First DWC grow

Bigz2277 said:

Yellowing of middle of leaves spreading outwards sounds like a def to me. What ratios you running n-p-k wise?

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3-1-5 I think...Yeah it looks poopy. The first true node is all whiteish yellow now and burnt and crispy. The bubba is coming along finally. Hasn't taken off yet but I think its about to. The FCJ is going to be a bushy girl, her stalk is nice and thick too, I like this strain and it was the lone freebie I got. I'm questioning how much it'd effect its flowering if I took like 5 clones off it pre-flower.

Someguy15 said:

Hungry on the first 2. The FCJ looks great tho. Overall I think your doing pretty good. Couple more weeks prob be flower ready. if that pe has roots poking through you should start hardening it off (ie slowly opening vents) and then get it in a bucket asap. The faster you do, the less it will root in that terrible RW and the less headaches you will have lol

First pic looks like cal def. 2nd plant looks pretty good, just a lil droopy some are just finicky at this size.

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How much calmag should I be giving them at this stage. I'm using 1ml/gal at the moment, think you said to use that much, could I bump it to 2ml/gal next res change, which will probably be Monday.

And I put the growstones rinsing over night for the PE. So that should be going in the buckets in a few days. With not nearly as many roots as the others did, but I think they'll be fine. Theres about 4 roots poking out, one with branching. I cracked the dome a few days agos. Man you hate this RW

What were you running your PE on at this stage? Just the first set of leaves. I'm running .2EC but i'm not sure if its too strong.

firsttimeARE said:

3-1-5 I think...Yeah it looks poopy. The first true node is all whiteish yellow now and burnt and crispy. The bubba is coming along finally. Hasn't taken off yet but I think its about to. The FCJ is going to be a bushy girl, her stalk is nice and thick too, I like this strain and it was the lone freebie I got. I'm questioning how much it'd effect its flowering if I took like 5 clones off it pre-flower.



How much calmag should I be giving them at this stage. I'm using 1ml/gal at the moment, think you said to use that much, could I bump it to 2ml/gal next res change, which will probably be Monday.

And I put the growstones rinsing over night for the PE. So that should be going in the buckets in a few days. With not nearly as many roots as the others did, but I think they'll be fine. Theres about 4 roots poking out, one with branching. I cracked the dome a few days agos. Man you hate this RW

What were you running your PE on at this stage? Just the first set of leaves. I'm running .2EC but i'm not sure if its too strong.

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That's fine seedlings don't need much feed. Just follow what you did before, ramp up slowly every week or two depending on growth. As for cal-mag you could go up to 2ml/gal without problem at this stage for your larger plants.

2nd on cal mag. i use 2ml/gal

I used to use calmag religiously and knew when I didn't use it no matter what nutrient line I was on... Then I started with Dynagro line and stopped using it as "dyna" states complete nutrition. I wanted to test that claim, and yep no more need for calmag.

Me myself like a nute line that covers most if not all the "additives" I needed with non-dyna brand nutes.

Day 40 from germ:

FCJ - 5.8/.68EC ----> 5.8/.9EC - Looks fantastic, some of the older bigger leaves are tilting down because just the middle leaf on them is 7 inches long and 2-3inches wide. Lol. Some huge leaves.
Bubba 76 - 5.8/.84EC ----> 5.8/.85EC - Not drooping anymore and leaves are getting bigger
Veneno - 5.7/.73EC ----> 5.8/.75EC - Starting to get a lot bigger leaves, but they're twisted a bit and deformed.

Changed the res's. Didn't clean the airstones or the hoses, just filled up a new bucket and brought it up to the correct feed(gave each bucket 6ml of calmag and grow till desired EC) and PHed down and transferred. So some foam went off into the new res. I figure it wasn't anything bad so it couldnt hurt. I read that people only clean there stones and hoses between harvests. Plus I cleaned the stones and hoses last res change and still ended up with foam again.

Put the airstones from last grow in about 4 parts water to 1 part 30% h2o2. Started fizzing right away. I'll take them out tomorrow and boil em.

Tomorrow I need to start more tea(the batch I made last week smelled funny) and start the bucket for my Pineapple Express. Rinsed the stones saturday and just now emptied out the bucket, but didn't have enough time to start it.

Day 42 from germ:

Noticing brown foam that very dry looking on the edges of the Bubba 76. Haven't started a new batch of tea or the PE bucket yet. Been so drained lately after work.



Bubba 76 - Starting to catch up, brown foam has me worrying I took a swipe of it and put it up to my nose, doesn't smell like anything. Haven't put tea in almost 2 weeks, and if I start tea today it will be 13 days exactly until I can get more in. The roots are also browning more now that I raised the water level, before just the part in the water was browning, now its moving up. I think i'm going to put some aquashield in at 10ml/gal so about 30ml per bucket.



Fruity Chronic Juice - Same thing with the browning of roots moving up due to moving water level up



Veneno - Leaves are getting bigger. Didnt take a root shot I guess



Pineapple Express - Week 2 today, slow growing.



Group shot to show size differences

Back is FCJ
Front from left to right is Veneno, Bubba 76, and pineapple express on the tray.

Looking good, man I really think you should move the water to bottom of net or at max 1" below period at this stage. They need the uptake and all roots sucking as much as they can, but that's my findings and never an issue as you seen my roots.

Edit: oops just read that you are getting browning you shouldn't unless you have something staining the roots.

Yeah i'm not sure really. The water is about 2 inches below maybe a bit less since they drank like a half inch.

The buckets smell fine and the roots feel clean not slimey or anything even in the tan spots. I put 15ml of aquashield in the buckets until my tea is done, brewing it right now shall be done saturday evening. Got a bucket going of .2EC solution and soaking my stones in it, PE should be good by saturday the latest. Hopefully no stunting and it takes off.

Not sure if im going to wait on flowering the other three so the PE can catch up. I'm hoping on not stunting it any and it takes off and is flower ready in a few weeks. The others will be about 1.5ft by then giving me about 4-5ft of plant.

I just dont wanna have my 600w HPS going and my 324w t5's going at the same time. And I have 8ft ceilings so I think height won't be an issue.

Is it normal to see tiny pieces of roots on the sides of your buckets? Like not a ton but a few here and there, like half inch long.

firsttimeARE said:

Yeah i'm not sure really. The water is about 2 inches below maybe a bit less since they drank like a half inch.

The buckets smell fine and the roots feel clean not slimey or anything even in the tan spots. I put 15ml of aquashield in the buckets until my tea is done, brewing it right now shall be done saturday evening. Got a bucket going of .2EC solution and soaking my stones in it, PE should be good by saturday the latest. Hopefully no stunting and it takes off.

Not sure if im going to wait on flowering the other three so the PE can catch up. I'm hoping on not stunting it any and it takes off and is flower ready in a few weeks. The others will be about 1.5ft by then giving me about 4-5ft of plant.

I just dont wanna have my 600w HPS going and my 324w t5's going at the same time. And I have 8ft ceilings so I think height won't be an issue.

Is it normal to see tiny pieces of roots on the sides of your buckets? Like not a ton but a few here and there, like half inch long.

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Yes I always have root bits floating, as my air pump is bigger then I need and the roots are sometimes blasted with air so roots sometimes will shear off. I have never noticed any issues with it, and there is more then a few in there, so don't worry.

Yeah I think thats the problem, they love my air stones. I check res move air stones away and the roots just end up wrapped around them some more. Roots aren't bushing a lot like some peoples do. They have like one area they're coming out of and just grow long into the buckets. Probably like 3 feet long now.

They're eating up the nutes like crazy. FCJ is already at .7EC from .9. Think it needs 1.0 EC now. The veneno is down to .6 I think from .75. Time for .85 for that one, its leaves exploded in growth. The bubba 76 is exploding currently too. But I think the .85EC I gave it is fine for now.

How should I add back more nutes? Just do a res change? Cause im not going to know what ratios it ate from the solution so I might add more of some nutrients depending on if it drank less of that nute.

If the aqua shield doesn't work try using some h2o2, 3% 3ml per gallon

That could be nute staining though

firsttimeARE said:

Yeah I think thats the problem, they love my air stones. I check res move air stones away and the roots just end up wrapped around them some more. Roots aren't bushing a lot like some peoples do. They have like one area they're coming out of and just grow long into the buckets. Probably like 3 feet long now.

They're eating up the nutes like crazy. FCJ is already at .7EC from .9. Think it needs 1.0 EC now. The veneno is down to .6 I think from .75. Time for .85 for that one, its leaves exploded in growth. The bubba 76 is exploding currently too. But I think the .85EC I gave it is fine for now.

How should I add back more nutes? Just do a res change? Cause im not going to know what ratios it ate from the solution so I might add more of some nutrients depending on if it drank less of that nute.

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Yes add solution with nutes or best to just change them out. With buckets you wanna change em every 4-5 days prob when the plants start getting big.

I would stick with the tea and aqua shield. Trying to go sterile after using benes is a recipe for a mess. Still no scent? The roots aren't falling off right? Don't worry about it. Also the roots will continue to grow long until they are obstructed. Alternatively you could root prune them to encourage branching. Just take the bottom 1/2" off and that will stimulate it to branch. But not a requirement, I think your doing great this round. The fact that they are demanding 1ec in veg means they are healthy... and ready to flower pretty soon. How tall are they now? I'd guess you should be setting up flower plans in the next couple weeks here. Don't want them too big, they tend to explode in size when u switch to 12/12.

Your roots look great, I am in veg week 3 and mine have a slight darkening especially the parts exposed to air but growth is healthy, reservoir is clear no smells. Yours look better than mine but mine are clones. Also my fox farm nutes are colored so I figured that might be why. Your roots in the water look white to clear and very prolific, same as mine. I change once a week and have not seen any major shock to the plants. I love how fast they grow in hydro. Love the aquashield my hydro store guys swear by it and now so do I.

Day 46 from germ
Day 27 in buckets


Day 46(L): Back - Veneno, FCJ -- Front - Bubba 76, PE
Day 42(R): Back - FCJ -- Front - Veneno, Bubba 76, PE

Camera died and all I could snap was a group photo.

Veneno is short at 7 inches taken into account for the bucket its in
Bubba 76 and FCJ are at 9 inches

I wouldn't mind having bigger plants. like 4ft 5ft max. So maybe 1.5ft veg or 1 weeks max and switch to veg. I don't want to wait forever, but I also want a good enough yield to not have to buy any herb until next batch which will involve cloning so it might take a while to get the learning curve down.

Someguy15 said:

Yes add solution with nutes or best to just change them out. With buckets you wanna change em every 4-5 days prob when the plants start getting big.

I would stick with the tea and aqua shield. Trying to go sterile after using benes is a recipe for a mess. Still no scent? The roots aren't falling off right? Don't worry about it. Also the roots will continue to grow long until they are obstructed. Alternatively you could root prune them to encourage branching. Just take the bottom 1/2" off and that will stimulate it to branch. But not a requirement, I think your doing great this round. The fact that they are demanding 1ec in veg means they are healthy... and ready to flower pretty soon. How tall are they now? I'd guess you should be setting up flower plans in the next couple weeks here. Don't want them too big, they tend to explode in size when u switch to 12/12.

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Brewed more this weekend and put a 1-2cups per bucket today. Still no scent. some pieces come off if I feel the roots to see if they're slimey or not. They always feel clean but today I noticed a few strands of root on my hand and I notice some on the sides of the buckets.

Doing a res change tomorrow as that marks a week. Upping the feeds a bit.

Thanks, it's good having a relaxed attitude in the room. Before I was so worried about everything being sterile. Still not a slob, but definitely mellowed out my workload. Still handwash buckets every res change. I think that will stop tomorrow though.

noneed4me2 said:

Your roots look great, I am in veg week 3 and mine have a slight darkening especially the parts exposed to air but growth is healthy, reservoir is clear no smells. Yours look better than mine but mine are clones. Also my fox farm nutes are colored so I figured that might be why. Your roots in the water look white to clear and very prolific, same as mine. I change once a week and have not seen any major shock to the plants. I love how fast they grow in hydro. Love the aquashield my hydro store guys swear by it and now so do I.

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Thanks I was just using it in a pinch because my tea wasn't brewed/ready.

My nutes are green though. I really think it was the EWC that came out of the sock I used. I used a legging this time with much better results and I didn't pour out the bottom part of the bucket which had all the gunk in it last time.

Yeah, hold out for the PEs roots to hit the water and stuff. Have you ever topped plants before? Looks like all of yours are growing single cola and you could increase yield by topping. Basically you want to just find the growth tip and pop it off. You can even do it with your finger tips. Don't remove a ton of growth, just enough to force the plant to branch out more.

After that let them grow out to 1 or 1.5 ft max and flip the switch. Expect plants to double or triple in size depending on strain. Also a tip, I like to feed veg nutes the first week of flower. Prevents them from going nitrogen def early, and helps the internodes stack a little tighter during the stretch (~14 days of flower).

You don't really want 4ft tall plants because the light can't penetrate that deep. Instead you want to spread them out (think surface area) so topping or scrog techniques are really helpful here.

For clones here's what I recommend. Take them in a dome with the root riots (rapid rooters fine) and mist them and also take some in your aero. That way you double your chances of success. Failures can be tossed easy enough. And worse case, line some seeds up to pop if your clones fail after 21 days.

Ok, so I should only be removing just one set of leaves to top? I read UB's topping guide and it said something like wait till you get 5 nodes and cut down to 2nd node to get like 4 colas or something. I was thinking about doing something like that to increase yields but I don't want to mess these ladies up since things are finally going alright.

I will read up on it more and try it out your way, just one tip shouldn't hurt. I'm not sure on how to scrog and doesn't that increase veg time? These suckers are already going for almost 7 weeks. I will at some point try that way once my plants grow faster and it wont take like 10 weeks to veg them, maybe like 1 screen setup like you have with your 250w waterfarm setup except dwc.

firsttimeARE said:

Ok, so I should only be removing just one set of leaves to top? I read UB's topping guide and it said something like wait till you get 5 nodes and cut down to 2nd node to get like 4 colas or something. I was thinking about doing something like that to increase yields but I don't want to mess these ladies up since things are finally going alright.

I will read up on it more and try it out your way, just one tip shouldn't hurt. I'm not sure on how to scrog and doesn't that increase veg time? These suckers are already going for almost 7 weeks. I will at some point try that way once my plants grow faster and it wont take like 10 weeks to veg them, maybe like 1 screen setup like you have with your 250w waterfarm setup except dwc.

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They will grow much better when you get everything fine tuned. It's a learning experience.

Uncle ben removes too much of the plant IMO. The more leaf you remove the more you hurts photosynth -> less sugars to roots for growth. So when I top I just get the very top node that's coming out. usually smaller then a fingertip. You can take more, but it will stunt growth more. If you don't top enough you will get a FIM. Which also works. So yeah, just be brave and cut the tips off, you'll see how much it helps make all the other nodes grow.

[video=youtube;KgosxsvGpeE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgosxsvGpeE[/video]
at about 5 mins. He shows how to just remove a tip with fingers.

Thanks SG. Seems simple enough. I'm going to try it today...Is the bending down of node necessary? And the video, that plant was already topped, correct?

I agree with the video grower about topping, and defoliate. I take fan leaves off at day 23 and 43, the buds never slow down and get bigger, juicier then the other guys I know that do DWC and do not defoliate. Although I do go against the grain most time, and usually find different results that all the blind mice follow without trying. Just my take and what works for me.