Consciousness420s random bagseed hydro grow

Hey All, just thought I would take regular old random-ass bagseed and try to grow it in a hydroponics setup in order to possibly give hope to first timers who dont want to order premium genetics online. I've grown premium seed before with this setup and its worked out great, but I was curious to see how random low quality local seeds from a bag of weed would do in a decent grow room; kind of an experiment. I have no idea what strain these are (probably some form of outdoor sativa from mexico - because the bag o' weed was obtained from a friend in the southern USA), though I hope for the sake of success they are some form of indica; either way though, it will be pretty low quality because the bag o' weed was pretty damn bad, but oh well, this is an experiment (theory dictates that the uglier the weed, the more resilient and sturdy the weed; so we'll see).

SETUP :
Closet dimensions : 3.5 feet x 10 feet x 12 feet
its a small room BUT I have a 185CFM air blower feeding to a dryer vent to the outside via a 10 foot ducting (continuously on when the light is on)
Two standard oscillating fans - one of them brings in fresh air into the room from the rest of the house.
One 400W Metal Halide for veg cycle
One 400W HPS for flowering (lights not used simultaneously)
One General Hydroponics PowerGrower ECO (with
Rockwool media (1.5 inch starter cubes and 4x4 inch grow cubes)
Nutrients : General Hydroponics Flora series

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6 seeds were germinated using the paper towel method for two days
Sprouts were put into Rockwool on 10/28
Metal Halide light ran 18 hours per day
Nutrient solution at 1/4 strength for first week
Metal Halide light ran 19 hours per day (light lowered 5 inches)
Nutrient solution at 1/2 strength for second week
It is 11/12 and three plants survived and are thriving at the end of the second week (pics below). I will update this journal every other week with pics and procedure. Feel free to comment. It should be interesting to see how random-ass bagseed does in a decent environment. It would be nice to figure out what strain these are but I have no idea how anyone could ever tell, maybe once/if they flower, the way the buds look could give us an idea as to what type they are. I could just be running into bad genetics but Ive always wanted to test the notion that you should only grow with premium quality internet seeds. Whatever happens, I have plenty of white widow from my summer harvest (from this same exact setup) to smoke while I watch these crappy plants grow.. damn they already smell, maybe its some sort of skunk!
laterz

word. i'll keep an eye on it

I'm thinking about getting one of these GH Powergrower systems. How do you like it?

Looking forward to seeing how this turns out.

I like the GH Power Grower ECO. I have had good results with it, its simple to use and effective. The 'ECO' (one that I have) is just a bit too small though; I think its the smallest in the Power Grower series.. I think if I were to get another one I would get the larger EcoGrower model because it has 6 grow units, though the 'ECO' does allow you to interconnect another 'ECO' and a 'controller' which is cool. My last grow I had 4 white widows and they got so big I had to destroy two of them so the other two wouldnt get root-bound. Heres a link to the various models.

Drip Hydroponic Systems by General Hydroponics at Home Harvest Garden Supply

Nice to see some other people with the same idea . I started my first grow about two months ago with bagseed. Its intresting when you dont know what your going to get. Plus every strain had two start unknown might be something worth holding on two. Check out journal and see the grow im doing i started late but it is wat it is.

Sup all, its the end of the 3rd week and the plants are doing very well (pics below).
The light was lowered another 5 inches.
For week 3, the plants were put on FULL strength nutrient solution (3-2-1).
One plant was tied to a metal support rod because it was bending over too much.
The room holds steady at 74.5 degrees and 40% humidity.
For bagseed, these plants are doing quite well; they are thriving and I am surprised at the growth rate. I will probably let them double in size and/or allow them to grow for 3 more weeks and then begin the flowering phase.
I'll update again in a week or two, post comments/suggestions if u want.
laterz

killer. i'm about a week behind. mine have got a lot of catching up to do, but i start nutes on friday!

Sweet.. well, these things give new meaning to the term 'weed'.. they certainly are growing like weeds.. once you go hydro, you never fiddle around with soil again.. only issue right now is the smell! I think they must be some sort of indica (skunk maybe) because of the leaf pattern and size.. which is good for success but smelling my place up something fierce! But I love the smell so only a problem for visitors
Also forgot to mention the plants are now on a 20/4 on/off light schedule now. Ive never tried an ebb/flow system, I may do that with my next crop.. wanted to try northern lights next.. I may flower these early just so I can get on to the next batch of premium genetics.. we'll see how quickly I can push them to maturity.. laterz

what setting are you using for 20/4, or did you go to your timer? i'm gonna run these quickly so i can do my primo seeds i ordered next and let them go til theyre huge. keep us updated man!

yea, just using a timer to turn the 400W MH light on for 20 hours and off for 4 hours. Im going to increase the photoperiod by one hour per week until its at 24/7 OR until I start flowering; then I'll prob decrease the light 1/2 hour per day until its at 12/12 (that worked well with the white widows). You might try putting your primo sprouts under the crappy plants foliage.. I heard somewhere that young plants do better for some reason when they are surrounded by adults of the same species.. I dont think there is any scientific basis for this but hey might as well try everything.. laterz

Comin along nice keep up the good work looks better than mine were when vegging.

One small problem with the GH PowerGrower ECO is that the pump runs very efficiently when the reservoir is completely filled to the top but this causes the drip system to just flow water out of the holes in excess.. then once the plants transpire and a few days go by the water level goes down by half and instead of a steady stream out of the drippers, it is like 1 drip per few seconds .. so the pump efficiency plummets even at half reservoir level... A few days ago I went to 3-2-1 nutrient levels (from 1/2 strength) and the first 2 days the plants got way too much nutrients because the some of the tips of the leaves have turned yellow and folding over at the ends .. I think because of nute burn.. so the progress of these plants in their fourth week is going to be delayed for at least 4-5 days while I flush the system with pure water... from now on I'll have to modify the incremental timer for the hydro pump to be less frequent when the reservoir is full and as it goes down, increase the frequency so even though the drip rate fluctuates, the proper nutrient levels will be absorbed in the plants. . which is a pain.. oh well.. even with the slight nute burn though they have grown another inch so they are basically fine.. just going to be delayed by 4-5 days while they get flushed.. I'll post pics next Friday.. laterz

That suck's do you think maybe a stronger pump would help?

yea a stronger pump would help but at the same time, I think then just after I refill the reservoir, the drip rate would be through the roof but at least as the reservoir goes down, the drip rate would remain higher.. I need some sort of device which keeps the pump pressure the same even as the reservoir goes down... I cut off a few of the yellowing/burnt leaves and after a day of pure water, the plants are looking good.. going to run another day of pure water then put them on 1/2 strength nutrients.. they should be back on schedule by Tuesday.. its a shame because they were right in the middle of an insane growth spurt.. but even with the burn and pure water they have grown another inch in the last few days which was kind of surprising.. maybe the theory that ugly skank weed is more resilient is true...

Sup all.. the three plants are now exactly one month old and doing very well in their veg stage.. they actually are 'growing like weeds' so thats good but having 3 of them in this small GH powergrower eco is causing the drip rate to fluctuate wildly (it only takes a single day for the reservoir to fall to half full) so each day I have been just replacing whatever nutrient solution is soaked up and keeping it exactly full. In the fourth week, they have each grown a solid 10 inches and they have really filled out and gotten pretty bushy which is great (there are a crap load of nodes and the internodal length is very very nice).
I plan to keep them in a 20/4 photoperiod for the 5th week and switch them to the 'transitional' nutrient phase which entails more bloom nutrient and less nitro so as to force them into pre-flowering.. Im hoping by the end of the 5th week they will begin showing pre-flowers so that I can sex them, pull the males and begin flowering the females (if any).
Photos below.. laterz

shit man, they're lookin awesome!

Lookin' good...

Subbed...

yea, they grew another few inches over the weekend.. these things are in their prime veg right now for sure which is why I have started dropping the photoperiod and changed the nutrient solution.. someone told me once that if you force them into the flowering cycle right when they are vegging the most, the momentum rolls on into the flower stage and they use all the stored sugars to get a boost on bud development.. so I have them down to 19/5 and 2-2-2 (NPK).. tonight I am going to reduce the light again to 18/6 and stay at that (and 2-2-2) until they start showing pre-flowers.. If by the 10th they have not shown any signs of sex, I'll reduce the light an additional 1 hour each day until I get to 12/12.. I also dont want these plants to get that much bigger before flowering cuz they double in size during flowering and they already are half of the max height I wanted for this space.. the smell is also getting much more potent.. smell is slightly better though, more pungent but a nicer 'weed' smell .. love that smell.. I'll post some more pics this weekend.. hopefully at least one of them will show some pistils before then... laterz

Sup all, plants are doing well - the tallest one is actually getting a bit too tall so Im going to top it and make a clone with that in two days when Im finally at 12/12 light cycle. I've been decreasing the photoperiod by an hour each day and today it is at 14/10 so by Sunday they will be at 12/12. Two of them are starting to show signs of pre-flowers which is good timing.. its too early yet to determine sex but the tallest one may wind up being a female (guessing) ! which would be cool.. cuz when I used a magnifying glass I could see what appears to be a calyx and a tiny hair coming out.. the shortest one also has something at the fourth node but unfortunately it kind of looks spherical (to me).. but it really is just too early to know.. I'll be stoked though if the tallest one becomes female..
I raised the light gradually over the course of the week and it now sits 6 inches higher.. Ill also prune the lower branches off Sunday ( it will be 12/12 ) and on that day I will begin full flower nutrient ratios (1-2-3).. then probably mid next week I'll switch to the HPS bulb..

I think the experiment to grow some crappy bagseed has already proved that in a decent environment, good quality plants can be grown from any old seed and premium genetics isnt necessarily the only thing one can grow from ; though we still have to see the quality of the bud it produces - thats the whole thing .. so we'll see ...
photos included .. laterz

I topped the tallest plant and pruned the bottom leaves off all three plants.
I made a clone out of the top that I took from the tallest plant and put it in soil under a 75W flouro 24/0 (if that plant is a female I may keep the clone as a mother just in case I need emergency bud some month down the road - Ill be able to make a small army of clones) - its doing fine after day 4 in soil.
The lights are now at 12/12 (still using MH) and the three plants are on full bloom nutrient ratio.

They have not grown since Friday's pruning/topping ordeal, they seem to just be on pause right now while they repair themselves and switch into flowering.. though the small pre-flowering sites have become slightly more pronounced at the nodes. If any noticeable change occurs as regards the sex I'll post some pics over the weekend, otherwise gonna switch to HPS bulb prob mid next week and post pics then. laterz