Bassman59's Revenge of the Clones! 600w Pro-Bloom LED - RDWC - Grow #2

[Bassman59]

Hey everyone,

Welcome to my 2nd grow. My 1st grow is still going and 4 weeks into flower, but these are clones from there.

I am sticking with Deep Water Culture. While the clones are in veg and grow #1 is in flower, this will be a standard DWC rather than recirc-DWC. I have to keep these in closet until I can move them to my 4x4 tent.

Having been on this huge learning curve for 3 months or so, I'm going to make one major change compared to last grow. These clones are going to be getting lots of defoliation and hopefully some good training. I may end up with only 6 plants and that's ok. There just may not be enough room for all 8 clones I have going now if I do good training. I'm still reading up on it a lot.

As before, I'm using a Grow Stealth LED 600w Pro-Bloom light. Grow Stealth LED is a sponsor here and has a fine product.

However, while the clones are in the closet waiting on harvest before going into tent I will be stuck using CFL's. That's fine, I want slower growth while waiting on harvest.

Clones were taken 28 days ago before 36 hrs lights out in tent and dropped in Root Riot cubes with clonex. 100% take on eight clones. I'll show pics from day 1 of cutting to present.

I use RO water.

Nutrients for now are:
AN Sensi Grow A & B
Voodoo Juice
B52
Hygrozyme
Calmg+

They are now mixed at 75% schedule.

These are AK48 cuttings from my nirvana seedling plants. All are female.

I've already done a lot of topping fimming and defoliating. But much more to come.

Day 1 of cuttings Oct 13th

Day one of veg in new DIY DWC tub:

7 days veg on cuttings in DWC:

 

[Bassman59]

Re: Bassman59's Revenge of the Clones! 600w PRO-Bloom LED, RDWC, Grow #2

As you can see above there are noticeable spots where I cut fan leaves completely off. This will continue to some degree as I work on creating branches and inevitably more bud sites.

The two plants in the front center and right do not have feeder tubes until today. I only had a 6 site hub, so I've fed them by hand many times per day from the res. Consequently their roots are way behind the others and not in the res yet.

Today I pulled the feed tubes from two plants that had roots in the water and stuck them into the two front netpots that didnt have feed tubes. Hopefully, next week the pump gets pulled entirely.

You'll see below I have done a pretty fair amount of defoliating, yet what has happened is more branch sites, closer together. This will require some bending and training for sure. In the end we hope to really spread out these plants laterally and do major defoliation getting intense LED light all the way to the bottom and big thick buds from top to bottom.

The last plant is one I purposely bent to about 75 degrees. It's been fimmed and defoliated. We should be well surprised in 3-4 days. You're going to see lots of this as time goes on.

I guess the white on the cubes is PM? Well I've already begun treating it with low fat milk/water mixture so it should be fine soon.

Today, day 13 of veg.

Notice lots of side branching already from early defoliating

Before deleafing today

After

New growth from previous fim

The red marks will be removed in a day or two.

This is a test bend to 75 degrees roughly:

 

[LeafLady]

Re: Bassman59's Revenge of the Clones! 600w PRO-Bloom LED, RDWC, Grow #2

Hey Bassman59, everything looks great! It'll be interesting to see that 75 degree bend turns out to look like in a couple weeks. Keep it up.

 

[Bassman59]

Re: Bassman59's Revenge of the Clones! 600w PRO-Bloom LED, RDWC, Grow #2

Indeed LL, should be fun. I'm sure I'll be an expert bender by the time this grow is done. Or, I'll break em all and start over!

Welcome to a fun ride!

 

[RichardLiquor]

Re: Bassman59's Revenge of the Clones! 600w PRO-Bloom LED, RDWC, Grow #2

Looking good Bassman, I will be watching this one!

 

[jjames]

Re: Bassman59's Revenge of the Clones! 600w PRO-Bloom LED, RDWC, Grow #2

hey man, checkin out what you got goin... youve been so helpful to my first grow its a shame all i can do is watch yours, and learn more... i think that when i take some cuttings i will be defoliating as well... my grow looks like i threw some plants under a light and locked the door for 3wks...

 

[GodSpeed]

Re: Bassman59's Revenge of the Clones! 600w PRO-Bloom LED, RDWC, Grow #2

Hey bassman didnt know you had anothing journal going .. No messing around!

Subbed

Ha i would say the white on the cube is from were light is getting to it wile its damp treat it and cover it from light should keep it from spreading any more.

My guess of the 75 deree bend is if she isnt tied down to that possition she will be back up straight in a few days. Iv done alot of bending and some bend i think F*#% gone to far the next day she stood upstraight and that cola always grows to be the thickest!

Good luck bro

 

[Bassman59]

Re: Bassman59's Revenge of the Clones! 600w PRO-Bloom LED, RDWC, Grow #2

Hey thanks for joinin in on this one too GodSpeed!

And yes, thanks for the advice on both accounts. My plan is to defoliate and train the hell out of these (or some anyways). I knew when I was taking clones they would get long time growth before I can move them into the tent that is flowering now. So having recently been reading a 160 page thread elsewhere on defoliating and yield I decided to give it a go.

You're right I need to get those covered. I'll try to remember to do that tonight.

 

[Bassman59]

Re: Bassman59's Revenge of the Clones! 600w PRO-Bloom LED, RDWC, Grow #2

Update:

Day 16 in clone veg:

Res changed today. I have all but 3 plants with roots reaching the res. Two of those naturally were the ones that didnt have a tube feeder and were being hand fed. They do have tubes now and hopefully we'll see them moving along. The one other had a semi clogged feed line and should be fine now.

Nutes are at slightly more than 75% feed and they seem to be plenty happy.

ppm: 990
Ph after res change is 5.2. I'll let it climb naturally rather than micro manage it slightly higher.

As previously stated, I'm doing a butt load of defoliating and bending-training. Well today was a big cut-bend day for sure. This may be a highly controversial topic but I'm reading up on it and going for it right from veg.

The idea is to train each plant to be shorter and wide as hell. Ideally 3' square and 3-4' tall. I do not expect to achieve these goals 1st time out, but let's hope wherever it ends up it becomes an improvement from grow #1. By removing so many fan leaves during veg, we're supposed to see closer internodes and then train those internodes more outward, all the while slowing some top growth allowing sides to become part of the canopy rather than way down xmas tree like and not getting as much light during flower. In so doing yield should climb substantially at no cost to quality. This does also mean more veg time which I need anyways with grow #1 in flower still.

You'll see in this pics some rather radical fan leaf trimming and node bending. Hopefully I got it right. We'll probably see tons of new growth in another week.

Before def:

After def & bend:

 

[Mr. Krip]

Re: Bassman59's Revenge of the Clones! 600w PRO-Bloom LED, RDWC, Grow #2

Looks good, Bass!

I'm in!

 

[Bassman59]

Re: Bassman59's Revenge of the Clones! 600w PRO-Bloom LED, RDWC, Grow #2

Looks good, Bass!

I'm in!

Thank you sir! Feel free to chime in with thoughts at any time!

 

[Kaiser Sose 3]

Very Cool! I am doing my first grow now and may try to incorporate this into my grow too. I am SO IN!!!

 

[Bassman59]

Very Cool! I am doing my first grow now and may try to incorporate this into my grow too. I am SO IN!!!

I highly suggest you dont do anything more than top or fim on your first grow. Those would be minor and non stressful while you get the other things like ph, medium, temps, humidity, lighting, and figuring out problems early before going into a major defoliation like I am doing.

I really should wait 1 more grow at least as well. But I've studied my ass off on this and decided to try since I needed the extra veg time anyways.

In fact, I think I actually erred already to some degree. Mainly in what I did with the front left plant. Too early to deleaf and then bend the hell out of at the same time. It's taking a longer to recover and is stunted presently.

Best wishes on your grow and post a journal link when ya get going! And thanks for joining in on mine!

 

[Kaiser Sose 3]

I hear ya and agree...to a point. I have had some nute burn and some of the leaves will be coming off tonight as some are crunchy. Those will be removed tonight. I was just thinking of some bending. I have seen other journals that did some bending and found it awesome. But I will take heed. And no bending until they are at full health. ANd I will also figure out how to post my link as a signature too. lol

Ok Noob First Grow

 

[ratatattooey]

lookin good!

 

[Kaiser Sose 3]

I highly suggest you dont do anything more than top or fim on your first grow.

LOL I sat there for like an hour last nite looking at my plants thinking " wonder what would happen if I ...."

Thanks Bassman. You got in my head.... LMAO ok so maybe I was a little baked too...But I was thinking...lol

 

[Bassman59]

This defoliating thing will be a learning experience for me for sure, hopefully others as well. It's a semi hotly debated topic at times. But I've been reading a 160+ page thread on it and seen the results of numerous that applied it correctly. So I'm giving it a try. Yet I also know I have to be careful and try to keep everything else right first. I know I have water temp issues in the clone closet. That's issue #1 and I'm trying to deal with it but it's been rough on the babes. Another is not enough light. I've only got 4 mixed spectrum cfl's on them atm. I need more but not going to worry about that just yet.

 

[Bassman59]

I'm probably going to have my first casualty in the next few days.

As usual, it's the growers fault. I knew going in that with 8 clones and being forced to build a larger tub, cooling the res would be an issue. The tub I was using before I got my chiller to hold my 6 plant dwc tubs in and water cool-bath those tubs is not big enough to do the same with for this clone tub. As such, I have been dropping 1 gal ice jugs 2-3 times daily to cool the res. Yet I also knew I would have to do better since roots wouldn't like to lay on ice eventually. Well, the plant I trained the most so far that had the best roots did exactly that. And the roots on that plant entirely died in the res.

I'm going to try and save her but it's unlikely she'll survive. I picked up smaller water bottles for ice, but still that wont fix my issue.

***
Worst case, I take the best 6 which is ideal for my regular dwc setup anyways, drop them into my spare tub which drops into the "water-ice-bath" and cools the tub from outside. This is probably the best way to go about it anyways, as it allows me to go 3 in each tub when they move to tent.

Obviously I came into this prepared to lose a couple. Maybe even knowing it was likely I would sac 1-2 or turn one into a mother.

 

[Bassman59]

Day 23 veg:

Well no casualties yet! Maybe I wont have any in fact. The recovery of the one plant I was sure would say bye bye to me has been amazing. I really should have taken a picture at it's worse, but ego and embarrassment got in the way I guess. Hell if I had, it would have been a BIGGER ego boost with the recovery!

Res changed yesterday. Switched to BPN nutes on the clones. Only plucked fans from strategic growth nodes (I think).

Weird thing today. Ph was 5.8 after res change yesterday, but was at 7.0 this morning. Now, this was all my screwup. Earlier yesterday I had applied a new ph dn (earthjuice) to my 5 gal jugs of RO before adding in nutes. I went with small amounts, but after letting it stabalize it was 4.7 or something so I had to add ph up and wait more. Well like a dummy, after the res change some 12 hrs later, the ph was 6.2 or so and I went to drop it. Unfortunately being the a.d.d. and future alzheimers client, I mistakenly added ph up! Well that sucks because it takes FOREVER to counter ph up. I did add back dn but it still has climbed as we see.

meh, not going to fret over it. I added dn today and it should get there. In any regard, it's been long enough to overtake the screwup with the ph up.

I feel like it's always better to admit screw ups. This not only reminds us so we dont do it again, but often we are not the only ones and never are we the first. In turn, others may chime in with fixes we had not known about had we kept the screw up to ourselves.

Ok, so switched to Blue Planet 2 part yesterday and today's PPM is nice at 920.

The other additives I use are calmg+, B52, Voodoo juice, Hygrozyme.

Here's todays pics.

These two were bent-trained hard a while ago. The 2nd was the almost dead one that has 4 hard bends. As you see, it's recovered nicely and the bends pushed those branches out-up. More bending req'd.

The 2nd * 3rd in this group was practically naked earlier in grow. Notice the tight ass node spacing!

I think the 4th one in this grp has the best in terms of just most nodes, with nice direction. She should be a perfect train later on.

Here's the one I bent to about 75 degrees and nearly stripped earlier in the grow.

And this is the pheno from my current flowering grow that was two weeks behind and now is the tallest with the most frosty and biggest bud development. I wish I had taken more clones off her. Maybe turn this into a mom then make her the main clone taker? She may not look like a lot now, but that's how her mom was early too.

That's all for now. I'm doing minimal de-leafing this week. Maybe some topping, probably some bending as needed. Remember, we're trying to get nodes spread out and up. When they go to flower the goal will be to have already set them up for wide ass branching and at 21days into flower we de-leaf the shit out of them for penetration after stretch. Then again at 45 days or so for final weeks of bud growth. I suspect I wont be able to transplant & flip till about day 45 or so in veg. How the hell I'll be able to keep these under 12-13" before flip I have no idea.

 

[Kaiser Sose 3]

Very Nice. They are looking GREAT!