New to DWC, advice welcome

This would be the first grow. Currently working with 1,45m height and 1,1m x 0,6m space for flowering and a smaller 0.6m high x 0.9 x 0.45 veg area. Lighting wise, running a philips 250w hps for the flower room and 50w cfls for the veg area. If anyone can give me any advice to growing slowly as to avoid stretching due to low light in the veg area, i would very much apreciate it. Nutes: Hy Pro A+B starter pack, came with 0,5L of ph down 250mL of spraymix and rootstim. Has anyone worked with them before? If so please drop me a line or post about possible problems/ deficiencies or overferting.
At the moment, still waiting on some equipment to arrive but in general this is low budget.
Genetics come from nirvana, specifically the unfeminized Blue Mystic.
Also a detail i'm sweating about is the use of a 0,8L pump hooked up to a couple of 100mm round airstones. Will this get enough air to the roots?
Will also update as things progress.
 

BigBuddahCheese

New Member
Best bet before asking such a generic question is to browse the site, and use it's search function. All your questions and more will be answered, then when you are ready you can pose some questions that haven't been asked 100 times before.

peace.
 

Dameon

Well-Known Member
Do NOT use Organic nutes.
Buy more airpumps and airstones.
You might need a 1/10 HP water chiller if you cant keep the water temps down.
If you use H2O, it will kill off any beneficial bacteria/fungi.
Condition distilled or RO water with CalMag supplements.
 
Best bet before asking such a generic question is to browse the site, and use it's search function. All your questions and more will be answered, then when you are ready you can pose some questions that haven't been asked 100 times before.

peace.
Doing that for a few days now, it's just a lot of info to wade through. At the moment i am compiling a dos and don'ts book for myself. Main idea behind this topic is it being a grow log. I will continue posting my progress. As of yet, i am still waiting to receive some more equipment.

Do NOT use Organic nutes.
Buy more airpumps and airstones.
You might need a 1/10 HP water chiller if you cant keep the water temps down.
If you use H2O, it will kill off any beneficial bacteria/fungi.
Condition distilled or RO water with CalMag supplements.
Water chiller is out of the question, hard to find and probably expensive (considering i'm raising money for additional cfls). Normal ice should suffice, just need to work out how much it will mess with the ph and ppm.
Also as a water source i will be using spring water. Mainly cause it's free, secondly no chlorine or other crap added and thirdly cause it should have all the minerals necessary for proper growth.
As an additive, instead of calmag i will be using bottled mineral water, mainly cause it comes ph adjusted to 6 (5,75 minimum) and it has decent supplies of calcium, mg and a bit of sodium, not in chelate form, but some aquarium bacteria should take care of it (i'm hoping).
Also i am quite aware of the effects of H2O2. Thanks for the warning though.
I will try to source another air pump, for free hopefully, if not i doubt i will find an air pump for less than 15 bucks (considering once the room is done my balance will be closer to -20 bucks)

Forgot to mention at the top that my goal for the first harvest is 50-100g and experience most of all.
 

BigBuddahCheese

New Member
Frozen plastic bottles work well for chilling reservoirs, but its more work but a lot of growers do it with good results. You don't have to spend a lot of money but you DO have to spend some, and there are areas you SHOULDN'T go cheap on and others don't matter so much. That is where your search and research come into play, as myself or any other grower can NOT tell you what is good FOR YOU.

If your're running any type of hydro get good ppm and ph meters, if you cannot afford some decent ones then go to soil, you are setting up to fail. Hydro is probably the last medium you want to "cheap" most or all your components on.
 
Frozen plastic bottles work well for chilling reservoirs, but its more work but a lot of growers do it with good results. You don't have to spend a lot of money but you DO have to spend some, and there are areas you SHOULDN'T go cheap on and others don't matter so much. That is where your search and research come into play, as myself or any other grower can NOT tell you what is good FOR YOU.

If your're running any type of hydro get good ppm and ph meters, if you cannot afford some decent ones then go to soil, you are setting up to fail. Hydro is probably the last medium you want to "cheap" most or all your components on.
I hear you. Soil will be used for the mom.
Also whatever i get out of it will be considerably better that what i can source from around here. (30$ a gram ditch weed, improperly dried and cured, not to mention full of seeds. Gotta love eastern europe right?)
 

BigBuddahCheese

New Member
No doubt, best part is that if you are like me growing and problem solving is most of the fun, smoking is a bonus. Good luck man, check into hempy buckets I been using them for mothers when I keep one, and they work much better then soil if you are using hydro based nutes anyway.
 
After a few tests, seems like the lamp heats up to 32 degrees celsius at 20 cm. On the hand it feels like a nice summer sun. Thinking plants would experience it outside i will keep the distance.
Also water ph is around 7,5 and 170ppm.
Air pump upgraded to a 2 output 3L/min one. The 0,8 really wasn't cutting it.
 

mikmike

Well-Known Member
DROP that ph to 5.6 and let it run to 6.2 before dropping it or res change or how ever u are going to do it.
 
DROP that ph to 5.6 and let it run to 6.2 before dropping it or res change or how ever u are going to do it.
Not using the water as is, just testing it beforehand.
I'm still waiting on a few parts to arrive, plus that is tap water and i want to use natural spring water.
Gonna do another reading in 2 days, see how the ph and ppms are after the chlorine is out.

On another note, has anyone tried a dry ice setup for cooling the bucket/co2 for plants?
 
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