1st time journal: 6 plants, rdwc, 1000w, lemon skunk

[booort]

I've enjoyed reading through many of these grow journals, especially love the ones with lots of pictures, so thought I might as well start posting what I have so far. I am currently about 1 week into the grow. Looking for advice/suggestions and a place to post my pictures in the future so that I can get help diagnosing problems.

My history: 1st time poster (got to start somewhere), been lurking for a little while. This is my second grow, but it has been almost 20 years in between. Previous grow in the early '90s was dwc (kept it going for 1 year - 3 decent sized harvests). I've scoured these forums to come up with the best plans that I thought I could actually implement given my limited skill at construction and building stuff in general. Had a lot of help from one of the local hydro shops with what to buy and the best way to put it together.


Space is roughly a 4ft x 8ft x 8ft room for vegging, and adjoining 5ft x 8ft x 8ft room for flowering. It was already a framed out room that was going to be a bathroom (about 9ft x 8ft x 8ft) so I put up a wall dividing roughly in half, installed another door to the flower side. Location is in a fairly large primarily unfinished basement with nothing but old furniture, moving boxes, and a washer and dryer.

The veg room has a 4 foot T5 (8 bulbs). Fresh air comes into the veg room by leaving the door cracked about a foot (will put a small intake soon). A 6" inline fan exhausts this room through some existing duct work that was already there. It's a long run of 6" ducting once it leaves the room, goes about 20 feet and has several 90 degree elbows to route past some beams and then vent outside at the ground level. I hope smell won't be an issue since there is no carbon can to clean the smell attached to this, but was told (from hydro shop guys) that the veg side doesn't really smell much so it shouldn't be an issue. For what it's worth, this is a legal grow and I am not overly concerned about neighbors, but still would like to be discreet. It is cold here now so I have not had to run the 6" exhaust fan yet at all, the room stays at 75-78 under the lights without the exhaust running.

 

[booort]

The flower side was getting hot during my test runs of a few hours here and there, so I bought a used AC unit for $375 from a guy at the hydro shop. Supposedly it was less than a year old. Never used craigslist or ebay really and not much of a guy for buying used gear from strangers so this was just a convenient fix despite possible overpaying. Not even sure what the ratings are or how much it cools, sort of bought it on a whim since I was freaked out by my 80 degree water temps in the buckets (will explain further in another post).

The adjustable 1000W light (60% 75% 100%, have MH and HPS bulbs) is vented with 8" duct that sucks in colder air directly from the other side of the wall in the basement, then vents it out through the opposite wall. It exhausts straight into the other half of the basement near the laundry area. Basement temps are extremely mild, warmest place in the house in winter, coldest place in summer.

I connected three 5 gallon buckets with 1/2" poly tubing with grommets to a 5 gallon "control bucket" (is it technically a reservoir since it's the same size as the other buckets?).

I repeated this again so I would have a total of 6 buckets with net pots, and 2 "control buckets". Each bucket is connected with a ball valve so I can remove and change buckets easier by shutting off water to each bucket individually.

Put a 400gph water pump in each control bucket, connected a 4 port manifold and run 1/4" poly tubing to each net pot for a top feed or to make it recirculate better. Not sure best way to connect this yet. Currently just using the 1/4" top feed lines to recirculate the water. Top feeding by hand currently.

Each bucket has an airstone in it. 2 active aqua airpumps total, so each pump handles 4 airstones. Not sure the exact size of the airpumps (will have to find the box to check) but was told by hydro store these two $20 pumps would be enough to handle all 8 of the 5 gallon buckets.

 

[booort]

I saw another poster do this and thought it would be beneficial. I wrapped each bucket in a foam insulation tape then used the reflecting bubblewrap stuff from home depot on top of it. Have no idea if this will help with the water temps. It was a pain in the ass to do this to all 8 buckets and took a long time and added cost. A few rolls of $7 tape and 2 rolls of the reflecting bubble wrap stuff at about $15 each.

 

[BleedsGreen]

Good luck with the grow and build. subed

 

[booort]

I ordered 6 feminized lemon skunk seeds from sow amazing seeds dot com. I was strongly advised against feminized seeds by the hydro shop guys, but I really wanted this strain and searched around this forum and read there is nothing wrong with feminized seeds and taking clones from them or using one as a mother plant. Not sure who to believe but it is what it is now.

While waiting for the seed delivery, I was given 5 seeds from a friend. Unknown what they are, but friend is very knowledgeable about grows and was told these were quality bag seeds. 4 of the 5 germinated in paper towels, then were transferred to rockwool cube (soaked at 5.5 pH) once they had a 1/4" tail. Placed right under the T5 just resting in a small tupperware container a few inches under the bulbs. I did this to keep them warm as room temps are about 68-69 degrees currently in the house.

The lemon skunk seeds were delivered and started germinating them about 4 days after the bagseeds. I germinated 2 lemon skunk seeds by soaking in a shot glass of distilled water until they sank (4 hours) then placed in a paper towel in a ziplock bag, then in a tupperware container, then on top of a heating mat. I decided to germinate one lemon skunk seed directly in a rockwool cube (5.5 pH soaked). Looking at them today, they all seem to be exactly the same, so it seems germinating via soaking then paper towel then transfer to rockwool is equal to the seed I placed directly in the rockwool to germinate. I think next time I will just germinate all seeds directly in rockwool and skip the paper towel.

Lemon skunks fully sprouted through the rockwool 4 days ago. Here is where I am at now with the lemon skunk at day 4:

 

[booort]

These are the 3 bag seeds, they are about 4 days older than the lemon skunk seeds in the previous post. Their nutrients are kept separate from the lemon skunks since I have 2 "sets" of buckets connected together.

 

[booort]

These are the nutrients I was advised by the hydro shop guys for keeping it simple during this first step back into growing.

The system holds 16 gallons total in each set. 32 gallons total between all 6 net pots.

I mixed 2ml of the Cal-Mag per gallon and .5 of a ml of the roots excelerator per gallon. This is what has been in the system for about 5 days now. PPM is about 250, with one or two buckets reading at 300ppm. 5.7-5.9pH in all buckets, 70-72 degree water temperature. I know I can get this lower later by running the AC more and adding frozen 1 gallon milk jugs once they move to the flower side. Water temp in the buckets climbed to 83 degrees at it's highest prior to installing the AC unit and adding a humidifier right in front of the fan that blows across all 6 buckets.

I was planning on draining and refilling it all today with a light mix of the pure blend pro gro 3-2-4. I am not sure what strength, but was thinking at least half for now. So that would be about 3-4ml per gallon of the pure blend. Was going to go full strength on the roots excelerator so that would be 1ml per gallon. I guess I should also keep the cal mag going too and increase it to 3ml per gallon? Suggestions please!

I currently have decent tap water I believe, it reads at about 150ppm out of the tap. I've been filling my 4 extra buckets with the tap water and running an airstone in each bucket for about 24 hours to try to dissolve whatever chlorine or bad stuff is in it, but I don't think I am going to be able to do this every time I change or top off. Hope that cold tap water with ~150ppm isn't going to harm anything if I have to use it right out of the tap (pH'd of course). No reverse osmosis system and I know I won't be buying huge jugs of it either at the grocery store, so I just pray that out of the tap is going to be OK.

The process I have been using to change the water and nutrients is just drain everything, and mix the nutes 4 gallons at a time in a separate bucket. Then pH after the nutes have been added to 5.8 and dump in the control bucket. Repeat 8 times.

EDIT: I have been top feeding them a few teaspoons at a time, about twice a day. The net pots are submerged an inch or so in the water in the buckets. The rockwool cube is not touching the water, but the 2" of hydroton under the rockwool cube in the net pot is submerged about 1". The top feed is not hooked up to constantly stream over the rockwool cubes yet. The top feed line is running straight into the bucket (I crack the lid of the bucket and run the tubing directly inside the bucket). I am unsure what the best method is. I was thinking of drilling a new 1/4" hole near the top of the buckets, then using the little sprinkler or mister attachments to sort of spray inside the hydroton inside the buckets and have it dribble down the roots once they come out of the net pot. Not sure if this is a better method than simply having the top feed attach on top of the bucket and having water stream down through the top of the rockwool 24/7.

 

[BleedsGreen]

I would keep your nuts really low right now they are still babies under 200 for another week. I would always leave tap water out at least 24 hours for chlorine to disparate.

 

[booort]

Thanks for the replies BleedsGreen. My tap water that has been sitting out over night with air stones in them now shows a ppm of 100. I am concerned that adding the cal mag, roots excel and the veg formula at even just 1/4 strength would push the ppm to 300. Should I just cut down the ratio until I have it at 200ppm? Like 1/8th the regular strength shown on the bottle?

Slightly confused because the hydro shop guys were telling me 300ppm and get a little of the veg formula in there too.

Is there a general guideline to follow for % strength nutrients at each week or is it simply keep the correct ppm?

 

[BleedsGreen]

Those plants are babies, I would still be feeding just water. But that is just me, if you already have 100 PPM in your water going to 300 PPM is fine = 200 PPM of nuts.

Good Luck

 

[BleedsGreen]

Is there a general guideline to follow for % strength nutrients at each week or is it simply keep the correct ppm?

There is a lot of recommendations on this site depending on the system you use. Search the site, you will find all the info you need. I am a noob at hydro but I have seen lots of info on here about that. Maybe search for botanicare recipes as that looks like your nutrient line, see what you get.

 

[booort]

Just got back from the hydro shop, had a long talk about the nutrients. Basically one of the "experts" reinforced what you had said about keeping things very very low right now. The botanicare veg mix says 15ml per gallon at week 1 veg. Suggested cutting that down to 3ml per gallon for this week should be good. Cutting down the cal mag since he said if your water is 100ppm after bubbling it over night, a lot of that 100pm already has a lot of cal mag already in it. Full strength of the Roots excelurator stuff. Going to add 2ml per gallon of the cal mag.

Also bought a stronger air pump ($50) to handle all 8 buckets. Going to move the existing cheaper $20 air pumps to a separate room in order to prep the other 8 buckets of water with air stones a few days before I change out the water. A mushroom CO2 bag was bought as well, never seen these before but was told this $25 is good for at least 6 months and will provide more than enough Co2.

 

[BleedsGreen]

I would search this site for botanicare recipes, you will get good info. Hydro store guys are good for sure but a lot of times they need to sell as well. I am running the botanicare as well but I am doing Aero so don't know that my recipe would work for you. I would say week one of veg which really will be next week for you, go to 1/4 manufacturers recommended strength.

 

[booort]

Thanks, I searched like you said for botanicare recipe and came up with quite a bit more info and reading to do. Going to go very easy on the botanicare veg formula at 20% what is recommended strength for the first week of veg. Skimming some of the other threads from your suggested search, I noticed someone else saying if using tap water the cal mag might not be needed at all.

Installed the new air pump and put in check valves, shown in pic 1. I know it's sloppy but hopefully not much longer until I move things over to the other side and fire up the 1000w MH to start vegging. Not sure if the check valves were needed or if I even put them in the right place but I read stories of others getting backflow and potentially ruining the pump. I think there was a slight decrease in the amount of bubbles that were being made after I installed the check valves, but I can't be sure and those suckers are a pain in the ass to get off to test the difference in pressure so I'll probably just leave them unless I hear differently.

Going to wait until the buckets shown in pic 2 have had 24 hours to bubble and remove some chlorine before changing out the nutrients. Bought a few more crappy air stones from walmart just for bubbling this water.

I am looking for advice on where to position this can 33 with 4" fan attached to it shown on the floor in pic 3. I guess it would technically be a "scrubber" since no air will be leaving the room This side has no intake or exhaust for the room air, temperature all handled by the AC unit (I hope) and the 8" fan exhausting the hot air from the light.

Should it just be sitting on the floor and sucking air through the can? Are they more effecient to suspend it from the ceiling up high? Does it even matter in this sealed 5ftx8ft room with the AC in it?

 

[BleedsGreen]

I wouldn't worry about the can until you start flowering. The floor is fine.

Yeah lots of great information on here!

 

[bseeds]

I MADE a systems kinda like yours, i had 4 together with 1/2 inch poly, but i raised my buckets so the water will flow back to an 18 gal res..with air stone in it on its own 340gpm pump has a 1/2 inch poly pipe coming out with 1/4 tubes branching off line of it to continuly to feed the plants .the res.is in under a bench to keep the light off of it and on concrete this keeps water cool which is importine i use rain water that came off of roof collected in 55 gal barrel or spring water from up on the farm ppm very low 40 or lower i had air going in bottom through fan and air going out with fan through carbon filter and a fan inside of room blowing on plants i started with nutes low and never got above 700 ppm didnot want to take chanch on burning them never changed water kempt adding to it with nutes and had a great harvest ps they grew like crazy sometimes i think i could see them grow, maybe not correct on how i did it but it worked i have since gone back to dirt a lot less worries soil is more forgiving



anch

 

[booort]

Finally starting the res change and clean out of the buckets. When I emptied the buckets, there seemed to be a good amount of the hydroton dust in the bottom. Prior to planting things last week, I rinsed the netpots filled with hydroton thoroughly with a decent pressure garden hose then soaked in ph water (not sure if necessary?). Surprised to see so much brown hydroton dust in the bottom still. Think I might need to cover the intake of the top feed pumps with panty hose to filter things some.

Adding 10% strength of the botanicare veg formula, full strength roots excel and 25% strength cal mag. I've seen a handful of others around here say they gradually get their seedlings ready for nutes by starting very weak on even day 1. I like this concept of slowly adjusting them and building up the nutes, despite reading so much how they need nothing at this age. Guess I'll will see how they react soon enough.

The 8 prepped buckets of water show kind of an odd ppm reading. The 4 that started bubbling 48 hours ago show 100ppm. The 4 I started 24 hours ago show 0ppm (with a blue lab truncheon nothing lights up at all). /shrug

Day 9 for the bag seeds, day 5 for the lemon skunk. Counting from when they first popped up through the rockwool. 8 days and 12 days from start of germination. Not sure what the correct age would be, most count from germination date or from first visible sprouting through the rockwool? I know it doesn't matter really, just wanted to be consistent with labeling the pics so I can compare growth rates for the next batch of seeds in a few months.

 

[booort]

Heya Bseeds, did you constantly top feed from the top above the hydroton and did you use any attachment to control the flow or GPH at the end of the tubing?

I drilled another hole in the buckets tonight and attached a sprinkler head to one set of 3 plants. Was advised by someone to have no attachment to the end of the 1/4" tubing and just feed from above. I kind of like the idea of feeding from below with a sprinkler. Little worried I might be giving too much water to the netpot and will soak the rockwool too much. Guess I'll find out soon enough.

 

[booort]

12 hours after res change and adding nutes, ph went up to 6.5-6.6. PPM still at 250. Hope this is somewhat normal.

Removed net pots and ph'd each bucket to 5.7-5.9. The back buckets are a pain in the ass to reach, I swear my muscles are more sore from squatting and reaching to ph the buckets in the back than I do snowboarding.

Water temps rose to 72. Started running the 6" exhaust fan and turned the AC unit that's on the flower side (door wide open between rooms) a little lower, down to 70 degrees. I need to remove some water to fill with frozen 1 gallon milk jugs to get the temps down, not sure how critical getting water temp down to 68 or so is for how old they are. Room temp is about 75 right under the lights, RH around 40 with the walmart humidifier running.

Accidentally left half of the T5 bulbs off last night.

 

[booort]

Lemon Skunk day 6: