Forum Stomper 4 Site DWC

Round 2 in my RDWC setup. Decided to give auto-flowers a try and went with Forum Stomper from Mephisto. I found these great little plastic greenhouse domes that let me give each of my DWC buckets their own humidity dome. I germed 4 Forum Stompers, 4 Girl Scout Cookies Extreme from ILGM and 2 Bubba's Gift from HSO. After I germed all the seeds using the wet paper towel method I placed each seed in a rapid rooter plug that had been soaked in PH'd water with some Roots Excelurator. The 4 Forum Stompers went into the DWC buckets where they will stay until harvest. The other seeds will be going to a friend once they sprout. I decided to try out these Rhizo-Core netpot lids that have a cone in the middle of them. They supposedly help the seedlings get their roots into the water faster. I figure this would be good due to the limited clock that autos have. Anyway, I'm really excited to see how these turn out. It's supposed to be an awesome strain.

Here we are a week and a few days later. One of the Forum Stompers didn't come up. It was probably my fault, I could have given them some more time in the DVD case before putting them in the cubes but I was excited! I germed another one and that one has popped up just fine. Growth up top is pretty slow, and some of the plants seem a little droopy. Their roots just started to grow out of the net pots so maybe that has something to do with it? Or maybe because they are right at the end of the light cycle for the day? I've got roots that I can see on 3/4. For at least one of the plants the rhizo-core net pots seem to be doing what it's supposed to. I've got a nice set of roots crawling their way towards the bucket right down the side of the inner cone. Going to switch the rez out Sunday and start them on some really low strength nutes. I got the red frog air diffusers in the mail and went and bought a new air pump, these things are awesome. They make a ton of tiny bubbles to the point where it's almost a foam on top of the water. I'm hoping the roots love all the extra oxygen.

The plants are starting to take off, the roots are growing fast and appear healthy. Not much to say this week. I've cut back the light schedule to 18/6. I've got my temp and humidity controlled by a raspberry pi. All I've really got to do day to day is ph the water and fill the humidifier.

I went wrong somewhere, they started showing issues with calcium and magnesium, I changed my rez out and gave them their first real batch of nutes. I did half strength H&G base nutes and full strength additives and I think I just over loaded them. The cal-mag issues were getting worse so I made it even worse by adding more. I decided to give AN a try and this stuff seems to be working but it's real expensive. I'm looking at getting this powdered stuff from Green Leaf called Mega Crop. 9lb bag is 100 dollars with shipping and makes 2500 gallons.

I got my Mega Crop in the mail and switched that out on Tuesday afternoon. This stuff is simple as hell to use, and seems to be exactly what my plants want. I had some wild PH swing the first night after switching (5.9 - 5.0 over night) but since that it has held a rock solid 5.9, I'm guessing it was leeching out whatever was left from the AN. Compared to last week my plants look amazing, I think it's too late for them to become monsters but I'll live with it, and I'm better prepared for the next run. With that being said, 3/4 plants are showing pre-flowers and one is really starting to stretch. I expect the others are not far behind. The one that has not shown any pre-flowers is about 4 days younger than the rest so it makes sense. Mephisto is having their US summer sale right now so I picked up Grape Walker Kush, Fugue State and Ghost Toof, along with a bunch of freebies. I'm committed to getting autos right and putting out a grow that is worthy of these great genetics.

Once again accidentally overdid it on the cal-mag, burned em again. Changed out the rez and went really easy this time and they are definitely hungry. PPMs have been dropping by 20-30 overnight while PH creeps up. I've got pistils on every plant now and aside from the back left plant they really haven't started to stretch yet. I'm hoping they catch up pretty quick here. The bottom right plant is interesting it's really bushy to the point where you can't really tell where the top is unless you go digging, I've tried to clear out some of the inner growth so it has room to breathe but it bushed back up real fast. My last grow I didn't have a carbon filter and you could legit smell the bud from the driveway. This stuff is supposed to be even smellier so I opted for a larger inline fan and a 6" carbon filter. I'll also be adding a 2nd rez so I can pre-mix and ph my nutes the night before I want to use them. I plan on using my air pump with 4 cheap airstones to keep it nice and aerated overnight. This will also let me dial in my nutrients. I'm currently pumping right from my 55gal RO rez to my rDWC. I have no real way of knowing how many gallons it is when I do it that way but I'm going to start with 25 gallons of RO by measuring with 5 gal buckets then marking the 2nd rez for an easy reference for the future. I'll then mix up the nutes in that 2nd rez and pump it to the rDWC the next day.

In the past week, one of my Forum Stompers has gotten massive compared to the others. I'm not sure if it's different phenos or me just stressing them out. I'm guessing it's stress. Hopefully the other 3 start to hit their stretch this week. I did some defoliating this week, and spent a lot of time on the big tall one. She's really opened up and catching a lot of light. I'm hoping the branches really start to get heavy and frosty over the next couple of weeks.

Well, looking like the three littles ones aren't going to do much stretching. Should still make some good buds, lots of budsites for sure. The tall one is going to be an awesome harvest though. This thing is crazy. Lots of big tall stalks with what looks to be bud site spacing. I'm hoping to add some PK boost next week. I added it a week ago and realized I did it too early and switched out the rez. I'm going to go light on it and see what happens. I'm afraid to go too strong because I don't think the small ones will like it. The tent is starting to get a nice smell and the first coat of frost is starting to come in. I think this one is gonna run pretty long, probably closer to 95-100 days maybe more. but who knows.

Things are really frosting up and buds are starting to stack and it's starting to give off an amazing smell. Added bud explosion this week and I burned some of the leaves, and it's causing the PH to fluctuate too much. I'm going to go with straight up mega crop no additives and see how they do. Ignore the nutrient calculations, it's kinda hard to figure out with mega crop being dry. I just shoot for a PPM range. I'm going 750ppm straight mega crop this time.