The1culturists 1st Grow - Green Crack & Lost Coast Hash Plant in RDWC - 2016

[the1culturist]

Hey everyone!

I'm a couple weeks deep into my very first foray into the wild world of growing but better late than never! I've kept good logs since day one, so we'll play a little catch up over the next few posts.

Relevant Info!
Strain: (4) Green Crack and (2) Lost Coast Hash Plant from Humboldt Seed Org (both fem)
- Green Crack: Sativa dominant hybrid
- LCHP: Hybrid

System
- Recirculating Deep Water Culture (Undercurrent, no top feeding)
- 6 x 5gal buckets plus 1 x 5gal bucket for reservoir
- Kind LED XL1000 light
- 5x5 Gorilla Grow tent

Additional System Info
- 1/10hp chiller
- Independently controlled heat/AC into tent
- Optimum Hydroponix Nutrients (Veg A/B)
- 2 x air pumps, running a total of two large airstones to each of the 6 buckets

Environmental Info
- Reservoir Temp: Steady at 69 degrees
- Air Temp: 74-80 (day), 68-72 (night)
- Humidity: 40-60% (occasionally can dip to 30% and as high as 70%)



I chose the strains because Green Crack has been a favorite of mine and LCHP cause it sounds like a fun plant that I haven't come across prior.

Like I said at the top, this is my first time growing but I've done many months of research and room/system layouts prior to diving in. However even with the design and redesigns, the setup was not without a few hiccups. In the end though I feel very confident in the system I've put together, however my knowledge of diagnosing problems and correcting them is very limited but I'm looking forward to learning!

In my next post I'll run through my system, how it works, how the water changes happen etc.

Peace!
the1culturist

 

[the1culturist]

Hey ladies & gentlemen!

Continuing with the initial set up here.

Heres the (half finished) room adjacent to my grow room, it houses the chiller and an 85L tote on top of the shelving. The hose on the bottom left runs to a laundry tub drain, the other end is just left open ended near the reservoir. When I want to drain the system I simply slip that open ended hose over top of the outlet hose coming from the water pump of the RDWC system and in about 12 minutes the system is drained.

I have a drain in the bottom of the 85L tote connected to a valve which runs into the reservoir. My system at max capacity is 80L, so I have the 80L marked on the tote. From here I can fill the tote up with RO water to the marked level, add nutrients, ph it, and when it's all good, I just open the valve and it floods the system.

It makes for a pretty easy drain/refill cycle.

Now we'll head inside to the meat and potatoes!

Inside I have 6 buckets, the bottom three and the top right are GC, the top left & top middle are LCHP. I originally was going to do a top fed system, but found on the first few test runs that the leaking was out of control and it didn't matter what I did I couldn't get it to seal nicely. So after about 3 leaky test runs, I scrapped the whole top fed thing, drilled a drain hole in each of the two end buckets, and added a return line attached to a now inline water pump and flipped the direction of water flow. Finally no leaks! *wipes beads of sweat form forehead

The white rectangle thing on the top left bucket is a remote thermostat. It sends a signal to my master thermostat to allow for independent temperature control of the room that I've set. It's configured to provide a higher temperature during the day and lower at nights. It can also be remotely monitored and configured through my phone.

Speaking of remote monitoring, see that little black thing thats taped to the tent pole in the back left corner? Its a security camera that I can pull up on my phone to monitor the room over wifi when I cant monitor the room in person.

Now that all the set up stuff is out of the way, in the next post I'll get us up to speed with the goings-on of my first few weeks.

Peace!
the1culturist

 

[GreeenFingers]

re: The1culturists 1st Grow - Green Crack & Lost Coast Hash Plant in RDWC - 2016

Here as promised



GreenFingers

 

[the1culturist]

Hi again everyone!

Now that the system was set up and running how I wanted it, it was time to germinate the seeds

After reading the million different ways to germinate seeds the paper towel method seemed to be the most common, but as a first timer it seemed a little daunting to handle the delicate tap root, so I opted to instead simplify things and after a quick soak simply drop them in a rapid rooter. I added 500ml of distilled water set to a ph of 5.9 and covered the rapid rooter tray with a humidity dome on top of a heat mat set to 78 degrees. Within 24 hours 7 of the 8 seeds had popped (RIP #8).

Day 1 after popping.

There were 4 GC and 3 LCHP seedlings. The GC seedlings grew faster from the get go than the LCHP seedlings and even today the GC are on a faster pace.

There was some stretching happening, I think it was because my humidity dome was 6" high. Next time when starting from seed I'll begin with a smaller 3" high dome.

Even more stretching

After about a week in the rapid rooter tray all 7 seedlings had roots extending out the bottom of the Rapid Rooter so I decided it was time to move them to their final home.

The Kind LED XL1000 light was set to 50" above the net pot with the red spectrum tuned down to 50%.

The system was filled with 80L of RO water and 34ml of Veg A/B nutrients (thats 25% of the recommended dose) and ph'd to 5.8. The ppm was 155 (25 of which is the base from just the plain RO water)

I rinsed the hydroton to get rid of all the dust, filled up the lower third of the net pot with the hydroton, carefully popped each rapid rooter into the netpot and then filled the gaps with more hydroton.

Over the next few days I logged measurements twice daily:
Res temp = 69 to 74 (hadn't added the chiller yet)
pH = 5.8-6.0
ppm = 170
Room Temp = 80
RH = 37 to 84.

On day 4 I took some ph'd water and misted them each lightly a few times. The next day I noticed one plant had some yellowing happening and another had burned tips.

The yellowing & burn came on suddenly but appeared not to progress any further. I chalked it up to having to do with the spraying, but still unsure...

At day 7 I drained and refilled the system. I was originally planning to bump the nutrients up to 50% dosage, but due to the tip burn I decided to play it safe and go up to 33% instead.

Everything was stable for a few days afterwards, all the stats listed above remained stable during that time, but then I noticed the leaves on some began to droop.

And shortly after that the edges began to curl up slightly.

I made a post elsewhere and shout out to GreeenFingers for pointing me in the right direction and letting me know that because the RO water I've been using had such a low ec/ppm to begin with it was likely a cal/mag deficiency.


That night I added some calmag plus to the system and its been stabilized since.

That's where we are as of today.

Looking forward to learning more each day and updating this grow journal!

Peace!
the1culturist

 

[David Bowman]

Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.