My First Grow! DIY DWC & Grow Area, SNOW WHITE FEM FROM SEED!

Thanks brother. I have noticed a little bit of spotting on some of the little ones and a very slight bit on the mother. Should I be concerned or assume that everything is okay because the rest of the plant is doing well?


Also, I just made a little rig to get side and bottom lighting for my mother. I am going to keep rotating her daily to get the air flow and the lighting nice and even

tmsculli said:

Roseman, you almost made me blush over the internet sir. I was just looking at the rankings on the board and saw you so high up, and now you are here telling me this.


I really really really appreciate the support and compliments brother. Do you remember where it all started?!?!! Page 1! 5 feminized seeds, then down to 3 sprouts, then down to 2 sprouts, then down to 1.

I ended up having to throw all my eggs in one basket and all my money in to the economy, and then go balls deep haha.


Thank you sir.

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yeah man everytime roseman post in my thread. i get exited and read every detail what she gotta say.. then think for myself. Thanks roseman. you been great for me too. but wish i had plants looking as those.

Pothead, thanks for the kind words brother. Roseman surely is the MAN, and hopefully he will be helping me and many others for plenty of time to come!

Cruzer,

Thanks man I am glad you like the design. It is very simple and cheap. The piece at Home Depot is like 8$ and then I just bent it to shape. It could work really well with two 2x4s on each end going width wise making it a perfect arch and then having the bulb in the middle of them in a cool tube or what have you. If you end up doing it link me some pictures, I would really like to take a look at it.

tmsculli said:

Cruzer,

Thanks man I am glad you like the design. It is very simple and cheap. The piece at Home Depot is like 8$ and then I just bent it to shape. It could work really well with two 2x4s on each end going width wise making it a perfect arch and then having the bulb in the middle of them in a cool tube or what have you. If you end up doing it link me some pictures, I would really like to take a look at it.

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Yea, I was thinking like wings off the cool tube.
I will let you know.

I dot a depot down the street, what is it aluminum?

tmsculli said:

Thanks brother. I have noticed a little bit of spotting on some of the little ones and a very slight bit on the mother. Should I be concerned or assume that everything is okay because the rest of the plant is doing well?


Also, I just made a little rig to get side and bottom lighting for my mother. I am going to keep rotating her daily to get the air flow and the lighting nice and even

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You should be concerned of what is causing the spotting cause it can become a problem that can kill the crop..aslong as the numbers are right.(ph,temp,nute strength,humidity,lighting)you should be straight

Cruzer, yea, I have one right down the street too. I found it with all of the ducting and metal stuff used for ventilation etc. Right next to the ducting converters to get from 4" to 6" etc. I honestly don't know what it is made out of. I would assume aluminum though


Purp, I am a bit concerned, but it does not seem to have spread anywhere. I am checking ph, temps, lighting, and ppm everyday and nothing seems to be far out of the ordinary. It has been a little hot in there lately because I am in the transition stage of Fall for the house. This means no more AC, but not exactly 75* outside either so it's harder to regulate at this point. Nothing crazy though, the temps are still within a very moderate range at all times. It was foolish to wait this long, but I finally started recording my ppm, ph, and water level of the two tanks every day. Hopefully I can get enough data soon to make some good decisions as far as getting nute dosages perfect etc.





Day 31

Okay kids, I have a fun fact for you. I have read around allll over and obviously, especially with CFLs (since heat doesn't become much of a problem), that the more lights the better. Now, that being said, I found a post by ROSEMAN that I found very very interesting. He said something along the lines of this:

"I don't know how many lights I am going to use later, or even now. I have about 12 spares sitting around. My goal is to teach, and show that you can get a good crop from 3 lights, and you can get a good crop from 10."

This statement got me wondering a little about some stuff. Now, a few pages back, you will see that...I believe it's BloatedCraig, but I could be wrong, suggested lining the corners of my grow box with fluorescents of various spectrums. I liked this idea, but I don't have the money or time to spend getting that all together. I didn't do anything about it for a while, but the other day I looked at the mother and noticed that she is beautiful. The top is growing, the leaves are green and happy, but there is some sag and sadness to the lower levels. Noticing this, I grabbed a single socket that I have wired up to a long extension chord. In this I put one bulb splitter, and in each of those, I inserted another bulb splitter. I then put in the 4 bulbs. I have 2 800 lumen 3500k bulbs, and 2 650 lumen 3000k bulbs. I put one of each kind on each side. Now, obviously 360* lighting would be optimum, but I have been rotating her daily to change air flow, and try to get a strong stem and branches all around because the fan is only on one side. So, with this I built a rig that hangs down behind the bucket and gives excellent top to bottom light coverage covering almost exactly half of the plant.


Here is the kicker. Anyone who can spare another 30$ for their grow, that doesn't have surrounding lighting, needs to do it.


I just checked on her and spun her around. In less than 24 hours, the difference in growth and happiness of those lower levels is almost shocking. I happily spun her around a few minutes ago and I am hoping to get the same growth on that side.


I took pictures of the extra lighted side, and the non extra lighted side to show you guys. Sadly, my camera is currently charging, but as soon as it is done I will upload them.

I really urge all cfl growers to do this because in 1 day I saw very visible, tangible growth and health progression.


Pics soon!


Oh, I am also thinking that my bagseeds are 2 sativas and an indica. The one that I thought was the runt, I am starting to think is just an indica-esque kinda plant. The other two are starting to get long and branchy so I am excited to have both spectrums going.

Eeek! Sorry about the giant post guys. God forbid I give you that much text to read with no pictures to make you not care about the long reading. I promise they will be up soon!

So, the pictures don't do the difference much justice. Hopefully it is still a little noticeable for you guys though



Side with no extra lighting:




Extra lighting:





If you look at the farther away shots it is more noticeable. Just even in terms of how wide the stance of it is getting.


Regardless I think she is healthy as a horse. Comments? Questions? Concerns?

Congrats man, plants are looking good.

I'm actually doing a concurrent grow to yours with some seeds I germed on 9.18 and am growing in bubblers - I'll be checking into this thread as a way to track my progress.

That being said, I'm not a noob (but took about ten years off), so a couple of ideas/suggestions, if I may:

1) You're never going to find the max appetite/PPM for your plants without experimenting and taking your nutes up until your plants let you know that they're maxed out - I'm vegging under a 400W, so it's slightly different for me, but I hit them with nutes until the first one of the lot tells me that she's "full" (for instance, I germed 15 seeds of three different varieties, and started 12 in a bubbler at 400PPM and the other three in my cloning bubbler at 1000PPM, just to see what they could take - so far, the cloning seeds are beating the pants off of the conservatively fed seeds, FYI).
2) Recording pH and PPM readings every day is a must, especially for your first grow.
3) I know you're strapped for cash, but IMHO the best purchase that you could make is an HID light (I know others have brought this up, just wanted to emphasize that light is of paramount important for quality smoke).

That's about it, I'm trying to put together an abridged journal somewhat like yours - until then, best of luck to you and your ladies.

Sir Bob, thank you very much for taking a look at my journal. Yea, it has become very apparent to me that a HID is in my future, but not too near. I know it's possible to get good yields under cfls so I want to try it out. I have an arsenal of them, so if anyone can get a good yield out of cfls, I'm hoping it would be me. Depending on how well and organized I get the SOG going I will be able to save my money from work instead of chucking 2/3 of it into bud haha.

Nutes are definitely my weakness in growing. I think it's because it is something that I have to figure out for myself. It's odd that I am having trouble with this, seeing as I usually am not too keen on being told what or how to accomplish something. Regardless, I am not going about it the best way, but I don't think the wrong way either. I have decided that the spots on the little ones are going to spread and that I am burning them a bit. I added a gallon of water to it to try and get the ppms down a bit. I am going to be looking for a bit more perk in them later tonight which I think would be visible if they were being nute-nuked before.

Thanks for taking a look brother and be sure to keep stopping by. Also, when you get it up and running link me your journal so I can check it out.

It's funny looking at the pictures of peoples grow room, there are wires going everywhere. I am a electrician with a bit of OCD (obbsessive compulsive disorder) and all i want do i get the clips and tyraps out and tidy the wires. I swear on my life it is the first thing i look for when someone posts a picture. If the wires aren't right it gets on my tits.

Nice grow man it's coming along well and get those wires sorted out hahahaha.

Haha, the reason I don't have anything sorted out nicely is because I have been moving everything around so much recently I am still in the process of making another relfector hanger hood dealy for the little tank. My damn drill dies after 2 minutes and cant shove a hole saw through a 2x4, POS. So yea, once I get that sorted out, I have another project that is going to take some adjusting and such. I have to get the bottom area ready for 12/12. I have to come up with a brilliant plan to make it pitch haha.


THanks for checking in again craig. Did you ever get your grow back together? I know that for a while you were saying that your shit hit the fan.... did it ever splatter around so that you could scoop it up into a bucket, put a ribbon on it and call it pretty?


Anywho, Day 32, the bitch is HUGE. she is growing like a champion. It is becoming more nad more important now for me to keep check on water levels and such. I have a questions actually. If I just put fresh nutes in recently, and the ppm seems to be decent and holding relatively even, can I just add fresh water (ph'ed of course) to the bucket? I don't want to add water and then have it mess all sorts of things up. I was never sure if I was allowed to add water without doing a full swap out and clean out and new nutes etc.


But yea, she is incredibly tall now, I would say grew over 2" last night


I'm lazy and studying for exams, so.....no pics today =P

Looking awesome in here.

Meister! Good to hear from you brother. I am loving it man. I just keep going in there and I am all smiles. I do have a question though guys. The little ones are a little darker and not looking as perky. Also, like I said before, they are experiencing what I have diagnosed as nute burn. I keep trying to get the ppms down and diluting it out to see how that works out. I was also wondering if I was going to have issues with them being as close together as they are? They are all growing well, but maybe they should be growing faster?

Any ideas?

tmsculli said:

Haha, the reason I don't have anything sorted out nicely is because I have been moving everything around so much recently I am still in the process of making another relfector hanger hood dealy for the little tank. My damn drill dies after 2 minutes and cant shove a hole saw through a 2x4, POS. So yea, once I get that sorted out, I have another project that is going to take some adjusting and such. I have to get the bottom area ready for 12/12. I have to come up with a brilliant plan to make it pitch haha.


THanks for checking in again craig. Did you ever get your grow back together? I know that for a while you were saying that your shit hit the fan.... did it ever splatter around so that you could scoop it up into a bucket, put a ribbon on it and call it pretty?


Anywho, Day 32, the bitch is HUGE. she is growing like a champion. It is becoming more nad more important now for me to keep check on water levels and such. I have a questions actually. If I just put fresh nutes in recently, and the ppm seems to be decent and holding relatively even, can I just add fresh water (ph'ed of course) to the bucket? I don't want to add water and then have it mess all sorts of things up. I was never sure if I was allowed to add water without doing a full swap out and clean out and new nutes etc.


But yea, she is incredibly tall now, I would say grew over 2" last night


I'm lazy and studying for exams, so.....no pics today =P

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Just about pulled it together in the end, got 7 ounce dry off three plants and sold it for 130 a ounce not bad.

Listen though after reading yours and many other DWC grows i think i am swapping from coco to your way, what size container do i need and what size air pump, got a small airpump but dont know if it will do.

Dont think i am going to bother with the feeder tubes and pump i dont thinhk it nessessary.

bloatedcraig said:

Just about pulled it together in the end, got 7 ounce dry off three plants and sold it for 130 a ounce not bad.

Listen though after reading yours and many other DWC grows i think i am swapping from coco to your way, what size container do i need and what size air pump, got a small airpump but dont know if it will do.

Dont think i am going to bother with the feeder tubes and pump i dont thinhk it nessessary.

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Nice, not bad at all for something that you thought was shot to shit.

Are you talking about a container like for multiple plants, or for a mother? For Mothers obviously 5 gallon buckets are the way to go. As far as for multiple plants, like 4 or 5, 18 gallon is the tank of choice. THey don't seem to sell them near me so I was stuck with 2 21 gallons and a 16 gallon. (I messed up a lot and kept remaking them =P) As far as the air pump goes, I initially used the 60 gallon tank pumps from walmart that everyone recommends. For an 18 gallon tub you should grab two of these and you will be set. Also, from my experience, air stones, the little guys, aren't worth your time in a big tank. Unless you are splitting them and having them all pushing a lot of air under almost each plant, I don't think they work too well. I am very partial to the circle stones to be honest. I have 2 6" circles one running from each pump in my tank currently and it is plenty.

Now, for my mother, I wanted to go balls deep , so I bought the Whisper 100-150 gallon air pump. I have that guy going into a single 6" air circle and it fucking cranks. I love it, it is also extremely quiet.


And as far as "bubbleponics" goes, I would honestly say to do it man. I have now started from seed with and without it and the difference is incredible. I'll post some comparison pics over time. It really does boost the speed of growth and seems to promote immaculate health to young seedlings into young plants.


here are some comparisons:

With NO WATER LINES it took 4 days to get a sprout above ground from germ


With bubbleponics, this was Day 4





Day 10, no bubbleponics:




Day 10 w/ bubbleponics



And for shits and giggles lets go up as far as I have pictures

Day 16 no bubbleponics:



Day 16 with bubbleponics



I mean, it's a crazy difference for not too much additional investment. I was not a believer either until I did it. it shocked the hell out of me to be honest man.






NOWWW


I have a question!!!


My mother is looking amazing and doing some serious gulping of the liquid.

I have records from 3 days now and the ppms have gone from 535, 587, 508 respectively with 508 being right now, and the water has dropped from 7.5" to 5.5". I just added a gallon of fresh H2O and phd it out, but I am still kinda confused on seeing the trends to notice when I should feed etc.

Can anyone help me out a bit more with that?

I dunno craig, that last picture for 16 days makes bubbleponics pretty tasty lookin. Believe me, because the proof is right behind me in the closet. hahaha

Sometimes a picture says a thousand words.
I wish I could post that info and pics all over this site.