Scrog & Super Crop 400 HID DWC: Modified

[BAKIND]

After a few months of planning I finally started buying equipment. Grow still under construction, and lights won't turn on until December 24th. I have been reading for years, books, and info on the internet, and I had the pleasure of getting to enter some grow rooms in the past. I was fortunate to stumble onto this site, which so far, in the last few months, have learned a lot from you guys. I want to thank you for the information that you freely provide. I will be doing updates to this journal almost daily.


Under Construction:

Lighting equipment:

dual ballast: can handle metal halide and high pressure sodium bulbs.
air cooled reflector with glass siliconed.
400 watt metal halide for veg.
400 watt high pressure sodium for flowering.

Grow space

Probox tent 80cm x 80cm x 160cm tent

Growing style


(D)eep (W)ater (C)ulture (modified)

5 gallon bucket with "3 net pot

will use ph and ppm gage. I am going to do this with tap water sitting for 24 to 48 hours. PH will likely be set at 5.8. PPM will vary from week to week.

Nutes

Powdered Greenhouse Feeding Hybrid
Chelated calcium
I will be adding no gimmicks nutes.

Variety

Sativa or a Sativa dominant hybrid.

 

[BAKIND]

I have pictures however I am receiving an error when uploading. When I fix this, I will upload them.

 

[BAKIND]

 

[BAKIND]

This is what I have so far. Their will be some modifications to my DWC bucket that I think you guys are going to really like. As far as the variety I will grow, I am not sure yet. I am looking for a 100% Sativa or dominant Sativa / Indica hybrid

 

[Jack420]

Another dwc runner count me in I got 3 girls in flower in dwc wat nutes ur goin to use

8B349AFA-964E-42A4-AFB2-A1DF299E1622.jpeg

• Jack420
• Oct 27, 2018

B2C7FF1F-5244-49A3-998F-E803CD8EE3F2.jpeg

• Jack420
• Oct 27, 2018

 

[BAKIND]

wat nutes ur goin to use

I am in Argentina, and to import GH or AN is very expensive. This powdered nute has a good rating here, and it's from The Netherlands. I am going to give it a shot. You have to add Calcium separately, and I MAY add some additional PH during flowering. Nice Grow by the way.

 

[Jack420]

I use 400 wat hps also I ever herd of Dyna grow but wat u have will work fine

 

[BAKIND]

I use 400 wat hps

I am right about 51 watts per square foot, you? And what are you growing by the way?

 

[Jack420]

Well I added 150 wat hps also I’m growing grape ape

 

[Jack420]

So makes it 550 watts

 

[BAKIND]

(mod 1) to 5 gallon DWC

Filtration system similar to a fish tank's that will be covered with river stones. An airstone inside the stack will blow out air forcing water to go trough the river stones and filtering the entire system. A screen will be added to end of heat stack to prevent roots from going in there. The idea of this system is to keep unwanted particles such as pieces of root, from contaminating the system. Instead all particles should get filtered into the rocks, and away from the system. If you had problems with root rot or other problems, this may be your solution.

River stones that have been thoroughly cleaned out and will cover the bottom of 5 gallon DWC bucket.


I will be posting additional modifications soon. Lot's more to come.

 

[TorturedSoul]

It looks like you're going to be treating yourself to a wonderful Christmas present, lol - one that will keep on giving (so to speak).

If you'd like to completely fill your tent/screen with bud, you may wish to consider going with a somewhat larger capacity reservoir. I used to run ones in the 20- to 25-gallon range under similar conditions. That might have been overkill - but I went for lengthier vegetative periods in order to end up with filled eight square foot screens, had mostly huge masses of healthy roots by harvest time... And, late in the grows, there were "a few" times when I'd dump seven to thirteen or so gallons into the reservoir (which, with the root mass, often came close to filling it) - only to return home late that evening to discover that they were almost out of liquid again. Largish cannabis plants can potentially transpire quite a bit of moisture. My temperatures sometimes got a little high, and my airflow was always great, which might have increased the transpiration rate (plants were "self-cooling" via the transpiration).

Oh, and you cannot have too much dissolved oxygen in your solution (at least not in practical terms). I used the air pumps and (multiple) stone-type aeration devices, but I also added a cheap aquarium "power head" to each reservoir, which helped keep the solution constantly mixed and pull in a relatively large amount of air through venturi effect. A high level of DO in your solution not only makes for a healthier plant in general and makes the environment much more toxic to anaerobic nasties - it also helps make your plants much more efficient feeders.

Wishing you the best of luck with your upcoming grow! I love DWC SCROG grows.

 

[BAKIND]

It looks like you're going to be treating yourself to a wonderful Christmas present, lol - one that will keep on giving (so to speak).

If you'd like to completely fill your tent/screen with bud, you may wish to consider going with a somewhat larger capacity reservoir. I used to run ones in the 20- to 25-gallon range under similar conditions. That might have been overkill - but I went for lengthier vegetative periods in order to end up with filled eight square foot screens, had mostly huge masses of healthy roots by harvest time... And, late in the grows, there were "a few" times when I'd dump seven to thirteen or so gallons into the reservoir (which, with the root mass, often came close to filling it) - only to return home late that evening to discover that they were almost out of liquid again. Largish cannabis plants can potentially transpire quite a bit of moisture. My temperatures sometimes got a little high, and my airflow was always great, which might have increased the transpiration rate (plants were "self-cooling" via the transpiration).

Oh, and you cannot have too much dissolved oxygen in your solution (at least not in practical terms). I used the air pumps and (multiple) stone-type aeration devices, but I also added a cheap aquarium "power head" to each reservoir, which helped keep the solution constantly mixed and pull in a relatively large amount of air through venturi effect. A high level of DO in your solution not only makes for a healthier plant in general and makes the environment much more toxic to anaerobic nasties - it also helps make your plants much more efficient feeders.

Wishing you the best of luck with your upcoming grow! I love DWC SCROG grows.

Thank-you,

I will be keeping an eye on the root ball size and from that, determining when flowering will start, and if I have to cut the veg cycle short, then so be it. Or the more likely scenario is, that I take your advice, and move to a larger reservoir. It wouldn't be a huge expense to upgrade.

For dissolved oxygen, I will be adding much more air that came with this system. I understand what roles DO plays for the roots, and the overall healthiness of the system.

My biggest concern will be reservoir nute temp, as I have not figured out how to chill the solution. I looked into chillers, and they are either not available or very expensive, however, with only a 400 watt HID light, I suspect that I will be OK. There will be plenty of exhausting and ventilation.

 

[TorturedSoul]

move to a larger reservoir. It wouldn't be a huge expense to upgrade.

I was just using cheap totes with snap-on lids, lol, so they cost me around $12 (each). Last time I was in Home Depot picking up some Behr Marquee paint, I noticed that they had a good selection of totes (including black ones) that were pretty reasonable.

For dissolved oxygen, I will be adding much more air that came with this system. I understand what roles DO plays for the roots, and the overall healthiness of the system.

My biggest concern will be reservoir nute temp, as I have not figured out how to chill the solution. I looked into chillers, and they are either not available or very expensive, however, with only a 400 watt HID light, I suspect that I will be OK. There will be plenty of exhausting and ventilation.

To be honest, I never bothered. They would have helped, but... My warm-season temperatures weren't horrendous on average, for the most part. There was the time I lost the central a/c (which is something I miss greatly) and maximums were over 100°F for a little while. I ended up with some fairly airy bud because of it - but the plants were "move along, nothing to see here, business as usual." I believe that the DWC method, along with (figuratively) high enough DO levels to keep a mouse alive indefinitely, is the best way to grow in high temperatures. With ebb & flow, the roots would have probably dried (or else I'd have ended up adjusting the setup until the cycles were happening way more often than is usual), I don't really favor NFT for large plants in general (mostly personal choice, maybe), and a "tree in a bucket of dirt" might have shriveled up. But the worst that happened t me was the aforementioned airy buds and having to remember to keep on pouring the "water" into the reservoirs like keeping the coffeepot reservoirs filled at an AA convention, lol.

 

[BAKIND]

Here are some new additions to my grow.

Charcoal filter of adequate size for my tent, double mouth intake and one exhaust fan, and 400W Metal Halide Bulb for Veg.

 

[TorturedSoul]

I've never seen a fan that looked quite like that. Are both outputs balanced? I'm wondering what happens if the pressure differential is slightly higher at one outlet than the other.

 

[BAKIND]

I've never seen a fan that looked quite like that. Are both outputs balanced? I'm wondering what happens if the pressure differential is slightly higher at one outlet than the other.

The two tubes on the fan opposite each other are intakes ( I edited my description above to clarify.) The black plastic tube at the bottom is exhaust. I will be showing exactly how I plan to rig my intake and exhaust within the next couple of days.

 

[BAKIND]

Grow moving along. Here are some new additions.

Extra wire for reflector, powdered feeding from Green House, liquid calcium, two timers, PH Down, clamps for tubing, , 3 meters of tubing, hanging hooks and straps, and scrog net.

 

[BAKIND]

More work completed

Filter, blower, and light installed, duct work incomplete. I'll try finishing tomorrow.

 

[TorturedSoul]

Keep an eye on that piece of duct material between your fan and filter. If it becomes torn or holed, then some of the air you're exhausting will be unfiltered. I don't suppose that's real likely to happen (assuming it's in good shape now and the two pieces of equipment remain stationary), but.

Some folks will use something more rigid/durable in that location in order to remove even the possibility.