Atlantadirect's first grow DWC closet

Here is an update on the grow. I began the project 25 days ago on December 19th. A few days ago I began LSTing the plants and they seem to be responding well. The plants have, however, developed some sort of illness. I think it might be because of thrips. Here is a picture of the most damaged leaves that I trimmed off (mainly so I could get a good picture). All of the leaves below were from the bottom most sets of leaves on the plants.



Only a few of the leaves are afflicted with the above, all of the plants seem to be very healthy otherwise. I am concerned though since I don't know what is causing these symptoms. If anyone has any suggestions, please make them. I am very receptive to outside advice.

Here is a picture of the otherwise thriving plants.



One last thing, I would highly recommend against trying to employ a triple stacked swamp cooler like I did. It works pretty good for such a cheap setup, but it will spill eventually near dangerously strong eletrical devices in your grow room and threaten to electrocute you. Once again, do not use anything that looks like this.



It doesn't matter how careful you are, I promise that it will spill and be a mess to clean up.

I posted in the plant problem forum and one person suggested that it might be nute burn. Does that seem likely to people here? I'd really appreciate it if someone helped me figure out what caused those leafs to develop necrotic brown spots and whether or not I should be concerned.

I've come to the conclusion that the problem is to much nutes. Should I change the reservoir to a weaker solution? The plants don't seem to be suffering to much, they seem quite healthy aside from a few burned leafs. Maybe this is a question that I should ask in the hydroponics forum, but I might as well ask here too. Also, how about flushing? How often do people flush their hydroponic plants, in particular DWC? Is it something I really need to worry about before late flowering?

Since I thought the problem my plants were experiencing was nute burn, I decided to test it out in a harmless way. I simply added a half gallon of pHed water (5.5-5.7) without adding more nutes, inorder to dilute the solution. I did this this morning and, fast foward to now, the plants look much better. The leafs even feel better. The plants are beginning to develope that good smell. I also altered their training to the way I had originally envisioned using the four hole pattern I cut into the lid of the DWC setup. That was with the back row bending left and the front row bending right and then circling them all clockwise.

Here is a picture of the happy plants.


Here is a current picture of the set up.


And here is a closer picture of Yellowy, with Happy in the foreground.


Things seem to be good for the plants right now, I will update if things change.

Well its been four days and the plants seem like they have really started to take off. All of the plants have 7 leaf fans now and it looks like some are unfurling the 9 leafers. Asides from some nute burn they seem really strong. I changed the reservoir yesterday and I bumped the nutes up again. The plants responded with burn, so I added a half gallon of pH corrected water and they are happy again. The LST seems to really be working. There are side branches growing out of the main trunk that look like little plants all on their own. Also, I flipped the lid of the DWC so the plants would rotate positions to an extent.

Here is a pic of the light and the plants.


Here is a pic of the plants from the side.


And here is a pic from straight on and a little down. This on shows the extent of the burn best I think, but I'm not worried. Should I be though?


I pretty happy with progress so far. I'm starting to plan when I should start flowering. I think I may switch to my HPS bulb and 12/12 in one or two weeks.

Yeah yo shits aight, I suppose..

The plants have been vegging for 4 weeks now and I have decided to begin flowering them today. They switched from 24/- MH to 12/12 HPS. I also added some sidelights today and yesterday, 2 42 watt warm CFLs and 4 27 watt cool CFLs. This brings my total wattage to 442 watts. The plants have become quite unruly, spilling out every where in a jungle like tangle. Here is a picture of the tangle.



The roots have all become ensnared with one another and a giant clump.



I changed the reservoir today, changed the nute profile from veg to transition, and upped the nute concentration to 80% of the recommended dose on the GH bottles. I also rearranged the grow closet a bit so that I could position my k'nex light towers better. Here is a pic of the new arrangement.



Hopefully, in 7 or less weeks I will be harvesting my crop. Until then I will be vigilant for males and hermies.

Finally the herbs come around!

Hello RIU community, I need some advice. My plants have become very bushy and very crowded and they seem to be 'smothering' each other for the lights. I was wondering if it would be a good idea to prune the plants to thin their density. I have heard differing opinions regarding pruning, so I was wondering if any of you more experienced and or knowledgeable people could advise me for my situation. Here are the plants currently:





As you can see, the plants are all on top of one another and spilling out every where. Would it be detrimental to the plants if I trimmed them, especially since they have been in 12/12 for three days now? Or would I be able to improve their overall health with a bit of judicious pruning?

Excellent growth. You could tie branches down and out of the way so light gets into the lower parts of the plant.

@vbp6us- Thanks. I agree about the branch tying.

When I remove the males I will tie the other plants down into the space opened up. The plants are almost through their first week in 12/12 and some are starting to show signs of sex. The branches have also elongated, making the plants not quite so dense, so I decided that pruning would be a bad idea. I'll do a full update tomorrow with new pictures and everything after I change the reservoir. Hopefully the plants will have become more definite in their sex by then so I can have some gratuitous close-ups.

hay man .do you have a airstone or a fogger getting that nutrient some oxegen in your res?im telling you man you get those two things and they will fucking take off and be much healthier.

@purplehaze2: I have four 5" round airstones all attached to a 40 gallon aquarium pump. The bubbles only trickle out of the airstones, so I want a stronger pump. I want the water to be roiling with bubbles. When time allows it I'm going to the pet shop or hydroshop and getting a bigger air pump.

get a ultra sonnic fogger fuck the knew pump trust me man the fogger squirts water all over the place and puts out a fog in reswevoir a thick fog. your pumps enough with those air stones.you open you res and fog comes rolling out like crazy its like its in the humid tropics.and its only $25 or 30$.and you leave it on 24/7 you got too get one your going too trip.it will make it grow better.it floats around in your res and the bubbles from your stone pump oxegen in the water and then the fogger makes a fog and at the same time its squirting nutrients on the plants.

I said I'd update yesterday, but my camera was out of batterys. So here is the update today. I changed the reservoir yesterday. I put in 6 gallons water, 55 mL GH Floramicro, 55 mL GH Floragro, 55 mL GH Florabloom, 30 mL H2O2, and 10 drops of Superthrive. I also added a new larger pump, so now I have two airpumps connected to three 5" round airstones. I also rotated the plants orinetation 90 degrees, again.

Two of the plants have revealed their gender. If you have been following along, Yellowy is a female and Curly is a male. I don't plan to kill Curly immediately, but I will greatly prune him back to open up more space for the others. I want to collect some pollen to make more seeds. Happy and Droopy are still androgenous. I tried to take pictures of the little hairs on Yellowy and the little balls on Curly but my camera doesn't have a manual focus and all the pictures come out blurry. Here is a picture of all the plants in their glory.



So nothing super exicitng or new. I'm hoping for at least one more female, but if the last two end up being ladies I won't complain.

Oh, and I've decided to rename the plants once they show what sex they are but I haven't decided on new names for Yellowy or Curly.

Some good news for me, I was lucky in the lady lottery. Three of my four plants have turned out to be female. The single male I have trimmed down to just a couple of big stalks. I plan on keeping him alive for two reasons. One is to collect pollen and make some seeds. And two is that his roots are so entangled with everyone elses that they would be impossible to remove. My plants all seem a little bit limp right now. They look like they might not be getting enough oxygen to the roots, so I'll be keeping an eye on that.

Get one of these pumps: Dolphin Aquarium Air Pump

The 5 star is what I am getting.

Those do look like some pimp pumps. I might order one myself. They are also a good deal cheaper than the ones I have found in brick and mortar shops.

I meant to change the reservoir today, but I was busy all day and now the plants are sleeping. I'll do it tomorrow.

I've been busy slowly pruning all of the plants. All four plants have some drooping leaves and branches near the bottom that are super scraggly and limp. I give them the tug test. If I gently pull the branch and if detaches without any resistance it has been pruned and I toss it. If the branch won't come off with only a gentle tug, I leave it be. Some of these branches and leaves were super stretched out, seeking light I suppose. Now the plants won't waste energy on those unproductive members.

Curly, my one male plant is developing his flowers very quickly. I feel like I'm playing a dangerous game. I really want to collect some pollen to make some seeds, but I'm worried I'll wait to long and Curly will 'blow his load' and get pollen every where. I may just collect all the pollen sacks tomorrow and give Curly the final clip just to be safe. Hopefully I'll get some pollen I can use without getting it every where.

I'll post some pics of the developing plant tomorrow. They're getting real big real fast now. I'm excited, I should be beginning to harvest in less than one month now.

Ok, reservoir change complete. I replaced the old six gallons of solution with 8 gallons of tap water that had been allowed to sit for 48 hours+, 40 mL Floraveg, 80 mL Floramicro, 120 mL Florabloom, 40 mL 3% H202, and 8 drops of superthrive and then I adjusted the pH to ~5.5. The plants are drinking water faster these days so I thought I would use 8 gallons instead of 6 to improve the systems stability. Any, here are current pictures of the whole deal.