First Go (DWC)

[CheefaThaReefa]

If a pump fails, which rarely happens, you have about 8-10 hours before things start to get funky in the bucket. Usually the air failure is from a clogged airstone. That is why I changed mine along about the second week in flower on each grow so that I wasn't having to try and lift the lid on the bucket and try and fish out the air line and airstone from the mass of roots. And the first noticable sign of an airstone being clogged is the bottom leaves will start to yellow very quickly and that will work it's way up the plant in a matter of about 24 hours.
For support in your setup I would suggest that you make a frame out of 1.5" PVC pipe that will surround your buckets and be about 3ft. taller than the buckets. Then it is simple to just run tie wire across the top over the plants and tie off to that with green gardeners tape. You won't need to be tieing them up till the plants are several weeks into flower so don't put the tie wire across till then so it doesn't interfeer with your light.

Do you mean 3ft above the the buckets or 3ft from the ground. I went in and measured the distance from the rack to the buckets and its a little over 3ft. I guess i was high the first time or something. 3ft from the buckets seems a little high, but i guess it all depends on how tall they are at that point in time. Also ive been thinking about getting one of those co2 buckets and i came across a thread that you said you had used them. Would you say get one? Im going to put plastic up through the doorway so it will be pretty air tight

 

[CheefaThaReefa]

Looking good here. The only thing I would suggest is maybe cutting the 5 gal buckets in half like I did. A 5 gal bucket can make a man sized bush and this seems to be too big for your grow (with multiple plants). I went to the local dollar store and bought some 1.5-2gal mini little baskets, covered those in black plastic and duct taped it on. These are much more to my liking now, easier to move around, and i dont use as much water anymore.
http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=130529 this is my grow

Thanks man, i actually came across that thread and saw your pics before i even started this grow. I think that they are probably going to get to tall for that rack. its like a little higher than 3 ft from the lids. Ill take it down if i have to and redo the whole thing but that would be kind of a pain in the ass. That rack is so handy.

 

[Mist]

Yea, 3ft. from the bucket lid to the top of the rack.

Remember that most cannabis varieties will triple in size during flowering. So it is better to be prepared for that and be a bit above the plants than the other way around. And go for it on th CO2 Boost bucket. It will work well for a small grow like yours.
I wouldn't go "air tight" with the room though. You don't want the temps to get too high.

I did notice that you were growing in the laundry room. Thats cool that you have water right there. A short hose with a spray gun will be nice when you get to making nutrients. And I don't know if you are in a house or apartment, but the dryer exhaust right there is handy too for exhausting hot air.

 

[norcalsmoker]

mist good info that your giving out.


CheefaThaReefa looks like you have the right ideas and the right help.

Good luck and will be popping in to see how it goes.

 

[CheefaThaReefa]

Alright, the gals (hopefully) are a few days into the third week of veg (5th from seed). The utopia haze is really getting ginormous. I plan on getting the 400 watter in the next week or so, so i can start flowering. Most of the plants are about 12'' tall, so im going to start flowering in a week or two. I dont want them to get to tall because height is sort of an issue, but so is cash. I installed a controller bucket with 5/8" rubber hose and fittings. It kicks ass, i already love it. It doesnt leak or anything. One plant is auto flowering, so shes doing her own thing and is not hooked up with the rest of em. I plan on getting the outtake fan hooked up to the dryer outtake here in a little bit because they are getting stinky. I was waiting until i could get a fan speed controller but i dont want to have to order it and pay S&H and crap. Does anybody know if home depot or of anywhere that sells them?

 

[Immigrant]

I am not talking about you setting up a recirculating system. You can do DWC with a controller bucket without it circulating back to the rez all the time. You use one bucket with 1/2" lines running to the other buckets and you can fill/drain from that one bucket. It will become very apparent why this works better when you get into flowering and have 3+ft. tall plants that are tied up for support and you are trying to lift the lid and put it on another bucket. Recipe for disaster I assure you.
With your setup it can be done for about $20.oo. All you need are gromets, plastic fittings, tubing and a 13/16's inch paddle bit. The whole thing could be done in about an hour. You just drill a hole approx. 1/2" up from the bottom of each plant bucket and then drill as many holes as you have buckets in the controller at the same height. Install the gromets and fittings and then cut your tubing to length. Then you can just fill all the buckets at one time and also drain them by dropping a pump into the controller.
I am telling you that if you don't do it now, you will do it before the next grow. LOL!

Any chance you can post a how to guide for the controller bucket with pics too?

 

[Mist]

Alright, the gals are a few days into the third week of veg (5th from seed). The utopia haze is really getting ginormous. I plan on getting the 400 watter in the next week or so, so i can start flowering. Most of the plants are about 12'' tall, so im going to start flowering in a week or two. I dont want them to get to tall because height is sort of an issue, but so is cash. I installed a controller bucket with 5/8" rubber hose and fittings. It kicks ass, i already love it. It doesnt leak or anything. One plant is auto flowering, so shes doing her own thing and is not hooked up with the rest of em. I plan on getting the outtake fan hooked up to the dryer outtake here in a little bit because they are getting stinky. I was waiting until i could get a fan speed controller but i dont want to have to order it and pay S&H and crap. Does anybody know if home depot or of anywhere that sells them?

Your setup looks great. No more moving the plants around either, LOL.

You can get a fan controller from Home Depot if you know how to do wiring.
http://www.homedepot.com/Electrical...splay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

You would go Plug--wire-----fan controller in gang box with outlet. And then just plug your fan into the outlet in the gang box. But you need to know how to wire all that up. It's not to complicated, but if you don't know electrical wiring it is probably better that you buy one.


Immigrant,
I am sure that there has to be a thread with some pictures of a controller buckcet assembly. It is very simple. All you need are your hose, fittings, grommets and a drill with a 13/16" paddle bit. The rest is pretty easy if you have some DIY skills.
If you can't find anything on the forums I will be glad to do a pictorial of a controller mock up.



Happy Growing.

 

[CheefaThaReefa]

Immigrant, there are a million different ways to do it, but this is how i did it. I went out and bought 5/8'' rubber heater hose, 5 straight in connector fittings, 3 T fittings and an elbow joint (the number of fittings and all that really depends on how many buckets you have and your setup, etc.). All of the fittings are 1/2''. The diameter of the fittings needs to be slightly larger than that of the hose so it will be nice and tight. I drilled 1/2'' holes about an inch from the bottom of the buckets then cut and ran the rubber hose through each hole on the buckets, which was extraordinarily difficult because it was an extremely tight fit. Then on the inside of the buckets, i plugged the straight in fittings into the hose (which stretches the hose and makes it an even tighter fit). Then i just worked the fittings through the holes in the buckets and put zip ties on all of the connections so it will be leak proof. Hope this helps, feel free to ask q's if i wasnt clear enough.

 

[CheefaThaReefa]

Thanks mist. I just got done wiring it up and it works great. Id be lying if i said i didnt get shocked a few times ha. Im just glad i dont have a 747 jet engine in my laundry room anymore. Yea, no more moving plants around, which sucks because i have all this extra space and 5 plants crammed into a single spot, but im shootin' for a little over a lb and they are about to have 650 watts beaming down on them, so i think its attainable.

 

[Mist]

Damn you are fast! Did you run to HD right after I posted that, LOL!

Glad it worked out for you and a little shock now and then just lets you know your still alive.
That "Extra" space won't be there for much longer when those girls get into flower. It is always better to have too much space than not enough.

 

[CheefaThaReefa]

Okie dokie, Im going to start flowering in 2 days because they are Fuckin Flyin! Im going to leave em in the dark for 2 days, then start 12/12. 400 watter is supposed to arrive that day too. Today they are exactly 6 weeks old from seed. Oh, and you can see the DIY fan controller. I dont think its exactly up to par with fire codes and such, but neither is growing bud so it evens out.

 

[CheefaThaReefa]

Damn you are fast! Did you run to HD right after I posted that, LOL!

Glad it worked out for you and a little shock now and then just lets you know your still alive.
That "Extra" space won't be there for much longer when those girls get into flower. It is always better to have too much space than not enough.

Ha, yea i actually went immediately. i dont dick around. but i dunno, i thought it was all badass when i first wired it up, but it really only has two speeds and the lower one is too low and the upper setting is too loud for my situation and i know temps are going to get hot when i get that 400

 

[Mist]

Did guess you didn't get the one with the slide control? I put that one up as an example, not the exact one, LOL. I am sorry, I should have been more clear. But I didn't expect you to be at the store in 15 minutes either.

 

[CheefaThaReefa]

ah, no worries. I should have noticed.

 

[CheefaThaReefa]

Okay, I got the 400 watter up and runnin' and we are taking off into the 6th day of flowering (7th week from seed), and they're flyin' like bats outta hell! Everything is going nice and smooth, a few small problems here and there. But the only real problem is temperature (I have a powerful stand fan blowing directly on the plants, i just moved it for the pics). I have the thermometer attached directly on the light hood about 2 inches away from the bulb on the 400 watter, I figured the temps would read the highest there so i can get an idea for the rest. I have fresh air coming in from the outside with a box fan in the neighboring room and temps are starting to get cool outside, so that will really help. The thermometer reads 91F most of the time (it got to 110 when i turned the fan off for a min), and the lights are about 4-5'' away from the top of the canopy, so i figured the temps must be around 82-86 there. Ill post pics so you can get a better idea. They have grown about 5'' in the last 6 days! But I cant tell whether or not they are fem yet, and everywhere i read says something different so MIST how long does it usually take for you to tell? ha, i know you know what your doing. Oh and I have a few sick leaves ill get to in a bit.

 

[CheefaThaReefa]

I have a few sick leaves on one of my plants. I wasn't too worried about it until i saw similar spots beginning to form on another plant earlier today. It started out about 2 weeks ago, but it got a whole lot worse in a small amount of time. It started out as tiny "copper" looking spots on the lower fan leaves, then all of the leaves on all of the plants started to curl down. The ph got really low for a day or so. Res temps are always cool. I tried to managed the low ph by adding a few gallons of pure tap water, which ph is 8. The fan leaves got so bad looking the last two days i just went ahead and chopped em' off. A few of the other leaves have the same symptoms but not nearly as bad. i will post pics. i dont have a damn clue and am kinda getting worried so any advice is appreciated.

 

[Guest]

ph lockout on active system symptoms show fast. eye the ph and no worry. great grow

 

[Mist]

4-5 inches away from the light is way too close with no glass or air cooled hood. Keep the light 12" to 16" above the top of the plants.
It can take up to 2 weeks before they show their sex so just be patient.

 

[CheefaThaReefa]

ph lockout on active system symptoms show fast. eye the ph and no worry. great grow

Thanks, i was really starting to freak out there for a sec

 

[Guest]

happy to ease your worries

when in dwc is a personal preference to think of "ph lockout" as another term for toxicity or defeciency. when ph gets out of range it's commonly reffered to lockout, so either of two scenario's are playing out. 1. ph is allowing access to elements at higher quantities than needed (toxicity) or 2. ph is denying access to elements for not being in an acceptable range (defeciency)

Looking at what symptoms are showing and where on the plant in question can start to narrow down. (Mobile vs Immobile Also critical thinking about previous habits, feedings, and ph shifts. You were on top of your stuff, good job.

Identifying the symptoms can help remedy the problem fastest by using the best solution possible.