Newbie hydroponics grow, need help getting started/selecting equipment!

[ogatec]

trim now & the plant will concentrate on new growth up top- id cut everything below the red line. ur plants will double again in size b4 its all done, dont worry you will have LOTS more trimming to do.

 

[Don Cotyle]

Looking great SoEx, you'll be happy with the yeilds going with the scrog!! Looks like you got a jungle going on there...WEEEdogies!!! Won't be long now

 

[ogatec]

I'm just worried that they won't stretch/grow too much more and won't produce as much as I'd hope.

dont worry my friend, they just STARTED growing, hehe you are in for a big suprise if you think they arnt going to grow anymore. since you got most of the parameters in check like ph & ppm & temp your plants wil take off like crazy!(they already have been right?)...

 

[SoEx]

dont worry my friend, they just STARTED growing, hehe you are in for a big suprise if you think they arnt going to grow anymore. since you got most of the parameters in check like ph & ppm & temp your plants wil take off like crazy!(they already have been right?)...

Yup. I upped the PPM on the flower chamber a bit recently too, since I was way low (on purpose, I wanted to make sure not to burn them). Right now they're at ~1300 PPM. I'm going to be getting some flower nutrients in as well. Ph has been essentially stable as well for a while.

All I've had to do is some basic math in my head to figure out how much nutrient solution to add when I add back water to the res every week or so.

I always heard how hydro was so much harder than soil or that I shouldn't start off with hydro... but I've loved it so far. When things get dialed in it seems really low maintenance. Plus, I can respond to any problems/deficiencies immediately as they show up.

Edit: Good that they'll still increase in size. They've only got about 2' left before I hit the top, though. I think I might've been screwed if I didn't add the SCROG. I know I added it way late, but I think it's still helping

Edit2: Also, thanks for all the help everyone who has responded/looked at this thread

 

[SoEx]

A bit more progress.

I topped all the plants in the veg chamber. I've got a plan!

So far I'm 10 days into flower in my flower chamber. That leaves another ~6.5 weeks until the flower chamber is open and available again. I can veg these for another 1.5 weeks. Then I can take clones from each of the vegging plants. Then I can switch the veg chamber to flower, and in two weeks I'll toss out whichever clones are not female. Then I can veg the newly rooted (and confirmed female) clones for 3 weeks and train them. By that time, hopefully, the two plants in the flower chamber will be done, and I can put in the new clones.

Okay, that's enough yakkin'. Some pics:



I mixed up 50% peat moss, 25% perlite, 25% vermiculite as an experiment and put a rooted clone in it as a tentative mom. I still don't know what I'm going to do for the final mix for the moms. If this clone survives/does well in this mix I'll keep it like this. 2x 13W CFLs for the future moms up top.

I topped all the vegging plants:
















All the vegging plants:
Front row is Dirty Harry/grapefruit, back row is Dirty Harry/Twisted fruit



Overall of the veg chamber:

 

[SoEx]

Oh, some GREAT news:

BOTH PLANTS IN THE FLOWER CHAMBER ARE GIRLS! WOO!

I finally found some clear pistils on the Lemon Stinky. Partyyyyy!

 

[Don Cotyle]

Hot Damn, you Lucky Dog, both of the plants that survived are female...ya did good
Your well on your way to a progressive grow also!!! Props SoEx here's your pimp hat now keep all your bitches in line and keep your pimp hand strong WEEdogies!!!

 

[SoEx]

Hot Damn, you Lucky Dog, both of the plants that survived are female...ya did good
Your well on your way to a progressive grow also!!! Props SoEx here's your pimp hat now keep all your bitches in line and keep your pimp hand strong WEEdogies!!!

Thanks

I've stopped tying things down to the screen since the screen is essentially full at this point. There's a few big patchy spots, but hopefully that'll get filled in via overgrowth.

6 more weeks to go. I hope they stretch a bit, but not TOO much more. I still haven't seen real "budsites" as of yet. Lots of calyxes with pistils coming out at each internode, but the leaf count hasn't started decreasing yet. I'm just hoping I don't run out of headroom, I've only got about 2' left! After that I'll have to get creative and find a way to hang something from the celing, hehe.

 

[Don Cotyle]

That's cool, I was looking at the Lemon Stinky as a candidate for a future grow and read that they arn't supposed to streach much. Hopefully you'll be OK with the height. Have you looked into any weight-yeild-bud increasers? I use a 0-50-30 boost on mine and it seems to help!

 

[LifeCycle]

Sweet little hydro setup up with the vegging plants under cfl!!! What is there a pump in the res the floods the 2L bottles?

 

[SoEx]

That's cool, I was looking at the Lemon Stinky as a candidate for a future grow and read that they arn't supposed to streach much. Hopefully you'll be OK with the height. Have you looked into any weight-yeild-bud increasers? I use a 0-50-30 boost on mine and it seems to help!

I'm going to wait until I have buds to look into that!

I've been trying to keep as low on the nutrient care with my plants as possible. The dutchmaster advance Grow nutrients did really well for me. I was going to get some FloraNova, but then I saw some of the murkiness it added to the res and wasn't too attracted.

So I went out and bought the Dutchmaster advance flower nutrients. Seems simple enough, and it has more other supplemental nutrients than the floranova, so I'll try it out this time around. I'm thinking about waiting until I'm 4-5 weeks in before considering any supplements, at least until I know I'm far enough in that I'm not too likely to mess anything up

I'll look into that, though.

Sweet little hydro setup up with the vegging plants under cfl!!! What is there a pump in the res the floods the 2L bottles?

Yup, there's a pump down there that floods it up. I'm going to move to a DWC setup in there hopefully, though, since the roots have already moved into the pipes and have begun clogging things up.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

[Don Cotyle]

but then I saw some of the murkiness it added to the res and wasn't too attracted.

Are you talking about the mess it left in Freezerboys rez? If so that's the first time I've ever seen that happen with the GH. Oh well, the hardest part of finding a nute you'r happy with is half the work, looks like your happy with what you found so that's good! I tend to stay with what works well for me!

 

[FreezerBoy]

I'm using the GH 3 part series rather than Floranova and it should be noted my problem was strictly pilot error. The nutes were at least 5 years old and improperly stored to boot. Since getting new nutes, my res is clean as a whistle but, again, that's the 3 part not Floranova.

I was a bit worried to do my first DWC with the SilverHaze (10 week flower period)that never sprouted. The idea it would be this easy with a Thunker is a very pleasant surprise.

I wondered how long those soda bottles would last. Root growth in my tub is amazing. Anyway, looks like you have a regular factory going on. Good on you.

 

[SoEx]

but then I saw some of the murkiness it added to the res and wasn't too attracted.

Are you talking about the mess it left in Freezerboys rez? If so that's the first time I've ever seen that happen with the GH. Oh well, the hardest part of finding a nute you'r happy with is half the work, looks like your happy with what you found so that's good! I tend to stay with what works well for me!

I'm using the GH 3 part series rather than Floranova and it should be noted my problem was strictly pilot error. The nutes were at least 5 years old and improperly stored to boot. Since getting new nutes, my res is clean as a whistle but, again, that's the 3 part not Floranova.

I was a bit worried to do my first DWC with the SilverHaze (10 week flower period)that never sprouted. The idea it would be this easy with a Thunker is a very pleasant surprise.

I wondered how long those soda bottles would last. Root growth in my tub is amazing. Anyway, looks like you have a regular factory going on. Good on you.

Well I had remembered seeing a few threads when I was browsing around that the floranova discolored the res water/made it brownish/clogged things up. I don't know if that's substantiated or not, but I decided to play it safe and stick with what seemed to have worked before.

On a more annoying point, I had to trim one of the plant's roots.

The rootmass from this one plant:



What I trimmed off:



I had to trim quite a bit off before water would continue flowing... But I *HAD* to. The roots had completely clogged the pipe and basically when I wasn't paying attention the water spilled over the rim of the 2L bottles and got ALL over and into the damn airpump. Could've been quite bad. Whatever, I only need this system to last another week before I take clones, then I can start vegging things in a new DWC bubbler.

I'll have some shots of the flowering plants soon, hopefully. Things have started progressing in the flower room too

 

[SoEx]

Wee. Finally got some (quick) flower snaps.

Sorry about the quality, and the fact that I didn't differentiate between the MK and the LS, I just am tired and wanted to get something up

I promise I'll take some good snaps once things start to fatten up a bit

















Edit: damnit. ICmag image uploader is resizing my originals down to annoyingly small pictures (yes, the bigger versions you see after clicking are significantly smaller than the uploaded pictures.) Kind of annoying that I can't have a .8 megapixel cropped image show up at 100% :/

 

[SoEx]

So I've got a dirty little secret

I haven't touched the flower room's res in almost 1.5 weeks. No ph checks, no nutrient changes, etc. So, I checked it today.

Ph: 5.95, PPM 1600.



So it stayed nice and consistent throughout, I am glad it's at a decent balance.

I added back about 1/3 of the res today and added flower nutrients. I'm going for no res changes through this entire thing, hopefully.

 

[ogatec]

yep its that easy....i would change yer rez out atleast 1 time @ around 4wks flower, although its def not mandatory & your plants will still do well w/o 1...

 

[SoEx]

Big problem

Ugh.

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?p=1574412

I need a fucking drink. Or a toke, but I'm out.

 

[ogatec]

just make sure everyhing is working, & hope for the best, this is what 1st harvests are for..

 

[SoEx]

Oh well. Hopefully things recover.

I took some pics. Ill have some sexier macro shots soon hopefully too. Sorry some of these are huge.

MASTER KUSH:




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Lemon Stinky: