White Russians in DWC 2014 - My First DWC

skunnymonster said:
Bit late to the party Med, I've seen you around so I thought I'd pop in to say hello :ciao:
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Welcome to the finale skunnymonster. Tonight some of them buds are coming off and I have just created a program whereby I can get screenshots just by pressing the mouse on my PC or laptop which means some good magnified budshots are coming too.

I'm interested in your fluxing but I've just got too many plants to deal with at the moment. Once all the outdoor girls are gone I will give it serious consideration as I want to get into only a few scrogged plants. It's a lot less work. I think my Mars II 1200 will be good for fluxing as it gets the girls stretching.

See you around dude.
 
I'll look forward to your pics dude :)

LA's fluxing technique is very time consuming & you need to allow 3 months veg so ideally you want it as aside project. I'd also pick a strain you know can take abuse without hermying on ya, like mine did =/ but I think to get the best from LED you need to keep the plants low to allow the lights to penetrate down all the colas. Fluxing, scroging, super-cropping or any form of training like that will help your yield. I also think defoliating is important too :)
 
skunnymonster said:
I'll look forward to your pics dude :)

LA's fluxing technique is very time consuming & you need to allow 3 months veg so ideally you want it as aside project. I'd also pick a strain you know can take abuse without hermying on ya, like mine did =/ but I think to get the best from LED you need to keep the plants low to allow the lights to penetrate down all the colas. Fluxing, scroging, super-cropping or any form of training like that will help your yield. I also think defoliating is important too :)
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It just so happens i've got 2 Blue Dreams and 3 Blue Bloods that I intend to keep vegging until the Autos are finished. The Autos are going into the 'White Russian' tent in about a week. So it will probably be near 3 months before the 'Blues' see 12 hours of dark. I might be knocking on your door mate for advice.
 
skunnymonster said:
Feel free to knock mate, I'm always happy to help :) It sounds like topping, cropping & defol are the order of the day :)
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What I'm finding is that the Budmaster II keeps the girls really compact and then the Mars II stretches them out. So it's not until the Mars II comes into play that I feel I can do any LST or supercropping.
 
Day 120 from seed.
Day 69 of flowering.

According to Serious Seeds, 70-80% of the stigmas must have withered and turned orange for this strain to be mature.

That milestone was reached by plant 3 here. Here she is all cut up.

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I have some microscope photos that will not load at the moment so I will get them up as soon as I can. The microscope photos show 100% cloudy trichs.
 
It's hard to say on a plant for plant basis as my others have been mainly NFT grows with a lot of plants and they were very successful with buds like in my avatar. I would certainly say NFT is much easier if you have the space for it. I have found the DWC harder but more rewarding in having had more to do with it rather than just letting it grow as I did with NFT. The NFT ladies were grown as sea-of-greens so were small but very dense. What I have found out in this grow is that the potential is so much more. The NFT grows mean all plants get the same feed whether they like it or not. At least with the DWC you can better feed individual plants. As this was my first go at DWC, I am happy with what I'm getting. I have found out in this grow that I have 2 different LED lights from different companies and it has worked out really well for me with them. I use the Budmaster II for vegging as it keeps the plants really squat and they have plenty of shoots coming out all over a short plant which is ideal for scrogging which I want to do. Then they get switched to the Mars II which causes the plants to stretch. This is great as there are a load of branches to stretch then. So as a combination they compliment what I want to achieve very well. I've also got a RDWC on the go which is looking like it will work well for scrogging and is just waiting on the Mars II from the 'White Russian' when they are done.

I am not going to give up on DWCs just because this grow was lighter in weight. I'm really enjoying this way of growing and intend to get a good scrog on. As previously mentioned, I will be calling on you for some tips and advice on fluxing my 'blues' which I intend to veg for about 3 months. Fluxing was not something I was aware of until I saw your thread and you will be my fluxing Master if you don't mind.

I wasn't aware of how much the Mars II made my plants stretch so I got caught out with these ladies. They were vegged under the Budmaster II so were very squat to start with. Like I said earlier I believe I have a good combination of lights with these two.

That was the long answer containing excuses lol.

The short answer is the harvest is less per plant. BUT NOT FOR LONG.

Even though I've been growing on and off for about 20 years there are new challenges for me. DWC, RDWC, LED, Fluxing, Scrogging ....

Some sea-of green shots to compare

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Sorry for being so long winded.
 
I don't mind long winded lol, it was a good explanation :) I'll be happy to help with you when you want to grow a flux & if you drop in at LA's fluxing central then professor flux is always happy to help. I'm gutted mine hermied on me so just make sure you pick a stable strain that you know enjoys some abuse :)
I'm not familiar with all these different hydro systems but they do interest me. I'll be running perpetual with plants all on different feeds so I'd need a system that allows that. Most are one res so they all get the same feed which is no good for my needs. How does your system work then & how can you feed each plant differently?
Long or short answers, I don't mind :)
 
If you look at early pictures on this thread you will see the buckets are independent of one another and only connected via the air pump. In the tops of the buckets I cut a hole and just covered it with correx to protect the roots from light. I used a sealing gland with a 13mm corner piece so I could connect some clear tube to see the water level easily without keep lifting the lids. Once I had the correct water level, I marked a line on the tube to know where full was. It was just a case of sliding the correx aside so I could stick a pH meter and an EC meter into the water and then made decisions on which plant needed what. Topping up was done via the hole in the lid. I also kept a chart with readings from the room and plants on a daily basis to assess long term trends if there were any. The buckets will be re-used for some autos very soon. The only thing I plan to do different is to feed the air line down the clear tube so that the roots don't wrap around it inside the bucket. It's awkward to try and hold up a big plant and untangle the roots. There is a 6" flat round airstone in the bottom. It's easy for water changes too. Just have a spare bucket on the side and drop the lid from the bucket you want emptied onto the spare bucket. Just disconnect the airline at the pump end first. Empty old water, refill and drop lid back and connect hose. Job done. It's no good for scrogging though as you know the plant cannot be moved once your net is over the top and plants are weaved through it.
 
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