First Bubbleponics DWC 5 gallon hydro. Need 3 questions answered

Koi2Dragon said:

Hey Stand.
I grow in 5G buckets as well.
You roots look a little dark. I use SM90 to keep em clean and white.
Your plant will grow BIG so depending on space you might not wanna veg them for too long.
I vegged a topped Super Skunk for 5 weeks in a 5G bucket and it grew to over 4 1/2 feet and out grew my tent.
For easiest nute soup for noobs I'd use GH's 3 part formula and their website calculator: http://www.genhydro.com/calculator/index.html.
It does all the thinking for you lol.
Keep it up and good luck.

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Thanks for the info here. It will be helpful to me soon as well. Very helpful.

Nice grow there Stand.

You really need ventilation! Fresh air is just as important as light, temperature, EC etc. Also, you'll probably want to filter the smell soon!
The water temperature will only respond to the air temp, if your air temp is correct, then the water will be as well, cause nothing else is heating the water. I also have a closet grow, but i just had to fit an extractor. I pull in fresh air from the roof void, and pump it out into my bedroom. Requires a couple of 5" holes, but was only solution.

pics look like nute burn, but i'm certainly no expert

Day 22 and my plant is growing but not at the rate i expected, its only about 5 inches tall. Root growth looks great but my plant isnt too tall. To lower temps, i added a timer and changed light cycle to 18/6 and painted the lid white to reflect and light and heat from the res. So far so good, avg. temp in room is 88F which is about 13 degrees lower than before.

Stats:
Temp: 86F
pH: 6
ppm: 525
Humidity 35% but i have been spraying leaves with a spray bottle.

Today i changed my res and heres how:
tap comes out at about 180 pmm and ~8 pH and i read i should add 15ml/gal of Botanicare PBP Grow which comes out to 9 teaspoons, but since its a DWC i know i should go a little lower, so i went with 7 teaspoons. And then add pH down till it reaches high 5's or 6.

Here are the pics

Just read through your grow. I wouldn't say nute burn on your plant. Those first few pics when it was younger when the leaves were kinda yellow and the tips were brown. I would say that was from your temps and low humidity.

What I did to keep it cool when I was using a smaller closet was use a 8" drier vent tube and 3 1/2 inch PC fan. The flexable dryer vent has a metal coil in it. I smashed the coil so that it wasn't round, about an inch tall oval, for about 6-7 turns of the coil. This way I could slip it under the door and air could still flow through it. Inside the closet I hung the vent about a foot from the celing. Outside I had the fan in the end of the tube, pulling air out of the closet. Kinda sucked having to make sure the tube was open everytime you moved the door, but it worked... and cheep.

Once you get your temps down, humidity should go up a little. Don't know what climate you are in, but you have to take that into account also, 35% is low though. Will be nice for flowering, won't have to worry about mold.

Your most recent pics look good. I wouldn't worry too much about the lower leaves that are touching the hydroton, mine do that too when they sit on the stuff. I think it kinds sucks the moisture out of them or somthing.

Roots look nice. Once they get longer, and have been in the botanicare for more time, the roots will probably not be as white but don't worry its just the nutes. The new tips should be white, usually about 1 to 3 inches from the tip. If they start to get all brown, without white tips or anything, then you need to look out for slime. That happened to me once, which sucks because all of my plants share the same water. But, I caught it early, threw out the plant, and scrubbed out my system. It never spread to the other plants. It was good for experience, there was defanitely a distinct smell that I now look out for.

After thought.... Once your roots get about 8" long, drop your water level to be a few inches below the pot. So that the roots hang in the air a little before they hit the water. They will like it.

Happy thanks for scribing and thanks for the pointers, i think what i am going to do is buy an inline fan and that ducting. I had a light in my closet on the ceiling and i removed it, so now there is a 5 inch hole in my ceiling, which i will eventually use as an exhaust. Only thing i need is $160.00 for a decent inline from my hydro store. At least that will always be there for future grows. For the time being im going to try your idea. I could look on google how to wire up a pc fan, but how did you go about doing so? I just know how to connect it to a pc setup lol

I use one of these. Doesnt really matter what brand or what it was origionally made to power. You only need to check the output. Be sure that it is 12 volts and has a amperage output that is close to the rating of the fan. Most PC fans use about 300mA, the converter needs to put out at least as much as the fan draws.

Awesome! that helps alot man and i have a bunch of pc fans and power adapters laying around so im sure i wont have trouble. Ill keep ya posted.

One more question: is ~500ppm too much for a plant my size? Ive been following guidlines for midsized vegging plants but my plant is a little on the small side. I guess if any sign of nute burn ill hold back but just wanted your oppinion since you had experience with PBP

p.s. how do i rep someone on this forum?

Standupp said:

...i have a bunch of pc fans and power adapters laying around so im sure i wont have trouble.

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Lol, me too. I have stacks of computer parts everywhere. I fix computers for extra cash.

Standupp said:

One more question: is ~500ppm too much for a plant my size? Ive been following guidlines for midsized vegging plants but my plant is a little on the small side. I guess if any sign of nute burn ill hold back but just wanted your oppinion since you had experience with PBP

p.s. how do i rep someone on this forum?

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I started out going by the grow schedule (midsize/mature) for veg, but no longer do. I run a continuous harvest and don't have room for two different veg systems. So, I run the mix for mature plants only. I have 2 fresh seedlings, of a new strain I'm trying, growing right along side my clones in full strength solution. They don't seem to mind. I also have Cayenne and Habanero peppers growing in the same system. That's kinda strange, I know, but I like peppers.

Not sure about the rep points. They have changed the website format sence the last time I was on. Maybe has somthing to do with the little star of david at the bottom of the persons post.

I enjoy fixing computers as well and have tons of spare parts, so im gonna mess around with that and see what i come up with and post it here.

Glad you mentioned the peppers cause i was thinking about growing some sort of vegetable along my MJ. Habanero peppers were in mind. Ive just been so interested in dwc that id like to see how other plants react compared to weed.

As soon as i find out how to rep id be happy to rep everyone who replied

right on i seen they had these little pre made buckett systems for like 49.99 at the hydro store and i have been wanting to see one in action im stoked.....subscribed

View attachment 1063836View attachment 1063837 Hey man I had the same issue with water temps so this is what I did. I took a cooler and drilled 2 holes in the lid and coiled up a bunch of hose in the cooler. I have a pump in the res pumping water through the hose in the cooler and back into the res. It keeps the water nice and chilly and you can adjust temps by adding/removing frozen water bottles from the cooler. I gotta say it works great!

Nice design Juicebox, although im short in space, i could use this for future grows once i move into my house. This is awesome, because in your design, the waterbottles arent floating around the roots, which in my situation could damage them! +rep!

Alright guys so i found a way for taking hot air out of my grow closet. I Took off the light in my closet and it left a 4 inch hole so i figured thats where id let the hot air vent out through.

I made a card board tube and put a pc fan on the bottom of it, wired it to a 12v 500mA power adapter. I stuck the other end into the hole on my ceiling and it blows the circulating air in my closet upward into the attic.

I was thinking about building another one for the ceiling of my grow box that houses my plant in my closet. That way the air flows out of the top of the box, into the other fan tube into the ceiling.
This is just a temporary solution until i can buy an inline fan, which is $150.00 at my local hydro shop.

Here's how shes (hopefully she) doing:

Cool, let us know how much it helps. They don't move a whole lot of air, but it should help some in the small space you're growing.

Ive noticed temps have dropped form an average of high 90's to around 86 87 degrees.
I also added a http://www.honeywellcentral.com/product/0-92926-34306-4.html to increase my humidity. A bucket of water next to the fan wasnt cutting it. I was at 35% humidity. Ill post the change in humidity next time i update

Standupp said:

Its been a week. the roots have grown 2 inches from the bottom of the net pot. Should i start lowering the res water level? Looks green and happy to me with the water level touching the bottom of the net pot, but ive heard when the roots get bigger they must not be submerged all the way, hence lowering the res. water level. Is this true?

Temp 85
pH 6
ppm 260

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I think you need to lower your water just a little you dont wont have your net pots touch the water at no time at all!! Your airstone will create enough bubble slpash to get your roots going heres a few pics first is like 1-2 weeks 2nd is 4wks https://www.rollitup.org/members/dr-green-dre-250153-albums-dwc-soil-picture1018455-photo-0017.jpg View attachment 1065955
dnt have the first pic saved ,but its in my album..
roots likenice and heatlhy,dring a 3rd of the res a day (20ltr) , i only used H&G root exl and super thrive for first 3 weeks .
Im keepin it between 0.4-1.1 in veg 1.1-1.5 Maybe 1.7 in bloom
the strains cheese (uk dank), as you can see all these roots came out the bottom only ones coming out the side dnt know if this is cause i grew my cutts with long roots that touched the bott of the net pet..



only read the first paage before postin..lol.. anyway its looking good stand up

dr green dre said:

I think you need to lower your water just a little you dont wont have your net pots touch the water at no time at all!! Your airstone will create enough bubble slpash to get your roots going heres a few pics first is like 1-2 weeks 2nd is 4wks https://www.rollitup.org/members/dr-green-dre-250153-albums-dwc-soil-picture1018455-photo-0017.jpg View attachment 1065955
dnt have the first pic saved ,but its in my album..
roots likenice and heatlhy,dring a 3rd of the res a day (20ltr) , i only used H&G root exl and super thrive for first 3 weeks .
Im keepin it between 0.4-1.1 in veg 1.1-1.5 Maybe 1.7 in bloom
the strains cheese (uk dank), as you can see all these roots came out the bottom only ones coming out the side dnt know if this is cause i grew my cutts with long roots that touched the bott of the net pet..



only read the first paage before postin..lol.. anyway its looking good stand up

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I hate to disagree, but your information is false. I have seen as well as personally witnessed many grows from start to finish where people have kept their net pots submerged throughout the entire grow. As long as your water is properly oxygenated the roots will be perfectly fine and healthy. I personally like to keep my net pots submerged until my roots get a good ways into the water, then i slowly lower throughout the grow.

Click the star below the persons pic, right beside Journal this post to give rep.