Indy's 1st DWC: White Widow Photoperiod

[IndyRacerNick]

Howdy folks!!

Been a few months since I last started a journal. Was very busy with work and moving. I did manage to grow 2 autoflowers during this time, however things got real over the past 4-5 months. I was awarded a ACMPR for 5 grams a day and a license from Health Canada for 25 plants for personal growing

Now that everything is good to go the way the law sees fit, I decided to get my roots wet with DWC.

As I said I ended up moving, which if you followed my past journals you would see I had to harvest and prepare for this move, and boy oh boy are things great!

I managed to talk the wife into letting me have one of the rooms in the house for my personal grow space...deal is done!

I have a grow tent that is 2.5 X 2.5 X 5.5 which will do for now. The room I have measures 6 feet wide X 12 feet long. I would love to setup a grow in there with plants lined off but with 1 tent and 2 lights (240w LED & 1200w LED 1440w combined) but not sure if this is possible right now or if I even have the tools needed to make this happen (ventelation and air scrubbing being my main concern)

Either way...here is what my new room looks like...

[video=youtube_share;d1y5DJU5VoI]

[/video]

Some details about my setup:

What are we growing? White Widow Photoperiod
How are we growing? DWC
Nutrients? Green Planet Nutrients
Foliar Feeding? Foliar Essence foliar spray
Lighting? LED 1440w combined with 2 lights
pH Adjustments? PH UP/DOWN

Handheld ph/TDS readings

I have started the White Widow off in solo cup with soil. After she has sprouted and was above soil, standing on her own, I removed her from the soil, and placed her into hydration into the DWC system, top feeding daily

About a week and a half has gone by since it was moved to the DWC and I was itching to see the roots, she as slow but she finally broke through

About 24-48 hours after that I was left with a mess of roots sticking out. Had no idea things grow so quickly once they get started in hydro

The brownish on the roots is from the foliar feeding and nutrients. It seems to work its way into my water as it drips off the leaves, leaving a little brown on the roots. No bad smell, no rotting, just color changing from the feeding at this point

Week 2 & 3 of veg

Week 3 of Veg

During week 3 of veg we have seen lots of rapid growth. She is still very short and bushy

During this week I decided to perform some operation on the girl. FIM FIM FIM FIM FIM FIM

Scary stuff...never done it before, and still dont know if I done it right...it it possible to f*&k up the f*&k I missed method? Who knows....

Here is a before and after of the FIM

BEFORE

AFTER

During the healing period I was also ponytailing the girl to get light to the important areas of the plant

After doing this for a few days there has been great growth happening under the leaves and on the new nodes

They say you should end up with 4 colas after a FIM. I have no idea what I am looking for when it comes to a FIM because I have never done this before...but I counted more than 4...maybe I am overlooking something...

Maybe a FIM is 4 new colas plus the 1 main cola? Not sure, maybe someone can assist me with that one!

I got kinda sick of doing the ponytail each day for a few hours, and even noticed that the leaves seem to stress out and get weak after its been done for a few hours. Instead of doing this each day, I performed another surgery and removed the big fan leaves. I will keep removing leaves as we go, and get ready to enter our flowering period.

Before defoliation

After defoliation

That's all I got for now!

Smoke em if ya got em!

 

[Stltoed]

Howdy folks!!

Been a few months since I last started a journal. Was very busy with work and moving. I did manage to grow 2 autoflowers during this time, however things got real over the past 4-5 months. I was awarded a ACMPR for 5 grams a day and a license from Health Canada for 25 plants for personal growing

Now that everything is good to go the way the law sees fit, I decided to get my roots wet with DWC.

As I said I ended up moving, which if you followed my past journals you would see I had to harvest and prepare for this move, and boy oh boy are things great!

I managed to talk the wife into letting me have one of the rooms in the house for my personal grow space...deal is done!

I have a grow tent that is 2.5 X 2.5 X 5.5 which will do for now. The room I have measures 6 feet wide X 12 feet long. I would love to setup a grow in there with plants lined off but with 1 tent and 2 lights (240w LED & 1200w LED 1440w combined) but not sure if this is possible right now or if I even have the tools needed to make this happen (ventelation and air scrubbing being my main concern)

Either way...here is what my new room looks like...

[video=youtube_share;d1y5DJU5VoI]

[/video]

Some details about my setup:

What are we growing? White Widow Photoperiod
How are we growing? DWC
Nutrients? Green Planet Nutrients
Foliar Feeding? Foliar Essence foliar spray
Lighting? LED 1440w combined with 2 lights
pH Adjustments? PH UP/DOWN

Handheld ph/TDS readings

I have started the White Widow off in solo cup with soil. After she has sprouted and was above soil, standing on her own, I removed her from the soil, and placed her into hydration into the DWC system, top feeding daily

About a week and a half has gone by since it was moved to the DWC and I was itching to see the roots, she as slow but she finally broke through

About 24-48 hours after that I was left with a mess of roots sticking out. Had no idea things grow so quickly once they get started in hydro

The brownish on the roots is from the foliar feeding and nutrients. It seems to work its way into my water as it drips off the leaves, leaving a little brown on the roots. No bad smell, no rotting, just color changing from the feeding at this point

Week 2 & 3 of veg

Week 3 of Veg

During week 3 of veg we have seen lots of rapid growth. She is still very short and bushy

During this week I decided to perform some operation on the girl. FIM FIM FIM FIM FIM FIM

Scary stuff...never done it before, and still dont know if I done it right...it it possible to f*&k up the f*&k I missed method? Who knows....

Here is a before and after of the FIM

BEFORE

AFTER

During the healing period I was also ponytailing the girl to get light to the important areas of the plant

After doing this for a few days there has been great growth happening under the leaves and on the new nodes

They say you should end up with 4 colas after a FIM. I have no idea what I am looking for when it comes to a FIM because I have never done this before...but I counted more than 4...maybe I am overlooking something...

Maybe a FIM is 4 new colas plus the 1 main cola? Not sure, maybe someone can assist me with that one!

I got kinda sick of doing the ponytail each day for a few hours, and even noticed that the leaves seem to stress out and get weak after its been done for a few hours. Instead of doing this each day, I performed another surgery and removed the big fan leaves. I will keep removing leaves as we go, and get ready to enter our flowering period.

Before defoliation

After defoliation

That's all I got for now!

Smoke em if ya got em!

I don't believe there's a hard a fast rule on fimming. Some times 3 usually more. Sounds like you did well.

I grow in RDWC. 2 pots and a res. You're rig looks good

 

[IndyRacerNick]

Thanks!

Looks like u got a good setup as well. I was looking at scrog but I have no way to change water and nutes without removing the lid

 

[Stltoed]

Thanks!

Looks like u got a good setup as well. I was looking at scrog but I have no way to change water and nutes without removing the lid

Is it too late to add a pump and hose? If if not, add the hose to the pump. And put it in the pot run the hose through the lid or just put your hand in there to grab the hose. Point it in a safe direction and turn the pump on on, you should drain it pretty quickly. Then use a fuel can for dirtbikes to mix nutes and fill your tank again. The cans are 3 or 5 gallons so knowing how much nutrient to add is easy to keep track of. Maybe this or a mutation of this idea would sort you out.

I truly did a SCRoG. And highly recommend it. Makes life so much easier especially if you have cheap lights. But it makes any light work better. No more lime green under developed bud in the middle. You will find DWC grows dense plants. Defoliation helps a lot. Don't worry your leaves will be back in a week. There's so much to be said about growing this way. can

 

[Stltoed]

Is it too late to add a pump and hose? If if not, add the hose to the pump. And put it in the pot run the hose through the lid or just put your hand in there to grab the hose. Point it in a safe direction and turn the pump on on, you should drain it pretty quickly. Then use a fuel can for dirtbikes to mix nutes and fill your tank again. The cans are 3 or 5 gallons so knowing how much nutrient to add is easy to keep track of. Maybe this or a mutation of this idea would sort you out.

I truly did a SCRoG. And highly recommend it. Makes life so much easier especially if you have cheap lights. But it makes any light work better. No more lime green under developed bud in the middle. You will find DWC grows dense plants. Defoliation helps a lot. Don't worry your leaves will be back in a week. There's so much to be said about growing this way. can

What a crappy picture. It's funny my lights aren't pink at all , be you take a picture of something and it's totally pink

 

[IndyRacerNick]

It's not getting the water out that's the problem. It's getting it back in. Are you just top feeding the 3 or 5 gallons of mixed nutes back over your pebbles or medium?

 

[Stltoed]

What are you using for media?

Since putting new nutes in youre res. doesn't happen a whole lot you could probably top water it in. If you feel funky with the nutrients getting a little strong put an extra couple gallons of fresh Ph water in as a chaser All this is heavily dependent of your media


I have a 27 gallon reservoir out of frame from where the picture was taken. The reservoir and the two buckets are connected with 2 inch hose. Then a medium size water pump brings the nutrients back to the res. Typical RDWC system

 

[Stltoed]

My system is 50 gallons total

 

[EastCoastGhost]

Subbing for the ride. Glad you are liking your new home, I just bought a new house also and will be building a new grow space. Looks like you are off to a great start. Best of luck to you.

 

[Scrogdawg]

Nice looking space you have there IRN. Mind if I sub up?

Looks to me like you've FIM'd fairly well. Often you will get as many as seven new branches as opposed to the two from topping. Not sure if you've grown them before, but the White Widows will be a shorter, stockier plant which will need a fair amount of defol through veg and flower. As mentioned earlier they will grow back, to fast for your liking so have at it. Most phenos will grow large dense buds, yield well and are generally very high in THC. They'll knock you on your ass.

As Stltoed mentioned, it would be worth your while to look into converting your system to an RDWC and a scrog screen for your next grow. Its just to easy to have an external reservoir and not fuss with lifting lids to check water levels and add nutes. Fill the res and done, let the recirculating feature do the rest.

5 grams allows you a shit ton of dry storage, lol. I'm at 3 grams, 11 plants and I think its 2.5 pounds in dry storage which is not hard to do growing in hydro. I run a 4 plant RDWC and can pretty much keep up with that.

Any questions, just holler. I see you've already got a couple of pretty knowledgeable people subbed up.

Anyway, looking forward to your new White Widow grow in your new grow space. Best of luck with it.

 

[Stltoed]

Nice looking space you have there IRN. Mind if I sub up?

Looks to me like you've FIM'd fairly well. Often you will get as many as seven new branches as opposed to the two from topping. Not sure if you've grown them before, but the White Widows will be a shorter, stockier plant which will need a fair amount of defol through veg and flower. As mentioned earlier they will grow back, to fast for your liking so have at it. Most phenos will grow large dense buds, yield well and are generally very high in THC. They'll knock you on your ass.

As Stltoed mentioned, it would be worth your while to look into converting your system to an RDWC and a scrog screen for your next grow. Its just to easy to have an external reservoir and not fuss with lifting lids to check water levels and add nutes. Fill the res and done, let the recirculating feature do the rest.

5 grams allows you a shit ton of dry storage, lol. I'm at 3 grams, 11 plants and I think its 2.5 pounds in dry storage which is not hard to do growing in hydro. I run a 4 plant RDWC and can pretty much keep up with that.

Any questions, just holler. I see you've already got a couple of pretty knowledgeable people subbed up.

Anyway, looking forward to your new White Widow grow in your new grow space. Best of luck with it.

Indy... you have the Dawg. An excellent asset to be sure

 

[IndyRacerNick]

Indy... you have the Dawg. An excellent asset to be sure

Yeah that is a pretty awesome I know

 

[IndyRacerNick]

Good morning everyone!!

So its been about a week now since I posted the last update.

We are now in week 5 of veg for this White Widow

I have done more defoliation on her over the past couple days. I removed large fan leaves on bottom and on the top and it has really opened up a lot of area for light and air.

I am still not sure if I wanna top the plant or switch to flower next week. I was going to do a scrog but I do not have the tools to do it this run. Next run with Gorilla Glue #4 there will be a scrog involved with the DWC, or even perhaps a RDWC, but right now I just cant do it, and holding off will give me a chance to plan and prepare the next grow.

ph has been a little battle. Mainly because I think my pH meter is not calibrated. I have ordered ph buffer calibration solution which will be here this week.

PPM is in range of 600 - 700
Water temps were 22.5C when checked today

Gave the girl another half of an enzyme capsule from my nutrient program. Calls for 1 capsule of Zyme for every 40 liters. Gave her half and will give it another half in 3-4 days. I expect to see the water foam up here as it breaks down the bacteria and turns it into micro-nutrients for the plant.

I also am continuing the foliar feeding program. I will be foliar feeding EVERY WEEK until the 2nd week of flower. I am using a feeding program from Foliar Essence and it has given great results.

Here are some pictures hot off the press from today


-Smoke em if ya got em!

 

[IndyRacerNick]

Update from this morning...

Things look great in the tent, the top was starting to take off over everything else, and I decided to top her this morning. I will continue to let her veg. When I get my 1000w light for xmas this will help a lot.

My next order is going to be a new pump or airstone. Although she is healthy, the roots are not big at all. Unless she will take off later in growth.

Here she is topped off strutting her stuff...

 

[EastCoastGhost]

Coming along nicely IndyRacer. I will be giving hydro a try here shortly but I will be doing it in coco so wish me luck lol. I ordered my stuff the other day, hopefully I don't have any major problems lol.

 

[IndyRacerNick]

Coming along nicely IndyRacer. I will be giving hydro a try here shortly but I will be doing it in coco so wish me luck lol. I ordered my stuff the other day, hopefully I don't have any major problems lol.

Well good luck to you on your grow EastCoast..i skipped coco and went to DWC. I may try it some day. Have a lot of fun with hydro so far. Welcome along for the ride

 

[Scrogdawg]

Looks good in the tent Indy. You sure seem to be on the right track.

 

[Stltoed]

Update from this morning...

Things look great in the tent, the top was starting to take off over everything else, and I decided to top her this morning. I will continue to let her veg. When I get my 1000w light for xmas this will help a lot.

My next order is going to be a new pump or airstone. Although she is healthy, the roots are not big at all. Unless she will take off later in growth.

Here she is topped off strutting her stuff...

If you live anywhere near southern California I have a Eco plus 3 ill give you. It gets a little hot but I think it will last a long time. These particular pumps are kinda loud

 

[IndyRacerNick]

If you live anywhere near southern California I have a Eco plus 3 ill give you. It gets a little hot but I think it will last a long time. These particular pumps are kinda loud

Thank you Stltoed, really appreciate that offer, nobody has ever offered to help me in a way like that before. I wish I was in Cali. All this snow here in Canada got me going crazy already!

 

[IndyRacerNick]

I will get a shot of the roots on here when I get off work to show how she looks. Maybe its normal, this is my 1st run so I am not sure what to expect other than some good smoke at the end