2x2 RDWC #4: Test with Bag Seed

[THCosmic]

Temps are actually still dropping, now at 82.3f. When I am in front of the tent the temps rise, but once I stop blocking the open door my body/breath heat is removed and the temps can stabilize. Will give it another hour or so to see where it sits. I may let it go the whole light cycle like this and adjust it for the next one if need be.

Best case: Temps stabilize under 80f.
Worst case: I go back to the single 140w light.
Most likely case: I put the 75w above canopy in the back of the tent and one 140w above canopy in the front of the tent.

I think the 75w light would be nice in the back because it is flatter and will sit up higher, giving me about 2 more inches of height. It will also keep temps lower for those really tall buds.

I am also thinking about taking my other 140w light apart and extending the power cables from the power converter to the lights so I can move the power converter outside the tent. I think I will also use this concept for the entire closet once this grow is finished. I can keep all the power converters outside the closet and there happens to be an air return duct right there to grab the heat.

 

[THCosmic]

The LED light is super easy to take apart. Will be really easy to extend these wires too.

8 screws to open the case.

8 screws to remove the LED lights from the plastic case. 7 screws for me since my light was missing one.

Put the screws back in so I don't lose them.

Lights easily disconnected. No wire cutting needed, except to extend the wires themselves of course. Put the case back together. I was thinking of pulling everything out of it, but that is just more chances for it to break later with loose wires and such. I could also remove the fan, but it uses less than 2w, so maybe I can get it to help.push air through my air return duct.

This will replace one of the lights in the tent soon. Then I will do the same thing to that light. Soon I will have 2 lights in there without their power converters and 2 inches more height.

 

[THCosmic]

Well, I got hyperfixated on the lights and just had to get it done.

 

[THCosmic]

Success!!! Canopy temp is holding steady below 79f. Below canopy temp is 74f. Humidity is stable at about 45%. I'm happy with the results.

Now if I move the air pump and both the lights' power converters outside the closet it should lower temps even more. The air pump provides a ton of heat, mainly because I am running a 950 GPH air pump in one tent, when it is meant to be split amongst 3 tents. Should be much better when I use the whole closet and the air pump is split between 5 reservoirs. I imagine that would be 80% less heat transferred to the reservoir via air pump. Then being outside the closet it will have more air volume to disperse its heat generated, meaning cooler air pumped to the reservoirs, so maybe up to 90% reduction in heat transfer per individual reservoir.

Math starts to kick in and I can figure out the reduction with the smaller reservoirs I will be using for the next grow. I plan to use 7 gallon buckets and just do DWC. I will probably upgrade to RDWC again (or maybe go coco coir) when the next grow finishes. Currently I use approximately 15 gallons in a 23 gallon system and I plan to use about 5 gallons in each 7 gallon bucket. So my reservoirs will be 1/3 the size and heat up 3x faster. With a 90% reduction, that leaves 10% heat transfer, multiplied by 3 would be 30% heat transfer. Overall a 70% reduction in heat transfer. My reservoir temps would remain lower for 3 times longer.

 

[dankstranger]

Clean 2×2 RDWC setup. Love the LST and tidy canopy. You're doing most things right, but here are a few tweaks for smoother sailing.

Week 2 of 12/12 with bagseed staggering sex expression is normal. Check upper nodes at main branch/stipules for first signs. Females show teardrop calyx with white hairs. Males show round balls on short stems. If you find a male, cut stem 1-2" above lid and leave roots if they're tangled. Don't rip the root mass. Run fresh res after and consider light enzyme treatment.

That 0.2 pH drift is normal with cheap pens and RO water. Store probe in KCl solution, blot before use. Two-point calibrate weekly with fresh 7.0 and 4.0 buffers. When testing, stir, let probe sit 2-3 minutes, then read. A 0.1-0.2 drift later is typical. Stay consistent with your method. Keep pH drops for sanity checks.

Water temp 65-68°F is perfect. Let pH drift 5.6 to 6.2. EC around 0.9-1.1 mS/cm (450-550 ppm). Mix top-offs separately, pH there, then add. After res changes, circulate 20-30 minutes, pH once, then leave it.

Good defoliation work. Light lollipopping for airflow. Dehu and exhaust upgrade was smart. Aim for 1.1-1.3 VPD but prioritize leaf health over numbers.

Use white light for sexing with the scope. Sample calyxes for trichomes, not sugar leaves. Kill blurple when shooting. Phone clamp helps a lot.

Drop your current EC/ppm, pH swing, and res drift rate if you want to dial it tighter. This looks like it'll cruise into week 3 nicely.

 

[THCosmic]

Clean 2×2 RDWC setup. Love the LST and tidy canopy. You're doing most things right, but here are a few tweaks for smoother sailing.

Week 2 of 12/12 with bagseed staggering sex expression is normal. Check upper nodes at main branch/stipules for first signs. Females show teardrop calyx with white hairs. Males show round balls on short stems. If you find a male, cut stem 1-2" above lid and leave roots if they're tangled. Don't rip the root mass. Run fresh res after and consider light enzyme treatment.

That 0.2 pH drift is normal with cheap pens and RO water. Store probe in KCl solution, blot before use. Two-point calibrate weekly with fresh 7.0 and 4.0 buffers. When testing, stir, let probe sit 2-3 minutes, then read. A 0.1-0.2 drift later is typical. Stay consistent with your method. Keep pH drops for sanity checks.

Water temp 65-68°F is perfect. Let pH drift 5.6 to 6.2. EC around 0.9-1.1 mS/cm (450-550 ppm). Mix top-offs separately, pH there, then add. After res changes, circulate 20-30 minutes, pH once, then leave it.

Good defoliation work. Light lollipopping for airflow. Dehu and exhaust upgrade was smart. Aim for 1.1-1.3 VPD but prioritize leaf health over numbers.

Use white light for sexing with the scope. Sample calyxes for trichomes, not sugar leaves. Kill blurple when shooting. Phone clamp helps a lot.

Drop your current EC/ppm, pH swing, and res drift rate if you want to dial it tighter. This looks like it'll cruise into week 3 nicely.

Thank you so much for your detailed response.

About to enter week 4 of flower now.

If that single node does end up being male, is it ok to just cut that single pre-flower off and continue the grow? All other nodes on the plant definitely have calyxes with 2 pistils. I read that 3 pistils can be a sign of hermaphrodite so I have been looking out for them. None spotted so far.

I'm hoping the new Apera PH pen will provide more stable readings. It will be here in a few hours.

I'm currently at 1.3 EC and it has been pretty stable there. A few leaves here and there with tips and edges slightly burned.

The digital microscope I got has white LEDs so I will have to try it out with the lights off. I'm sure the images will much better. Practice makes perfect, hehe.

Once again thank you so much. I've been reading a lot of your replies in other threads lately. Always so detailed and on point. You are a blessing!

 

[dankstranger]

Thank you so much for your detailed response.

About to enter week 4 of flower now.

If that single node does end up being male, is it ok to just cut that single pre-flower off and continue the grow? All other nodes on the plant definitely have calyxes with 2 pistils. I read that 3 pistils can be a sign of hermaphrodite so I have been looking out for them. None spotted so far.

I'm hoping the new Apera PH pen will provide more stable readings. It will be here in a few hours.

I'm currently at 1.3 EC and it has been pretty stable there. A few leaves here and there with tips and edges slightly burned.

The digital microscope I got has white LEDs so I will have to try it out with the lights off. I'm sure the images will much better. Practice makes perfect, hehe.

Once again thank you so much. I've been reading a lot of your replies in other threads lately. Always so detailed and on point. You are a blessing!

Thanks for the kind words, and congratulations on week 4! You're hitting that sweet spot where the buttons start looking like little golf balls.

You can absolutely remove a lone pollen sac surgically and keep running. I've done this countless times with bagseed plants. Check that plant daily for about a week after removal to make sure nothing else pops up.

Here's how to remove it safely: turn off fans, lightly mist the area with water to bind pollen, use clean tweezers to grab the entire sac with its tiny stem, bag it, wipe the area, fans back on.

Start worrying if you see clusters of sacs at multiple nodes or yellow banana anthers poking from buds. One or two sacs over a week? Ride it out. Multiple new ones daily? Consider culling.

Extra pistils on a calyx aren't reliable hermie indicators. Real signs are male sacs at nodes or banana anthers inside flowers.

Your Apera pH pen is solid. Store in KCl, blot dry, calibrate weekly with 7.0 and 4.0, let it settle before reading.

At 1.3 EC with slight tip burn, you're at the edge. Back off 10% to around 1.15-1.2 EC. EC rising with pH falling means mix is hot. EC dropping with pH rising means they're eating well. Let pH float 5.6 to 6.2.

Check for light leaks now and do light defoliation around day 21-28. Aim for 50-55% humidity, good airflow, reservoir 65-68°F. Start planning support stakes.

You're on top of things. If that node stays solo, you'll cruise. If new sacs appear daily, send a pic and we'll decide whether to keep plucking or pull the plug.

 

[THCosmic]

The new PH pen is here. Already having a much better experience after 1 use.

It supposedly comes pre-calibrated and pre-soaked, so I put it right to work. Within seconds it gives me a reading of 6.02 and even after vigorously stirring for 10-20 more seconds, the lowest it went was 6.00 and then right back to 6.02 to stabilize. Much more trustworthy process!! I pop the cheap PH pen in the same solution and it reads 5.63. What a world of difference! I would have been adding PH Up to an already perfectly PHed solution. Also good thing I trusted the cheap PH pen only after it sat in solution for 20-30 minutes. After that long, it finally reads around 5.96, which is pretty close to the 6.02 the Apera shows. I just can't keep waiting 30 minutes between testing when I am trying to PH my solution (if it even needs it!).

Because I am skeptical, I calibrated the Apera and then tested again. Stirring vigorously brought it to 6.02, then it stabilized at 6.08. Stirred again and it only got down to 6.04, then right back to 6.08. I am really loving this new PH pen! Cheap pen is currently at 5.69 and making its very slow crawl upwards toward whatever wrong number it decides to stop on.

 

[THCosmic]

21st day of flowering. Nothing new really. Still waiting for plant 4 to show pre-flower signs. Still monitoring one pre-flower on plant 2.

Group shot

Bottom third.

Middle third.

Top third. Canopy.

Plant 1.

Plant 2.

Plant 3.

Plant 4.

Flowers of plant 1.

 

[THCosmic]

23rd day of flowering:

 

[THCosmic]

Plant 4 is finally showing pistils. Looks like all 4 are female!

Now just that single lone pre-flower on plant 2 that could end up as a pollen sac. Will continue to monitor it.

 

[THCosmic]

I also decided to take the plants out of the tent and start using the entire closet now. I will start by clearing some more room in the closet. Then drain the reservoir to make it lighter for moving and remove the plants from the tent.

I may rip out the carpet now or wait until after this grow. I have a roll of mylar as well, but I will probably wait until the next grow to put it on the walls. White paint is good enough for now, especially with my overkill of lighting at the moment.

Then, flush the entire system with tap water, drain the tap water, then return most of the old solution while running it through a filter to catch the random gunk floating around. I'll hang the lights from the shelving for now, even though I plan to remove them for the next grow. I will gain an extra foot of height for this grow though, plus 4 times as much cubic feet to make it easier to manage temp/humidity.

I hope it all goes smoothly.

 

[THCosmic]

The whole process took longer than expected. What I thought would take maybe 2 hours, took over 5 hours. Didn't even get to flush the system. Experienced a small leak I focused on fixing instead.

I think the plants did well in the move. They started to droop, which was expected. Had to put a ton of ties on many branches since the tent walls were supporting them. Overall I am happy with the results.

Kept 5 gallons of solution to be put back in the reservoir. Rest went down the toilet.

Sorry for purple images, too tired and forgot to change the white balance. This is the new setup to finish out this grow. Got 3 lights on them now.

 

[THCosmic]

Here you go, I turned the lights off for a minute to get some good shots of the buds. The images will reveal a major reason why the plants needed to be removed from the tent.

In some of the pictures you can clearly see light burn. With no more height my only choice was to remove the plants from the tent. Hanging the lights from the closet shelf gives me an extra foot or so.

 

[THCosmic]

25th day of flowering. I spread out all the branches. The plants now take up a 2'x4' area, double the tent.

 

[THCosmic]

Just finished spreading out the buds even more. The center was way too crowded. Also did some defoliation.

 

[THCosmic]

Just got hooked up with ten 7 gallon buckets for free. These will be used to create five mobile RDWC systems for my next grow.

Each system will contain two 7 gallon buckets on plant caddies connected by 1" bulkheads and a union fitting (easy disassembly for cleaning).

I want to be able to move the plants around individually. Depending on the length of my air hose I should be able to move them about 1-2 feet in any direction as well as rotate up to 180 degrees in either direction.

 

[THCosmic]

27th day of flowering. The pre-flower on plant 2 that I have been monitoring finally has pistils. I have not noticed any other male-looking nodes. So far everything is going great!

Still spreading out the plants and evenly distributing the bud sites. Will continue to do this throughout the weekend and then should have them evenly spaced.

 

[THCosmic]

Flowering week 5 day 1:

Buds on plant 1 are starting to get fatter.

 

[THCosmic]

Flowering week 5 day 4:

Got some good pics with the lights off this time. Added an under canopy light since it was not in use. The buds continue to fatten up. Plant 1 is starting to smell faintly. I can get a really good whiff of sweet pine if I run my fingers on a sugar leaf.

Group shots.

Closeup of buds.