My First Grow Journal...EVER! 600W MH/HPS Bubbleponics Cabinet Grow

[ellz]

08/23/2017:

06:30PM: Checked on the girls and they are doing great. The net pots managed to stay in place through the night so I guess tying that one plant down helped. I had to add about 3.5 gallons of pHed, HydroGuard water to the White Poison reservoir and about 1.5 gallon to the Rug Burn OG reservoir. They are drinking up the water fast now! Great sign! Photos posted below.

08/24/2017:

06:30PM: The plants are growing like mad! I had to raise the light up another inch or two due to the growth over the past 2 days! I am about to run out of height so I hope they don't get too much bigger! If I have to I will bend them over but I will deal with that when I have to. The Rug Burn OG is budding up much faster than the White Poison, which I expect is due to the higher amount of light that plant gets versus the White Poison ones, as they are very bushy! Even with all the foliage, light is still getting distributed all over thanks to the reflective mylar so I have been reluctant to defoliate although I might on the White Poison just to slow down the stretch on it. Will update the post if I do. Below is a photo of yesterday and today.

Side Note: I bought my new reservoir today to get started working on it. It's a 27 gallon plastic tote that appears to be a perfect size for my cabinet. I posted a photo of it below. I have some water in it and I am testing to make sure it doesn't leak at the mold seems on the bottom. If all looks good, I will start building this one the way I want over the next week or two. Thanks for reading!

[ellz]

My new reservoir so far:

27 Gallon with installed 4" wide fill port/check port and insulated with Reflectix insulation. What size pot should I add? 5 inch or 6 inch?

[Daskahn]

Idk about you but I'd say two pots on either side and I also don't think size really matters but bigger the better?

[JohnC]

I would assume that larger pots are more stable, especially if you want to grow large plants. The extra width and weight of the hydroton would help anchor the pot down, I would think. Of course, make sure you cut your holes carefully so there isn't a whole lot of play.

[ellz]

Thanks for the input all. The only main selling point to the 6 inch pot is that I already have a 6 inch hole saw. To cut the hole for the 5 inch pot I would need to either use my Dremel with the circle attachment (somewhat cumbersome) or I would have to buy a 5 inch hole saw. The roots haven't really spread out all that much in the 3.75" pot, so I don't know if anything much larger would benefit the plant. I will have to do some more thinking on the matter. Thanks again for everyone's input.

[ellz]

Here is a drawing of how my next reservoir is going to look. Hopefully it's pretty straight forward but basically there is a 250GPH water pump that goes to a T-split. One line goes to a drain tube with an on/off valve while the other goes up and out of the reservoir to a radiator with 4 120MM cooling fans (2 pushing, 2 pulling). From there it goes back into the reservoir to a 6-port drip manifold that drips at a fixed rate of 2GPH per port (so 12GPH total). 3 lines per plant from the manifold and the lines will be plumbed into the lid. I think this should work good but I wanted to get any input from the community on it...

[oldskinflint]

The drain is a good idea. One of the surprises about DWC is the amount of water that will need to be transferred/changed. The ideal temp for the root zone is between 60 and 65. At this temp bad stuff has a tough time growing and the cold water can hold more oxygen. There is a formula that would determine how much cooling power would be needed to maintain 62 degrees at a given ambient temp and area of exposure to the ambient air, and the difference between to two. Your excellent drawing clearly show two things. The most that can be circulated though the system is 12 GPH, so the pump may be a little over capacity. The main thing is that the lowest temp that can be achieved is the ambient room temp. Maybe a little more because of the heat from the motor. Some form of mechanical cooling is needed. How much is determined by the external factors of ambient temp and insulation around both the grow area and the reservoir. I am currently using an apt size frig for my cooling source. The room is maintained between 72-77.

[ellz]

08/25/2017:

09:30PM: Added about 3.5 gallons of pHed, HydroGuard water (I also added 1 TSP of Cal/Mag to the 5 gallon container) to the White Poison reservoir and 1.5 gallon to the Rug Burn OG reservoir. Plants are starting to bud up all around! The Rug Burn OG is doing better but it has more light hitting the bud sites. The White Poisons are still doing okay but the leaves are MASSIVE! Many larger than my hand and I am a big guy! Progress photo below.

08/26/2017:

06:30PM: Okay these things are going crazy! The White Poison is now almost touching my ducting in one place!! Good thing I flowered them when I did or they would be way too large for this cabinet! I have my light almost to the max height and I have had to wrap the fly paper thing around the top so it doesn't snag any plants! The bud sites are all filling in nicely. I have attached a few photos from today below. Thanks for reading!

[Sheesh]

Hi Ellz, So that is what they mean by Hydro growing fast! Great journal, you can really see the day to day growth! Are you considering some defoliation to open up some bud sites and airflow? Or, just gonna let them grow natural? I have borderline humidity on my grow so we defoliate regularly. BTW, that drawing looks great. Is that done with Visio?

[ellz]

Thank you. I am considering defoliating the White Poison plants if they get any bushier but the reflective walls are still getting light all around the plant even with the leaves so I have been holding off as long as I can without pulling any of them. That being said, if I have to remove any I am not opposed to it. I was just curious to see how it would do without defoliating. I did one round of defol back on day 37 and have removed maybe 4 or 5 more leaves since then but other than that I have been checking under the main canopy to make sure growth is happening and have been tucking leaves where I can to improve the light distribution.

Drawing was done in MS Paint believe it or not, lol. I love that program for illustrations.

[ellz]

08/27/2017:

09:30PM: Bad news today....I think my last Rug Burn OG may be a hermie! I am really upset if it is because that was the stronger of the two strains and the one I really wanted to grow. I have attached photos below to see what others think but I am pretty sure those are pollen sacs growing with the calyxes.

[Californiakid]

Damn ! Sure is...sorry ellz. You got some balls there.☠

[ellz]

Do you think I could cut off all the stalks with the pollen sacks and try to save the rest of the plant? There are some stalks with no sacks at all.

[JohnC]

@eliz - You only need to miss one sac and it could end up pollinating your entire crop. I would just cut your losses and pull the plant.

[Californiakid]

Tough call. You could go through and cut out the sacs as they pop up. Or remove entire stalks as you mentioned. You have the benefit of an actual herm (pollen sacks which have to open to release the pollen) as opposed to bananas. In theory you can catch 'em before they open unlike a banana that doesn't open just starts spewing pollen when ready.

If you miss a sack it spews pollen. You have to decide. Are you a gambling man? I'm too new to deal with all that. If it were me ... 86 that herm.
Cheers
Californiakid

[alltatup]

What he said!!!!!

[ellz]

Man fuck this grow!

[Graff420]

Damn what happen?

[Californiakid]

No master grower or expert has gotten away without
Yelling this phrase at least once. You are in good company my friend hang in there.

BTW...I'm not suggesting that I'm by any means an expert or master.

[ellz]

Thanks @Californiakid....you are correct. Every grow has that moment with me, lol. Thanks again for helping me to calm down.

[ellz]

08/28/2017:

Pulled the last of my Rug Burn OG for being a f'ing hermie! I am pretty pissed right about now! I have spent tons of money on this shit and have only two failed plants and two bushy-as-f-ck plants to show for it! GRRRRR! MONEY DOWN THE F'KING DRAIN! Anyway, repositioned the White Poison res with both plants right under the light. The stalks are so long they are touching the damn light so I have to deal with that now!

08/29/2017: Checked on the last of my two plants and they are both sagging to the damn right side! Never again will I grow cannabis in a 3.75" net pot! They need to revise that part on this site! WAY TOO F'ING SMALL!!!!!! Once weight kicks in, you can expect my problems! If you go with a small net pot (or basically any net pot for that matter) put some screws and washers to hold it down and save yourself hassle later! Photos of the cluster f-ck I am dealing with below along with "progress" pics (I guess I am a leaf harvester with this crap!)

[ellz]

I can't change it now. All I can do is go forward.

[Daskahn]

Well even the best of the best learn a thing or two from time to time.. just chop this up as a learning experience.. even with the small cups you still have an awesome grow..

Hope this cheers you up my first grow in 2006 went as follows.. grew in my closet
First plant made it to about 4 inches before wilting and dieing
Second attempt was to long so I pulled it not knowing it was a light issue(I feared looking anything up)
3rd attempt (moved plant closer to the light)
Started growing nicely so I added a second continued to grow nicely
Two weeks into flower my gf desired to see someone who wanted kids right away.. we broke up
She then got jealous I was seeing someone else too so she put the plants down the garbage disposal..

4th grow did good under led lights when I switched to hps(I was using a small grow box but bought a large new grow light and fixture 600w hps no fan attached) the heat was to much for my small grow box fan so the heat stress plus a possible nutrition problem killed the plants
Grows 5-10 all supervised with very little hands on(pretty much I could just oo and aww and trim, water was all automated nutes were mixed by the grower (I received very little of these..) but they were awesome
Grow 11 (first out doors) Heavy thunderstorm
Grow 12 (again outdoors) dear ate or stomped most of it (five plants 2weeks into flower) didn't know deer ate weed.. hope they had an awesome night.. or day could have been morning.
Back to indoor growing (moved)
grow 13 fire marchal paid a visit
grow 14 I finally get to flowering and everything seems to be going okish.. I have to move and probably will end up harvesting early...
I am the most experienced worst grower in the world

Overall been growing for like combined ten years and haven't had a successful harvest of my own.. I've probably learned enough to be a kingpin but haven't actually done much of it myself so I'm not sure it'll actually work
If anything I hope this cheered you up

[ellz]

Daskahn I am going with 6 inch pots on my next grow and they will be secured down with screws and probably wood tabs.

[ellz]

08/30/2017: Both plants are leaning over to the right. I have a screw holding each net pot down but the stalks are too long. There is a large bulk almost on the ground now so I am basically about to lose my shit and destroy this whole damn grow and be done with it for good! I swear it would have just been cheaper to buy weed at their outrageous prices than to go through this bullshit!

I finally got around to changing the water. I filled it up yesterday but didn't put it in until today. I am so over this crap I didn't even check the pH. I really don't care what happens any more! I know I could tie them to the walls some how but then how do I do nutrient changes?! I can tie them to the lid but the weight will likely pull the top off the reservoir! I am just screwed.

Pics below...

[Graff420]

Yea iv found a way to control the lean of my girl seems to be working good right now but shes also not near that big but iv got the plant ties in the # type shape with my plant in the middle so if i need to control the way she swings i just tie her out on the tic tac toe style wires i put around her if i come at her from all 4 sides then i can control the angle she sits along with giveing her extra stabilty imma also reasearch great ways to help you get yours surcure give me till morning only 11 pm here so iv got all night and im bored af

[ellz]

Graff420 I have since rotated the reservoir around and the lean is a little less than before. I also tied one main stalk to the lid and that pulled up a few more with it. My next grow will have more options for tying the plants off since I learned that I need that option later in the grow. Thank you for your input!

[ellz]

Every time I go out to check on the plant I get more and more angry! I tried to tie some of the stalks to the lid and it ended up causing them to lean against the door now so just opening and closing harms them. Plus, I noticed several places where the new leaves are dying! I am so over this bullshit! I am about to cut the whole thing down once and for all and be done with this shit!

[ellz]

Just updating....things have improved somehow since rotating the plant around. I don't know what I did but it must have been the right thing because most of the plant is sticking up straight again! I have no idea what is going on but I will just go with it! Sorry for the anger. I am over it now everyone!

[IanHale]

Don't give up man.

I dont know know how many grows you've done.

im on my first...we even started our grows on the same day.

this is a learning experience. I've made a shit ton of mistakes, damaged my plants, almost let the reservoir run dry (only once though), fucked up the light cycle, over nutriented,

ive taken notes...kept my grow journal, and tried not to stress too hard over the end result.

ill know in about 5 weeks.

My suggestion is to figure out a way to support your colas from above.

And relax...whatever you get from the grow is more than you had plus the knowledge you've earned

[alltatup]

What he said.

[ellz]

Thanks IanHale and alltatup. I am sticking it out through the end and will make changes next grow round.

[Sheesh]

Ellz, this may be too radical and kill the plants but I'll throw it out there anyhow. Can you significantly prune them to decrease size and weight? Cut a bunch of branches off so they're manageable? If you can get them trimmed way down and supported they may go on to produce something for all the work you have invested.

[ellz]

I had considered doing that as a last resort...cutting down the weight. Since rotating the reservoir around, things have improved somehow! My most recent photos show the plant is almost standing up straight everywhere! I don't know how turning it saved it but somehow it helped a lot! I am not giving up...just had to get that anger out of my system so I can finish this thing out and get started on my next grow with all the improvements.

[D.A.A.S.69]

Man shit wtf, and the last thing I'm trying to do is be a smartass Ellz. I learned my lesson trying to grow your way long long ago , and did throw or gave away all my growing shit. Now I continue to grow outdoors but all of my indoor grows I use nothing but KindSoil and Water and have never slept better. Real Real Easy Way to grow, plus you don't have to kill everybody in your neighborhood .Wish you the best.

[ellz]

I am making the necessary changes for my next grow. Soil would be much easier for sure, and there are no worries about pots leaning over with that! All of my previous grows were in soil so this is my first attempt at DWC. I am very impressed with the growth rate so I plan on trying a few more grows and seeing if I can perfect it but if I have to, I will go back to soil like before. Thanks for the input. I am not giving up on this grow...gonna stick it out through the end.