600w DR120 Passive-Hydro 3 Plants

[catman]

It's been a long time with no grow for me. I've moved out west and have gotten legal. Been putting off creating a thread for awhile, but it'll be time to flower soon.

Environment
600w HPS on Digital Dimmable Ballast
DR120 II (4x4')
Panasonic Whisperline 440CFM 8''
PHRESH 8x24" Carbon Filter
OZN-Jr Ozone Generator

Nutrients,Minerals, & Tools

Containers & Medium
5 gallon "PPK" buckets with MicroKote painted on the lower half.
Each bucket has a 1.5'' wide by 6'' long tube underneath with a screen over the bottom of the tube.

In the bottom few inches of the buckets is MVP Turface with the smallest pieces screened out. Above that is a layer of perlite that has been screened. And on top is a mix of the screened Turface and unscreened perlite. Throughout the bottom two layers is Sure to Grow Hail scattered around.

Below are images of screened medium, filtered medium, and the hail.

Strains
(2 of the same pheno) Princess Diesel X C99 by Brothers Grimm and Pops
Merlin's Magic tester stock F2 (Acapulco Gold X C99) by Dutchgrown. I was planning on doing a different strain, but transplanted this one unsexed into the bucket after I found out our lady DG is ill. Figured I would take a chance because DG took a chance with me with the testers, and..., the plant is a female. Just trying to bring a lil of the original Magic back until I can give her a big hug

Anyway, here is what I've been up to and where I'm at in short. Transplanted into the buckets 3 weeks ago and veg before that was done rather unconventionally. Temperatures in the past 3 weeks have been 65-80 in the tent even while I've had to dim down to 360w, but I should be good to maintain 600w from here on out. Desert climate makes for some drastic differences in day and night temperatures as well as very low humidity. Watering about once a day with lots of runoff that I reuse while making another batch of food. Keeping EC around 1 and pH 6. Hanging the bulb a lil low to keep vertical growth down while I've been training. I will top Merlin's Magic once more in a few days and will start 12/12 when she has bounced back.

So, here are the strains front & back. First one is the MM.

PDxC99s (First one is a clone from the second, which was flowered until sexed and revegged)

And a group shot.

The bulb circles around while I have the tent opened, but when it is centered, the closest the plants are is 12''

This is something like my 7th round growing and I'm doing a lot of things that are new to me and somethings I've yet to see anyone else try. All feedback and questions are more than welcome. Here goes nothing!

 

[LouDog420]

Gonna be growing some bushes in here bro! Looking nice and green

I'm tagged and ready to start passing the hash bong around

 

[sublimesmoker]

Looks like a cool setup man, I like the idea of the passive hydro, getting the hydro growth without the headache huh? I'll watch this one for sure

 

[b00m]

Nice to see you back in action mate
tagged up for the show

 

[catman]

Thanks for stopping by fellas.

I'll wait a few more days for the MM to recover from being topped before flipping. Started feeding the Open Sesame today and also will probably need to be heavier on the nitrogen in the near future here. Raising the bulb now to get the tops ready for the stretch.

 

[ScrubNinja]

Hell yeah - count me in. Looking awesome so far. Nice strainage too.

 

[Duplicate]

Very cool. When I get some extra $ I want to run two 600s, Vert bare bulb, in a DR240. Watching with interest.

 

[megayields]

Very nice setup brah, possibly (when you can afford it) have you thought about going to SmartPot's 5 gallon? I think you'll see an improvement over the HD buckets. But I think your well on your way to a really nice harvey.

Welcome to the Vert Cult, we got your back brosesph!

 

[Anti]

That's a helluva lil forest you got going there.

Must be nice to feel safe(r) in the med. state.

Probably even nicer to have all those genetics just a (legal) car trip away.

I am envious.

 

[Marlo]

tagged

tagged

 

[catman]

Thanks for the kind words fellas. I'm pretty quiet in most places, but I have watched over all of your guys work. Having learned many things and been inspired.

have you thought about going to SmartPot's 5 gallon? I think you'll see an improvement over the HD buckets.
Welcome to the Vert Cult, we got your back brosesph!

I'm not a strict budget and I thought about getting the air pots, but I decided against them because of the medium I am using. I am using this paint called MicroKote on the lower part of the buckets which has copper in it that stops root growth at the tips. Used it before in the tiny containers that Anti uses around a vertical 150w HPS, but I've never it used in large containers so I wanted to try. I may be new to the cult, but I opened my eyes to the wisdom here a few years ago :]

About the medium and buckets again, what has happened now is that roots are growing out of the bottom of the 1.5''x6'' tube that is mounted on the bottom center of the buckets. They will be pruned by air. There are no holes on the sides of the bucket like in a hempy bucket. The medium drains very well and slowly so that when I water, the water can be wicked more evenly throughout the bucket. Even with less than 15% RH I have lots of tiny air roots not even a single inch below the surface of the medium.

Haven't seen anyone do something like this before so I figured what the hell and went for it.

That's a helluva lil forest you got going there.

I'm honestly envious of what you got cooking up right now. I was just starting to flower about 60-70 plants in a mini-tree pots in a 18x18'' space around the 150w before I tore down last. Gotta do things way differently with the low plant count which is stupid in my opinion, but its a small price to pay for the peace of mind. These three girls all came from beans that came from awesome people in Holland and Cali. There are great people everywhere if your lucky enough to find them.

Well, here they are just before their first 12 hours of darkness.

Picked up some twisted nylon chalk line and fuzzy pipe cleaners for future training. I'm sure its going to be a PIA compared to what Marlo does, but there is no turning back time now. I went with the nylon over twine because it is cleaner and you can tie knocks of nylon around nylon that slips/moves. Gotta try and move the buds 360 degrees around the bulb.

I've been removing some foliage for the last two weeks and my plan now is to take off most of the fan leafs just after the stretch stops.

 

[LouDog420]

Can't wait for the flip bro, they look fat and healthy

I'd definitely do some pruning as most of that stuff in the back will end up being relatively worthless larf (minus the fact that it's great hash making material... )

I'd go nuts spreading them out as much as possible



Good vibez

 

[Hydro-Soil]

Looking good!

Been wanting to wire up some 600's myself. Glad to see you're in a med state now.

Stay Safe!

 

[one Q]

looks nice. The PD99 always put on so many trichs. I lurking.

 

[catman]

Plan is to wait until they stop stretching and then pruning and spreading em. She sure does pack on the trichs.

Just before getting watered and I almost got the 3rd pic before the bulb came on.

 

[jungo]

hey there, they look like small monsters that will get bigger very soon.

about your plan, is it ok to trim and prune during flower ?

 

[catman]

jungo - There are many different opinions, but I'm going to do it so you'll see how it turns out for me anyway.

So here we are at 2 weeks into 12/12. I'm going to stop using veg nutes now even though I was hoping the PDxC99 would stretch more. I can still see roots growing out of the bottom of the MM, but this pheno looks like she'll be stacking as she's budding.

I think it is almost time for some trimming of the fan leafs and spreading the branches around, but I'm going to stop with Open Sesame to see if I can't get any more stretch. OS really helped bring out lots of bud sites lower in the plant and I don't want to keep them too far out of the light for much longer. Tempted to get the trimming started because I'm so bored only needing to spend 1/2 hour caring for the plants every other day.

Man, it is really hard to get some decent pics now that there is less room in the tent. I'll try and get some better ones next time.

 

[b00m]

Looking real bushy in there bruz

 

[catman]

Day 22 Since 12/12

I had been feeding with a fairly constant EC and I waited for it to spike up as a sign the plant is laying off the nitrogen. Meaning the stretch is over so I did the defoliating last 2 days. Starting to feed with Beastie Bloomz.

Merlin's Magic just before defoliating

And after..

Here is the tube at the bottom of the bucket I spoke about earlier.

And the PDxC99s

 

[b00m]

WOW Damn bruz they have blown up
You hydro guys always amaze me with the growth rates and flower sizes you get
Both the Merlins and the Princess Diesel cross look stunning