rear one) came up with a shell helmet on (guess I didn't sew deep enough) so I moistened a few times and the shell came off with the touch of tweezers.

The front 2 rapid rooters are the Super Sour Alien which I germ'd this Monday (July 20, 2015); obviously nothing up yet.

I have the vents open slightly on the dome and have been watering the rapid rooters about once a day or when they are quite dry.

I've been misting the dome about 5 times daily to keep RH between 40-60%.

Temps in the dome are around 80F, but given the thermometer is sitting on a black tray some of this temp might be radiant.

The avg temp in the cabinet is about 77F and about 40% RH (new fans tomorrow so hopefully I can bring the cab temp down a little).

I only have my T5's on 1/2 power right now so only 4 of the 8 T5s are on. As you can see the T5 is only a few inches above the top of the dome.


Overall setup view

SS Alien in front, White Widow in back

A few close ups of the White Widow seedlings

I'm watching the cotyledon leaves of the White Widow as it seems they are curled down; hopefully nothing to worry about (us 1st time growers tend to worry a lot

Will report back upon any changes.

 

[cogreen]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

Last night I decided to move the White Widow seedlings out of the humidity dome. The germinating Sour Alien I left in the dome to help ensure they don't dry out too quickly.

The White Widow seedlings are placed about 4" from my T5 CFLs (left side of cabinet atop the box).

Here's a close up of the WW seedlings as of 5AM today

I also found a potential rookie mistake; I had PH'd some water a few days ago and put it into my misting bottle. I wrongly assumed the PH would remain stable in the bottle and I hadn't checked it. Last night I checked the PH in the bottle and it was in the upper 6's. From now on I'll be checking the PH in my bottle 2 times daily (PH to 5.8).


These seedlings haven't grown at all in the past 48 hours. If anything the cotyledon of the "good" one have curled under even more....


Does anyone think there's something to worry about here?


Any tips greatly appreciated.

 

[cogreen]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

since last time:

- Installed new cooling fans (x4) which push up to 171 CFM (dual speed). My grow cab now stays around 75F w/fans on low speed.
- The white widow was taken out of the humidity dome on Friday; 7 days from seed.
- The super sour alien came out of the dome Saturday; 5 days from seed.
- I started germinating 2 more seeds; Hurricane (Panama Punch x LA Confidential). The reasoning here is that I'm not overly confident about the White Widow as it was "gifted" to me and has unknown origins.
- The White Widow has few roots coming through. The SS Alien has quite a few more.
- Still just using PHd water (5.8 - 6.0); no nutes yet.
- The seedlings outside of the dome are about 2 - 2.5 inches from my T5s.
- Root zone temp on seedlings outside the dome is about 70 - 72 F. Root zone temp in dome is constant 75F.


Some pics

The seedlings outside of the dome; soaking up some T5

The (good) white widow seedling roots; there are a few but nothing to write home about:

One of the SS Alien's roots; starting to grow in:

I'm thinking to let the roots grow in a bit more on the SS Alien before dropping into DWC... If anyone has comments on this "timing" it's appreciated.

 

[cogreen]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

no pics today as not a whole lot has changed...

yesterday afternoon I started feeding one of the SS Alien seedlings with a very low dose of nutes; about 75 ppm (fox farms). I say "about 75ppm" because bluelab ppm pens are "the best pens on the market... that read over 100 ppm". so far the seedling is taking well to the nutes. I'll probably start the others on light nutes soon assuming I don't see any signs of burn.

I'm also thinking about dropping one of the seedlings into the DWC with light nutes (~100ppm) to see what happens. it's not clear to me if it's too early for this, so a test is probably my best way to find out.

finally the "hurricane" seedlings are starting to pop out; i started germinating them in rapid rooters on Friday.

 

[cogreen]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

since I'm going fishing all day tomorrow, I decided to move the "test subject" into dwc with light nutes so I can closely monitor over then next 18hrs.

summary of what I did:
- Wash all dwc components (res, cover, etc.) with a stiff mix of h2o2 + tap water so they're nice and clean.
- Mix water + nutes in res thoroughly. PH adjust to 5.8.
- Hook-up dwc system + res, and let it run for a few hours to stabilize. Recheck / set PH.
- Let system run another hour; check PH (no change).
- Moved the SS Alien seedling I'd fed light nutes to into DWC.

I also had to turn all the T5s on since I have 3 different sets of seedlings going; kind of a mess for my little area.

currently:
- Res PH @ 5.8
- Res PPM @ 110.... 4ml Big Bloom, 2ml Grow Big Hydro, 2ml h2o2
- Res water temp @ 64.8F
- Air temp is about 80F... A little high but hopefully the airflow I have in the cabinet is enough for these girls to grow at that temp.

i also moved one of the "hurricane" seedlings out of the dome; the other is a little behind.

current setup shown below. a bit of cluster in there and you can def tell this is my 1st grow + DIY cabinet, but I'm hoping I can make what I have work for a 1st grow (even if it takes multiple attempts .. I've learned a lot already, but have A LOT more to learn. I've been taking notes for my next grow area.

seedlings all getting watered with low nutes now; ~70ppm

the "test subject" just put into dwc.

 

[uhewekguilw]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

You are one brave soul going with DWC on your first grow!
Wish you luck! I did dwc 1 time and killed all my plants. First I would recommend checking the ph and ppm every day in the small buckets you are using. Once they get roots and start drinking all that water, you may need to move them to bigger buckets to avoid them drying out. But let me explain that I am NOT an expert with dwc... I killed all my plants remember
You look like you are off to a good start though, so I'll just sit back and learn a little from you!
Good luck
GB80

 

[cogreen]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

Thanks for stopping by guambomb80 and the tips.

To be honest; knowing what I know now I wish I would've started with soil... Unfortunately my hydro project was too far under way to turn back once I came to that conclusion so now I'm going to try my luck (1 or more times) with dwc... If I can't get anything vegging nicely in a few months, I suppose I can try soil and return to dwc after I get more experience.

Thanks for the bucket size suggestion.. I have a few other coolers in mind if these are too small, but was hoping to see how far these got me.

Something tells me I better start a MJ graveyard in the back of the house

 

[mussh]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

im with gb.
I killed lots of good weed trying dwc early in my growing adventures.

what you will get is a crash course in ph and ppm. not to mention heat and root rot and baby sitting buckets of water.
you might want to follow a couple dwc grows. I like what VladimirPutin is up to. check his grow. he is a diy type of guy.

also, if you start having issues you can easily transition to using coco.

im subbed. it looks like you have a good start going. nice and clean.

 

[chenzi]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

Hey mate, GB80 is right on the money !!:good job:
Small bucket are a major pain, These babies won't drink much now, but when they get bigger......
Not to mention ph fluctuation and the size of the rootball !!

Have you placed the plant into a net pot with hydroton ? And what sized net pot are you using ?
My first DWC was in 15 litre buckets and the ph changes and temps were a constant headache, but i had no chiller and a 600w hps to contend with. Good luck my friend !! Maybe start digging ...?

 

[cogreen]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

im with gb.
I killed lots of good weed trying dwc early in my growing adventures.

what you will get is a crash course in ph and ppm. not to mention heat and root rot and baby sitting buckets of water.
you might want to follow a couple dwc grows. I like what VladimirPutin is up to. check his grow. he is a diy type of guy.

also, if you start having issues you can easily transition to using coco.

im subbed. it looks like you have a good start going. nice and clean.

hey thanks mussh... I'm going to checkout some of those DWC grows you mentioned when I get a chance.

I may start looking into the indoor soil aspect -- what the cost would be for me to get setup for it... I suspect minimal as the I think all the nutes I got work with soil except the Big Grow Soil. For now I guess I'll enjoy the learning experience and try to get some girls going.

thanks again

 

[uhewekguilw]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

The concensus is soil is more forgiving, but I have found coco to be the most forgiving. You really can't over water coco and if you have ph or ppm problems, fixing them is quicker and easier. I hope you have success with this dwc, I truly do! But if for some reason things don't work out, don't let those plants completely die, transplant sooner rather than later.

 

[cogreen]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

Hey mate, GB80 is right on the money !!:good job:
Small bucket are a major pain, These babies won't drink much now, but when they get bigger......
Not to mention ph fluctuation and the size of the rootball !!

Have you placed the plant into a net pot with hydroton ? And what sized net pot are you using ?
My first DWC was in 15 litre buckets and the ph changes and temps were a constant headache, but i had no chiller and a 600w hps to contend with. Good luck my friend !! Maybe start digging ...?

Thanks for stopping by chenzi!

Perhaps I should go ahead with the bigger buckets now to minimize any "handling" which may be required if I did it later?

I just placed the rapid rooter in the 2 1/4 inch netpot; no hydroton...

And BTW; I'm questioning the small size of the netpot and have been considering if I should use something larger. The plan is to see which plants make it and are the healthiest and end up with 2 plants total; one per res. So I'm def not expecting to have more than 1 plant (longer term) in those smaller res.

These are all questions I tried to research, but of course found tons of different answers so I had to start with "something"

Damn guys, I'm getting nervous about this DWC now!

 

[mussh]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

hey thanks mussh... I'm going to checkout some of those DWC grows you mentioned when I get a chance.

I may start looking into the indoor soil aspect -- what the cost would be for me to get setup for it... I suspect minimal as the I think all the nutes I got work with soil except the Big Grow Soil. For now I guess I'll enjoy the learning experience and try to get some girls going.

thanks again

personally, I went from dwc to using coco. coco is a soiless medium, that acts like soil. it was a very easy transition. I bought some three gallon pots and some perlite and a block of coco. the nutes I was using for dwc, transition perfectly to coco. no more baby sitting buckets. no more heat issues. no more hassle. my grows became very simple, using the lucas formula for feeding. I have recently upped my game and switched to the hempy bucket. which is the simplest form of dwc. simple but very effective.

don't let us scare you away from dwc. give it your best shot. it is a learning curve. every strain is different.
I will be tagging along and if I see you having issues I encountered, I will tell you how I handled it.

 

[uhewekguilw]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

Think of it like this...
If you pull off this dwc, you will be way ahead of the other newbies growing in soil. Plus your yield will be so much better!

And mussh is right. Coco is soil less so it's almost a hydro grow and your nutes will transfer over just fine.
Don't give up yet! Keep your head up and just pay attention to your plants a little more than you planned at first. Everyone makes mistakes, but at least you have people watching over you to help you along the way. I didn't have that with my dwc....

 

[chenzi]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

Just like GB, and Mussh, I, and am sure everyone here wishes you well
If you pull this together you will be ahead with yield, and you will certainly more in tune with your girls.
The ability to correct issues in DWC is amazing, but you must watch very closely, things can go wrong very quickly but if you pay close attention you will be well on your way.

 

[Atulip]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

Very nice setup. Much more organized than my Dwc setup. As long as you're regularly monitoring things, you should be fine. Small res will require more monitoring though. I ran into problems with my grow early, turned out to be ph when my electrode fried and I swapped to drops and I caused a bit of lockout. Then I ran into another issue when I added cal mag, my plants responded by almost dying in a matter of hours lol.

My next grow will be soil, mainly because monitoring the plants once every 2-3 days rather than 2-3 times a day sounds a lot more appealing. .

A little concerned with having intake and outtake together at the bottom instead of outtake at the top. Might have stale warm air rising and not getting circulated out. Either way, looking forward to seeing how this grow turns out. Subbed and good luck.

 

[Grouchy]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

Subbed! Great job thus far! You are more brave than I running a DWC for your first grow. I'd totally screw that up.


In the first post you made, you said...
"Air cooling: 80mm fans x 4... 2 on bottom pushing air in and 2 on bottom pulling out"
Is that what you meant? because I saw 2 fan on the top

I've been using hempy with Coco and I've had ZERO problems. It's been described to me as a "poor man's hydro" because it's literally a bucket and Coco, but it has amazing results. But I understand the investment was already made when you started buying hydro equipment. But I like your setup! Looks great!

I'm subbed for sure!

 

[cogreen]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

First off, thanks for the new subs and for everyone's support thus far; I really appreciate it!

You guys rock!



@Grouchy and @Atulip -- about the venting... I have 2 intake fans on the bottom and 2 exhaust fans on the top (I have more pics if that'd help)... The idea was fresh air in through the bottom, straight-up through the lighting, etc. and then out the top. I replaced my fans the other day and all 4 of them push 171 CFM each (sounds like a small jet in there). My bad for describing the venting poorly.

I've already started shopping for new reservoirs. 5 gal buckets won't work for me with my height restrictions so I'm looking at rectangle shaped coolers which don't exceed 10" in height... I found some 6 gals in this size, but still reading up on res details (e.g. does height matter). Thinking I'll get something in the next few days so I'm ready early next week with new reservoirs. Does anyone know if res depth is a consideration (haven't found any direct info yet)??


Here's the latest from me:
- I got a chance to get my other res setup and stabilized last night.
- All seedlings are now in a res.
- Both res @ 200 PPM with PH of 5.8 and constant water temp of 65F.
- Air temp has been 78-82F, but low humidity ~35%... Reading up on if I need to be concerned with this low humidity.

So far the plants seem to be happier with the nutes; I think they grew like a mm I'm thinking I should've started earlier with nutes, but this is something I can mess with on my next germination.

My plan is to let things run @ 200PPM through the weekend and see how it goes. I'll be monitoring PH every 12 hrs or so.

Assuming all is well on Monday I'll probably switch the res out and move to around 400PPM. I also plan to switch to a 20-4 lighting schedule early next week to give the gear a little break.


Thanks again everyone!


A few pics, but nothing exciting.


Overall view... As you can see an engineering flaw with the right res cooling coil; it sticks up too far preventing me from getting my T5s any closer than 4" from my res. I may try to bend this a bit more, but it's risky as this SS 304 tubing is much more brittle than copper (I threw away 30$ in SS 304 trying to build these damn coils as one wrong bend and the tubing spilts).

Left res (the back 2 are Super Sour Alien and the front one is the White Widow)

Right res (back 2 are Hurricane and the front one is White Widow).

Side note -- I don't like these net pot covers. They are too flimsy and bend up... I'll have to make something to replace these.

 

[cogreen]

re: Cogreen's First Grow - White Widow & Super Sour Alien With Indoor DWC & T5 CFL

While I remember -- I've been meaning to post a little more on the seeds I have going here.

(1) White Widow -- genetics "unknown". I was gifted these (and a few others strains) and told they are from "a seed bank in the Netherlands". For all I know they are bag seed, but unsure.
(2) Super Sour Alien -- part of the Reserva Privada line. More details here on the banks site.
(3) Hurricane -- part of the Reserva Privada line. More details here on the banks site.