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

[FeralA9X]

Results are in lol, Tonights checks went really well, lots to talk about (not really but it sounded good at the time)

First up i will go over last nights checks i didnt report on as i was dead tired and had to get up early for work today. So these checks were done about 2 hours after i added water last night, Temps had come down in the tent a couple of degrees and sitting stable at 28c and 60% humidity.

Atomic bomb: PH 5.6, EC 1.8
Money Maker: PH 5.6, EC 1.9

Nothing was changed about GWS so i didnt bother even checking in on her again last night.

----------------------------------

So onto todays checks, Opening the tent tonight it was still sitting on 28c but the humidity had risen a little to 64%, first thing i notice is GWS standing a little taller, she now reaches 18"(took 3 days to grow 1" then grows another 1" overnight), Atomic now at 25" and Money Maker still in the lead at 27" tall. White hairs bursting out all over both Atomic and MM, GWS is ever so slowly flowering but also showing new hairs each day, seems everything about her is slow. Photos today were taken on opening the tent before anything was touched.

Pics still just dont look right even with the flash on the lowest setting, doesnt pick up the lighter areas as well.

Now onto my closeup pics, imo probably the best pictures ive taken of the girls to date and show just how sexy they are lol.
This is atomic.

Money maker is not looking bad either

And of course the runt, GWS lmao (looks over shoulder to make sure she aint listening)

So tonights results are as follows,
Atomic Bomb: PH 5.5, EC 1.9, has drank about 2 litres overnight
Moneymaker: PH 5.5, EC 2.0, has drank about 1.5L overnight
Great White Shark: PH 5.8, EC 2.1, drank about 500ml overnight bringing her res down a total of 1.5L so far, will add water tomorrow with the other girls.

After everything was checked i then removed all dead leaf from their lower growth, anything already detatched or falls off when touched, everything else stays for now. Just before closing the tent back up i gave them their Liquid Light spray. Cant think of anything else to report about them at this time.

-------------------------------

Onto the clones, i ditched one, she was from GWS and i didnt want to waste my time looking after something that is going to turn out like its mother, R.I.P. Still no visible signs of roots on the Atomic #2 clone so i have left her in the dome for now, last night i had her out of the clay balls repositioning her and did not see any growth then either. Atomic #1 clone has even more roots showing today, I ended up throwing together another DWC and used the lid i was going to use with my cloner, all the spare tape was inside the bucket holding in sprinklers from my first cloner attempt so i used it to cover the spare 3" netpot hole to block as much light as possible from getting into the root zone, I had a spare 4" airstone and connected straight into a spare port on my hailea compressor. I have been opening the dome more and more every day (even since before she showed roots) and is now out of the dome completely in the DWC, I need to check on her in about an hours time to make sure she is handling it ok. She is currently in my cupboard space i started my indoor adventures under a 130w 6400K CFL with a large Dimpled alloy reflector running around 2 1/2 foot above her canopy (leaf lol). For exhaust i am running a simple PC fan with a shroud i found inside a PC, to this i have simply taped 5" duct and then angled it towards the cooltube fan on the tent, not much heat comes off the CFL its more just a little bit of airflow and stop any warmth being trapped at the top of the cupboard. So a couple of pics of her tonight also as she was about to be transplanted in the bucket, im hoping to try grab pics each day to show the rapid root growth in these buckets. I was not sure if i should run any nutrients yet but i decided i would run a very weak weak solution, like 1/4 of a 1/4 of week 1 strength lol, this in my mind goes back to my soil grows (im probably wrong but sometimes you gotta be wrong to learn the right things haha), when using soil, the soil itself will have enough nutes/additives be it organic or synthetic minerals to grow a plant for a pretty long time without showing any sickness or deficiencies where as i do not feel so safe when my roots are suspended in plain water with no nutrients, with a weak mix i at least have something there if its needed but not enough to make her have a fit lol.

Man im sweating after writing all that out and its almost time to go check on the clones again lol, Bloody hell i go on and on dont i. Anyways time for me to go have another looksie, If i find anything worth noting i will report back, if not i hope you all have an awesome day

 

[FeralA9X]

Ok so quick update, Atomic #2 clone has shot out a couple of roots, still in the dome for now but will check her root growth tomorrow and decide if to transplant into the DWC with her sister. Anyways im off, will check in on journals in the morning, Laters

 

[Radogast]

2 1/2 foot is a long ways away for a CFL.

I usually keep CFL tubes about 12" above the soil level. This lets young seedling canopies be about 10" from the CFL and new clones about 6-8" from he CFL. I let them grow towards the lights until almost touching before I move them into a "Late Veg" area where I aim for canopies 4-6" from the CFL tubes.

In this picture, the light is about 2" higher than usual as I am out of space in Late Veg for another few days.

 

[FeralA9X]

I hear ya there mate, yeah 2 1/2 foot is a long way but is getting lowered. I noticed with this bulb it seems to dry the living hell out of them so i thought while they get settled and start rooting into the DWC i would start lowering the light a couple of inches each day as didnt want to shock the clones by coming directly out of the dome and under a 130w light hehe. I am also trying to get a bit of stretch from them as they are not for yield etc, they are my testers for some seed production and the further i can get the buds away from each other means less chance of contamination to the rest of the plant when spraying the CS

If i was looking at growing these girls out they would be within inches of the light already hehe.

 

[Radogast]

I hear ya there mate, yeah 2 1/2 foot is a long way but is getting lowered. I noticed with this bulb it seems to dry the living hell out of them so i thought while they get settled and start rooting into the DWC i would start lowering the light a couple of inches each day as didnt want to shock the clones by coming directly out of the dome and under a 130w light hehe. I am also trying to get a bit of stretch from them as they are not for yield etc, they are my testers for some seed production and the further i can get the buds away from each other means less chance of contamination to the rest of the plant when spraying the CS

If i was looking at growing these girls out they would be within inches of the light already hehe.

I shoulda known you knew what you were doing!

 

[FeralA9X]

All good dude, id be worried seeing a light at that distance usually also hahaha
Already decided on my next DWC grow, going to be HSO Lost Coast OG, 1 single girl in the tent going wild

 

[FeralA9X]

On to tonights first lot of updates, First thing tonight i noticed the light distance, was down to 13" from the tops of MM due to the way she is growing, now standing at 29" she has to slow at some point haha, the reflector now sits 16" from the tops and im very quickly running out of room, the brackets for the reflector are way too big if you ask me, over the next few days i might make up some low profile hangers to get the fixture right up to the top of the tent giving me another foot of adjustment. My cooled hood is completely cool to the touch and only allows heat penetrated through the glass panel, If i was still running a non cooled hood i would not even attempt getting it so close, this by rights should be fine to be flush right up against the mylar. Atomic seems to have slowed a little in stretch only growing half an inch taller overnight now half an inch off 26", this may change when i check on them later. Great white shark, I think she has started her stretch with her growing another inch overnight now standing at 19".

I am completely blown away with this grow so far and it could not have gone any better, lets hope it stays nice and stable throughout, the trick is teaching them discipline young but seriously going back through my journal so far trying to work out exactly how tall they were when switched to 12/12 and my first recorded measurement of the tallest plant was 13 days ago measuring in at a measly 12", so in just under 2 weeks they have grown a whopping 17"

Heres a couple of pics for reference:
(28-11-15 sorry again for the bad lighting)

(13 days later)

So for todays pics I again favored Atomic while working on the camera settings, looking a lot clearer but still have to work on color settings

Man i got carried away again, found a real good bud from my last grow, they all look the same, smell the same but theres the few unicorn buds in there that knock your socks off hahaha

Temps in the tent tonight are still at 28c and was another stinking hot day outside, Humidity had dropped a fair bit and is now sitting at 46%, a little dry for my liking.

Right so onto opening the buckets and straight away im rushing to get water to the girls lol, Atomic freaked me out as she had drank a total of 5L over 48hrs (there was still 9L in her res but had never seen her res that low before lol), MM still working at her usual pace of 3L per 2 days and GWS at her 500ml per day was now at a total of 2L down.

Atomic Bomb:
Before: PH 5.1, EC 2.0
Added 5L of water, no ph adjustments sitting at 6.8, will check in 2 hours time after settled.

Money Maker:
Before: PH 5.4, EC 2.0
Added 3L of water, no ph adjustments sitting at 6.8, will check in 2 hours.

Great White Shark:
Before: PH 5.7, EC 2.2
Added 2L of PH 6.0 water, will check in 2 hours.

After all checks i gave them a foliar feed with straight water, slightly misted the walls, floor and air inlet duct (i dont run a fan on this duct, just sucks air into the tent from the surrounding room by vacuum from the exhaust fan) which should bring my Humidity back up around 60%.

Anyways im really enjoying this bud and im confusing myself here so i will be back later with more updates lol

 

[Radogast]

Your girls have been good to you - especially in the last two weeks.

It's mutual, I'm sure.

Enjoy!

 

[FeralA9X]

Thanks for checking in again rad
Its a very mutual thing between us but i get the benefits in the end haha

 

[FeralA9X]

Its about an hour before i can get in and see the girls tonight so i thought while im waiting i will update from last night, Two hours after my last updates and topups etc Humidity in the tent was back up around 62% and the temp down to 27c making it a very comfortable place to be, if there was more room id consider sunbathing
Atomic Bomb PH has now settled at 5.4 and an EC of 1.7, not too happy with that so i upped the PH to the res back to 5.8, this should now be fine until i change out the res on monday. Same goes with Money Maker, her PH was adjusted from 5.5 to 5.8. Great white shark on the other hand has only drank about 2 litres over the whole week, PH still perfectly sitting on 5.8 with an EC of 2.0 so her res will not be changed out this week, may need one during next week depending on her uptake of water between now and then.

Now onto the clones, Not sure if i mentioned this but both clones are now in the DWC bucket, Lower leaves were removed from both clones as they were yellowing and want the plant to focus on the top not lower growth. Quite a lot of new root growth emerging from Atomic#1's netpot, once they reach the res she will explode. I have been thinking i may need to sort out what light im going to use, the CFL im currently running is fine for veg but will have to swap it out for flower, i have my marshydro panels here if i have to use them but may end up purchasing another 2700k CFL if i can pull the funds together. From here on out my plan is to make my cupboard space just for seed production, will be purchasing a smaller tent (maybe 3x3) in the new year just for veg, try and get a constant rotation happening all year round. I would love to have a massive flower tent but wouldnt have the funds or a place to run it anyways haha (i can only dream)

So pics of the clones, not a lot to show right now, the bigger of the two is Atomic#2 and is just adjusting to her new home.

very hard showing as much of the new root growth coming out of the net pot as possible

So after that im pretty close to being able to get in and check on the girls for tonights updates, i cant wait to see them today, i will be back soon

 

[FeralA9X]

So onto tonights updates, I will start with the clones first as thats where i finished off, nice and quick update just showing more root growth

Moving on over to the tent i just had to grab a few pics with the lights out tonight, first time i have seen them without the HPS all week and they are still as gorgeous as ever. Temps are in the 24-25c range with 59% humidity, was a lot cooler outside today. After taking all pics i then measured, going by height they had only grown about half an inch each, stretch to the main stems seems to be slowing however the lower growth has caught up quite a lot evening out the canopy a bit more. I have tried to take advantage of this and have turned both atomic and MM to bring the lower growth into a better lighted area to try catch the last bit of stretch, also moved branches hanging too low into a more central position to see if i can get them to strengthen up and reach for the light. I removed all pipe cleaners that were holding down any of the branches, they are not needed anymore and are actually holding back some pretty potentially big yielding branches, whilst doing this i removed some more of the lower popcorn budsites mostly from MM.

Pics were taken before anything was done, when first opening the tent

Checks tonight were simple, nothing added to any but will need some tomorrow, i may only add half back in to keep the EC up as the following day is res change out day. Probably should have done it tonight but im so damn tired i really just want to sleep, which is a great thing because i dont get much sleep at all maybe 3-4 hours a day if im lucky.
Great White Shark:
PH 5.8, EC 2.0
no pics of her tonight, finding it hard to get to her now she is behind the big girls.

Atomic Bomb:
PH 5.8, EC 1.7

Money Maker:
PH 5.8, EC 1.7

After everything was checked it was followed up by some LL Cool Spray (Liquid Light Foliar Spray lol)

Tent is all closed up for the night, let them do their thing, hope you are all having a great day

 

[Radogast]

Luscious leaves

 

[db003]

man your plants look great bro great job so how do you like dwc so far I was thinking about getting a single bucket and trying it out for my self

 

[FeralA9X]

man your plants look great bro great job so how do you like dwc so far I was thinking about getting a single bucket and trying it out for my self

Thanks db, i really like the bucket setup, the rate of growth is outstanding and very easy to control PH etc. I would highly recommend trying it out, defo worth it if it produces growth like this every time

 

[FeralA9X]

Hello everyone, time for todays updates and i might start with the clones first, Not much happening up top as of yet but getting good root growth so shouldnt be long before they take off. Light has been lowered a few inches each day (or thereabouts i didnt measure, only went off what i thought was good), it is now sitting about 1 1/2 foot above. I may leave it at this height for now until i see some stretch/new growth. I will be needing some more supplies soon as i find some money somewhere lol, in the cupboard i need a hygrometer and a 2700k cfl, in the tent i need a carbon filter, surprisingly not smelling too much yet but if i dont get one soon my next chance could be too late lol. So back to the clones, i checked the PH in the res today and it was back up to 6.5 so i set it back down to 5.8.

as you can see the roots are really starting to shoot out all over Atomic#1, i didnt bother taking photos of Atomic#2 as she is roughly 2 days behind #1, i expect in 2 days she will look the same.


On to the big girls in the tent, my oh my, who said stretch was over? that wasnt me was it?
Money Maker tonight was still in front by miles reaching 31" tall, Atomic followed suit and said "ill have some of that" and now stands in at 27", and as always trailing behind is the Great White shark hiding in the deep waters, grew another inch overnight now just tipping the 20" mark. Conditions in the tent were perfect yet again, temp sitting on 25c with Humidity at 63%. Tomorrow i will be changing out the reservoirs of both Atomic and Money maker yet as i thought they would need somewhat of a top up tonight. Atomic was down around 5L, i then added 3L of water, didnt bother setting the PH on the water. Money maker was down 4L so i added 2L of water, GWS was only down 1L in total so nothing added to her (Only half the water was added to keep the EC up overnight).

With the checks tonight i will be back in there in about 2 hours with more updates after settling of res etc

Atomic Bomb:
Before: PH 5.8, EC 1.8

Money Maker:
Before: PH 5.7, EC 1.8

Great White Shark:
PH 5.9, EC 1.8

So that wraps up everything for now till i get back in a couple of hours to check in again, hope you are all having a great day so far

 

[FeralA9X]

Hey guys and gals, didnt get around to posting on here last night as it was a bit of a hectic day. I have been thinking exactly where im at with the girls and what stage they are up to, going back through my journal, the first day i talk about flowers forming was the 5th of dec, that would make today around day 11 of flower for Atomic and im sure Money Maker was about 2 days slower so maybe day 9. I was seeing hairs a couple of days after the switch to 12/12 but that was just preflowers which there was some signs of before the flip, when exactly should i start counting the days from? Tbh it doesnt matter too much as they will flower as long as they need to until ripe but would be good to keep track of, might come in handy knowing how long this pheno takes to flower as i will be making seeds from her clones.

Time for yesterdays updates, quite a lot to cover as it was feeding day. Reservoirs were changed during lights out with as minimal light disturbance as possible, this was about 2 hours before they would wake up. I really would like to do this during their lights on but i cant be carrying around buckets of water etc at 1am waking the neighborhood lol. This week i decided to mix at full strength for 14L of water but only added 12L of water, their root mass is so big now they dont need as much in the res to reach the desired level, I can see i will be adding some straight water to the mix later anyways
So only Atomic Bomb and Money Maker reservoirs will be changed out today and the mix is as follows per res
12L water
140ml Monsta Bud (full strength this week)
7ml DM Silica
4.2ml DM Zone
42ml DM ADD.27 Flower
40.6ml DM Flower A
40.6ml DM Flower B

PH was set to 5.8 and EC was around 2.4. I decided against photos while changing the res as i really dont want any light in there during their sleep. After ther reservoirs were changed out the tent was closed up. I ended up turning the lights out later that evening and grabbed some pics, out of the 50 photos i took, there were not many that were not badly blurred lol, sorry in advance as some of these are crap.

Later that night, Checks were done as per every night. Temps in the tent were around 27c with a humidity reading of 52%, straight away the first thing i do is grab the measuring tape, stretch is slowing but still going lol, Money Maker now 32" tall followed by Atomic at 28" and as always the butt of all jokes in the rear still sitting at 20"
One thing that i did notice today was a bent branch on MM, must have been from when i changed out the res, i straightened her out a little and used a pipe cleaner to support it, her tops had already turned up towards the light so no great issues just a bit of LST without trying haha, who knows it might end up being the best branch on the plant.

Atomic Bomb:
PH 5.8, EC 2.6
Added 2L of straight water to her reservoir
I grabbed the most pictures of her compared to the others.

I decided today i would do a bit of cleanup to Atomic's lower growth, talk about bushy lol. There is still more that needs to be removed but i will do it in stages.
(before)

(after)

Money Maker:
PH 5.8, EC 2.6
Added 1.5L of straight water to her reservoir
Almost all her pics today were so blurred they were not even worth posting, just the one turned out.

Great White Shark:
PH 5.9, EC 2.0
Added 1L of straight water to her reservoir
Same goes for her and is very hard to get to.

After checking all reservoirs, i then followed up with their Liquid Light spray.

Clones are next up, not a lot to report except root growth is going really well. #1 is powering on, #2 is slowly catching up but also doing well as today is the first day her roots have protruded out from the net pot. Everything looks good above ground also, no real signs of growth yet but shouldnt be long.

So that pretty much covers everything from yesterday, i now have about 9 hours before i can even get in and see them again, hope all is well

 

[Radogast]

Rather than calculate days from flower, I just calculate days from switch to 11/13 lighting. I can easily remember to write it down the day they enter the flowering room rather than try to remember to write it down on the day I decide they have gone from nebulous to flowers. It's usually less than 4 days, so works just as well when it comes to calculating the meanings of pistil shrivel and trichome colors.

Once out of about 15 harvests (I run perpetual) this has let me down. When I was running 12/12 lighting, I had a 26" tall girl that did not put on flowers during a full 30 days from the switch from 18/6 in the veg room. When I went to 11/13, she was over 36" tall and put on flowers within 3 days - she also stretched up to 50" by harvest. I had to recalculate her days from the switch between 12/12 and 11/13. Since then, I've stayed on 11/13. Saves 8% on my flowering lights bill


I absolutely love the health of your fan leaves.
They have the crisp definition and deep color of a well-oiled, steroid enhanced, weight lifter.


p.s. I try to time my picture taking and foliar spraying to the first half hour after lights out. They get low intensity light through the door and flash photos for 5-15 minutes every 3-4 days, but they are used to it, so it's 'normal' to them.

 

[Alpaca Bowl]

Mind if I grab a seat? These girls are outrageous, their caretaker is killing it! Can't wait to see how great these look come harvest.

 

[FeralA9X]

Rather than calculate days from flower, I just calculate days from switch to 11/13 lighting. I can easily remember to write it down the day they enter the flowering room rather than try to remember to write it down on the day I decide they have gone from nebulous to flowers. It's usually less than 4 days, so works just as well when it comes to calculating the meanings of pistil shrivel and trichome colors.

Nice one Rad, thats what i wrote in my book back on the 23rd Nov. Just got me confused after going through so many journals everyone does it different, so just starting week 4 today. Either way i have both dates saved now i can work from in the future

Once out of about 15 harvests (I run perpetual) this has let me down. When I was running 12/12 lighting, I had a 26" tall girl that did not put on flowers during a full 30 days from the switch from 18/6 in the veg room. When I went to 11/13, she was over 36" tall and put on flowers within 3 days - she also stretched up to 50" by harvest. I had to recalculate her days from the switch between 12/12 and 11/13. Since then, I've stayed on 11/13. Saves 8% on my flowering lights bill

I was thinking of going 11/13, need to save as much as possible being out of work and doing this as a hobby, This grow seems fine on 12/12 right now so will leave it but now everything seems dialed in with my setup i will seriously think about it for my next grow

I absolutely love the health of your fan leaves.
They have the crisp definition and deep color of a well-oiled, steroid enhanced, weight lifter.

You and me both mate haha, i cant beleive they are still as healthy as they are, even had most of its original lower damaged leaves from the initial transplant before i gave her a trim yesterday, the undamaged parts of the leaves were just as green. They really do look like they have just stepped out of a gym, on the roids hard haha.

p.s. I try to time my picture taking and foliar spraying to the first half hour after lights out. They get low intensity light through the door and flash photos for 5-15 minutes every 3-4 days, but they are used to it, so it's 'normal' to them.

With my foliar sprays i tend to try mist with straight water just before lights come on in the day, simulating dew and not such intense lighting to begin with, but with the Liquid Light sprays the directions state spray in direct light * IMPORTANT * Ensure your lights are ON and will be for at least the next 3 hours. I was skeptical of this at first but have been using it in the middle of the day in direct light since they were transplanted into the DWC and works wonders. I was worried about burning leaves etc but this stuff just soaks straight in.

I wish i could get them on a better schedule so i could be in there more often and foliar after lights out but right now i have 4 hours before i can get in there after lights out and also 4 hours after lights on before i can enter the tent, all this is in a locked room i dont want my son knowing what is in there and accidentally opening his mouth at school lol. Also cant get anything in the tent done while he is at school as its night time for the girls, this was my only option due to the temps we are about to get coming right into summer over here and not having A/C in our house.

 

[FeralA9X]

Mind if I grab a seat? These girls are outrageous, their caretaker is killing it! Can't wait to see how great these look come harvest.

Welcome Alpaca, the more the merrier
I see you are doing a DWC grow also, i will have to swing by and check it out