First Hydro-W/F White Widow

Ok, this is my first hydro. Ive grown soil before.. few years ago, but hydro just looks like so much fun. It took me a couple tries to get a good seedling started and I finally broke down and stuck one in a Rapid Rooter. It started out a little slow, but everything has been going great so far. I cracked the seed in a cup of water and then put it in the rooter. The sprout emerged on 8/18 and was transplanted into the W/F from the bubbler on 8/25 then I started the seedling feed with the GH 3 part on 8/29 + a little LK the next day.

Id like you to meet Josie, a feminized White Widow that I so desperately hope will put an end to a year long drought of meds.

Here is a pic of the cab, Josie day 13, and day 15

Humidity is around 35%(trying to raise it a little with some water sitting in a cut off 2 liter)
Temps 75-84
She's had 1 18/6 cycle at this point under 8 26w cfl's.

Questions, comments, guidance all are welcomed and desired.:thumbsup:

Hey and welcome.

If you wanna raise humidity a bit more hang a towel or a cloth of some sort in the water and then let that fan of yours blow on it as it sucks up water. Works quite well.

What lights are you planning to use later on? Stack more cfl's or something bigger?
I am always glad to see new grows here and especially WW's. Feel free to drop in on my WW log if you want and whatever I can help out with just ask.
Good luck m8.

Puffzter

Thanks for the welcome!

Im still trying to decide what light Im going to use later on for flower. I know Im going to use HPS, but Im undecided on whether or not to incorporate 2 70watt hps lamps I already have with the 8 cfl's, or buy a 250-300 watt stand alone hps.

Thats a great idea with the towel idea, wicking the water to a larger surface area to evaporate from. Im gonna do that tonight.

Will be checkin your grow out in a few.:thumbsup:

Am I correct in thinking that its time to up the nutes when the ppm starts dropping? Or are you supposed to push them until the ppm starts to raise from where you set it as the plant is using more water than nutes? Im trying to decide how soon I can start upping the nutes.

Josie is showing her first set of 5 point leaves so I think I am going to fim the next new growth. Any objections?

did you make the water farm yourself? pretty inventive if you did.

I just bought the "hardware" kit for like 10 bucks then put it on some buckets I bought elsewhere. Ill give you 2 guesses where the orange one came from hehe. I drilled a shit load of 3/8" holes in the black bucket as per xcrispi's recommendations because the few tiny holes that come with the farm buckets easily get clogged by the mass of roots. I think i really should have painted the res bucket to keep the light out completely. Been trying to avoid the duct tape mummification method.:D

I decided to go ahead with the fim today about 4 hours short of lights out. I figured it may be a good idea for her to get started on the healing process right away, but then get a break to help deal with the stress and be fresh to go back to work the next morning. I plan on taking daily close ups of the fimmed reaction for those of you that are interested along with an overall pic. I really wish I could do a time lapse of an extreme close up. Maybe I can figure something out for the next grow.

Looks like a nicelly done FIM.
Don't worry about the stress they will normally be stunned a day or two thats it. These are resilient plants.
That plant will give you 4-6 nice colas I'm sure.

Puffzter

Very nice! She is growing like a champ man. Keep up the good work!

Hey im growin WW on the same system and just fimmed mine yesterday to, good luck with the grow!:thumbsup:

Its about 22 hours after the snip took place. I love watching the change happen. Im going to wait 2 more days for the fim to get good and set in and then start upping the nutes. Im going to bring the ppm up from 820 to 900 using Latewoods 1-1-1 recipe for veg and top off with Liquid Karma and phed water for the first week. If I dont see any burn within 2 days of the new nutes I will probably go up another 50-100 ppm.

Im contemplating going ahead and getting a switchable 250watt hps/mh or maybe go ahead with a 400. Im sure I will have heat issues with a 400 unless I made a cooltube which will be just that much more $. Though I do love to build shit so it would at least be fun building a cooltube. Im gonna have to check my lumen chart again to see if 400 is way more than I need anyway. Thoughts? The cab is 3w x2d x6.5t

Thanks for all the encouragement guys. I really appreciate you sending a little time my ways.:thumbsup:

What do you mean when you say you "fimmed" your plant? But yeah man check out High Tech Garden Supply for a mh/hps switchable system for around 180 bucks. Dude... do a 400 watt system... trust me.. you will regret not going for the higher wattage systems later when you want to grow more plants than just the one. Plus.. with a 400 watt system you can grow in an area as big as 4X4 with no problem. I buy all my shit from them and have had no problems with any of their stuff plus they have excellent customer service!

Fimming is trimming 80% of of the newest growth that comes after a new leaf set. By trimming the plant reacts by making multiple main shoots which end up as colas. Instead of just 1 huge stick of bud... you get 4 or 6. Its like topping but modified. Check this guide out. Easy to do, and oh so bad ass.

Guide-Fimming and Topping made easy:thumbsup:

Now that you mention that you may have 4 huge colas, I am awaiting your bloom with great anticipation :). I think my plant will take 8 weeks to finish blooming. I will be introducing koolbloom in 1 week from now.

Here is today's fim close up update. Its amazing watching the changes that occur each day and I dont even have her on full nutes yet. Tomorrow is the big day for nutes. I think I will post one more day of the fim close up unless more are requested and spread out the pics a little.

I have been thinking about koolbloom and almost ordered it when I got my nutes way back. I didnt want to make this first hydro too complicated though, but if things keep going as good as they are, I may go ahead with it.

I also ordered a 250w mh/hps today. The 400 was basically the same price, but when I looked at lumen output it was already higher than the recommended amount at optimum growth. I just wanted to avoid the heat issues that would be involved with the 400 in the small growth space and if I somehow get a bigger place to grow, I will just shuck out the bucks for another as I would probably have seperate veg/flower rooms at that point.

looken real nice. I need to start toping-feming my mj plants so theycan be more bushy.:D

Heres another pic of the fim in action on day 4. Its hard to tell what the hell is going on from the pic. Its like a knot of new growth that is going to go wild within the next couple days. Whatever it is, Im diggin it. It appears that there are 6 offshoots which will hopefully turn into huge deliciously sticky cola's.

I turned up the nutes today. I went ahead and set the 1-1-1 to 1000 ppm and hoping for no burn because tomorrow is a long day away from home. It had roughly 4 hours or so to get a taste before lights out, and all looked good last I checked before that soo.. cross your fingers for me.

Pretty drunk right now so im gonna just call this post off before I make more of a fool of myself.

Peace, love, and thanks for stoppin by!

Nice man.
Seems like that FIM was perfectly done. :)

Puffzter

Turns out the fim didnt take. It didnt make itself plain obvious until I was poking around Josie today. I noticed it was growing the same way it was before, 1 main stalk. A little disappointing, but at least it isnt to late to try again. I cut the new growth back more this time. If I cut off 80% last time, I went for 90% this time by comparison.

I have noticed another tendancy that I wonder if others experience. Early morning when I check on her, all the branches and leaves are pointed skyward like she is ready for a good day. By 4 hours before lights out, the leaves and branches are sagging like she is tired. It makes sense to some degree to me, I am just a tinge concerned. It wouldnt bother me much except she is very compact. Only about 5.5 inches tall and has 7 nodes! I was trying to keep her from stretching much with the cfl's, but that seems a little excessive. Ive started raising the light more to induce a bit of stretch and thinking I need to prune the lower branches that are touching the hydroton when the upper leaves get large enough to ensure good health. Is this correct or am I just way off base here?

ReFimmed close up
and showing the densness and sag

Quote:

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Originally Posted by hatecable

Here is today's fim close up update. Its amazing watching the changes that occur each day and I dont even have her on full nutes yet. Tomorrow is the big day for nutes. I think I will post one more day of the fim close up unless more are requested and spread out the pics a little.

I have been thinking about koolbloom and almost ordered it when I got my nutes way back. I didnt want to make this first hydro too complicated though, but if things keep going as good as they are, I may go ahead with it.

I also ordered a 250w mh/hps today. The 400 was basically the same price, but when I looked at lumen output it was already higher than the recommended amount at optimum growth. I just wanted to avoid the heat issues that would be involved with the 400 in the small growth space and if I somehow get a bigger place to grow, I will just shuck out the bucks for another as I would probably have seperate veg/flower rooms at that point.

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Something I just thought of. You could get a 400w ballast and put a 250w bulb in it for the heat, then if you need more light later it is just a bulb.
I don't know if they will let you change your order.:thumbsup:

Good looking plants.

Bulbs and ballasts are NOT interchangeable.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stinkyattic

Good looking plants.

Bulbs and ballasts are NOT interchangeable.

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Sorry for bad info, I thought you could put a smaller bulb in, just not a bigger one. My bad:cool:

Thanks for stopping by Stinky and Danger! I appreciate the company:hippy:

Here's the update. It looks like the 2nd fim attempt turned into a top. Its not what I was aiming for, but Ill take 2 cola's over 1. I got my 250w mh in and set up and Josie seems to like it. She grew about an inch and a half in around 12 hours. Here are the pics right after I got the new light set up.

Im kinda worried. Ike is supposed to run right through here though we wont get hit with the full force. Our lives arent threatened though the power could go out. Any ideas how to keep Josie alive if we get the power knocked out? Maybe what little bit of natural light coming through a window can keep her from going under, I dont know.

They don't need much light to stay alive m8. They wont grow and might stretch a bit but stay alive they will.

They look beautiful by the way and about the FIM.
You know that the new main stems that gets created by a FIM all wont grow out of the FIM cut itself, right? Quite often it makes a branch one step down on the plant start growing as a main stem as well. I have FIM'd 5-6 plants latelly and almost every time that have happened. I get 2-4 stems from the FIM cut and 1-2 of the lower branches start growing as main stems as well. Just take a few days or up to a week and you normally can see if that is happening on the texture of the branch in question.

Good luck with the training and they do look very nice man.

Puffzter

Thanks for the info there Puff. I was inspecting a bit more today as I did a nute change and upped the ppm to 1260. I was wondering bout the texture your talking about. Do you mean the structure as well as the texture for the branch? There are 4 that are up to 2 nodes down plus the 2 that form a "Y" at the top that have very corrugated looking branches that somewhat resemble the main stem only not as many ridges or as thick obviously. Maybe the one that is 2 down is from the first fim and the other 4 are from the second one. I was thinking about using LST to reinforce the new branch growth. Ive done lst before several years ago, so I would need to read up a little before I do it again.

BTW. I have a mean ass truck battery and power inverter just in case I get a power outage tomorrow or the next day. I can at least run a single 26w cfl on it for several hours and hand water every couple hours until I get power back. I figure Im going to have to keep the res drained so I dont end up with any root rot from not having any bubbles. Im not sure how long the air pump and light will last since Im not an electrician of any sorts so Id better just go without the air pump.

If the leaves arent causing any problem i would leave them there. The more fan leaves the better quality and mass youre going to get out of your plant.

Good work tho! awesome grow keep it up

MEDI

Ok here's the update. Ive upped the nutes and she loves it. She drank a half gallon in a day and the ppm has stayed within 10 of the origanal. Im gonna push it another 100 today i think and then flip it to 12/12. I will go ahead and keep the 1-1-1 and MH for 1 week into flower and then change to .25-1-2 and HPS.

I did manage to make it through Ike with no power outages so that was a blessing.

Im happy for U. and the plant looks great also.:thumbsup:

She looks really healthy dude! I couldn't help but notice that you have an a/c return right behind her, no? She will stink your house up real bad if that is the return. Ya might want to put like a sheet of carbon filtrate over that vent if that is a return. Air will flow fine but will "scrub" the odors out. Just a suggestion. Anyhow my girl is kicking out all sorts of buds and I have been feeding her kool bloom along with the bloom schedule. I haven't put up any new pics cuz I have been busy with work and night school so yeah when I get a chance I will get some new pics up. Her clones are nice and happy and I have them starting to root in my bubbler. Good shit tho! :thumbsup:

That plant looks faboulus man.

If you can keep all those tops even during bloom you will have some heavy buds and colas to harvest I can tell you that :D

Just keep an eye on her every day through the stretching periods and correct canopy problems asap all the time.
I did that mistace with 2 of my plants and reacted too slow so I had to pull the emergency break on those to even out my canopy.
They grow totally INSANE during stretching. 2 inches a day for 10 days is very possible during the first stretch if you don't watch out. :P
Keep it even and harves will be huge, you can see already that she has a lot of potential that one.

Puffzter

Sap, thats just an inlet that I built into the cab to direct the air flow down and into the middle of the cab before getting sucked up and out the top. It covers the huge hole i cut in the back that has a super filter to get out any unwanted particles or bugs so my plant gets nice clean air. She is however already stinkin up the house a bit, not that I dont absolutely love the smell, but I do need to be a little covert now and then. I made a DIY air sanitizer that seems to be working for the single plant. Any more and I would probably have to go ahead and get the active carbon filter. We will see if I have to bite that bullet or not when the buds start showing.

Puff, unfortunately I work out of town and stay gone for a few days at a time so my wife has to take care of the girl. She hasnt had to do much yet, but looks like Im about to get busy again and she will have to deal with the stretching somehow. Hopefully the dome will stay in tact until I can teach her to tie certain parts down to help the others catch up.

Here's the update at the end of Flower day 2. The MH is still going until tomorrow then I switch the nutes and change to hps. Been real busy with work so I havent been browsing the boards the last few days.

she looks good man! Very healthy and green. Can't wait to see the buds kick in!

Just a pic update. She is going crazy and drinking nutes like a lush. Ph is now dropping constantly to around 5.4 and we have to keep correcting. Its like the ph up is wearing off or something because that is about where the nutes were at before I ph'd them. The LST seems to be doing great. Ive got a pretty flat canopy that is about 2.5' in diameter. Also, The first signs of sex are showing so thats cool. Its a feminized seed so I knew what it would be already, but it at least lets me that I am keeping all the daylight out. I cant wait to see and smell buds.:D

O.K. Damnit! It has been too long man! I demand to see some new pics of your girl and all her delicious buds! Do it! Do it NOW! ;)

I was thinkin it was about time for a pic and update. All is going great with this girl. The only nute burn Ive found is on 2 or 3 leaves that are at the very bottom resting on the drip ring, so that is understandable. I did have a little incident yesterday while I was checking her out and adjusting the LST. I was pulling down on one of the top stems where they split into 2 from the main stem.. and they did just that. I heard a little snap and tearing sound and the deed was done. Im not worried about her though because the stem is huge and is more than enough to usher nutes to either side. I just used a plastic coated twisty tie to lightly pull the split stem back together and she seems to be doing just fine and hasnt slowed down the slightest. My sweet Josie is completely covered in bud sites. I am giddy with anticipation as they have made themselves completely obvious in literally 8 hours. I have pushed the nutes up to a little over 1500 ppm and I think I can go more. Its getting to the exciting part again :D

real nice plants growing there, Bub!

Hey thanks there Shovel, and thanks for stoppin by my little grow:i feel stupid: