DWC Cash Crop Auto With cheap LED

Some info on me : this is basically like my 3rd grow, ever. the tent, the lights, the set up, all brand new, first time used and setup. my first time growing autoflowers. So here we are as seedlings (January 12th) in horrible grow conditions...inside a large bowl inside a 5 gallon bucket with a fish tank heater. low humidity, inside a cold tent, varying temps...awful conditions. seedlings stayed at this size for almost 8 days with no change until i knew something had to be done to make them happy. Lighting : viparspectra 600w LED with veg and bloom switched on rockwool cubes were not soaked or ph adjusted or soaked in nutrients before seeds were simply placed in them. I thought it would be a cool idea to try a 5/1 light cycle.

After almost no growth, Seedlings had been removed from cold dry bowl on February 1st. to be placed into a tote with metal mesh over warm water with air bubblers underneath. plastic wrap on top of tote kept humidity very high in bin. HOWEVER...the water which condensed and precipitated down onto the leaves did burn a few of them and hinder growth and as well, some water that splashed up from the air bubblers in the nutrient solution. Skunk Labs - ResClear was used a few times at 2ml per gallon to keep the tremendous algae growth in the tote down My original light schedule, 5/1, was changed to a 24/0 cycle to keep tent warmer.

So on February 11th she was moved from the algae breeding tote to a 8" net pot with old Hydroton brand grow pebbles that were barely washed and in the basement for over a year. (oops). two cheap airstones are put in the bucket with a cheap dual outlet fish tank air pump. ResClear was used a couple more times to take care of dirty hydroton mold/fungi/algae/bacteria issues. Lighting was changed on February 11th to a Bloomspect 600watt (262 actual watts), with both veg and bloom switched switched on, directly overhead, covering only this plant.

i realized i was wasting light, so, on february 22nd, my 3 other plants all came together with this cash crop. other three plants each had own lights also, a 600 Watt Meizhi non-reflector series(280 actual watts), another bloomspect 600 watt and another bloomspect 300 watt (actual 130). Introduced into the nutrients was general hydroponics calimagic at a rate of about 0.5-0.7ml per gallon, Humidifier was run in the tent to keep humidity up. ph??? what does that mean? ph has still never been checked or adjusted. at this point the ResClear has taken care of the old dirty hydroton issue.

Lights were moved down a couple inches closer to the plants. At this point, I introduced into the grow tent (which is 5ftx10ft, btw) a 5 gallon water container with turbo yeast (7 day-28%) and 10 lbs of sugar.

ph? still havent checked or adjusted it. i understand that may not be the best idea, so, i did my first res change of the 5 gallon buckets. On march 8th, i "topped" it after long debate. co2 production from the fermentation mash seems to be slowing down - almost completely stopped this week

dropped the lights down a little closer, noticed some light burn spots but nothing major. i have noticed that the bloomspects with the optical lens to focus the light seem to cause light burn when closer to plants than the meizhi non-reflector light. This week i did a res change on march 14th and SWITCHED TO MAXIBLOOM i am sorry the pictures are not as regular anymore as they get bigger it is more work to get a picture. it seems she is definitely starting to flower this week. p what? pk? oh...ph...still havent checked or adjusted it. another bucket of mash (since this is a grow page not a moonshine page, that is the sugar water and yeast that creates co2) this time i got even cheaper and used DADY distillers yeast at like 2 or 3 grams of yeast per gallon, a tad bit of yeast nutrient, and only 6 lbs of sugar per 5 gallons of water. co2 production is noticably slower and taking longer than the last batch with higher sugar concentration and the turbo yeast pack.

ph is a very important aspect when growing hydroponically. you are dealing with soluble nutrients and micronutrients which are dissolved into water. if your water's ph is too low or too high, many of those nutrients will not have the capability to be absorbed by your roots. with that being said, i still have not checked or adjusted ph. it's not that im lazy, its just that i dont care. (actually i am lazy too). CaliMagic was upped a little bit to almost 3ml per gallon. no longer running humidifier in the grow tent. this week she is noticably starting to develop more hairs (possibly some cat) and the future buds are starting to form. she was drinking a lot of water, about/around 1.5 gallons a day...i went 52 hours without filling and had to put in 4 gallons. co2 from mash only bubbling a little.

she was getting too big, so the tent was rearranged this week. new lights were added, the heat went up a few degrees. this cash crop is now under her own two 600 watt bloomspect (actual watts 262 each) AND two 600 watt Meizhi 600 non-reflective (actual watts 280 each). sorry, the pictures are about as limited as my motivation was to take them. i didnt know i would end up making this my first diary ever. oh yeah, btw, that ph thing is important 😜 i noticed that there were a few deficiencies popping up and that some leaves were starting to get a lighter color green. so i did another res change. now under 4 600 watt led's, some leaves are also browning and i started to defoliate a little on the upper bud sites. and taking dying leaves off wherever else when i feel like it.

today, april 17th, is the day i thought about and decided to upload this grow diary. i am sorry for the last two weeks i had not taken any pictures. on april 9th i started to add General hydroponic's Koolbloom formula at a rate of about 1/4 teaspoon per gallon. also, because it was a few dollars cheaper, i picked up Cal-Mag from Bloomcity and have started using that instead of the Calimagic. 5ml per gallon. i started another batch of co2 mash, 10lbs sugar/5 lbs water, 15 grams DADY yeast, about five days ago. i calibrated my ph meter but have not yet used it to test what my reservoir is, sorry. at this point it is only drinking about a gallon a day. i would probably get a bigger end yield off this plant however to try not to waste light i have tucked a couple of other autos on the side, which are definitely now growing into the cash crop and stealing some of her light....if electricity/money/time/tentspace were not any issue, i would not do this, just to see how much this plant could yield without light suckers on her sides.