First Grow - Aero FAIL moving to DWC

Quick update: After flushing for the past couple days with pH'd water they appear healthy. The roots are still lagging but hopefully the shock will wear off soon and they will dive deep.

I plan on change the reservoirs tomorrow. Going to up my 230ppm tap water up to 400ppm, maybe that will make the roots want to take a swim. Also mulling the switch to the coolers or waiting until my new seeds arrive. I would like to have a little variety but I don't want to lose the 3+ weeks of growth (aka torture) that these 'from seed' plants have under their belts.

Picture time! So I was up early and ran some errands to the hardware store. I have decided to use the coolers but not cut the lids. I am going to use the lids on the coolers while I transport water to keep from sloshing out.

Picked up some foam board and glued some pieces together


Covered in mylar


Hole cut and with net pot. Very sleek!


New res water ~400 ppm (120ppm tap) and back in the closet:


I think that it looks pretty good compared to what I started with and then switch to:


Plants appear to be healthier now with new growths on the lower nodes. I think the pH'd water flush helped (Thanks Beaver and others for setting me straight). Minor roots growing but I have lowered the water level a little bit to coax them out. I'll get some plant pics up later.


Also received an email from Nirvana that my new seeds shipped!

Close-up plant action:

I forgot to mention that I topped/fim'ed these gals before too. I think that on top of all the other problems has stunted them

Roots are trying to reach but I like the new growth:

In the netpot there are many white roots coiled but not coming down. Hopefully by lowering the water level they will come down. The brown tips are remnants of when I was burning the heck out of them.

This lady has longer roots but not as good new growth:

sccerfrk26 said:

Close-up plant action:

I forgot to mention that I topped/fim'ed these gals before too. I think that on top of all the other problems has stunted them

Roots are trying to reach but I like the new growth:
View attachment 1332860View attachment 1332863
In the netpot there are many white roots coiled but not coming down. Hopefully by lowering the water level they will come down. The brown tips are remnants of when I was burning the heck out of them.

This lady has longer roots but not as good new growth:
View attachment 1332862View attachment 1332861

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If you have the cash go to your local hydrostore and purchase Canna Rhizotonic it will make those roots EXPLODE! My roots looked like that and I topped early as well. After 2 weeks of Rhizotonic my roots were out of control lol.

https://www.rollitup.org/nutrients/373739-canna-rhizotonic.html

Weedler- Thanks for the tip, I'll have to pick some up +rep. Local grow shop is closed on Sundays though.

In the meantime I did some thinking (dangerous) and figured that I would cut some of the supports out of my netpot. Being a n00b I had ordered "heavy duty" netpots because, you know, they will last longer. But it turns out that they just make it very difficult for roots to come out of the tiny holes. And for DWC that is exactly what you want.

Gently guided the coiled roots out the larger holes and viola!

This change with the addition of Rhizotonic should make them explode

BTW it does not raise your PPM's

What is the general accepted nutes that people use? I know that the Flora series is popular but not sure what ratio.. Can you help?

http://www.genhydro.com/calculator/index.html

http://www.cannagardening.com/growguide

I am switching to Canna after seeing results from using some of their additives

Alright, quick update time. Finally went out and purchased an electronic pH meter. That GH liquid kit was a PITA and now very accurate (is this blue-green or yellow-green?).

The plants are in 275ppm nuts, 5.8 pH right now. Tap water is coming out 120-130ppm this time of year.


Plants are still very scarred from my abuse. The roots are healthier looking but the leaves aren't getting any color back. I know some will die but was hoping that they would look better.

I had started with 4 seeds and used the 2 best for my DWC. The other two were floated around without water or proper lights on and off deciding what to do:

They actually look much better than the DWC ones (no extreme pH or ppm treatment) and now I am left with a dilemma: keep the 2 in the DWC and see if they heal or switch to these other two that look much better. Thoughts?


I could probably get another cooler and grow all 4 but I don't want to overcrowd my space. Planning on ScroG once I decide on a screen/net material.

So I figured I would give you an update to my learning process:

Gone are the shriveled up plants, in are the backups!


400W MH bulb has been relegated to bloom duty and a 4-row T5 has taken over 18/6.


Good-bye powdered nutes. Hello, Cutting Edge (5mL Micro & Grow, 10mL Bloom, 15mL Hygrozyme) 20ppm "Purifed Water" from jugs, up to 200ppm with 5.8pH.


Dual Air Pumps - 4 outputs devided (1) 5" Disc and (2) 4" Stones each.


Wish me luck!

I can't overstate how crucial a good pH meter is. There are some people who say "oh, well I keep it between 5 and 6.5 and it works.." but I guess my strain is much more fragile than that. I have found that I have to pH Down everyday and sometimes twice. Wondering if it could be the foam board or air stones

Decent leaf growth and a lot of pretty white roots:


This one isn't as far along but still doing well and much less nute burn that my other ones:


Slow going so far, seeds sprouted a month ago.

My semi-dead, round 1 plants have actually recovered (manual ebb-flow) with pH water. The old roots shriveled up (similar to what Weedler had when his pH meter failed) and new white ones came out of the net pot. Need to figure out if I am going to scrap them as originally planned or come up with another cooler or two in my closet.

I have a rectangle cooler but the thought of changing 3 resses doesn't really make me happy. I see why bigger coolers may be better since you only have to maintain pH and ppm at one location.

Did a res change today. 25 ppm water up to 300 ppm (mirco/grow/bloom/hygrowzyme) and 5.5 pH. I am expecting that pH to rise overnight.

Couple quick pics

More white roots.

Need to get some cal-mag tomorrow when the hydro store is open.

Picture is washed out from the mylar but the bottom leaves are yellowing.

I spent my Saturday watching football and making a scrog net. I'll post a pic later. It's amazing what some time and a few beers can do for you.

Roots doubled in length and quantity in the last 24 hours. I think that I got the mix down on my new nutes. So far nothing but good reviews for Cutting Edge Solutions.

I got some Mag Amped today to help with the yellowing leaves. Added to the res and it bumped it up to 325 ppm. Trying to keep that number under 350 until I switch to flower.

Finally more noticeable progress. These little gals have been through a lot. They were out of seeds on 11/24! Even though they are small in size they are older so I wonder if that will have any effect on the taste of the buds. I thought I read somewhere that more mature plants are a lot of times tastier. Either way I am happy to have something to show.

Took a couple days but now I have some pictures:

This little lady is the top out of 2:

I noticed a little brown gunk where one of the longer roots broke the water line. I have added a dash of hygrowzyme and will monitor closely. H202 is standing by. The lowest set of leaves are regaining some of the green color. My Mag Amped seems to be doing the trick.

Here is the other, more stocky plant:

Roots are about 1/2" out of net pot, other fan leaves were brutally burned by yours truly. Looks like a strong recovery.

And now a little proof that you can do a lot during football games when you put your mind to it and some beer/bowls:

Handmade scrog net! It cost me a free roll of nylon string from my junk drawer and part of a $0.97 piece of 1/2" PVC. Right now I am using the weight of the PVC and the corners of my foam lids to create downward pressure that is adjustable based on how hard I pull. I know that many people use metal 2"x4" fence pieces but I think this will work. I am trying to locate my Scotch brand Command hooks to secure the net to the walls which would allow more pressure and make it easier to do a res change.

looking good man

A PH and PPM meter is much needed dude. I wouldnt use PH drops for my precious girls..

BeaverHuntr said:

A PH and PPM meter is much needed dude. I wouldnt use PH drops for my precious girls..

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I agree and have both. I started with the ppm meter and drops but a couple weeks ago picked up the pH meter.

sccerfrk26 said:

I agree and have both. I started with the ppm meter and drops but a couple weeks ago picked up the pH meter.

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Good job dude.. Keys to a successful DWC grow : PH, PPM, Reservoir temps under 68 degrees and NO LIGHT!

Haven't had much free time to post an update. I have been chasing after this little guy recently:

11 week old lab/pointer mix named Ollie. I'm hoping that he doesn't like the taste of my plants just in case he breaks in to my closet.

The little green ones are sucking up water and growing fairly quickly now. My handmade scrog net seems to be doing the trick. It is actually LSTing and scroging at the same time so that's cool. I'm probably doing it wrong but the plants keep growing and are nice and green so I am going to stick with it.


The side shot is to show how low the plants are. My roots that are in the water are brown but don't smell. I hope that it is from the nutes (Cutting Edge) but I can't confirm. I have water bottles of ice, hygrowzyme and a splash of H2O2 in the res . I would appreciate any feedback on that brand of nutes or other things to try. I am aware of Heisenberg's Tea but was trying to get around investing more $ in nutes/additives. However, I am currently only using 5-15mL of each type per change so I think what I have will last through some more grows.


This one is lagging behind but once more roots hit the water I think that it is primed to have a growth spurt. She was pretty badly hurt from my previous set-up.

I hope to do a res change today but am out of water. Maybe I can make it to the grocery store otherwise I'll use my tap water. At this time of year it comes out at 125 ppm. May let it sit overnight to let the chlorine evaporate. It is all a pain to get 8 gallons of water up 3 flights of stairs with 4-8 inches of snow forecast and already coming down pretty hard.

I'm working on a homemade cool tube to retrofit into my Econwing reflector for when I use the 400W HPS for bloom. I should have something together by the end of this week. Then I am looking into getting a cheap replacement door for the closet so I can modify it and make holes for air circulation. My current ones are solid wood and I don't want to have to spend $$ to replace those if/when I move.

hey sccr - when u got ur ph meter and quit drops, did you find that you had been close on what u thought for ph level?

im stuck using the drops right now and adjust for a deep piss color and drops that turn yellow not green when they hit the water. i think that puts me just below 6.0 i assume that all the kits use the same color scheme.. what color looked right?