My First Grow Ever!

Here is the top of #4 at lights out today. Noticeable difference in 48 hrs. I expect her to top 24" in the morning. It's hard to be patient....ommm...ommm...ommm...shit, not working. Four to six more weeks on this train ride and it's picking up speed. :yahoo:


 
rifleman said:
I expect her to top 24" in the morning.
Click to expand...

Expectations exceeded, measured in at 25" this morning. No more pics until Friday though, I want everyone to be surprised.

EDIT: Water change was last Friday morning. Saturday evening ea plant rec. a half gallon of ph'd h20. Fast forward to Monday morning, and they are thirsty again. I took ph and ppm readings before feeding everyone a solution with half of the last nute dose in it. Below is a listing of the ph & ppm before adding water, and the amount each plant took. If you go back to last Friday you can see how well #4 is eating.

1- ph5.9/ppm518/ given 2 qts
2- ph5.8/ppm487/ given 2 qts
3- ph5.9/ppm614/ given 3 qts
4- ph6.6/ppm480/ given 5 qts

Next water change I might go back to 4 gallons per bucket so I'm not watering them three times a week.
 
Everyone gets another drink.

I put small rubber bands around the side tubes of my buckets at the full water mark(3 gal). This way it is pretty easy to see how much everyone is drinking at a glance. Today was the second time this week that I added water to each bucket. Water change Friday I will be going back to four gallons per bucket.

I've paid close attention to water levels, ph, and ppm this week. Especially since the autos are about 11 days into flowering, each being about a month old. I'm not one to pat myself on the back....but....:wood: Well, just take a look at the numbers below. The readings reflect ph and ppm in each bucket, the amount of water ea plant has used, & a rough estimate of the nutes eaten(starting ppm minus current ppm, not taking into account that they were fed 1/2 strength nutes in a watering on Monday), during the last five days.


Feel free to give advice or suggestions on the feeding schedule. BTW, I bumped the light up to 1000w, and took off a few leaves from 1 and 2 today. Couldn't resist the urge. :cheesygrinsmiley: Can't wait to take pictures for you on Friday.


Plant 1, ph 5.7, ppm 358, water used 1.5 gal, ppm used 411

Plant 2, ph 5.4, ppm 338, water used 1.75 gal, ppm used 342

Plant 3, ph 5.7, ppm 467, water used 2.0 gal, ppm used 453

Plant 4, ph 5.7, ppm 365, water used 3.0 gal, ppm used 517



 
1 and 2 showed no adverse effects from yesterdays trimming, so I took some more off today. Will snip some of the older huge leaves off of #1 tomorrow.

For those of you keeping up, there is a surprise coming tomorrow after the water change. My little girls are becoming women.

Happy New Year !
 
Water change day here at the nursery. Just to refresh everyone's memory, here is what's going on. Plants 1 & 2 are unknown bag seed. Plants 3 & 4 are RQS Buble Kush Autos. I started off using 600w hps on Nov 25. I took it to 750w on Dec 23, and then all the way to 1000w on Dec 31, all on a 16/8 schedule. The autos both first showed pistils on Dec 20. I only have about 12" more that I can raise my light, and #4 is only 7" from the glass. The breeder's info says harvest 8-9 wks from sprout, flowering time 5-7 wks. That would give me another 3-5 wks of flowering left. Once the autos are harvested 1 & 2 will be moved to a 12/12 schedule. 1 & 2 also rec. a fairly harsh trimming today. Mostly older leaves that were showing damage, or shading significant amounts of the entire plant. Pics of the trimmings and giant leaves at the bottom of the update. As always click on the pic for a larger view, and all comments and suggestions welcomed.

Lots of info and pics so settle in.

Plant 1

PH out-5.1
PPM out-311
Height-12 1/2"
Grown in a wk-3 1/2"
Water consumed in a wk-2 gallons
Fresh h2o PPM-172
Nutes given- Micro 16ml, Grow 16ml, Bloom 10ml, hydroguard 8ml, in 4 gallons water
PH in-5.6
PPM in-754
PPM nutes-582
Days above dirt-38










Plant 2

PH out-4.9
PPM out-322
Height-11"
Grown in a wk-4"
Water consumed in a wk-2 1/2 gallons
Fresh h2o PPM-172
Nutes given- Micro 16ml, Grow 16ml, Bloom 10ml, hydroguard 8ml, in 4 gallons water
PH in-5.6
PPM in-736
PPM nutes-564
Days above dirt-37











Plant 3

PH out-4.8
PPM out-474
Height-20 1/4"
Grown in a wk-7 1/4"
Water consumed in a wk-3 gallons
Fresh h2o PPM-173
Nutes given- Micro 10ml, Grow 20ml, Bloom 35ml, hydroguard 8ml, in 4 gallons water
PH in-5.8
PPM in-893
PPM nutes-720
Days above dirt-33











Plant 4

PH out-5.1
PPM out-418
Height-33 1/4"
Grown in a wk-13 1/4"
Water consumed in a wk-4 1/4 gallons
Fresh h2o PPM-173
Nutes given- Micro 10ml, Grow 20ml, Bloom 35ml, hydroguard 8ml, in 4 gallons water
PH in-5.9
PPM in-903
PPM nutes-730
Days above dirt-32











And a few pics of the trimmings and larger leaves.





The two pics above were from #1.
The one pic below is from #2.




Hope everyone enjoyed the update and hopefully learned something, even if it was "what NOT to do". LOL

Peace.
 
BTW just for shits and giggles, a little guessing game. Anyone care to take a stab at yield on numbers 3 & 4 ? Since this is my first grow and I'm clueless as to what to expect I can only go by the breeders info:

Yield Indoor 350-400gr m2
Yield Outdoor 120-170 grams per plant dried
Height Indoor 40 - 80 cm
Height Outdoor 60 - 100 cm


But... I am willing to give a guestimate.:hmmmm: Chime in with your guess and I'll let everyone know who comes closest.

I'm guessing 60g dried from #4, and 75g dried from #3. I hope I am soooo wrong on that too...in a good way. :peace:
 
Something to remember is the water temp in each bucket. try to keep it between 60-70 no higher which is going to have the best oxygen absorption usually its around 67ish. You want to stay away from higher temps as you can get alot of root problems like root root. It help with their metabolism at those lower temps.
 
The outside temps have conspired to keep me from using the 1000w. Inside temps were creeping up to the high 70s, lower 80s. Back to 600w only.:scratchinghead: Oh well, such is life. It's supposed to turn real cold by next week, so I'll be watching for a chance to pop it back up to 1000w.

I figured as long as I was here I might as well check ph and ppm today. (Approx 30 hours after a water and nute change.)
Below are today's readings along with the beginning readings from yesterday, and the amount change. The way I understand it is like this; If your ph rises and ppm lowers they are eating nutes, and if ph lowers and ppm rises then they are drinking not eating. It appears my ph has risen , and ppm lowered in all four buckets, so my girls are eating. :MoreNutes: Suggestions, comments, or corrections?

1- ph start 5.6/ppm 754.......ph now 7.0/ppm 719......ph up 1.4, ppm -35

2- ph start 5.6/ppm 736.......ph now 6.8/ppm 684......ph up 1.2, ppm -52

3- ph start 5.8/ppm 893.......ph now 6.7/ppm 829......ph up 0.9, ppm -64

4- ph start 5.9/ppm903........ph now 6.9/ppm 789......ph up 1.o, ppm -114

Thanks for your interest!
 
Well I couldn't stand it any longer. 1 & 2 were so bushy the growing tips were being shaded over and lost. Since nothing else I've done has hurt or slowed them, I just whacked the heck out of them again. Also did a little supercropping on #1. Stay tuned in the coming week to see how they respond.



The pile on the left is from #1, the right #2.
 
Okay rifleman, I'm all caught up. Everything looks good so far. You seem to have a handle on the heat issues now. One thing I don't understand is why you let the Ph levels roam so wild? I see them getting off the prefered range in both directions. If you go back to the leaf chart someone posted to your journal, you'll see the prime Ph levels for max absorption of nutes. Like you, I'm new to hydro myself, but one thing I check daily is Ph. Another thing we haven't herd in a long time is the RH levels and temps at canopy tops.
All in all, your plants do look happy and I hope I fare as well as you are when I stick a couple plants in my pots.
We have a cold snap coming in too. 10 - 14f and it's a bitch keeping temps controlled.
So GROW ON and best of luck!!
Andy.:bravo::peace:
 
McCdive said:
Okay rifleman, I'm all caught up. Everything looks good so far. You seem to have a handle on the heat issues now. One thing I don't understand is why you let the Ph levels roam so wild? I see them getting off the prefered range in both directions. ..........I'm new to hydro myself, but one thing I check daily is Ph. Another thing we haven't herd in a long time is the RH levels and temps at canopy tops.
Click to expand...



In all honesty I have been chasing ph but in a different way. I am not running a rdwc, but instead four separate dwc buckets which lends itself to more problems. Specifically I still have not found a formula for adjusting ph accurately. For example, if 1cc ph down would drop 1 gal 1 point it would be so easy. Such doesn't seem to be the case, and with different buckets using differing amounts of water and nutes, and my tap water being ~8.1ph it's a PITA. I have been experimenting with known amounts of water and ph down, trying to develop a formula, but it seems there's just enough difference in each water sample somehow to cause the equation to elude me. With that in mind I just said screw it and let the buckets do what they want as long as everyone looks good.

Not to say I don't keep a check on them, I just don't worry about it. The first time they need water after a full change of h2o and nutes, I add only ph'd water(5.8 or as close as I can get). The next time they need water I add 50% the nute dose last used to the replacement water and ph that also as close to 5.8 as possible. That is partly why I went back to 4 gal in ea bucket instead of 3. It's a tad more forgiving that way I think.

As for temps and humidity, bucket level temps are ~70F, canopy ~75(600w 7" above, add 5 deg for the 750w, & 10 for the 1000w), and humidity stays between 47 and 60% depending on how often I open the tent, and how high the humidifier is cranked up.

If anyone has a better method of adjusting ph I'd love to hear it. I am waiting on some graduated syringes to try and help pin down a certain amount ph down to use per gallon, but until then I'll just keep using my giant syringe I got out of my BBQ shed and try to get it close enough.
 
Rifleman I too use separate buckets for my DWC but the only really effective way I've found to run it is with RO water when I add my nutes I hit 5.6 to 6.0 every time when I tried using tap water or well water I had fluctuations all over the place. I don't even remember the last time I had to use my ph up or down or my meter maybe once or twice a grow just to make sure. it sucks as I go get mine from a water depot so I'm hauling 20+ gallons a week. In late flower I can add 10 gallons every 3 to 4 days but I don't have to worry about the PH so to me it's worth it.
 
Kola & Rifleman, you may want to invest in an RO kitchen sink model. Buying and hauling that much water is rediculous. Shop around for one. Most people don't know this, but your typical RO unit will produce more than 100 gallons a day if the discharge is left open into a container for storage. Use a barrel or a cleaned out brine tank for a water softener works well. You just need to be there to open and close the valve to the RO when you need more.
Food for thought. Andy.
 
An RO system is on next years Christmas list. Bah, who am I kidding? I just hope the water isn't turned off by then. :rofl:
RO would be nice, but it won't be for a while. My dentist seems to think I adopted his college age kids. Sure would be nice to have stable ph though. Hmmmm?
 
rifleman said:
An RO system is on next years Christmas list. Bah, who am I kidding? I just hope the water isn't turned off by then. :rofl:
RO would be nice, but it won't be for a while. My dentist seems to think I adopted his college age kids. Sure would be nice to have stable ph though. Hmmmm?
Click to expand...

Ever consider just a bigger reservoir? Like a big garbage can or something? Cause then your just treating one large amount for your grow room?

Since I created a little 40gallon one I feel like I'm God with my own water supply. Lol
 
Pigeons420 said:
Ever consider just a bigger reservoir? Like a big garbage can or something? Cause then your just treating one large amount for your grow room?

Since I created a little 40gallon one I feel like I'm God with my own water supply. Lol
Click to expand...


I am researching different methods of growing for in the future. For now I'm going to try and learn the basics of growing and determine which direction I want to go. As long as I'm having fun and producing my own cannabis, it's all Goooooood ! :Namaste:
 
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