Matticusss Hydro Big Bang AF Grow Journal 2015

matticusss

New Member
Hey all, I have been watching and reading grow logs for a few years now and decided to do my first hydro grow and document online the whole journey. First I would like to thank True North Seed Bank, located in Canada. My first online seed order started rocky but ended up great. I ordered from these guys on 4/28/2015 and received my order which came through ISC Chicago and ended up at my door today 5/4/2015. The rocky part was the order itself, I ordered online with credit card, and all seeds said currently available. Come to find out they were out of stock, these horror stories of this company came true in that aspect, however, the customer service they have is top notch, with 1 phone call they upgraded my order to seeds they had available in stock and shipped that same day. Now since this is my first hydro grow I decided to buy a stealth grow box. I purchased the box from unique hydroponics. I received the box on 4/2/2015 but the locks on the side were broken, I will show in pics later on. Again the customer service is top notch with these guys as well, i called them right away they are shipping new upgraded locks today 5/4/2015 since sunday was a holiday. Now on to the stats.

Strain: Big Bang Autoflower Feminised
Genetics: Skunk x Northern Light x El Niño x Rudaralis
Flowering Time: 6 weeks
Yield: Up to 900gr/m2
THC% Unavailable
CBD% Unavailable
Breeder: GreenHouse Seed Co

Box Dimension 4ft tall x 17.5in wide x 13in deep
20 Quart hydroponic basin
180 Watt 60 x 3 UFO LED full spectrum grow light
1 intake fan with carbon filter
1 exhaust fan with carbon filter
the bubbler and air stone came assembled with the box turn key

Floragrow
FloraMicro
FloraBloom

that's the basics if anyone needs any more info please let me know and ill do my best to keep things updated daily. well I am still waiting on the grow light. the box the nutes and the light come in separate packages. still waiting for that. I will be updating with pics later on today with the setup and what nutes and everything. i will update as soon as i get the led light. I plan on documenting with pics and possibly video everything from germination to end to show what these little boxes can do for a personal grower.

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The box is not flush against the wall, there is about a foot and a half of space behind the box to allow for proper air to be sucked into the box. Anytime i touch the plant or seed or even open the box i use latex gloves trying to keep everything as clean as possible. Any advice or criticism is welcomed since this is my first hydro grow. thanks a lot for reading please subscribe and stay posted.
 
ok so I heard from Unique Hydroponics this afternoon and got the tracking number for my UFO LED light. It will arrive tomorrow YAY!!! Ok but on a serious note, since I found out the news I went ahead and started germinating the seeds today 4/4/2015. Currently have 3 Big Bang Feminised Autoflower seeds germinating, will post pics once they have sprouted, also will update pics of box after light is hooked up. Stay Tuned
 
ok so the UFO light came in today, seeds have hit 24 hrs germinating via paper towel method and no sprouts yet. the paper towels are plenty damp and in a sealed container with vent holes kept in a closet that never gets opened. I also covered the other pot holes with tin foil, my thought of that was that it would also help reflect and give more light to the bottom of the plant and since its only the LED lighting it shouldn't put off enough heat to heat the foil and hurt the plants.

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ok so a quick update, its 10pm and i checked my seeds, 1 of them has started to sprout a tail the other 2 seeds haven't opened yet. im going to wait until tomorrow and see what happens with the other 2 seeds.

Also, today i picked up some grodan rockwool grow cubes 1.5in and hydroton as well. I will update tomorrow with pics of the seeds and after they are planted. thanks for your time and support and stay tuned
 
alright so checked the seeds this morning when i woke up and this is what i saw

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as you can see 2 of the seeds have sprouted little tails already and one of them is crackep open along the side but no tail has come out, im giving it a few more hours before i plant the seeds in a rockwool medium and then into the box they go.

The rockwool cubes are currently soaking in phd water at 6.5. i will be soaking the cubes for around 5 hours

the water basin for the hydro unit has been filled with bottled spring water, i will be adjusting the ph before i add the rockwool and hydroton to see if the ph changes with those additions. if it does i will ph the water again to maintain proper ph between 5.8 and 6.5.

the rockwool cubes are 1.5in and made by grodan. both the rockwool and hydroton were picked up in a local las vegas hydro shop. which i must say since it was my first time going in there. those places are to growers like frys electronics or best buy is to geeks. ( don't mean to offend anyone i used that term solely because of the geek squad department ) holy crap i could literally spend hours in there looking at everything they had. including full tent hydro setups inside that are up and working so you can see every little part. they also offered free setup of any tents or materials you buy which i thought was excellent customer service. again this was my first time in a hydro store and was mighty impressed. in no way am i trying to advertise for the company.



ill post later with pics of what was done, see you again soon
 
I see you have a 4 gallon basin for hydro. I guess you're doing DWC, I could be wrong. I just had a DWC fail with root rot about 5 weeks ago and rebooted a new grow into a new aeroponic DIY design. My seeds popped 3 days ago, just a few days ahead of yours. So let's keep on eye on each other's grow shall we comrade?
 
Yes it is a 4 gallon tub and id like to see what happens as well can you link your grow here im pretty new to using the site other than reading posts lol.

well good news is that i went ahead and transplanted the germinated seeds into their new rockwool homes. i phd the water to 6.2 put the rockwool in the net pots ( which by the way the netpots were to small for my grow cubes so i just made it work best i could with the hydroton. covered the rockwoll best i could with it but the hydroton is too big for my small little net pots. pics below

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im sorry the pictures are not that great. my camera on my phone sucks but its all i have. try to bare with me.

did you find out what caused the root rot? they have this additive that you can get that eliminates root rot, ive also read a lot that you can use small amounts of h2o2 to help with root rot i hope that's right cause that's my back up incase it happens with this grow.

now the 3rd seed was just cracked open all the way and i still planted it with the others since i didn't want fungus growing on the other seeds. if it takes it takes, if not ill pull it later when the other ones start to really veg. thanks a lot for the subs and i will post an update later on today about the locks if i receive them or not.

as for now they will be sitting in complete dark for the next 48 to 72 hours.

going to wait until the first set of leaves before starting nutes and any other questions that anyone has i would be more than happy to answer. after all, more questions = more answers= more knowledge=better grow. that's the way i see it so the more the better.
 
did you find out what caused the root rot? they have this additive that you can get that eliminates root rot, ive also read a lot that you can use small amounts of h2o2 to help with root rot i hope that's right cause that's my back up incase it happens with this grow.

now the 3rd seed was just cracked open all the way and i still planted it with the others since i didn't want fungus growing on the other seeds. if it takes it takes, if not ill pull it later when the other ones start to really veg. thanks a lot for the subs and i will post an update later on today about the locks if i receive them or not.

as for now they will be sitting in complete dark for the next 48 to 72 hours.

going to wait until the first set of leaves before starting nutes and any other questions that anyone has i would be more than happy to answer. after all, more questions = more answers= more knowledge=better grow. that's the way i see it so the more the better.

Matticusss, my root rot was caused mostly by avoidable things that I made as a beginner with DWC. It was a 20 litre bucket, was air fed with 2 stones plus I thought it would be good idea to put a submersible pump inside. The submersible was 9 watts and it heated my res to around 80F plus, and that temp contributed to allowing the fungus to take hold. APparently the fungus is everywhere, kept in check by good bacteria unless something happens to the environment that suddenly gives the pythium an advantage to take over. Your best bet is to prevent it by keeping light out of the tank, res temps down around 63F, lots of bubbles in all parts of the tank, and don't let your roots dry area get too wet. I kept my res almost half filled and the roots were too damp all the time. The rot took hold slowly and the extreme damage was not apparent right away. The leaves started to get a dreaded claw appearance. Plus all this happened 3 weeks into flower which is a NO NO. Anything happening in flower when the plant stems turn woody (late phases of maturity) forget about bouncing back. Anyway... you have 20 litres, you might start out with the tank almost half full, just guessing, because your baby plants don't have hanging roots yet, but as they get longer, I DO recommend lowering your tank capacity to 5 or less litres to avoid the possibility of suffocating the root zone. That's just my Ruble (2 cents)


Nice hydro medium, xxl sized haha.
 
oh wow ok, yeah i have the outside of my box painted so no light leak inside the box, only part of the tubing is exposed to the light, when the door is shut the rest of the bubbler hose is tucked under the box lid flap on the side which completely covers the tubing. i don't know what the water temp is yet have to buy a meter Friday on payday, but i keep my house around 74 F and the room its in is at a constant 73 - 75 degrees. Ill be sure to keep an eye out for those other conditions. this is a lot more difficult to get started with making sure things are ph correct. but so far im liking the experience.

i am checking every few hours to make sure the hydroton hasn't soaked up all the water so i give a mist or 2 of phd water onto the hydroton just to make sure they are wet, not soaked but wet. trying not to drown the roots. the water comes to the very bottom of the netpot just in case anyone was wondering.

checked the mail and no locks today for the cabinet, hopefully they come before i have to turn on the light or else ill have to jimmy rig it shut with floss and the current locks.

Vladimir, i know what rubles are lol, i was assigned to the Moscow embassy duty station when i was in the marine corps
 
ideal is 69f
my res usual is low to mid 70's I don't have any issues
I use aqua shield atm but even before ive used it it had no real issues
more new white root growth now tho seems like the nutes stick more to the older
root mass that's all bunched up
rockwool should be phed in 5.5 water
I don't use rockwool anymore I only use rooting plugs like rapid rooter type stuff now
I don't even ph it just wet it and go
and the bottom of my netpot is touching the water height of water is not the real issue
theres a lot of other factors I hear a lot of people say don't have the res too high but I always have and had no problems
the only problem is if you make the lvl too high its starts bubbling up through the netpot lid from the air :rofl:
 
ok so the regular mail came today and no locks yet, maybe it was shipped ups which may come later today, or it should be in tomorrows mail.

at 8 am this morning i checked on the babies and gave each one a couple mists of water. making sure not to soak it. water level is fine and the ph is 5.9

at 1 25pm this afternoon i checked on the babies again no sprouts yet, will be turning on the light tomorrow. Or should i go ahead and turn the light on tonight? i put them in yesterday at noon.
 
alright so its been a few hours under the led light, sorry decided to turn it on already. some say to leave it on some say not to, and from what i read it all depends on where the lighting is in conjunction with the seed, as well as what type of lighting is used. so i decided to start the led light 10in above the seeds. i can barely start to see a seedling coming through the top of the rockwool on one of the plants, i wonder if putting them under sooner would have made them sprout faster under the led lights?
 
alright here are the pics of what i saw when i turned on the light

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as you can see on one of them it has a green leaf but the little stem is white and brown, i checked the ph and it was at 7.0 for some reason i qucily lowered it to 5.9. i misted the hydroton and cube and plants with phd water as well. the light is hanging around 10 inches above the plants. Again the light is 180 watt 60x3 UFO LED. and its a pretty small box the lights footprint is larger than the grow area so i figured 10 inches would be ok. the temperature inside the box is 73 degrees.

hopefully the third one will just be a late bloomer as i could not see a sprout yet. ill give it a few more days and if nothing then i will pull the plant and call it a dead seed. which if it has to be done that's fine itll just give more room for the other two plants.

a side question. on a box the size which should i just let it grow naturally or SCROG? i will be heading to the hydro shop tomorrow, any suggestions on things i should pick up, i already know i need an ec meter. any other recommendations for this kind of setup?
 
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