1st Waterfarm, French Cookies, DIY LED, 2X2ish

Tent is 27"x27" Mars Hydro

French Cookies from T.H. Seeds

GH Waterfarm with no mods (save for a few extra basket holes)

Feeding with my goto; GH Maxibloom only, tap water

Light build:
6 Samsung H-influx L06 3500k
2 Horticultural Lighting Group QB11 660nm
Pulling 150w for now 12" above canopt, can pull 260w at full (I will push it during flower)

This is my first Waterfarm grow. Seed was started March 1, topped on March 21, LST'd and will top again this week before flip. Been doing some minor defoliation to get light onto lower middle nodes too. SCROG net goes in today.

Early impressions of the Waterfarm, it's pretty great. I've been giving the ring weekly rinses with hot hot water bc it definitely develops a layer of salt build up pretty quickly. I should have hand watered more often in the beginning bc there was definitely a period of slowed growth after transplant. That said, even the instructions said I should so that's my fault. Water changes are a bit annoying bc of gravity and all but it's a lot easier now that I've raised it up off the floor. So far though, comparing this with grows I've done in the past, I can't understand why these systems aren't much more popular. It may be my new goto recommendation for single plant hydro grows, it's that good.

Will update again in 1 week

@Just Be @rkymtnman

Nice! Thanks for tagging me. Looking forward to watching.

as well with me, thanks for the tag.

i agree, i don't know why they aren't more popular? or maybe GH has sold millions of them not just for cannabis grows?

i'll never go away from my DTW setup with them. so easy, so productive and being able to go away for 2 weeks is icing on the cake!

only thing i'd suggest for you is keep some Epsom handy. since i've switched to QB with far red pucks, i almost always need Mg with these leds. edit: with maxibloom

rkymtnman said:

only thing i'd suggest for you is keep some Epsom handy. since i've switched to QB with far red pucks, i almost always need Mg with these leds. edit: with maxibloom

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Thanks for that tip man - this is actually my first lamp with integrated reds and I hadn't even considered how that might affect the needs of the plant. Tell me, do you use tap water or some kind of RO/distilled/etc. Also do see this across the board with strains or maybe indica dominant vs sativa dominant varieties?

Major Blazer said:

Thanks for that tip man - this is actually my first lamp with integrated reds and I hadn't even considered how that might affect the needs of the plant. Tell me, do you use tap water or some kind of RO/distilled/etc. Also do see this across the board with strains or maybe indica dominant vs sativa dominant varieties?

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i'm on well water. i've never needed cal since i switched to well many yrs ago with Maxi. and now i don't really bother so see if i get a Mg deficiency, i just add 1 gram per gallon of Epsom for the whole grow.

I’ll be watching too. I’ve got a WaterFarm that I need to try out now that it’s warmer weather.
Really interested in seeing how the French Cookies do, I’ve got a pk that I need to grow.

Nice, welcome aboard @Opie1971 . I decided to flip the light schedule to 12/12 yesterday after installing the screen on the 5th. I know I said I'd veg a little longer and top again but honestly I'm just so damn bored that I needed some new excitement in my life already haha. I've also turned up the lamp so it's pulling 200w from the wall.

This is the thread that sold me on waterfarms... I love the dripring.. I've never needed to use any air stones. With a constant waterflow from the dripring, the hydroton supplies all the air a plant needs..

11 days into flip, defoliated a few days ago - she's definitely not sprawling as much as I expected. Also could be my fault, I got myself a lux meter and after taking some readings and then running some ppfd estimate calculations, I was nuking the shit out of her. I got the light to a more ideal height height now and the growth has definitely picked up. All new growth looks great too and she's drinking about half a gallon a day now. Take care and thanks for viewing.

I got rid of the screen bc this plant isn't really sprawling all that much so it seemed redundant. Plus water changes were a PITA with the screen. The bonus is that this lady is looking so so nice now.

So tightly spaced - I'm very happy so far.


She's drinking 3/4 of a gallon a day now too. It would be nice to have a larger reservoir but luckily I'm stuck home and bored so I have nothing but time to tend to her.

Don't you use the blue view/drain tube for res changes?

Just Be said:

Don't you use the blue view/drain tube for res changes?

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For draining yes, but even then it was cumbersome with my tent opening being higher than the drain and not having much extra space. It was the filling part that I had a harder time with. I'm just pouring down over the hydroton for now. Is there some other obvious trick I'm missing - please tell me I'm an idiot and there's an easier way.

Major Blazer said:

For draining yes, but even then it was cumbersome with my tent opening being higher than the drain and not having much extra space. It was the filling part that I had a harder time with. I'm just pouring down over the hydroton for now. Is there some other obvious trick I'm missing - please tell me I'm an idiot and there's an easier way.

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I'm not running the WF right now but I ran into an issue with watering the current grow due to the screen being so close to the top of the container. My solution might be something that you could have done with your screen in place. Then again, maybe not since I'm not exactly sure how much room you have towards the tent opening. Anyway, this is what I did. Four 45 degree PVC elbows, a short length of PVC pipe a few zip ties and a funnel. I haven't tried it but I've been told that the hoses on this style of siphon pump will fit nicely down the WF's drain tube.

Edit: For the record, this auto wasn't sprawling much either but I've found that the screen makes a good anchoring point for LST. Not the traditional way that most folks make use of a screen but there's nothing saying that I can't make the most of it.

Major Blazer said:

Is there some other obvious trick I'm missing - please tell me I'm an idiot and there's an easier way.

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I cut my blue tube an inch above the white line (this becomes the drain) and run mine DTW with a feed once a day. My WF's are in my old RDWC totes which are piped to a floor drain. Never worry about pH, EC or draining them ever again.

@Just Be I was thinking some type of funnel system - pvc makes sense too, plus I already have a pvc cutter so it's a breeze to work with, thanks.

rkymtnman said:

I cut my blue tube an inch above the white line (this becomes the drain) and run mine DTW with a feed once a day. My WF's are in my old RDWC totes which are piped to a floor drain. Never worry about pH, EC or draining them ever again.

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Very cool man - Idk if you remember my last grow but it was a flood table converted to DTW for those reason (drift) - when it was ebb/flow i felt like I lived in the reservoir constantly battling it.

Some updates - tomorrow starts week 4 of flower, stretch is in full effect. I'm doing more or less no defoliation except if a leaf is covering a bud site, I'll clear the path. I re-installed the frame for my scrog net and I'm using that to anchor some strings to pull the main shoots off to the sides a bit. So far the most difficult part of a Waterfarm is keeping up with the thirst as things get later into the game. I really want a larger res, at least double in size. I'll probably use a larger tote in conjunction with the upper basket of the current Waterfarm for my next go around. Anyway, some pics:



Kitty sees strings and is mad she cannot haz

Let's hope that the cat doesn't get too curious and mangle that beauty.

Just Be said:

Let's hope that the cat doesn't get too curious and mangle that beauty.

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Lmao as it happens, I learned of her affinity for leafy greens after something to that effect happened with us once many years ago. Now she knows if she's good and patient she gets a "leaf leaf" from me so everytime I'm in there, i pluck at least one for her. She also has her own bed of cat grass growing on the patio. Spoiled rotten.

Looking awesome !