DWC Hydro grow with Godfather OG

[Magnumsmydog]

Exciting but painful waiting on new equipment

 

[gmonster714]

Real nice plant management. Starting to fill in nice.

 

[Brother_Antioch]

Exciting but painful waiting on new equipment

It is indeed. It's still better than the (just over) a month I waited for my AC10 smart plug and my SE4500 light, but to be fair, I failed to notice they were both "pre-order" status. Luckily, the plant structure shouldn't get too out of control before the new tent gets here. I'm raising the scrog net by about 1/2" per day so it should still be easy to remove once the new tent gets here.

Cheers,

BA.

 

[Brother_Antioch]

Real nice plant management. Starting to fill in nice.

Thanks, gmonster, and I appreciate the vote of confidence! It was my first time trying a mainline technique and scrog so was going out on a limb with it. I just followed the advice I got here on the forum and from watching an absolute shit-ton of videos on it. Once I understood the "why" of how it all worked, it wasn't too keep it under control. Lots of extra work, sure, but well worth it in the end (I hope!).

Cheers,

BA.

 

[Brother_Antioch]

Hi, folks. Update time.

You know that moment in life, where you just finish saying "Oh, everything's going just perfect!" only to have life tap you on the shoulder and give you a slap in the head? Yeah, that happened...lol. Nothing serious, just a busted pH meter. Went to check my readings yesterday and pH said 4.01 so added a bit of pH up and it said 4.01. Thinking, "Hmm, that's odd", I took a closer look at the bulb on the meter and surprise surprise...it's broken. So I took out my old crappy pH meter from last year, put new batteries in it, calibrated it and get myself back down to 5.8. The problem is, that test pen is also my EC test pen...which now has no batteries...lol. I had to add 4L of distilled water today as my levels were getting a bit low, but without the EC tester I just added pure distilled water, no nutrients. I was at 1.285-1.300 prior to this, so I imagine I'm down around 1.0 now. I've ordered a new test set that arrives this afternoon, so I'll top up my nutrients once it gets here and I calibrate it. This one is a "live reading" tester, so the probes can stay in the reservoir and I get readings at a glance. Was about twice the price as the pen, but still, $65 for peace of mind is a good deal, as far as I'm concerned.

Tent will arrive no later than Wednesday, or so Canada Post tells me. That's a good thing, as I'm entering week 3 of the stretch and wow she's growing! 2" of vertical growth in about 16 hours (last evening until this morning) and 12 of that was during lights out. The canopy is now 39" from side to side and 27" front to back when I open the front door, and she's now 20" from the top of the bucket lid to the canopy top, up from just under 18" yesterday afternoon. Luckily that new tent has an additional 20" of height, so I don't foresee any issues once I get them swapped over. Once the tent gets here, I'll most likely do an entire new reservoir mix tailored to 3rd/4th week of flowering. Might as well, since I'll have everything out of the tent at that time.

Anyway, problems (minor as they were) solved and back on track! Now, on to this morning's pictures.

Here's a general picture showing the tops:

Here's one from directly overhead:

Here's the canopy level where you can really see the vertical growth:

And here's a few close up shots of some of the tops.

To all who dropped in, thanks for checking on the progress with me! I'll post the next update once the tent has arrived and I've got it all dealt with. Should be a fun day!

Cheers,

BA.

 

[gmonster714]

Nice update and plants. Stacking up pretty tight in there.

I dont even use a ph pen anymore. Hell I dont check anything anymore. Ive not killed one yet..lol

 

[ajpapenfuss]

Looking good

 

[Brother_Antioch]

Nice update and plants. Stacking up pretty tight in there.

I dont even use a ph pen anymore. Hell I dont check anything anymore. Ive not killed one yet..lol

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with the way she's coming into her own. Hopefully it means some nice, dense buds once she's all done. As for the testing, since it's only my second indoor grow, and first time doing a hydroponic grow, I've been checking everything 3 times a day (pH, EC, res temp, PPFD, etc) and logging it all. Probably WAY overkill, to be sure, but it's really teaching me a lot about what trends on paper look like on the actual plant itself.

I'd thought about doing 2 plants in the tent for the next grow, but after seeing how big this single plant has gotten, I'm definitely nixing that idea!!! The new tent is still, technically, a 2x4, even if it's a bit bigger (28*55*80 instead of 24*48*60) so one plant and doing the manifold training again should yield similar results.

Cheers,

BA.

 

[Brother_Antioch]

Looking good

Thanks, aj. Despite the odd hiccup, it's been a really smooth grow, especially considering I'd never tried a hydroponic set up before, and this is only my second indoor grow ever. It's been a learning curve, but I have to say, I'm really happy with the results so far.

Stay tuned!!!

Cheers,

BA.

 

[gmonster714]

Thanks! I'm pretty happy with the way she's coming into her own. Hopefully it means some nice, dense buds once she's all done. As for the testing, since it's only my second indoor grow, and first time doing a hydroponic grow, I've been checking everything 3 times a day (pH, EC, res temp, PPFD, etc) and logging it all. Probably WAY overkill, to be sure, but it's really teaching me a lot about what trends on paper look like on the actual plant itself.

I'd thought about doing 2 plants in the tent for the next grow, but after seeing how big this single plant has gotten, I'm definitely nixing that idea!!! The new tent is still, technically, a 2x4, even if it's a bit bigger (28*55*80 instead of 24*48*60) so one plant and doing the manifold training again should yield similar results.

Cheers,

BA.

Yeah, ya need meters running hydro rigs.
Things happen faster in hydro.

 

[ajpapenfuss]

Easy to fix though dump and start again

 

[Brother_Antioch]

Quick update to the update:

New tester arrived. Got it calibrated (amazingly easy!!!) and the probes are now living in their environment. EC is right around 1.0 as I expected, and pH was running a little low (5.2) so bumped it up and is holding steady at 5.85. I can once again breathe easily...at least, until Wednesday comes and I tear everything apart to put it back together in the new tent...lol. It does come with mounting hardware and I almost set it up in my haste, but then thought, "Wait a sec...I'm tearing it all apart in a few more days and this is velcro with sticky pads. Do I really want to do this now?". So, it currently lives on my little side table with my other meters.

Cheers,

BA.

 

[Brother_Antioch]

Easy to fix though dump and start again

Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.

 

[Brother_Antioch]

Hi, folks. Update time.

My tent arrived this morning. Took all of 15 minutes to unbox and assemble it. Then took another couple of hours to take the old one apart and switch everything over. Rather than try and pull everything through the net, I thought "Hmm, what if I just unhook the 4 corner clips, leave the net on the plant, and hook it up in the new tent?" Turns out, even I can have a smart idea once in a while! It worked out just fine. I've set the exhaust vent up inside the tent blowing straight out the top side, lights are hung about 12" up and giving me a PPFD of around 850-875 at the canopy top, and humidifier is working perfectly. Floor fan, oscillating fan and intake fan are all installed and running as expected. About the only change is I had to move the air pump inside the tent, but it puts off minimal heat, so I'm not too worried about it. Check valves on all the lines, so shouldn't be an issue at all.

I'll let it recover for a day more and then do the res change on her, and let it recover for another day then do my major defoliation and lollipop on her. I've been taking the odd leaf off here and there, and a couple of the small branches that wouldn't end up doing much anyway, but now that I have the room, I can actually work around the plant so looking forward to that final step!

Anyway, here's some pictures of the new tent up and running.

Funny, the plant looks so much smaller in the bigger tent...lol

Thanks to all who stopped by to see the latest iteration!

Cheers,

BA.

 

[gmonster714]

Very nice early flower tent flip.

 

[Brother_Antioch]

Hi, folks. Just a quick update.

So, since putting her in her new home and getting all the equipment dialed in to the new environment, I'd say she's loving it! No signs of droop, stress, nothing. I went ahead and did the res change this evening. EC bumped up to 1.57 and pH steady at 5.85. I'm basically running the following mix:

15L distilled water (leaves me about 1.5" air gap beneath the net pot)
15ml Botanicare Silica Bast
15ml GH CaliMagic
15ml GH Flora Micro
7.5ml GH Flora Grow
22.5ml GH Flora Bloom (so 1:0.5:1.5 ratio)
16ml 3% H2O2

I've noticed over the last 24 hours that the temperature and humidity are staying even more stable than they were in the smaller tent. About the only issue I've run into so far was due to the height of the new tent, the sensors were hanging a little too high but a quick re-jigging of how everything was wired up fixed that issue. All in all, everything's great. I won't bother posting pictures of the plant as there's not much difference between now and yesterday when I posted other than some growth in the buds...but not enough to go, "Hey, check this out!!!". I did, however, take a shot of the roots when I was doing the res change, so here's a shot of the root ball.

The slight beige tint is from the CaliMagic and Flora Micro. No rot there at all. Zero smell, zero slime, just good healthy roots.

Anyway, to all who stopped in, thanks for popping by!

Cheers,

BA.

 

[Magnumsmydog]

Looking awesome man

 

[Brother_Antioch]

Looking awesome man

Thanks! It's been an adventure to be sure. Seeing the difference between last year using Promix HP and the same nutes and this year doing the DWC, I don't think I'll be doing anything other than hydro moving forward, at least for my indoor winter grow. Will still probably do 4 plants up at the trailer, but we're only there on weekends, so might have to pop out mid-week for a check up. Good thing the trailer is less than 20 minutes from home!

Cheers,

BA.

 

[Magnumsmydog]

Thanks! It's been an adventure to be sure. Seeing the difference between last year using Promix HP and the same nutes and this year doing the DWC, I don't think I'll be doing anything other than hydro moving forward, at least for my indoor winter grow. Will still probably do 4 plants up at the trailer, but we're only there on weekends, so might have to pop out mid-week for a check up. Good thing the trailer is less than 20 minutes from home!

Cheers,

BA.

Hell yea im in the same boat im loving the ebb and flow its way easier than thought it was gonna be

 

[ajpapenfuss]

Your yield should be bigger mine was I also started with pro mix