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Built an expandable custom 1-4 Dutch Bucket system utilizing 5 Gal storage bins located at Lowes, a 10 gal storage bin from Walmart for the res, ecopump 396, 6" riser, 2 riser adapters with 1/4" drip outlets, 1/2" ball valve, 1/2" threaded pvc elbow, various lengths for 1/2" pvc, 1/4" drip line, 4 pvc elbows, 2 - 3/4" grommets, perlite (use chunkiest possible), hydroton on the bottom of the buckets to keep the perlite from draining down into the reservoir. I made a hose out of 1/2 vinyl tubing to attach to the ball valve to empty reservoir for changes/maint. I purchased everything from local hardware stores, nothing from the hydro store except the hydroton.
I am using Masterblend Professional dry hydroponic tomato and Vegetable formula, along with dry Calcium Nitrate, and dry Magnesium Sulfate. My listed measurements are actually grams per gallon. Trying the most economical way to grow hydroponically and for 6 gal res fill up and changes, it only cost $0.17 per reservoir change or $0.0283 per gallon. I do use RO water and I will be doing bi weekly hydroponic tea additions to the reservoir. I am not running any type of chilling equipment, I have faith in my hydrotea.
For lighting I purchased 2 x QB288 with the heatsinks straight from HLG and purchased a meanwell 320H-1750A driver capable to power a 3rd panel if I need more light for flower. For Veg I am running at 60w per panel and will bump to 110w per panel for flower. These things are seriously bright.
Day 5 moved the girls into their new home.
Day 6 added hydro tea to res
Day 7 I am a moron, in the midst of setting up, I forgot to rinse my perlite. I opened my res today and sediment everywhere and it wasnt the nutrients. It was also coating the bottom of the buckets. So I cleaned out the buckets, dumped and cleaned the res and refilled it back up. The ball valve worked like a champ to pump out the res into a 5 gal bucket. Instead of pure RO, I went with 50/50 tap and RO to make my base water 150 ppm. Upon further research, I was creating a calcium and magnesium deficiency and I do not want to have to add supplements or additional Epsom salts to keep this as KISS as possible for a hydro grow.
Day 15 ph rises slightly daily ec drops slightly daily. Looking happy so far.
Day 19 growth really starting to take off
Day 20 added 1 gal RO to res. Added Silicon via ArmorSi. I know I was going without additives but I feel silica is vital for plant growth based on my experiences.
Day 22 pH always seems to rise to 6.7 and I reset back to 6. 24hr later 6.7. Not sure if perlite or hydroton will throw off ph that much. Plants seem healthy, "preflowers" appeared overnight. Nodes are stacking tightly on these two.
Day 23 Turned dimmer all the way up to 110w per panel for 220w total draw. I can add a third panel if needed during flower.
Day 27 complete res change 50/50 tap and ro with nutes. Will add hydro tea in 48 hours after the residual chlorine gases out. Ph 5.9 ec 1.72 defoiled about 7 leaves per plant to open canopy. These girls are bushy.
Day 28 had to raise lights again, vertical slowly kicking in.
This is my first dutch bucket run and my reservoir pH is rising quite a bit daily. I pH down to 5.8 to 6.0 and within 24hrs it's back up to 6.6 6.7. Rinse and repeat. Is this normal or is something out of whack. I know pH will drift a little in a hydro system but this much?
@Ga4rd2en0er Thats a hard name to write , What is the ppm doing ? is it rising or falling or remaining the same ?
usually it will rise like that if the plant has taken up a heap of water thus changing the ph of the now more concentrated solution
Day 29 added tea to the reservoir. Defoiled several more leaves and she looks like shes gonna start to grow buds here any day now.
Day 30 added 2 gal of nute solution to res
Day 31 pH to 5.8, will begin to bend them over tomorrow, waiting for my soft garden wire to show up
Day 32 defoiled about 15 to 20 leaves per plant. They are very thick and bushy and with flowering around the corner wanted to open the canopy for better light penetration and air movement. Started lst tonight as well. Photos tomorrow after they recover. Added 3 gal of nute solution to res.
Day 33 defoil another 8 leaves. Ph res down to 5.7
Day 34 pH down to 5.7 defoil another dozen
Day 35 pH down to 5.7 from 7.2. Defoil another dozen, will have to top off with nute water tomorrow.
Day 36 changed res out. They hit the food hard last couple days dropping ec .3 and consuming about 2 gals of water per day. Reset res 5.7 @ 2.114 ec. Bumped up from last res change at 1.9 ec.
Day 37 ec dropped 2.114 to 1.788 ph up to 7.8 and 2.5 gals of water. Plants hit it hard today. Topped off res with increased nute water. EC 1989 ph 5.5. Plants look great!
Day 38 ec 1.887 ph 7.8 reset to 5.5 about 2 gal consumed. Flowering has begun 😁
Day 39 ex 1.8 ph 7.8 reset to 1.9 and 5.5 topped of 2.5 gal of nute solution.
Day 40 ever get that feeling you forgot to turn on the pump in the middle of the night...yeah that happened.
Day 42 added 3 gal to res ph 5.8 ec 2.011. Plants made a lot of progress this week and definitely in the flowering stretch mode. Have to raise lights daily at the moment. Keeping canopy in the 16" to 18" distance from lights. Defoiled leaves daily as well.
Day 43 dont know wtf if going on. Ph swings up everyday within 12 hours it goes up from 5.8 to 7.8. Contemplating dumping in a bunch of h2o2 into res along with some florakleen and then change to a fresh res.
Day 44 ph res down and climbs rapidly up. Going to nuke with h202 and restart building benies back in a few days. Added H202 at a rate of 11ml per gal of res. Will add florakleen 48 hours from now and change out res in 72 hours. There is a white slime feel to some parts of the res and when it goes above the water line dries on crusty. When I change the res I'm going to shower and clean it well. Also adjusting nutes to a better flowering blend dropping nitrogen down a bit.
Uping P,K, Mg.
Day 46 added more h2o2 and florakleen tomorrow. Res still rising to 8.0 daily.
Day 47 added more h2o2
Day 48 res change and sterilized including all pumps and lines with 10% bleach solution. Changed nute formula to cut back on n and boost Mg P K. As always, sterilized all tools, buckets, etc. Refilled with RO water and added calmag as such. Ph 5.7 ec 1.56
Day 50 pH still swinging rapidly up after dumping H202 and cleaning res. Added scoop of Great White to res.
Day 54 pH rising battle continues. Plants showing mild p def probably due to pH. Water level and ec drop slightly daily.
Day 56 ph tank, will do change tomorrow.
Day 57 plant is slowly uniformly yellowing most likely from battling the pH which I can not get to stay below 6.5 for more than a few hours. I ph down to 5.2 and 6 hours later its up to 8.1. I tried a control and left a gal of nute water sit out and checked ph after 24 hrs and it barely rose from 5.2 to 5.4. This is the most frustrating experience. Not sure if it's the nutes or some sort of bacteria. Even after dumping a bunch of H2o2 into the system and bleaching the res pumps airlines and changing the airstones. I've tried switching to pure ro water vs tap and no difference. Res smells fine, no algae build up that I can see. Until I can find an affordable chiller, after this run I'm sticking with DTW vs recirculating.
Day 62 went drastic. Res change and bleach out. Switched from the masterblend to AN sensi bloom nutes. Mixed with RO the pH came in perfectly at 5.8. Will check tomorrow to see if pH is stable with these nutes.
Day 67 my pH battles are done. I can gladly say after switching to AN Sensi Bloom and GHE pH down, I've got my pH under control. It now takes 3 days for my pH to rise from 5.8 to 6.3. Put a few mL of down and then top off the tank with more nutes. I am sure the plants have been damaged by the horrendous pH fluctuations they were experiencing. Lots of premature pistils died, hoping it didnt herm from all the pH swings. Hoping it was caused by lockout as the pH would rapidly rise to 8.2 vs pollination. Lots of new fresh healthy looking growth coming through the buds. Smell is giving my filter a run for its money already. Plants seem much happier since the switch. I am not giving up o masterblend just yet, I have a feeling it was that "natural" pH down crap that caused the issue.
Day 69 pH is doing great!!
Day 71 changing res today. pH still perfect, what a relief.
Day 74 ph 6.4 ec 1.8 will top off tomorrow with nute solution.
Day 77 recovery since the pH has stabilized had been remarkable. Buds are finally starting to swell up and looks to be back on track. 3 or 4 more weeks and should be golden. Just in time to rotate in the fastbuds testers into the flower tent. Smell is intense.
Day 78 pH 6.0 ec 1.85 . Easy as she goes now that the pH is stable dutch bucket is my new favorite method.
Day 80 pH 6.2 ec 1.9
Day 81 added 1 gal
Day 82 topped off res pH 6.0 ec 1.8. Lloyd looks like she'll be finishing up a week or so ahead of Harry. Both are fattening up nicely. With the pH dialed in, this grow is nearly on auto pilot. With an even larger res it would be even more so.
Day 83 have been keeping temps in the 60s and humidity in the high 30 to high 40% range this week and the Terps are exploding the smell is intense and my filter can not keep up with it. The buds are becoming super frosty diamond coated buds.
Day 85 Lloyd will definitely be done before Harry. She is looking more ripe where Harry is still gaining weight.
Day 89 I'm thinking Larry is coming down next weekend and Harry the weekend after.
Day 92 Lloyd is coming down in a few days and Harry will be up for about another 7 to 12 days. Smell is overwhelming the filter and when the tents open, it fills the entire house if I dont keep the door to the grow room closed. Smells of pungent sour lemon candy and spices, rather interesting. Keeping the in the low 30% range and temps between 59 and 67F.
Day 94 topped of res. Lloyd has a date with their maker on sunday..
Day 98 Harvested Lloyd, very interesting harvest as far as plant structure. Will get more into it and more photos in the forthcoming harvest report once Harry has been taken down as well.
Scissor Hash smoke report - placed a nice 6mm (like an airsoft bb size) ball (have 5 of them) in my bong and slowly roasted it. Very clean mix of fruity pebbles and pine. Extremely tasty scissor hash, probably the best to date. Effect is very cerebral, uplifting, happy. Can't wait to give the buds the full test from vape to bong. Will be making dry ice hash as well.
Day 99 Harry is the last tenant in the flower room. Top off res today and next top off will be plain water to flush. About 4 to 6 days from being done with this run.
Day 103 Harvest Day
Sampled some of Lloyd's popcorn buds after 7 days of drying. Very nice strong head stone but not retarded. Once the rest of the buds are dried, these popcorn buds are going in the hash pile. Got my bubble bags and will be doing dry ice method shortly.
Lloyd has been drying now for 8.5 days. Cut off 56g of popcorn buds and 43g of larf (edible/hash). Vast majority are still too damp to jar up yet. Room staying mid to upper 60F and 58 to 63% RH. Harry is still very wet at only 4 days of drying time.
After 11 days Lloyd is finally dried enough to be placed in jars. Harry will need some more time but for some reason seems to be drying faster than Lloyd did. Harvest report once Harry is jarred up. I did sample a popcorn bud from both plants and they have 2 different flavor profiles. They were definitely different phenos.
The veg cycle went well and with out any major issues. Even the the pH was bouncing, she never showed signs of deficiency or stress. It wasnt until flower set in that they got real sensitive to the pH fluctuations and I had to change up some of my nutes to get her back in line but damage was doe that prevented her from swelling up in time before the trichs started to really go amber. Lesson learned, stick to tried and true nutrients and only change up a bit at a time. I have not given up on masterblend nutrients, they veg'd great on it. I will try it again this time with proper pH down instead of the TNB. Once I have processed the trim and larf into dry ice hash, I'll update with more pics and weights of hash. I also feel that heavy defoiling would have helped greatly as well. They both had thick bushy centers and I let Lloyd go more natural and Harry I defoiled some along the way. Harry produced more and nicer quality buds vs no defoil Lloyd.
Running a dutch bucket set up for the first time was a big learning curve from using the largest grade perlite to reservoir size to system layout and maintenance. I really enjoyed the overall hands off watering but would recommend going with a much larger reservoir than twice your buckets capacity, milder ec swings and less top offs.
Now I am fully impressed with the lighting. I only used 220 watts in a 4x2 tent, yes only 220 watts but still yielded 344g of dried buds or 1.57g/watt plus another 200g of larfy stuff for the hash/edible pile plus a good amount of trim. Never had any heat issues and they just simply put out the PAR like no other for the watts. I have ordered a 3rd qb288 to go in my tent for my next run going on now.
Lloyd dried over an 11 day period at a temp range of 64 to 69F with rh 58 to 64%. Harry had a better manicure trim and I removed a lot of small leaf matter from Harry and harry dried out in only 6 days in the same room. Harry is more foxtail sativa in structure vs Lloyd.
Smoke report I decided to try not flushing this grow to see how it goes. Being a hydro run, I feed all the way until harvest and the taste is very smooth, not harsh by any means. Very strong culinary herbs and spice flavors with a subtle fruit pie finish (think spiced christmas fruit pies). Absolutely delicious even without a long cure. Aroma is gaining daily and it just gets better.
Effect is immediately felt in the cerebral cortex. Very uplifting creative feeling pleasant high. It's great for brain storming, organizing the grow room, and very conversational (I'm more of a resevered person but cant shut up on this). If I had to guess potency, i would put her in the 15 to 20% range. Effects linger for hours but the main rush is done in about 90 to 120 minutes. I would definitely grow again.
Made dry ice hash today, hand shredded up 8 oz of larf and 2.5 oz of trim, sifted over a parchment paper lined table. I only have a 73 and 220 bag. 73 or purest yielded 9g, 220 first shake yielded an additional 16g, and 220 2nd shake yielded 30g for a total of 54g of kief
Ga4rd2en0er
