HydroLife - DWC - Blueberry Cheesecake - CFL - Grow

Hydro Life

New Member
Hi everyone, so I used to grow in soil but decided to give hydroponics a shot as seeing the results and possibilities just blew my mind. Anyway I thought it would be a good idea and put my grow journal here in hopes not only that others can see it and follow along etc but if I make any mistakes as I go someone can see it too. Anyway enjoy and lets begin.

I am using:
Lights
2x 300w CFL
system
21L DWC system
Nutes
Dutch Pro A+B Grow/Hydro/HardWater
Strain
Feminized Blueberry Cheesecake
Formula
52.5ml Part A
52.5ml Part B
ph 6

# Notes #
10/1/16 (Week 1-2 Seedling)
Installed M-01BC into 21L single-site DWC System.

week_1-2_Seedling_.jpg


24/1/16 (Week 1-2 Veg Begin)
Replaced nutes and cleaned out res.

week_1-2_Veg_.jpg


2/2/16 (Week 3 Veg)
Changed and cleaned res

week_3_Veg_2.jpg


10/2/16 (Week 4 Veg)
Changed and cleaned out res/nutes. Now using experimental formula (52.5ml)

week_4_Veg_.jpg


(Week 4.5 Veg) 14/2/16 Inspection
Spun plant around, checked health, humidity, temps etc took some shots for grow journal too. Also bought a heater for temp issues. Delivery on Tuesday

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# Some more notes #
- 21L DWC single-site System starting with standard dutch pro formula.
- Switched to my experimental formula about 1 month into veg due to nute burn.
- Slow growth @ W4-veg due to combination of earlier nute burn + cold weather.
- Inspection mid w4-veg, growth seems to have picked up again with my new formula.

All in all its coming on nicely. I noticed the standard dutch pro nute formula was too much so took it down about 60% so new formula is now:
250ml nutes / 100 liter H2O = 2.5ml nutes per 1 liter of H2O * 21liter = 52.5ml nutes per 21 liter H2O
Within only a few days new growth had picked up again and plant was visibly healthier. You can see that in the inspection shot I took. If anyone has any tips or advice for me I would love to hear about it. Also I hope I help other new comers to DWC too. I will post updates as I go. My plan is to grow this mother enough to clone 8 times and install em into 2x 4-site 21L DWC system for main grow and maybe get some training going and a scrog perhaps.
 
Welcome and greetings to all. It's time for my weekly update.

This week Iv been thinking about her nutrient consumption and at the rate I am feeding. From looking at what iv used already i'm able to work out what i'm going to need and I gotta say that's a LOT of nutrients going to be needed for the hydroponics method i'm using.
So in hopes of saving some money (i'm disable and don't have a lot to begin with) I am curious if I can do every 2 weeks instead of once per week. I don't think anyone has seen my grow journal yet so what i'm gonna do is leave it till next Wednesday before I change and feed her again instead of doing it today and I will see how that goes all the while checking in on her of course. If anyone does happen to see my grow journal here I would love some info on your experience with res change frequencies please if its not too much trouble. I scoured the net for a bit but seems everyone is happy with weekly change outs.

Week 5 (Veg) 17/2/16
# notes #
The heater came a day early, bonus. Its that two foot pipe you see on the floor secured to the piece of wood. I didn't make any res clean-out this week, want to see if possible to go 2 weeks. I still took photo for my grow journal though.
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I have read about people only changing their rez at bloom and then for final flush. It takes monitoring of your ppms and figuring out what your plants need but it can be done. I know it can take a considerable amount of nutes doing weekly change outs. I recently downsized from a 12gallon rez to a 5 gallon to try to save a little bit of $. There are people on here way more experienced than i that could tell you better. Im following along and will chime in when i feel i have something pertinant to add. Its been a lot of trial/error and experimenting with how things work and for me thats half the fun of hydro. Keep on keeping on.
 
Hi Lazarus13 and thank you for following along with me and providing some input.
I may be wrong as im new but i don't think its good idea to leave all though veg without a full cleaning. Even after about a week the stones, pipes and bucket interior are so slimy like a frog lol. That cant be good sign right, what do you think? Do you get slimy stuff on your res gear.

I did some bed-browsing last night on this forum and found a few interesting topics on res change frequency. One guy was saying that he can just top up with ph'd water, effectively diluting his solution down each time until the point he needs to replenish. What are your opinions on that method. I just bought one of those ppm meters :high-five: shouldn't take long to come. With hard city water treated for 24 hours to remove chlorine what would the ideal ppm number I should aim for be?
Thanks again for your input dude, you rock. :high-five:
 
You can feed 1 time a week and they will grow fine if you train them for once a week feed they be ok I run a 10 gallon with 2 plants dwc and I feed them 1 time a week and have no problems you don't have to use the full dose feeding on the bottle either some people do .I personally don't I use 3/4 the ampunt it says that saves on nutrients and my grows do fine .If your roots are white you get away with skipping a weekly water change out to.My last photo grow I only changed my reservoir 2 times once when I switched to 12/12 and once when I flushed at week 12 of flower.As long as theres no light leaking in the reservoir and your roots are healthy you can get by.Again this my personal experience.
 
Hi nuggs78 welcome and thank you for your input too. Its greatly appreciated. I'm pretty anal about my ph levels lol so already have quite a bit of the ph up and ph down. I aim for a perfect 6.0 every time and only add it after I treated the water for 24 hours.

I too soon discovered the formula on the bottles just want you buy more nutes haha so about half way through first month of veg I came up with a new experimental formula (roughly 60% of recommended levels) you can see the pic above looks to be doing the job nicely now and no more nute burn too. :thumb:

The problem i'm having is feeding once per week will be too expensive for me soon when i clone :( so I'm looking at other methods of feeding in hopes to save some money/stress. When you say you only changed out twice on your last grow do you top up with ph'd water when levels get low then adjust ppm's with nutes right. I never dealt with ppm's before do you know what the meter should read and if its under I just need to add little bits of part A and B until desired value is reached correct?

Thanks again for your input dude you rock too :high-five:
 
I use the lucas method for my dwc. With that i use the water only top-off, which goes: fill the rez and add nutes at 0-9-18 plus cal/mag cuz I'm using leds plus my benes and superthrive. Monitor pH and add pH'd water to my rez as the plants drink until i have added back the total of my rez, then change everything oit and start over. This is my first time using this method but it has been going very well so far.
I do get some residue in my rez but not really slime, just remnants of the benes i think. My roots have been white except where they are stained with nutes and the humic acid i use. I always smell check the water when I'm in there fooling about and it always smells clean and earthy. I use ice packs outside my rez to keep my internal temps a little lower than they like to get. Without them my water temps were about 70°-72° and now they stay around 68ish°.
 
@Lazarus13
Hey thank you very much dude I think that method would be perfect for me and will be giving it a shot. You just saved me a lot time with trial and error. :thanks:
I will add the first 1 liter of PH'd water tomorrow because she is asleep atm. Almost time for cloning too just waiting on 2 more decent stems then will have 8 ready for the snip which reminds me a need to get some rooting powder.
Take it easy man
Night
 
NP bro. Theres some lucas threads on here and you can google it and get a plethora of info on it. I chose it because of my budget and with lucas you only use the micro and bloom nutes so save $ not buying the grow. Theres also lucas for 2 part nute formulas, modifies lucas for lower power lights and lucas for coco. Interesting stuff. Peace...
 
@Lazarus13
Hey dude so Iv read everything I could possibly find on the lucas formula on here and from google in general thanks again for that. I think the principle is great however out of no where my plant drank over half of the bucket so instead of adding little liters of water every x y and z. I had to add about half the res which is about 10.5 liters so what I will do is because the solution is about 50% strength Ill give a full change next week. Will post a quick update below too as there's been a deficiency of some sort and hope I can get some advice otherwise will just be doing regular weekly updates.
 
Hi everyone. Here is a quick update as there seems to be a deficiency of sorts occurring and I hope to get opinions and advice if its not too much trouble.

Weekend 5 (Veg Inspection) 20/2/16
# notes #
- Have switched feeding method to Lucas formula, (principle only) because i'm using same nutes as started with (2 part grw)
- Yesterday plant drank 50% of solution so added 10.5L of treated ph 6 water today and made sure res was ph6 also. (tds meter not here yet)
- Iv taken some pictures I believe maybe she has a nutrient deficiency and from my knowledge it looks to be the start of a nitrogen deficiency but I could be wrong, Could also be the strength of the solution being a tad high from her drinking 50%. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise I will just monitor it in the next 24-48 hours and if needed will change out full 21L res with fresh solution. The reason I am not doing that now is that I have just added that 10.5L of new water into the system and so if i'm wrong about the nutrient deficiency and the problem could have been caused by extra nutes in the water from the plant drinking half.

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# Update #
Week 6 (Veg) 23/2/16 Final days of life
I should have posted this yesterday but my new lodger came for a cuppa and a smoke with me and I kinda forgot....
Yesterday (22/2/16) I gave a full res change and also chopped all but the top fan leafs off in preparation for cloning in the next few days.
reason for my madness
(just want my stems to get a few days of the good light before I chop em into 8 clones and the fan leafs dim the light so it makes the stems stretch to get around them).
I just realized I didn't take a picture. Lights are coming on soon so will upload it shortly. I will say though she don't look good naked hahahaha. I feel so bad going to have to chop her up in a few days. The things we do for our favorite strains eh.
 
"And so my watch begins"

Update 25/02/16
I didn't have the heart to kill her after I was done cloning so I guess I'm gonna keep her and see what I can experiments with then I'll just flower with her clones or keep for more clones.

Went a bit crazy with the camera lol enjoy and see everyone in a week for the next update which will install them into the system. 7 days is more than enough time for them to establish.


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Hi HL,
What's up? Your first plant pictures was really nice to watch. They look so beautifully and shiny :> I can't make my plants look like this, cause I have a lot of calcium in my tap water, so as I spray over the leaves, theres white residue left. Wish you a pleasant and a massive growth for your plants.
Im taking a chair just to watch how your girls will be doing ;]
 
Hi LiquidBud and welcome. Thanks for your kind words I'm doing good dude, Exited for tomorrow transplant into the bubbler system. I hope they rooted good by then :)

For my pictures I'm using the LG spirit, it has a wicked cameras in it.

I had similar issues with my cities water that you mentioned also. Most of my res equipment got this "white" residue stuff also. The easiest way you can beat that though is to put your water in a bucket with no lid and put it in a room and open the window a little and just leave the bucket to sit for 24 hours before using it with your res (put extra than you need because evaporation). You can also use an airstone in this process to speed it up to about 12 hours but I always like to do 24 hours to be safest because I don't have RO filter to get good water.

This is where I learned about that from

Good luck on your grow too my friend. I will keep an eye out on yours also
 
Hi LiquidBud and welcome. Thanks for your kind words I'm doing good dude, Exited for tomorrow transplant into the bubbler system. I hope they rooted good by then :)

For my pictures I'm using the LG spirit, it has a wicked cameras in it.

I had similar issues with my cities water that you mentioned also. Most of my res equipment got this "white" residue stuff also. The easiest way you can beat that though is to put your water in a bucket with no lid and put it in a room and open the window a little and just leave the bucket to sit for 24 hours before using it with your res (put extra than you need because evaporation). You can also use an airstone in this process to speed it up to about 12 hours but I always like to do 24 hours to be safest because I don't have RO filter to get good water.

This is where I learned about that from


Good luck on your grow too my friend. I will keep an eye out on yours also

High! Are you gonna wait till you see the roots on the plants before putting them into bubbler?
Because what i did once I saw seedling, I instantly put them on the lights, and voila :D As I say this, I also think that this method of mine has killed 3 babies :D Well at least 2 for granted, another one is barely holding.. And in my grow I'm counting weeks differently :( I count weeks from the moment I've put seedlings under the lights.
Hmm, I can make 9galons of bucket prepared for spraying, but I dont have enough reservoirs to prepare water for the whole system ;( That 9 Galon bucket would fill up only 2 buckets in my system.. Thats what makes me mad and keeps me spinning my head around :S
Cheers.
 
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