Hydro - CFL - Morning Dew [Cind99xEndless Sky]

[T.N.T.]

Here's my Hydro closet. Starting with a 5-Gal DWC Bucket. Working with decent size space 3x2.5x6. Started to line the room with mylar, got the major parts covered though some places could still use some lining. The setup is using an Elite 799 5W air pump (cheap aqaurium) with 2ft of tubing just into the bucket where it feeds air to a 6" air stone.

I have this mister water bottle conveniently located right on the bucket.


I lined the dark green bucket with mylar to help prevent light from poss. getting into the bucket. The top of bucket's lid is white, do you think I could line the lid with mylar instead of having to paint it black? (got no paint here) Don't want any algae in my pot.



When I was away for the weekend i threw one HazexSkunk seed in a rockwhool cube sprayed it down well to make it moist, and put that in the hydroton. When I came back today the seed hadn't even sprouted. Maybe a dub? I just placed two rockwhool cubes in teh 6" net on either side, both with Morning Dew seeds. Would it be better to paper towel germ. the seeds and then throw the seedlings into the rockwhool? I hope this **** is speady... i germed seeds overnight with paper towel method, so hopefully these seeds will germ fine.

For lighting I have a 10 pack of 6500K 26W CFLs...to start I am using one hanging cfl above the seeds, and two cfls w/reflectors about 4.5ft high on a wodden clothing rack bar.



I will be using Advanced Nutrients Mother Earth Natural Super Grow (4.8-1.8-4.3) + Bloom (3-2.3-5) Tea. When do you think would be the best time to start adding these nutes to the 5 Gals of water?

And can someone recommend some good PPM/PH/TEMP/HUMIDITY meters maybe an all in one? Funds are limited right now but going to see what I can do as I need meters for the grow! I'm broke right now (one of the reasons I'm growing lol, to save money) so are the cheap hand-held meters ok? And I guess I don't need any meters till I start to add nutes.


7. Please post all of your pictures on this site. Linking to other sites has inherent risks involved that should be kept to a minimum if at all possible. We have both a Gallery and the ability to post as many as 3 pictures with each post you make. Please post your pictures here, instead of linking to them. Also we discovered that quite a number pictures hosted on other sites gets deleted after some time making the threads worthless on our forums. http://www.marijuanapassion.com/Site_Rules.html <----

 

[pcduck]

MariP would prefer you would not link from photobucket, but use there server to post pics. Photobucket deletes Mj pics making your post worthless.

Nice set up and start:aok: But you need to get the bucket top so that light does not pass thru it.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

To be effective, your mylar really needs to be hung smooth. If you cannot get it to hang without wrinkles, you would probably be better off with flat white walls. You do not need mylar around the bucket or on the floor. Also, mylar is not light proof, so trying to use it as a light block does not work. Paint the lids of your buckets or cover them with something that does not let light through (not mylar).

You are going to need a decent pH meter. Make sure to get one for water and not for soil. You are probably going to have to pay $50 or more for a pH meter. You can probably get by without a ppm meter. Just start your nutes really low and SLOWLY work up. Back off when you see nute burn on the tops of your leaves. I do not have a humidity meter and you can use a fairly inexpensive thermometer.

Seedlings do not need any nutes for 2-4 weeks

Did you soak the rockwool cubes in water pH'd to 5.5? I start my seedlings in paper towels and then transfer to rapid rooters or rockwool as soon as the have popped. I do not put into the DWC buckets until there are good roots growing out of the rockwool. When they have good roots established, I put the rockwool in the bottom of the net pot and cover with hydrotron. If you leave the top of the rockwool exposed to light, you will get algae

It is not a good idea to put 2 plants in 1 container. What are you going to do if 1 is male? What is the mister bottle for?.

 

[T.N.T.]

To be effective, your mylar really needs to be hung smooth. If you cannot get it to hang without wrinkles, you would probably be better off with flat white walls. You do not need mylar around the bucket or on the floor. Also, mylar is not light proof, so trying to use it as a light block does not work. Paint the lids of your buckets or cover them with something that does not let light through (not mylar).

You are going to need a decent pH meter. Make sure to get one for water and not for soil. You are probably going to have to pay $50 or more for a pH meter. You can probably get by without a ppm meter. Just start your nutes really low and SLOWLY work up. Back off when you see nute burn on the tops of your leaves. I do not have a humidity meter and you can use a fairly inexpensive thermometer.

Seedlings do not need any nutes for 2-4 weeks

Did you soak the rockwool cubes in water pH'd to 5.5? I start my seedlings in paper towels and then transfer to rapid rooters or rockwool as soon as the have popped. I do not put into the DWC buckets until there are good roots growing out of the rockwool. When they have good roots established, I put the rockwool in the bottom of the net pot and cover with hydrotron. If you leave the top of the rockwool exposed to light, you will get algae

It is not a good idea to put 2 plants in 1 container. What are you going to do if 1 is male? What is the mister bottle for?.

Wow thank you for that. Of the various replies I have gotten from the few places I've posted this grow this post right here is the most helpful... I will try and make the mylar on the walls more straight... I rushed it because I was setting up before I had to leave for a weekend trip. And the bucket is dark green, is that as light proof as the black? Wasn't sure if it would be ok so thought mylar would be added protection, guess not. Will take that off.

Going to re-do the current setup. Drain water, clean hydroton through a rinse, check the seeds in the rockwhool and either remove them and soak cube or soak cube with them there. Will put clean tap water back in...

I don't have a PH kit, tester, or meter yet so I have no idea on that... I'm not goign to have any money for a week or two... I just picked up a new dual air pump the Top Fin XP-60 so now I have 2 airstones on either side of the bucket. One in the middle on the wall and the longer clear tubing I have it go down to the bottom center of bucket. Not sure if it will make a difference.

I got 3 seeds germing PTMethod behind my xbox 360 which is keeping them warm. So regardless of the seeds in the 2 rockwhool cubes... i will hopefulyl see some white tails soon. I have 2 more rockwhool cubes with me right now that could be used. Can wetted' rockwhool cubes be dried and re-used? Curious. I have plent of good CFL lighting and will add some flurescents when the plant grows.

Once i get some more money I will be getting 2 more diy buckets for a total of 3 hydro buckets.

What you guys think, any other suggestions? What about initial airflow its in a closet that I usualy keep closed thats fine till later in the grow I would think.

I cleaned bucket, replaced water...wrapped top in duct tape but ran out so couldn't do it all the bottom of the bucket... i noticed the part on the side of the bucket i taped off definitely stopped most light going through compared to the green plastic by itself.

See image

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

A small oscillating fan will help the plants develop stronger stems and keep fresh air (co2) available to your plants. As they get larger and you get more lights, you are going to need more ventilation. Save your pennies, this is not an inexpensive "hobby".

 

[GrowinGreen]

hey TNT- looking good. As far as the pH meter, you don't need to buy a real expensive one. I believe they all work about the same- especially if you get some calibration solution which most come with. I bought a cheap one for like $20 off eBay and have never had a problem with it. It may not be exactly accurate but it has never led me astray.

hXXp://cgi.ebay.com/Milwaukee-pH600-Digital-pH-Meter-Tester-Pool-SPA-Lab_W0QQitemZ370207901469QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item56321c471d&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1205|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50

 

[T.N.T.]

high guys! bear with me edit new bong!

i have 2x morning dew and 2 other strains germing, legends ultimate indica for outside and ak47Xdoublesourdisel, and possibly hazeXskunk#1 but i cant remember which seeds are which SHOULD OF USED LABELS! Here they are.

edit

 

[pcduck]

MariP frowns on posting images from other severs, they would prefer that you post your pics with their server. please read below

7. Please post all of your pictures on this site. Linking to other sites has inherent risks involved that should be kept to a minimum if at all possible. We have both a Gallery and the ability to post as many as 3 pictures with each post you make. Please post your pictures here, instead of linking to them. Also we discovered that quite a number pictures hosted on other sites gets deleted after some time making the threads worthless on our forums. http://www.marijuanapassion.com/Site_Rules.html <----

I would not have more than one plant per bucket. What happens if you get a male? I also bury my rockwool into the hydroton.

 

[smokybear]

Agreed.. Only one plant per bucket. Any more than that and you are asking for trouble. Other than that and painting the lid or something, things look fine. Keep us posted. Take care and be safe.

 

[phatpharmer]

Lookin good TNT, like others have said 1 plant per pot is ideal, I was wondering where your beans came from Morning Dew sounds sweet C99 is awesome and Endless sky is the best Dr.greenthumb has to offer, I wouldn't mind gettin some of those babies let me no where you got them Bud! Thanks ahead of time!

Phatpharmer

 

[T.N.T.]

They were traded/given genetics, so don't where they originated from.

And I have 4 rockwhool in one bucket right now just to get them rooted... That's why they are not buried in hydroton they are just sitting on top of it all.. so once the 1-2 biggest sprouts are good ill plant them below and take 2-3 others and put them in soil based potting until i can afford my hydro gear or just guerrilla grow them outdoors. Its a large 5 Gallon bucket with 2 airstones running off a TopFin XP-60 dual outlet pump. With 2 airstones i figured this bucket could do a max of 2 plants in it, pushing it.

Its a pain in the *** to resize pictures in photoshop or any program takes un-needed time thats why i like photobucket or imageshack it does all the work of resizing for me. I use attachements usually on boards for images but it has a small file limit so I have to manually compress the images so that they will upload... seems like extra work to me i don't know any other grow forums that do this. But i guess its like that for a reason. I will hopefully develop a good habit now cause of this. I'm curious more about the reasons to prevent linking to other sites hosting images... does this increase board safety or traffic in anyway? I run another large cannabis community and we don't care about where images are hosted from.

 

[T.N.T.]

Here are some pics I just took.

 

[GrowinGreen]

hey TNT- they look good. Nice strains too. You might want to squeeze that rock wool around the stems tighter so no light is getting down to the roots though.

 

[T.N.T.]

Does this look like it will work? I took a rubberband and wraped it around twice to help squeeze them together so the top openings would be small. I will leave them tied together till they have all come above ground and the openings around the seedling are pushed smaller.

 

[smokybear]

Looks good to me but I know next to nothing about hydro! Keep us posted. Take care and be safe.

 

[T.N.T.]

UPDATE TIME!!!

So I went to home depot today and although they had nothing good for buckets I lucked out and got a $5 21 Gal Tote (tub) that is perfect... it was baby blue color. I got some nice black duct tape and electrical tape while I was there. I taped it down all black.. and the neat thing about this tub is under the grip on either side is 4 small holes with plastic insert covering them... perfect size for putting in the air tubes, no drilling neccessary!

So I still need
-Bigger pump and/or 1 set of tubing and another airstone... I could use the weak elite 5w pump to oxygenate the 5 gal bucket, and then use the dual outlet pump i have to have 2 feeds into the big tub... though im thinking i need more pump/air line action going on. More like 4 air tubes + air stones to the 21 gal tub... Thoughts? Will likely cut 6 holes in the lid to fit 3-5" pots or something... then I will only be growing 2-4 plants in it as I don't know if I will have enough light with just cfls to grow 7 plants in a 2x4x6 closet but who knows... I go back to the university August 25th ! I want to have most plants close to finished by then, so I don't have to drive home (2hr drive) every weekend. I also don't want to half-*** it... so I will probably invest in an HPS or flurescent set when I get some more $$$

-The two things I need most that are killing me right now ARE hydroton and the net pots. I will likely order off ebay as the closet hydro store is like 40mins away, but **** I don't want to wait for shipping.. so I might have to make the drive.

-still need to go to pet store and get PH Test kit. Is it bad its been like a week of growth for the plants and i haven't gotten one / checked yet?

-I should start germing some more seeds... I have 3 seedlings succesfully growing with no health issues as yet... the last gal didnt come up and there is some brown/yellow stuff near where the leaves are supposed to pop up thinking it may have got a disease or something... it got a decent white root halfway down the 2inch rockwhool. Although the new germ plants will be 1-2 weeks younger that shouldn't make a difference in the scheme of things, correct? As they will just have to start flowering earlier and prob. make less bud.

That's all I can think of right now. Here are the pics.

 

[Hick]

I'm curious more about the reasons to prevent linking to other sites hosting images... does this increase board safety or traffic in anyway?

have you "read" their privacy policy???

http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showpost.php?p=492845&postcount=7

 

[T.N.T.]

okay about photobucket but imageshack, etc? It doesn't matter what site your own... unless MP is hosted in some third-world country with law-loopholes, any website could be investigated by inquiring law-enforcement... therefore i don't really see the real reason to be limited

 

[Hick]

image shack is no different... if not worse
in addition, any link "clicked" on from Mp, leaves a cyber trail right back to here. Making it pretty easy for any host to open their logs to or have them hacked and followed back to here. We feel it is inapproriate to expose our membership to that unknowingly.
MP IS located in MJ friendly territory..
WE take pride in the 'protection' (be it ever so minuscule) provided to our members

 

[T.N.T.]

Great job Hick, thanks. Is there any way you could change the image attachement uploader for jpgs to like 1mb or something but have the forum software resize to w/e is small and thumbnail? I notice alot of other boards do that... and its a hassle to resize images when VB has a built in resizer (or mod).

Anyways any feedback comments on my setup/grow ?

jah bless