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

[alltatup]

Awesome construction!!!

 

[ellz]

Thanks!

 

[oldskinflint]

From my own experience, keeping the roots cooled down to 62 degrees was the one thing made the greater difference to my production. Before cooling I could not get close to the numbers that the seed providers advertised. Neither amount nor time! Now I am consistently coming in at the low side of both the time and amount. These plants love to have their roots cooled! Also I started out with one small aquarium air stone powered by a single outlet on an air pump. Now I use two 2x2 air stones in each bucket and use a single outlet per stone. Some things you can learn by reading, other things must be learned by trial and error. I started out with 6 5-gallon, buckets. Now I have three plants and buy automatic, feminized sees from a reputable provider. Good luck!!!

 

[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...

 

[ellz]

No Title

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?

 

[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]

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]

No Title

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.

 

[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

 

[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.

 

[alltatup]

What he said!!!!!

 

[ellz]

Man fuck this grow!

 

[Graff420]

Damn what happen?

 

[ellz]

No Title

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!)