I give up, this is not for me...

Dapper_Dillinger

Well-Known Member
I overwater plants in soil without trying, that is why I tried DWC. I read that the 3part (2part) GH nutrients are slight better than the Maxibloom. I have no problem mixing them, I would assume Maxibloom would give me the same results. Also the time investment.... I get bud for free, I just tried growing for fun, but it turns out not to be fun when you dial in everything people tell you to and it just doesn't work. But thanks for your response.
Try coco where you have to water every day your already set up fucking a1 i wish i had your set up bro dont give you need persistence and determination there are alot of other grow methods try hempy buckets or Alaska buckets but i can see you have passion and you have done it before. I know how you feel. I paid top dollar for clones then got fucking spider mites. I felt throwing my tent in thrash and i felt bad for my self for 2 seconds then i said fuck that and went to war with them bitches
 

hotrodharley

Well-Known Member
The huge benefit to soil or soil/peat or even Pro Mix straight is the ability to water heavily and leave town for a few days.

Hydro hard? There’s a guy here in Alaska with multiple cheap styrofoam coolers with the lid set sideways across the top and a hole in the top with a tomato plant in it. Absolutely no aeration whatsoever. Green algae all over the solution but by Jesus he had tomatoes and a helluva lot of them. His solution gets low he mixes up a batch and tops it off. Talk about keeping it simple. If I hadn’t seen it I’d doubt that story. Blew my mind and I left with two plastic bags of ripe tomatoes. In Alaska growing in a car shelter from Sam’s Club.
 

Dapper_Dillinger

Well-Known Member
Unfortunately I can't grow worth a shit in soil. Same as op it sounds like. My first full cycle was dwc. Followed feed chart for the gh trio series and was using tap. Never checked my ppms and maybe checked my ph every water change. I've got very hard water. How is soil easier for someone who can't grow in soil?
Fair enough
 

OneSickBastard

Active Member
Just an update after 16 hours (4 of those dark) after dimming the light to 60%, I see the flower at the tops along with growth :) See pic

Maybe its just stretch, but its better than nothing. I've seen a lot of tutorials but never came across yours. I guess I over looked:

"Get to know your specific lighting's penetration, sweetspot, and distance recommendations. "

I never used an LED this intense I guess. I went from a 150W to a 315 LEC last grow and the plant became nearly 5' tall immediately. I assumed plant of the same size could handle an LED of half the power at the same stage. I guess LED is a whole different animal.
Nice. I'd turn down the lights even more and give your plants a couple of days to recover and slowly turn the intensity back up as your plants show they can handle it.
 

ale62

New Member
Don't give up. I have passed through the same. Actually I quit. I left everything "bye bye this is not for me". I also sent a leaving card to my collaborators.
Don't do that. I regretted it. I lost 4 years and than with another business partner I started again. I wish I never quit.
You can do this. Believe a fool.
 

Dontjudgeme

Well-Known Member
I want to start saying thanks to those who tried helping me, but I have a K deficient thumb and realize I will never be able to grow any plant in my life.

Today I'm chopping down my 420fastbuds autoflower. Growth has been stunted for a week now. I made a bunch of mistakes my first grow and corrected nearly all my mistakes with this second grow, but somehow it ended up... worse.

My first grow produced buds, but the autoflower giant (Big Bertha I called her) ended up 5' tall getting scorched by my 315 LEC. She may have also been over fed (full Lucas formula 0-8-16) since she was drinking so much from the intense light. I got A LOT of extracts off her to supply me for a long time so at least it wasn't a complete waste.

This second grow I ended up end gradually raising the nutrients to full lucas of 0-5-10 which she is at right now at ~600ppm being full week 5 today. Also bought a fancy HTG LED light to help me control light intensity and gives me more head room in case she turns into another giant. I also have a fancy ph meter along with a cheap one calibrated with all the nice calibration liquids. She has been sitting at 5.9 the whole time. Temperature has been 72-74 during the day and 68 at night. 40% humidity and the root appear to look great besides the discoloring that GH nutrients do to the roots.

Everyone says "ph issues" but sadly that is far from what is wrong. Being an analytical person, when I dial in the specifications needed to grow in DWC and things go south, I just have to give up. There is nothing else I can do, lucas formula works for people so I know its not that, GH nutrients work for people, so I know its not that. My only option would be to do something that is out of specifications which wouldn't make much sense.

Maybe I live in an area which a strong magnetic field, or maybe prone to solar flares. or maybe the stars awkwardly align in a way that makes plants unable to grow (which would explain all my grass and trees in my yard. Used RO water with calmag the whole time, so I know its not my water supply.

Sorry for the rant, mainly just here to say thanks, and that this community seems alright, it's just not for me. Pictures are before being chopped (Day 33). They looked like this for a week with no change even though they are drinking about a quarter gallon and the ppms drop maybe 30ppm a day. Looking at Growdiaries, even soil grow of this same strain had flowers at this point.

Anyone want a HTG LED light or a LEC? I'll give them away cheap (at least pay more than it cost to ship them).
You don’t seem to have given up all hope just yet. Although you did say you did it just for the fun of it, and the fact that you get medicine for free doesn’t exactly push you to succeed either. However, failing doesn’t mean the end of the world. Imagine had you been successful the first 4-5 runs, and then landed in the seat you’re in now, I’m sure your feelings would be a lot different. You have had the opportunity to learn from things not working from the beginning, vs being clueless as to why all of a sudden things aren’t working at all now. I know it can be a bit discouraging to scroll through post and see all of these beautiful plants on growers first runs, and that’s ok, because when they eventually run into an issue, and it’s not a matter of if but when, you will be ahead of the curve because you already learned how to crawl out of the holes they will inevitably fall in.

DWC culture wasn’t for me neither, and I learned that the hard way, especially coming from someone that only grew hydroponically back day in the day, I was completely baffled on my inability to make it work. Some people just have a natural hack to make plants thrive with it, I unfortunately wasn’t one of them, and quickly switched to soil and never went back. It may be time to lay the almighty DWC GOD to rest, and try something new, you may unlock a green thumb you never knew existed. It took me a long time to realize that’s it not always about what works, but why it works. Understand the why, and will see failure in the rear view mirror getting further and further away. You got this, keep at it!!

Happy growing.
 

rockethoe

Well-Known Member
I'll add my vote for the soil grow route. Far easier imo for a beginner particularly. In a post legalisation world I see less and less reasons to use different complex systems, when soil works really really well.
 

Jkooper

Active Member
You don’t seem to have given up all hope just yet. Although you did say you did it just for the fun of it, and the fact that you get medicine for free doesn’t exactly push you to succeed either. However, failing doesn’t mean the end of the world. Imagine had you been successful the first 4-5 runs, and then landed in the seat you’re in now, I’m sure your feelings would be a lot different. You have had the opportunity to learn from things not working from the beginning, vs being clueless as to why all of a sudden things aren’t working at all now. I know it can be a bit discouraging to scroll through post and see all of these beautiful plants on growers first runs, and that’s ok, because when they eventually run into an issue, and it’s not a matter of if but when, you will be ahead of the curve because you already learned how to crawl out of the holes they will inevitably fall in.

DWC culture wasn’t for me neither, and I learned that the hard way, especially coming from someone that only grew hydroponically back day in the day, I was completely baffled on my inability to make it work. Some people just have a natural hack to make plants thrive with it, I unfortunately wasn’t one of them, and quickly switched to soil and never went back. It may be time to lay the almighty DWC GOD to rest, and try something new, you may unlock a green thumb you never knew existed. It took me a long time to realize that’s it not always about what works, but why it works. Understand the why, and will see failure in the rear view mirror getting further and further away. You got this, keep at it!!

Happy growing.
It's not a whole lot of free medicine, but it's enough to to always have some for myself. I have a techy background so DWC sounded fun. I think it's the time sink if things go wrong for me. I'd love to have 4 plants going and trying different things with them and see which ones do what, but in my case they would have been light stressed lol. Maybe I'll try coco next, but currently the plant looks great after dimming the light.

It's taking my max feeding ok. So if it's anything like my last grow I just check ppms everyday and add either food or water. At this point this is where I see DWC being really easy.

That thing has the ability to SMASH the 315. So yes your theory is right. Your light is spread MUCH bettter then a single bulb of any kind.
You sure? I'm a little skeptical.

I bought it for the spread and dimmability. My 315 was a BEAST, the reflector sucks but I thought the bulb was bright. I don't have a reliable way of measuring light, but I thought the 315 was one of the brighter lights per watt?

I'll post a update pic on the first day of week 6.
 

getogrow

Well-Known Member
You sure? I'm a little skeptical.

I bought it for the spread and dimmability. My 315 was a BEAST, the reflector sucks but I thought the bulb was bright. I don't have a reliable way of measuring light, but I thought the 315 was one of the brighter lights per watt?

I'll post a update pic on the first day of week 6.
No reason to be skeptical. Im 100% positive. You are right though,....the 315 is one of the better bulbs out there but it doesnt come close to a 300 watt good led like you have. Sure the one hotspot on the bulb is brighter then the hotspot on your leds but the overall light is much brighter.
Example: There is a 1ftx1ft directly under the 315 that is brighter then your leds but soon as you get outside that little 1x1 area your light is half of what the leds are.
The best tip i ever got for switching to led was to keep it dim until you are used to it. I have never came close to 2ft above the canopy yet.... its too bright compared to hps so i have to keep them high and dimmed.
 

Jkooper

Active Member
No reason to be skeptical. Im 100% positive. You are right though,....the 315 is one of the better bulbs out there but it doesnt come close to a 300 watt good led like you have. Sure the one hotspot on the bulb is brighter then the hotspot on your leds but the overall light is much brighter.
Example: There is a 1ftx1ft directly under the 315 that is brighter then your leds but soon as you get outside that little 1x1 area your light is half of what the leds are.
The best tip i ever got for switching to led was to keep it dim until you are used to it. I have never came close to 2ft above the canopy yet.... its too bright compared to hps so i have to keep them high and dimmed.
I have 52k lux at the top right now. That's probably excluding the red LED's. Here are pictures from today day 43. I've never defoliated before, I don't want to harm it more than I already have.
 

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SpideyManDan

Well-Known Member
Ive only read the first page so far, but please dont give up buddy. It really does get easier with time and practice. I read you were doing a DWC system, i would really suggest against doing that as soil is the best for newbies like ourselves.

edit: after reading more, im super happy you decided to keep going. If its any consolation, i grew a bunch of shitty bag seeds i had just to literally get growing down with out the heavy feeling of responsibility in not wanting to fuck it up because, you know, weed.
 
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DoubleAtotheRON

Well-Known Member
(OP) I hope you've heeded some great advise here. It's alot easier in soil. I see a lot of "helicopter growers" that literally try to watch their plants grow, and if they see the slightest yellowing, they start throwing a bunch of shit at it making it worse. They do go through some growing pains sometimes and that's nothing to worry too much about. I've had better luck just doing nothing most of the time. As for watering/feeding, just remember they like a dry/wet cycle. I've poked a meter in many that have read like zero on the meter, but they were standing tall like a huge boner. Once they have reached roots to the full pot, you cannot over water (at one time) you can literally pour 25 gallons in a 5 gallon pot IF it's ready, and you're not going to hurt it. Just wait for it to fully dry before doing a good soaking with a good amount of run off. Clear your head, and get back at it!
 

Frank Nitty

Well-Known Member
You have to keep growing because that's the only way to dial in your technique... That's where I am, trying to figure out what to use and how much... My plants are looking crazy right now, but I'll get them back on track this week!!! Don't give up the ship!!!
 

DoubleAtotheRON

Well-Known Member
I have 52k lux at the top right now. That's probably excluding the red LED's. Here are pictures from today day 43. I've never defoliated before, I don't want to harm it more than I already have.
Don't be afraid to really get in there and Edward Siccorhands the shit out of them.. If they're healthy, you'll be doing it again in a couple of weeks. You gotta get some air flow going in that canopy. Trim off (with sharp sterilized fiskars) all the shading fan leafs, and lower crap that's not going to produce much anyways. This will focus all the growth energy towards the top. To little airflow through the canopy is an invitation to WPM, bud rot in later development. We just defoiled yesterday with 90 plants in week 6 of veg, and we tossed 2 large trash bags of larf, fans, undergrowth.... and we'll be doing it again before the flip. This will be about the time I'll take clones of good looking potential mothers.
 

ZeeeDoc

Well-Known Member
Quitters never win, winners never quit. Every single grower will run into problems, it part and parcel of growing. DWC is for more advanced growers, soil is the way forward for you, it’s more forgiving. You mentioned about overwatering in soil, if you can dial that in, your half way there. Soil has enough food in it to last for a good few weeks so if you time your repots you won’t need to worry about nutrients until at least early flower.
 
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