My first DWC grow - White Widow

So, after a few successful soil grows, I thought I'd move the small closet to a custom closet built in the basement, and move from soil to DWC.

Built a 4x4 closet, separated in two halves, the left side for cloning/mothering and the right side for veg/flowering.




The bucket is a 55-gallon rubbermaid, with about 40 gallons of water. One dual-line air pump is running into the bucket with two 6" stones. I recycled the lights from the previous grow for now, 3x45 watts and 6x23 watts = 273 watts. Very little heat so no need for an inline duct yet, but will be adding a small pedestal fan once she grows up a bit.




She was one of a few feminized seeds sent from Nirvana (excellent as always), and poked her head out of the rockwool after about 5-7 days. A few days later she was ready to be transplanted, rockwool and all, into the net pot filled with hydroton.



Her roots developed quickly and were showing through the net 3 days after being transplanted.

Here she is now. She was planted on Christmas Eve, so is 10 days old now.

Day 11:

Did you add any nutrients yet or gone straight water?

Looking good!

scubadude239 said:

Did you add any nutrients yet or gone straight water?

Click to expand...

I added nutes about ten days ago. I calculated the rubbermaid to be about 30 gallons but the leaves are showing signs of over-fertilization. The bottom ones are a little brown and fairly crispy. I'll have pics posted tonight. I'm also regretting going with a rubbermaid. Might switch to a 5 gallon bucket.

Here she is..not looking so hot:



I am thinking, buy a 5-gal, fill with clean water, and transfer?

Update: threw out the rubbermaid (advice, don't use one!!) and picked up a few 5-gallon buckets. Cut off the dead leaves and left it with some clean water for a couple days. She's looking much better. I figured out what I did wrong...I followed the directions on the nutes at full strength.

Picking up a 400w HPS bulb + ballast for $80 soon.

Shop says I should be flushing water every week. Any advice on this?

400w HPS upgrade!


gf helped trim the leaves..she's looking much better now!

Why are you using a HPS??? She looks to young to be in flower mode... And yes you should flush ( reservoir change you mean?) every 7-10 days or so...

All I have is HPS or CFL. HPS alone won't make her flower if I still leave the lights on for 18hrs / day...right? Should I be going strictly CFL for now, and switch to HPS when she's older?

Also, with the 4x2 room and a 400watt bulb, any thoughts on how big a fan I would need? This is in the basement and the temps are fairly cool, so I was hoping for something small and quiet.

I never veg with the HPS I would keep vegging with the CFLS I always veg with florescents ..Then flower with your 400 watter the plants will love it. As in a can fan to cool a 400W HPS I would consider looking at anything from 200-350 CFM .. Yeah switch to the HPS when she is ready to flower.

You don't have the right light spectrum for vegging with sodium lights alone. You need lots of 6500k. You might just add the right cfl lighting in addition to the hps, that would supply some of the higher spectrum plants need to grow:

Thanks guys..I had done a search on the forums and found a few posts where people had veg'd with HPS. I'll add some CFLs tonight.

Things are looking much better. Lots of new growth, decided to keep the HPS bulb after browsing the forums and seeing people veg successfully with it.

About 21 days old now, a slow start but picking up quickly..



Built a screen for a future ScrOG out of wood and wire. Need to find a clip-on fan locally, can't seem to find them anywhere..

Picked up a wireless thermometer at Crappy Tire for 14 bucks. Picks up two sites and humidity. Temps are steady around 79 with the lights on, down to the low 60s with the lights off.

Filled up the res today with about a litre of tap water, and nutes at 33%.

I think you will be fine using your HPS during veg. It grows them but the MH helps keep the plants shorter and more compact. But you will be fine IMO. Plants are looking good. I am doing a DWC Scrog grow as well using a rubbermaid. I'm hoping it doesn't give me too much problem. Start nutes out at about 1/4 strength and work up from there.

Nice..good luck. I started off with a rubbermaid grow but switched to a 5-gallon...found it much easier to maneuver / flush..
I like your closet, you have more pics of your setup?

This was my first-DIY project and I made a few mistakes along the way..I definitely want to make it a little wider, and plan the design out better.

Looks good so far, keep it up!

Rubbermaids are evil

day 24...flushed today..looking good.

those are some big pretty green leaves, looks like salad fixin's

weird brown spots...see this post:
https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/404786-help-spots-dwc-white-widow.html#post5244997
any help would be appreciated!!