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Darth Fader's 1st Grow - DR100L/400watt CMH/wick/coco

delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
yes you probably should find another unit unless you have a regular water hose connection inside your apt with a drain close by.
 

delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
some quick pics.

the first 2 is the under sink one. i have it mounted in a cabinet above the washer. the faucet usually goes on top of the sink and the volume tank and filters go underneath.

these can be time consuming to install. it will have all the plumbing parts with it but you have to connect to a pressurized water supply and have a drain. not to difficult but time consuming and you will have to contort around under there.

the third pic is the complete aquarium type. it is designed to be hooked to a regular water hose faucet and still has to be connected to a drain.

4th pic shows how i have them both installed using the washer connections and drain.
 
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delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
this shows the inline valve for the aquarium type. you have to supply that yourself. it also shows the line and hose fitting going to the filter. i drain both types through the washer drain.

2nd is the trashcan i use for a volume tank. both filters are plumbed into it.

i have a quick disconnect hose faucet installed on the trashcan.
 
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Darth Fader

Member
Day 18 Flower - Feb 17
- fed 1.2 gal total (0.4 ea) @ 5.5pH, 800ppm
- 6/9 + 5ml Hygrozyme + 5ml CalMag, bottled spring water mix. No KoolBloom added.
- removed a few more leaves from under the screen
- small new leaves on Ch4 still discolored. Will get pic up tonight.
- Will flush w/ straight springwater tomorrow.
 

Darth Fader

Member
Day 22 Flower - Feb 21
feeding same mix ('bout .3-.4 gal ea)
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14 lovely pics here

Day 24 Flower - Feb 23
pH@5.4, 930ppm
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All 12 pics here
 

delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
hey, your plants look great! so, do you think switching water sources helped? has new lower leaf damage stopped? what is the tds of the spring water you are using.
 

Darth Fader

Member
hey, your plants look great! so, do you think switching water sources helped? has new lower leaf damage stopped? what is the tds of the spring water you are using.

Thx amigo!

tds measure 005 ppm and 930 after mixing nutes/CalMag/Hygrozyme.

New leaves look good, old ones don't seem to have changed much (don't know if I'd expect them to though). I dunno, should they have?

I think the clean water has helped. The discoloration certainly hasn't gotten worse. I really didn't flush since I don't have a good way to empty the res. Suppose I could have rigged a pump tho. At any rate, I fed .4 gal straight H20 once only, in front of a regular feeding. A proper flush may have been a good idea ... but doesn't appear to have been absolutely necessary.

They're all getting nice frost on the leaves. That Ch4 is sticky under the small leaves. Distinct smell is starting to come out. I touched an MK bud while tucking some fan leaves & the smell it left on my hand was incredible. The buds aren't as big as others I've seen at the same point in Flower (CJ specifically), but they are really gaining every day. I think the KoolBloom prob helped a lot. Can't wait to dose it again. Bumped up the CalMag to 1.5 strength this last feeding in an effort to push the nutes a bit. I would think my ppms are low at this point and there is room to take advantage, although the Head/Rez recipe only calls for 6/9. Almost halfway there for the MK! Supposed to finish in 60. Unfortunately I put in in back (hardest to reach) and won't be able to go dark 3 days b/f chopping. Poor planning I guess. Learned a cheap lesson.
 

thegonz1

Member
Healthy goodness...

Healthy goodness...

Just checkin in Fader... Those girls are nuggin up nicely. They look happy with the head/rez and your adds.

Have you seen any fungus gnats hatch from your coco?
 

Darth Fader

Member
thx guys,

No haven't seen any gnats in the tent. I do have concerned though b/c seems we've always had them in the apt (in the kitchen mostly) and I've spotted a couple in the last few days - one in the bathroom, one in the living room. They seem to come out when it warms up. Not sure where they come from or a good preventative measure (bleach down the garbage disposal & flystrips?) I'd rather go the ounce of prevention route, LOL
 

delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
hey, darth!

i just pop off the most damaged leaves as they are not going to get better. then it's easier to see new damage.

but your plants are lookin very nice so i think the water change did the trick.

930 ppm is plenty strong, i wouldn't go much over about 1200 ppm on the .5 meter. i've experimented with concentration over the years and you get to a point where all you are doing is dumping a lot of nutes and not necessarily growing more plant.

about bud size, you are just barely out of stretch, so you can expect a lot more growth. typically weeks 4,5,6, and 7 produce the most mass. besides, you are going to get a lot of high quality pain killer so yield is not as important for you as effect.

the little gnats that hang around your garbage are probably not fungus gnats. i've only experienced them in direct proximity to the plants. if you don't see them on the medium top you don't have fungus gnats.

first grow huh? you been lying to me, willis? your plants look great. nice job!

later on
 

thegonz1

Member
prevent that

prevent that

That's good that you haven't seen gnats on your plants. I saw 1, then 2, then I was basically infested. They come in the coco. From what I've read, it's only a matter of time...

You can prevent it by using mosquito dunks (Lowe's/Depot). Crumble 1 up and sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon on the coco surface of each pot (it's organic). It'll soak into your coco over time with each watering and kill any larvae before they hatch. It doesn't kill the adults.

I'm using it now for about 1 week. I added a pack of lady bugs 2 days ago to eat the adults (they pick them right out of your buds). The gnats are pretty much gone now.

You're supposed to do the dunks on all new coco into your garden. Gnats feed on the hairs of your roots and can delay growth. Hopefully you can avoid these lil suckers.

Can we get another peak in your room dude? Let's see how good the last 4 days have been to you. :smoke out:
 

Darth Fader

Member
Day 28 Flower - Feb 27
It's bushy in there. There are so many fan leaves that they're obscuring direct light to some of the lower tops. I haven't pruned any, but I have tried tucking them down. Pics not quite as good as last round. I really found a nice adjustment to the focus settings that worked great, but unfortunately I've just found out that my camera doesn't save settings (dumb). I'm learning just a bit about photography too I suppose ...

Bushy! too many leaves!
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Door shot
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Nice frost on the Casey Jones - need to learn to center the image a little better, huh? - LOL
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24 pic slideshow here
 

delta9nxs

No Jive Productions
Veteran
i just looked at the slide show. bud growth is good for 4th week plants. resist the urge to harvest early. it will cost you weight as well as potency.

i grow sweet tooth #4, which was billed as a 6 week wonder, not by breeder steve but by secondary vendors. i believed the hype and was religiously whacking them at six weeks. it does produce some decent size by then.

i started, slowly over time, because of more space and light considerations, letting them go another week. well, 7 weeks was better than 6. as i got to 8-9 weeks the bud got more and more potent. at 10 weeks it was the most potent i have produced with this strain. i just harvested another one at 10 weeks over on my thread. it's not dry yet but it will be the largest plant yet in a ppk.
 

Darth Fader

Member
Day 29 Flower - 28 Feb
- bumped up the CalMag to 1.5x for the last 4-5 days - I may have neglected to be clear on that.
- 2nd KoolBloom dose today (1 tsp)
- (total) fed 1 gal, 6/9 per usual + 7.5 ml CalMag + 5 ml Hygrozyme + 1 tsp KoolBloom
- pH@5.45, ppm (HG meter) measured @138 x10 (not sure if this is 1380 or 1138)

Didn't have much going on so I snapped a few more pics. Adjusted the camera setting this time & they came out much nicer. These are w/o flash, turned off the 400 w & left the CFL's on + ambient light.

13 pic slideshow here

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P.S. - Thx for all the comments everyone. I read this forum & others for months b/f I got the nerve to pull the trigger, cough up the dough, and actually give it a go. The plan changed half a dozen times LOL, but the internet is a great thing; a vast array of knowledge & experience. It wasn't an accident that I decided to grow in coco or that I chose the CMH. Or to use a passive wick/H3ad recipe. All a mix of - "yeah, that's the result I want", tempered w/ a whole lotta KISS & a touch of experimentation. It was very touch & go at first, nervous & exiting at the same time, but fairly dummy-proof really. Enough to make it look like I know what I'm doing. Now, if those buds will just keep chunking up. Also, I have to admit, I like smoking ... but I love growing. Thanks again.
 

Darth Fader

Member

OK, gotcha! I suspected that was prob it. Congrats to you then. What kind of space (footprint) are you working w/? Mine is 9 sq ft., so that works out to 400/9 = 44.4 watts/sq ft from the CMH. Of course I also have (2) 42-watt CFL's @ 2700k and (1) 26-watt @ 6500 currently, so altogether that = 56.4 watts/sq ft.

Funny, but 2 of 3 local hydro shops never heard of it, the other said he did one big order (bout 10) but never again. It is the "experimental" part of my grow, but there are plenty of nice pics in the big CMH thread from folks who used it thru their entire grow - w/ results that would be absolutely "acceptable" to me. Not sure if I buy the chart/marketing graphic which people use to claim it's superiority. IMO, you'd have to run standard 400/600 etc, for yourself. Although I have no basis for comparison, others who have run standard bulbs love it and it seems pretty ideal for my simple 3'x3' solution.
 
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