600w DR120 Passive-Hydro 3 Plants

ImaginaryFriend · Dec 14, 2011

Nice thread catman.

I saw a shot of your defoliation elsewhere, and was pretty curious about how you developed your structure. Followed you back here, and saw your early training.

Looks like it's working out well, and everything is trucking along rather nicely.

Good looking plants.

catman · Dec 15, 2011

thanks b00m and IF. They are starting to get frosty and I'm surprised to see roots still growing. PDxC99 smells like gasoline candies, just awesome.

Shot of plant and her roots below.

DHF · Dec 15, 2011

Looks like healthy vigorous growth and stretch looks close to being done , but if they`re still buildin roots and makin foliage......

Stretch ain`t over......so hopefully they`ll be done with hormone changes switchin over to full swellage within 5-7 days and deleafing everything that`s not tied to main branches/colas will help plant energy to divert to flower maintenance at night instead of keepin leaves alive during the day.....

Lotta foliage/salad/flarf down low on 1 of those plants but hey.....Awesome lil setup and wish nuthin but way more than yas hope for outta those girls come choptime........Good luck.....

Peace....DHF.... :ying:

....

Duplicate · Dec 15, 2011

Very cool.

Bennyweed1 · Dec 15, 2011

You reaffirmed my choice and using a vertical 600w bulb. Your plants are amazing.

What are you expecting to yield out of the 4 plants?

I switched to organic a while ago and have all the same nutrients sitting on a shelf and seeing your results makes me want to break them back out. Its very tempting because I remember the monster size buds.

catman · Dec 21, 2011

Thanks Fred. Looks like the roots have stopped nearing the end of week 4 here and I'm thinking about doing another deleafing soon. There is going to be lots of larf at the bottoms indeed, for extracts. I wonder how a second bulb would have affected this.

Thanks Duplicate and Bennyweed1. I have no idea what the yield will be. The Fox Farm line is all I know so can't really say much about it.

Underskirt shots :pimp3:

So my buckets were placed 3, each to a corner like shown below, but I've changed the layout as I'm having to tie up Merlin's Magic as shown further blow.

Now

catman · Dec 29, 2011

Day 40 since flip. Either they are growing very fast or I'm seeing a lot of dead pistils for other reasons. This happened to me the last time I flowered as well. It's both strains and my guess is it could be from the ~10% RH, floor fan, and/or ozone generator sitting on the top of the tent. I kind of wonder if it's my nutes as well considering they seem to influence colors of pistils when they are alive.

With there being roots in the buckets, I've been able to let em go 4 days without watering. I'm curious how much solution is being absorbed from the roots in the water compared to the upper bucket. Or if what I suspect is true in which the lower roots move water to higher roots where the medium will then wick from the roots. I started this project thinking I would water once daily, but I think it might be helpful if the plant has some constant variables for a few days at a time. If she wants N, it's in the res. While there is water in the bottom, the medium maintains a steady weight and the leaf blades curl as a sign of over watering/not enough oxygen, but everything seems grand to me. I can't even get a reading on my RH, but I've heard others report that it goes down after defoliating which means less water is transpiring (leaving) through the foliage. I'm going to run out of Big Bloom which is Fox Farm's most organic nute which I've been thinking helps keep my stale solution clean for 4 days. My tap is below .1 EC and I've yet to see any slime despite the water temp has to occasionally approach 80F. I'm wondering what the plant will do if I remove the roots so I'm going to try that with MM because she prefers less nute strength and drinks less.

I defoliated a little more about 5 days ago and I wish I would have taken off more on one of em. I've taken care of the nitrogen issue, but I'm still going to keep N levels down as much as possible. Gave them a flush for the first time and I'm still feeding Beastie Bloomz.

Doesn't look like I ever trimmed this one.

And side shots of MM

Hydro-Soil · Dec 30, 2011

Way Cool!

Overall it's looking pretty dang good in there. Keep it up!

Lowman · Dec 31, 2011

Your humidity is way too low for starters. I would say thats part of the problem. Going for days without fresh feed is not a good idea either. One thing I have learned about passive hydro....treat it like hydro. Feed every day if possible.

Question....how far are the front side(facing the light) of the plants from the light?

catman · Jan 1, 2012

Lowman said:
Your humidity is way too low for starters. I would say thats part of the problem. Going for days without fresh feed is not a good idea either. One thing I have learned about passive hydro....treat it like hydro. Feed every day if possible.

Question....how far are the front side(facing the light) of the plants from the light?

I'm not so sure I've even got much of a problem, but thanks for the 2 cents anyway. New to the desert climate here, but I've grow with very low humidity for years from the winter air up north. The advantages of low humidity to me are that I don't have too worry about mold or pests. The plants also breathe out more water from low humidity. Maybe I'll be convinced otherwise someday, but for now, I just don't believe I'd get any results that would justify the means of how I'd raise my RH 50%.

Lot's of people grow healthy plants in hempy buckets watering days apart. I'm also using a medium that is probably like nothing you've used. If the buckets start to feel light weight, I water. However, I was watering for the purpose of feeding more frequently while I was vegging, regardless of bucket weight. The root growth into the lower bucket changed everything.

I let em get as close as 8''. Most are between 8 and 12.

catman · Jan 8, 2012

Getting into week 7. I drained all the white buckets utilizing a hose and the siphoning effect after the roots had been in still water for 10 days. Despite having only watered twice during that time period, the water looked free of contamination. Nitrogen levels got a little too low again, but I'll begin feeding with Cha Ching which should hold the gals over until flush. I'm hoping to get some super smooth smoke.

PDXC99 is getting frosty and stinkier.

C99 in Merlin's Magic is really showing now.

catman · Jan 19, 2012

Day 62. Lowered the bulb a little and added some more string because the plants are leaning in.

Marlo · Jan 19, 2012

Great grow Catman. You should be getting close to the finish line. How much longer are you taking them?

:tiphat:

Bennyweed1 · Jan 19, 2012

Plants look great but the fan leafs look like they took a hit on some plants? What is the density like on the buds, firm or slightly airy? And I dont know if you listed it but what is your pH looking like?

Hundred Gram Oz · Jan 20, 2012

Beautiful tent full of dank buds, congrats man!

catman · Jan 20, 2012

Thanks Marlo and HGO. Probably 2 more weeks. I'm going to try and gradually let the run off EC lower while feeding and then flush until the newest growth dies out.

Bennyweed1 said:
Plants look great but the fan leafs look like they took a hit on some plants? What is the density like on the buds, firm or slightly airy? And I dont know if you listed it but what is your pH looking like?

What fan leafs? :joint:

Yeah, my foliage looks like shit especially on the PDxC99 two, but I'm growin buds =] I remove a lot of a dead material before I take the pictures. My pH got a little too low several weeks ago which locked out my nitrogen while I was sometimes feeding with no nitrogen at all. This of course affected my new growth and new growth is still fine although the scars are there of course. I've had this all happen before so I don't think it is from anything new I'm doing. What my grow has in common with previous runs is the same nutrients, very low humidity, plants very close to lights, and a fan blowing upwards at a high velocity. From growing in a very small space I've learned how much nitrogen lengthens space between nodes. It makes buds less tasty and have harsher smoke.

PDxC99 is very dense, but it's not like commercial rock hard bud. Merlin's Magic has larger appearing buds, but isn't as dense. I've grown PDxAK47 and it's bud were more dense. Neither are airy or high yielding strains.

pH from ~5.5-6.2 I use two different drop kits, but I still have to estimate below 6. I know it never was below 5.

catman · Feb 5, 2012

About 10 days ago I started to water daily with only Silica Blast and I drained the run off. Runoff had an EC of 1.4 and it went down about a tenth a day and was at .2 at chop. I raised my pH to 6.2-6.4 to make sure nitrogen was accessible and it might have been too much. Despite the state of some fan leafs, the buds turned out nice and real green and I'll post pics later.

I had read somewhere that it is better to remove 95% of the fan leaf while leaving a little bit on from it's stem to avoid infections, which still might be true. I just had also read the fan leaf stems would snap off and that wasn't the case. So, next time around, I will definitely clip the entire leaf and its stem off while it's easier to get to them with no big buds in the way.

Took em down after 11 weeks since 12/12. Both strains were just starting to purple, but I noticed some minor seed pods which I was anticipating from the AG in MM. The plants look like there is a section in the middle that is missing and that is because I've been sampling them :canabis:

I'll get around to dumping out the medium as I'm curious to see the roots, but my arm is rather tired and finger hash is good.

bennyweed1, I was reminded of what I forgot to say earlier. PDxC99 is so fucking resinous such to make it seem denser.

I took some pics to emphasize the importance of having strings or some way of supporting heavy bud. As you can see, some nylon string and fuzzy pipe cleaners were used. No rocket science, just support the base of your plant and then train/fuzzy tie other branches together.