Out With The Soil, In With The Hydro! Gorilla Glue & Critical Purple

[baddaddygreen]

Greetings growers! After a few indoor soil grows I’ve decided to go hydro this time around. I wan to see the difference in taste,quality,yield this time. I’ll be growing as follows: feel free to offer any advice at any time. Just leave a nug in the bowl on the way out. I’ll keep this journal up to date from here on out. (Fingers crossed)


So I’m still running the same basic setup in my converted garage. Advance spectrum max s900 led. Full spectrum 3w bridgelux x 300. Pulling 607 watts at wall. 6in exhaust fan 450 cfm. Grow tent is 4x8x7 and I’m only using 1/2 the tent at this time.

Genetics:

This grow I have growing are Growers Choice Gorilla Glue and critical purple. Both are auto flower strains with 70-80 days to harvest. I followed their recommendations for germination. Drop in shot glass/paper towel method. I dropped 4. And 3 of 4 sprouted 1 gg and 2 cp.

Grow media. Hydroponic bubble buckets (DWC). Air pump and air stones. Hydroton and large baskets sitting in 5 gallon buckets.

Nutes. This grow I am going to be somewhere in the middle of the strength of the feeding chart. I’m going with base nutes
By Advanced Nutrients grow part A and part B. GH diamond nectar etc. more details as I feed.

Water is well water 500 feet down. Ppm at the tap is between 55 and 80. That’s pretty good for well water. ph hovers around 8 and will adjust accordingly.

Seeds were germinated on 11/24 and placed in rock wool cubes after tap roots popped. I sprinkled a little mucous in the cubes prior to seeds.

12/7 day 13. I placed the cubes in each of the buckets and added hydroton in the initial grow solution of

11.5 ml grow part a
11.5 ml grow part b
3.0 ml diamond nectar.
Ph was 6.0

12/12 day 18.

Ph went up a bit to 7. Adjusted to 6
Ambient water temp

Gg 68f
Cp1 69
Cp2 70

I relocated my mini 250 watt heater to blow indirectly and a fan direct the warmer air to above the buckets. Buckets are all at 66f.

12/15 day 21

First nute change. I increased the nutes as follows.

Grow a 23ml
Grow b 23ml
Cal mag 2tsp
Diamond nectar 2tsp
Gh flora grow 2 tsp

Adjusted water ph of 77ppm down to 6. With a total ppm 380. Will be doing nute changes every Saturday



Let it grow!


G

 

[1969gtx]

That last pic.....CST? "Clay stress training" lol

 

[baddaddygreen]

Actually yes. See, given that these net pots are so huge I had a couple issues. First the depth pots are super deep. Not knowing enough about these beasts I learned this.

Get smaller net pots. I followed the rule of thumb to get the initial water level just touching the bottom of these pots. I left the sprouts way too deep to during this phase. So 2 days ago I placed some hydro balls on some of the leaves to hold them out of the way to get the bottom shoots to stretch a little. It actually worked. I also had to lift the cubes up while they were rooting. A very risky move. I actually had to dump all the clay out and backfill carefully at the same time raising them without damaging the roots. I have them all above the rim now and we shall see how it panned out tonight. In the future I’ll have to fill it more to allow to plant them higher initially so not to have to do it again. First lesson learned in hydro

Good catch btw.

 

[EastCoastGhost]

I’m in on this one, I’m sure your gonna like dwc. If you have any questions just shoot me a message, I’m still learning dwc also and I’m going all out dwc next run with a 5 bucket dwc grow. Hope everything goes smoothly for you and end up with some monsters.

 

[baddaddygreen]

Sweet ghost. Yeah I’m gonna run 4 buckets. I’m actually glad one did not sprout and I’m only running 3 buckets this first time. I mean I have plenty of space and a second light if it gets out of control.

So my plants survived the adjustment to the buckets. They look nice and happy. Did not check the ph tonight since I’m changing nutes tomorrow.

As soon as those other girls get chopped and out of the way in about 10 days ish. I’ll turn the lights up to about 18 hours.


Peace

 

[EastCoastGhost]

They are looking good! Your gonna love the fast growth in dwc, you can almost watch them grow before your eyes, it’s crazy.

 

[baddaddygreen]

Thats what I’m hoping for. A fast and speedy harvest so I can have my vault filled with some variety. It’s gonna be a perpetual harvest for 2019.

 

[baddaddygreen]

Happy holidays!

Time to get caught up on this journal.

12/22. Nute change. The autos are looking pretty good. Upon nute change here’s the data.

Well water is at 74 ppm and after adding nutes to about 400ppm ph of 6. Each bucket has 2.75 gallons

ArmorSi. 1tsp
Grow a. 25ml
Grow b. 25ml
Diamond nectar 2tsp
Cal mag. 2tsp
Flora grow 2tsp

Ill be dropping the flora grow tomorrow and adding great white mycorrhizae to the feedings. My hydro store guy recommended I not mix the flora with the other nutes. I don’t see any issues as they are growing super fast. Meanwhile, say hi to the girls. Cp1 cp2 and gg. So far this grow has been pretty much uneventful. I attribute this to all the information that I’ve gleaned off many a growers in this forum.

 

[baddaddygreen]

Happy new year!

Out with the old, in with the new. Literally. I’m kicking those old ladies out tomorrow as it is their time to go! More on that in my other journal.

I did a nute change last night as follows.


Well water. 2.75 gallons. 74 ppm

Armorsi. 1.5 tsp up from 1 last week
Grow a 30ml. Up from 25 last week
Grow b 30ml. Up from 25 ......
Diamond nectar 2 tsp. No change
Cal mag 2 tsp no change
Bloom 5ml.
Great white mycos. 1/4 tsp.
Ph down from 8 to 6

Total ppm 524. 450 ppm actual nutrients. Next week I’ll be bumping it up to about 700 give them a little nudge to see what happens.

But so far they look like they’re right where they want to be. Nice and healthy.

I know adding the bloom may be a bit soon but I noticed a couple pistils and we’ll see what they do. Tomorrow I’ll turn the lights to 18/6 as they’ll get the whole place to themselves


Party time!

 

[baddaddygreen]

Good day!


Now that I got the other girls chopped and in the dry tent I decided to give my tent a good cleaning and set it up for easier management of my buckets. I removed the drip tray, vacuumed the floor and raised the pots off the ground about 10 inches. Water temps dropped a bit over night. It’s dipped into the low 30’s and my converted garage has no direct heat. So now I have a nice insulating air gap and that will help. My tent is very minimal in its design for room for growth. I also swapped my light with my other light. Same model and manufacturer. I just have 2. Now hurry up and grow

 

[baddaddygreen]

Howdy farmers!


Flower day 4

I thought I’d check the root structure on my plants and I can really see the difference after adding the great White mycos. I noticed some discoloring last week when I did a nute change. There was some brown spots that were the same color as the hydroton. I am thinking the roots were stained from not rinsing the balls adequately before I used it. During last nute change I gave the plants a shower. (Literally) and the runoff was brown until I flushed it clear and placed them back in the buckets. There’s still a little discoloring up near the bottom of the net pot. Will monitor till nute change this weekend. I also made some adjustments to the fans to better control the temps. Trying to create the right airflow and keeping the temps stable. I wound up sealing the flap vents below the exhaust and leaving the other two on the opposite side open to create a one direction of airflow. With placing the heater closer to the open vents (about 3 feet away from the plants) allowing the heat drift right over the canopy at a nice 72 degrees. Temp control is set at 65-74

You’ll see in the pano shot where the fans are located. I am utilizing the heat generated by the lights. The fans are located to direct the warmer air down and over while the exhaust duct draws the air back towards the plants and up and out. It tends to create a small turbulent effect right over the canopy. I’m always tinkering here and there to see how I can use what is necessary without overkill. It seems to be working.

 

[baddaddygreen]

Lst


I began a little LST today as well. They are stretching some and since the stalks are still very pliable we made a simple anchor for each pot. I took bamboo skewers and gently drove one in the very outer edge of he net pots. The hydroton is more than enough to anchor each skewer. I am using soft nylon twine that I wrapped around the skewers then just clipped it to keep tension. The lines aren’t very taught. Just enough to hold the top down.

I was not planning on any lst, but after I raised the buckets about a foot that I’d do it just in case they do.

Time to test my last harvest.

 

[baddaddygreen]

Day 43. Saturday. Greetings farmers. Day 43 was the weekly nute change. I am using the same measured nutes from last week except this batch I reduced the water from2 3/4 gallons per pot to 2 gallons each. That brought up the ppm to well over 1600 ppm. I was a bit apprehensive about jumping to such I high reading but I want to test the limits of my plants. Also I think my tds meter is faulty. I have a backup meter and thought I’d compare readings. Old meter read in the mid 500’s and the new unsused meter read 1600-1800 ppm per bucket. Cp1 is 1662. Cp2 is 1617, and gg is 1800. Instead of diluting the solution I thought I’d just wing it to see how they would react. I’m thinking I either need to get some Calibration solution
Or just buy a better meter. But they seemed to take the nutes just fine.

Day 44. A little more lst. I’ve been doing some leaf tucking here and there to get light to some of the lower bud sites and to get them to stretch a little faster but the leaves are just too huge! I decided to pluck a few of the big leaves to get better light penetration. They are starting to stretch out a bit. Two days later there’s no sign of nute burn. Looks like we’re on cruise control for now. (Knock on wood)


Happy day folks!

 

[baddaddygreen]

Greetings from the west coast!

Saturday was day 49 and it looked like the girls have slowed their stretch down so I decided to do a defol. I also did a nute change. Pretty much the same recipe as last week except I upped the bloom nutrient up from 5ml to 10 ml. With a total of 1500 ppm. I wanted to wait a couple days to see how they would handle the nutes I am giving them. So far they have not given any indication that I am over feeding. The bud sites are starting to grow and they look very happy I also added more great white mycos to the nute change. Lights on temps are holding at 72 and lights off is running about 65 with humidity right in at about 50. Seems like they’re on cruise control at this point. Have a

You’ll see the Gorilla glue on the far right is a little smaller than the other two critical purples. The only difference in my equipment is that the gorilla glue has an air stone that is half the size of the others. The hydro shop only had two extra large stones. The root mass is noticeably smaller. Looks like there’s some truth to the greater bubble action creating a better root zone. Time to head back to the store.

Happy days!

 

[Hijinxxx]

Good day!


Now that I got the other girls chopped and in the dry tent I decided to give my tent a good cleaning and set it up for easier management of my buckets. I removed the drip tray, vacuumed the floor and raised the pots off the ground about 10 inches. Water temps dropped a bit over night. It’s dipped into the low 30’s and my converted garage has no direct heat. So now I have a nice insulating air gap and that will help. My tent is very minimal in its design for room for growth. I also swapped my light with my other light. Same model and manufacturer. I just have 2. Now hurry up and grow

I almost suffocated my girls in bloom .. had no problems in veg or flower with air circulation but no one told me to keep my air pumps OUTSIDE the tent to pump in fresh air or to open a couple of vents on the bottom .
I have a couple of fresh air intake fans arriving this week to decide which one will work with my carbon filter . Happy growing !

 

[baddaddygreen]

Hey hijinkx. I think those are exhaust fans that connect to your carbon filter. Ideally the carbon filter should be attached like this.

Filter>>>exhaust fan >>>outside tent

The exhaust fan will pull significant air into your tent. You should not have to blow additional air into your tent. I have two questions. How many cubic feet is your tent and how many cubic feet per minute (cfm) are the fans you are ordering? If your airspace is equal to or smaller than your fan rating you should have no problems getting sufficient air into the tent. My tent is 4x8x7. 224 cubic feet. And my exhaust fan is rated at 450 cfm. Meaning that it will pull 450 cubic feet per minute on the high setting. I always keep my fan controller on the lowest setting and still causes the tent to cavitate just a bit. Meaning it’s creating a negative pressure in the tent and drawing air in on the air ports. You should
Not need to blow air into your tent. Gonna go check your grow now.


Thanks!


G

 

[baddaddygreen]

Howdy growers!



Day 51.

A couple days after the defol I thought I’d give them a little look. They seem to be happy. Lights on temps hover around 72-74 and lights out are running about 63. They look pretty happy. Water temp which I check every 3 days or so always line up between 65-68. All with this tiny little ceramic heater and a basic temp controller.

My roots appear to be doing ok. Below is a pic that I am minimally concerned about. A portion of the roots are the same color as the hydroton. During my nute changes there’s always sediment on the bottom of the buckets. I thought I rinsed them completely before I planted but apparently not. The texture and feel of the stained root areas are just as firm/solid/non slimy and there’s no degradation to the discolored area. It shows the same pattern on all three root balls. Stained on top and white on the lower. Ph is right at 6. I added a little great white mycos just for good measure.

Other than that they are looking very happy. The one on the right CP1 looks like she may be getting a little hungry. We’ll keep an eye on this.

When I did the defol the other day I dropped a sting down to canopy level to monitor any more stretch. Since defol they’ve stretched 2 1/2 inches. I like it. Once they slow down ill open them up a bit with a final defol or just a tuck. These fan leaves are huge.

Grow on!

 

[baddaddygreen]

Oops. Forgot the roots

 

[Mosspb]

Count me in, late as usual!

I'm attempting my first DWC as well, I hope to share similar success.

 

[baddaddygreen]

Puff puff pass. Welcome aboard. Its shaping up to be a nice ride. (Knock on wood). Dwc so far is pretty easy. I like the fact the tent stays clean of all things.

There’s a lot of good stuff on 420. Feel free to use my “expertise “ in your grow. I mean take feeely what I have taken freely from lots of growers here and advice is always appreciated. As long as you stay with the plants “lanes” temp, lights, nutes etc. you’ll be. They speak to me and I smoke them.


Circle of life dude, gimme that bowl.



G