My first Bubbleponic/DWC grow...

thought I'd share what's going on here.... maybe it will help someone else ...maybe it will help me in the future ... who knows

this is My first BP/DWC grow and this setup is only temporary (for THIS grow and maybe one or two more... BUT ...It is more of a training and learning experiment, so when I develope a larger , more expensive Rotation SOG setup ...I'll Know what Im doing.

So I've got 16 babies ...started from seed about 22 days ago...Mixed strains (4 skunk #1, 2 purple power, 2 cali orange bud, 1 white widow max, a couple afghani hash, 1 thia skunk, 1 bubble gum, and a couple others that I cant remember right now ) I know it's not the best idea to mix all these like this...but this is an experiment, and a learning experience....so I'm just gonna do the best I can.

the plants are about 3 to 5 inches tall and 5 to 6 inches wide ...and thriving
here's what they are growing in...
(4) 10 gal Bins ...
1.5" rockwool cubes , and hydrotin in 3" netcups with neoprine lids
Lotsa air ...(2) eco3 ...35W airpumps , putting out 70Lt/min. each.... through cool: 12" stones (2 stones per Bin) 1 Pump is run off a battery inverter, so in case of power outtage, EACH bin will still have 1 airstone going ...
GH nutes ... some grow and some micro currently (for about the last 15 days )
started out with tap water that measured 109 PPM and 7.8 PH
have it somewhat stable at 5.5-6.0 PH and 250 PPM
water temp is 66-70 with Ice bottles and air cond vent blowing on bins
room temp fluctuates from 68 to 80-81 (even though I have air cond ...this is a shed and the sun effects the inside temp )(it is really at 73-77 most of the time)
I added Liquid Light yesterday for the first time (and will keep using it twice a week until 4 weeks into flowering)... and I will attempt a preventative dose of reverse when I trip them to flower ( I might skip the LL for those 2 weeks)...
I have a 6 inch fan sucking from a carbon filter ...blowing through a cool hood with a 400W MH bulb (to be switched to HPS for flowering) and blowing the filtered, heated air, outside....the light is 20" from plants (I'm getting a 800-900 lumens reading from my cheap meter)(I'd like a 600W or 1000W but that will have to wait for future grow ops)
the room is 4 ft x 5 ft x 7 ft tall... walls lined with vapor barrior and then covered with mylar.
generally. it seems to be a decent $1000 grow op... if i can keep it alive throughout it's whole course.

I've been reading and learning the basics from you guys for over a year now... and I need to thank you ALL for the great info you've been sharing here.... I'm sure it will save me and many others from making mistakes and losing crops and having money spent on Nutes and equip , be wasted money. THANKS ALL OF YOU !

I'll try and keep this relatively updated (at least with pertinant info) and I'll get a few pics coming when I think there is something worth looking at.

peace out

I'm using steralite brand Bins for my DWC.... and because they are colored (light blue) I Assumed they were keeping the light out (i already read a bunch of diff places that you cant use clear bins cause of letting light in ) .....

well about 3 weeks into my grow ...I noticed a couple root systems starting to show a faint beige color...but most plants still had perfectly white roots.... I'm hoping they are just stains from nutes...BUT then why werent ALL the plants showing that color ???

so as I'm fiddling with my stuff daily (measuring PH and adding ice bottles or whatever) I Noticed .... When I put my hand behind the bin...I could see my shadow .... THEn I put my hand up to the Bin and I could see My hand blocking ALOT of light !!! ...I'm pretty sure THESE bins are letting a TON of light through !!!!!

so , I closed everythinng up ...and Peeked inside the lid ...sure enough , I could see everything in there.... my bottles of ice, all the roots and netcups... it was not really dark at all....

So I invested a Couple of dollars in some good old fashioned Aluminum foil....and covered the Lids (and cut back out the holes for the netcups) and I Wrapped the Outside walls of each Bin ....... THEN I did the "Peek in" test again ....It Was frikkin Dark !!! ...... I Hope I fixed a problem Before it became a REAL problem !

Today , I'm getting ready to give the toddlers their 2nd treatment of liq light ... they seemed to like the first treatment 3 days ago (especially the lower leaves ) .... and the few biggest plants have expanded from about 4.5 inches tall and 6 inches wide to apporx 6 inches tall and 8 inches wide ...in 3 days ! ...I'm only gonna grow these till half the plants reach 12 inches tall....then I'm flippin them to flower....

This is a portable grow op that will not be able to stay here for too long ... a few months at most , so I have to flip and finish within a budgeted amount of time.... In the future i hope to have a real room setup more permanently and could grow some larger plants.... but for now , it's about growing successfully from start to finish ...for the learning experience ...and to grow enough to keep me tokin till i can get something better setup.

ok....it's been 2 weeks and ALOT has happened....
I've switched to a 1000W hps cooltube and light..... hoping for some denser buddage...(the 400 just wanst cutting it imo... Ive harvested under this 400w before , and my buds were fluffy imo )
I flipped the plants to 12/12 a few days ago ...they are growing outta control ...Im currently overcrowded.... 14 plants ranging from 11 inches tall to 20 inches tall ...all stuffed into an area 4 feet x 3 feet ( and they just been tripped 4 days ago)....LOL
They've had I think (5) liquid light treatments... approx every 3 days or so.... PPM's are now at 600 ...water temps are at 64-67 pretty constant....and room temps are at 68 dark -79 during light) ....and lotsa bubbles

I'm contemplating doing a treatment or "reverse" in 4 more days and another in 14 days ..... to see if it will "keep" males from growing balls.... BUT , On the other hand ....im overcrowded ...so yanking males could be a good thing.... BUT, I'd hate to lose a variety of different strains that I'll have if these all make it through flower (cause yanking males , COULD mean losing variety...cause I only have 1 plant of a few diff strains)

other than that...everything is looking and smelling awesome... and there are 7 or 8 diff strains thriving in the same environment ....it's quite an experiment.... i feel like a mad scientist (even though , I KNOW in reality, I'm just a noob peon , in this world of veteran growers)

Props and Thanks to all those who I'm reading and learning from on this forum

So dillemmas dillemmas....decisions decisions....

any advice or opinions ? to 'reverse" or Not to reverse ...that is the Question....

sounds like you have it going on. are you going to post any pics or you waiting till the end?

Thanks dude...it's going ok , i guess.... yeah ...I'm going to try and take some pics today ....problem is ...the room is so small...I dont think my pics will show what's really going on .... the other issue is...the Plants are outta control...they are too big and crowded for the room ....yet they are still thriving .... i was thinking about trying to use reverse and make males not flower and be like females....BUT ...in my research , Im starting to think it doesnt work that way...that "reverse" is ONLY to keep a hermie from flippin toFULL hermie.....

and My room needs thinned out ....so I'm hoping to see signs of males in the next 2-6 days...and remove them ...and thin out the room a little ...... see which strains I'm left with ..... and go from there......

One of my other issues is the Sativa Strains are growing so frikkin tall .....I'm gonna have to pull them over sideways (train them somehow) (unless they end up being the males) I only also learned recently (reading on this forum) that sativa strains can take twice as long to flower....so I'll be dealing with that akwardness too now..... BUT ...this is how you learn I guess..... next time i'll pay more attn when setting up a grow cycle (ie...keep the strains similiar)

allright ...Im out to check on them ...and see what today brings...they just woke up about an hour ago....

I've got a cali orange bud growing in my cupboard under cfls and it's a lanky bitch as well. Lots of bud on her, mind. She doesn't smell much at the moment. I actually though it was a male and was about to toss it but eventually it spat out some hairs for daddy. Its taking bloody ages to grow anaw.

ok...I've had some major chaos ...hope it doesnt create all hermies or ruin any plants.... basically ...after the plants were tripped to 12/12 for a few days ...(and just as they were starting to show sex) the light timer got fucked up and was ON for 72 hours straight .... the plants seemed to go back into "growth" and stopped showing sex... FUCk... then I caught it and went back to 12/12 ...and they are showing sex again ,and now starting to form buds.... out of 15 plants ...only 3 showed male ...I was hoping for more males ...cause i NEED to thin out the garden ...it's wayyy overgrown and crowded.... I'm thinking Im gonna have at least one or a few go hermie on me .... we'll just have to see. ...some of the tall strains (purple power, and Thia skunk... have passed the light in height...and I've started training them (pulled over) to keep them in the light ....

Damn ...Now I cant wait for the Sativa strains to mature , so I can harvest them ...and give the sativas some more space and time to finish up.... I think the Indicas should be done in 5 more weeks ...I'm praying they stop gaining hieght in the next week or so....

this has been quite a learning experience.... I let them go wayy too long before flipping them in the room Im in ...I'll do a better job next time...

ok... so it's been about 6 weeks since my last entry... I'm nearing harvest ... the Shit is a rainforest jungle in there...10 Plants ...in a 4x4x7h room...at 90 days , 2 of the 5 strains are about a week away from ripe... I cant wait to get them out of there to free up some space and spread the other plants out...then in a couple weeks the Other indicas (4 skunk#1 plants) should be ready for harvest.......

And HERE is the coolest part.... the remaining 3 plants are Sativas ....and they are at least 4 weeks behind....So THEY are gonna Spread out and produce many extra Buds ....they are already exploding.... and because of this harvest happening over a 6 or 7 week span...I'm Gonna Yield massive amounts for such a small room (which btw is being lit up with a 1000W ) I'm Stoked !

I had to start just breaking plants at the stems (to train them) for about the first 4 or 6 weeks of flowering .

basically ...they were planted from seed 90 days ago...Growth for 30 days ....flower for 60 days so far...

here's a couple pics (coming in a couple minutes)...enjoy....as i have already enjoyed testing a few nuggs ...and while they were immature... they already had some kick !....WooooHooo

ok...since you all are my mentors and teachers...I went out of my way to take recent pics...so these are actually 95 days from seed.... and the first plants will be yanked in about 1 week... bubblegum and cali orange bud are showing 10% tan trichs ...when I see 30 or 40% ...they're done

ok...so I have attached these in a messed up way I guess....here's what they are

1 is Bubble gum cola tip
2 is Bub gum nug next to Cali orange Bud nug (notice the purp color in the fan leaves ...ripening very sweetly)
3 when I said overcrowded ...i meant it ...lol...
4 bub gum cola to the left and Cali Orng bud cola on the right (all 12 inches of it)
5 Cali orng bud close up
6 tip of Skunk#1 cola close up
7 tip of Skunk#1 cola with Purple power sativa behind it (notice how it's like 4-6 weeks behind)
8 the trunks... when I said rainforrest...i was not joking... the temps above the canopy are 10 degrees warmer than below... the room gets to 80 during light and 64 at night ...and the water is always 63 degrees...humidity goes down to 45 and up to near 70

ENJOY !

ok.....most of the plants have been harvested and dried ...and are in the curing process.... and I'm not happy... .... kinda bummed ,actually.... way less yield than I projected....And My bud density was not as good as I'd hoped for ...

NOt sure if it is from the over crowding ...or something else.... 3 plants are left still flowering ...(they are sativa based strains and are taking extra weeks to flower to maturity ) ...I'm hoping they might yield a little more now that they are spread out better and soaking upmore direct light (but I'm not counting on it ...as the others dissappointed me alot)

basically each plant only averaged approx 1oz or less (in dried buds)...when it's all said and done ... I'm prob gonna be lookin at about .25g/watt and in general ...I know THAT's a low number for alot of you successful growers....I dont know know if it was the overcrowding or what....but I think I'm gonna Stop posting and start reading more...and see if I cant t get this shit right next year...

on a good note...the nuggs I've tested that are dried and partially cured ...they are smoking pretty nicely ...good taste ,and a nice clean high (almost too high sometimes...hehehe) so In that aspect ....I'm coool with it .... I just was hoping to yield about DOUBLE what I actually did ...

back to the drawing board ... to revamp and expand the setup...to include cloning and mothers.... and try to get a perpetual cycle going...maybe I'll learn more that way too.... and I'm going to try and keep plants smaller and more efficient...

Oh well ...wish me luck .... later y'all