LEDs & DWC & SCROG & Masterblend & First Grow - What Could Go Wrong?

MaddAddam

420 Member
Quick bit about me:
I'm a 100% service connected disabled combat veteran (OIF 2003-2006 two tours Baghdad, 13F). I use marijuana medicinally to keep my symptoms in check and give me some quality of life adjustment. This is my first time growing cannabis although I've spent the last two years honing my hydroponics skills with lettuce, other herbs and some beans etc. I live in the Sacramento area where it's currently legal to grow both medicinally and recreationally.

  • Space - Apollo Horticulture 48"x48"x80" Mylar Hydroponic Grow Tent for Indoor Plant Growing
  • Lights - VIPARSPECTRA Reflector-Series 600W LED Grow Light Full Spectrum for Indoor Plants Veg and Flower
  • Water temp - 19c-22c (69f-72f)
  • Air movement - 1x6" clip on desk fan
  • Exhaust - 4"inline w/carbon filter in tent; not using the filter until the garages starts getting growroomy
  • Media - Topfeed DWC hydroponic in 6 in. Wide Lip Bucket Basket in hydroton
  • Nutrients - Masterblend + Calcium Citrate + Magnesium Sulfate
  • Supplements - none so far, trying for a baseline
  • PH control - GH PHdown, I don't believe I'll need any up; some experience with hydro
  • PPM monitored - yes, I read in EC tho
  • Water used - pH adjusted tap (comes out at 7.8, 200ppm, yeah sacramento = the Flint of California)
  • Strain - Lemon Kush Sour Diesel
  • Type - 80/20 Sat/Ind
  • Flowering - 9-10 weeks
  • #of plants - just one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
  • Current week of growth - probably third or fourth but not sure. Bought this as a relatively mature seedling from my dispensary.
  • Light cycle - 12on/5off/1on/6off (Gas Lantern routine)
  • Current ph - 5.2-6.4, tends to hover around 6, when I down it, i take it to 5 and it drifts back up within 6 hours
  • Topfeed - every other hour

This thing I built - and why

So what we have here is pretty obvious. A SCROG net physically attached to the media basket so that I can lift the net and the plant free of the reservoir. The light and the net/basket are on their own pulleys. I've seen this type of thing on Etsy and it was a pretty easy task to freeball the build. Used spare wood and some mason twine. The net is sitting 18" from the basket which was based on the fact that this is a tall strain but is starting to be some concern to me as I see other growers tend to SCROG wayyyy lower to the media. I'll decide whether to add a lower net for training and to use the current one as a support lattice for the flowers once I FIM and watch the growth from there.

Here it is in down position:
IMG_94573.jpg

https://www.420magazine.com/community/gallery/1441317

And here's servicing position:



Day 1 from transplant

Picked her up at the dispensary once I had the room set up and ready to go. pHed the water to 5.35 figuring it'd drift up to 6 or so the next day.

Turned out, she drifted wayyy up to 6.4 so I downed the res to 5.0

Day 4

pH has been pretty stable, have only had to adjust once this week. However, I'm noting a bit of end-curl and my EC is reading @ 2.01 which I thought was ok initially but the plant's telling me otherwise so I added 2 liters of low pH (3.6) tap water (adjusting pH and EC at the same time because this is my first grow so why the fuck not go for style). Brought my EC down to 1.8, pH stable at 6. :idea:

I've been trimming mature fan leaves once there's enough growth to handle the stress. I want her to grow pretty leggy for this first part before I FIM (next week).



Day 11

again, pH is staying stable. Checking twice a day is showing drift between 5.5-6.2. Cool. No adjustments whatsoever. Noticing a potential magnesium deficiency so adding 1g of magnesium sulfate to a liter of res water, dissolving and incorporating.

Also, FIMing today.

I'll keep posting regularly (weekly).

Cheers.
 
re: LEDs & DWC & SCROG & Masterblend & First Grow - What Could Go Wrong?

That is one of the coolest designs for a dwc scrog i have seen. I havent done scrogs on buckets before because of the pita factor and it looks like you have solved it nicely. Good luck.
 
re: LEDs & DWC & SCROG & Masterblend & First Grow - What Could Go Wrong?

GLR is a controversial lighting technique which is intended to use only 13 total hours of light for veg stage, using 1 hour of light in the dark period to confuse the plant into staying in veg. Saves you 3 hours of lights-on electricity and there's anecdotal evidence that it leads to higher yields but as we all know, everything a zealous grower journals about leads to higher yields, right?

I've simply read enough journals to see that folks who use this method are successful and they're cutting down their energy costs so I went with it. I've been on this about a week and a half and have so far seen no flowering activity so as far as I can tell, it's working (veg stage).

Guess you'll just have to watch the journal to see if it continues being successful.
 
re: LEDs & DWC & SCROG & Masterblend & First Grow - What Could Go Wrong?

We shall see. There's literally libraries full of shit I don't know about growing so my cool little gimmick here could still turn out to be a giant pain in the sack. I'll keep posting so you'll see whether it's worth your time going this route.

I WILL say that DWC has been incredibly successful for every other kind of grow (non-cannabis) that I've done hydroponically so I'm excited to see how my lettuce/fava beans/bok choy training translates.
 
Hope all is well in your world.

Is this grow still alive?

We would love to be updated with some pictures and info.

How about posting a 420 Strain Review?

If you need any help with posting photos, please read our Photo Gallery Tutorial.

I am moving this to Abandoned Journals until we get updates.

Sending you lots of love and positive energy.

:Namaste:
 
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