DIY Closet DWC Grow - First grow ever

[jigfresh]

Hey guys. The white widow is still smaller than everyone, so I did some serious rearranging. I switched #2 with the white widow #6. So if anyone is keeping track (i'm not sure why) the plants go in this order from front left to back right. 1, 6, 2, 4, 5, 3.

I put the white widow front and center. Then I moved my light so basically it was shining directly on the two smallest plants.

I also noticed that my wack little light enclosure makes some serious bright spots. No wonder I have like 3 totally crazy branches, lucky little punks were hogging all the light.

I also started on my Batwing reflector. It is going to be for the 4oow hps and the 250 w mh. All for flowering.

Tomorrow should be a Liquid Light spray day, as well as a nute change day. Big day for the plants around here.

pics 1-2: uneven light
pics 3-4: plant #2
pic 5: inner workings of plant #3
pic 6: new uneven light
pic 7: new plant arrangement, with small one front and center
pic 8: outside cat we've never seen before
pic 9: our mother of 4. She's beautiful.
pics 10-11: making dual batwing
pic 12: testing curve in wing.

 

[Hulk Nugs]

dam those plants are looking really nice ......looks like your having fun working over there...... are you going to wait tell after flowering to add a veg room?

 

[jigfresh]

Don't know if any of you saw the 'upgrade' video game on here earlier, but I got to level 9.

They shut things down for 40 minutes to put in all the pretty new graphics. While things were down they gave us a Gold Rush game to play. I must say I spent about 20 minutes playing the stupid thing.

 

[jigfresh]

I sprayed the girls down with Liquid Light/ Penetrator Gold today. They loved it as always.

I've had the light right above my small plant for a day, and while I think it made a little difference, she is still lagging behind.

I'm not even doing much yet, but I am loving the screen. I can see how some people would be mortal enemies of such a complication, but I love the control. I do origami, and it reminds me a lot of that. Just keep folding, and folding, and folding. I have gotten very good at tucking things away (you can call me RuPaul). It is nice to think I'm touching and working over 6 girls in there, however I feel a bit perverted thinking they are still young. Ok, no more humanizing plants.

I bought more things for the room and for my new light. Little things, just 2 pvc black 90degree elbows, and a little cap for the fitting I'm going to put in the tank tomorrow.

Oh, I did not change the reservoir today because I forgot to fill up my water bottles. So I am filling now and will change tomorrow with new stronger nutes.

 

[abigail]

wondered about that GoldRush game; thanks for explanation, j-fresh

 

[jigfresh]

So my white widow is still totally lagging behind. Pic below.

Should I just let thing progress naturally, or should I cut the rest of the plants to the same height?

What do you guys think?

I think I am going to cut them all. (except my little one).

Please let me know your opinion as I want to do this today (if I am going to do it).

Thanks

 

[jigfresh]

SHIT............DAMN IT.

I Just wrote a fucking BOOK on here and pressed Preview Post and Boom, blank screen. Not like you guys are losing sleep, but I put a lot of effort into that for me and you.

FUCK.

I'm sorry guys. Update, short version.

Changed water, new higher nutes, I'm using stuff for the last week of veg.

Cut plants 1-5 a total of 28 times. Wow, I know.

I separated the tank area from grow area. To keep humidity down in grow space (for flowering) and to keep water temps down in the reservoir.

I installed the water pump so no more moving the plants again.

I found two bugs from the time in the bathroom (while changing water and doing construction). I killed them both and it's a long story (see deleted post), but I think they are all gone. We'll see though.

I'm so bummed. But whatever, the plants are happy.

Also worked on the batwing reflector.

And a funny note to leave on: my mom reads my thread (but not very closely, so don't worry about your language).

Tired. Pics tomorrow.

 

[Hulk Nugs]

that shit does suck .... i do that every once in a while ....try to remind my self to copy it before i press send...........

so you cut all your plants down to the whitewidow?

 

[jigfresh]

so you cut all your plants down to the whitewidow?

Yeah. I had 5 times the plant material in my hand than I had when I came back from the store with my 6 clones.

Here are some pics, and no signs of bugs.

I love the last pic. It is of the inside of plant #2. So many branches it's incredible.

 

[Hulk Nugs]

nice job man ......... hope that helps keep the humidity down.....in pic number 5 i am guessing thats your new water pump ? right whats that for ?? filling the res i am guessing but do you just mix your water in somthing then put the pump in there to fill the res ? .... just curious hahaha always like to see what helps out the process ya know

 

[jigfresh]

nice job man ......... hope that helps keep the humidity down.....in pic number 5 i am guessing thats your new water pump ? right whats that for ?? filling the res i am guessing but do you just mix your water in somthing then put the pump in there to fill the res ? .... just curious hahaha always like to see what helps out the process ya know

Thanks.

That is the new water pump. I am using it to drain the water. So here is what I imagine next reservoir change to be like. I'll take my extra 10 feet of hose, connect it to my tank, on the little white fitting you see in pic five (the one the hose is plugged into), all on the outside of the tank. I will never have to move the plants, or lift the lid again. Once the hose is connected, I'll plug the pump into the power outlet and drain as much water out as possible. The pump clears out all but around 2 gallons. I will use 2 gallons RO water to dump in, to rinse out some of the left over water, and pump that out.

Then unplug the pump, disconnect the hose, and start filling the tank with my new water. So I have 26 gallon bottles laying in my bedroom (to come up to temp, and because the RO filter is slow), I dump about 20 gallons in. Up til now I have been lifting a plant up and dumping through that hole, but I am going to cut a hole in the lid, to put a funnel in, so I don't have to move any more plants. So yeah, I will put 20 gallons though the lid, then start measuring my nutes.

Here's my nutrient process. I have a little measuring cup thing that I use to portion out the nutes. I also have a bigger container that I use to mix the nutes. So I take the big cup (1 Liter) and fill it mostly with RO water. I measure out the first nutrient and pour it in the cup with water. If there is less than 200mL of nutrient required I used the one large cup. When I mixed it yesterday I had two that called for 515 mL. So in that case I mixed 300 mL/ 1L , and then did the other 215 in another 1L. So I mix them into the big cup, and then dump that into the reservoir. This is so the nutes are somewhat watered down when they go in. I'm going to make my hole right above where there are bubbles and right in the middle of 4 plants, so as far away from roots as I can be. When I am finished with the nutrient measuring and dumping, I fill the reservoir up the rest of the way, usually not too much more.

Then I give it 5 minutes to mix real good and check/ adjust the pH level. Usually for me it comes out to 6.25 after adding everything. I now am adding 100mL of GH pH Down, to get it to 5.7. It goes up more over time so I adjust it every couple days. I check all my levels multiple times a day. It's nice having a constant meter for pH and stuff. I just leave it in the water all the time, and take readings whenever.

 

[Hulk Nugs]

very nice man.........i bet that makes it a heck of alot easier for you to add and drain the res........ i was just thinking that if you cut a hole on the bottom of the res with a drain on the inside and a hose on the outside with a on/off valve you could drain that way no need for the pump........sweet setup you have going there thoe.............i am getting my RO filter on wensday i hope ...... has that been working good for you ? i have to think of where to put it no room under my sink for that big tank

 

[jigfresh]

RO filter has been really good. I like the water, drink so much more water now.

I tucked the filter part of mine under the edge of the tub and have my tank under the sink... However, I don't know what I'm going to do later. Our bathroom has been under construction for a while (wife won't pick out tile) and we eventually want a pedistal sink, but then I'll have a big ass ugly tank. So, I don't know what to do about that either.

As for the drain at the bottom of the tank, I was thinking of that earlier, I even bought the pvc ball valve and everything, but there were at least two problems. One is that the rubbermaid stretches with 30 gallons in it, and so I couldn't put the valve all the way at the bottom, because it would get all the weight of the tank on it. So even if I put it a couple inches up, (which would leave 4 or 5 gallons in there) the tank is sitting on the ground, and all the drains here are above a ground level. To get into the toilet or bath I have to go over the edge making the gravity think not work for me.

The stupid part is I was impatient because I really need a pump, so I bought something that totally doesn't work that good, but it does work.

 

[Hulk Nugs]

aww see so this fits perfect for you.....forgot you were on the floor......very nice man glad to hear you try and think of every outcome or possible problem ... saves you time going back and having to change things up ..........

 

[jigfresh]

aww see so this fits perfect for you.....forgot you were on the floor......very nice man glad to hear you try and think of every outcome or possible problem ... saves you time going back and having to change things up ..........

I did computers in college and had this one professor who talked all the time about pre-engineering. Talking about how working everything, and I mean everything out before you even begin is by far the most efficient way of doing things. There is some stat about how 1 hour spent in planning stage fixing a problem would take like 60-100 hours fixing when the construction is finished.

I try to carry that is most stuff I do. Taking some time to think before you do something can save you so much time, effort, money, headache, etc. later.

I'll update everyone later.

 

[jigfresh]

Today the plants had it pretty easy. I didn't really mess with them at all, aside from tucking a few fan leaves away.

I am in the process of fastening the screen down.

I am also pretty much done with my dual batwing reflector. The light is going to be so much more better distributed with this thing. Plus the bulbs won't sway in the vent airflow like my bulb does now.

Plants look very happy after a little haircut yesterday. The white widow looks a little more in place now. It is still the smallest however.

Oh, what's up with this leaf. I'm pretty sure it is from lack of light, as the bottom area is pretty much completely shaded. It's not a problem, only two leaves out of the whole closet looked like this.

 

[Survolte]

sounding great man. I was thinking about making my res pump itself clean too, but like you (i think) my roots will hang into the res. Dont you think the pump could damage the roots in the furutre?

 

[jigfresh]

sounding great man. I was thinking about making my res pump itself clean too, but like you (i think) my roots will hang into the res. Dont you think the pump could damage the roots in the furutre?

My pump has a pretty good filter/pre-filter that I think will be ok. It has a plastic 'tube' with slots in it. That elongates the 'suction zone', so instead of having one dime sized spot sucking like no tomorrow, it is spread out radially for around 3 inches. Plus there is this filament type cover for it. The filament is almost 1 inch thick all the way around the tube. It is made up of a sorta foam.

Anyhow, I have used it to pump the clean water from the spare tank to the main tank already twice, and each time the plants were hanging down in it. And yeah, the roots already go down that far. There was no damage that I could tell, no roots floating around the rez or anything.

I think it helps not being very strong too. Also, I figure any kind of moving the plants would be more dangerous to their roots than the pump.

 

[Survolte]

My pump has a pretty good filter/pre-filter that I think will be ok. It has a plastic 'tube' with slots in it. That elongates the 'suction zone', so instead of having one dime sized spot sucking like no tomorrow, it is spread out radially for around 3 inches. Plus there is this filament type cover for it. The filament is almost 1 inch thick all the way around the tube. It is made up of a sorta foam.

Anyhow, I have used it to pump the clean water from the spare tank to the main tank already twice, and each time the plants were hanging down in it. And yeah, the roots already go down that far. There was no damage that I could tell, no roots floating around the rez or anything.

I think it helps not being very strong too. Also, I figure any kind of moving the plants would be more dangerous to their roots than the pump.

KK I think my set up will end up dam near identicle to yours lol.

 

[jigfresh]

KK I think my set up will end up dam near identicle to yours lol.

Great minds think alike.

I sprayed the girls again today. They seem happy. I swear the leaves increase 20% in size in the 24 hours following the spraying.

I started tying down some fan leaves with string. The fan leaves are forming a perfect canopy underneath the screen blocking 100% of the light from going anywhere below them.

I also started positioning the branches in the screen to get light into the middle of the plants. Also to get the ends more light.

I haven't read that much about where the flowers are going to be. Any advise/ suggestions on how/ where to position branches in the screen?

Also, I'm convinced that the white widow I'm putting all the effort into is probably going to out yield the others by twice as much. Just a feeling that she is going to do fine on her own, but with this help I'm actually making her the strongest. Speaking of strongest, in bending leaves I have noticed the differences in strength from plant to plant. And BY FAR the white widow is so much stronger. It's branches and stem are so think compared to the rest. It is not as prolific as far as stems go, but what is there is tough.

Here's a song I love that I haven't heard in a long time. I bet none of you have ever even heard of the band.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czMC8PD90Jg&feature=related