New grower: my timelapse included

[ScrubGrower]

Hi all, recently wanted to try growing as it has become legal where I live.

This is my first grow ever, I had a ficus that my mom killed 2 years when she came to visit me before this - she bought a new pot for it without a drain hole and replanted it, asked me for $75 for the pot; that's a whole other story.

I bought some seeds from cropking (10 white widow - 3 free master kush)

I germed 3 groups 3 days apart which was stupid but I was testing, killed some because too hot of a temp - left heatpad on all night.
So I built a system with a pi zero w to control the heatpad, expanded the dome with an attached case fan and humidity sensor, so I was able to give them a nice environment with automatic venting and 60-75% humidity; they did really well in the rapid rooters which I didn't even soak or wash in distilled. All distilled water in my area is ozonated anyways.

So I'm surprised that out of the 13 I germed 9 ... but once you're in you go for broke that's my motto.

so I purchased myself a 6x6x8 tent - on my buddies recommendation hooked up 10 buckets (1 control) and 9 planters in 6x6x6 rockwool cubes sitting on a layer of gro chunks.

got some chinese led (full spec and the red/blue) got 500w full spec and 500w red/blue china going now and the full spec plants are definitely doing the best.

I got off that pi zero w and switched to a rock64, hooked up a camera, set it to take pics every 5 mins - wrote some scripts to format is a movie at certain intervals, my whole trip so far is here. It's about 3 or 4 weeks of footage.

I definitely overwatered them recently and got hit by an algae bloom - so much that there was a slimy shiny substance on the rockwool. the plants are not as energetic as before. I haven't watered in 2 days and it's still moist.

How come they start drooping 2 hrs before lights out? I haven't watered past 2 nights.

 

[Pennywise]

Welcome to 420 Scrub, plants only need X amount of light each day to carry out photosynthesis. When they’ve had enough light they go to sleep. It’s normal so nothing to worry about. Nice setup you have.

 

[West Hippie]

Welcome Scrubgrower to 420 magazine
Your gonna have to cover those rockwools . The light is growing the algae ! You’ll need some Z7 to help get rid of it .

 

[MochaBud]

to Scrub you came to the right place to learn

 

[Pennywise]

Try using paper plates on top of your blocks. You can cut a slit in the plate and slide them on.

 

[ScrubGrower]

I already put some white black I got from the local hydro store on top of it, worried it might block evap. You can see them at the end of the vid. nice to be here - tons of useful info!

i tested 1 ml of 29% hydrogen peroxide mixed into a gal of water and sprayed a small amount on the surface of 1 of the plants
it did not appear to have any effect on the algae 2 days after and the plant didn't react positively to it, but did not die.

 

[Barney86]

I already put some white black I got from the local hydro store on top of it, worried it might block evap. You can see them at the end of the vid. nice to be here - tons of useful info!

i tested 1 ml of 29% hydrogen peroxide mixed into a gal of water and sprayed a small amount on the surface of 1 of the plants
it did not appear to have any effect on the algae 2 days after and the plant didn't react positively to it, but did not die.

I get that algae stuff every time mate. It's just the light growing something harmless. Doesn't bother them from my experience.
Keep Rockwool moist but not wet and never let it dry out.
Once the roots look something like that after around 2 weeks you can feed as much as you want but gotta be careful till then.

 

[Pennywise]

The algae won’t hurt the plants but will suck nutrients from your Blocks.

 

[West Hippie]

I used to get the algae on the rockwool till I came to 420 and learned better !

 

[ScrubGrower]

mine is so bad i thought it wasn't letting air penetrate the rockwool.

I took this pic with flash on my phone
you can see it's sticky shininess. smells like algae

 

[Barney86]

The algae won’t hurt the plants but will suck nutrients from your Blocks.

True, it must be feeding off something. Mine get fed a few hundred litres per day though so it can eat all it wants it won't make a difference lol.

 

[West Hippie]

mine is so bad i thought it wasn't letting air penetrate the rockwool.

I took this pic with flash on my phone
you can see it's sticky shininess. smells like algae

It’s growing from your light hitting it , cover it up you’ll thank us later !

 

[Barney86]

mine is so bad i thought it wasn't letting air penetrate the rockwool.

I took this pic with flash on my phone
you can see it's sticky shininess. smells like algae

Stick a cover over it mate. It's the light that's growing it. I use corex. Easily attainable from every building site.

 

[jetsgrower]

nice timelapse video and lots of great info here

 

[SQl2kGuy]

Hi all, recently wanted to try growing as it has become legal where I live ...

Hey @ScrubGrower ... Finally legalization!

Nice ... 9 plants in a 6'x6'x8' will fit perfect. Are you planning on using ScrOG?

No matter what options you choose, you're going to find someone here with a grow journal that has had some success already you can pick up tips from.

Good luck!

 

[ScrubGrower]

I would love to try ScrOG but not on my first run I am too attached to these plants to harm them, I want to focus on keeping them alive and learn how they react to certain things before I start modifying them.

I would really like to try to convert my setup to DWC without killing the poor girls. I have a 6 channel water oxygenator, perhaps I can just hook up an inline pump to the furthest bucket, spread the airstones out and circulate a bit less than 50gal of nutes for 10 buckets (1 control).
I have 2x 55gal water drums at my disposal.

I do not have a reverse osmosis system and my tap ppm tests at 120 so I think I'll have to do that before I attempt DWC.

the local hydro store laughed and said "every couple of months a guy comes in here with an ebb and flood bucket system hah!"

I agree with him though; in retrospect it's dumb because 2-3 gals of water in the bucket are unnecessary and are just empty space. I just end up wasting nutes at the end of the week. Wasted money on the medium too if DWC is just the plan at the end of the day.

I did have an idea to fill up the buckets with spring water bottles (i have 6x40) tied to a copper pipe to ensure they do not float. so that when I flood these bottles will just take up space. Meaning that I can reduce the size of my resevoir by up to 40% but it would mean I have to take them out in order to set up the DWC system.

Any suggestions on this regard would be much appreciated.

The plants seem to be doing much better - last 24hr timelapse on this link.

 

[West Hippie]

I run a ebb and flow 20 gallon reservoir. Just started dwc a few days ago , found out it’s work !
Flood and drain system top it off check ph,nutrients and temps and I’m done .
Back to the dwc using 2 and 3 gallon reservoir, here comes your ph problems . From what I’ve learned about dwc and saw it in another grower’s thread I’ll never go under 5 gallons!