Goldylox's First Grow 3x3 1000W LED DWC

[Goldylox]

Hey Everyone!

Going to document my first grow experience right here for you guys to follow along with. My girlfriend and I are daily smokers, and that is expensive over the course of time, as many of you know! So we've decided to clear a section out of our walk in closet and throw up a 3x3 tent to try and save ourselves some cash. Now I am not the most well informed on this subject but I've taken a lot of tips and techniques from others' grow journals, so hopefully I get this right and make it to a harvest! Most items I purchased from Amazon, based on reviews and units sold. If anyone has any suggestions or tips please feel free to contribute! Lets get down to the set up!

3x3x6 Grow tent
KING Plus 1000w LED light
16x6"Carbon Filter
Hydrofarm 440cfm exhaust fan
DWC (2) 5 Gallon buckets with air stones
Nutrients: GH Flora Trio, CalMag, Z7, Liquid KoolBloom, Diamond Nector, FloraKleen
Hydroton in 10" baskets lids

Here's what I have so far, waiting for a few things to come in the mail still. I wasted zero time assembling and setting it all up as soon as each piece got to me...Can you tell I'm excited???

 

[Gehg]

Nice!

 

[EastCoastGhost]

Subbed up, im a soil grower but im starting to research dwc, I'll follow along and maybe we both can learn something. Best of luck to you.

 

[onewarrior]

Subbed up, im a soil grower but im starting to research dwc, I'll follow along and maybe we both can learn something. Best of luck to you...️

Ok would ya like some help before u even get started? I already see what will give u root rot and u will ruin your first grow before it even gets started. How do I know? Just trust me . do u plan on using that tote for your plants?

 

[onewarrior]

Ok would ya like some help before u even get started? I already see what will give u root rot and u will ruin your first grow before it even gets started. How do I know? Just trust me . do u plan on using that tote for your plants?

Heres a hint some wheres Waldo shit lol

 

[EastCoastGhost]

Ok would ya like some help before u even get started? I already see what will give u root rot and u will ruin your first grow before it even gets started. How do I know? Just trust me . do u plan on using that tote for your plants?

I was researching a little bit the other day and come across the dwc buckets. I am thinking about ordering the 4- 5 gallon bucket setup for my tent when I'm ready to give it a try.

 

[onewarrior]

I was researching a little bit the other day and come across the dwc buckets. I am thinking about ordering the 4- 5 gallon bucket setup for my tent when I'm ready to give it a try. ..️

Aw yea u ever need help not a problem. I was actually talking to the guy who made the thread

 

[Goldylox]

I'm all ears for some advice and tips. I am doing dwc in 5 gallon buckets with air stones for my first grow. Still waiting on a few things to come in the mail. I would really like to jump into n the Dewey/rdwc hybrid that I keep seeing great results from a few members. One step at a time for now!

 

[Goldylox]

Small update for today, got the buckets all setup and ready to go minus the hydroton, dropped 4 bag seeds I had into a glass of water at around noon yesterday to start germinating them. running a 254 GPH 4 outlet air pump and 2 2" airstones per bucket. Thanks for checking out my grow so far!

 

[Goldylox]

Well boys and girls, sorry to keep you all waiting. Long story short i went through all 15 of my bag seeds to get 2 plants. Kinda bummed to have that many not want to crack. Oh well onto the two that did make it. So I'll go over where I'm at right now. Breaking it down my process.

RO water (great value green cap) 0 ppm and 5.6 PH from the jug
roughly 3 gallons of nute solution per bucket
GH Flora trio, Calimagic, Diamond Nectar, and Z7 350ppm/5.5 PH starting

I have only had to PH down my res throughout the week, i've switched to distilled vinegar for cost savings and availability. Seems to not mess with PPM all that much either, every third day or so i seem to have to add about 1ml/gal to keep the ph from going over 6.5. I did forget the cal/mag in the RO water the first time i used it, so there is one or two leafs with minor deficiencies but i was pretty quick to get that sorted out. Other than that everything is running fairly smooth, they amaze me every day on how fast they recover and grow.

Next res change (every friday) I plan to go full on with the nutes and will update with more detailed info on feeding,




These beans went into water on October 22nd.

Here they are at day 4

This is November 3rd, 12 days from seed, Day 1 Veg - transplanting them into the buckets

November 9th, 18 days from seed, Day 6 Veg- topped first time

November 12th- 21 days from seed, Day 9 Veg

November 14th 23 Days from seed, Day 11 Veg

Today (November 16th- 25 days from seed, Day 13 Veg

Thanks for stopping by, please leave any tips, observations, suggestions, feedback, let me know how I'm doing!

 

[illizm775]

Hey. Great set up. 2 is better than none? What is that white thing you have over the hydroton? Everything else looks great. A little stretched but sometimes it's because they're reaching for light. But over all they look healthy.

 

[Scrogdawg]

Your set up looks pretty good. One thing I noticed is your digital monitors. If those are recording your PH I believe its running a little high. It might be a little better running at +/- 5.8. You mentioned your PH was creeping up and that is normal. Ph will usually creep up in veg and creep down in flower.

You'll also want to completely cover your net pots to keep all the light out of your res and prevent algae or root rot from getting a grip.

I'm not sure of your feeding strength but at that stage of growth something in the neighborhood of 400 ppm would be appropriate.

Good luck with your first grow. I'll sub up and pop by once in a while if you don't mind.

I've attached a little chart to demonstrate the relationship between PH and nutrient uptake in hydroponics.
.

 

[Goldylox]

Hey. Great set up. 2 is better than none? What is that white thing you have over the hydroton? Everything else looks great. A little stretched but sometimes it's because they're reaching for light. But over all they look healthy.

Those are net pot covers for 6" pots, with how small the plant it the RH was pretty high at the surface of the the hydroton so I put it there to keep moisture off the leaves etc. once they got a few inches off the hydroton I removed them.

Your set up looks pretty good. One thing I noticed is your digital monitors. If those are recording your PH I believe its running a little high. It might be a little better running at +/- 5.8. You mentioned your PH was creeping up and that is normal. Ph will usually creep up in veg and creep down in flower.

You'll also want to completely cover your net pots to keep all the light out of your res and prevent algae or root rot from getting a grip.

I'm not sure of your feeding strength but at that stage of growth something in the neighborhood of 400 ppm would be appropriate.

Good luck with your first grow. I'll sub up and pop by once in a while if you don't mind.

I've attached a little chart to demonstrate the relationship between PH and nutrient uptake in hydroponics.
.

Thanks for the reply. I keep it lower and supplement the vinegar to keep it in check in between res changes. I just mixed up a fresh batch and will post for today's update. I followed your advice and covered up the rest of the slits with hydroton so it should reduce the light into the res quite a bit. They weren't tall enough to put in at the depth I wanted originally (these 10" Basket lids are bigger than I thought lol) but everything is kosher now. I ran seed to sprout in ph'd water and some root enhancer, and then when I transplanted them to the buckets I did about roughly 350ppm total of the 3 part, diamond nectar, calmag, and Z7. I supplement the z7 at .5ml/gal of each part every 4 days as per manufacturer reccomendations. I'm drafting my update so feel free to come in and check it out/comment anytime!

 

[Goldylox]

Res change complete, upped the ppm for this week. i defol'd one about as much as i could and just took some of the bottom leaves off the other. just experimenting to figure out which will work best for me. For shits and grins heres a couple normal herbs i am trying out for the first time, if only Cannabis could grow kratky style lol

 

[Scrogdawg]

Did you use the GH mix rates from the labels on their bottles to get your recipe?

 

[Goldylox]

Did you use the GH mix rates from the labels on their bottles to get your recipe?

Yes I followed everything to a T per the labels.

 

[Scrogdawg]

Keep an eye on your plants. The GH label amounts are a very very hot mix. Your notes show 1260 ppm, thats about double what most people run at the stage your at. I use the same GH line up as you and have experienced this first hand several times. Maybe yours will be fine but keep a close eye out for changes.

 

[Goldylox]

So its been about 72 hours on the res change, i did notice some leaves on the plant that I defoled heavily had some spotting on the large center leaves, the other has been unaffected so far but other than that everything is still trucking along. Did some branch bending/ light LST just a few minutes ago when i got home and snapped some pics. 17 days in the DWC bucket so far, quite the comparison. Feedback, as always, is much appreciated!

 

[Goldylox]

Hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving holiday! Checking in here at day Day 22, relatively smooth sailing. PH has been surprisingly stable, I didnt touch it a single time the last 8 days. temps are 70-78*F, RH 40-55%, Res temps 68-71*F average. Root masses are looking excellent, they're very fish-bone like and are about 18" long from the bottom of the baskets. Plan on continuing this feed schedule for another 4 weeks unless anyone has any advice otherwise.

 

[LiveAndLetGro]

Ahh another DWC journal, just what I was looking for lol. Looking good Goldy! I'm digging the setup. I have basically the same setup, I just run two 20 gallon rubbermaid totes in a 4x4. My first grow finished up around July 1st of this year. I was so glad I chose to go DWC, the results were fantastic. It's dialed now for my second run and it is a very hands off setup. I just check ppm's and ph everyday and water changes every 10-14 days. It looks like you have set yourself up for success. Good record keeping as well. I'm going to follow along and see how it turns out, looks like it is going to go well!