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I made a DWC system from a water pump in a 5gallon bucket and an air pump outside the bucket. The water pump brings water up through a tube to replicate a drip ring and the air pump aerates the water in the reservoir. It's very quiet and seems to work well. I modified a design I got from my local hydroponics guy where I also got the net pot and peat pellet.
I soaked the peat pellet in tap water that I'd left out overnight to evaporate out the chlorine. I put the seed in the hole in the top and pushed some peat over the hole. I kept it on a plate under a bowl in a drawer for a few days like I would do for the paper towel method. Then I put it in a rock wool cube. It didn't quite fit and I was worried that I might have hurt the root while forcing it in but it looks OK. Then I put it under my light and waited for it to sprout. Now that I've got a sprout happening, I'll plug in the DWC system and put in some starting nutrients.
This is my first time running a hydroponics system after almost 10 years growing, so I'm excited :)
She's growing so fast. I was just watering the rockwool cube whenever it dried out but I put it in the net pot today and covered it in LECA clay pellets. I topped her yesterday as well. PH and ppm look good. I'm just going to plug in the dripper every once in a while until the roots start growing through the net pot. I don't want the rock wool to be submerged. The top is covered with clay now so shouldn't be susceptible to mold from the light reaching it.
Looking at my last grow (CBD Blue Shark / Wedding Cake) I didn't provide enough light or nutrients at the start and wasn't able to top until week 6. Growing in peat/rockwool instead of paper towel/soil, adding nutrients right away, and using the HID grow light from the start instead of a smaller cloning light seem to have made a big difference.
Slow growth since topping her but she just kicked back into gear with the new tops branching out. Looks good. Doing the first reservoir change and going to have the rockwool and net pot dipping in the water until a bit evaporates. Ideally I'll have just the roots in the water but they're really short right now and I've been turning on the water pump intermittently to keep them fed while they grow.
Things are going well. Very good root growth. The two new main stems have grown enough to be tied down for Low Stress Training. I don't think I'll top again. I want to see how fast I can get a good canopy with DWC, and see if Manifold-style training can get me a similar shape to the Mainline I did last year where I lost a ton of time from topping 4 times and doing a bunch of pruning to maintain a certain shape.
I set the lights to 18/6 to encourage some rest and regrowth, and frankly to save myself a bit of light and noise at night. The reservoir is still full so I'm going to leave it this week and change out the water next week.
The leaves are looking a bit stressed so I raised the light and moved the fan back a bit. I have a window fan pulling air out while there's no smell but I think I'll need to switch that to intake, turn on the exhaust and replace the jet with an oscillating fan. There is a fan on the cool tube for my light as well. I think I need to hang something heavier on the front to dampen the sound. All the fans are getting loud for my small apartment.
Lol I topped it again the next day. I have wires tying down all the main branches. I think it's worthwhile to spend the time in veg making a good canopy. I'm following the instructions for Nebula's Manifold technique but I haven't done any pruning yet except for the topping itself. I have a vision of what I want taking form.
June 16 I checked the pH and it was 6.5 so I brought it down to 5.5. I'm going to change out the water and nutes tomorrow. It needs a top-up so I'll just change out the whole thing tomorrow. I'm leaving out a bucket of water overnight for the chlorine to evaporate.
I made a countertop tent out of mylar and 2x2s. Any tips on what I can hang on the front to dampen the sound of fans and filters? Foam didn't do much so I broke it into smaller pieces to block off the noisy fans and pumps individually. I'd like to isolate the whole thing ideally.
20 slot Egg cartons mate, great sound dampener, used it in a band practice room years ago to dampen sound and it worked a treat - same prinicipal as sound proof foaming but a whole lot cheaper. If you were to build a front you could put stick the egg cartons inside to dampen sound.
Another cheap alternative is expanding foam between 2 thin pieces of wood - get some clamps (6 should do it) spray your foam LIGHTLY across one board, stick the other board on top of itnand clamp them down so youve got about an inch gap for the foam to expand and itll stick the boards together too, use sparingly cause it expands like a mo'fo, some of them are also fireproof too, if youre the safety conscious (paranoid) sort. ;)
June 18
I changed the water last night. I'll do that weekly moving forward instead of every 2 weeks. She'll probably be thirstier now with the extra foliage too. I'll prepare a second batch of water for top-ups.
Substrate temp was 31 and leaf temp 24 to 27. I turned the fan up. It's louder. I'm probably going to buy some plywood and install a proper door on the grow area.
June 20 I got a big piece of Styrofoam to pressure-fit as a door. I also added ducting to the cool tube and redirected the hot air out the window. Heat has been higher than I wanted but I think it's actually helping growth in veg. Looking forward to the 12/12 switch.
Water temp was 29 today. I reconfigured the room and raised the light. It was a hot day. I might wrap the bucket in something reflective and see if that helps.
I started supercropping the FIM stem and another that was getting too high.
Heat wave here. Switching to 12/12 tonight. Going to keep the LST going this week and let it grow naturally after that. The canopy has been nice and flat but the FIM stem that I supercropped is starting to break free again.
I wrapped the dwc bucket in foil, hopefully that keeps the heat down a bit. I'm planning to get some mycorhyzome for the roots to help with resilience.
I'm using a 1000w HID setup I had from before, running at 50% in a cool tube. It's loud and not efficient. Maybe it's time I switch to LEDs or a 250 HID. I don't want to sacrifice bud quality but I'm low on funds. Any recommendations for a good light that will fill this space?
Being in a dwc bucket you will want a detachable driver. Mars lights have high output vs quantum boards. I have used both. I have only used ts series though for Mars. Detachable diver allows you to remove the heat it produces in grow space. Help keep dwc cooler. Can also line your bucket with reflective mylar if temps in bucket are getting too warm. Good luck
Because of how early I topped her, the base was very dense with foliage so I did some defoliation. You can see the four main branches (2 of which were topped) and the central FIM with its supercropping scars in the 4th pic.
Still running a 1000w MH bulb at 50%. Looking at getting a SMLED/COB LED combo light to replace my cool tube and associated fans and ducting.
Water level was down to 50%. I'll have to start topping up.
July 04 I rearranged my setup a bit while switching the MH bulb for the HPS. I think next run I'm going to grow 2 autoflowers and stagger them and try to run a perpetual harvest. I'm going to try to stick with the HID lights if I can manage the heat effectively. It was working well when I had the 6" cooltube and the 4" carbon filter exhausting out the window, but now that the smell is more intense, I don't want any air going out except through the carbon filter. I've thought about running filter-->fan-->cooltube-->outside but they're different sizes so it would lose efficiency. I've also thought about running clean air from outside the tent through the cooltube and then outside as it was intended, but I just don't think that's going to work with the space.
July 05 I noticed shiny spots on the leaves which seems to indicate I have thrips. I can't see any actual larvae even with my glasses on, but the sucked out spots are fairly distinctive and I can see small black particles that must be excrement. Temperature seems pretty good in there and humidity is ok at about 45%. I have some peppermint Dr Bronner's castile soap so I made a foliar spray of insecticidal soap by just pouring a few drops into a big spray bottle. Just worried about when to spray so I don't burn the plant. Just checked the reservoir and temp is 26c, PPM 860, Ph 6.5. I'm going to add plain water and try to bring the Ph back down to 5.5. It's possible that what I'm seeing is due to the Ph being too high. I'm going to start checking the Ph at least every couple days. It's annoying to unclip all the training wires every time I open the reservoir. It's also not very convenient to fill it. It's at an awkward height. I like the 5 gallon bucket because it was easy to set up and understand but I might be better off with a different type of reservoir.
3:45pm I just sprayed the underside of one section of leaves, I'll see how that section does under the lights. My concern is that if I spray under the lights, it will burn, but if I spray at night, it could cause mold. Hopefully I can get away with spraying all the leaves once or twice a week and it will go away.
July 06 She looks ok but I'm thinking it might be a Ph issue. Ph was 6.2 so I decided to just pitch the water and start again. I changed my method so I'm mixing the nutrients in the actual bucket the plant lives in and testing it there, instead of mixing in another bucket and pouring it into the DWC. Ph is now 5.7 and PPM 700.
July 08 just noticed that RH is 70% when the lights come on. I feel like I'm going to need a solution for overnight humidity. Maybe dry rid bags. Rh is 60% after a couple hours. Leaf, solution, and substrate temp down to 24 which is nice. Ph is back up to 6.3 again! I pH downed some tap water to 4 and added that to the reservoir.
July 09 Pistils just started coming out :) The Ph is still back up to 6.3 again but PPM is 750. I'm going to change the res again and lower the nutrient content a bit.
After this run I think I'm going to grow 2 DWC autos at a time and harvest monthly. I'm looking at a 6x 3k COB, a 58 SMLEDs 2 CREE COBs (3k and 5k), or a 112 SMLED and 4 CREE COB (3k).
LINKS:
https://tinyurl.com/778famth
https://tinyurl.com/2dz9uw
https://tinyurl.com/4m7ynerv
Those are all meh lights. I've actually used that 6x cob led light before. it's a 280w space heater that does provide some light. it'll probably be fine for ~10-12k hours, then it'll dim like crazy cause those things run hot AF. the other ones are mixing an older tech (COB LED) with an even older tech of LED diodes. They are all lying about PAR values. the last one shows a 34.26lm/w efficiency which would be 1/6th of a cheap unit with new technology used, if true. they don't even know how to lie correctly.
that 280w 6x cob can cover about 3'x2' - mainly due to shape and the reflectors used. it is expensive and hot, despite the 0 up front cost.
get something inexpensive to start like a mars or vipar to cover your area. they are 'okay' lights. they too lie about umol/s and PAR etc more times than not..
when you look at better equipment, they'll often be more honest about the specs. umol/s is the best way to determine how much you need... ambient co2, you are fine 60-80umol/s per square foot. this'll be ~800-900 PPFD? can google the math on that. If you add/regulate CO2 you can probably push 100-120umol/s per square foot.
watts does not work for this, because efficacy varies. a high-end 100w light might provide more photons of light than one with 120-140watts. cheaper lights -- 40watts / sq ft. expensive lights ~30w per square foot. you can do a break-even analysis of your electricity savings per month and decide between 2 lights with more confidence of buying best value. (requires accurate specs or algebra skills to deduce it yourself.)
Anyway... i'd take it easy on the light until you can resolve the best ones.. before spending too much. Get a light that uses bars/strips of LED spaced out covering most of your area. it provides a very even blanket of light across entire canopy.
I changed the reservoir and set the pH to around 5.3 and reduced the nutrients by 5ml/g.
I just realized I've been adding far far fewer nutrients than I thought. I've been using 30ml in a 5 gal bucket (probably 4.5g volume) but I should be using 30ml/g so 4x as much. I'm going to leave it for now but I should probably start adding more nutrients.
I took the wires I was using for LST off the bucket so it isn't stressed during flower and so it's easier to change the water. I'm taking off fan leaves that are blocking bud sites if I can't tuck them away. It grew a crazy amount today, so many little pistils came out. It's an exciting time.
July 10 she thirsty. I added half a gallon of water and a full 30ml of each nutrient. That should bring us close to half the recommended nutes. I'll probably change the full res out and give 3/4 nutes sometime this week and go up to full strength next weekend if everything looks OK.
https://www.remonutrients.com/calculator/
I just looked at my chart again and I think I was right the first time. I just added more nutrients for no reason. I added another half gallon of water and checked ppm and pH. Ppm is 1050, pH is 5.8. Gonna keep an eye on it through the day and see what happens.
305pm pH 5.8 ppm 1200
July 11 pH 5.8 ppm 1300. I'll add some plain water after the res goes down a bit more. Looks like the plant isn't using all the available nutes and is probably leaching some. She looks good though. Loads of vertical growth over the past week, now really going hard making bud sites. I'm going to see how this nute situation goes before doing any major defoliation or pruning. Leaf temp was 29 on the central cola so I turned up the fans and raised the light a bit.
July 12 ppm down to 1200, pH still 5.8. Looks like it's going to be ok.
July 13 ppm 1300 pH 6.2. I dropped an entire oscillating fan on my plant today. I broke 4 stems almost clean off. 3 appear to be surviving through duct tape and wire. The biggest one appears to be a casualty. I'm pissed. But the cabinet is coming together. Once it's perfect this kind of thing won't happen. I salvaged a piece of plywood yesterday and hand sawed the whole thing to fit as a door.
The buds are coming out. It's disappointing that I broke off a big stem, and some of the ones that survived are bent over so the canopy isn't as even. But it's OK she looks good and it's been nice watching her bloom.
Not much to report from this week. More pistils came out every day. They're long and smell great. She drank half the res over the week but the pH and ppm stayed stable so I just left it.
July 25 I took the duct tape off one of the stems that broke when my fan fell. It healed with a huge knuckle and looks great. One of the other big stems looks like it also has a big knuckle and is growing strong. Some of the smaller ones look like they've regained their integrity but didn't get a knuckle. They are all able to stand up straight now and the plant looks much happier. I'm leaving one wire support in place because of one of the thinner stems.
July 27 I just noticed the upper leaves are a bit brittle. I should take it down and observe it more often
I turned the fan to point away from the plant and the leaves recovered.
Nothing much to report. The smell is growing more distinctive. Lots of pistils are coming out. It's an exciting time but much less work than veg was.
I changed the nutrients on Thursday and just topped up with more water and pH down this morning (Monday).
Not much to do now but watch the pH and PPM and wait. It looks beautiful. The growing structure of the buds is really interesting, it has like four calyxes with pistils coming out of the top of a lot of buds in a really distinctive way. It's super, super frosty too. The GG#4 genetics are already showing. Interesting smell, hard to describe. Still relatively mild, at least in the grow tent with the filter running.
There's some burning on the leaves, yellowing at the edges. I think I got a bit complacent about checking on it this week since it's been so easy. I also think I should have pruned some of the smaller branches, even just for my own enjoyment of the aesthetics on top of the benefits for airflow and nutrient use. I'll probably do that this week. Then 2 weeks to harvest! I'm impressed with this strain so far, as well as very impressed with the DWC method VS soil or coco but still have a soft spot for organic soil. If I can find a veganic hydroponic nutrient mix I'll be stoked.
Things are looking good. I'm in a bit of a time crunch so I think I'm going to harvest early. Sometime this week probably, just shy of 8 weeks. Cool strain to grow. Very interesting calyx formations at the crowns. I dried a couple small buds and threw them in my vape a few days later and the terpenes seem great. Can't wait to see how it tastes fully cured.
I'm going to wash and decarb the buds before curing them, and I've never done that before, so I'll post that here too.
Thanks to everyone who read and commented! Happy growing!
My grow hits 60 days on August 25 but I have to fly on August 28. I also just stopped giving nutes yesterday but should have tapered sooner, especially cal/mag. I want to do a flush/dark period/chop/wet trim/wash/hang dry before I fly. Any tips on a drying schedule? It's tight.
Well if you take them down now and wet trim your bud then hang until almost dry 4 to 5 days, jar and burp the rest of your time that your home, them the day you leave it still won't be ready to jar and just leave so in the freezer they go until you get home and can finish the burping. I have had to do this before and had no problems finishing up the process when I got home. Cheers
August 23: Just finishing up about 36 hours of darkness, then I'm going to wash the buds, then hang them. Harvesting a bit early due to time constraints but it looks good. The smell is very dank, not a tropical skittles smell, much more like wood glue as I've seen mentioned in other reviews, although I'm starting to occasionally catch a sweeter tropical scent as well.
I wanted to leave it a little longer. There were still a lot of white hairs when I started the dark period, but a lot of them seem to have developed into swollen calyxes so I'm pretty happy. I was a little worried they were making seed pods after last time, but I broke one open and all that was inside was red hairs. I'm going to keep an eye on the RH while they're drying and get them into jars and try to wait as long as possible before I start sampling. I can tell this is one of those batches that's going to get better and better if left alone for a couple months.
Just did the wash, did 1.25 cups of 34% food grade H202 and a squeezed lemon in a 5 gal bucket. Another bucket of just water to rinse. Then I had a fan on it while hanging in the sunlight from a skylight in the bathroom for 30 min, then put the fan further back and on oscillate, then turned it down an hour later. Left it in there for a few hours, then hung it in the grow tent with everything removed except an oscillating fan, pointed away from the buds. I have the whole plant hanging in the middle of the tent and the tent is holding at 60% rh.
Next run I'm going to do 2 buckets and only top once. I might leave them a bit longer in veg too to maximize the height in my grow space, and I'll get a proper 500w bulb instead of continuing to run 1000w bulbs at 50% to lower the heat a bit. The weather will be cooler and I'll only run one air stone in each bucket which should help with res temp. I'll probably foil-wrap the buckets again as well. I should be able to get another run done by the end of the year. I have a White Widow fem seed I've been waiting to use but I'm not sure what else I want to grow yet. Maybe Granddaddy Purp.
I'll take some micro pics of the trichomes this week and start curing, and I'll post a proper review in a couple weeks.
Happy growing everyone!
August 24: I took it out of the tent to inspect. No mold or mildew. The middle of some buds are still pretty wet. I'll keep an eye on it. Wet weight on the stem is 158 grams/ 5.5oz.
I harvested a couple branches last week and hung them up. I just ground up one of the buds, left it overnight and vaped some today. There was a bit of Chemdawg Tangerine in the grinder already but overall I got a lot of thick vapour, instant effects, and a really great tropical taste.
I busted out the microscope camera and I realized I had a couple buds that fell off before I washed the plant in the H202, and a couple buds that came off in the washing process. It doesn't look like washing the buds took off any of the trichomes. I do seem to find less debris in the buds, not that there was much there before. The trichs look great. Just a light toasting of amber. The washed bud actually seems more dry than the unwashed bud.
August 25: there's a real chlorophyll smell coming from the drying room today, it was much terpier yesterday. Leaves are getting crunchy, stems are still fully bendy. I ended up taking it down in the evening. The drying room rh dropped from 60% to 55% and the buds were starting to look too dry based on my last grow. I put it all in a paper bag for the night and I'll put it in jars tomorrow morning. Broken down most of the way it came out to 48-49 grams. From the bud structure, I definitely feel like it would have benefitted from more grow time if I didn't have to travel. More to come.
August 26 - the edges of the buds are getting really crispy and the buds are getting tighter. I checked the paper bag earlier and it was 65-70%. I got the impression it was time to put it into jars. I'll keep the lids off for a bit.
Very high resin production with interesting flavours, like fruit-flavored duct tape. Strong and dank. I was hoping for more of a skittles flavour but the glue flavours came through pretty hard. I feel like this is a good strain if you wanted zkittlez to be more resiny, or you wanted more berry flavours in your GG4, but I'm not a huge fan of the flavour as a stand alone strain. There are sweet notes but the diesel/duct tape smell and taste are pretty overpowering.
Update after 2 months curing: the flavour is more balanced now and blends well with other flavours (I've been enjoying it in my dry herb vape with bong attachment with a bit of black cherry live resin). Lots of neat colours came through too. I may give this another go sometime after all. I keep getting the avour of roses, which has been delightful.
Not a bad grow for my first DWC. Would have been nice to have been able to flush it for longer and let it grow another week. Had problems with thrips that came back at the end of flower, I'll make sure to handle that more effectively early next time.
Awesome setup, i've read that top feed in the beginning of a dwc grow can speed up growth before roots even hit the water, and that seems to be the case for you
@jonesy_grows, thanks! I do think it helped. I haven't turned the top feed on since the roots were submerged but I do think it helped in the beginning!
3lementa1
