Hydro Reefer

Greetings friends Allow me to introduce you to my first ever brand spanking new homemade self contained DWC hydroponic system. So for this small experimental cycle, I will be testing various nutritional additives and plant training techniques. I will be sure to record a daily log in order to optimize my progress. Please note I will not be including germination and drying time. Day 1 Mon, 16 July So after a few days germination and nurturing, the plants have been moved to their permanent home. I filled the reservoir with nutrients following the can a websites specific instructions. Day 2 Tue, 17 July I've noticed a small growth in height however, I had a small humidity dome which upon moving slightly damaged the leaves but I noticed some strange spots which may have been from the fertiliser. But I did follow the dosages exactly?? Day 4 Thurs, 18 July Note to self, maybe stick with clones seeing as you get straight into the vegging stage saving maybe a week or two. That and the fact they're free. Ok, so I had to completely empty all my reservoirs because I misinterpreted the CANNA websites feeding schedule. It said 0-3 weeks which I foolishly did not realise was post-germination/sapling. And also one of the smaller plants #3, actually fell over because it's roots still had not dug deep enough to feed on the reservoirs moisture. However, I almost literally saw it pop back up with a tad of rehydration. Note to self a good trick for future reference will be to fill the reservoir right up until it pretty much touches the net pot and then shrinks back down to that even 35L once I begin adding nutrients. Day 5 Fri, 18 July Ok, so I gathered a bit of Intel from my friendly neighbourhood hydroman. First off I can hold off buying the EC meter until next they enter the actual vegetative stage which apparently is between 3 to 5 internodes ( the space between nodes) until then I will be feeding them a fraction amount of veggie fertilizer and rhizotonic. Now, this swamp cooler thing has piqued my curiosity if I'm not mistaken dry ice converts to carbon dioxide which we all know plants love so, that means a swamp cooler can cool, raise humidity and increase co2? In the mean time, I was given a bag of homegrown co2 which I will photograph. This will also counter the high-temperature problems I have been having. Apparently, plants can withstand an additional 10 degrees with the addition of co2 that complemented by silica would prove to be invaluable in the summer. I will be purchasing a humidifier for my saplings soon and have decided to stick with weekly reservoirs, Peace out. Day 7 Sun, 21 July Note to self I think for my cycle if I used a short square shaped reservoirs and perhaps less litres next time with multiple net pots per reservoir and with clones I think that would greatly accelerate vegge time and thus shorter cycles in general Got myself a very good humidifier and added small amounts of vegge fertilizer to the none CANNA plants.

Mon, 22 July Ok everything is coming along swimmingly except for the fact that that plant #3 had to meet the executioners block. Because he was dried out at a young stage he never bounced back properly but that's ok because I now have a holding tank for when I'm working on the other plants thus plant #6 is now plant #3. With the inclusion of my new humidifier I must say my operation is looking quite sophistimakated. Trying to get RH around 60% and I keep looking into my co2 generation options. Note to self a good rule to remember for light to plant distance is that if you put your hand near the highest point of your plants for 30 seconds and it's starts to burn, then your lights too close

I fucked it up by letting the temperature in the water get above 25 degrees Celsius and thus root rot witch i could not keep at bay. Oh well you live and you learn