Under THe Stairs Project "1st Build and Grow" HYBRID HYDRO

[kaze]

OK gang here we go a first time grower "Newbie" starting a hybrid Hydrponic system with some White Widow and "Bonus Seeds" from seed bank. I have a set-up under the stairs in my basement. Veg Room is under CWF a mix of (4)T5 18" and 3 rewired Compact CWF bulbs . Space is about 2X2 floor space with room to expand up.

Pics to follow

Started germination 11-30-09 and now 2 weeks in. Moved 9 plants (three White Widow & 6 bonus seeds into system 6 days later. Started feeding (3) times a day with seedling nutrients...

 

[kaze]

Returned after a 5 Day trip 12-14-08 and found that (1) WW is doing bad.. Looked burnt when the seed opened and now all the leaves look the same. I think this was a bad seed or something happened in germination. I will remove the plant tonight and transplant one of the other plants into its slot. I only have 6 slots in my system with 9 plants growing. How did I do that I doubled up o the "Bonus seeds". Hoping to find one good Mother plant in the (2) WW remaining and flower all the "Bonus Seed" plants. Possibly cloning a good female and growing it into a Mom.

I have found Humidity is only around 20% and looking to try and increase this. Possibly purchasing a cool mist humidifier and see how that works....

Time to weed out the weak ones and see how the strong ones do...

Changing all the nutrients out tonight and adding some more fans. Trying to lower the lights to get the growth moving...

Hoping to post a few pics today or tomorrow....

"Smoke em if you got em"

 

[kaze]

Day 17 was a big change day in the system

1) Added cool mist Humidifier
2) Changed nutrients strength running 620 PPM
3) Adjusted pH to 5.8 (Had been running at 7.0)
4) Added a another fan to help reduce heat
5) Destroyed one White Widow with major problems
6) Moved and re-arranged, replaced bad WW with "bonus seed" plant


Can anyone identify the issue on the leaf? I think I had a micro nutrient issue due to a high pH (7.1)

I also see that some of the other WW show slight issues on their leaves as well and I loaded a pic of it. Any help here would be great. I noticed that the other plants do not show any issue at all like this.

My first grow so I expect a few bumps in th road.

Peace

 

[kaze]

Ok all the changes made seem to be working.

1) Added some more airflow to the system by moving the fan to blow across the plants
2) Temp running between 68-78 night time and day time
3) Humidity is between 30-45%
4) ppm 630

Few concerns

1) pH dropped a little to around 5.5 (I will check again tonight and adjust with some DI water if it drops more.
2) I have 6 baskets in my system and 3 of the 6 have roots that have reached the nutrients. The other three are a not that far but the plants look ok. I am dripping, well more like flowing 3 times per day for about 15 minutes.
3) The 2 remaining WW have some browning on the bottom two leaves but the remaining growth looks great.
4) The "bonus seed" plants are doing great but little concerned about their color, THey are not a green as the others.

Just a newbie so I'm sure I will always be more concerned about my little girls than most...

I will try to up load a few more pics tomorrow.

Time to complete the build in the Flower side of my "under the stairs" project..........Where the magic happens

Peace

 

[kaze]

OK all looks good, I think. Sorry about the poor quality of pic all I had was my phone.

Any comments?

 

[kaze]

I added the vent hole for the exhaust fan in the veg and the Flower room last night.

I also prepared the flower room and tested the ebb/flow system. The system floods in 3 minutes and drains in 5 minutes. Looks pretty good to me...


I still have an issue with my White Widow. Here is a little history of the issue and a few pics of what I am seeing.

Germinated 9 plants 3 white widows. The others where the "bonus seed" from the seed bank...I hope its good because this round looks like it will only be "bonus seed.

Germination using the towel method.

One of the three looked brown and burnt as soon as its first leaves showed. I let it grow just to see. Now the other two plants soon showed signs on the bottom leaves and now the larger one is showing the same on the next set of leaves moving up the plant.

Here is the odd thing. The "Bonus seeds" show no issue at all.

I am using a drip more like a flow method / Deep Water system. The plants are in rockwool / hydroton cups.

One the WW has grown roots into the nutrients and one has not. The one in the Nutrients is showing the issue on the next set of leaves.

I thought heat stress and made adjustments with another fan and adding a humidifier..

I also thought mico Nutrient issue from some research and changed the water in the system.

Stats on system

ph 5.8
temp 67-78 night to day
Humidity 45%
CWF lighting
Nutrients 630 ppm
Nutrients :GH Flora Series Liquid Concentrate 3 part system

Any Ideas

Did I do something during germination????

 

[bxke1414]

Looks like a good start, edit: didn't read you already added nutrients, they should start to take off soon, just give them time and don't mess with them too much.

 

[kaze]

Day 22 and the "Bonus Seed" is doing great. Still seeing a problem on the White Widows. I will keep them in the system so I can try to correct the problem and also to learn being a newbie.

ppm ~450
ph adjusted to 5.8 has climbed to 6.3 on its on and I adjust it back with lower pH water.
roots growing well and starting to see growth down on the other plants now...
moved the light up due to the plants starting to almost touch the lighting..

Hope to move some to the flower stage after the first of the year.

Any suggestions or thoughts let me know.

 

[bxke1414]

The new growth looks great!

 

[kaze]

The new growth looks great!

Thanks and Happy Holidays to all.

 

[kaze]

Ok it is day 35 from seed and the lovely girls have exploded with growth... I will get some pics up next week early... The space is very crowded now. It is time to start a few clones and get ready to move to the flower stage....

I have moved the lights twice now and the ladies keep reaching higher and higher. Had to order a filter because my house smells wonderful to me but I'm sure my visitors wonder what that funk is....

Updates early next week with pics....

Happy New Year

 

[DeweyKox]

Not a bad start to far. Better then my first grow! Keep it up and grow them tall if ya got the height for a larger harvest!

 

[kaze]

D37 and things are looking good from my view..

I had to add a carbon filter today. The smell was getting a little strong. THe plants are around 18 inches now and I'm preparing to make the transition to the flower stage.

Keeping the faith that my odds are good and a get a few females from the bunch.

The nuets are now at the full veg recommendation and ppm is around 900-1000 ppm. My water after pH adjustment is around 150 ppm.

pH is still rising to about 6.3 after a few days but at the rate the plants are soaking up the water I have been adjusting the pH down in the next gallon and bringing it back in line to the 5.8 area.

My goal was to move to flower in a ebb flow system but I think that is out of the question for several reasons. 1) the roots are all tangled up in the reservoir. 2) The roots hanging from the bottom of the drip/DWC system are very stiff and I would not be able to get them in the ebb flow system. I have decided to just leave it as a DWC?Drip in the Flower stage. Hope it works.

I have two plants that are not root bound and I will keep them in Veg state and put the other 7 in flower..

Ons strain " Bonus seed" is very dense and needs to be trimmed out a little.. Good cloning material..

The other strain "White Widow" is less dense and taller between the nodes.

Question:

Can you clone once you start to flower the plant and determine its sex?

Check out the jungle and the root porn.

 

[kaze]

Its time to move into flowering. The plants are around 18-20 inches high. I finished up the exhaust and moved the ballast for my HPS 150 out of the room. I will try to take some pics and show you the design of my home made exhaust/reflector system.

I made a new DWC/Drip system for the ladies, I hope they are all ladies. The ph was adjusted to 5.78 and the ppm is at around 1300. Using the GH flora series at the 2/2/2 suggestion for transition phase.

I had to take one of the plants out due to crowding and started to prune the others. I plane to take some clones today or tomorrow and put them back in the veg side with the two plants I held back. My first cloning attempt, cross your fingers.

OK its time to see what the seeds have brought me. I hope for at least 3 of the 5 to be females.

 

[kaze]

Ok went home to check on the girls at lunch and so far they are looking good under their new artificial sun, the 150 HPS. The pics are not the best I only had my phone with me. Check out the homemade exhaust/reflector. I made it from a piece of duct work and the reflector that was in the econolight I purchased. I married this with an inline exhaust duct booster fan and a charcoal filter at the end.

The filter has done wonders so far. The smell was starting to get a little strong in the house. It did not bother me but after several comments about the odd smell from friends I had to do something.

I kept (2) in the veg room. The are a little tall so I'm going to try and train them for a while.

My first grow so I need to practice and experiment with different ways of doing things.

Peace

 

[kaze]

At Day 6 in the flower room today waiting to see the if I have some females or will I be starting over?

I have made a cloning area in my veg box trying to start a few cuttings incase I do have some females.

I have a nice WW in the flower room now and I have several cutting from it in the clone box. Hoping she is truly a female... Waiting sucks


Any comments or suggestions are welcome.

 

[kaze]

As things progress it looks like my good WW in the flower room is going to be a lovely "BOY"...

I am going to let it go for a few more days and make my final analysis. If I can find a good camera I will post and ask the group for their input...

Peace

 

[kaze]

Ok I have determined that the good WW is a boy and I have posted a few pics... Give me your thoughts.

I have several "Bonus seed" plants in the flower room now waiting to see if they show their "Balls" or not.. Lets hope not.

I have one WW in the veg room with some clones trying to root now... I hope she is a female and as soon as I have the clones up and ready I will put one in and see.

This sucks but it is what it is.

Peace

 

[kaze]

Update,

I pulled the male WW from the flower room. Added a pic so you can see he had huge balls..

I have lowered the 150 HPS on the "Bonus seed in the flower room. Still no showing of their sex at this point that I can see. I have been adjusting the PPM in the flower room to about 1300 and the veg room is at 1200 ppm.

The growth has slowed in the flower room and I am looking at adding another 150 HPS in the system. I ordered and extra (2) and received them the other day.

Clones: They are still alive and waiting for some roots to show-up so I can get them moving on their Journey to adulthood.

I have been adding about a gallon of pH adjusted water to each system to adjust the ppm about every 3 days at this point .

OK a few pics below for you.


Peace

 

[kaze]

Update: Another male has been found. I have three plants in the flower room right now and one is a girl.. At least one. I think I have one more male in there too. So My hope is for 2 females to take to bud...

The veg room looks great right now both the clones and the mother plants are looking great. My issue at this point is that I do not have any idea of the sex of my two mother plants... The clones have not gotten to a point that I can put them in the flower room.

I will post some pics tomorrow of the current situation.

Peace

Update

Looks like all (3) in flower are females

I also see some roots on one of my clones "its alive"

I'm going to use this time in the flower room to dial it in and get it ready for my clones and moms.

I think having two plants in flower at one time is going to be the best for my operation I may expand to (4) but space is tight in there.

A few pics at Day 51 from seed and day 13 in the flower room.

Bring on the buds


Peace