RacerX's recirculating 16 bucket dwc "Grow Log"

[Dr.Hashman]

When I first saw the setup with small plants in it, I thought that you were wasting room, not that i see them all branched out and big, that place is crammed! You could supply a whole state with that setup lol.

[fhydro]

Hi Racer X, first of all, congratulations for your amazing set up. Did you experience ait stone clogging, and what do you do to prevent this, what is the kind and the performances of the air pomp.
Thanks.
Fhydro

[latewood]

Hey racerx. I just wanted to give you the heads up. I got some Hammerhead. I also have tweaked my formula and you wouldn't believe what I did. remember my "flower" formula used grow then cut it out. well all the extra potassium is in the grow, Micro - no phosphates or potassium in to speak of...
Safe formula: .5 - 1 - 2 for 2-4 weeks, then 0 - 1 - 2...

New Accelerated formula: 1- 1 - 2 for 2-4 weeks, and then .5 - .5 - 3

I looked at your ideas, and I got to thinking...I was trying to make a safe program at the time, but now I want to tweak that formula up.
so what do you think?

[Racerx]

Hey racerx. I just wanted to give you the heads up. I got some Hammerhead. I also have tweaked my formula and you wouldn't believe what I did. remember my "flower" formula used grow then cut it out. well all the extra potassium is in the grow, Micro - no phosphates or potassium in to speak of...
Safe formula: .5 - 1 - 2 for 2-4 weeks, then 0 - 1 - 2...

New Accelerated formula: 1- 1 - 2 for 2-4 weeks, and then .5 - .5 - 3

I looked at your ideas, and I got to thinking...I was trying to make a safe program at the time, but now I want to tweak that formula up.
so what do you think?

I would be excited to hear the results. I think it is funny that I may have helped you consider a more aggressive formula...yet you have caused me to consider a less aggressive formula or at least to try one!!! I am going to do a significantly less aggressive schedule with the Blueberrys which are just about rooted (also because I'm under the impression they don't like nutes as much as a big yielder like Widow) but I will be generally keeping to my original formula just with less ppm. I also am completely getting rid of Big Bud and all additives except Hygrozyme. I really think that we should not compare a strictly Grow/Micro/Bloom formula to one that uses additives. I know that if I used more PK boosters or the recommended dosage of Big Bud that I might have toxic levels of bloom nutrients or I might need to skimp too hard on the macro nutrients in order to keep PPMs at safe levels.

Running a strictly g/m/b formula with no additives allows you to run huge amounts of bloom which in my opinion can do almost everything that the P & K additives can. I want to try no Big Bud and then compare it again. I am planning on maxing out at about 1300ppm (maybe 1400) since it is still a DWC. Ill print a planned schedule for the nutes tonight with the slightly altered formula.

I wanted to take a quick moment to update people and answer the questions above. First and foremost, I use a 35 watt Ecoplus single outlet airpump. it has a 6 way splitter. I then just use 1/4" T's and I use the one single pump for all 16 buckets. I use a separate small airpump for the control and gravity reservoir. I do use airstones, HOWEVER, I am now strictly a believer that they are a headache and nothing else. Ive now see some good data that shows there is no advantage to running an airstone, except that it is quieter. A few of my airstones fell off in the beginning of this White Widow grow and I specifically never fixed it. There is not one single difference. Beautiful root structure, white as pearls. Aside from that, I dont have a problem with them clogging. Because I have a water chiller and run 68 degrees 24/7 and because I use Hygrozyme (amazing how clean it keeps stuff) I have no problem with any type of scum. I also use a lot of micro.

The system is getting cut. I need to harvest a week earlier then expected in order to get an appraisal on the house. Everything getting taken down in the entire house this week. My goodness I am looking forward too it. Its been months and months since I had peace and quiet without the thumping of airpumps, the whoosh of inline fans, the bubbling of water, and the odd creaks that oscillating fans make. There is going to be MAJOR changes in the sealed room, as this is the largest sealed room I have done and I learned a lot.

MOST SPECIFICALLY, we are downgrading in size if you didnt catch that earlier. 16 buckets is too much. We are doing one single rectangle canopy with 12 buckets instead of 2 rows of 8 buckets. Screen of green. This will allow us to aggressively control growth. I decided I would be happy to give up 2 pounds in harvest in order to have freedom walking around the grow room. If I did this for money I would have done things a lot differently so it is a small sacrifice. The A/C is getting set inside the new window box (which is getting some wood framing for strengthening). This will finally allow us to recirculate the air inside the room and use outside air to cool the inside air...hence no loss in CO2. We are also relocating the dehumidifier and we have a slick system of moving around around the room, both under and above the canopy. The A/C will still vent into the attic, no signs of mold or anything up there so the moist air seems to be ok, luckily it is very large.

We are also raising all the buckets by 4" which will allow us even more water in the reservoir (about another 12 gallons, total system up to about 90). Upgrading from a 32 gallon gravity rez to a 55 gallon. The raised buckets will allow airflow under them and the point is to get rid of a place where water can gather. A big upgrade is also wrapping the buckets AND the feed lines for all the buckets with insulation. This has been a big problem, because the water temp is more then 20 degrees cooler then the rooms ambient temp and the water condensation causes high humidity. So there you go. No camera at the moment but I should have some harvest pics soon. Im not worried about weight, should be well over 4 pounds, but cutting the flowering short will hurt the potency. There were some mistakes made and a lot of changes that need to be made so I am satisfied enough with the first run. I am very excited to have learned from those mistakes and see the difference.

Finally...my 20 gallon bubblebags (8 bag kit) will be here tomorrow or wednesday. Time to make some bombass bubble hash the pro way, 1 pound of shake at a time. My friends with the 20 gallon kits say they are getting nearly an ounce of hash from every pound of trimming. Ive got about 8 pounds of it and much of it is buds.

[Racerx]

whoops I forgot to mention Latewood that I like the sound of your new formula but I just wonder if there would be a lack of the micro nutrients that micro provides? I have done a similar formula before and I found that I started to get really light green colored leaves and that the buds burned easily, like bleached not actually burned. However that was with my Trainwreck which is very picky with nutes. I tried raising the micro and lowering the grow but it wasn't until I was giving it significant micro that I was able to remedy the problem. When I had too much bloom compared to micro is when I was getting the burning.

Who knows, all strains and environments can act strangely and maybe this pheno just didnt like what I was giving it at the time.

Honestly Latewood, to this date, some of the best herb I have produced came from Flora Nova, the 1 part system. I did one grow with Veg and Bloom, Trainwreck and G13 (my first DWC setup too) and got great results in both yield and potency. Great stuff. Next one I did with just Flora Nova Bloom, no veg, just with ever increasing amounts (maxing out at about 1700ppm). Beautiful green leaves, no deficiencies, tap water, and yielded more then the first one I did. I mentioned before somewhere that people are using doing ENTIRE grows with only Bloom. Can you believe that? Freakin nuts. Now some of my friends are experimenting with just Micro and Bloom. But you are right, you do lose some key elements that I would think the plants would need. Yet why are the people using Micro and Bloom getting buds the size of their forearms? Honestly I think that merely proves you could use almost any nutrient out there if you have every single other aspect of the grow dialed.

Simplicity is key, even I forget that sometimes.

[latewood]

[align=center]I have used many aggressive formulas in the past. I had most of the AN line throughout my 1st year...I just kept using less and less and achieving better results each time. I love Hygrozyme, but haven't used it in a while. When I used mostly AN and followed the calculator.I used 3-part, LiquidKarma, Humic Acid, Hygrozyme or sensi-zyme. Voodoojuice in this recipe for a while. add "BUDBlood" 1stweek of flower only, then wk2-6 add "BigBud" until week 6-7, Switch to "Overdrive". flush a week later. That was a POTENT recipe!

Now I took safe recipe; And I added hammerhead, change Micro to -.5 Grow to -1, and bloom to -3 truned out that when I made 5 gallons it was EC1.5/=1150 ppm I add a dose of Hammerhead0-9-18 30ml (this is where I am getting phosphates and a big potassium boost Calmmag+ 20ml, and Liquid Karma 40ml, to achieve the full EC2.0/=1500 ppm I want for flower. Neat'HUH? Ok back later.

I had to laugh when you mentioned cleaning up and no more water drips, or bubblers, or creaky fans...roflmao My fans have scared the shit out of me a few times late at night. Cats jumping on the roof and fans squeakin OH MY![/align]

[Abunai]

Awesome

[BlazeIdo]

RacerX, Do your root buckets get cleaned between water changes or do your low temps and hygrozyme keep everything clean enough? Peace

[Racerx]

RacerX, Do your root buckets get cleaned between water changes or do your low temps and hygrozyme keep everything clean enough? Peace

Blaze, there is absolutely no cleaning necessary. I dont even need to clean them between grows! But I do of course, but there is nothing to wash. Not even the airstones.

I wanted to update anyone who was curious, but this has been cut down and gone for a bit. For various reasons I needed to clean house and its been amazing to have a few weeks of silence! Except for the bubble hash making and trimming, its been wonderful. Thats all changed again!! The revised room is nearly done and wow what a difference! We have about 25 more square feet of room to work with. More on that later. Because we had to cut early, and we actually did have a hermaphrodite problem at the end. It showed up just early enough that if we kept things going another 2-3 weeks there would have been some seeds. Still got plenty of good buds and a few pounds of weight, plus a LOT of stuff for the bubble bags. The product...well it was good enough but not up to my standards, and it was obvious that after around 6 weeks things slowed down like they shouldn't have. After a few weeks of curing, it definitely taste great and gets the job done well, but our Cindy 99 soil grow really blew it away, and I pretty much attribute it to genetics.

The Cindy 99 genetics are beautiful and while I had great results before, this last pull was just spectacular. Besides pulling over 2 pounds from a 5x5 closet, the product was gorgeous, just dripping with THC and a smell/taste that is so exotic its almost too pungent. Like tropical candy, almost to the point of being disgusting!!! We knew off the start that the White Widow genetics we used for the hydro room were not A quality, but due to time constraints we had to compromise, and I learned my lesson the compromising will never end up the way you want it.

But the biggest changes to the room involve tons more space to move around, less buckets, and more controlled vertical growth. The new window box is significantly smaller and only sticks out 4" from the wall, whereas before it was over a foot. The construction is sturdier with 2x4s for bracing and everything is just 10x more solid. But the biggest change is the 10,000 BTU window A/C unit instead of the portable A/C. This has the recirculating feature, allowing us to exchange no smell or air with the outside. Since it is summer around here soon, its not very suspicious either. The hoods still draw air from the window box for air cooling, from the very top of the window, where a piece of acrylic looks like a professional window surrounding the A/C, but we have designed a way to allow the hoods to draw air conditioned air, but I dont think it will be needed. I am looking forward to the screen for ease of bending them over and avoiding tieing down. I have always had great results with this and it allows really even light distribution. Once again we will be chopping all the small branches/leaves out the bottom and middle. Buckets are raised 4" off the ground to allow more water in the reservoir.

We have also built a box to enclose the dehumidifier, which will allow us to either vent it or re-direct the hot air to the top of the room where it can evenly distribute instead of being concentrated in one area. Open to suggestions on how to use the dehumidifier to our best, but hopefully with the A/C we will not require it during the day.

About it for now, pictures eventually.

[BlazeIdo]

Im guessing you dont use Liquid Karma. Thats what seems to be the gunkiest. Peace