My First Grow: DWC in Grow Box w/ 250 HID Bulb (Open Thread)

jigfresh

Well-Known Member
Those little plants are cute. The dwc looks great. They look great to me, I think they should make it.

Good luck.
 

neversummer28

Well-Known Member
More than 24 hours after transplant and all doing really well... in fact, they have continued growing.

When I checked on the trio this afternoon, they were back to drooping. The leaves on the AK-48 and one of the Master Kushes (Mary Jane) were resting on the medium. My first thought was that maybe they're going through shock.

A little while later, I thought about checking on the pH... and good thing I did. Yesterday, I had it set around the mid 5s. Today, 24 hours later, it went up to the upper 6s. So adjusted the pH (after pulling out the pots, of course), and within an hour, the leaves were perky again. I wish I took before and after pics, I definitely will next time. but all three plants continued to grow, with both LL and JG sprouting more leaves. MJ's growth is less noticeable, but that's understandable consider how badly I damaged the roots.

My girls keep fighting on!

Pics:
1. The trio
2. Lois Lane (AK-48)
3. Mary Jane (Master Kush)
4. Jean Grey (Master Kush)
 

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neversummer28

Well-Known Member
Those little plants are cute. The dwc looks great. They look great to me, I think they should make it.

Good luck.
Thanks jigfresh. I hope you're right. And appreciate the support too. It's good to know that I have people with experience reading this.
 

neversummer28

Well-Known Member
And the girls continue to grow... I think it's safe to say that they have survived the transplant.

The pH climbed back up today, back into the 6's. From what I understand, there are many causes for this. I lowered the pH back down into the 5's.

New leaves continue to grow in on all three, but I'm not seeing any root growth yet.
 

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jigfresh

Well-Known Member
The pH climbed back up today, back into the 6's. From what I understand, there are many causes for this. I lowered the pH back down into the 5's.
I don't remember the reasons, but pH slowly climbing is a good thing. When you get your nutrients to a higher strength they will buffer it more so it doesn't change as much.

Also I don't know if you've already read this, but apparently the easy way to tell if you are giving the right amount of nutes in a dwc is to watch the ppm. If as the water goes down the ppm climbs then the plants are taking more water than nutrients, and you have too many (it may not be bad, just a waste of nutrients). If the ppm sinks they are taking more nutes than water and they need more. If the ppm stays the about the same then things are good. It's like goldy locks.
 

neversummer28

Well-Known Member
I don't remember the reasons, but pH slowly climbing is a good thing. When you get your nutrients to a higher strength they will buffer it more so it doesn't change as much.

Also I don't know if you've already read this, but apparently the easy way to tell if you are giving the right amount of nutes in a dwc is to watch the ppm. If as the water goes down the ppm climbs then the plants are taking more water than nutrients, and you have too many (it may not be bad, just a waste of nutrients). If the ppm sinks they are taking more nutes than water and they need more. If the ppm stays the about the same then things are good. It's like goldy locks.
thanks jigfresh, i didn't know about anything about pH rising being good. as for ppm, yeah, read a lot about it. unfortunately, i'm already overbudget and don't want to spend more money when i'm not sure how many more grows i'll do after this. ec meters are well out of my price range and i read that tds meters (which are in my price range... the $15 ones) are a waste of money. you know anything about this?
 

neversummer28

Well-Known Member
I've been checking up on the roots since Monday and they have barely started to come through the netting. I knew I damaged them during the transplant and keeping a close eye on them.

Today, while looking closely, I had a small scare. Looking through the netting, I thought I saw black roots. I knew I left some potting soil on the roots, but it wasn't that much. So I carefully emptied one of the Master Kush's (JG) pot to take a closer look. It turned out to be the soil remnants, looked like they were swollen from the water. Whew.

I had intentions of cleaning the roots this Saturday when I switch the water, but I decided to do it today and take a closer examination on the recovery of the roots. Even though the plants are growing more leaves, the plants have been growing very slowly. So I suspected that the plants had redirected their energy towards developing new roots.

Well my theory was right... all three plants are starting to develop new roots. Right now, they look like little polyps. You can see them in the pic below.

I cleaned off all the roots and got the girls back into the water.

Gotta go smoke a bowl and watch some LOST... I'll be back on later with pics and today's update.
 

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jigfresh

Well-Known Member
The cheap meters suck, waste of money. YOu can do the grow with out one. Just take good notes of what you add and keep a look out for deficiences and nute burn.

What time shcedule are you lights on. I read that they focus energy on roots in the night time, so if you are running 24/0 the roots might not be getting as good a chance to catch up as with 22/2 or something.

Things are looking good. You take good care of those little girls.
 

neversummer28

Well-Known Member
Alright, so I'm back...

All three are doing alright after the maintenance from this afternoon. The ph finally balanced out and stopped rising. Looking at the groth of each plant, you can tell that the better the transplant, the larger the plant. Jean Grey (Master Kush) is the biggest one so far. She had the best transplant on Saturday. Meanwhile, Mary Jane, the other Master Kush, is the smallest and had half her roots torn apart.

The cotyledon on all three are turning yellow, probably will fall off soon. Guess this is a good sign too, my lil babies are photosynthesizing enough to sustain themselves.

Pic 2: Lois Lane (AK-48)
Pic 3: Jean Grey (Master Kush)
Pic 4: Mary Jane (Master Kush)
 

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neversummer28

Well-Known Member
The cheap meters suck, waste of money. YOu can do the grow with out one. Just take good notes of what you add and keep a look out for deficiences and nute burn.

What time shcedule are you lights on. I read that they focus energy on roots in the night time, so if you are running 24/0 the roots might not be getting as good a chance to catch up as with 22/2 or something.

Things are looking good. You take good care of those little girls.
I definitely will keep track of the nutes. if i end up growing more, i'll get an EC meter... and a digital pH meter... i forgot how big of a pain in the ass this drop in a test tube thing was when i had an aquarium as a kid.

As for my lighting cycle... they've been on 18/6 since the day they sprouted. Partially for the reason you mentioned, and partially to save a couple of bucks... haha.

As always... thanks jigfresh.
 

neversummer28

Well-Known Member
Yesterday, I noticed that the first set of true leaves had paled a little bit compared to the new growth. Today, those leaves got even more yellow. I had originally planned on replacing the water this Saturday, but I moved it up by 2 days since my girls were telling me to feed them.

For the transplant, I used (GH Flora) 2.5 ML per gallon of each. Today, I upped it to 5 ML per gallon of each.

My plants have definitely fallen off the regular grow pace since the transplant, but I'm not worried. I know the girls are working twice as hard to catch up with root growth.
 

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neversummer28

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Two days ago, I started noticing the yellowing of the first true leaves (not cotyledons). So I suspected it was lack of nutes, specifically nitrogen. I changed the water yesterday (see prior post for amount, pH, etc).

Today, my little AK-48 looks even worse. Is this from lack of nitrogen? Is it heat related (had a heatwave that lasted through Sunday)? Is this something else?

Suggestions? Any help is appreciated.

Pic 1: LL yesterday
Pic 2: LL today
Pic 3: JG today
 

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jigfresh

Well-Known Member
Hey bro... I do not know what the yellowing is. It doesn't look too bad to me, although I'm sure it's very disconcerting.

It definitely doesn't have to do with temps (in my newb opinion).

It may be a deficiency, but it is only on those bottom leaves... I don't know much about them, but I feel like they show on more than just the bottom leaves. My guess is just that the plant is taking energy from the bottom.

Don't stress, give it a day and if things are worse you can worry a little more. I think it will be ok (let's hope I'm right).
 

neversummer28

Well-Known Member
Hey bro... I do not know what the yellowing is. It doesn't look too bad to me, although I'm sure it's very disconcerting.

It definitely doesn't have to do with temps (in my newb opinion).

It may be a deficiency, but it is only on those bottom leaves... I don't know much about them, but I feel like they show on more than just the bottom leaves. My guess is just that the plant is taking energy from the bottom.

Don't stress, give it a day and if things are worse you can worry a little more. I think it will be ok (let's hope I'm right).
hey jigfresh, i actually completely agree with everything you said. thanks for your thoughts. i think you're right, the plant was pulling nutrients from the first set of leaves and by the time i replaced the water, it had already done it's damage.

all the new growth is very healthy looking, so i'm hoping that is the limit of the scare.
 

neversummer28

Well-Known Member
Been a couple days since a formal update, but hey, it was the weekend.

All three are doing really well now and back on track. The yellowing on LL's first set of leaves never got worse, I think it was just nutrient deficiency. They're starting to go brown and will probably fall off eventually, but all the new growth is looking really good.

The roots are really starting to come through now too... so with more and bigger roots, hopefully the girls will start really taking off soon.

Pic 2: Lois Lane (AK48)
Pic 3: Jean Grey (Master Kush)
Pic 4: Mary Jane (Master Kush)
 

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neversummer28

Well-Known Member
The girls are really taking off now, their roots are coming through big time and new leaves are sprouting every day.

I replaced the water today and increased the nutes according to the GH Flora feeding schedule. I also rotated the plants around, just to see if that affects their growths at all.

You can really start seeing the differences between the two strains now. The Master Kushes are really full and thick while the AK48 looks pretty sketchy.

I may start LST as early as the end of this week if the girls keep progressing like this.

Pic 1 - The Fam
Pic 2 - Lois Lane (AK48)
Pic 3 - Jean Grey (Master Kush)
Pic 4 - Mary Jane (Master Kush)
 

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jigfresh

Well-Known Member
Mary Jane is a little shrub huh. Dude your plants are taking off. I guess they got over the transplant.

Things are rolling now.

Good work with everything.
 

neversummer28

Well-Known Member
I started low stress training today. All three girls had started growing new nodes/stems on their own so going to capitalize on these new nodes.

All I needed was twine, office binder clips, and that tacky, sticky stuff you use to hang up posters

I clipped the binder clips on the lip of the container. Two pieces of twine were used on each plant. One at the base of the plant to keep it in place and prevent it from ripping out. The second was tied near the top, below the highest petioles strong enough to hold the twine. I used slip knots so it would be easy to adjust as the plants grow. The other ends of the twine were wrapped around the binder clips. To bring the top of the plants even lower, I used the sticky putty stuff to hold the twine down closer to the plant. See the pics below.

My goal is to grow each plant as far across the container as possible before starting the flowering cycle. See my next post for my hopeful timeline.

Here are some pics of what I did today:

1. Head on view of MJ. Twine at base and near top. You can see the new nodes if you look closely
2. Side view of MJ
3. Tacky stuff being used to pull the tops of MJ and JG down even further
4. Full shot of the whole LST set-up
 

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neversummer28

Well-Known Member
Alright, so my goal for this grow is to have ready-to-smoke bud by the last weekend of August. Based on that goal, this will explain how I hope the grow progresses.

Here are the tentative dates I'm looking at:

Today - June 7: Vegetative Growth
June 7 - August 8: Flowering
August 8: Harvest
August 8 - August 29: Curing

Here's how I set my dates. According to Nirvana Shop, the Master Kushes' flowering phase should go up to 11 weeks and the AK-48 should go up to 8... something I wish I read before I set-up my DWC. I would have set-up an individual, smaller container for each plant. But now, once I start flushing for LL (ak-48 ), I have to start flushing for the Master Kushes. Back to the timeline... let's work backwards...

I would need the flowering period to finish within the first week of August to allow for proper curing time. 8 weeks for flowering means I would start the 12/12 light cycle around the first week of June. So I basically have a little less than a month in the vegetative cycle...

Let's hope I can get my plants enough juice in this next month to make it a decent harvest.
 

neversummer28

Well-Known Member
Mary Jane is a little shrub huh. Dude your plants are taking off. I guess they got over the transplant.

Things are rolling now.

Good work with everything.

yeah man!!! it took two weeks for them to recover from the transplant, but they did and they are loving life right now.

even though they made it, i will still never do a soil to hydro transplant again. thanks for following along the way and providing guidance.

hoping my grow turns out at beastly as yours! i gotta start spreading more rep around only so i can give you more rep.

but hey, here's a verbal +rep to you.
 
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