Show Your Green?

[rickyrescue]

Here is my new and improved set up. I built a box 6'x4'x2' using a shelving unit i got at home depot. I had spare boards so I decided to enclose it, make a couple vent holes and put some solid wood doors on. lined it with that Mylar heavy duty shit running a 400w HPS for my flowering stage atm. My Rez I'm using is 50 gal. Rubbermaid container I picked up @ walmart (btw fuck that place)and filled it with 30 gal. of water. Hydrotone medium, and I'm using 3 part Advanced nutrients Grow, Micro, Bloom. I almost lost everything when i did my only water change at the end of my 4th week. I reluctantly followed AN's (advance nutrients) feeding schedule for hydroponic fill and drain system. DWC is a totally different system having your roots in your water solution, so it is very temperamental. One thing I did to cure my water temp problems from last time, was to completely insulate the container with 4 cans of spray foam insulator (on the outside ofc). Once cured, I wrapped it in 3" painters tape(don't laugh, it's all i had)to hold the foam in place some once I added the water the container would expand from the water pressure on the sides of it, so it holds it in place nicely. On hot days it gets to the mid 90's in the grow box, but the water temp. remains chill and if it warms up, I have 2 liter bottles of water frozen to lower water temps since they should be between 65-70 or in that range.
This time last grow my plants were 1/2 the size, so far so good :dance:



OG Kushx5 400W HPS 2nd DWC attempt

[Crypt-keeper]

Looks like you just started flowering about 2 weeks ago? DWC seems to be working and I may have to switch up my methods since all the soil I had was disposed of for contamination reasons and I dont feel like buying another 10 bags at 12 bucks a piece. Plus the mess and all I think Its time to go Hydro. I think that I will try and build my own aeroflo system. My veg room is 4'x5'x7' and flower is 4'x8'x7' so I should be able to squeeze a 30 or 40 site system in there. Although DWC Might be easier as I can just move one tub over at a time. Hrmm... decisions decisions. Do you have any misters or anything inside your DWC ricky?

[rickyrescue]

I'm running 2 small air pumps each with two small rubber tubes running into the water attached at the end are air stones(to create bubbles and oxygenate the water). I buy clones, so they come in the rock wool cubes. I bought 4" baskets put the clone at the bottom and filled hydro tone around it. The most important thing when starting is to make sure your rock wool cubes stay wet so that the roots can extend out. Once the roots start coming out of the basket the bubbles created by the air stones will burst and wet your new roots coming out, but the 1st week is usually critical. My hydroponic store guy told me about his buddy that went out and tried to started dwc, went out bought 40clones @ 12.00 a piece and 8 50 gal rez. 5 plants per rez, and fried everything bcuz he didn't do his research.

As long as you keep you temps. low, PH between 5.5-6.5 (preferably on the higher side of those figures) very very light nutrients for the first 2 weeks, you wont need to do any water changes up until flowering, of course depending on your rez. size that is The bigger the better in this case. 50 gal rez. using 30 gal water. no more than 5 plants per 50 gal I even recommend 4 plants per rez. Is pretty easy once you figure it out, and if you notice signs of stress to your plants, you can always do a clean water change and they'll survive. I've almost lost my 1st grow several times in the process of trail and error. In this case always feed less than what is recommended.

[Crypt-keeper]

My buddy had one of those Gonzo. Worked well he had a 600 watt in his and it made enough of a footprint with light to cover the entire thing. Plus if you have an air cooled hood then you can hook it up with a fan as there are already ducts and should be one up top for exhaust and flaps in the bottom for intake. I just built mine with 2x4, plywood and panda film worked out to about $100 for a 8'x4'x7'. I know that the tents can run a bit more. The only flaw that his ended up having was the zipper getting messed up after about 6mo of use. The 4'x4' anyway.

[rickyrescue]

Yeah I've talked to people about the tents, they're not bad for stealth ops. A bit on the pricey side for me, you could prolly build something better for less.

[Crypt-keeper]

Looks like that mid one is female as it has pistols instead of balls. Males if you have not seen them literally have balls that form which will become flowers if allowed to continue growing. They all look good though, I have grow envy as my rooms are bare and dark atm.

[rickyrescue]

So I go out of town for 5 days after raising my light 5 more inches giving my plants about 8 inches of space. Well I was still adding 3 part Advanced nutrient so they still were growing during their 2nd week of flowering. I came home and one of the main colas was touching the light and it got fried, still salvageable though. Anyways here they beginning week 7. So far tallest plant is 34 inches. I Also chopped about 2 oz. of leaf off this morning.

OG Kush Week 7

[Crypt-keeper]

Just a suggestion I dont know if you have heard of it but its called phosphoload. I swear by this shit and I will never grow again without it. You add it once at about 2-3 weeks into flowering. It stops upward growth and induces budding. I actually did an experiment by taking 12 plants and giving 6 the phosphoload and 6 just reg nutes during the entire cycle. Within a week the difference was apparent but by the 3rd week it was undoubtedly obvious that the phsphoload buds where not only developing faster but where also twice as dense as the ones without. The final result 1/3 more buds per plant. 3 1/2 oz average on the ones with the phosphoload and 2 1/4 off of the ones without. I have tried this on every strain I've used and had amazing results. It causes the energy to stop being focused on upward growth and divert it into bud development. You may see an increase in height by about 3-4 in within the first week but after that it stops shooting up. Anyway just a thought, it is a bit expensive as nutrients go but you do not have to use much I think its about 8-12ML per GAL but in hydro applications it may be less. I can get through 4-5 cycles before replacing the bottle and by then its more than made its impact to get it again.

[Crypt-keeper]

Why have you not made clones gonzo? I'd think it'd be easier to start clones than to start seeds IMO. And since they already have growth from clone to start of my cycle it was taking 4 weeks and they where 2-3ft tall.

[rickyrescue]

Shit, man I floundered today, I started tying my main colas down and snapped off my biggest plants' main stock as i tried to tie it down. Anywyas, at least it will keep it from growing too big and since it was early into flowering i shouldnt lose much and help promote growth in other areas, but never the less, shitty situation. So I did a water change and changed up the nutes for max bud production., New pics to come

btw, i recommend trying different nutrient solution, I'm not knocking what you're using, it's just that you can maximize your product if you have the cash to spend on advanced nutrients or other nutes similar, you'll be happy

[rickyrescue]

So i went out and picked up Advanced Nutrients "Big bud" nutrient solution. I've heard good things, anyone try it? Here's some new pics week7

[rickyrescue]

Week 3 Flowering

[Crypt-keeper]

Lookin good. Are you using carbon filters or anything for the smell? Or just dont care?

[rickyrescue]

Nah I don't give a fuck about the smell, I've got my legal card and follow state regulation, so there is no need to worry. Besides it's in my garage and i have it open most the time and most my neighbors know, so all is good. BTW Gonzo, you should use Photobucket to upload your photos, wont take as long to load, or you could just link the image file rather than the site link so it dosnt redirect you.

[rickyrescue]

Yeah Ive heard. Week4 of flowering began yesterday doing well. Btw Gonzo to answer your question, I'm using 2 15$ air pumps in my DWC (Deep Water Culture) that have two hose connections for a total of 4 air stones inside my rez. I'm using a 50 gal. storage container I picked up at the Walmart, and I marked the inside will fill lines for every 5 gallons so I know how much i need to add when it gets low. I try to keep it full to about 25 to 30gal range. I've done one complete water change at the beginning of flowering stage and just add water and nutes. One difficult thing that I learned with DWC is measuring your nutes. my 1st grow I tried to follow all the hydroponic nutrient charts, but I always ended up frying my plants, so now I add about 1/2 to 1/3 of the recommended dose, just because the roots sit in the liquid all the time, unlike most hydroponic systems. Another key component is keeping your water ph at about 5.3 to 6.3 and your water temp around 65'F all the time. this is key to proper root development and I also recommend Hygrozyme www.hygrozyme.com it will kill all root rot and promote healthy root production...Excellent stuff IMO. anyways if you have anymore questions about DWC lemme know. Heres the latest.

[rickyrescue]

Ok, so I just got back from Colorado after a week. I was quite surprised to see the change after not seeing them after that long. Anyways here is week 5 of flowering.

[rickyrescue]

Buds look pretty good, the Pizza...Lol thats some funny shit. You should have at least ground it up and sprinkle it on, but I guess if you like gnawing on buds thats cool too.

[COUGAR_BAIT]

d

[TrEaTR]

Ricky Your buds are looking awesome man... Can't wait to see them dried and here you fried on them

[Crypt-keeper]

Well finally got some clippings from a friend. They are in the cloner and I'm just waiting for roots to pop.

[Crypt-keeper]

I will usually see roots within a week and I transplant at about 1.5-2 weeks. By then I have a good root base that is about 6 in long.

[rickyrescue]

Yea I actually chopped 2of the plants today, prolly yield about oz and a half from these two, they both are the smallest of the 5 I have indoor but def ready earlier than the rest for some reason. The other 3 should be ready in bout 2more weeks.

[Crypt-keeper]

So in my experience I wait till about 90% of the hairs have changed. Trichomes I usually wait until they get a bit bigger of a ball on the end than your's have. I would guess another week maybe even two. And if you are on you're final week or two I would recommend flushing the soil by just using regular water from here on out to harvest. I usually then let the soil dry out for 3-4 days before I chop. Drying then only takes 5-7 days after that and I cure them in airtight containers for about a month usually depending on my supply at the time.

[Mongo]

so why are you not bitching about this illegal activity? Moron.

Nice plants.

[Mongo]

I have to send in my medical records so i can get my medical stuff. friend of mine is going to show me how to make the butter for baked goods

I don't smoke the stuff but if i can get it through my medical insurance then why the hell not.

[Crypt-keeper]

The waiting is the hardest part lol.

[Crypt-keeper]

Bud butter fudge is good. Keeper makes some killer cookies, cake and candies from it. I think we have a book here somewhere that has a shit ton of recipes. One recipe that I know of off hand that works really well is pineapple upside down cake since you use a ton of butter in it as it is it makes it very potent. My uncle made it for graduation for a bunch of my friends and I, now it could have been all the booze I already had but that cake was good lol. The pineapple makes it so you can not taste any of the bud. Bud fudge is pretty good too although its hard to eat more than one since it's usually so rich. I'm at least 4 months out till my first harvest at this point. Transplanted the babies since they have roots. Another two weeks and I'll start taking clippings off of it to repeat the process. Then a month in veg. and another 2 in bud. ...

[Crypt-keeper]

Not bad. How's the smoke?

[Crypt-keeper]

Only thing that I would change on your cloner is to either cover or spray paint the container so it is not clear and can not grow algae and other bacteria. Other than that looks like it should work.

[Crypt-keeper]

Yep looks better