First official grow attempt: DWC, Scrog, CFL+ 400w MH/HPS, Bubblelicious.

[The Grower Man]

Hey guys, first attempt here. Feel free to jump in and comment whenever you feel like it. Thanks for helping out!

Grow Room setup:

1 mother chamber, 1 veg chamber, 1 flowering chamber. Details of setup can be found here:



Day 1 (25/7/2013)

Seed was placed into a bowl of tap water, (non-ph'd) and left alone for 24 hours.

Day 2 (26/7/2013)

Seed was then placed onto damp paper towel inside a bowl and covered with a plate. Left for 24 hours.

Day 3 (27/7/2013)

Germination was rapid, with roots growing about 1.5cm long. Rockwool was put in pH-d water, < 5.5 and left to sit for 30 minutes. Germinated seed was gently placed inside rockwool, using only fingers.

Day 4 (28/7/2013)

Interesting note: less than half an hour after placing into rockwool, seed husk is broken, revealing first signs of seedling sprout. Husk was removed to allow for smoother germination.

Less than 24 hours later, following result observed.



Will allow to sit for a week, or until first two pairs of leaves grow, before starting on a light feed, (150-250 ppm)

Possible problems - cavity around net pot allows light penetration into water reservoir. Tried to cover with white tape, but it is inefficient.

 

[jumpy0ne]

Hey man. I'll be keeping tuned, I'm going to try a similar DWC set up after my run...... A bit different but same point. You can cut a square of black and white plastic and place it, with a slit for the plant, over the entire cup/cavity. That should hold out the light entirely. I'd tape/paint your bucket and aero rubbermaid too..... they let light through, especially hps light!

What nutes are you going to use? Good luck buddy!

 

[The Grower Man]

Hey man. I'll be keeping tuned, I'm going to try a similar DWC set up after my run...... A bit different but same point. You can cut a square of black and white plastic and place it, with a slit for the plant, over the entire cup/cavity. That should hold out the light entirely. I'd tape/paint your bucket and aero rubbermaid too..... they let light through, especially hps light!

What nutes are you going to use? Good luck buddy!

Hey, thanks for the response jumpy! Yeah, I'm thinking of cutting out a black garbage plastic bag and sticking it over the pot, will probably do the same for the rest of the setup. I'm going to use the General Hydroponics Flora Series. You planning on starting a grow log? Be interesting to see it too.

Good luck with yours too!

 

[The Grower Man]

Day 6 (30/7/2013)

Upon inspection, plant (codename: Gaia) has grown the first set of leaves, however she seems to be stretching. Lights were lowered to about 5 centimeters away from the plant so as to prevent further vertical growth.



No nutes are added yet, however a light feed (150 ppm) and reservoir change has been scheduled for day 10 (3/8/2013).

As per forum suggestion, black plastic bag section to be cut and placed onto plant to prevent light penetration scheduled for tomorrow, (31/7/2013).

 

[The Grower Man]

Day 7 (31/7/2013)

Raised the lights a little to prevent growth into the bulb. Leaves are developing nicely.



Black plastic bag placed on top of plant to minimize light penetration into reservoir.

 

[The Grower Man]

Day 12 (5/8/2013)

First feed: Cleaned out reservoir and filled up with pH'd water with a mixture of some hydroponic plant feed and some tomato feed. Readings at 150ppm (100 nutrition, 50 tapwater).

Interesting note: Did not realize how much food it takes to reach 100 ppm - Was seriously underfeeding during previous grows.



Gaia seems to be bending a little, adjust light closer towards the center, hopefully she corrects herself.

Maintaining this system for a week and observing any possible changes.

 

[The Grower Man]

Day 18 (11/8/2013)

Reservoir was first checked for ppm and pH reading, which stood at 180 ppm and 7.0 pH respectively.

*Note: This is why it's important to change the reservoir constantly - pH and nutrient readings will fluctuate.

Reservoir changed with new readings at 85 ppm and 5.8 pH.

Slight yellowing at the base fan leaves observed, possibly due to nutrient lockout or overfeeding. Likely cause is pH levels, will observe in a week for any changes.

Otherwise, plant is looking healthy and robust. Roots have grown long enough to submerge in reservoir tank.

 

[The Grower Man]

Day 19 (12/8/2013)

5:30pm: Checked pH and ppm today; a reading of 7.0 pH and 110 ppm was recorded.

Hypothesize that due to pH imbalance, nutes were not being absorbed causing high ppm value. Possible causes may be from an incorrect liquid pH indicator reading during initial reservoir balancing.

Reservoir change again today with compensation for suspected incorrect pH reading; initial pH reading stood at 5.0 pH, and 80 ppm.

9.15pm: pH was checked again, solution now shows 6.0 pH level.

Gaia to be left for a week for further observation.

Yellowing around the edges of fan leaves slightly more pronounced:

 

[The Grower Man]

Day 20 (13/8/2013)

Countermeasures taken yesterday was successful - today's reading showed that pH remained 6.0, while ppm was 79.

She's taking in nutes and water at the same pace.

Will continue to observe her for the week, with a scheduled reservoir change on 19/8/2013.

 

[dr.tomb]

Subscribed to your thread.. I'll be watching it while I do mine. Looking tight

 

[The Grower Man]

Thanks for the encouragement tomb, will sub yours too!

 

[The Grower Man]

Day 26 (19/8/2013)

Reservoir change today, readings of old reservoir read pH 6, with 90ppm.

Increased nutes of new reservoir, 175ppm, pH 5.

She's looking healthy!

 

[dr.tomb]

I've been reading that a fluctuation in pH is usually caused by the plants.. They adjust it to get the nutes they need.. So mix up your nutes for the week and don't be quick to pH down the res.

 

[The Grower Man]

Thanks for the tip tomb, yeah I just pH adjust the one res-change a week, then I let it drift - it usually comes to about pH 6 by the time I change it again. It's going well so far, I was worried she was becoming too small but I think she was developing roots first before growing taller. Just checked on her yesterday, saw some obvious vertical growth, so all's well so far!

 

[The Grower Man]

Day 30 (23/8/2013)

I had initial concerns that Gaia's growth was stunted, as she is still quite small at day 26. While checking on her today however, I found that she had significantly increased in height. Prior to that, another forumer suggested that she was developing roots before her growth spurt, which is a likely explanation for her sudden flourish.

Anyway I'm quite glad she's coming along nicely.

ppm reading stood at 185, so she's drinking more than eating, but its probably due to the poor feeding. I might switch to using GH nutes soon, maybe after I do the flush for this next upcoming reservoir change.

 

[The Grower Man]

Day 32 (25/8/13) *written at a later date

Scheduled reservoir change, switched to GH Hydroponics nutes. Added quarter strength, as per everyone's recommendation, ppm 142. pH 5.6 - 5.8. Interesting note: Unlike previously used nutrients, GH nutes actually reduced pH and buffered solution to maintain pH. Quality stuff.

Previous reservoir recorded at 192ppm, pH 6. Hopefully ppm reading is high due to more drinking by the plant, but any suggestions are welcome.



Day 33 (26/8/13)

Have decided to FIM her (at 6th node) with a pair of scissors. Hopefully I did it right.

 

[The Grower Man]

Day 42 (4/9/2013)

Sorry for the late updates. Problems have been popping - water cuts, fan broke down, but Gaia is a freaking tankress. She still looks green as ever.

One issue I noticed is that when temps get a bit hot, there's condensation on the surface of the lower leaves that are directly under another. Is this normal, or a sign of stress? Could possibly be from a lack of airflow as well.

It turns out that I screwed up my first FIM, so the leaves grew out anyway, half-sliced. I FIMmed her again, and I think this time it turned out okay. Would appreciate a second opinion on this.

Also, anyone know if it's okay to take some clones off her soon? I need at least 6. I think she's still too young so far.

Other than that, she's looking good!

 

[SxIstew]

Subbed up.

 

[The Grower Man]

Day 62 (24/9/2013)

Alright, sorry for the lack of updates, the girlfriend borrowed the camera and then life got busy. Never neglected my babies though! They finally grew big enough to take cuttings off from, which was just in time because Gaia was growing too big for her cab. Some of her leaves actually got burnt from touching the CFL's which was already at maximum height. I topped her and decided to clone the top, along with some of the longest branches for cloning. Here's what she looked like before:



And after taking cuttings and topping her:



Amazingly enough, that did minimal damage to her. She kept growing as usual, the shoots closest to the light closing in on the CFL's again, so I just used my palm to push them down, and snapped some of the longer stems.

As for the cuttings, I dipped them in clonex gel, stuck them in polystyrene cups with a small punched hole in them and put them in a bubbler tub.



Which brings us to

Day 68 (30/9/2013)



Roots!

Not all of them are rooting as nicely though. The ones near the bubbler had the most roots, so today I swapped their places with those with little/no root growth.

Anyone have any idea how long I should wait before moving them to the ScroG fruiting chamber?

Thanks for your input!

 

[dr.tomb]

Wow looking much better then mine... Might have been for lack of veg on mine. Think from sprout, I put them to flower in 20-30 days.