cravin morehead's bio-buckets

[cravin morehead]

I think you can get away with it. 68 is ideal, 70 is not far from ideal.

i was thinking the same. when i ran regular dwc w/ a chiller i kept it at 68*. so i thought 2* more would be ok

 

[rives]

I'm in! Looks very clean, CM. Bio-buckets are one of the many methods that I find interesting. So many methods, so little time & space! I have just changed things up a bit, and was flopping around between Jack's and Dyna-gro, but then I ran across Hydroponic Research's Veg+Bloom and bit on it. Good luck.

 

[RM - aquagrower]

I think you can get away with it. 68 is ideal, 70 is not far from ideal.

i was thinking the same. when i ran regular dwc w/ a chiller i kept it at 68*. so i thought 2* more would be ok

I don't think you'll have any problems if ya can keep it at 70. I tried running the old aqua system at 75 and had a few problems (was trying to test the limits). Started keeping it at 72, no more problems.

As for the cleaning, I had heard with aquariums it takes up to 6 months to establish the "full battery" of BB.

 

[cravin morehead]

i got some time, real quick...
rm- thanks for your temp experiences. looking forward to talking with you
hey rives- nice to see a fellow 'sparky' here...
real glad to see you guys are interested in bio-buckets, i've always wanted to try em, now i finally took the plunge...

well things have been going good in the tent. i have since filled all the buckets with a clone each. i spread them out over a week or so. shouldn't have done that, i may have some issues with the last couple catching up. (height-wise). oh well, live and learn. im running Dutchgrown's Brainfreeze. these are from 2 different seeds and are untested. my bro, only other grower i know and i taught him, is about 4 weeks ahead of me with his in dwc running lucas. he has cooling and light issues, but his are looking/smelling great. so far, my only issue has been keeping nute strength up. i started at 400ppm and have increased to 500ppm. looks like the girls want a little more. i'll bump it to 750 or 800 and see. water temps have been below 70* and stayed there. im able to keep the inside temps within 3* or so of ambient, so i'm happy about that...
really theres not much to see yet(vegging), but we all do like pics so...

heres the first clone in. its the middle on the left bucket.

shot of all the girls

closer look of middle left bucket


real quick root porn


all in all, good growth for a week in the system i think. what do you guys think. i believe the light green growth is the plants asking for more food. but, who knows, maybe Biomaster is right. maybe foliage pro is not right. we'll see when i bump up nute levels. and if foliage pro isn't right, im man enough to admit it.

wish i had more time to share, but going back to work in an hour. work will be lightening up soon, and i won't be doing doubles. so, i'll be able to keep you guys more up to date with this bio-bucket grow. so far, i love this system. more or less, set it and forget it. but the proof is in seeing how well it/i do during flowering...

thanks for looking, talk to you all soon,

cm

 

[petemoss]

Lookin good, CM! Your plants look very healthy and compact. The lighter green new growth is nothing to worry about. It just shows that your week-old plants are growing fast. I'd leave them alone for the first three weeks of flower. The hardest thing to do for a new grower is to leave the plants alone as long as the plant is not showing any problems. You could start to increase the EC after the stretch is finished (usually three weeks for indicas), but that's up to you. I used to push my plants with as much food as they can take and back off if I saw any nute burn (yellowing tips). But in recent years I've found that a less aggressive feeding program was better. Now I keep my E&F to 1.2 EC max and have less issues with salt buildup and long final flushing. You're using a 1000 watt light, so your plants could take more feed, but it's not necessary IMO.

 

[cravin morehead]

hey petemoss-thanks for keeping up on my grow! i really appreciate having you around. thanks for the compliment! these are some really compact bushes!! i think you are correct about the slight yellowing. it went away after a few more hours, and i kept nute levels the same. also, i have noticed that the plants seem to grow better with a less intense feed strength. in my last couple dwc grows, i kept my levels under 1.3ec and that seemed to work great.

im thinking i may need to switch to flower real soon. from what i've seen of my bro's grow, these BF's can stretch alot in flower. so, im thinking, change the light timer to 12/12. and begin topping up with bloom nutes. from what i read, this is how big toke does it, correct? no res change, just begin adding bloom? sounds good to me...

i was also thinking, not on this round, but on the next round i would install one of the wire shelves at the top of the plant stand poles. this would be a really easy way to make my scrog screens. (whenever im growing a new variety (to me) i like to let them grow more naturally, so i can see their inherent traits/tendencies). this is the reason i used wire shelving for plant/bucket stands. they were designed to hold these wire shelves. easy scrog screens...

i will take more pics and post em right before i switch to flowering. ah hell, heres some pics from today:

here's a overall shot


my 2 faves middle left and middle right


and more root porn (same plants' roots as last time)

 

[kal el]

Yes, just start topping with bloom nutes after switch.

 

[Tabwat]

nice setup CM , plants look happy.

 

[cravin morehead]

thanks for the compliments guys!! kal el- thanks for the info. thats what i thought.

got a question, is it possible to over populate the bennies?? or do they regulate themselves, culling their numbers until a balance is produced?? the reason i ask is that i have some bio-balls lying around. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=14727
i was thinking of floating some in my reservoir to add more bennies to the system. neccessary or overkill??

im thinking of switching to flower by this weekend. then this is going to get really exciting. not that it hasn't been exciting enough for me. i can't believe how fast this bio-bucket system makes plants grow!! i thought my regular dwc was quick... i think bio seems twice as fast. at least in veg, idk, im probably just over excited.
thanks for checking this out,

cm

 

[kal el]

You really want your root zone colonized. If you have too many benes, they die off and create a foam. As long as your plants look good, don't fix what ain't broke.

 

[cravin morehead]

double post

 

[cravin morehead]

don't fix what ain't broke.

i use that quote all the time. you're right. i guess i'll just sit back and let the bio-buckets do their thing.

due to the extremely fast growth, i'll be swithching to flower today. probably going to leave the 600w MH in for the first 2-3 weeks to help control the stretch a little. hope it helps. then i'll put the 1k HPS in slowly tapering down from 1000w to 750w to 600w in the last couple weeks. thats always seemed to work well for me. especially when the colas are getting a little close to the light.

this is going to be fun, thanks for checking in,

cm

 

[kal el]

I like to lollipop and super crop, what do you do as far as pruning goes?

 

[cravin morehead]

I like to lollipop and super crop, what do you do as far as pruning goes?

indoors, for the most part, i like to scrog. trim up all the bottom/under growth and keep tucking the tops under the screen. i've done some supercropping on my outdoor to keep prying eyes at bay. this variety is unknown to me, so i'll keep them all a little more natural. but there will be some lolly-popping taking place for sure. gots to keep the unproductive undergrowth in check.
when you lolly-pop, do you trim it up until your left with like 4-6 main branches? if not, how do you do it? got any pics for me to check out? im always interested in different growers pruning techniques...
thanks for keeping up with this grow, i'm glad some people are still running bio-buckets. if all goes as well as i think it is so far, i don't see me changing to any other system, ever. its so easy!!

thanks again,

cm

ps- sorry, just realized i read a ton of your stuff under a different name while researching bio-buckets.

 

[kal el]

My root ball.

 

[kal el]

9 oz after harvest.

 

[kal el]

Super cropped and lollipopped.

 

[cravin morehead]

9 oz dried??

i can see your style in pruning. seems to me you strip all the lower growth off the main stems and leave the tops to grow after the SC'ing. nice system. it obviously works great for ya!! those pics are some beauty's there. i may have to adapt a little of your tech into some of my techs. when do you do all this training?? just as you flip to flower?? curious, what nutes and varieties are those??
when i scrog, i too, strip the lower growth off the main stems and just keep tucking tips until the stretch is over. then i let em go. i will remove any undergrowth that appears after that though...

 

[kal el]

Yes dried, I don't weigh wet bud.
Each main branch gets close to a zip in weight.
I do everything right before flipping, then I just keep it pruned by plucking all new growth as it grows.

 

[Smokin Joe]

damit, cant believe i missed this. got my chair and bowel