5 Gallon DWC - 1st Attempt

Ohh yes before I call it a night. shout out to wal mart for being understanding as I went through 3 different air pumps. IMO the tetra whisper 40/60 is one of the best I've tried so far. Great air flow and QUIET. Im on 18/6 schedule, when the lights and fan shut off you have to listen for the air pump. The aquavita sounded like I could attach a air ratchted to it and remove a lug nut. I'll have to measure the plants this weekend but it might top them soon? Kind of nervous about cutting the top off.
 
Faint05 said:
I am using tap water. I forgot about that and I've read it a couple of times on here. I will get a back up container to let sit outside in the sun covered for a couple of days before the res change. Thanks for the input midasone, thats probably what is making my plants look like crap. I got the GH CaMg+ from the local hydro shop and LEDs on amazon. It had good reviews and the people that did have problems said the warranty service wasn't a hassle at all and thats pretty much what I was looking for. I'll still end up getting a mars at some point when I learn more and feel confident enought to start a perpetual setup.

Since the last pics, I changed the res again,
PPM to 300
ph 5.8
It has been steady increase in PH from 5.8 to 6.5 the last couple of days. The PPM hasn't dropped much but the water level has went down. So I'm guessing the plants were thirsty and haven't ate much? Any how enough with the typing and on to the visuals.
Time to burn.
Click to expand...

Like you I am on my 1st attempt using DWC buckets but you commented on something that to me has me confused. Your PH is going up, then you made the comment that perhaps they were thirsty but have not eaten much. This is where I was confused. When I mix up my nutrients for my DWC bucket I am only putting in either FF Grow Big (6-4-4)or General Hydroponics Flora-micro(5-0-1)I go anywhere from 300 to 600 PPM depending on the PH reading. My water PH changes from season to season but right now it is pretty consistently 6.4 to 6.6 PH. I do not measure out the Grow Big or the Flora-micro I just pour in what I guess is about 1/4 to 1/2 strength then I mix it up and test my PH. It always comes down after adding either Grow Big or Flora-micro. Even if I though in a splash of cal/mag, the PH does not go up it goes down. That being said it leads me to believe that the higher the concentrate of Grow Big, flora-micro or cal/mag the lower the PH I will be reading. The only thing besides PH up that I add that increases my PH is Armour Si by General Hydroponics which is a silica for plant growth enhancement. When I add even a little of that, my PH can jump all the way up into the 9's. So to me, if the plant is only removing water and NOT nutrients, then the PH theoretically should be going down not up since now there is more nutrients per gallon of water. Perhaps I am missing something here. I am by no means an expert nor do I claim to know chit when it comes to hydro other then what I have read and much of that I have forgotten. I am just approaching this purely from a logical stand point.
Also I see where you check the PH in your reservoir daily, that is something I do not do. I change out my buckets every Sunday and scrub out the bucket with bleach before I refill for the next week. Then the only thing I do with the buckets from Monday through Saturday is add H2O which I PH down to 5.8 before pouring it into the bucket. While this may not be the 100% best way to grow in a DWC bucket, I have to say it seems to be working just fine for me. I presently have 3 Huckleberry's I grew from seed, 2 popped the same day the 3rd popped the following day so theoretically they should be relatively close to the same size in growth. I put one into the DWC and the other 2 are in soil. Here is my DWC Huckleberry and the largest of the soil Huckleberries.
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I may be completely off base but I think your biggest hurdle in your grow at the moment is your over thinking your grow.
If anyone knows of something I am missing which puts holes in my logic I would be very interested in knowing where I missed the mark, I am presently very happy with how the DWC is doing and if there is a way to make it even better, well heck I am all for it.
 
DocBudden to answer your question I am using Brita filtered water. Not the best But the PPM is lower then tap!

Thanks for the words of wisdom oldgrower! I do agree I have been over thinking it, I have the tendency to overthink things I'm really interested in being successful at. Using logic as you mentioned helps put things in perspective, and just taking my time.

I decided to name my plants Lefty and Righty. After a res change lefty decided to get sickly. Here are the updated photos. I will send the PPM, PH, res, and tent temp numbers on the next update.
 
purple stem and drooping from lefty after res change
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I've been doing the same to lefty as righty and righty seems to flourish. I started lefty first and righty is starting to surpass her. They are both starting to form root balls in the res I'll post the root shots next.
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Growing slow or maybe stunted growth. So I added a couple of more lights to see if we can get lefty and righty reaching for the light a bit more before I top them.
 
Hey Faint05 looking good so far, I'm pulling up a seat :)

Any time my plants begin to purple on the stems I up my ratio of calmag and it goes away :) purple leaf stems or stripy purple stems is commonly caused by a magnesium deficiency, either you don't have enough mag or your PH is out of range for its correct absorption. Do you have interveinal chlorosis on any of the leaves?

GreenFingers
 
Hey GreenFingers! Yes I am facing a little of interveinal chlorosis on righty. The other day I added some water with nitrogen and mag to see if it would help with that. I topped lefty and, my buddy said he would show me how it is done. Both lefty and righty have been topped and trimmed. He even trimmed the tips of some of the leaves.

Right now I am feeding them 500PPM
res temp is at 68
tent temp is at 80
humidity at 50

this is steady tempt drops 73-68 at night time. I haven't had much troubles keeping my growing environment steady. Starting to get a hang of the Fox Farm nute fluctuations. After every res change it will rise the next day as the plant eats food. You just have to make sure it doesn't rise too high before you PH down it.
 
The magnesium should do the trick for you, the interveinal chlorosis is also a sign of a magnesium def :)

What PH range are you keeping the plants in? I usually PH down to 5.7 when nutrients are added and let it drift to 6.0 over 2-3 days and then reset.

PPM meters operate on different conversion scales, they all measure in EC and different brands have different conversions to PPM so 500 PPM does not mean the same for everybody else as it does for you, if you don't have an EC meter it is more helpful if you do the conversion and post in EC so that we know what your nutrient concentration actually is.

Here is a conversion chart :)

ppmChart-med.jpg


As for those fan leaves, I'm not sure why your friend cut them, that's usually only something you do when cloning to reduce transpiration.

Keep up the good work

GreenFingers
 
So I had to questioned my buddy. I was like really?! He said it was to help the light penetrate deeper and that the leaves would create shade.
I do have a EC meter, I will have to check the conversion to provide the right info to everyone.

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One thing I did notice is that after my buddy sliced and diced lefty and righty they are starting to become bushier. Also decided to bring the Vintage grow full spectrum LEDs back to see if they are better then the white bulb LED's

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Lefty and Righty are looking like a Bush, the root balls on both are starting to get thick.
So I went to the shop and got lucky. I found a Seed in my Superglue. I found 3 seeds in the Cookie OG, and also found 2 seeds in the Candy Landy I got from the weed shop. Most of the time I wouldn't be happy about this but now I know what I'll be growing next.

Super Glue - Hybrid
Cookie OG - Indica " My buddy says this might be difficult for me" But I'm not scared and the seed was FREE

So let me admit I'm such a stoner I'm not even sure how long I've been growing for. LOL I know its about time for LST training.
I'm in the process of building a PVC scrog. Also trying to decide which dehumidifier I want to buy.
Since I lost track of how long I've been growing SMFH lol I'm going to switch to 12/12 after I finish the scrog and order the dehumidifier.
 
My dehumidifier came in, and so did the flowering nutes. I didn't get the cheapest dehumidifier but not the most expensive either so hopefully it will do the job.The nutes I added for flowering were bud candy and bloombastic. Was going to go with the tea but, wanted to try bloombastic this first run. This stuff is super concentrated what a smell. I forgot to pick up some pvc glue so I'll have to finish the scrog this weekend.
 
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