Feral's Adventures In Homemade DWC - 2015 - 400W HPS

[FeralA9X]

Couple of updates from last night, I didnt write down any readings etc but they were all checked. I mainly was checking Atomic and MM for ripeness, sorry peeps, its just not time yet. I really would have loved to harvest today and now i have nothing to do lol but there is just not enough amber for my liking, seems one day i look and they are cloudy, next they are clear but as for amber there really has not been an increase. I received my OTG cable today and am currently charging my old samsung galaxy s2 to test out this usb microscope directly on the plants rather than having to remove buds, if it works its definitely a cheap way to have a mobile microscope that takes pictures without having to look through those tiny damn loupes

I took another bud from each Atomic and MM but could not get the usb scope working properly last night so no trich pics today, i will work on that

My main star right now is Atomic#2, she has really taken off with new growth and looking healthier than ever, i am even thinking of "supertopping" her tallest branches one more time

Something i have noticed with the big girls is they are still swelling in size over the past few days, I gave Atomic a pretty decent defol and a medium defol to MM trying to get the last few days of light right down into the lower buds, even the smaller buds are big lol. Lets just say to me yield is going to be above and beyond all of my expectations, I can pretty much guarantee i should see a minimum of 4oz per plant (not GWS, i will probably be around the oz mark with her, still a result) here are some bud porn pics in the setting hps sun

Atomic Bomb

Money Maker
I love this shot, even under the hps

If you go back through my journal, this is the branch that had an accidental supercropping (i think i used it right this time) early on in flower, probably the furthest from the light source.

Edit...
Forgot to mention, had a call from the hydro shop today to make sure i had all the bits and pieces i needed before they were picked up for shipping, what a great service so far, so cheap compared to others and had a bit of a chat about the system over the phone, was very helpful. If i run into issues with the 15L pots, there is a 27L version that are also made for these lids, you just need one of their feeder rings to adapt from the larger size, overall i am impressed with this system, there are so many different ways you can run it Eventually i will probably replace everything using this.

 

[Mello136]

OOOOh-La-la Feral, those girls are looking seeeeexy!

 

[FeralA9X]

OOOOh-La-la Feral, those girls are looking seeeeexy!

Thanks Mello, they dont take after their father
Getting to that stage right now where harvest is almost upon us, cant wait to get some pics of them out of the tent not strung up like puppets lol

 

[FeralA9X]

Only a few updates tonight, mainly spent most of my time in the veg tent getting things sorted and ready to go for when i change this tent to flower. Main thing that really needed my attention was the airflow situation, I had the fan outside the tent cooling the hood and straight out the other side of the tent, the other fan was connected to the filter and out of the tent exhausting back in the room. No issues with this on the old tent but this tent just cant get enough air and the tent sucks in when zipped up, I ended up moving the carbon filter over to the left side of the tent, fan connected to it and then ducts through the OG hood, out the tent and directly out the window, the spare fan i have hooked up to the fan speed controller and have used it as an inlet fan regulated so the tent does not suck in any more.

Tonight i felt White Jack had grown enough roots to move into the netpot lid, the whole 3" netpot was sunken into the lid and surrounded with clay, the roots had just started shooting out all over so i wanted to get them growing through a bit more medium for stability.

Skywalker Kush has just started showing a few bumps on her main root, shouldnt be long and they will start shooting out and she can catch up to WJ. Currant Kush, she should be above ground, i must have covered her in a bit too much and i may have to carefully dissect it tomorrow if she still has not popped, has had roots reaching the netpot for over a week now. Clones? what clones? did somebody say clones? none i can see here, yep you guessed it, RIP.

Atomic#1, she received her first dose of CS to one branch today, marked the branches with silver pipe cleaners, how fitting lol

Atomic#2, my baby , I am thinking of taking the two most upper branches in my "supertopping" technique im seriously gonna use that from now on lol, this will bring the canopy back to being mostly even but i am going to wait for my new cloner to get here, they will be the first test.

Not a lot else was done tonight, i messed around with the microscope again, found out it wont work with a galaxy s2 (even though this one is hacked to latest software), it needs at least a s3, typical. So after messing with that for hours after hours trying different apps etc i gave up and stickytaped my loupe to the phone actually didnt do too bad of a job surprisingly but ended up using the microscope on my computer again, these are the small nugs i removed last night for testing purposes, roughly about 3g each wet.

So these nugs are some of the smallest on each plant, from down low so they are not as mature as the tops, the first one being atomic followed by MM, same order as these next trich pics. Ambers are still not increasing, still seeing clear and cloudy trichs (can see them better through the loupe), not worried just means more mass is being added while i wait

(Atomic Bomb)

(Money Maker)

Thats all i have for tonight, i am so tired and need sleep, hope everyone is having, had or will have a great day

 

[FeralA9X]

Today i received a couple of deliveries, nothing special, a new set of ratchet straps for the cupboard as currently cant move the light, used my last pair on the carbon filter/fan setup. Also got my Advanced Nutrients PH Perfect Connoisseur Bloom A+B today, still not sure what i am going to use them on but should be enough there for at least 4 plants. I may end up doing a few diff nutes on a run as i have Biocanna left over from the last grow, DM Gold from this grow and will continue using it as i am really happy with the results and also have a few other leftovers here from dutchfest (brand new 5l A+B), canna(about 40L of this stuff) and rock All the latter stuff came with a whole heap of crap i bought in a used auction on fleabay a while ago, its where i got my original hps setups from . Playing the waiting game now before i get to go in to see the girls tonight, I know the big girls are going to need some attention as i didnt do a thing in there last night, will grab some pics as it has been a few days.

Currant kush i can see is also going to need some dissecting tonight, not sure what i am going to do with her at this stage, i have soil out the back but using this may bring unwanted critters into my grow room, i have more rockwool but NO!, any ideas? I was thinking maybe straight into clay but never tried when there will only be a taproot, my next thought is bury it in perlite in the clay but never had much experience with the perlite at all, any thoughts or opinions are greatly appreciated.

 

[Radogast]

Today i received a couple of deliveries, nothing special, a new set of ratchet straps for the cupboard as currently cant move the light, used my last pair on the carbon filter/fan setup. Also got my Advanced Nutrients PH Perfect Connoisseur Bloom A+B today, still not sure what i am going to use them on but should be enough there for at least 4 plants. I may end up doing a few diff nutes on a run as i have Biocanna left over from the last grow, DM Gold from this grow and will continue using it as i am really happy with the results and also have a few other leftovers here from dutchfest (brand new 5l A+B), canna(about 40L of this stuff) and rock All the latter stuff came with a whole heap of crap i bought in a used auction on fleabay a while ago, its where i got my original hps setups from . Playing the waiting game now before i get to go in to see the girls tonight, I know the big girls are going to need some attention as i didnt do a thing in there last night, will grab some pics as it has been a few days.

Currant kush i can see is also going to need some dissecting tonight, not sure what i am going to do with her at this stage, i have soil out the back but using this may bring unwanted critters into my grow room, i have more rockwool but NO!, any ideas? I was thinking maybe straight into clay but never tried when there will only be a taproot, my next thought is bury it in perlite in the clay but never had much experience with the perlite at all, any thoughts or opinions are greatly appreciated.

Cultivator uses a ball of Coco Coir surrounded by hydroton clay. He keeps the coir out of the water.

Cultivator's Perpetual Grows Return

Perlite is probably a bad idea. The only thing holding the perlite together would be the roots, so it's similar to bare roots in hydroton.


I am a bit jealous of how fast your girls grow up. I'm one of the slower growers, 6-7 months for 2 oz.

 

[FeralA9X]

Cultivator uses a ball of Coco Coir surrounded by hydroton clay. He keeps the coir out of the water.

Cultivator's Perpetual Grows Return

Perlite is probably a bad idea. The only thing holding the perlite together would be the roots, so it's similar to bare roots in hydroton.

Thanks Rad I will have to check that out when i get a chance, coco is about the only thing i dont have here on hand . Was not sure about the perlite but turns out currant kush is beyond savable, i should have acted the other day while she still had nice pearly white roots, i was correct in my diagnosis though, i compressed the rockwool too much over the top of her, she had popped had coty's the lot but could not beak the surface and has now turned to a brown mush. I have another CK here to germinate but i will wait, tomorrow i may head down the hydro shop and grab some canna terra pro, get them going the best way i know how, in dirt lol.

I am a bit jealous of how fast your girls grow up. I'm one of the slower growers, 6-7 months for 2 oz.

I myself am astonished at the rate of growth, it has to be the DWC setup. If you saw my last indoor grow in soil, fully grown she was the size of Atomic#2 now lol, that was with the old model mars LED's though so hard to compare to a mh/hps grow. I have made significant improvements to the bigger tent now so should be able to push a bit more growth out of them, currently the 600w in there is only running at 50% and now i have gained more grow height by hanging the light fixture from the rafters in the roof, by the time i run the new pro pot system under there i am looking at 20 inches of extra grow space not to mention my tent does not sag anymore under the extreme weight

 

[FeralA9X]

Not going to do updates so much tonight, more just pics and a couple of little things id like to show. I will start off showing how much better the filter/fan/reflector sits inside the tent, i had to make 2 small cuts in the tent to run the ratchet hangers through, that box on top is a real pain in the ass, i may need to make a bracket to offset the hood a little so it clears the middle bar and cut a small flap out of the top of the tent, will give me an extra 6 inches or so

Atomic#2 today, looking mighty fine, i wish i had the space to put her in flower today, she is just about ready
I have turned the ballast up to 75% now so she should really shine over the next few days.

Atomic#1, this is really cool. Her first CS treatment was yesterday, it was a mere spray to each budsite on a branch and the change is phenomenal, this is a untreated flower, the same as over the whole plant.

Now this is a flower 24 hours after being treated with CS.

pretty damn cool , the same branch got treated again tonight in the same way.

Atomic Bomb got a major defol and tucking of "vomiting" branches she looks much better now, still not ready.

Money Maker also got a major defol and little bit of a tuck, her colas are freakin huge lol, i didnt measure but i am using 6" netpots, looking at the pic its about half the width of the netpot so thats 3" in diameter

Anyways i better get to bed, its too late lol, have a great day

 

[Radogast]

Thanks Rad I will have to check that out when i get a chance, coco is about the only thing i dont have here on hand . Was not sure about the perlite but turns out currant kush is beyond savable, i should have acted the other day while she still had nice pearly white roots, i was correct in my diagnosis though, i compressed the rockwool too much over the top of her, she had popped had coty's the lot but could not beak the surface and has now turned to a brown mush. I have another CK here to germinate but i will wait, tomorrow i may head down the hydro shop and grab some canna terra pro, get them going the best way i know how, in dirt lol.



I myself am astonished at the rate of growth, it has to be the DWC setup. If you saw my last indoor grow in soil, fully grown she was the size of Atomic#2 now lol, that was with the old model mars LED's though so hard to compare to a mh/hps grow. I have made significant improvements to the bigger tent now so should be able to push a bit more growth out of them, currently the 600w in there is only running at 50% and now i have gained more grow height by hanging the light fixture from the rafters in the roof, by the time i run the new pro pot system under there i am looking at 20 inches of extra grow space not to mention my tent does not sag anymore under the extreme weight

DWC or not, you are really kicking it with the growth this time.

The hydro and nutes issue was why I mentioned Cultivator and linked to his grow. He s a professional european grower with decades of experience posting about his current 10 x 600W HPS ebb & flow grow. And probably about another grow location, I'm not caught up on the thread yet.

 

[FeralA9X]

DWC or not, you are really kicking it with the growth this time.

The hydro and nutes issue was why I mentioned Cultivator and linked to his grow. He s a professional european grower with decades of experience posting about his current 10 x 600W HPS ebb & flow grow. And probably about another grow location, I'm not caught up on the thread yet.

Thanks mate, at least i am doing something right hehe, i had a quick look at Cultivator's journal just before i left today and i will defo be going back and reading more

I got myself a bag of Canna Terra Pro today so i will most likely germ a couple more seeds tonight if i get the time, also thinking of moving Skywalker kush into soil as she is really struggling and starting to crisp up. Got a few duct clamps today to fix the rest of the ducting, i realized last night the connection out the window is failing and allowing hot air to leak into the room, cant be good for temps. I also bought some more Dutch Master Gold Flower A+B, he said nobody really uses it anymore, i said you should see my results from it and last but not least i needed some more rhizotonic but at $40 for 250ml they can keep it, i am giving CYCO's Rhizofuel a go, it was only $15 for 500ml and came highly recommended.

 

[FeralA9X]

I got some more seeds in the post today, only 1 more seed package to come

Todays Menu:
Barney's Farm Liberty Haze Feminized
TH Seeds Dark Star Feminized
Ace Seeds Purple Haze
Nirvana Seeds Pure Power Plant Feminized
Spliff Seeds Blue Berry Feminized
Moxie Viper Cookies Feminized
Subcool Seeds Querkle

Hopefully later today my cloner should arrive, saying that i just got a knock at the door and its here I have no time to set it up right now so will have to do it later tonight, only thing is it did not come with instructions lol

 

[Radogast]

The instructions are probably inside - I doubt you need them

 

[FeralA9X]

The instructions are probably inside - I doubt you need them

Yeah it had instructions of how to put it together, nothing about running it though lol, seems pretty straight forward, just dont know how much water i would need, my guess is as long as it covers the pump.

Do you think there would be any benefit running rhizo compared to plain water?

 

[Radogast]

I dip my stems in cloning liquid (not cloning gel) some folks run a small nutrient mix, but most run plain water. The water I run had some nutes 3 refills ago. It may not be needed, but when I run out of cloning liquid, I will buy more because the cloning process is working well - it doesn't need to be improved.

Be generous when filling with water - as long as your stems aren't sitting in water and your water level does not block a sprayer, you might as well fill it up to make it longer between refills. I go about 2 months of continuous use between water refills. The level typically drops about 2.5 inches due to evaporation.

 

[FeralA9X]

Nice one mate, any reason you dont use the gel? or just use what you have? I was thinking the gel would probably wash straight off. The unit only has 1 sprayer in there, i will constantly be checking anyways I may add some rhizo to the mix, it wont hurt i guess, will probably boost the roots if anything hehe, gives me a good reason to test out this CYCO Rhizofuel

 

[Radogast]

Nice one mate, any reason you dont use the gel? or just use what you have? I was thinking the gel would probably wash straight off. The unit only has 1 sprayer in there, i will constantly be checking anyways I may add some rhizo to the mix, it wont hurt i guess, will probably boost the roots if anything hehe, gives me a good reason to test out this CYCO Rhizofuel

My unit came with sample sizes of cloning liquid and 3 part crystalized nutrients along with a 1/10 tsp measuring spoon - so I used them. It worked.

I have cloning gel, cloning powder, rhizoboost, and water soluable endo-mycorrhizae powder - but the sample stuff works

BoBrown14 uses straight water - I don't know if he uses a cloning compound.


You could try the original cloning aid; water that has been used to soak willow sticks.

 

[FeralA9X]

I have the Dutch Master Replicator gel here im going to use, or attempt to lol, in the cloner it shouldnt matter too much, need to get used to the idea of having no grow medium lol


I found a few small pots i am going to plant a few more seedlings in tonight after i setup the cloner, these ones will be in the canna terra soil I need to get some growing ready to take clones for the flower room, at this stage Atomic#2 is going to be lonely when switched to flower but she will get a companion about 4 weeks later in White Jack, she is really starting to come along now, still really tiny but onto her 3rd set of leaves, I am hoping 4 weeks after White Jack enters that i will have another to add to the mix. Also will be reveg on Money Maker for clones and maybe Atomic Bomb crap i have so much going on hahaha, oh did i mention Atomic 1 and CS treatments?
I may just have to start a perpetual journal when these current girls are done.

 

[Radogast]

Also will be reveg on Money Maker for clones and maybe Atomic Bomb crap i have so much going on hahaha, oh did i mention Atomic 1 and CS treatments?
I may just have to start a perpetual journal when these current girls are done.

You should do well in perpetual. You already think in terms of buckets to grow in, planning for the next steps ahead, and different plants on different paths.

My main problem with growing is that when pests show up, I forget all about training and scheduling because I am in firefighting mode against the pests. I find spending a couple of minutes to think about each girls individual needs helps a lot.

 

[FeralA9X]

Thanks mate, I can see once i get my new setup in things will become even easier but the only thing worrying me is how small these 15L buckets are, saw a couple at the hydro shop the other day, i will probably be holding around 8-10L of nutrients, worse comes to worse and things become too hard to manage i will probably end up linking them all to an external res. I am hoping this isnt the case as then i will basically be set to how many pots i can run at a time, i like the idea of single units.

I have been so lucky on this grow for pests , last grow i had fungus gnat issues and was one of the main reasons i switched to hydro, season before outside we had a major plague of gnats and spider mites, this grow i see the occasional bug or two flying around in the tent but not the bad kind, funny thing is i have a couple of daddy longlegs in each tent, they stick to the bottom of the tent and dont go anywhere near the plants, seems they catch whatever is flying around lol. I know exactly what you mean about forgetting everything else when the lil buggers show up, i do the same, main priority, kill the damn things, then get back on track I spend hours thinking about them at the times i cant get in to check on them lol, take photos at night and find myself looking at them the next day going "right, cut this branch off here, this one there, tie this one over there" its an obsession, it really is lol.

 

[Radogast]