My First Scrog~DWC~Bubble Buckets

[Bogie]

Sup ICMag
Its been a while since I have posted anything over here. I wanted to have some success before any more posts. I want to Thank Pirate, and Agent Smith for all the past help and advice. Pirate actually suggested a scrog for my setup, and going by his success, his advice is golden IMO. So Thanks guys.
I have one lady under the screen, and she is under 500+ actual watts of CFL and T5 lighting. She will be under 250W of HPS lighting by this time next week. I cant wait hehe The strain is unknown, a friend gave me 2 seeds he found in a bag of some killer KB. 1 was male, and fotunatley one was female. I took clones from her when she was 21 days into flowering. I kept 2 of the clones, and gave the rest to the friend that gave me the seeds. I gotta spread the love right I kept one of the clones as a mother, and the other is under the screen, and she is 17 days into flowering. I am using GH nutes on the Lucas Formula. I flowered the original plant for 60 days and ended up with a little over 3/4s of an ounce of killer dried bud. Not to bad for a plant the never got over 20" tall with CFLs.
Anyway, like I siad we are 17 days into flowering, and the growth above the screen is amazing. Since this is my first scrog, I could use some advice on pruning above the screen. Here are a few pics. Check her out and tell me what you guys think. I also included a few pics of the mother I am keeping.

 

[redspaghetti]

Sup Bogie,
Healthy looking plants you got there, im pulling up a chair on this one.

Grow fast/safe!

 

[Bogie]

Sup Bogie,
Healthy looking plants you got there, im pulling up a chair on this one.

Grow fast/safe!

Thanks bro Only one plant though. This is my first scrog, and this method of growing is awesome.
I have removed all the CFLs, and am now using a 150w High Pressure Sodium bulb. It is a enclosed ballast system. I got it for 90 bucks. i went with the 150w light because i was worried about heat. My temps have actually dropped 9 degrees without any extra ventilation. I would have went with the 250w light if I had known i was going to get that big of a difference over all the CFLs i was using. 150 watts should be fine for one plant though.
I took a few pics after I changed lights. The spectrum change is crazy. Check them out

 

[the Corsican]

Scrogging is pretty cool.

How did you train the plant to spread out under the screen? Do you just gently bend down the side shoots and new nodes and let them slowly fill in the screen? Then direct all the tops up through the holes or do the tops just seek out the light and naturally grow through the holes?

Nice job.

 

[ItsAllOver]

Looks like fun!

 

[Bogie]

Scrogging is pretty cool.

How did you train the plant to spread out under the screen? Do you just gently bend down the side shoots and new nodes and let them slowly fill in the screen? Then direct all the tops up through the holes or do the tops just seek out the light and naturally grow through the holes?

Nice job.

Yup, scrogging is cool as hell, I like it
You just let the plant veg under the screen. As the shoots naturally grow up through the holes in the screen, you pull them out and take them to a hole a little further away. The same with the side shoots as they get big ehough to move. Let it veg until you get the percentage of screen coverage you desire. I vegged for 30 days or about 50% screen coverage. I also fimmed this plant before i went to veg. I went with fimming instead of topping her because I figured 4 main stalks were better than 1 or 2 for a scrog.
Even it is a small light, she seems to be loving the new HPS light. I took a few mor pics for your viewing pleasure

 

[redspaghetti]

^^ Very nice !! They're starting to frost up !!! Soon it'll be harvest time !!! Please keep us in the loop.

I've done many monocrop O/d before, but never hydro scrog, after looking at yours and a few peepz on here im putting this technique in my book for the next growth.

Grow/fast-safe bro!

 

[Bogie]

^^ Very nice !! They're starting to frost up !!! Soon it'll be harvest time !!! Please keep us in the loop.

I've done many monocrop O/d before, but never hydro scrog, after looking at yours and a few peepz on here im putting this technique in my book for the next growth.

Grow/fast-safe bro!

Thanks Bro We are at day 22 since I switched to 12/12 so I'm thinking 40 to 45 more days. Should make for a nice Christmas. I have a nice little microscope, I will let her go till her trichs are around 50/50. I will take a few more pics tomorrow.

 

[Bogie]

We've been flowering for 23 days now and the plant looks really great. I flushed today, added back fresh water, and got everything back on track. The nutes are around 1300ish ppm. The PH is around 5.8. Air temps are staying between 80 and 82 degrees. Res temps are around 70 degrees. When i first caught the nute gain they were around 2400 ppm. I then started adding back fresh, clean water, and got them down to 1900. They stayed around 1900ppm for a week. I dont know how long they were above the acceptable range before I caught it. The plant seemed to love the high levels. No signs of nute burn or lockout of any kind. The leaves got really dark green though. It makes me wonder "how high is really to high" Anyway, I'll keep an eye on her, and make sure she is staying healthy.
Here are a few pics from after the flush. Enjoy

 

[Sleepy]

nice show, Bogie!!

keep it up.

you have some fine teachers!!

 

[Sloppy Seconds]

Looks nice, if you get tired of the 150 watt HPS you might try a 400 watt ceramic metal halide. puts out less heat and gets awesome results. Good luck!

 

[Bogie]

nice show, Bogie!!

keep it up.

you have some fine teachers!!

Thanks Bro, and yes, I did have some fine teachers

If it wasn't for Pirate and Agent Smith, I would have never made it through my first high PH crisis lol. Those guys have lots of knowledge, and they don't mind helping out a noob grower. They helped me every step of the way through my first grow. That is until I had to shut it down due to a home inspection. I have since had one successful grow and harvest. I figured a scrog would be great for my setup, thanks to Pirates advice. So that's what I did, and I am loving the experience.

Thanks again Bro

 

[Bogie]

25 days in and she is looking really good. Not much to update. The nutes and PH are holding steady. Res temps and air temps are at acceptable levels. I would like to get them both a little lower though. i will be adding another 150w enclosed ballast HPS light by this weekend. I can get it for 90 bucks, and have 300 total watts. Or i can buy a 250w enclosed ballast light for 200 bucks. I think i will add the 150 watter. I think i will be ok with the temps running two of them. I am 10 degrees cooler now with the one light than I was with all the CFLs. I may also add another exaust fan, and put in another 4" intake.
I took some pics earlier. Check her out

 

[the Corsican]

Things are looking nice!

 

[Bogie]

I know i am a little ways off from harvest but it is time to start getting ready for the next grow. My mother plant was getting pretty thick and bushy so i took clones tonight. My next grow is going to be another scrog but this time with 2 plants. I will be replacing my buckets with real buckets. They are a little smaller than the 6 gallon trash cans i am using now. i will also be making my screen a foot longer.
I hope to knock the next one ot of the park. The other 6 clones are for a friend of mine. He just got freaked out from planes flying over his house and pulled up the crop he had going. I told him he was a fkn idiot. he lives less than 5 miles from an airport. Planes fly over all the time lmao. But he is a friend and i will help get him started again.
I a few pics of the clones, the mother, and my new bucket cloner i just built. Check it out

 

[Bogie]

We are right at 4 weeks into flowering and all is well. Things have seemed to slow a bit since the flush but the nugs are getting bigger. I hope to get 6 to 8 more inches of stretch by the time we are done. My light is about 12 inches off of the tops, and i am thinking i need to raise it a bit. No ppm gain as of yet but i am sure it will happen. I am going to let it jump to 1600ppm them flush again. I need to learn about adding back calculations so I can keep the nute levels stable.
I took a few more pics.Got a few bud shots as well.

 

[turbolaser4528]

I thought this was your first grow ever I was like wtf then realized it was your first scrog, either way nice clean setup, I would def go with a 400 cmh in your case, no heat to really worry about and much better yields and spectrum and potency than a 150w hps. just some food for thought. keep it up, your friend got a case of the noia haha it happens..

 

[Bogie]

I thought this was your first grow ever I was like wtf then realized it was your first scrog, either way nice clean setup, I would def go with a 400 cmh in your case, no heat to really worry about and much better yields and spectrum and potency than a 150w hps. just some food for thought. keep it up, your friend got a case of the noia haha it happens..

Nope, this is my fourth grow with only one successful harvest. This one seems to be going very well though
I will have to look into the CMH. I always thought that MH was used for veg. Can that spectrum be used to flower with? I would love to have as many HID watts as possible but as you have read, heat has been the only thing holding me back from something bigger. I wish I had known about how the heat was actually going to drop like it has with the 150. If so, i would have gotten a 250 watt light. I think that would have been perfect for my setup. Oh well, hindsight, right? lol
Anyway, thanks bro, and I will look into the CMH

 

[TalkingMonkey]

Been wanting to put a screen over my buckets for some time now, but how do you change out the nutrient solution once the plants grow into the screen?

 

[Bogie]

Been wanting to put a screen over my buckets for some time now, but how do you change out the nutrient solution once the plants grow into the screen?

I have a port in the top for topping off. I have a drain valve at the bottom of the bucket, and i have a 10 foot piece of 3/4id hose that I run to my shower drain. When i refill it, i fill it straight through the net pot. I dont use the top off port to refill with lol.
You can also use the same size bucket for a separate res. Put drains in it and the rest of your buckets. leave the valves open, and just fill the res. As long as all buckets are the same size and sitting on the same level, your nutrient solution will always stay at the same level as in the res. Youll also have to put an extra drain in the res bucket for dumping.