Train Wreck and Blue Cheese DW grow

Hello friends,

Started a new grow with a new method. After an unsuccessful try at indoor soil a friend and I set ourselves up with a small deep water grow. Two 10 gal Rubbermaid tubs for $3.44, 2 $5 air pumps for the stones, 2 $15 submersible water pumps and some tubes.

After a few tweaks we got ourselves a decent little setup that has already shown some good results.

We are growing one Train Wreck and one Blue Cheese. Clones we picked up from a local dispensary.

So far we are in week 2 of being in the water. Have had the plants for three weeks now. Bought 2, 6 inch net pots and used some hydroton leftover from last grow.

The first week we added regular tap water with a ppm of 450, low pH. We bought a digi ppm reader but only got the paper test strips for the pH. So not sure but it seems the water has been in the 5.0-7.0 range. Added Super Natural Grow Aqua powdered nutrients to the 8 gal of water. I added a bit more to my BC batch bringing the ppm up to around 800ppm. My friend used less on his Train Wreck and it seemed to like that alot better then the heavy dose I gave my Blue Cheese.

After a week in the water the TW root growth easily tripled. While the BC took a few days more for twice the root growth. We changed the water last night 12/4 for the first time. Adding 8 gals of distilled water at a ppm of 001! Adding a touch of tap water and some water from a spring from a hike we took that day.

I added some Fox Farm Liquid Big Bloom instead of the powdered nutes. And less then 24 hours later I had significant root growth on the BC.

I'm sure the pictures are all out of order. But the tub with the muddy looking water is the BC and the plant in the clear/blue water is the Train Wreck

Below the plant on the left is TW and the plant on the right is Bc.



Tran Wreck roots after one week

Blue cheese

Free nutes from the Local hydro store

BC set up


BC roots after 12 hours in Fox Farm

Changed the Blue Cheese to an 18 gal tub with 11 gal of distilled water. Also switched to the 3 part GH Flora GMB. Brought the ppm up to 1120. Could go higher? Not sure yet. Roots have tripled and look amazing after the fox farm bath. Also wrapped the tub in foil instead of black tape. Also added 1x150 cfl and a 100 cfl to the mix for the heck of it. Pretty new to this so any suggestions would be appreciated.

From someone who reads a lot but hasn't grown a single leaf, your water level level looks real high. Are the pots out of the water? Judging by pictures I've seen here and there your bubble action would seem to be low, but hell, they're definitely growing!

1150 ppm is high by most standards at your stage of growth. Some growers never get over 1000 at full maturity, but hell again, lol, I don't see a single burnt tip.

So I dunno man. Keep on truckin'. Free the Weed!

Hello pntrbl, thanks for the words!. Yes the water was a bit high and I have lowered it since putting the Blue Cheese into an 18 gal tub. How far below the net pot do you think I should have the water? I bought a better air stone at the hydro shop yesterday and plan on taking out the water pump I have and replacing it with more air pumps instead of the submersible pump I had setup as a drip feeder. No need for the drip feed really. My buddy who is taking care of the Train Wreck does have it on a drip and his plant looks amazing. So either way really.

I think the drip helped the TW roots grow alot faster compared to the Blue Cheese without a drip feed. But both also had different nutes from the beginning. Blue Cheese used the SuperNatural then switched to the fox farm for a week. Week three has them in the Gen Hydro 3 part. Thinking of dabbling in the Lucas method.

Once again I am a beginner so most of my trials come from reading and reading and reading and hopefully understanding something.

IMO the plants look super healthy and strong. Train Wreck is out of control and the Blue Cheese is a bit more restrained but is ready to bush. Roots are great looking. Super white and show massive growth in three weeks. Hell after the first three days we saw impressive results with the roots.

So far so good. No unhealthy looking leaves. Temps are in check,water is in check. Using the pH paper strips as of now. Seems to be in the 5-6 pH range but hard to tell for a newbie. Investing in a digi pH reader is in the works. We do have a Digi TDS that has been a huge help.

I'm happy with what I am seeing! Thanks for reading and sharing any tips.

I've had the plants under 1x600w HPS since 11/24 and added 2x100w CFL last night since they were free.

Blue Cheese

Blue Cheese roots three weeks

new 18 gal home for the BC

BC

TW

Cool journal nbid. I like the side by side comparison of the two different strains. Should be fun to watch you and your buddy have a little grow off. Good luck and don't let mr. lahey fuck with your kitties.

Nice lookin grow! I've been wanting to get some TW for my next grow. Gonna tag along and see how this one does. You seem to have your shit together and I think you'll be happy with the DWC, I sure am.

How far below the net pot do you think I should have the water?

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Once the roots hit the water you can drop the water lvl to 2 to 3" below the net pots, before they hit the water I kept my lvl to about an 1" above the pot.

No need for the drip feed really.

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Totally agree. You cant have enough airstones either. The more bubbles the better. You also want your water temp to be as close to 67 degrees as possible, thats what temp water gives off the most oxygen when bubbled.

We bought a digi ppm reader but only got the paper test strips for the pH. So not sure but it seems the water has been in the 5.0-7.0 range

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Go get yourselves a PH pen. Ph is one of the most important conditions in DWC w/5.7 being optimum. The pens have come down in price quite a bit, I got one from the hydro store for around $25. Once you get one you'll wonder how you ever lived w/out it

Happy Growin!!

Thanks alot LY!

Hello friends. Week three has been a blast. Plants look healthy and happy. Added another air stone and bought a new 2 pin air pump for the BC rez. Super bubbly
now.

Train Wreck has moved into her new home with a new batch of nutes. GH with some added goodness. See pictures below for nute line up. Are we crazy? Too much? Whatever?

Made a stinkbug replica ez clone box. Works great and only one trip to HD!



BC Roots week three

Only have one tub and needed to make clones tonight. Going to upgrade to the 2 bin rez and get the right cycle timer. Right now the pump is on 24hr. Lighting includes 1 2 bulb T5,1x100w CFL,1x150w CFL and some other little plant light maybe 75w? Made 5 BC clones and 7 TW clones.


Left is the Train Wreck and right Blue Cheese. Both in 18 gal bin. Added another large airstone and bought a 2 pin air pump. Lots of bubble action. Very happy.

Blue Cheese PPM 1445

Going to upgrade to the 2 bin rez and get the right cycle timer. Right now the pump is on 24hr.

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If your talkin your air pump it needs to run 24/7, If your talkin a recirculating or feedin pump my bad

My bad. I meant the water pump that is feeding the sprayer. It doesn't need to be on 24hr right? Something like 1 minute on every 5 minutes? I have the air pump on 24hrs and already need to get more air stones. I gotta have more air stones!

Can't wait to go peak in on the girls this morning. Hoping the clones look better then they did last night. I have had success in the past with making clones. Hope this stands true still.

After three weeks everything is looking good. Ditched the EZ clone box I made and went with the cubes. made 4 clones of the Train Wreck and 4 of the Blue Cheese. last weeks didn't look so hot so I scrapped them all and started over.

Did a little touch up to my rez. Tons of trimming on both plants. Unplugged the water pump on the Train wreck today and she drooped a ton. Added some B1 and some fresh water so i"ll check her tomorrow.

Did some work on the room. Cleaning and double checking light leaks. Set the timer and hoping that at 6am tomorrow the lights go off.

Lets get ready to flower baby.

Geezus! Had to renew my rec today which involved lots of Southern California's finest freeways. Adding about a foot of water everywhere and the visibility of a dirty rez didn't help. So many hours wasted but got what I needed.

and now after hours of fixing all the damage I may or may not have done to the plants last week here is this weeks update.

Reading about growing weed is a good way to kill your plants. Especially if you are newish like myself and think you figured it out after reading a million forums. The PPMs on both plants were way too high I think. Blue Cheese was 1445ppm and lets not talk about the pH. Although the plant does look really healthy with only a few nute burnt tips. I lowered it by more then half ending up with 647 ppms and a stable 5.5 pH.

6tsp Flora M-G-B to 11gal of water
30 ML sweet
6tsp Liquid Kool Bloom to Blue Cheese only
6tsp Liquid Karma

over kill? under kill? Help?

Poor train wreck took a dive after taking off the top drip feed and two days into flower. PPM was at 1137 and after this weeks nutes it has been dropped to 624 and a pH of 5.5. Pretty sure I had too much going on and a bad pH on both plants.

Got the right tools for the job now and taking "better" readings.

The clones I cut look amazing and I would like to pat myself on the back. But it's only been a couple days so I wont celebrate just yet.

I also found a good record store while waiting for the clinic to open. Scored a Brian Johnson record that I never knew of.

Good job on the rec. Gotta keep it legal!

From my reading I would have thought your ppm's were a bit high too, but it depends on what meter you have since they have different conversion factors. Hannah's are .5 ... but that's all I can remember at the moment! Someone posted up a link on it here somewhere. Maybe they'll see this and post up again.

I have the .5 ppm reader. Still learning how to use these tools.

Blue Cheese coming on strong. Open the door this morning and it's already got a good smell! Poor Train Wreck. pH went up over night so I adjusted it today. Still looking sad. Is she dead?

Trainwreck didn't make it. So sad. She looked really pretty. I'm assuming I killed her with too strong of nutes. I gave the same system to Blue Cheese and she looks amazing. Been flowering for about a week now and gaining about an inch a day. Just added back 2 gal of distilled water and adjusted the pH to 5.7, ppm 570, 17.3c.

So far so good. I do just a bit of trimming. Nothing to shocking I hope. Made some last minute clones from the bottoms and removed a few "suckers".

I got ants real bad the other day. One of those "not there one second,there the next". I shock them off and cleaned up the room. Added some duct tape around the base and stalk of the plant that acted as a glue trap that seemed to work. This is what I get for the quality of closet I built. I have big plans of making a nice laundry room for the wife and a secret grow room for me.

Train Wreck took a dive over a few days. Don't know if the nute change was too much of a shock? Too cold maybe? Ants!!! Who knows? Someone smart I'm sure.

Let the flowering count down begin!

Well been busy in the closet. Added a 5 gal bubble bucket with a Juicy Fruit Clone. A bunch of the Train Wreck clones have rooted so I added one to it's own 5gal bubble bucket. I have about 7 cuttings hanging out in the clone box and they have some great root action going on. For lighting we have a 2 bulb T5, 100 watt CFL and a 150 watt CFL. About 9 plants in three containers.

I was thinking I could go two plants in an 18 gal container for flowering? Or should I just stick to each plant in a 5gal bucket? I have enough space for 4 big plants or six smaller plants.


Blue Cheese is looking better and better every day. Just adding back good water. Smells great already.

Changing out the water for the Blue Cheese. Upping the nutes to 855. 10 gal distilled water, 12tsp G-M-B, 5tsp Liquid Kool Bloom and 1/2 tsp Super Natural Boost. pH 5.8

Lookin good!!!