Stinkyfish's Secret Hydro Grow Journal #1

[dc534]

Thank you so much for all these insights. I will be sure to check out TheFrizz grow journals. That chiller is a good suggestion as well but right now I think I will stick with the hydroguard if/when I run into heat issues and potential root issues. I could see where a chiller would be handy especially for a multi-plant setup 2-8. I do not plan to escalate my current system now or in the foreseeable future. Getting a few grows under my belt is what I am focusing on as of now. 1 bottle of Hydroguard may last me 2-4 grows? and at 20-25 bucks or similar product. The chiller is going to have to wait I think. Would be a nice upgrade though.

Anyways I will be sure to check back in a few days once I get my girls taken care of this weekend. Look for another post in 2-3 days.



Anyways thanks again for checking this out. Everyone have a nice day!

 

[dc534]

Update: my girls have been vegging for a little over 1 month now. I have topped both my girls for a second time and did a little LST as I suggested in my previous post. I also cleaned the buckets they are in because there was a lot of salt buildup as well as some clay pebble residue that sank to the bottom of the buckets. I went ahead and also removed some of both girls fan leaves that were shadowing some of the newer growth. Pictures are below.

It apears that Penelope is making a nice recovery. There are 2 problems I am running into. 1) is height and closeness to my light. The picutre of the leaf tips show some sun bleaching from what I am guessing. Penelope also shows signs of continued nutrient burn/deciciencies as her newer growth showed similar brown/orange spotting. Overall though I think its going pretty well! I have to manage my ph a little bit better and hopefully I see less nutrient problems.

More to come later. Thanks for stopping by. As always have a nice day!!!

 

[dc534]

Does everyone agree 2 more weeks is a good time to wait till I go to Flower these girls?

A little background:

-This is the start of week 6 (Veg).
-March 31 - Apr 4 for the switch over Ultimately I know its my decision but I value your inputs.
-These are 3.5 gal buckets
-5 gal buckets is an option, it is one I really do not want to take because my LED is already at near max height
-My light is already just 19 in from the top of my plants

I will end up putting these in 5 gal buckets if they do look to be going root bound. From what I have read the most important stage is during Flowering. I do not want to be putting stress on my plant during this stage as it could hurt yield and potency. I want to avoid having the lights too close but I also want to avoid my plant becoming rootbound. Your suggestions are well appreciated.

As always thanks for stopping by. Have a nice day!

 

[NorCalHomeGro]

It is hard when you are limited with space. I have read they can at least double in height when you flip them to flower. Have you thought about building a scrog? The ladies are looking better!


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[dc534]

Do I have to tie anything with Scrog? Right now I am loosely tying down branches but they are all tied to the top of the net pot that fits over the buckets. This way when I change the water I just move the plant to a 5 gal bucket, dump the water, replace water and put the net pot and plant back onto the 3.5 gal buckets with the new water. Not the best system but its been working well enough so far. I fear that if I have to tie anything down it will make it more difficult for me to change the water out without purchasing a water pump of some kind.

Right now I am just using the tie down method but I could see where scrog could work better. Any suggestions on where to start would be great. Thanks again!

 

[dc534]

I have also read they can double in height, to combat that scrog would be a good bet. Anything to keep a low bushy plant. The strain I picked should stay short and bushy. Switching to 12/12 I can probably go as close as 18 in with my lamp. I am at about 19-20 right now and can maybe squeeze 3-4 more inches if I jerry rig the light up a little higher. So this plant cannot grow much more than another 6 inches in height. That is going to be difficult to say the least.

 

[NorCalHomeGro]

Do I have to tie anything with Scrog? Right now I am loosely tying down branches but they are all tied to the top of the net pot that fits over the buckets. This way when I change the water I just move the plant to a 5 gal bucket, dump the water, replace water and put the net pot and plant back onto the 3.5 gal buckets with the new water. Not the best system but its been working well enough so far. I fear that if I have to tie anything down it will make it more difficult for me to change the water out without purchasing a water pump of some kind.

Right now I am just using the tie down method but I could see where scrog could work better. Any suggestions on where to start would be great. Thanks again!

No...but you weave the tops through the scrog netting...so same result as tying them down.

You might just want to flower them small...not sure.


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[dc534]

@NoCal I am going to do just that. I am going ahead and moving the timeframe for flowering up by 1 week. My next update therefore will be next week after I get things set up for flowering. In the meantime I think I need to get some more nutrients for Flowering. I have Dyna Gro Bloom (8oz) which may be just enough but I want to be sure. I think I will pick up another quart.

I think the main lesson I am learning with nutrients is although they are important, sometimes less is more when using them. I also learned no matter the nutrients if your ph is off too much, no matter what nutrients you are using it is going to really effect how the plant uses the nutrients. I have read about nutrients that balance themselves, I am trying to stay away from those because I want to really learn to watch the levels myself.

Anyways I am getting way off topic. Yes next week I am going to go ahead and begin flowering.

 

[dc534]

I have a couple of questions:

Should I thin out more of the larger fan leaves before going into flowering? There are not many left maybe 3-4 of the larger leafs on each of the plants. Much of the branching growth already is overtaking them.
Can I continue to LST, even during flowering? I probably will not continue to top but will a little LST hurt?
What about Flushing? Is it necessary to flush the plant before I flower? I know at the end it is but what about before entering flowering? Should I flush them? If so how many days will that need to be done?

Any other suggestions?
What am I forgetting?

I think I need to start getting a checklist together.

Anyways thank for liking and commenting. Have a nice day!

 

[NorCalHomeGro]

Remember, always take my advice along with your own research, as I am but a newb myself I can only tell you what I might do in your shoes.

I would at least remove any that shade your tops or the top most leaves around them.

I wouldn't train after two weeks of flower. But bending them down a bit to get under the scrog net, or moving them a bit to get the right light, etc., is fine.

I would just stick to what your routine is, if it is working now, in terms of water changes, etc. I don't think most flush until end, unless there is a reason to.

Good Luck!

 

[dc534]

Update:

Alrighty. I went ahead and switched the light cycle to 12/12. The countdown clock begins. These girls are headed into flowering.

Since my last update I went ahead and trimmed the last of the big fan leaves and damaged leaves. I made sure not to remove too much at once though as I did not want to create too much stress on my girls. I probably removed about 3-4 leaves from both girls.

Last night I drained and cleaned the buckets they are in and gave them new balanced nutrients. I began administering Dyna-Gro Bloom instead of Grow. I also changed the PH range from 5.5-5.7 up to 5.9-6.1. I cannot tell you exactly what the number is as the instrument I am using is the old tried and true liquid ph testing kit. I am pretty confident it is in the 5.9-6.1 range however.

I was going to continue to do LST but I think I am going to look into doing some kind of Scrog set-up as recommended. They sell this type of netting for $3-6 at my local hardware store and I may just go ahead and pick it up.


Nothing else is really happening right now. I will provide pictures in a few days once I decide if I am Scrogging or if I am LSTing still. My goals until are really just to maintain PH at a constant. I think the one area I really messed up in early on in the early stages of this grow was with my PH. It still shows in one of my plants as some of her leaves still show the spotting of deficiencies. I am guessing now that my early struggles were cal/mag deficiency. How can that be if I was adding the exact amount needed? Easy, I think my PH was too low. I think at some point my PH was down around 5.3-5.4 and this could explain why I was seeing deficiencies and spotting on the leaves. I am definetly going to be watching this more carefully for the rest of this grow.

As always thanks for stopping by. Have a nice day!

 

[dc534]

Here are some pics.

Since I updated 2 days ago this is just the pictures this time. These firls really grew a lot in less than a week. Switching them to 12/12 they are getting big.

 

[dc534]

One thing I noticed is that my roots are not very white. More like a dull tan color. I assume it to be normal because my girls seem to be doing fine. They dont feel slimy, roots arent falling off or look to be dying. Overall both girls seem to be doing really well.

Onother thing I noticed is some lower leaves on one plant are yellowing. Im not to worried because rhey are fan leaves. They have been yellowing for a while. I left them because they were borderline before I went into flowering.

 

[dc534]

Update:

Girls are looking really good. I think Lucille, the bigger of the two plants is really beginning to go through another growth spurt. She is really drinking up water now.

I am still trying to figure out this scrog thing. I definetly decided it is something I am going to have to do. In only the 2nd week of flowering these girls added on about 4 in in height and girth.

So for my next update, tomorrow, I will have pictures of all the progress.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a nice day people!

 

[dc534]

Quick Update:

-I went ahead and chose to LST over setting up a scrog net. Reason being is I tried to set up the scrog and just did not have the patience right then and there. 2 plants in such a confined height and it really wears on your patience to have to do everything sitting.

-The light green growth I was experiencing had me worried I may have had iron deficiency but after 4 days all that growth is darkening a to normal color.

-With LST I now have my girls about 14 in from canopy to grow light. I realize they will probably stretch more in the 7 weeks remaining I am hoping that the LST job I did on them will get me through at least 3 weeks of new growth. If they want to grow it is going to have to be horizontally. lol. Although even there is running low on space.

-One other thing I had to do is trim off some lower drooping single fan leaves. Not too many, but I had to because they had very thin stems but were very large leaves in comparison to the other growth. The stems could not support the leaves. I may have to get a little better airflow to strengthen some of the branches. The main stem is very thick but some of the branches could be a bit thicker.

Anyways I will work on getting those pictures up.

As always thanks for stopping in. Have a nice day!

 

[Lonestar11]

What chiller are you using? And thanks for the suggestion of Hydroguard, I probably will pick some up for this grow but I would like to look for a more permanent solution because it is only going to get warmer during the summer months. Right now its hard to justify spending the money on a chiller but eventually it is the route I will probably take, especially as I become a better grower. Perhaps if/when I switch to a RDWC type of system I would look to spend the money on a chiller but if you have some suggestions on some good ones I would be open to them.

There's a video on YouTube on how to make a DIY chiller for fairly cheap, I think you can just search for DIY water chiller

 

[dc534]

Thanks I will take a look at and see if I can find that vid.

 

[dc534]

Week 2 Flower:

The girls continue to accelerate in growth.

Small white whair like features, pistils, have begun protruding from each budding site.

Bud formation is in its begining stages

As always. Have a nice day!

 

[dc534]

Thought I would share a quick update.

Lights have been moved up by 3-4 in and they are at max height now. It gives me about 14-16 in above canopy.

i pinched off some of the bigger fan leaves near the top of my girl that were shading where the colas will be forming. Nothing ridiculous about 7 leaves in total. I know it is probably better to have done this before flowering and I will note that for next time. For this grow however I felt these girls were getting to thick for buds to form lower on the plant with all those leaves shading the lower sites.

 

[dc534]

Update: Week 3/4 Flowering

I know I have not updated much and part of that was on purpose:


This week marks the transition from week 3 into week 4 of flowering. While there is a lot of positives going on inside my tent, bud formation is coming along well enough, there are a ton of flowering sites. There are also some negatives going, such as some root problems hitting at the worst possible time.

Bud formation and a little bit more stretching of my plant has continued. Even as I raised the lights to their max height the canopy has grown to within just a few inches of the lamp. I am going to have to bend a couple of branches down away from the lights a little bit.
-pic coming soon
These buds should swell and fatten up in the final couple weeks right? They look small to me but then again I still have 4 to 5 more weeks. A lot can change in 5 weeks time.
-pic coming soon
Buds are not very big or dense but there are numerous sites for bud formation. I will make note of for next grow cycle. Maybe I do not want as many secondary flowering sites stealing energy from the primary flowering sites.
-pic coming soon
Roots are not looking good on one of my 2 plants. I felt them and 1 spot, about 1in x 1in patch felt a little mushy and there was a smell of almost algae when I opened up the top to my DWC buckets. I should have recognized it sooner, some leaves were shedding, some of the leaves were also droopy and starting to curl. I think I may have some beginning stages of root rot.
-pic coming soon

I ordered some more hydroguard and it will be here on Friday, unfortunately till then there is not much I can do to help these roots recover.


Anyways that is about it for this update. I am just about reaching mid-stage into flowering these girls and I think I am doing an alright job. My focus for the next week is going to be trying to recover my girls roots. I need to get more oxygen to the roots. The lesson to be learned is that I need bigger buckets or smaller plants. I have learned so much this first grow my confidence is very high right now. Still though, I need to maintain focus on this grow, I catch myself often thinking about what I will change in my next grow and this journal helps me keep focus on the things I need to do this grow with these beautiful ladies. I compare it to dating. You can look and stare at all the other women you like when you have a steady girl, but if you want things to progress with the girl you have, you need to quit wasting time chasing other tail and focus in on the beautiful lady right in front of you. This week, this day. I can continue to note things for future grows but right now this grow needs my attention. These beautiful ladies need my attention. I need to continue my growth as a grower and work on being more precise. Part of that is cleaning up my grow journals. Noted for the future.

As always thanks for stopping by. Have a nice day!