Johnnys first time

[JohnnyRico]

Hello everybody! :yippee: I've been reading this forum for a while and now when Im starting my first hydro grow, I thought theres no better place for a log than this.

Now Im at the point where I have got some of the stuff what I need for growing and rest of them I've ordered. Im hoping that I could start sometime next week. Im planning to grow 2 girls in my system. I try to keep this log updated regularly. All help is appreciated.

At the start Im going through my setup and the price of it.

The cabinet: 60cm x 60cm x 200cm (Its a closet, came with the apartment so no cost here.) For ventilation Antec Big Boy fan 134CFM/H COST 20â?¬(29$)

3x125W CFL lamps. White/Blue spectrum Lamp for propagation and vegetative stages 6400ºK. And for flowering two red spectrum lamps for flowering stages 2700ºK. COST: 76� (111$)

Hydro: General Hyroponics Aqua Farm 46x46x43 cm COST:78â?¬(114$)

Seeds: Big bud COST: 20â?¬(29$)

Nutrients: GHE One Part Total Gro 1.0, GHE One Part Total Bloom 1.0 L, Advanced Hydroponics Growth/Bloom excell. TOTAL COST: 45â?¬ (65$)

Other stuff: Perlite, PH-meter, timers, lamp sockets, wires, PH-down, rockwool cubes, ata-clean, screws... etc. TOTAL COST: ~150â?¬(219$)

ALL TOTAL 389â?¬(567$)

[JohnnyRico]

Heres my closet. Still under consctruction.

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/2926/picture346zn1.jpg
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/9258/picture347he5.jpg

[sublime27]

looks great, i am using those same lights now, i think you will be satisfied good luck:jointsmile:

[JohnnyRico]

Thanks sub! I really hope this is going to work.

[sublime27]

I have no experience with hydro, so i wont be much help there. my setup is pretty similar to yours except i used only two lights at a time, one blue and one red for veg and two red for flowering. veg went super smooth with great growth and the flowering is going just as well so i hope all turns out the same for you. I plan on maybe a hydro grow in the future so i will be watching with great interest. Get em germinating!!!! :jointsmile:

[JohnnyRico]

All you hydro growers there! I pretty much ran out of money for now and I had to leave something out the equipment. I didnt bought ec-meter. How critical error is that? Can I success without it?

[forcus master]

Im growing on soil, so no help from here... Lookonhg good though

[gainesvillegreen]

All you hydro growers there! I pretty much ran out of money for now and I had to leave something out the equipment. I didnt bought ec-meter. How critical error is that? Can I success without it?

Although I'm sure others will disagree, I'll say that the EC meter is not critical. Nutrient companies will give you the ratio to mix their nutrients with water and the resulting nutrient solution is usually dead-on where it needs to be (concentration-wise).

One potential problem is not knowing the PPM of your tap water (or water source). If your water has a high starting PPM, that could possibly cause problems with over-fertilization.

The only other place where an EC meter is very handy is when you are topping off your nutrient solution. Without one, it's nigh impossible to tell if you need to be topping off with plain water or a nutrient solution.

[JohnnyRico]

Ok. So if I just follow the instructions on nutriens I should be fine.

I set my hydro system ready for start. I havent got seeds and fan yet, but I'm hoping that I get them on mail tomorrow.

http://http://img257.imageshack.us/img257/4059/picture351jw4.jpg
http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3335/picture354fz5.jpg

[JohnnyRico]

I have a question about the light cycle. For now I have to put the lights on at night so the darktime would be from 10am to 4pm, but I when I turn them in to flower I want to switch it, so that the darktime would be from 10pm to 10am. To do this I have to keep the plants in dark for 24 hours. Is this going to cause problems?

The reason for this is that Im expecting maintenance to come to my apartment with in a month and I dont want them to see small light leaks from my closet and get too curious. They arent doing anything in the room where the grow is, but who knows what those nosy bastards will do if Im not home when they come. And also I dont want to wait that month to start my grow.

[JohnnyRico]

Two seeds had germinated enough, so I put them in to rockwool cubes and in to the hydro. I mixed water with nutes, set the ph-level to 5.8 and now I've been a happy hydro grower for good two hours :)

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/6750/picture356rg4.jpg

[basementbotany]

what is the ratio you mixed your nutes at? germinated seeds can't take very much nutes or it will stunt their growth. i am also a new hydro grower, ebb & flow, but i don't think your supposed to give germinated seeds but maybe a quarter or less than the recommended dosage on the label. someone please correct me if i'm wrong, that way i can add a little on my next grow.

[JohnnyRico]

For seedlings the recommendation on my nutes is 0.5ml nutes per 1l water, I put half of that. So the mixture was 15l of water and 7ml of general hydroponics total grow.

[Jerry Garcia 2007]

Johnny,

Love how you did your closet:)

I was wondering how you were going to adjust your light level then say how in last pic very good idea.

I am a soil grower but I do set my timer for lights out during the day while I am at work. That way when I get home I have all night to do what is needed and not break the light seal during lights out.

As for light leaks get some cheep weather striping at your local hardware store there are many differant types but you should find something that will work in your situation. Also light leaks work in reverse and you do not want any light getting in the box during lights out.

[JohnnyRico]

Hey Jerry

My closet is pretty light proof, but when the room is dark you can see little bright light coming out from the hinges of the closet door.

The maintance people came yesterday so now I dont have to worry about them anymore. I set the light cycle to 24 for now. I think maybe after couple of weeks I drop it to 18/6 and eventually to 12/12.

Heres the closet:
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/3557/picture362et3.jpg

They are sprouting

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/2325/picture361iz2.jpg

[sublime27]

It looks like you got it all up and runnin now, looks great Im really looking forward to see how this grow turns out keep us posted!:jointsmile:

[hydrocannabis]

this looks like its gunna be a very nice grow.:D

[JohnnyRico]

Im having some issues with ph-levels. I flushed my perlite at the before the grow with ph adjusted water, but it clearly wasnt enough. Ph-level rose couple of times over 7 :( Now it seems its starting to settle.
One of the plants got some splashes of nutrient solution to its leaves before I changed its position. It got some nasty burns. Also couple of the plants have really purple stems. Probably caused by the ph changes??? The oldest plant has a clear green stem. They are still growing, but I am little worried.

Heres some pics.
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/4720/picture363jo2.jpg
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/8259/picture365qo8.jpg

[cman20118ut]

i love your grow room buddy...looks reallyy nice

[JohnnyRico]

Thanks man!
Too bad that the pretty looks dont help much... This grow is fighting back pretty damn hard. Ph-level is still getting up and my ph-meter is broken :cursing:. I sent it back to the place where I bought it and I'm waiting for a new one.

Now Im thinking to restart this grow. I have more seeds and I want to grow healthy plants. So Im planning to empty the container, soak the perlite in ph-adjusted water for a day or two and germinate new set of seeds.

I'll be back in couple of days to report how this is going forward.

[basementbotany]

keep the ones you have growing until the new one's germ. they may come around in a couple of days. in that time, i would figure out how to take care of the splashing, maybe if it's possible, lower your drip ring to the top of the hydroton. or try to find some kind of splash guard for you plants.

[JohnnyRico]

keep the ones you have growing until the new one's germ. they may come around in a couple of days. in that time, i would figure out how to take care of the splashing, maybe if it's possible, lower your drip ring to the top of the hydroton. or try to find some kind of splash guard for you plants.

That is exactly what Im going to do. I put the seeds in to germ just a moment ago, so the plants have couple of days to show some healing, if not I put the new set in. I got rid off the splash problem by piling up the perlite under the drip ring.

[basementbotany]

with all of that done then, chances are that your plants are going to come back around, so your going to need a place for the newly germinating seeds. or are you just going to throw them out?

[JohnnyRico]

with all of that done then, chances are that your plants are going to come back around, so your going to need a place for the newly germinating seeds. or are you just going to throw them out?

I really hope that they survive. In that case yes, I probably have to throw new set out. I know its a waste, but I have no room for other grow. I got plenty of seeds though.

[maspino1]

what an amazing setup! yeah, you really got everything man, good job

[JohnnyRico]

The plants got worse, so I gave them a proper funeral and put the new set in. Today 4 plants sprouted and Im really hoping a better start for them. Ph-is STILL going up but at least now I have a working ph-meter, so monitoring it should be a lot easier.

[basementbotany]

i was going to mention before (just read back through the log), you could split your closet in half, make bottom 2' of it Veg. and make the top 5-7 ft. for flower. that way you can keep the process constantly moving! but, other then that, post pics when thing's get exciting!

[basementbotany]

Oh, and did you rinse the HT before you started using it?

[JohnnyRico]

i was going to mention before (just read back through the log), you could split your closet in half, make bottom 2' of it Veg. and make the top 5-7 ft. for flower. that way you can keep the process constantly moving! but, other then that, post pics when thing's get exciting!

Thats an idea to take in concideration. The closet would need some modification to be done to make it work, but it could possible. I was planning to buy or find a smaller closet just for vegging, but splitting this would save some space. On the other hand, I am searching for a new bigger apartment and this grow might be the only one in this closet. I have to think this through sometime.


Oh, and did you rinse the HT before you started using it?

HT?

[basementbotany]

hydroton

[JohnnyRico]

hydroton

:stoned: Haha. Yes I rinsed it. It soaked in ph.6 water around 12hrs and then I ran like 40 liters of new adjusted water through it.

[basementbotany]

hmmm. dunno why your ph is going all crazy then

[JohnnyRico]

Yes, its a bit of a mystery. Im checking it now like 4 times a day that the ph-level wont raise too high and also I can keep an eye on if its starting to settle.

[theelectrician]

really dig ur reflector for your lts. and the exhuast syst. is pretty tite good job hope u get ur chemicals figured out;)

[JohnnyRico]

really dig ur reflector for your lts. and the exhuast syst. is pretty tite good job hope u get ur chemicals figured out;)

Thanks man! I spent pretty much time planning the system before the grow.

[JohnnyRico]

Plants are now 9 days old and lookin ok. Ph rises about 0.3 in 24hrs so its not a problem anymore. I went first 4days with plain adjusted water. Next three days I gave them 1ml/l of GHE total gro and now last 2 days I have given them 2ml/l of GHE total gro. The recommendation in the total gro bottle is 2.5ml/l for young plants. And then 5ml/l for veg after roots have grown.

[JohnnyRico]

Those suckers are growing like weed! I spiced up the nutrient solution a bit and also added some mg.

[JohnnyRico]

...and going strong. Im changing the light cycle now from 24 to 18/6. I got some curling on some leaves, maybe mg shortage. Nothing too alarming though. I had a question but I forgot it. :stoned: I'll be back when I remember what it was.

[JohnnyRico]

Should I try to remove the rockwool cubes? They are continuously wet, will they rotten the stem??? The seed leaves are about 2-3cm above the rockwool cube.

[JohnnyRico]

It's really fun to follow the growth process by taking pics and comparing them. It's amazing to see how much they grow only in few days.

[JohnnyRico]

This morning I woke up in to this weird clipping sound. My ventilation pipe system had collapsed. The end of the pipe had hit to the fan and clipped one of the fans blades off. The fan went to unbalance and start to made that noice. I had to break up the whole ventilation system, dismount the fan and glue it together. Now I've made a bigger space for the end of the pipe and built it better. I also added one more half shelve to my closet for the nutes etc.

Plants are doing fine. I'm still going with 3ml of nutes to 1l of water. Thats 2ml to 1l under the recommendation. Im afraid to add more nutes. I dont want to burn them. Im not seeing any signs of nutrient shortage or over feeding. I topped one of the plants just to see how it affects compared to the other plants.

[JohnnyRico]

Nothing special to report. The plants have started drinking this week. I added water first time in three weeks. They had used ~6 liters of water so far. I also raised the lamps by a notch.

:S5: weekend for everyone!

[hydrocannabis]

UR setup and plants look great.:thumbsup:

[rottenfork]

good work ,they look healthy and happy cant wait to watch them grow :jointsmile:

[JohnnyRico]

Thanks guys!
Im getting some preflowers on the plants. One looks to be male and the rest is too soon to tell. How should I remove the male plant(s)? I dont belive I can pull it out so that all the roots come up too. Should I just cut the plant from the base and leave it like that? Will the remaining roots start to rotten and cause problems? Or should I try to remove all the roots from male plants?

[JohnnyRico]

Sorry for the language, but yes. Fuck this shit! I've now removed two males from the system and last one seems to be male too...:cursing: Im not giving up though. What now? Im thinking of cuttings, but every grower I know aint in that stage that I could get some. So I have to deal with the seeds and take the risk that they all could be males again. I already put bunch of seeds in to germinate.

And my dog died this week. :sadcrying

[rottenfork]

Thats a tough break, lets hope that next time there all females.
Just put that one down to experience and start the ball rolling again,
Lightening never strikes twice!!!!! i hope:thumbsup:

[sublime27]

Sorry to hear that, keep your head up!
I agree, dont give up. Your plants looked really healthy and the knowledge that you gained from it can only help your next grow be more successful. I'll be watchin for some new babies!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[slogro]

Sorry about your loss, but I've been following your grow.

The plants looked really healthy. It's too bad they were males.

[JohnnyRico]

Thanks to all you for reading. My new log can be found here http://boards.cannabis.com/grow-log/152217-summer-solstice-grow.html#post1829422

Hope you all tune in.

Johnny