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Micro Hydro Virgin needs a guide...

salgjkhaf

Member
first and foremost, since you've only got a tiny SWC just go to the store and buy the 5 gallon refillable water jugs. One fill will cost you $1.25 and last you a few weeks. from the pic above, it doesnt look like you've light proofed your tub. GOTTA DO THAT BRO. Once you've done those things your root growth will skyrocket giving you a much better producer of buds.

listen to freezer boy too. dudes got his shit together. lol

good growing :headbange

edit: oh. the reason root growth will explode is because light=algae. no light=dead algae=more nutes for your roots!

algae also causes big ph upswings. <--- from experience
 
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alphacat

Member
Props on getting this thread going.

I've always thought that a miniature circular scrog done with SWC and only one or two plants would be the way to go (maximum efficiency + total control over environmental factors inside the area) - something like the mini Barrel of Green that one guy had up for a minute before getting flamed to death, or like a scaled-down version of the famous Czech growers G_Man & Prendas' setups...

...and yet nobody seems to be doing this. What am I missing? If you're going to go micro, it seems like the best of all possible worlds provided you don't mind doing a little training now and then and are willing to find a strain that works well for this style.
 
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confedrate69

fully baked lookin much better glad the lucas seems to be helping u may want to try cold 20 oz pop bottles from the fridge maby the freezer to cool the rez,or possibly a water fall or even a cooling fan blowing at rez sides . if u plan on using 2 plants in there why not get a big tote that will fill the whole bottom a 10 - 18 gallon 1 looks like it may go and that will stablize the rez even further
 
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confedrate69

for got to address your other concern about root color most likely dirt stains been there done that and alwyes have discolored some were in pot depending on soil that used
 
F

fully baked

Johnny Blaze - Hey there Johnny Blaze, glad you could make it by. Hopefully this will get up and going soon. I'm ready for some buds. See ya around your parts.

salgjkhaf said:
first and foremost, since you've only got a tiny SWC just go to the store and buy the 5 gallon refillable water jugs. One fill will cost you $1.25 and last you a few weeks. from the pic above, it doesnt look like you've light proofed your tub. GOTTA DO THAT BRO. Once you've done those things your root growth will skyrocket giving you a much better producer of buds.

listen to freezer boy too. dudes got his shit together. lol

good growing

edit: oh. the reason root growth will explode is because light=algae. no light=dead algae=more nutes for your roots!

algae also causes big ph upswings. <--- from experience

Lots of good info here. I think I know which water jugs you're talking about. I made a gravity bong out of one a while back. 4 hoses coming out of the top, you could smoke a bowl in 30 seconds. Absolutely crazy :bongsmi:

I went ahead and gave my res a custom suit of arms to block the light.

alphacat said:
Props on getting this thread going.

I've always thought that a miniature circular scrog done with SWC and only one or two plants would be the way to go (maximum efficiency + total control over environmental factors inside the area) - something like the mini Barrel of Green that one guy had up for a minute before getting flamed to death, or like a scaled-down version of the famous Czech growers G_Man & Prendas' setups...

...and yet nobody seems to be doing this. What am I missing? If you're going to go micro, it seems like the best of all possible worlds provided you don't mind doing a little training now and then and are willing to find a strain that works well for this style.

I'm glad you like it! Hopefully there will be a lot more to come. Circular scrog sounds like a very interesting idea. If only I could make circles with PVC haha.

It was either Scrog or Sog, and I don't like the high plant numbers. I like to keep the numbers low just to be safe, so Scrog it was. I use to grow in the closet, but that changed when I moved, so it had to turn into a micro grow and hydro seemed by far like the best medium for a micro grow. Hence the setup you see today

confedrate69 said:
fully baked lookin much better glad the lucas seems to be helping u may want to try cold 20 oz pop bottles from the fridge maby the freezer to cool the rez,or possibly a water fall or even a cooling fan blowing at rez sides . if u plan on using 2 plants in there why not get a big tote that will fill the whole bottom a 10 - 18 gallon 1 looks like it may go and that will stablize the rez even further

for got to address your other concern about root color most likely dirt stains been there done that and alwyes have discolored some were in pot depending on soil that used

Glad to see you back confederate. A small frozen plastic container seems like the perfect res cooler now that you mention it. I have something in mind...

As far as the larger tote, I only have about 30" of height to play with. When you toss in the lights and the res and the screen it shoots down drastically. I don't think I'd be able to fit a rubber maid in there. Right now the pH has been incredibly stable the last few days. It goes up and down between 5.7 and 6.1 since I changed it and adjusted it 5 days ago.

Also good to hear about the root color. I'm thinking you might be right, because the new roots coming out, are nice and white, while the other ones seem healthy too. Not slimy or anything.

Pics to come soon,
FB
 
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F

fully baked

Picture Time...

Gotta build some suspense, so here's a shot of my bonsai mom. She's crying cause I've had her in that same pot for 3 months...



The Res with some different types of lighting..



The new duct tape job along with a canopy shot. She is so much greener. The last one is a comparison from 7 days ago...



To keeping it green, for now...
FB
 
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F

fully baked

Growth is going crazy... I'm flipping the lights to 12/12 on the next res change out. Thanks a lot guys !! :jump:
 
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fully baked

I can't get over the speed of growth compared to soil. There is definitely some benefits to doing this whole hydro deal.

I added another two bulbs (36 watts of CFL's), so now we're somewhere around 100 watts per sq foot. At just a little over a square foot, and 128 watts of CFLs, I think she should shoot out some nice buddage.

I also added a gatorade bottle filled with ice to the res to lower the temps a little bit. And you can now see my awesome cardboard suit of arms for the SWC. New white roots are already shooting out like mad, just like I was told. :bashhead:

Here's some pics, I plan on changing out the res after this weekend. I'll switch it to the transition formula from Lucas and start 12/12. Buds are coming :jump:

The mum in soil


My hydro girl. The flash actually brings out the yellow colors more so than regular lighting. If you can believe it, she is actually a little greener than in the pics, which is just ridiculous after looking where I was at just 10 days ago. Props go out to all those who shot a suggestion my way.





Peace,
FB
 
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confedrate69

lookin much better it looks and sounds like you have got some great advice and are taking the time to correct any issues before they become real problems. im couroius how this will turn out keep us posted FB
 
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fully baked

Res change out happened today. I let the water sit out overnight, and it still had a pH of 8.6 :eek: Haven't had time to go and get water from the store that isn't as shitty as my tap, hopefully I can get that done before the next change out.

For my nutes, I used a 2-2-2 ratio of micro-grow-and bloom with the GH nutes. I figure this is kind of like a stepping stone into flower. The lights were flilpped to 12/12 today, so after the stretch is over, I'll hit her up with full strength flowering nutes. If I made some grave error by doing this let me know :bashhead:

Still looks luscious though :jump:

Here she is as I saw her yesterday...




And that poor bonsai haha



Also just harvested my outdoor, so feel free to check that out
HERE . I'll be getting some nice nug shots sometime soon of those strains...

Peace,
FB
 
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fully baked

Here's a shot of her today. She's been in 12/12 for 6 days now.

I continued to tuck her underneath the screen and gave her a final fan leaf trim to get rid of any obtrusive or brown ones that couldn't be tucked away.

She is growing nice and fast, but I have a question, if anyone scroggers can help me out.

How long should I continue to tuck her underneath the screen?? Till budlets start to form, should I stop tucking now??

Thanks in advance,

Here's some pictures...







Peace,
FB
 
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confedrate69

these micro grows amaze me with the way yall are able to do it in a small space with great results! that's looking great there fully baked !!!

with the limited head room would think u would want to keep tucking till u cannot keep it all under the screen or untill buds really start to form
have u had a chance too look at the floralacious plus as it has good bacteria culture in it and although expencive it does work well and a 8 oz bottle will last a long time years probally with a 2 gal rez
best of luck keep those nice pics rolling
 
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fully baked

Thanks for the kind words confedrate. The floralacious looks good, but it'll have to wait . Damned cash flow. Wish I could buy out the hydro store like some other guys around here :laughing:

Here's some more shots from the 6th. This is after me re-working the cab for a bit. I had a very beautiful, very sativa original haze x skunk #1 outside this year that was just beginning to flower at the end of the season. So I went ahead and cloned her and just got some roots. I made a second SWC tub and put her in.

I gave her 3/4 strength lucas grow formula.

Res change out for the blueberry also happened today (6th). She drank almost 3/4 of the solution so I'm thinking she likes it. I went out and got some nice filtered water in 2.5 gallon sizes. Like 2 bucks, so I can deal with that for res changes now. pH was 7.6 and forgot to get the ppm, but eh, still a hell of a lot better than 8.3 and 8.6

Picture time...



And some more shots of the blueberry and what the cab looks like now after some light rearrangements and such...



More current pics to come in a few. Just took these and forgot to post them so now I'm just doing it after the fact.

Back in a bit...
 
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F

fully baked

And now time to get up to date. 2 days since the last tuck under the screen, two days since the res change out, 2 days since the second SWC was added. Here's how everything looks number wise.

Haze SWC has a pH of 6.2

BB SWC sits at 5.7 (This one dropped .2 since the 6th. I think freezer boy said that means im too rich with nutes ??? Someone lemme know if i'm thinking in the right direction :bashhead: )

For the BB, I'm still getting some brownish/orange-ish spots occuring on the older fan leaves. These aren't ones that were there, but have appeared as of recently. They aren't nearly as bad as before but make me think there might be something a little out of wack.

The Haze's roots weren't all the way in the water for about 5 hours after those first pics were taken up there ^^^^. So her fan leaves dried up, and I added a little more water and pushed her down a bit. Now her roots are in and I think she'll end up making a come back.

Here's some pics. Let me know what you guys think :joint:

Dried out Original Haze x Skunk #1 by Sam the Skunkman... I can't get over how much of a beauty she was outside. Wish I could have gotten a picture of her...



And the Blueberry (Upskirt and all)



Big happy family



Thanks for any help. Peace out,
FB
 
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fully baked

What up IC, hope we have some lurkers out there watching...

Here she (singular) is a few days later. We're now on day 12 if 12/12, starting to see some budlets forming. She had some wild light though for 2 days, so she may be set back a few in flowering...

pH was at 5.6, and I raised it up to 5.9 with just plain filtered water. Probably do a res change out in a few days. Also just noticed I was using the wrong Lucas formula. That link back a few pages in the journal said to use the grow, and now I'm reading up on Lucas from other places and see its actually 0-8-12 or 0-8-16 ... Hopefully that will get fixed and will speed things up again.

I'm also still getting those spots on the leaves. I got some good pics today, so hopefully someone might be able to diagnose it before it becomes a problem. Might post some pics in the infirmary too :joint:

Root porn and pre tuck pictures





Here's some leaf close ups with the spots. Yellow when they first begin and they turn rust colored after they get bigger and develop.



And finally some post tuck pictures



And last but not least, burn a joint for a fallen soldier. Lost that haze pheno I cut. She dried out too much and was un-save-able.

Take it easy,
FB
 
lookin sexy there FB, that bb is looking pretty minus the whole spot issue but i hope that clears up. i should have an update by tonight on my current project i just have to wait for the lights to come back on so i can get to work. keep it chronic.

Brother from another Mari-juana mother,
JB
 
F

fully baked

Appearantly I have mites... Fuck. Getting some floramite to deal with it. In the meantime I'm gonna try a nicotine/water/soap combo to keep them down until the floramite gets here.

Shit. I think there's a cal/mag deficiency too. Some epsom salts will be added to the res tomorrow...

:fsu:

FB

Infirm. Thread HERE
 
F

fully baked

Ok so here's what I've done based on some info I read and some help from some guys over in the infirmary.

I sprayed down the plant with
1/4 cup Baking Soda
1/2 cup Apple Cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
2 drops dish detergent
1/4 cup Epsom Salts

I made sure to coat both the tops and bottoms of the leaves. I let it sit on there between 15-20 minutes and then rinsed real well with plain water. I actually just threw her in the shower haha. Then I dried her out with a fan blowing before putting her back under the lights. Hopefully this can control the mites. Otherwise I bought a pack of cigs and will probably try a nicotine tea in a few days just to make sure those mites are going down.

As for the res and the spotting, I added 1.5 tablespoons of epsom salts to my 2 gallon res for now. When the lights come on tonight I will be changing to the actual Lucas formula, probably 0-5-10 per the advice of freezerboy over at the infirmary.

Hopefully this fixes my problems, as I need a nice harvest from her. I hate to count my chickens but my outdoor was disappointing with mold and dried out plants from minimal maintenance. I have no choice but to get some nice buddage for her. It's not like I'm about to buy weed or something. That's just crazy talk.

Be back later after the res change.
FB
 
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fully baked

Changed the res. Figure I'll write down what I put in before I forget...

All numbers are per gallon here...
0ml grow, 6ml Micro, 12ml Bloom
1.5 teaspoons H202
1/2 teaspoon epsom salts

pHed to 6.3. I'll see how the pH reacts tomorrow, cause last changeout, it dropped an additional .2 points after sitting out for a night.
 
F

fully baked

Been real busy, and they had a rough weekend. Dried out a bit from neglect along with a calcium problem??? here's some yellow pics






Peace,
FB
 
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