First Grow Ever: HSO Blue Dream in DWC

I started this journal under another RUI profile, but I realized the profile name I used here was the same as I've used elsewhere, so I decided to start it over here with my new identity... The following was originally posted on 8/5/2013.

Ok, so I'm 35 years old now... When I was in college, I got some bag seed from a friend (I wasn't a smoker until a few weeks ago, lol)... I germinated about 12 seeds in styrofoam cups and grew them up on the window ledge. I had to get rid of them when my landlord started asking what the smell was. That was 15 years ago.


Like I said, I wasn't a smoker until very recently... No need to go into those details, but I'm glad to finally be part of the club. Because I do NOTHING in moderation and I'm a DIY'er... I figured I'd grow my own... I did weeks and weeks of research on strains, lighting, spaces, methods, nutes, etc... And I decided on the following for my first ever start to finish grow:

1. HSO's Blue Dream - Feminized (I germinated only 2 for my first run, from The Attitude)
2. 5 gallon deep water culture (6" net pots and hydroton)
3. 2' x 8 lamp T5 lights (6400k) for veg
4. 2' x 8 lamp T5 lights (2700k) for flowering (maybe I'll upgrade to a 400w HPS for flowering)
5. GH Grow/Micro/Bloom nutes
6. 2'x2' ScROG (to get the most out of my T5 setup)

The plan is to take a few clippings during veg from the plant which looks like the better pheno of the two. Then take the best clipping and grow that up bonsai style. My dad is going to keep her under 2x 27w (6500k) cfl's at his place... Then I'll repeat the grow from her clones.





I'm currently in day 5 from starting germination... Here's what's going on so far... All advice and comments are appreciated!


Germinated in paper towel. Roots popped inside of 24 hours...



Transplanted to rockwool. Both girls popped less than 12 hours later.

View attachment 2773072


Another 12 hours later, both girls showed their first set of serrated leaves. 3 days later, we're still looking great (I think). Both taproots were sticking out of the bottom of the rockwool, so I transplanted them to their buckets.



I'm surprised how fast they germed and took root. I almost wasn't expecting it. I have the bucket water just touching the bottom of the net pots... Air pumps are on... I'm also hand watering them from the top twice a day. Is that ok? Since I've never done this before, I'm still concerned about trying out the roots until they find their way out of the bottom of the net pot. I had the girls in a humidity dome until I transplanted them last night. I have the light about 3" from the plants. They seem to love it. I haven't started nutes yet... I'm not sure exactly when I should. Advice would be great.


Thanks everyone... I can't take my eyes off them... I'm excited about my first grow...

Originally posted on 8/9/2013

My first update on this grow is a big one...


I mentioned to a friend of mine that I was beginning a new grow and he offered to sell me his 8x4x6 grow tent for $150 and his 600w HPS (air-cooled hood, digital ballast, HPS bulb) for $150, so I couldn't pass that up. I have that set up now but am still going to veg under the T5's for a while. I still plan on scrogging, but I'll be upping the width/height from 2x2 to 4x4. Mmm hmm...


Once the ladies are capable of taking on 600w of MH, I'll take some cuttings... Still going to bonsai a mother plant... The T5's are plenty right now, so I'm going to save the HID lighting until about week 4 of veg (depending on the size).


On to the ladies' progress reports. Both plants were transplanted into the 6" net pots before my first post. Not much has changed. Still on ph'd water only... I'm tempted to start giving them nutes, but I'm trying not to be impatient about it. I think I'll keep using water until I see the roots pop the net pot.


The initial fan leaves have doubled in size and I have a second set cropping up now (see pics). Topside the development is slower than I expected. I can't see roots through the bottom/sides of the net pot yet, so I got curious and took a peek inside the hydroton by pulling the pellets out one at a time until I could see a super nice root wad surrounding the rockwool. I immediately put the hydroton back, lol...


Neither plant is more than a quarter inch taller than last time. I have the T5 bulbs about 2-3" from the plants, so they're happy with the light... They're just spending all their energy on root development. I'm happy they're not stretching.





I feel like I'm still on top of things... Doing it right...


Advice, support, cheers, etc... graciously accepted.

​Originally posted on 8/11/2013

I was going to add an update last night, but it got late fast and besides, there wasn't really much to report, so I left it alone...


I changes out the reservoirs last night. I started with grocery store distilled water (3.25 gallons per bucket) and added my first nutes to the equation. I'm using the GH Flora series and followed the directions on the bottle:


1/4 tsp FloraGro per gal
1/4 tsp FloraMicro per gal
1/4 tsp FloraBloom per gal.


The tds of the distilled water started at 20ppm and jumped to 220 with the nutes.... I PH'd to 6.3 before wrapping my chemistry project up. I scooped a cup or so of the nutrient solution from the bucket and gave them a topside watering to get things going.


I was hoping to see results right away and I wasn't let down at all... 12+ hours after getting their first meal, each girl's second set of fan leaves more than doubled in size (compare pics from my last update with the ones here):


View attachment 2773089View attachment 2773090


Also, I can see the beginnings of a third set about to burst. Here a day later, no signs of nute burn, which I would imagine with seedlings this small and in hydro I would see by now if it were coming. I'm not an expert, but I don't know that they could be healthier... Their color looks good, the fan leaves are sturdy, and the stems are firm.


I have the bubblers going and the net pot drips when I lift them out of the bucket, so I'm pretty sure the roots are getting wet... I'll continue to feed them from the top once a day for good measure though until the roots are reaching into the solution.


I'm expecting the growth rate to pick up now based on what I'm seeing.


I see you guys/gals peeking in on me... Thanks for that. Comments, suggestions, questions are very welcome.

Updating nightly wasn't my intent, but milestones are milestones I suppose. So I spent the day on the boat with my family, came home and put the kids to bed. I checked in on my girls to find some wonderful new growth. It seems as though my ladies love their new food. Like I said in my last post, I expect much more rapid growth than I've seen until now... Here's why:





I have a 4" root dangling from the bottom of my 6" pot on my first plant. It wasn't there last night while I was writing my journal entry. It's not alone.. There's a second root about 1.5" on the opposite side of the pot. It'll be tough to see, but in the lower left-hand part of the pot in the second image is the first root reaching out for food. It's an exciting milestone for me. I wasn't sure I'd be able to get the ladies to grow through the transplant to the DWC buckets. I got a little impatient when I didn't see much growth those first few days too. I kept telling myself "Root development is happening; you just can't see it." but I also never fully believed I'd do so well...


Look at the difference just one day makes... I'm excited to check them again tomorrow..





Everything is looking healthy... Now that I have roots in the nutes... I expect it to be on like Donkey Kong.


I guess no comments means I'm doing ok, lol?

im excited for this one i must say. good luck and welcome man! looking great so far

Buddy, on your first grow every new leaf is a milestone, lol.

I really think your grow is going to pan out really well, you seem to be taking to the whole process pretty well. Just don't ever forget-- if something is going wrong, 99% of the time its from overdoing something. Less is more with these plants. Most problems are cured with a good pH'd water flush. Don't let salts build up from your nutes (flush every 2 weeks). I grow in soil but you look like you've got everything under control man. I have an hso blue dream, popping it on my next grow.

Just an fyi-- I noticed you have several different kinds of lights. I started out with a 400w metal halide and have since switched to a 400-600-1000w (+ turbo [1100w]) setup with a 1000w digimax hps bulb. When I switched from veg to flower my plants went through almost a week of shock, and then started to flower under 16 hours of light. I guess the switch from blue to yellow spectrum was enough to get them to start flowering. Figured I'd let you know to expect some differences between the lights. T5's are great, and I've heard blue spectrum can influence plants into being female... Not sure how much bullshit that is but I vegged under one with 8 bag seed and they all turned out female.

Good luck man, I love love love some blue dream. Hope everything works out, but if it doesn't then don't get discouraged. Get some more seeds and keep on rocking.

Your shit looks great so far

Yum... positive feedback! Thanks much for the votes of confidence... I studied and studied and studied before getting started. I sweated every decision and then second guessed a few of them, lol... I have an HTG Supply about 10 miles from my house. I walked through there a half dozen times (getting looks from the staff each time) before I even bought my first bucket. I spent hour after hour watching Hans, Jorge, Ed, and others on YouTube before selecting my grow space. I don't have the real estate to grow 3-4 plants of 8 different strains... I had to basically pick one strain to start with, so I researched 50+ strains to get the one I want. Remember, I'm a rookie smoker too. Basically: for my first grow, I'm all in and I didn't want to screw it up by being overzealous - which I'm known to do. So keep me honest, and I'll keep updating as often as I can. On to the update.

I got home excited to check in on them again tonight... I was greeted by the presence of what is clearly my first set of 3-fingered leaves!! As I hoped, it is on like Donkey Kong.




Even more exciting than the topside growth... The pearly white roots busting out of the net pots... The more of these I see. the better I feel.



As advised... I'm going to let ladies tell me when they're ready to level up. I'll keep them on this feeding schedule until I know they can handle more... I'll probably also switch over to the 600w metal halide right after.

Keep it here for more updates

Looks great man, rookie grower here too, I know how it feels to do the research and finally get to growing it. =) Good luck! I'm keeping a log of mine too, can't stop staring at the leaves!

Another quick update tonight... I'll start off with the root porn (although it's softcore at this point, lol)

One of my babes is coming along just slightly faster than the other. I do suspect things will even out though once the roots are kick-ass on both:



Maybe tough to see, but the pot on the left (I'll be referring to her as #1 here) has roots which are branching out. Also, there are more exposed roots at this time than in the other (#2), but that won't last forever

I have to be careful not to drool into my buckets when I lift these out for a peek. I should also stop lifting them out altogether, but I have a reason I'll explain in a bit. Anyhow, it's clear how eager these girls are to go crazy.

Speaking of going crazy... New foliage is crazy too...

Here's #1



Here's #2





As you can see the second node is starting to separate from the first... I currently have the T5's about 2.5" from the top of the plants, which have barely stretched at all... I guess my light placement is good

I have two nice sets of fan leaves, with sets 3 and 4 coming in... Because the nodes are starting to separate, I'm keeping an eye on that 2.5" space I mentioned. I feel like I'm going to have to raise the light here shortly. Once I get a distinct 3-4 nodes, I might turn on the 600w MH and adjust my nutes a bit.

I've been checking my roots for a few reasons. The first is obviously to track the progress... The second is a bit more of a concern. I've been growing in my space for only a few weeks. Currently the space is disconnected from the outdoors, so it's puzzling to me, but I have seen one or two tiny little black bugs walking across the top of my pots. When I see one, I squash it. I've seen no more than one or two each time I've seen them, including tonight while I was watering my plants. I'm trying to take a picture of the little buggers, but I've not been able to get anything clear enough to use...

I've researched root aphids, but I can't tell if these are they or not. The pics of the aphids I find on Google look similar, but I can't tell at all since I've never been able to capture one of my bugs without smashing it, lol... I don't see them in numbers, and I certainly don't see any on or around the roots, so for now I'm keeping a concerned eye out for signs of a true infestation.

Good night, folks... More from this grow tomorrow.

Ok, mostly visual updates tonight... Beyond two topside waterings today, I haven't done anything new. Ph is creeping up a tad in both reservoirs. I'll lower the Ph before I go to bed tonight... I have something else to do before it gets too late.

I'm also looking to get the humidity down... Right now it's in the mid 50's, but I think that's probably because I haven't introduced my ventilation system yet. Sometime in the next few days, I'll be adding my can filter, inline fan, and ducts, which should pull some dry air in. I suspect the DWC is probably increasing the humidity in the tent... I don't think it'll be a problem. If anything, it's helping out my girls in their seedling stage.

Also, in two trips into the tent today, I haven't seen any critters either... I'm not naive, but it's good to not see bugs in the grow room

On to the ladies:


#1 is showing off a little bit...



I could be wrong, but the latest set of leaves look like 7 fingers to me:



That would be fun


#2 is coming along nicely too...



She's showing a nice set of triplets there, and there's a new set in there coming in the next 24 hours...




Like I said, my next move is to finish the ventilation off and get the HID turned on

Thoughts?

@blackstoneinstitute - I'm not super concerned with humidity at this point, but I was right... I did get the 600w light in and overnight the humidity dropped to about 40%. I can add another bubble bucket without a lid to increase humidity if I want, but like I said, I'm not super concerned.

Critter update: I haven't seen anything in the way of critters at all since I posted about it. I squashed one that night, but haven't seen anything since.

Right now my ph is between 6.1 and 6.3... perfectly fine for me right now. As they get bigger, I'll try to start each nutrient cycle at 5.9-6.0 and only ph down when it hits 6.4-6.5. My PPM is still about 230-240 with 10-20 of that coming from the distilled water I used this time. I'll probably keep them there for another week before increasing to about 1/2 strength. Funny you should ask though... since switching on the digital ballast, my ph reads 0.5 - 1.1 and the ppm is somewhere in the 6,000 - 8,000 level... It's magnetic interference. If I kill the ballast, my trimeter goes back to normal, lol... D'oh!

As for the screen? I'm second-guessing myself. I've seen only one solution to DWC with a ScROG and that's to attach the screen directly to the net pot. This is necessary because I still need to be able to do reservoir changes. I'm nervous about f*cking that up and ruining my plant(s). I'd like to keep this a ScROG, but like I said I'm nervous. I haven't built the screens yet, but I'll be doing the 1/2" PVC with twine every 1.5" (again attached directly to the net pot). As I have two plants, I'll be doing two different screens. From everything I'm reading, screen height should be between 8" and 12", so I'll split the difference and go with 10", lol... I'll either top or FIM once before that so I'm not Scrogging just the one top.

My grow tent is 8' wide by 4' deep and 6.5' tall. My 600w HPS will cover half of that (4'x4') nicely. This means my screens will each be 2' wide by 4' deep.

A doozy of an update tonight... We'll start with the grow room...

I got the 600w light hung along with the inline fan and can filter... It goes:

Filter --> Fan --> Duct --> Air-cooled Hood --> Duct --> Out

I've read this is the most efficient way to vent and cool an indoor grow. I can put my hand 10-12" from the light without much heat. And surprisingly, I feel virtually NO heat on the topside of the hood at all... Here's what my grow looks like now. I need to make a few adjustments though...



First, I'm recirculating the air from the room outside the tent, through the tent, and back out... The room outside is only 10x15 (part of which is taken up by the tent). I'm not doing it right, lol... I'll be cutting a hole to the exterior of the house in the next day or two. I set up my ventilation ahead of time because I wanted to see just how hot the vented air would be. Once I vent to the outdoors, fresh air will be pulled into the 10x15 room, which will be pulled into the tent.

I was REALLY worried about fan noise... I was worried for no reason. I can barely hear it outside the 10x15 room, and not at all anywhere else in the house. I'm good to go there.

Temps are a bit high right now... Because of how poorly I'm set up, temps are in the mid 80's. You can see in the pics of the girls below, they're a little hot. Again, it won't be a problem in the next 24 -36 hours... Reservoir temps climbed up to 80 too... I introduced a 20 oz. frozen water bottle to combat that for now. Three things will fix it: 1. get the vent to the outside and 2. get the buckets back on the floor. The floor in this room is concrete and dissipates heat pretty well. 3. Cover the black net pots with reflective insulation. That should fix it.

I upgraded fans too... In the corner is a new 16" oscillating fan. I'm actually scared to keep it right on the plants because it's pretty strong... I like to see the leaves moving, but I don't want to damage the plants!

Relative humidity dipped 10-15% though... That makes me happy.

So to recap the room update: I have the 600w MH, ventilation,filter and circulating fan in place. Temps are up all around, but relief is on the way.

Despite the less than ideal environmental conditions, the plants continue to thrive. New vegetation each time I look, and they're starting to look the way they ought to. It certainly appears (although it's very early) that I have two seeds of the same phenotype... Indica dominant. I was really hoping the sativa genes in this strain would take over... Who knows... Like I said, it's still early.

I'm not posting root pics tonight, but here's the change that 24 hours brings

#1


I have 3 distinct nodes, nicely packed together. I remember when I grew out those seeds in college, my nodes were spaced like 2"+ apart. These ladies are creating new nodes every 1/4" or so. I know they'll stretch out a bit, but I love what I see so far.

#2



She's a tad smaller than #1 as you can see, but plenty healthy in her own rite. She's showing signs that she's too hot though. The fan leaves are curling up a little bit, which I attribute to the heat factor. I'm not overly-concerned. New nodes every day

That's it for today... I'm excited to get the the vent right... It's the last thing I need to get the environment the way I want it... The only other thing I'll need to build/buy for this grow: Bloom booster and stuff to build a fre ScROG screens.

@blackstoneinstitute - I think you'll like this update :

@everyone: I have questions at the very end


So I'm going to cross the ScROG bridge when I come to it... For now, I want healthy plants to put into a screen

Temps in the grow room got up to 88 deg. F today... Unacceptable. Reservoir temperatures were up near 80 to boot. Also unacceptable. Like I mentioned, there things I can do to combat that were to fix the ventilation problem and to put the buckets back on the floor. I can also put reflective insulation on top of the net pots... which will also help reflect light back up to the plant's lower nodes... I didn't do either of the last two today. I considered them to be ancillary to getting the airflow and exhaust right.

I took a 4 1/8" hole saw to the wall today... I went right through the drywall, pushed aside the fiberglass insulation behind it, and continued to cut straight through the exterior insulation and then the siding. I went outside and pushed a dryer vent through the new hole, secured it, and sealed up the outside. I went back in, attached a 6" to 4" duct connector to the end of my tube, and attached it to the dryer duct. I never even killed the light or fan, lol... It took all of 20 minutes, but I was nervous about cutting a hole in my wall...



It worked like a charm too... Within 2 hours the temps inside were down 9 degrees. And that's at peak sun on a hot August day... I checked up on the situation about an hour ago...

(90's interjection coming)

BOOYA!



My house is fairly new, well-insulated, and the basement stays about the same temperature even in the winter, so I should be able to hold my environment right here all the way through flowering

The plants responded almost immediately too. The curling of the leaves... gone. Res temps are backing down (even though I'm still employing the 20 oz. frozen bottles), and I'm seeing new growth from top to bottom.



It's getting hard to tell them apart... I suppose that's a tribute to the breeder.

The roots on both are looking superb for their age. All tangled up and drinking like fiends... I'm not going to post those nightly anymore... When I do my rez changes though, I'll snap pics. I'm also done with the topside feedings. The roots are plenty big and doing well on their own...

#1



I love seeing new foliage popping up in places other than the top!

#2



#2 is looking like #1 from last night... She's catching up.

I'm pleased. Both ladies have a pair of 5-fingered leaves... So this raises questions for the experts

1. Is it safe to go to 1/2 strength nutes on my next rez change even though I've only had them on 1/4 strength nutes for less than a week?
2. How tall should my plants be before I fim or top?
3. My tap water registers at 220 ppm and a ph level of 8.0. I read that most tap water has enough calcium and magnesium that I don't need to supplement with cal/mag, correct?
4. My Nutradip Tri-Meter goes absolutely ape shit when the ballast is on. Because I'm now in a good spot with temps and humidity, I want to focus on the other important numbers: ph and tds. Is there any way to combat the interference? Turning my light off each time I want to take a reading on my (always-on meter) is not only painstaking, it's also not good for the bulb... What do I do?

Ok... I'm off for now... Thanks for the likes and visits... I'll keep updating

I spent all day landscaping the front yard of my house... I'm sun burnt everywhere that was exposed to the sun. In my part of the country, the ground is primarily clay, so digging holes is often a bigger chore than most people would think. I planted a new Japanese maple tree, and about 8 shrubs in brand new mulch beds... I have blisters, cuts, scrapes, aches, etc... Any thoughts on how I should medicate, lol?... Kidding... Anyhow, I was going to do a rez change tonight, but my friends, I'm too tuckered out. So I snapped a few pics and wanted to share before f*cking myself up so good I won't be able to type!

#2 was the surprise of the night. She's showing AWESOME new growth at the top and along the nodes up the main stem... I'm excited to see how she continues... I found a green insect about the size of a rice krispy on one of my fan leaves. I just wanted to make sure he was alone... I'm not surprised to see him; I had the basement door open a few times today... Nothing to be concerned with... He got smooshed So in searching for his potential co-conspirators, I did lift the net pots out and took the opportunity to snap a few pics... Tonights update includes root madness



if #2 is the most improved employee, then #1 still holds her title as employee of the month... She's impressive (I think, anyway)



Nodal growth and a vigorous top... Just my size...

One question... When do I refer to these plants as being in the "veg" stage rather than seedlings? I'm tempted...

Goodnight, RIU...

Ok, so I took a calculated risk and decided to up the nute solution to half-strength which for the Flora series is:

.5 tsp/gal FloraGrow
.5 tsp/gal FloraMicro
.5 tsp/gal FloraBloom

For my girls, the honeymoon is over. I am trying them out on my tap water which comes out of the tap ph 7.8 - 8.0 and 200-220 ppm TDS. I can't afford the RO purifier right now, and going to the store for 6+ gallons of distilled water every week is just not going to happen. Ideally, I'd start the solution with better water, but I work with what I have I guess.

Ok, so I mixed down the nutes to the water and have a TDS reading of 620-640 ppm. I dropped the ph to 5.8 and put the net pots back. I took these before doing the rez change tonight...

#1



She's looking really really healthy... I can't think of anything else to say...

#2



Now I can't tell if it's just the size/weight of the leaves or what, but does she look droopy to anyone else? Remember, I stopped top feeding them two days ago, and these pics were taken before a changed out my nutrients...

Being that this is my first real grow, I don't know what to expect. Questions, comments, and observations are welcome and will help me tons... Thanks in advance.

Ok, I have Dexter, Breaking Bad, and at least one Boardwalk Empire episode to watch tonight... With the new nute levels, I'll check on the ladies again in a few hours... And then again first thing in the morning. Goodnight.

Ok, it's been about 24 hours since I changed my rez water with the 1/2 strength GH nutrients... No adverse affects thus far.... I don't think. In fact, the roots seemed to grown dramatically... Probably doubled in size since the increase. A nice looking tangled up mess in each bucket now! I'm surprised at how short these plants remain... Definitely indicative of the indica influences... Like I said I was hoping for the sativa genes to pop, but I'll take healthy indicas without complaint...

Two of the pics below show minor defects in the fan leaves on the plant, but neither appear to be related to the new feed strength... In my update on 8/17 (the night before I changed my water out), I believe I can see a teeny little bit of brown on the tip of the very first fan leaf she produced... So I want to rule out nutrients there... The other is a brown spec on a single fan leaf but on the other plant. I'll let you all chime in on what it could be... because again, from what I know about over-feeding, what I see occurring isn't a symptom.

Both ladies are working on their fifth nodes on the main stem - which is almost as thick as a pencil at this point... They look happy enough... And when I get in there to take a look, I can smell them too... In fact, brushing the leaves around to check out growth leaves their scent on my hands... lol... It's yummy! So as long as they get through their new feeding here... I'm going to FIM in the next few days... I'll add an update again tomorrow to confirm or dismiss nute burn...

Also, I'm killing myself on editing the pics I'm taking... My camera rotates pictures and forces me to fix them if I want them to show properly... It's a hassle, so I'm going to just upload as they are... Turn your heads, lol...

Ok... so here are the two discolorations I mentioned... Like I said, they are each on different plants... Any help in identifying these marks would help... I should note that they do not seem to be spreading at all...



Again the pic on the left shows a brown tip, but I believe it was there the night before the rez change... The other I just noticed tonight, but 3 hours after I noticed it, it hadn't changed at all... Here's the rest of the plant pics for today... No particular order



I added the reflective mylar insulation to the net pots... Beyond that, not much else has changed... Goodnight and thanks for the input (in advance, experts!)