Dropa Dope My First Grow Journal 400 Watt RDWC 02/17/2010

looking good. just out of curiosity how long of a veg time are you doing in the DWC system?

Since I'm in the mood to post pics I thought I would show off my outdoor ladies. All three are clones that were taken on 4-8-2010 and put in the ground on 5-1-2010. The one on the left is twice the size (girth wise) as the one in the middle and the one on the end is the runt because it receives the least amount of light. You notice the fence on the left, I had to put it there to block the view from the neighbors and it's 6ft tall. I've been pinching and supercropping it for the past 2 months trying to keep it under control. It's finally stopped growing in height and putting the buds.







I've been so paranoid having them out there. The neighbors to the left lost their home about 3 months ago. They were pretty cool and I wasn't to worried about it because it's the only house that has a view of them. Since then somebody bought the house just to rehab it and sell it for a profit. So before they got to big I had to put up that fence to block their view. There have been workers out there all summer long.

They're getting real close to finishing it and I assume they're gonna be putting it up on the market real soon. I just hope I get away with it. If I do this will be the last time I grow anything outside.

I hope you enjoyed the show.

Peace.

jalis said:

looking good. just out of curiosity how long of a veg time are you doing in the DWC system?

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What's up brah? Thanks for stopping by. I'm still relatively new to growing indoors but back on 4/8/2010 I took like six clones from the plant that I originally started this thread for. Since my last harvest I started growing out one of them clones on 6-5-2010 with much better results. I just put the last clone I have left from 4/8/2010 in the flower room. I was gonna start new clone from her for a perpetual grow but since then I have decided to start growing some NL#5 because it's gonna be a much better smoke and they only get about 3ft tall and perfect for my closet . I put the last 3 clones I had left outside but I didn't think they were gonna get that big. I threw the sixth clone away.

My plan for the future is to get 1 good female of NL#5 going while I'm finishing this bag seed grow. I plan on vegging her for around 8-10 weeks pinching and supercropping the whole time and right before she goes into the flower room I'll take another cutting from her and veg her out for another 8-10 weeks, so on and so on (for a perpetual grow)or how ever long it takes for the NL#5 to finish.

Peace.

hope your going to be posting about that northern lights #5.... ill pull a chair up and watch the grow.. lol but thanks for answer my question

damn big outdoor girls.

jalis said:

hope your going to be posting about that northern lights #5.... ill pull a chair up and watch the grow.. lol but thanks for answer my question

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I'll probably start another thread for NL5 and I'll post the link in this thread if I do.

So stay tuned.

Peace.

astro.knotts said:

damn big outdoor girls.

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Thank you, thank you very much.

Peace.

Damn Dropasone..... I know I havent been around here for along time, but I absolutely love the progress you have made! You did a great job! I also LOVE the upgrades! You are looking So VERY PRO! Keep up the great work and hope to see you at a meeting some day.....Hello, my name is DMoose, and I am addicted to growing Meds... hehehe.. see ya there!

Oh SHIT! I forgot to mention those BEAUTIFUL Ladies Outside! Holy Crap Man! They are HUGE and GORGEOUS! I am dying to find out how much weight they put out, and them sluts WILL put out!

Good Luck +rep!

Right on D. It's great to hear from you bro. Yeah I'm done with upgrading. I've done all that I can do. I should have listened to you from the beginning about the self. Damn noob growers think they know it all

The plants outside are are growing like crazy and starting to put on some serious weight. I'm thinking they're gonna yield at least cpl of pounds.

See you at the meeting my friend.

Dropastone said:

Right on D. It's great to hear from you bro. Yeah I'm done with upgrading. I've done all that I can do. I should have listened to you from the beginning about the self. Damn noob growers think they know it all

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Lol, I wasn't going to mention that, but I did think it.... hehehehe. Now that you have completed a whole cycle, it is easier to consider the WHOLE picture when constructing/upgrading your area. The slotted shelf/fan combo came out great!

I plan on sticking around to watch the NL#5 grow, and get updates on the Ladies outside! Good Luck!

Well I just germinated some NL5 a cpl of days ago and I have sprouts. I have to veg em for few weeks then put em into 12-12 for 10 days or so to weed out the males and pick out the best looking female while this last bag seed goes to the finish line.

This bag seed is a real finicky strain! I don't go much higher than 650 ppm or it starts to get the burn. I can't wait until I'm done with it and move on to greener pastures.

Peace.

Hey Dropastone, I've just read just about every post you and others have made in this thread and I have to say I'm impressed. I've never grown before but I'm just waiting on seeds and to move house etc. You've come in leaps and bounds and I hope that once I've started, and hopefully successfully completed a grow cycle that I can get my system working as good as yours. I love the look of your plants especially the outdoors they're crazy. Looking at the problems you've had and seeing the new setup photos I'm thinking you won't have too many problems from now on

I've done tonnes of research on every way to grow seeds, from soil to hydro and I've finally settled on your design using the RDWC. I've cheated and gone a simple easy method for starters and ordered an Aerogarden to basically use as my teacher. I'm going to use it so I can reverse engineer my design, along with use methods shown in your grow. I've started building, or rather retrofitting an old but tall 2m cupboard. My biggest problem is space, as is most everyone's because I can't have the grow in any way noticeable in my house. This is why I've gone for the cupboard. I was just wondering if you could write up a little kit list or something to help me get all the equipment together for the retrofit? I can figure out buckets and pipes but can you explain just simply how it is set up?

I'm also researching very heavily into the LED technology in lighting and I've come up with a few invaluable sources and a few LED lighting systems that really do work if you're interested. In most cases if you get the right ones they can far outperform your basic and son agro HPS systems. I've looked into what wavelengths plants need for photosynthesis and found a few (and there are only a few) good LED systems that do the job of any HPS bulb at half the wattage with much better results...

I'd say having LED lighting removes the need for the massive fan I see in your latest pics, and possibly even the water cooler you have? Not sure what difference it will make to the water temp not having a HPS globe but less heat should transfer to possibly not needing that. I will be using a two air duct system, which is basically going to be a 6" hole in the bottom left and a 6" one at the top right so i can put an extractor at the top and intake at the bottom, so the air flows across the plant(s) in the cupboard. I've even found 6" exhaust fans that run on something like 80-90% less power than conventional fans (the box felt empty to me even though the fan was in it so it is ultra light) for $20.

So I've got lighting, air and a space sorted (and I'll simply cover the interior with that mylar stuff or special glossy white plastic the local hydro shop has. All I need is a basic set up of the bucket system and a basic understanding of how it's worked for you. Even just a diagram of how it works and the pump specs would be great. Then I could figure out the tubing/buckets etc. But anything to point me in the right direction would be great.

In the long run though I know theres no substitute for hard work, patience and very importantly making mistakes (or knowing about them) and then fixing (or not running into) them lol. I've seen your couple of mistakes (Not to be rude) and millions of them others have made on the net, and I really want to try not to fall into them. I'm primarily starting growing for my dad's health (He suffers from chronic back pain every day) and I want to try get good results quick as the sooner I have this down pat the sooner I can crush the plant up and make the most valuable medicine known to mankind, hemp oil! Don't worry I'll be saving some decent buds for myself for personal use (ahem) and a lot of this will be just plain old fun, looks like a fun hobby to have

Anyway I've ranted enough, imagine me with a Journal omg I won't shut up lol. Let me know of what you think of my design ideas and if there's anything I've left out or should change.... Cheers

P.S. I totally forgot to mention, that once I've got my setup up and running I will use the Aerogarden for starting any new seeds and especially for any clones, the Aerogarden automates everything in the early stages (as the basic model only had an extendable light to 53cm [21"]) This might be a good option for you at some stage which could free up your other grow area for possibly another main flowering plant and have the clones running in the Aerogarden if you find you like it. Those were my thoughts on it, look them up they're quite capable of growing pot, youtube has heaps of vids, especially of autoflowering strains such as the lowryder which are perfect for the size of the unit growing and completely flowering in 2 months and reaching a mere 50cm. This would probably be an easy unit to create a lot of pot quick with if using auto strains.. Depends whether you want the more plants less size more bud method or the one big motherfucker with a lot of pot on it.. Either way this little unit is a revolutionary thing and could help every pot grower eliminate their needs of cloning and germinating setups and just run one or more flowering stations. Keeping it all down to the fine art of growing, and growing, and growing

P.P.S I'll shut up now lol

Thanks for reading my journal and I'll be updating it probably within a week or so. I've definitely come leaps and bounds from my original design but I'm still learning everyday.

Can you tell me the over all dimensions of you cupboard LxWxH? Also, you want to know what you will need to build a 4 bucket system with with a central res plus all the parts it's gonna take?

Cupboard is 405mm X 900mm X 2000mm

Yeah I'd probably have to use a 3 tub system with a 4th for the res so it all fits in the cupboard, the res can sit outside the cupboard...

Okay so you want to run a three bucket inline system. I attached a diagram of what I would do if I had your space. It's actually better than my original system because you wont need the feeder tubes and it will get much better circulation. I would also go with a 180 gph pump or higher. You could use an 80 gph pump but from my experience it wasn't enough. I upgraded to a 260 gph pump and had much better results. Also you could go with an inline pump instead of one that sits in your res because the ones that sit in your reservoir will increase your water temps. Although the design I laid out for you, I don't think that would be and issue.

I haven't used my RDWC system for a long time now because I just don't have the space. I just grow one plant out at a time now. If I did have the space it would be similar to the diagram I made for you.

I hope this helps you out. If you got anymore questions feel free to ask.

Peace.

Looks like a good setup, I'm thinking of cutting a hole on the side to let the pipe run to the res which can sit beside the cabinet and have the three buckets in the cupboard.
Does an inline pump mean the pump has a water in and water out so as it sites outside the res it will pump water from the res somewhere but also put water back into the res?
I'm thinking of raising up the bottom of the cupboard with a shelf, maybe I could do it that way and the res can sit under.
I'm not a hundred percent sure but i could very well be doing all this aeroponically having the pump set to go off once every 5 minutes for a minute or so and having the three buckets just lead straight back into the res so when it does spray it returns back there. Then just have a pipe that goes through the sides of all the buckets and have 3 sprayers under the center of the 3 plants. With a decent timer I should have some success hopefully.

Yeah an inline pump sits outside the res. It would pull water from the res and push it through all your buckets or vice versa.

You could build a shelf but you gotta think about being able to take your res in and out to do res changes and check pH and stuff like that.

Also you got to think about head room. Your light will probably take up about 12 inches of space if not more and your res will take up to a 12 -18 inches of space, leaving you with only 3 to 4 feet to work with.

Just something to consider.

Here's another pick of the setup with an inline pump.

I figured out that I was having a cal/mag issue and that's why i was having so much trouble with my plants looking like they had nute burn. So I bought some cal/mag and started using 5 ml a gallon. I've seen some great improvements but still not where I want to be. Although she is doing much better she still is looking a little fried.

I'm about at my wits end with strain. I originally thought this was an Indica dominant strain but after this years grow outside I'm convinced it's a Sativa dominant. More on that subject later.

Anyway here is some pics of my last bag seed grow ever. This is 40 days in flower and I'm looking at, at least another 30 to 35 more days.

As I stated earlier I thought this was a Indica dominant plant but now I know it's a Sativa dominant because of the way she grew out this year. I grew the same strain from seed last year and never watered it or gave it fertilizer at any time during it's growth because I was paranoid that my neighbors would seem me messing with it and it turned out to be a short stocky plant with huge fan leaves. This year I went all the way with watering and good feed schedule and it was very hard to keep them under 6 ft tall. I supercropped them all year long and they still reached 6 ft.

I've been very patient with them all year long but I still got another week or so till harvest. The hairs just started turning today real fast and cpl of days ago I checked the trichomes and they are about 10% clear 90% milky and 10% amber. So I'm hoping by this time next week I'll be chopping.

The buds are getting so heavy that it's starting to break branches. Earlier this week I found two broken branches and I had to tie them up to the stalk, they're still doing good though. This morning I went out to snap these pics and I got a cpl of branches that are leaning over quite a bit but still intact.

The weather here has been real cool with temps dipping into the low 30's this past cpl of weeks so I know it's getting real close to harvest.

Like I said I've been patient but my patience is running real thin right now.

Here is some pics.

Enjoy.

Well I'm going on my 4th week and I'll be switching them to 12-12 in about another week to determine sex. After determining sex and weeding out the males I'll be taking clones and put them into my bubble cloner.

I've never attempted this before but I think I'm gonna take the best looking one and carefully wash all the dirt from the roots and put her right into my dwc. If I have any problems I'll have my clones for back up. I've read here and there that it is plausible to this with minimal shock and should recover in a cpl of days.

In one of these pics I spaced out and let one grow right into the bulb, it has a slight burn on top of the plant but it's nothing serious.

Here they are.