HBBum Going Hydro - F*cking Incredible OG

Took some time off and waited for temps to cool down. Now I am back at it and decided to give full hydro a shot.



Setup:

Took a couple DWC kits and put together a recirculating top drop system. Consists of 2 X 5 gallon grow buckets and a 5 gallon reservoir. Each bucket has a 3/4" tube going in about 1/2" up from the bottom on the side. The res has a water pump that goes to drip rings in each of the grow buckets. The res bucket also has 2 air stones to keep the water full of oxygen. Not sure if I want to move these stones to the grow buckets and keep a separate air pump to pump into the res, I am open to suggestions but will keep an eye for now since the roots will take some time before they will actually be reaching the water in the grow buckets.



Grow rings:


The res:


The full setup:

On to the grow. Full hydro this time, which is completely foreign territory for me, all past of been soil, and latest all organic so this should be interesting for me.

The strain:
Fucking Incredible OG - Full indica

Got every set up in the tent put mild nutrient solution in the water, clones are in 1" rock wool cubes in the hydroton getting a steady flow 24x7 from the grow rings. Both had beautiful little roots poking out of the cubes.

5Gallons of water total
5ml GH Micro
5ml GH Gro
5ml GH Bloom
2ml GH Flora+
2ml Cal/Mag

PH: 5.8
PPM: 554

Temps: H:81 L:66

Day 0:




The ring is pretty far from the cubes, I hope they get enough water to keep the cubes from drying out. For now I have them under a little 90w LED UFO, will switch to a 600 in about a week, once I am confident that the roots are finding water and they will not dry out.

I welcome any and all suggestions/comments or general nonsense

First 24 hours

Water level dropped about 1"
Temps stayed about the same 66-82F
pH went from 5.8 to 6.8 (hoping I just did a shitty job of rinsing the clay)
ppm went UP to 580

Added the water, readjusted pH to 5.6

I'm definitely going to watch this one...I know you grow some dank.. .

Thanks Dlf, good to see you still around. Do you have a grow going?

Just trying my hand at hydro, I have wanted to since the beginning, finally put something together that I hope will work with my travel schedule.

hbbum said:

Thanks Dlf, good to see you still around. Do you have a grow going?

Just trying my hand at hydro, I have wanted to since the beginning, finally put something together that I hope will work with my travel schedule.

Click to expand...

I just started a Pineapple Chunk scrog grow.Haven't really started a grow journal on her yet but I probably will..I'm going to put her in flower this week I think .... .

Let me know if you start it, would love to follow along. I checked my water again this morning and the pH crept up to 6.1, I adjusted again this time to 5.8 and the PPM crept up to 618 from 580. Next time I will run the pots a few days empty before putting anything in.

Added 5ml of StressZyme+ to the res last night. I hope that will protect from any slime building up. I will also be wrapping some reflectix around the grow buckets, since I can see the water levels from the outside, that means they are certainly allowing light to get into the buckets. I may get the spray on plastic instead, will decide later today.

Topped off the water, surprised at how much it goes down daily considering they cannot be drinking that much. I wrapped the buckets in reflectix to keep light out of them, I will also be putting reflectix over the hydroton to keep light off of it and hope that it keeps water from evaporating as quickly. Readjusted the ph from 6.2 to 5.6

Will post new pics once I have put the reflectix on top.

'subbed' up brother

Welcome aboard.

Wrapped and covered my grow buckets, should block any light from getting into the buskers and keep the water cooler I think:

nice insulation

It's super shiny, I can only imagine how much it will hurt to look in there when I fire up the 600. I really wish there was a way to see what the roots are doing, I can't tell if they are reaching out or not. I suppose I will just need to wait until they start coming out of the 10" net pots.

I got another air pump today, will have 2 large stones in the res and 1 large stone in each grow bucket. That should keep enough air flowing.

hbbum said:

First 24 hours

Water level dropped about 1"
Temps stayed about the same 66-82F
pH went from 5.8 to 6.8 (hoping I just did a shitty job of rinsing the clay)
ppm went UP to 580

Added the water, readjusted pH to 5.6

Click to expand...

Im gonna give you a piece of hydro advice that is invaluable!!!

Always bubble fresh nute mixes in an external res for 24 hours. An airstone and pump will keep nutes fresh until PH has settled.

Most nutrients react with ions in the water and creep up until they balance themselves out. Never add ph adjust until this process is done. I know if i bubbke for 48 hours, my nute setup creeps .3 on the third day, so after 48 hours i adjust .3 lower than targeted ph and add to system. After that its a solid 6.0 until the plant downs it.

You will see far better results changing nutes this way. 2 days of ph flux per watering can kose you up to 2 weeks of optimum growth brotha

Thanks, I have a res change Monday and will keep that in mind.

I have a res tank that sited outside of the tent with a pump that goes to the drip rings in the grow buckets. The grow buckets have .75 in tubing to drain back to the res, since they are elevated. I can dump the res and drain it all and keep a fourth bucket to prep for the res changes. It was more complicated to set up, but I wanted to be able to be gone for a few days, and limit having to move the grow buckets.

External res:

I do wish I had gone with the square buckets, but it works for now. I have a fourth bucket that I am currently bubbling nutrients in for the res change on Monday.

25ml Gro
20ml Micro
13ml bloom
2.5ml Flora+

unadjusted water is 887ppm and 6.7ph, will see how that holds.

hydroMD said:

Im gonna give you a piece of hydro advice that is invaluable!!!

Always bubble fresh nute mixes in an external res for 24 hours. An airstone and pump will keep nutes fresh until PH has settled.

Most nutrients react with ions in the water and creep up until they balance themselves out. Never add ph adjust until this process is done. I know if i bubbke for 48 hours, my nute setup creeps .3 on the third day, so after 48 hours i adjust .3 lower than targeted ph and add to system. After that its a solid 6.0 until the plant downs it.

You will see far better results changing nutes this way. 2 days of ph flux per watering can kose you up to 2 weeks of optimum growth brotha

Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for this advice. After just 4 hours, the water I had bubbling prepping for the res change went from 6.7 to 7.5 which definitely accounts for what I saw on my first res and has thought was from me not rinsing my hydroton thoroughly. I won't be able to do a full 48 hours this time since I need to go out of town tomorrow, do you think I should adjust to 5.0 or 5.2 since I will only be able to bubble for 24 hours?

hbbum said:

Wow, thanks for this advice. After just 4 hours, the water I had bubbling prepping for the res change went from 6.7 to 7.5 which definitely accounts for what I saw on my first res and has thought was from me not rinsing my hydroton thoroughly. I won't be able to do a full 48 hours this time since I need to go out of town tomorrow, do you think I should adjust to 5.0 or 5.2 since I will only be able to bubble for 24 hours?

Click to expand...

I've never tried bubbling the solution for a day or two, if it works for you that's awesome.
Just another alternative for you, adding silicate will stabilize your ph pretty well. Dynagro Pro-tekt ideally as it's more concentrated than say silica blast.
Here's my grow notes for an example using protekt an DG Bloom; one week into flower :
Blue city diesel 10/3:
Ppm 568 ph 6.0; 28" tall this was after fresh nute change.
10/4: ppm 435 ph 6.1; 29" tall.
Today ph should not be higher than 6.3 tops. GL an glad to see you giving hydro a shot.