First RDWC Grow - Taking the Deep Water Culture Plunge

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smokedareefer

smokedareefer

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Advanced Nutrients recommends changing the res every week during veg and I think I found out why. I was trying to push that into another week, ppm's looked fine, but I was noticing lethargic growth. The roots looked great, nice and pearly white a few days after the first res change. (Tech help at Advanced told me not to look at ppm because of their formula and the way it is designed to work, ppm's will throw you off if you are looking at them in the traditional sense.) I'm pretty sure the nutrients are staining the roots and over the course of the week, they slowly get their nice white color back, and even when they turn brownish, there is zero slime....they feel cool and clammy to me, not slimy at all.

Anyhow, I did another res change on Thursday and updated the nutrients to the week 3 schedule from AN. That really did the trick and I noticed a difference within a day. The roots stained brownish again but again, no slime. I brought in my A game with the Spider Farmer SE3000 that was in another tent and got it down to about 12" off the canopy @ 50%, will slowly raise that to 90% toward the end of veg per SF recommendations. Temps have been in the low 80's during the day, 70's at night, RH sitting between 50-60%. I brought in my net trellis to begin training this girl to fill the tent wall to wall. My goal is a full lb of super cancer fighting medicine from this grow.

That's all I can think of for now. Hope everyone's summer is going great!

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Is that ppm reading accurate? (1560 )
Id be feeding a plant that size around 300 ppm
 
SweetLeafGrow

SweetLeafGrow

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Is that ppm reading accurate? (1560 )
Id be feeding a plant that size around 300 ppm
Yes it is accurate. This is my first hydro grow and I hear you, but I am using Advanced Nutrients Sensi and just following their directions. They have a 24/7 helpline that I have used a few times and they explain that with this line you don't monitor Ph and PPM's the way you traditionally would because of the way these nutes are designed to work. I kinda had to throw all the info I had learned about hydro prior when using this line and so far it seems to be performing well.

I add N to my bloom nutes as well - no data but the plants like it!
Thanks for the advice guys, will carry on and perhaps give AN helpline a call and ask that question to see what they say. I am probably going to be more cautious as I get my feet wet here and then when I get a grow or 3 under my belt, can probably be more adventurous and aggressive. Right now I want to focus on learning RDWC and harvesting as much medicinal flower as I can get...I need it.

Quick question about topping off the res- She has been drinking quite a bit of water, about 72 oz per day and rising. Do I need to add some cal/mag to the RO water when I top off?

Got the timer set to 12/12 and at lights off will be officially on a flowering light schedule. I see this morning how RIGHT you guys are about flipping now. I cannot believe the growth just over night.....F-N-A!!! I was looking at @ImpulsiveGrower and the mother of this plant and from what I can tell, the stretch isn't going to be a problem. Hey IG, what have you noticed about the stretch of this strain? I think I should be good to go but I went ahead and tied down a couple of the more aggressive branches that are reaching for the top of the tent, topped a few of the taller branches and just looked in awe at what this girl has done is such a short time!
 
Moe.Red

Moe.Red

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Yes it is accurate. This is my first hydro grow and I hear you, but I am using Advanced Nutrients Sensi and just following their directions. They have a 24/7 helpline that I have used a few times and they explain that with this line you don't monitor Ph and PPM's the way you traditionally would because of the way these nutes are designed to work. I kinda had to throw all the info I had learned about hydro prior when using this line and so far it seems to be performing well.


Thanks for the advice guys, will carry on and perhaps give AN helpline a call and ask that question to see what they say. I am probably going to be more cautious as I get my feet wet here and then when I get a grow or 3 under my belt, can probably be more adventurous and aggressive. Right now I want to focus on learning RDWC and harvesting as much medicinal flower as I can get...I need it.

Quick question about topping off the res- She has been drinking quite a bit of water, about 72 oz per day and rising. Do I need to add some cal/mag to the RO water when I top off?

Got the timer set to 12/12 and at lights off will be officially on a flowering light schedule. I see this morning how RIGHT you guys are about flipping now. I cannot believe the growth just over night.....F-N-A!!! I was looking at @ImpulsiveGrower and the mother of this plant and from what I can tell, the stretch isn't going to be a problem. Hey IG, what have you noticed about the stretch of this strain? I think I should be good to go but I went ahead and tied down a couple of the more aggressive branches that are reaching for the top of the tent, topped a few of the taller branches and just looked in awe at what this girl has done is such a short time!
Once you are dialed in like you are you can expect explosive growth. Like 1.5x soil.

I put in a little cal mag early in flower and taper off. Maybe 100ppm max downnto zero at the end. But truthfully I’ll be changing that and going more the epsom salt route because sometimes the plant needs different ratios than what comes out of the bottle. Still playing with this so cannot yet be specific but it is strain dependent.

I agree stay the course with your nutes if it is working for you. AN probably knows stuff we do not.
 
Aqua Man

Aqua Man

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Once you are dialed in like you are you can expect explosive growth. Like 1.5x soil.

I put in a little cal mag early in flower and taper off. Maybe 100ppm max downnto zero at the end. But truthfully I’ll be changing that and going more the epsom salt route because sometimes the plant needs different ratios than what comes out of the bottle. Still playing with this so cannot yet be specific but it is strain dependent.

I agree stay the course with your nutes if it is working for you. AN probably knows stuff we do not.
Yeah 100% AN nutrients are a complete different beast. You need to run the pom they suggest to keep a high enough concentration for the ph stability with them.

Thats kinda why i dont like them because when you tinker with them they get pissed off and fuck your plants up.

At one point i was answering so many help threads on their nutrients i refused to even discuss them anymore because it was a fight everytime with the grower and others that were giving good advice on hydro in general but bot for AN nutrients. I literally swore id never answer another AN nutrient thread again lol.
 
ImpulsiveGrower

ImpulsiveGrower

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Yes it is accurate. This is my first hydro grow and I hear you, but I am using Advanced Nutrients Sensi and just following their directions. They have a 24/7 helpline that I have used a few times and they explain that with this line you don't monitor Ph and PPM's the way you traditionally would because of the way these nutes are designed to work. I kinda had to throw all the info I had learned about hydro prior when using this line and so far it seems to be performing well.


Thanks for the advice guys, will carry on and perhaps give AN helpline a call and ask that question to see what they say. I am probably going to be more cautious as I get my feet wet here and then when I get a grow or 3 under my belt, can probably be more adventurous and aggressive. Right now I want to focus on learning RDWC and harvesting as much medicinal flower as I can get...I need it.

Quick question about topping off the res- She has been drinking quite a bit of water, about 72 oz per day and rising. Do I need to add some cal/mag to the RO water when I top off?

Got the timer set to 12/12 and at lights off will be officially on a flowering light schedule. I see this morning how RIGHT you guys are about flipping now. I cannot believe the growth just over night.....F-N-A!!! I was looking at @ImpulsiveGrower and the mother of this plant and from what I can tell, the stretch isn't going to be a problem. Hey IG, what have you noticed about the stretch of this strain? I think I should be good to go but I went ahead and tied down a couple of the more aggressive branches that are reaching for the top of the tent, topped a few of the taller branches and just looked in awe at what this girl has done is such a short time!
She’s a stretcher and vegs fast too. I topped mine before I sent it to flower with my reversal project and it didn’t even slow her down and she’s still the tallest in the space. I would say she’s going to more than double her height in flower. In a hydro setup I expect she will stretch even more!
 
Dr.Green55

Dr.Green55

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Yeah I typically run more N longer than what most people / charts say. I find the result to be larger buds. I have some data to back this up. You are good to use the res as is.
Yeah Moe thats 100% higher N for bigger bud, overall yield, lower N for better cannabinoids/terps. Lab testing will very easily verify this. Essentially whats happens is the higher or lower N is changing the K to N ratio, as long as Ca is not antagonizing anything for nothing is antagonizing it. we have lab tested proven that, that K to N ratio will benefit either larger buds or cannabinoids, I'm sure there is other studies about this as well
 
SweetLeafGrow

SweetLeafGrow

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Yeah 100% AN nutrients are a complete different beast. You need to run the pom they suggest to keep a high enough concentration for the ph stability with them.

Thats kinda why i dont like them because when you tinker with them they get pissed off and fuck your plants up.

At one point i was answering so many help threads on their nutrients i refused to even discuss them anymore because it was a fight everytime with the grower and others that were giving good advice on hydro in general but bot for AN nutrients. I literally swore id never answer another AN nutrient thread again lol.
I'm thankful you did bro! I knew I was opening a can of worms when I decided on AN because I am aware of some of the pitfalls folks have dealt with, but I had also seen where other folks were having great luck. Thanks to everyone, who despite not liking or being familiar with AN nutes, have been generous enough to offer up your expertise....it's awesome.
 
SweetLeafGrow

SweetLeafGrow

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Yeah Moe thats 100% higher N for bigger bud, overall yield, lower N for better cannabinoids/terps.
Thanks for this Dr.Green- Very interesting indeed. I like the bigger yields for sure, but since I am also very interested in terps and cannabinoids for medicinal reasons, I will probably go on the lighter side of the N at this point to boost the terps.
 
SweetLeafGrow

SweetLeafGrow

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She’s a stretcher and vegs fast too. I topped mine before I sent it to flower with my reversal project and it didn’t even slow her down and she’s still the tallest in the space. I would say she’s going to more than double her height in flower. In a hydro setup I expect she will stretch even more!
Get ready to rock and roll bro! Thank you for all your help man. 💚
 
SweetLeafGrow

SweetLeafGrow

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Update- About 5 weeks in the system at this point. Flipped to 12/12 on the 23rd so about a week into flower, not showing any pre-flowers yet but the stretch is definitely on. I did some minor defoliation on the lower part of the plant so far and will take a bunch more as we approach day 21 where I hope fo finish all defoliation and let her go full on flower.

I changed out the res on Thursday and added bloom nutrients for week 1 flower. Everything seems to be dialed in fairly well in this room, temps and humidity have been fairly easy to control with the house A/C and a humidifier in the room despite 95F+ temps outside. Been a hot summer so far! As far as I can tell, the roots look great and are starting to bulk up. I even noticed that the roots are displacing quite a bit of water at the plant site and I am able to keep the res water level a bit higher and still keep the water level at the plant site 1" below the net pot.

Finally, special thanks to @ImpulsiveGrower for nominating one of my photos for POTM this month. Unbelievably, I made it to the finals, thanks to all for the support! If you like my photo from my recent Ethos grow I would really appreciate showing some love by giving me your support in this prestigious competition 💚 So honored to be in the running, thank you Farm fam!

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SweetLeafGrow

SweetLeafGrow

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Oh I’ve been so impressed with this Hydroponics set up that I am itching to set up my other tent Ian Hydro. I have everything for one more RDWC set up including another chiller. The first one I bought was leaking so I bought another one and while I was waiting for it to show up the first one stopped leaking. I decided to hang onto it too.

My question is, how do I get started in the Hydro set up from seed? I have some seeds from brother Mandel that are supposed to be super medicinal and I am anxious to get one of these going in my other Hydro set up. I’m at a loss on how to start a seed for Hydro.
 
Moe.Red

Moe.Red

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Oh I’ve been so impressed with this Hydroponics set up that I am itching to set up my other tent Ian Hydro. I have everything for one more RDWC set up including another chiller. The first one I bought was leaking so I bought another one and while I was waiting for it to show up the first one stopped leaking. I decided to hang onto it too.

My question is, how do I get started in the Hydro set up from seed? I have some seeds from brother Mandel that are supposed to be super medicinal and I am anxious to get one of these going in my other Hydro set up. I’m at a loss on how to start a seed for Hydro.
What I do is the paper towel method until the seed pops. Then once I see the direction the root is taking I put it pointed down into a rockwool cube. Once it roots thru the rockwool, treat it just like a clone, with the exception that it has a tap root and that dude will keep going south until it finds some resistance. That's a little different in RDWC because we are not germing in solo cups.

I'll try to dig up some pics.

Edit sorry these are shit but it’s what I got on my phone at the moment

0E286291 A389 4287 AAF6 567A8D420F7A
A954CFB1 296B 419A AE5B 19EB0121C689
 
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Moe.Red

Moe.Red

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Yeah Moe thats 100% higher N for bigger bud, overall yield, lower N for better cannabinoids/terps. Lab testing will very easily verify this. Essentially whats happens is the higher or lower N is changing the K to N ratio, as long as Ca is not antagonizing anything for nothing is antagonizing it. we have lab tested proven that, that K to N ratio will benefit either larger buds or cannabinoids, I'm sure there is other studies about this as well
Sorry I missed this Doc.

Truly interesting. I still have a lot to learn about nutes.

I wonder what would win if you plan to use as extractions? More N meaning larger overall harvest, or less N so higher potency? Basically I'm asking which do you think would result in more THC molecules per grow? Larger buds or higher potency?

EDIT - I think I got my answer from @steamroller below. Seems like a heavy hand with the N will decrease THCa more than larger buds will provide. I really need to internalize this and make a shift in my thinking based on this.
 
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steamroller

steamroller

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Sorry I missed this Doc.

Truly interesting. I still have a lot to learn about nutes.

I wonder what would win if you plan to use as extractions? More N meaning larger overall harvest, or less N so higher potency? Basically I'm asking which do you think would result in more THC molecules per grow? Larger buds or higher potency?
This interested me also and seems a knight in shining armor to my plants that suffered my organic debacle.
One of the articles I found and read. 🤔 👍
 
Moe.Red

Moe.Red

5,044
313
This interested me also and seems a knight in shining armor to my plants that suffered my organic debacle.
One of the articles I found and read. 🤔 👍
How did I not know this? Just wow. And not a little bit,

"As Nitrogen applications increased from 30 to 320 mg L−1 N, Tetrahydrocannabinolic acid (THCA) and cannabidiolic acid (CBDA) decreased by 69% and 63% respectively."
 
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