My 1st Little Hydro Farm

Additives were all over the place as I tried to control pH, TDS, and some root rot. Having a difficult time keeping reservoir temperature down. Insulated the reservoir and adding ice bottles as needed. I don't know genders yet so growing several in order to identify later. Been playing with pH and TDC levels trying to figure things out. Plan to try LST but obviously haven't started yet.

Changed out water completely, except in the little Kratky jar. Switch to 24 hour lighting based on a successful journal on this site. Now using drops of 98% H2SO4 to lower pH. No more Vinegar. Im minimizing additives now until I see a need. Insulation is helping with reservoir temp but it still creeps up to 70-72. Still using ice bottles as needed. W2 D7 - got a bit of cloudiness in the reservoir, added 40 mL Hydroguard. Preparing a 5 gal Kratky bucket to replace the little jar. Kratky roots look healthy and water is clear.

So the DWC reservoir white cloudiness from last week got worse a day after I added 40 mL Hydroguard. I replaced the water entirely and added the same nutes as before. Maybe I have a small light leak between the pebbles? I made some covers out of thick black trash bag. Still need to make a few more. Transplanted the "Kratky Three" into a 5 gal Kratky bucket. Nutes and pH are the same, but temperature is higher due to no insulation. These thre plants have been out performing all the others, but I'm seeing a little crispy brown on the edges of some leaves (only 2 out of the 3 Kratky plants). Nute burn? Discovered my vent fan tripped a breaker, or the crappy power bar port went bad. It was off for a few days probably. W3 D4 - Topped and FIMed most plants. Just watching to see if one appears to do better than the other. W3 D4 - Turned on the red half of my light. Been running blue only so far. Closet is much warmer. W3 D7 - Growth seems to have really taken off. Maybe I finally got my pH and nutes adjusted, the extra light, the topping / FIMing from W3 D4, or a combination.

W4 D1 - Growth has exploded in the last few days. I assume the combination of the extra light, toping / FIMing. I'm still unsure what I should be doing for training. Feel free to offer advice if you're reading this. Starting to smell a bit like a greenhouse, but I'm a noob so I don't know how to describe it or what to expect. W4 D2 - noticed signed of calcium deficiency a few days earlier, added cal-mag today. W4 D5 - Growth still strong. Been working on a DIY swamp cooler to lower room temp and raise humidity. My interim redneck version is actually working. It's a fan blowing on a wet towel suspended in water.

Starting to feel a bit frustrated I can't tell genders yet. Seems like I need to thin these out soon. I did some defoliation and LST on W5 D2, all the plants recovered well in only one day. Redneck cooler / humidifier is still working well. Haven't finished the DIY swamp cooler yet.

Switched to 12/12 on May 19. I've been doing some light defoliation to hopefully avoid mold and disease. Plants all look healthy and str growing fast. I STILL can't find evidence of gender. I don't have enough room for much LST. I feel stuck until I can thin these out.

I was getting ready for vacation by the end of the 7th week. I was going to have to leave the babies by themselves for a whole week. I made 5 gallons of nutrients to top up the reservoirs. It was not enough for the kratky bucket, more on that next week

I was out of town on vacation for week 8. Just before I left I gave some of the smaller females to a friend who wants to plant them Outdoors, and removed the males. After vacation the kratky bucket water level had gotten so low it looked filmy and salty, and the plant was showing the first signs of distress.

Made 18 gallons of water to drain and refill both tanks pH = 5.94 TDS = 904 ppm Switched to FloraGro and FloraMicro because I ran out of FloraDuo A. The Kratky plant with low water level from vacation was showing signs of poor health, leaves yellowing and falling off, but now it is beginning to recover 🙂

Two stems got some HST by accident. 😬 I'm seeing some signs deficiency in the leaves, I believe it is calcium so I've added extra Cal Mag and adjusted pH up a bit. Took some clones this week, put them in peat moss. Unfortunately I was out of town when gender first became apparent.

I added 2 panels of T8 fluorescent lights, a total of 8 Bulbs, 32 W each. This has made the closet much hotter, I am experimenting with ways to control the heat Buds are coming along nicely.

Still having temperature problems. The kratky plant is sick, not sure if it's because of the heat or the super high TDS while I was on vacation, or something else.

The Kratky plant is not going to make it, I have reduced the TDS in an attempt to save it. Probably will be forced to harvest it soon. Finally got a carbon filter!

So this is the harvest of the sick kratky plant. It was 1 of 3 plants in my 1st grow. It seemed to do very well at first. Things started going downhill when I went on vacation and the TDS got super high due to evaporation.

Not much happened this week, I've added a lot of fresh water and reduced the TDS significantly. There are 2 plants left In the 17 gallon DWC.

This is actually a second harvest of the 2 larger healthier plants. The heat had gotten out of control, I have tried 3 different booster fans and finally ordered A 6" inline blower.