2nd hydro grow starting from ex soil user

[polpotoflove]

Greedings to everyone. I have started my 2nd hydroponics grow using the equipment I got hold of last year. My first grow was an educational experiment wich with the help of certain members of the community, despite the numerus mistakes I made during the (learning) process and the fact that I had a work related accident and had to be hospitalised for a period of time during wich my plant was left alone during the final stages of flowering, gave not so dissapointing results. Over 100g of dried product that gave a good head if you disregard the harsh smoke which was due to the buds being left alone to partially dry on the plant or so I would think. I found that the potential of the hydroponic method is huge. Where I live if you are careful you can have two decent grows a year indoors without much hussle, wich you cannot do with soil.
So I started a jak herrer seed a litlle late to be honest in a treated rockwool cube and today on her 9th day on this earth I put her in my aquafarm system. The hydroton pellets come from last years grow after meticulus cleaning conditioning and baking, the hole system cleaned and disinfected, tab water treated to PH 6 after a dab of GH flora series food that brought th EC to .450 and put under my vipar spectra 250W cob led light 2 feet distance at half power. Sprinklers on 1/4 of the "daytime", off during lights out. Temps: Ambient 25C daytime 21C night, water 23C day 20 night.
This time I will use the benefits of tecnology through a aquamaster p-160pro series combo pen that measures PH and EC TDS and temp, that I tested with spectacular results against lab equipment, because analog methods have a lot of subjectivity (your eye) in their employment. For example colour would say PH was 5 when in reality it was 4. So with a heafty discount I leave aboutism behind me. I shall keep posting feel free to comment or, alas, correct me.

 

[Merkle]

Greedings to everyone. I have started my 2nd hydroponics grow using the equipment I got hold of last year. My first grow was an educational experiment wich with the help of certain members of the community, despite the numerus mistakes I made during the (learning) process and the fact that I had a work related accident and had to be hospitalised for a period of time during wich my plant was left alone during the final stages of flowering, gave not so dissapointing results. Over 100g of dried product that gave a good head if you disregard the harsh smoke which was due to the buds being left alone to partially dry on the plant or so I would think. I found that the potential of the hydroponic method is huge. Where I live if you are careful you can have two decent grows a year indoors without much hussle, wich you cannot do with soil.
So I started a jak herrer seed a litlle late to be honest in a treated rockwool cube and today on her 9th day on this earth I put her in my aquafarm system. The hydroton pellets come from last years grow after meticulus cleaning conditioning and baking, the hole system cleaned and disinfected, tab water treated to PH 6 after a dab of GH flora series food that brought th EC to .450 and put under my vipar spectra 250W cob led light 2 feet distance at half power. Sprinklers on 1/4 of the "daytime", off during lights out. Temps: Ambient 25C daytime 21C night, water 23C day 20 night.
This time I will use the benefits of tecnology through a aquamaster p-160pro series combo pen that measures PH and EC TDS and temp, that I tested with spectacular results against lab equipment, because analog methods have a lot of subjectivity (your eye) in their employment. For example colour would say PH was 5 when in reality it was 4. So with a heafty discount I leave aboutism behind me. I shall keep posting feel free to comment or, alas, correct me.

Looks good. Better luck to you on this grow.

 

[ajpapenfuss]

Good luck at welcome

 

[polpotoflove]

This is the point we are now. 12 days old. Ph and EC stay stable at 5.8 and .450. Roots have not sprung out of the bucket yet.

 

[Merkle]

This is the point we are now. 12 days old. Ph and EC stay stable at 5.8 and .450. Roots have not sprung out of the bucket yet.

Looking good! Keep us updated. Happy trails…

 

[polpotoflove]

3 weeks since seed and she doesnt look bad at all. Health litlle plant vegetating. The feeding now follows the flora series normal chart, EC at 1.3 ms, PPM 1000, PH 5.6 a couple of roots are gliding down towards the solution and everything looks good. BUT.............

 

[polpotoflove]

I got critters in my tank!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Merkle]

I got critters in my tank!!!!!!!!!!!

It looks as though you may have to do a full clean of your container with a diluted hydrogen peroxide.

 

[polpotoflove]

Luckilly the litlle animals were just springtails that in hydro are not really dangerous. Nah peroxide is ridiculusly expensive and its difficult to find it without other stuff in it. I dissinfect with sodium hypochlorite. Anyway I let her for a couple more weeks before sterilising ad changing fertilising and light schedules for flowering and today with cleasr signs of the start of flowerin I gave her a trim and spread her in a star shape. Conditions are temps: lights on 25C off 18C (I will have to put a heater) water temp is 23C lights on 21C off. PH is conditioned at 5.7 and reconditioned after a couple of days or when it reaches 6.5 Light is 12/12 at 80% intensity but this will go to 100 in the next days.

 

[Greenadian]

Hopefully you havent stressed your plant too much my chopping all its leaves off!! She is so very naked now like a hairless cat

 

[polpotoflove]

No I did not....Next day the branches had turn towards the light and the day after she started bushing again

 

[polpotoflove]

and today she looks like this

 

[polpotoflove]

Light is now 100% which keeps temp at 28C during lights on. PH starts at 5.6 and finishes after a couple days at 6.3 when I readjust it. Today Iflushed and change the rez for full flowering. EC 1.8. TDS 1.3ppm

 

[polpotoflove]

90 days since seedling and 28 days into 12/12 lights and it looks it is going somewhere.. I think that the stress training has worked very well. The plant is less then a foot in height whith at least 18 "main" colas and so many more smaller ones. That is partially the reason that I am using this type of bucket, you can drill holes and attach strings and shape your plant while at the same time you can pull the hydroton bucket with not much hassle and have acces to the outer bucket and the roots. Two things trouble me right now. First the amount of folliage. Today I spent 2 hours exfoliating her whith my scissors having to be cleaned from the resin several times, and 4 pairs of gloves stiking like they are glued. And yet I only managed to clean the upper part of the plant. The second is that there are many colas that start sprouting in the lower part of the plant that get much less light (some are even covered by the leaves that I havent cut down yet) and frankly I dont see much potential to make it into something usable and at the some time draw resources from the rest. If that was an income producing olive tree (e.g.) I would have no hesitation to cut them down but somewhow I got the Idea of harvesting in two parts. Do you guys think it is possible?

 

[Merkle]

I would wait a week or two before harvesting.

 

[Greenadian]

I dont think a staggered harvest would be required.....your plant is very short, so its pretty even growth all around! If it was a 4ft plant, then maybe take the top 1ft of buds and then a week or so later harvest the lower portion of the plant

 

[polpotoflove]

Extremely urgent family matters pulled me away from home for some daysand the disadvantages of hydroculture shown up. With no real supervision (the guy supposed to drop and have a look did a very poor job) the plant looks like this now. The word I am thinking rimes with ''luck''.

 

[TerpBeans]

Once you trim away the burnt leaves, you'll have a big bag of buds