ATF in DWC recirc

[fosomker]

This is my first grow log and second hydro grow. First one went alright but I started in a cabinet and soon realized it was more effor than running a closet to keep the enviorment right. In my closet I dont run AC or a dehumidifier anymore.

I got these ATF (5 ATF and 1 Bubba Kush that is doing like crap because I started flowering a clone and then revegged it) clones on 12/16/07 and for the first week I was fighting a bad case of mites. They were pissed unitl I got rid of the mites (they came back but not nearly as bad a flower). I ran them for a total of 34 days in veg, but a week of that was really no growth for the first week. I figure they have a good 4 week in veg until I switched them to 12/12. The tallest one was 16" when I switched.

Cloning and vegging are in same room. Flowering is a different room.

Cloning (still trying to get this down)
3 gal bucket and lid
whisper air pump with 5" air stone
T5 100w


Veg station
T5 400W
8 3gal pots with 5" net (two extra to pull clones on and incase all 6 dont make it)
AP 40 air pump with 8 5" stones and 2 12" stones
40 gal res (with 300w heater)
500gph pump
Tri-meter (Ph/PPM/Temp) continous monitor
Breeze fan
Temp\humdity gauge


Flower room (when I flush I add 25gal and I figure I have about a total of 30 gal in the system (i can get the last 5 gal out due to water level and pump)
6 5gal buckets with 5" net pots
AP-40 air pump with 6 5" stones and 2 12"
500gph pump (recirc for 4 minutes every 4 hours)
24 gal res
10 gal controller (with 200W heater)
2 Lumatec 600W digital ballast
2 Lumeair hoods with glass and 6" cooling
4" vortec cooling fan (will probably upgrade to a 6" or 8" later) with mountain air filter
Tall vertical breeze fan for air movement
CO2 on timers.
Tri-meter (Ph/PPM/Temp) continous monitor
Temp\humdity gauge


Nutes
I use BC grow products and they have worked well for me so far.

I use Boost, Grow (veg), Bloom (Flower), Awesome Blossom, Sweet, B1 thrive, and a little proxide.

When I veg I usually work up to about 800 and once I start flowering I start at 1200 and work up to 1800 or so. I keep PH about 5.7 +/-.2.


Here are a couple of Pics of them from the first day I switched to flowering on 1/20/08.
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and today 1/27/08.
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My roots ( I think the browning is because the B1)
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If you have any comments or suggest please do respond, I will take any advice. I think they look pretty good right now. I have nodes every 1/2" or so on the main branch and this thing is constantly starting new nodes. Before switching to flowering I took almost 25 clones off to try different technics, I am not satisfied with no one system yet. I do notice that mine seem to be really dense.

I tried rockwool and the bubbler. When I cut my clones I had the best root growth with a light scrapping of the bottoms and cutting up the center of the stem about 1/2". I did 4 with no cutting and 4 with cutting, within a week of the 4 with cuts I roots out of the wool, with no cutting it was much longer. The bubbler only has 1 with really good roots, and that took almost 8-9 days and the others seem to be lagging. I figure I will just keep trying different methods on the next cycle.

[basementbotany]

looking very nice....i'll be keeping an eye on this one.

[fosomker]

I forgot to add the room size for flower. It is 6' long, 3' wide, and I can go about 6' tall (plants). It is a little tight, but all the plants are right under a light, they are a little close and I plan to change the layout after this harvest a little bit to allow a little more room between.

[fosomker]

I went and measured the growth over the last week in flower and I see 8". The biggest one is now 23" from top of bucket.

[fosomker]

Day 10
I pulled the Kush the other day because I started it as a clone and went right to veg (I was finishing my last run and was experimenting), it was getting covered and showed no signs of growth.

I took these pics just after light came on and I sparyed them with some VHO (2mL/32oz). They seem happy and I have to keep moving the light. I measured the tallest one today and it is now 25", so that makes 9" in 10 days. I wish I would not have topped and FIMed two of the 5 because they are behind and too dense. I am not sure what to do about the density. Both of my last grow and this one I have ended up with really bushy plants and I have tried everything to get them to stretch a little.

This is how thick they are
[attachment=o176377]

This is the top of the biggest one
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The one on the right was topped, the one to the left of that one was FIM
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This is the tallest one (on the left, that is two against the wall)
[attachment=o176373]

I am thinking of using some of the Liquid Light, just not sure if I need it.

[fosomker]

I have started using penatrator with my VHO today. I have been using the VHO for the last few days, but during sleep today I gave a pen and VHO just a little while before the lights hit. I am starting to see good flowering on all. The tallest one now is 28" tall, I am seeing an inch a day on this one. I had to tilt the light to give the shorties enough light and the tall one far enough away. I just did a flush and I am going for 1500-1600, they seem happy at 1200.

This is looking at the tops of the FIM and topped plant
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Flowering starting on second tallest
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Flowering starting on tallest
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This is 4 of the 5, there is one more on the right and that is half the plant on the right
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Tallest and second tallest
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[fosomker]

day 23
I have been real busy lately and have not had a chance to post. Things have been going good, and they seem happy. I wish all of them grew like the big one. I started using liquid light on the shorter ones to help them get a little taller and only using VHO on the tall one because it is so close to the light. I can only move the light up another foot or so. My tallest one is now 46" and my shortest is 28". So I have 30" of growth on the tallest one in just 23 days. The flowers are really starting to look nice.

I went out of town and the tallest one grew into the light and wilted a couple leafs due to the heat. All is good now.

Flowers on Tallest one
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Close up
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Looking at 4 of 5, shortest one just out of view below
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Tallest one
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[basementbotany]

WOW:thumbsup: beautiful. sure would like to get ahold of some ATF. you will def. enjoy it. First time with ATF? i'm speechless, cough cough:greenthumb:

[fosomker]

Thanks. Yes this is my first ATF grow. I am happy so far, I am really looking forward to harvest.

I have started a second grow with clippings from this one. These pics are a week old.

I run 8, 6 to move to flower room, and then keep two to take clippings, once clippings are good, I pull the two that I got all my clippings from. I just cant run all of them and it is for timing. I did not want some 8' tall beast since I have some height limits.

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[basementbotany]

how much H2O2 are you adding to your 25 gal. res? thought about adding a little to my 15 gal. res. but unsure on the amount. have you seen any benefits adding peroxide? what benefits? i run e&F, would it be beneficial in this kind of system?

[fosomker]

Sad to say that is the one thing I just dont measure. I pour what I guess would be 100ml to my res. I heard one reason was to help limit alge and help oxygenate the water, but my air pump does a good job of that.. :D I dont know if I am getting a benefit becuase I have not ran without, and hell it is the second cheapest thing I add besides water... I got two bottles at Sam's club for less than $2. I dont see it hurting anything, and I dont want to see if it will.:thumbsup:

[basementbotany]

by the looks of things, seems i need to be adding the shit(H2O2). if your getting as much growth as you are, and we both run the same nute program, then this is the only thing i am missing. actually, i don't use the sweet, i use added MagiCal, SugarDaddy. Maybe i should make a trip to the hydro store and pick up a lil sweet, seems that everyone is using it but myself. Critique my grow if you would, "Grow Log" "The Daily Grow w/ Bud Fullotrichs". let me know if there is anything diff. i could do to maximize yield.

[fosomker]

These are my roots after 24 days in flower. One is of the biggest and is of the smallest.


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[basementbotany]

yeah, mine def. aren't that nice. i believe that's where the dwc/e&f hybrid could be effective (read my thread and you'll know what i'm talking about). i love the e&f, but here stellar things about the r-dwc, so my thoughts are, do both at once.

[fosomker]

Here is my veg at 18 days (r-dwc/e&f). The biggest one looks good, tried topping to slow hieght down for others to catch up. My flowering ones are sure drinking a lot, a couple gallons a day. One thing I am noticing is that my ph keeps dropping and try to kick it but and by adding 7.2 tap water everyday it still falls from 5.7 to 5.4 sometimes overnight. Is that normal? It just recently started doing this, I can still pull it back up, but it sure seems like I add a lot of ph up.

All 8, a few are pissed because I ran the nutes up, but brought them back down and all seems well so far
[attachment=o178001]

This is the biggest one
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[basementbotany]

hell yeah man, they are lookin great. lovin' the idea for the setup also. i believe i am going to keep what i have for veg. and set something like this up for my new flowering room. i will be building it here in the next couple of weeks. if you could, give me a rundown on things i need, only want to do 4 plants flowering at a time, not anything expensive here, already have another 400w lamp that i need to put to use, so the least expensive setup that i could also add to at a later date if i wanted. all help appreciated!

[fosomker]

It pretty simple, all the buckets are connected with PVC that runs to the pump, each buck has a drain to the main res below it, it is a 40 gal e&f tank from local hydro store. With the drain pipes (1") make them as high as you want your water, since I need to flood more when they roots are not out yet I have a longer tube. Then I put the shorter one on when I have roots. The rest of the parts I use are listed in my first post for veg room.

[gainesvillegreen]

how much H2O2 are you adding to your 25 gal. res? thought about adding a little to my 15 gal. res. but unsure on the amount. have you seen any benefits adding peroxide? what benefits? i run e&F, would it be beneficial in this kind of system?

Generally, 3-5ml per gallon if you're using the 35% H2O2. If you're using the 3% store-bought (used for cleaning wounds and what not), multiply by 10, so about 30-50ml per gallon.

Hydrogen peroxide is great for a lot of stuff. Be sure that you're not using any nutrients or additives that contain beneficial anaerobic bacteria, or they'll die.

[fosomker]

Update day 29
Everything is going great execpt my biggest one in flower keeps hitting the lights and I have a few leafs that took some damage from it. The liquid light has been helping, I definetly see soem vertical growth, but they are still lagging the big boy. The flowers are developing nice and once the lights kick on I will take some more pics and post them. I do have a question though, why does my ph drop so much? I see a change from 5.7 to 5.2 in some cycles and I am not sure why. Is this a sign of an issue?

My veg station is kicking good now, most have been in the system for 24 days. The small one will be pulled, and I have one that has mites that just wont go away, so it will be pulled too. This will leave me with 6 very nice ones. They are filling in good. Keeping the nutes easy as they are at 350 now and I plan to peak them out in veg at 800 over the next 4-5 weeks.

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[fosomker]

Update Flower day 36
Everything looks good except the dam mites are still around. I have put two pest strips in to see if that will help. They are not bad, but they are annoying, I have no webs I just find the bastards on a few leafs. You can see the top of the big ones leafs are burnt from the light pretty good, that happened a while back. Trich development is looking good, I see more of the leafs already covered with them than I did on my last grow. Also the smell is much stronger(hits you good when you open the door, my filter is working good so far) and is very nice. The biggest bud sure is growing big and I expect it will be huge when I am done, I am already making plans to hold it up. My PH sure keeps dropping and they are drinking a bunch of water. I have been putting in 5 gallons a day and having to add PH up and a lot of it. I see it move from 5.5 - 5.2 in 8 hours.

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[chrisdl805]

I had the same problem when I was doing DWC. I was always chasing the ph when the plats started drinking a lot of water. I think its caused by the plants drinking more water than nutrients so it would change your ph and your ppm of the reservoir. I had to keep adding water and either ph up or down to correct it. I"m also battling some spider mites right now. I tried the No pest strips and they would go away for a while but keep coming back even though IO left out the strips. Now I just said screw it and ordered the predator mites. There only $30 for 500 spider mite predators. I bought 2 of the strips and they were 410 a piece plus your not supposed to use them in the last 2-3 weeks of flower. Other than that nice grow... can't wait to see some nice fat nugs

[fosomker]

I am going to bomb the room before the next grow. I am getting to close to do anything about it now.

Still adding a lot of water daily and PH up. The colas are getting huge on my big plant, so big now they have started to lean over. I used some string to hold the up, these are gonna be pretty big. I think I want to do a stadium scrog next time to just make a big canopy and do some training. The smaller plants have nice nugs, but no monsters. The smell is getting strong and smells so good. Also they are sticky.

I will post more pics in a few days.

[fosomker]

Here is a pic of the veg station
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My big bush, things are looking good:D
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[fosomker]

Well I cut it down yesterday a little early becuase I am leaving for out of town. Haverst was pretty good, lots of trichs. The smaller plants suffered from being away from the light. I have to build a stadium for the next round.

So far wet yeild was ~25oz, so maybe 5 dry or less. The big plant had a couple nice colas, one was 92g wet. I will post some pics once I get back and start to cure.

[Mr. Clandestine]

My big bush, things are looking good:D
[attachment=o179784]

:jawdropper:What a lady! Great job, by the way. :thumbsup: