Relearning

[BigBudBill]

Hi all,

I recently decided to start a room again after not growing for over a year. I grew for about 8 years starting in hydro then moving to soil. I could never achieve anywhere near 1g/watt using my methods. I think I over read, over analyzed and then, when I grew frustrated, I grew apathetic then just quit. Ugh. Anyways...recession, unemployment, blah blah....time to fire up the lamps again. With a fresh look.

So I have intentionally looked at my prior time as just a hobby and that my knowledge was not near what I thought it was. Like a chef straight out of chef school, I am just a beginner looking for a mentor to help with my practical application.



My growroom is a sealed storage room that is pretty large. I am just using the very back of it, as that end is around a 90 degree bend and pretty much behind the actual things I store in the room. While it is not ideal, and I will be looking for a remote location if things grow well, it is what I have.

I have both 400w mh and hps lights I change out for veg/flowering (also an un-used 1k hps that needs a place to work ).

I have decided to try a DWC for ease of set up and use. I plan on switching to ebb and flow after this grow. It is a 20g tub. I am using 2in net pots. I have a 2 outlet pump with the good big round air stones that make small bubbles. The res is at 70 degrees, ph is ~6.0 (that is the most accurate I can be with my test strips and indicator solution, will be purchasing meter soon). I have no tds meter, yet. Will be getting that soon. SO.... I am flying kind of blind, hoping to making it through the clouds safely until I get the meters I need.

The pictures are at 10 days in this set up. I actually started these in soil in cups. Then decided I did not want to grow soil in this location. I rinsed the roots and put them in 1/4 str. GH nutes and bubbled the water until the plants recovered. Then 1/2 str. nutes for a week, now I am ready to proceed. I think I want to change to 12/12 at 2 weeks. I have been pinching bending and tying over to encourage branching. I topped them at 1 week veg to further encourage growth of side branches. The light was raised a bit for the pictures, normally it is at 12"-14" above the tops of the plants.

After reading much on the Lucas formula, I will be changing to that but only after buying a tds meter.

I know I am limited in many things atm, but what I would like is any tips, advice you can give.

Thanks!
BBB

 

[jm420]

go 0-5-10 lucas youll be good till meter comes.when i flip 12/12 i also use liquid kool bloom and floranecter it does wonders,
tds up,ph down =to rich
tds down phup=to lean
remember not all strains will take to 0-8-16 thats the beauty of lucas you can dial it in to yoour plants.
Check out freezerboys thunk diary its a great read

 

[BigBudBill]

Thanks jm!
I have been reading an epic thread Lucas started(I think 27 pages or so), learning ALOT! I will take your advice on the 0-5-10. I bought a meter today for $22.00 on ebay, its not waterproof but will work till I can get better.

GH has a rep giving samples out at my store in 2 weeks. I will be getting kool bloom and floranecter then(funds are tight, I am getting a little bit at a time).(I got a big bag of Lavacorn from Vermicrop rep free today!)

I changed to HPS yesterday(still 18/6) and the plants are really growing fast now. I was able to add an osc. fan and I bought some Pro-tekt. I only added a little(1 tsp to 14G nutes) bit but I am concerned about support for the flowers as they ripen.
Will take more pictures and post soon.

 

[BigBudBill]

Just started 12/12! These are BB x NL#1 btw.

 

[BigBudBill]

1 Week of 12/12

1 Week of 12/12

I am a little behind in posting these, but these pics are after 1 week of 12/12 lighting.

The front clones 2 had problems going back to veg state(the cuttings were apparently from a mother who was in about the end of the second week of flowering. Oh well, it's what I had to work with this time). They eventually started vegging again but I wasn't able to wait for them to get much bigger as the other 2 in the system did not have this problem and had abundant veg growth.

I have been training them to bush out a little because I could only get 4 plants to start with and had to spend a lot of time in veg to achieve a little larger canopy because of this. This combined with the 2 that struggled to veg properly caused me to spend much longer than I prefer.

I also had pH issues as I did not have a proper test kit(yes, I was using a kit for an aquarium I had. The pH down from that kit caused a bit of precipitate to form in the bottom of the res. I dumped and cleaned that out and got some proper pH down and a better test kit until I get a meter. I was able to borrow a meter to make sure everything was dialed in. So now the system fluctuates between 5.5-6.2.

I used GH 3 part for Veg. I did not change res(after the original res change caused by the precipitate in the res) and have only added Lucas formula 0-8-16 and Superthrive as addback. The TDS drifts between ~ 1030- 1080(My tap water reads 277 @ .5 conversion). I will be doing a res change and changing to RO water this upcoming week.

It has been a great experience starting up a fresh grow. I don't think I will be doing DWC anymore. It has been a cool technique to try, but my system and location arent ideal for DWC. Its either drip or flood and drain for me next time. I just hope I can manage a decent crop from this set up.

 

[BigBudBill]

At 22 days (sorry camera phone is all I have atm).

 

[BigBudBill]

More pics

More pics

31 Days

 

[BigBudBill]

37 Days

 

[BigBudBill]

The cuttings in the back were from the same source yet still had issues going back into veg(clones apparently were cut ~14 days). This cause me to use LST techniques as well as supercropping to slow the grow of the other 2 cuttings which never had a problem with veg hormones, in order to attempt to produce an even canopy. The supercropping had the effect of lengthening the flowering time somewhat. I have grown this strain(NL X Blueberry) some years back and it seemed to have a 49-56 day window. The plants that were not supercropped were stunted, yet appear to be ripening on schedule. Today is day 48. I have taken most of the ripening flowers from the stunted, unsupercropped plants, mostly to open up the space for the other 2 plants. These 2 plants have multiple tops (4 on one,5 on the other) and are filling in nicely and need ~ 14 more days. Pictures to follow shortly.