Waterfarm Closet Grow [PICS]

Hello and welcome to my grow journal.

I debated starting a grow journal and put it off for a good while. So to catch you up to speed...

I had picked up a germination tray for my outdoor vegetable garden months ago, and it actually arrived post planting time for my area, so it was more or less a waste. Out of interest, don't all grows start this way?, I decided to germ some bag seeds. I gathered up 10 seeds from my stash box and dotted them into the germ kit. Wouldn't you know it, 3 sprouts, before the tomatoes, before the peppers, before the squash... All told I ended up with 5 good sprouts.

Once the first true leaves poked up their little heads I moved them all to a modded AeroGarden. By modded I mean, I didn't expect to anything to sprout, so I didn't have the stupid little AG cages you snap in the top tray. Instead I removed the tray, filled with a mix of 60% Hydrotron expanded clay pebbles and 40% Miracle-Gro potting soil. I disconnected the lamp hood wire from the base power adapter, and picked up a lamp wire from Radio Shack and plugged it into an independent timer.

Before any gets on me for doing this to a fairly decent prebuilt aeroponic system. Understand that it was an act of desperation, and not planned intention. I needed to transplant to something, and I knew I needed light, that bastard system was the child of my necessity.

Moving right along... After about a week in the ghetto AG, I added some more lights, CFL's ranging in wattage... Then a few fan leaves later we find ourselves here...



A little closer up view under my "hood"...



So the system is running nicely now, after a possible nute burn I flushed the system with distilled water, and filled the tank with straight pH proper Spring Water. I'm about to be out of town for a few days, so I plan on leaving the system like this till I return. Anyone know anything about spring water? Does it bring anything to the party? I assume some trace minerals, basically I'm just trying to wash the roots, and get them a little stronger before I return the nute barrage.

Also I picked up some maxicrop liquid seaweed today. I plan to fortify the spring water with this, I hear its awesome for root development which is what my main concern is now.

Here are some photos of the leaf damage...



and a little closer...




Also, I have all 5 plants in the same water farm. I'm hoping for at least 3 females out of the bunch. Once sexed, I plan on doing some LST to maximize the yield of the (hopeful) 3 plants in the one WaterFarm unit.

I'm on a 18/6 light cycle and watering every other hour during the light cycle, pump on one hour, pump off one hour, repeat...

Any questions or comments are more than welcome.
Keep checking back as I plan to update fairly regularly.

Good day, and happy growing!

I do not see any photos......

So here are the pictures...

So after two days of straight pH spring water, all new growth is coming in healthy and green. I leave today for a few days, and feel confident that running pure water, no nutes for the next few days is will remedy most of the plants issues, and my concerns about nute burn.

I'm also beginning to consider the possibility that was some heat and under watering abuse. My pump timer seemed to have kicked off for a couple days before the fresh res of spring water.

Solution:
I purchased a new timer. This time avoided the digital and went for mechanical, it seems to work like a charm. Additionally, I have been feeding the leaves with a fine mist spray of fresh water, and trace amounts of worm casting tea.

Fingers crossed, I'll return home to healthy plants.

So I've noticed a number of views, but no helpful hints...

+rep for any advice about the plants, diagnosis, etc... kiss-ass

I'm pretty sure it was just heat damage. I'm still out of town and returning home tomorrow hopefully my kids will be feeling healthy!

Wish I could burn one here... maybe I will???

Nice! Your grow box is awesome. I wish i could get mylar here.

I think most people go with less than 50/50 water pump timing...Mostly i hear of 15 on 45 off...but don't go by that, i personally haven't tried a proper hydro setup yet.

Do you have an air pump in your res? and do you have an oscillating fan blowing gently on them to build stem strength?

+rep for a clean room build!

HOORAY!!!

I just got home about an hour ago, and of course the first thing I checked was my kids/girls (fingers crossed). Turns out, it was the damn timer that screwed things up. The plants took on damage from not being watered for a couple days. The new timer works like a charm. I walked in and the pump was running actually.

All five have not only recovered, but EXPLODED with new growth. I didn't take an exact count yet, but I think I recall some 5 leaf sets AND 7 leaf sets. I guess I'll get going with the nutes tomorrow. Its almost as if they were asking me to add the nutes when I walked in tonight.

I have some pictures I plan to post shortly. But for now, I've got soup on the stove that needs some attention.

Sooooo here are the photos. Aren't they lovely???


They were bagseeds, so I have no clue about the strain. But now that the leaves are coming in I'm wondering if it's too soon to guess the strain?


Anyone know how to post the photos within the post?

shakle those are sexy plants i may turn to you for hydro advice come my next grow(itll be in a cabinet). +rep for the closet set up i wish i could do one.

Today is the day that my kids are going back on a healthy diet of liquid nutrients.

I have the Flora Series that came with the water farm, and I have yet to read anything bad about them. I also picked up the Flora Nova 2 part system, grow and bloom from the hydro shop. Also lying around is Dyna-Gro Pro Tekt which is a silicon solution to strengthen the cell walls, which leads to stronger stems and hardier leaves. Finally, I have maxicrop Liquid Seaweed.

Here is the breakdown for each piece...

1-Flora Series

-FloraGrow 2% Nitrogen / 1% Phosphate / 6% Potash / 0.5% Magnesium

-FloraMicro 5% Nitrogen / 1% Potash / 5% Calcium / 0.0005% Cobalt
0.1% Iron / .05% Manganese / 0.0008% Molybdenum

-FloraBloom 5% Phosphate / 4% Potash / 1.5% Magnesium / 1% Sulfur

2-Flora Nova

-Grow 7% Nitrogen / 4% Phosphate / 10% Potash / 4% Calcium
1.5% Magnesium / 2% Sulfur / 0.01% Boron / 0.01% Chlorine
0.002% Cobalt / 0.01% Copper / 0.1% Iron / 0.03% Manganese
0.003% Molybdenum / 0.02% Zinc

-Bloom 4% Nitrogen / 8% Phosphate / 7% Potash / 4% Calcium
2% Magnesium / 2% Sulfur / 0.1% Iron

3-Maxicrop Liquid Seaweed 1% Potash / 1% Chlorine

4-Dyna-Gro Pro-Tekt 3% Potash / 7.8% Silicon

Also, here is an excerpt from a product website with more information about the maxicrop
" Maxicrop Kelp contains over 70 minerals, micronutrients, amino acids and vitamins. Also contains growth regulators which stimulate vigorous root development and plant growth. "

So that is in a nutshell the general breakdown of what I have on hand. I had planned on going with the Flora Series, at the average growth strength recommended. Then, fortifying it with the liquid seaweed for root development, and the pro-tekt to make the leaves hardier, and strengthen the stems. The way I figure, better roots = more nutes for the plant, and stronger stems = able to hold larger buds.

If anyone has any suggestions, or knows of an "awesome" nute blend/recipe, please feel free to share. I'm open to suggestions, in mL/gal preferably. kiss-ass

to post pics in a post you gotta use like photobucket or somethin then just copy paste the {img} code in your new post

Thanks baked.

But if thats the case, i think i'll enjoy the attached thumbnails a little more. don't need to be spreading my grow all over the internet.

On with the nute chat...

so i mixed up a killer batch, flora series, silicon, and the seaweed. only to not be able to pH the damn solution in the end. the seaweed colored the water too heavily for me to read clearly what color it was. so after tossing an awesome batch out on my lawn (curious to see if it does anything crazy, i have dead bare spot...) i started anew... and here is the blend.

2 Gallons Distilled Water
25 mL Flora Grow
15 mL Flora Micro
5 mL Flora Bloom
1 tsp Dyna Gro Silicon

Will update in a day or so, once the roots have a chance to take a drink

...alright so this wasn't really THAT urgent.

Just a quick update, the plants are LOVING the nute recipe for sure. Most of my shorties have shown new growth already since the res change just yesterday morning. ( i know i overuse that, but he's awesome )

What I'm trying to figure out now is what I should grow for.

Height OR Width????

A quick rundown of my situation..

The total grow area I have to work with is 2' x 2 1/2' x 5'

I plan on keeping whatever females I have in the single Water Farm unit, and I am not flexible about this. Its for personal use, I have no intention of keeping a mother and cloning. Possibly keeping one plant in the end that I may re-veg for a second harvest.

So with that said should I....

1- allow them to grow up, up and away, and hope for a few fat colas?

2- LST all 5 plants now and allow for a little more circulation between them, and more bud sites?

3- top them now and hope for double the colas?

I'm a total noob and looking for feedback and input from others that have been growing a little longer than me.

++rep for any help/posts kiss-ass
(i plan on posting photos later on after my camera is charged if photo references can help)

Hey man, sounds like you have the right set of nutes pretty much set up now thats awesome, make sure you keep a note of the recipe so this time next grow you can use the same mix.

If i was you i would go with LST or Scrog. I am definitely gonna LST my plants. The best thing about lst is if you do it carefully you wont stunt your plants. Im not sure what would give you the most weight, but lst will let you use the most space.

Either way, looking forward to the pics!!!

Shackleford.R said:

...alright so this wasn't really THAT urgent.

Just a quick update, the plants are LOVING the nute recipe for sure. Most of my shorties have shown new growth already since the res change just yesterday morning. ( i know i overuse that, but he's awesome )

What I'm trying to figure out now is what I should grow for.

Height OR Width????

A quick rundown of my situation..

The total grow area I have to work with is 2' x 2 1/2' x 5'

I plan on keeping whatever females I have in the single Water Farm unit, and I am not flexible about this. Its for personal use, I have no intention of keeping a mother and cloning. Possibly keeping one plant in the end that I may re-veg for a second harvest.

So with that said should I....

1- allow them to grow up, up and away, and hope for a few fat colas?

2- LST all 5 plants now and allow for a little more circulation between them, and more bud sites?

3- top them now and hope for double the colas?

I'm a total noob and looking for feedback and input from others that have been growing a little longer than me.

++rep for any help/posts kiss-ass
(i plan on posting photos later on after my camera is charged if photo references can help)

Click to expand...

I would flower them small and grow them as lollipops...

Here is an example of 12/12 from seed on an ebb/flow set up... bottom third and anything that grew more than 1" was snipped off, as per Al B. Fuct's SOG lollipop trimming...

If I remember right it dried and cured @ 20g...

Oh and Nice grow! +rep

Cheers!

as far as height or width...why not try both...thats what i did since it was my first time growing i wanted to try all the different methods and see which one suits me and my grow rooms...thats what i suggest jus tryin different things and see what happens

thanks for the rep gypsy. i was considering growing them short and taking a "lollipop approach. i saw a pc case grow where that idea was in mind. looked like he pulled off a pretty fat cola for it. i'm shooting for a max yield in a small space, i have only 5 bagseeds of truly unknown origin, possibly each from different bags, that i held onto over the years. i'm also really interested in scrog too...

i'm an indecisive one if you couldnt tell.

also if you notice from the first images the water farm is on a stand, that i plan to take out from under it, once the height is maxxed out, then the plan was to go straight into flower from that point, with about 1 - 1 1/2 feet of vertical growth.

basically what i need to clear up, is how much veg/leaf growth do i NEED/HAVE to have for a robust flowering cycle??
if i need a few branches and about a foot of growth, then i'd start flowering in a couple weeks, i'm just worried about jumping the gun, and not reaching the full potential of the plant. but i guess thats the game you play when you grow bagseed...

Just keep in mind that they will keep growing for a while when you switch to 12/12...

Some Sativas may triple in size during flowering...

Plan ahead so you don't find yourself out of room...

And as to when to flower... height concerns apart, the plant will show pre-flowers when it has reached sexual maturity...

Any sooner and there is some stress involved... which some may scream "HERMIES", but I've never had one from that...

awesome! that was my other concern, when do they show signs of sex...
i couldn't figure out if that didn't start to show until the 12/12 switch, or if you see it before that, and it just becomes more visible post 12/12 switch.

so then for sure i will see signs of sex before i switch the light schedule to 12/12

You could keep topping them and throw a screen over it...

Veg for a long time and then flower...

Scrog set-ups are really good if you do not mind the long veg and the work involved...

Probably your best bet, from the sound of it...