New to this forum - been growing for 26 years

[Dennis5374]

Just wanted to introduce myself . I’m a 40 year old man , living in northern Ny - literally 5 minutes from Ontario , 15 from Quebec .

I’ve been soil growing since I was a youngster , growing outdoors where I live - I started growing indoors about 7-8 years ago , first in soil , then ebb and flow , then autopots , and now dwc . I love learning new techniques , and keeping up on new tech as well . My current setup , is a 4x4 gorilla tent , with a kind x750 , two ac infinity s6 gen 2 fans inside , four 5 gallon buckets with 8 inch net pot lids , ac infinity exhaust fan - ac infinity co2 regulator , c02 controller and 69 pro plus grow controller . I also have their tent heater and humidifier to boot .

Right now I’m growing 2 cuts of apes in space , a cut of GYAT , and the beleaf cut of white truffle . When funds allow , I’m converting my 20ft enclosed into a grow . This is a current picture of what I’m doing atm . I just flipped to flower last night - I’ll lower my trellis to the top of my tallest plant and start filling in , as they stretch .

This will be my second dwc grow - the first being forbidden fruit from chameleon extracts , which went smooth start to finish . About a week ago I was fighting spider mites and clogged air stones , which resulted in 3 plants being discolored heavily , and needing fast assistance . I added southern AG to my nutrients , pruned slimed roots , sprayed every 2 days with lost coast plant therapy , and capt jacks insecticidal super soap and after 1 week they seem like they’re back . I’ll include a picture of the root growth I experienced in just 2 days after addressing all the issues . The white roots all formed in jsur 2 days from washing , pruning and adding the southern AG . I’ve also added reflective insulation to my buckets which has helped keep temps down , and added much larger air stones which seem to be making all the difference .

Sorry for the long winded post , just wanted to let everyone know who I am and what I am working on now .

 

[Dennis5374]

I’ve been away for awhile , and haven’t had time to update . I did some major thinning above and below the canopy . Right now I’m cutting the nutrients back heavily . My EC is through the roof , following the AN feed chart . The plants are handling it no issues at all , but from past experience , they’ll hit a walls around week 5 , unless I get back down to that 2.5-3.0 range . I angled my light to try and promote the shorter growth with more intense light in the front . They’re bulking up nice , extremely sticky and aromatic , the GYAT in the back left is definitely the front runner - I moved a fan below the canopy to circulate air better , along with the one in picture in the opposite corner blowing across the canopy at a downward angle .

If I top off with water this afternoon I should be real close to the proper EC range , with dwc .

 

[Galgrows]

Looking green and healthy

 

[Dennis5374]

Looking green and healthy

Very healthy , just very high EC . I actually did a full on drain . Bailed out each bucket with a red solo cup - the buckets were through the roof - I hadn’t tested in weeks , just followed the feeding chart from AN “very bad “ lol.

I ended up doing a drain , and reset at 2.1EC , hopefully everything holds stable , and I don’t have a massive swing from salt buildup , but thankfully I caught it now . To get to 2.1 I ran their feed chart at 40% strength , and I ph’d to 5.8.

 

[Dennis5374]

Great stacking going on now . The GYAT stretched some , and has some wider than desired node spacing , but it’s also the tent hog and has 25+ nice colas forming . The two apes in space and white truffle are shorter but phenomenal node spacing . I believe this is day 25 of flower . The terps and trichome coverage are excellent . The beleaf white truffle cut , is always a late dumper on the trichomes , but it smells phenomenal . The apes in space also has excellent trichome coverage .
Overall very pleased with my second ever dwc grow . After having to do a flush though , mid flower , I can not wait to build a rdwc system .

I already have an ac infinity 5x5 brand new in the box , and I’m ordering their ionframe evo10 1000w led , with supplemental uv bars . The new setup will be four 13 gallon dwc totes with 8 inch net pots , two 4” disc air stones per bucket , and a 5th tote for nutrient exchanges . I’ll be using 2” bulkhead fittings with pvc for my drains , and a lift pump to top feed though the totes . I haven’t decided on whether I will just buy a water chiller or build my own with a window air conditioner . The window air conditioner will certainly have much better cooling capabilities , as it’s 10k btu , and an equivalent water chiller would be very expensive and I have the ac unit already .

83 degrees , 60% humidity , two s6 fans above and below canopy oscillating and on high . 1400ppm co2 , 2.3EC , 5.8ph . Very dialed in at the moment ,

 

[Dennis5374]

Here’s some close up shots of all the plants . GYAT , apes in space and last picture is a white truffle flower . I’m very happy with how things are going at this point b

 

[Dennis5374]

Another round of close ups . The terps and trichome production at this stage are pretty insane . Day 28 of flower and they’re stacking nicely . Feeding in the 2.3-2.5EC range , with advanced base , bloom , bud factor x , big bud , and b-52 . 5.8 ph , water temps are 67-68 degrees .

I’m so stoked , pretty confident this is gonna be my highest quality grow yet . It may not be my highest yield but that wouldn’t surprise me either .

20lb of co2 even sealed at 1400ppm is going through fast . I wish i had a larger tank, or even a small generator for the tent .

My biggest yield was this time last year with autopots , and autoflowers . I had a buddy heater on the porch supplying copious amounts of co2 , with an air conditioner in the window all winter to keep temps down and exchange fresh air . I had two autos each push over a lb , and two much smaller autos that produced a half pound between them .

I’m going through a bottle every 2 weeks , which is adding roughly 35 bucks a month to my grow during flower .

 

[Dennis5374]

It’s been a few days . The spider mites I assumed I conquered last month , reared their ugly hesds again . I will never allow a clone into my home again that doesn’t go into quarantine for 2 weeks prior !
Having always used miticides and sprays , earlier on , i made the decision to take a new route , and get some predatory mites . First off I wanna say I wish I had went for these earlier !! They’re little crackhead “meth-anie”red , zombie mites eradicating everything in their path . I released 4000 in my tent “overkill” but this is scorched earth level !

I have another 4000 to release in 5 days , apparently I got a buy one get one deal on them . I flipped a leaf over and these red specks were flying all over , biting mites and eggs everywhere !

As far as plant health , all is good outside of a feeding slowdown on the 3 plants affected by the spider mites . I have one plant that is drinking heavily heavy , the other 3 are more on the transpiring so I have been giving straight water until I see it drop below the 2.0EC threshold

The last photo is to show you what they looked like back in early November when the spider mites ravaged them . I had to make a choice , take it head on , or burn it all ! I went with option one as I needed to preserve the genetics still . Being in dwc , the turnaround was rapid . In one week they were doubled in size and tons of fresh new growth .
First photo is a picture of white truffle . The flower is so dense , like the densest I’ve ever seen at day 32 , and I’ve been growing for 2.5 decades !! I can’t wait to get to the finish line , hit this with a very slow prolonged dry/cure .

I’ll update again next weekend with lots of pictures , including a video of these mites zoomed in feasting

 

[Dennis5374]

Predators are putting in mega work . Every leaf has 2-3 on them . Finally started seeing them everywhere . I’m gonna let them eat as many eggs and mites as possible for a week or 2 then I plan to hit them with the nuke em , and keep it going until late flower . They’re feeding great and buds are stacking awesome .. very stinky sticky and insanely dense .

Should be some A++++ flower once washed

 

[Florida_Mike]

Predators are putting in mega work . Every leaf has 2-3 on them . Finally started seeing them everywhere . I’m gonna let them eat as many eggs and mites as possible for a week or 2 then I plan to hit them with the nuke em , and keep it going until late flower . They’re feeding great and buds are stacking awesome .. very stinky sticky and insanely dense .

Should be some A++++ flower once washed

Hot'damn them some fuzzy wuzzy's, nice job!

Good luck with the gatdamn little $@* #%&^! spidy Bastards...

 

[Dennis5374]

Oh man I’m so disappointed in myself . My cousin was dying of throat cancer and asked me to take all his clones . Some of which he was keeping alive for me . When he brought them here I didn’t think anything of it , after a day or so I looked close and they had mites and aphids!! They went straight outside but it was too late .

I have nuke ‘em as a backup plan but there are a ton of these predators putting in work so I may just see what happens for 6/7 more days as the plants themselves are very happy and stacking amazing . The biggest issue is how sticky the leaves are . Even sucker leaves are trichomed heavily . Blessign and a curse as it makes the predator mites slow down some .

I’ll prolly let them work for a few weeks as long as nothing progresses then hit the tent with the nuke em and kill the entire population , that way I’ll just have to bud wash at the end .

The super frosty flower in the pics , is the beleaf white truffle cut . They’re all frosty but that’s packing it on amazingly . The buds are little spears . The GYAT has nice fat chunkers on top , but node spacing isn’t the greatest . The apes in space are stacked with excellent spacing and will be big long fat colas . They should all be iced out heavy when finished

Don’t mind the carrier mess… i should’ve used satchets but i was in a hurry and I have to bud wash anyways with all these little demon bugs roaming around

 

[Mickmatic]

Predators are putting in mega work . Every leaf has 2-3 on them . Finally started seeing them everywhere . I’m gonna let them eat as many eggs and mites as possible for a week or 2 then I plan to hit them with the nuke em , and keep it going until late flower . They’re feeding great and buds are stacking awesome .. very stinky sticky and insanely dense .

Should be some A++++ flower once washed

What species of predatory mites did you use?

 

[Dennis5374]

What species of predatory mites did you use?

It’s been a minute since I’ve been on , I can’t remember their name , they’re the red ones . They are voracious - but my problem was too out of hand . 1.5 weeks of nuke em sprays , lined em out . I did end up bud washing everything . It’s been hanging in my tent 60 degrees 60% humidity for 6 days now . I can’t wait to try some properly dried / cured , as it’s killer drying fast in my home “pellets stove 80 degrees at all times and 20% or less humidity lol”

After I tear down and scrub everything down with bleach and alcohol , I’ll be restarting a night owl run , before switching back to photoperiod

 

[Dennis5374]

What species of predatory mites did you use?

It’s been a minute since I’ve been on , I can’t remember their name , they’re the red ones . They are voracious - but my problem was too out of hand . 1.5 weeks of nuke em sprays , lined em out . I did end up bud washing everything . It’s been hanging in my tent 60 degrees 60% humidity for 6 days now . I did