PirateBob's First Grow Hydro DWC - 600W HPS - Sensi Shiva Skunk

PirateBob

New Member
Hi 420 Mag readers!

I've been reading for a long time on this site and a couple others, but this is my first post. I've been working over the last few months trying to get up to scratch on growing. Firstly a huge thanks to all those who contribute so much of their time and hard work to make these endeavours easier for people like me! This will be my first attempt at growing 'properly' (besides a few old potted plants a long time ago). I am trying to do a 'respectable' kind of DWC approach. Pics at the bottom.

I am still waiting on a few final things to arrive, I don't have my thermometer/humidity meter yet but I have my EC/ppm/pH meter and all the nutrients I need including all the extra Canna ones like Rhizotonic and Cannazym. I am running the nutes at about 30% manufacturer recommended.

I am currently at week 2 and the plants are looking good. All but one survived the germination process and have roots down into the nicely aerated res. The plants are being constantly misted by my humidifier and the air flow and temps seem comfortable.

I am starting from seed here so I don't know which plants will be boys yet. I am going to start with 6 net pots in a marine ply lid for the reservoir and see how it goes. I might get a 2nd reservoir and run one large plant in each as we get further on in time.

I intend to mainline/manifold my plants one they get larger. This is my first time doing indoor so I appreciate any tips from the pros or any general suggestions. Thanks for stopping by! I will try to update this thread weekly.

Namaste,

PirateBob. :high-five:



What strain is it?
Sensi Seeds Shiva Skunk. Got it in original packaging so should be good to go.

Is it Indica, Sativa or Hybrid? What percentages?
85% Indica

Is it in Veg or Flower stage?
Veg

If in Veg... For how long?
2 weeks from germination

Soil or Hydro?
Going to try running a DWC style hydro system

Size of light?
I have a 600W HPS light and two 40W full spectrum high output fluro tubes.

Is it air-cooled?
Yes, I have a 3000RPM industrial fan by Noctua (268 cfm ~20db) performing extraction. I also have a lower rpm fan for intake and for the humidifier I made.

Temp of Room/cab?
Waiting on my thermometers from Amazon but it feels like a nice 23-28 C.

RH of Room/cab?
I have a 1m x 1m x 2.6 (height) grow tent.

PH of media or res?
6.3

Any Pests ?
Not yet!

How often are you watering?
About 3 times a day top watering, but the roots are alreay down into the dwc bucket :)

Type and strength of ferts used?
I am following the Canna feeding guide currently at 30% of normal. I am using Veg Part A and Part B and also Rhizotonic for root growth.

If Hydro, Reservoir size?
50L res with 6 plants in net pots above, filled to 30L with nutrient solution. I may have to upgrade to a larger res later once I can sex my plants and remove some.

If Hydro, Reservoir Temperature?
Water chiller running at 63F

If Hydro, what type of Medium?
Rockwool cubes surrounded by clean Hydroton

If Hydro, what type of Setup?
50 Litre DWC Bucket. Two 9-watt air pump/air strones. Humidifier/Ultrasonic mister.

Size or Square Footage of Room?
11 sq ft of space, 8.5 ft high reflective tent



Close-up of DWC bucket with aeration running (I should have got a shot of the roots that have started coming down in the last few days).



Intake fan (Noctua 168 cfm, ~18db).



Exhaust system, Noctua 3000RPM Industrial fan (268cfm, ~20db) taking hot air away from 600W HPS light.



Water chiller and 2x40W Fluro (grow tubes).



Hot air exhausted out of the grow area.



Decent shot of the whole system (sorry about the trailer in the way), you can see the ultrasonic mist hose, the fluros, HPS light is off for this shot. I have the large fan oscillating at the moment, not sure if it's really worth having on at this early stage. There are a bunch of pumps/power supplies outside the tent I'm sure no one wants to see.



Close-up of the DWC system, I currently have 6 plants in there (one is basically dead on arrival). There are also 2 pots at the back with plants in coco and gravel just in case I mess up the DWC (my backups).



Home-made ultrasonic mister/humidifier, I saw the instructions for something like this on this site (pond fogger + bucket + fan + hose) and am really happy with the results. My seedlings are digging the transpiration and later I can move the hose into the top of my res and have the misters do their thing on the roots.


Thanks to anyone that made it this far, looking forward to see what the great and mighty internet thinks of my humble tent!

:Namaste:
 
Reserving first post for future updates/questions.

My big question at the moment is the lighting cycle:

Can I run the plants 20 hrs under the 600W HPS and 24 hrs under the fluro (so the light is combined most of the time) per day during this early stage?

I wanted to have the HPS off for a few hours a day just to give the plants and equipment a rest but I don't see any problem in having the fluro going 24 hours.

Not an expert on the importance of lighting cycles this early, I might have even been a bit too keen to put the HPS on (though its quite far from the plants at the moment).

:Namaste:!
 
Hey man FYI ur pictures coming out real small :)

And I would run 18/6, plants need a dark period to 'sleep' even in veg IMO

I thought people would prefer thumbnail to gallery, I'll try making them full size.

I will try putting both the fluro and hps on the same timer for 18/6 for a while, I suppose I have been pushing them pretty hard. Time to give them a rest.

Thanks for the advice.
 
Ok so it's a couple of days later; lights are on 18/6 and the seedlings are slowly veg'ing. I added a second set of full-spectrum fluro's so its now got 4x 18 Watt T5's. I'm trying to make up for the fact I don't have a MH, just the HPS. Hopefully I'm not overdoing them with almost 700 watts of light so early

I went all out and put a fair bit of rhizo in the res as well as spraying them, the roots have really taken off as a result (got a pic of roots below but I had to edit out some of the background).

I built a new larger enclosure for the mister so I didn't have to top it up as often and got a smaller hose. Also went ahead and made some CO2 enrichment using a few containers and a lot of brewing yeast and sugar.


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Sorry about the HPS interference, seedlings getting bigger!

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Roots have really taken off, I'm concerned my res is not totally light proof not sure if roots should be that color though. Must fix it asap.

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Haha, I know I'm probably being a Canna newb but since it's my first time I'm going to just keep it to one brand and fairly simple. I only have to deal with a few bottles and this rhizo has been worthwhile.
 
Wow what a difference a few days makes.

Since my last update I've moved the plants into a MUCH larger DWC system where I can easily run all 6 in about 120-150L of nutrient water.

I've also added more air (3 pumps running 6 air stones). Humidifier, water chiller and CO2 systems are running alright (would like more CO2 but I'm only doing the yeast thing at the moment.


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I'm thinking about cutting them soon to start training, some are already getting up to 5-6th node. If they recover from their reservoir change well I'm thinking about starting training tomorrow.

Any ideas are welcome, thanks for stopping by!
 
Well I'm at the end of Week 4, and I've just finished my second set of topping (each plant now has 4 main stems/growth tips). I just have to do one more set next week to get my 8 mains finished.

Since the plants have been through two sets of topping/stripping recently they look a bit small, but they are still going strong despite all the abuse from being cut and tied up so much. I hope they turn out alright with the weather getting warmer, I need to get some better air flow and cooling set up. Res is about 22 and room 28.

My ph is hovering around 6.2 and ppm around 600-700, should I be changing this much for end of wk 4 of veg? I am hoping to only be in veg another 2 weeks.

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Girls all defoliated and tied down, should bounce back soon.

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Need to get these a bit more horizontal over the next few days.
 
Looks like yours going for a mainline. I have a dwc grow I'm trying to mainline also

Aye matey, I did also look at Light Addict's guide to fluxing but I thought it looked a bit more complicated than the 'mainline' method. In essence they are really just two different perspectives of the same thing (plant training). I think ill get the best use of my space splitting off into 8 even stems per plant then going up into the screen. But will have to see how it goes.

It has definitely added veg time (every topping has set them back about 5 days to fully recover) but I think it will work out come flowering. I let mine get pretty large root systems and grow up to about 6-7 nodes before doing the first top so they were already established enough to bounce back fast, especially if you can add some beneficials/enzyme into your DWC. The aggressive training doesn't seem to bother them much and they come back on fast in the DWC.
 
Reserving first post for future updates/questions.

My big question at the moment is the lighting cycle:

Can I run the plants 20 hrs under the 600W HPS and 24 hrs under the fluro (so the light is combined most of the time) per day during this early stage?

I wanted to have the HPS off for a few hours a day just to give the plants and equipment a rest but I don't see any problem in having the fluro going 24 hours.

Not an expert on the importance of lighting cycles this early, I might have even been a bit too keen to put the HPS on (though its quite far from the plants at the moment).

:Namaste:!


I personally veg all of my clones under a 1000w hps. 24 hour lighting. If you do that with your seedling, which I personally believe you should do with seedlings, it will grow much more rapidly. Stretching faster. The roots do grow when veg'd under 24 hour light. Some people say roots only grow when the lights are off.... I dunno

But by vegging under the hps, there won't be a transitional shock period where the plants are basically blinded by the hps after the cfl. Kinda like looking straight into the sun after being in an office building. It's bright.

+reps for the setup! If you have some down time you should check out my grow :)
 
Gave them 5 days to recover and then where there was 4 there are now 8 growth tips. I'm pretty much done training/pruning today and now have about 2 weeks of veg until I go to 12/12. Hopefully they recover fast, changed the res and got some new beneficial bacteria/root stuff going so we'll see how that works out. Pics attached!

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All the plants back in their res after being brutally topped for the third time today.

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The root system of one of these, about 4.5 weeks from seed.

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One of the smaller ones, you can just see the 8 growth tips I've cut back to, selected to be the ultimate 'mains'

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Humidifier running in the corner.

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Now to turn the HID back on and hope for some growth.
 
Thanks! I checked out your setup and I'd love to have something like that if I had a bit more space and money. Your environmental controls alone would be awesome.

I'm still workin with the controls a little bit. I need the room to be about 10 degrees cooler. But this was my first round with the run, still got a few bugs to work out.
 
So I gave the plants 5 days to recover from a fairly brutal and final round of topping/defol. They came back alright but some of the leaves don't look good.

Some leaves are bit yellow, starting in the middle of the leaf on the new growth. I think it might be high air temps (its about 86f where I am right now) but could also be a nute deficiency I suppose.

My (tapwater) base ppm is 170 and my current ppm is 550 (so 380 ppm of veg nutes).

Any ideas on the yellow leaves?

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The tent 5 days after third topping.

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Every stem now has 8 main branches.

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Yellow leaves on new growth.

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This is a "reference" plant I have been growing in coco but using the same nutrients as the DWC six. The plant has also had no training (one stem only) and almost no defol.

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Close up of yellow leaves.
 
Subbed PirateB,

I'm still a newb, harvesting in 2 days from my 1st soil grow. I saw my buddies setup today that is a mirror of yours. His (close to harvest plants) made my grow look like a child. Got me itching to go non-soil. for a number of reason.

I'll be watching and hopefully I can chime in and help where I can.

Good catch on the Ph levels, easiest way to lock out the nutes ;)
 
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