Blowing the dust off my hydro wilmas

[mrsmall]

Hi there readers,
i had put my hydro kit away some time ago as i was worrying i would lose a crop with it and needed to get it right so reverted back to soil,

well i got the stuff out again a few days ago and cracked some greenhouse seeds fem cheese from seedboutique and all 10 cracked within 3 days they are now in the aero propagator.

I didnt want to fuck my room up again so decided that i would get the tent out also that i brought and never used!
It was only cause my end yield was only 1 and half kilo out of 28 plants and 2400 watt of lights that i decided to go with the tent,
the tent is a 2.4 metre by 2metre wide and long by 2 metre high.
I got 2 parabolic shades with 2 cool tubes that i wont be connecting as its freezing here in Antarctica right now.

I have the big wilma 8's 2 of them to go in here to make 20 plants in all. i moddified very small to add 2 extra pots to the centre trays making them 10's rather then 8's
but i have dropped pot sizes down to 5 litre from 15 litre, (anyone think this will affect yield?)
I guessing as i only gonna veg for 2-3 weeks the pot size shouldnt matter but advice sort on this.

couple of pics for the viewers, and i hope to update,, bit by bit
i am runing with 4x600watt digtal ballasts, with canna aqua. A 8inch filter into the room with window open for fresh air.
Have started first 10 and hope another 10 seeds will arrive soon, if not i shall have to take cuttings or run the ten
lets begin

 

[mrsmall]

When i said i wouldnt be running the cool lights i meant the air, i wont be running the air but will be running the lights, i dont think it will get to hot in here,
winter be here.

 

[ThePizzaMan]

Very cool! Tagged!


That is a huge tent BTW..I like it!

 

[Korngut]

nice man. winter here too, one less thing to worry bout best of luck

 

[Opus53]

looks good man, im in for the trip

 

[mrsmall]

Its been a week an a day and the plants are gaining rather fast,
I got another 10 seeds cracked and I transplanted them into the 5 litre clay pebble pots today,
I also have put the 400 watt on the dig ballast over the first 10 plants from last week as i needed the 200w for the new seedlings, i have ordered another 200w to veg them with.
Will get pictures tomorrow.
I will keep posting and reading back here as my reference on this grow.
Cheers all

 

[mrsmall]

Well what a difference a week makes, i got another 200w light to veg the 10 new seedlings, they look tiny!

Only 4 days from being a seed they were ready to put into the pebbles, so now i got total 20 cheese,

I had the 400w light on the established side for a couple of days while waiting for the 200w to turn up but i must admit it was getting hot in there, i am going to have to make a plan as to where to vent to, with the window open the room will still get stuffy with heat i reakon, anyway another 2-3 weeks more an should be ready to turn to the 2400w on 12/12,

 

[mrsmall]

10 days has passed tomorrow I will change the res for first time as the plants seem a little stunted for the amount of time they have been in veg, the first batch of seedling are now under 600w dimmable on 400w while i await time to switch with the newer batch.

 

[Mad Matt]

Looking good mrsmall, i know you've had a long break but you seem to have nicely picked up...

 

[BIGGS]

nice setup bro. noticed you've got a tds fan in there and was wondering what you think of it? is it much quieter than other acoustic fans?

 

[mrsmall]

Well things were going so well then the shit!
Had temp problems either far to hot or far to cold managed to iron them out over a few days but at lights out the water was getting to cold,
I reakon thats what stunted the growth with these cheese,
The left side hatched from seed around 2 weeks before the right side,
i have thrown away 3 runts they were far to small and usless.
I had 20 and now down to 17,
I switched them 2 weeks ago today and just want to finish this run so i can get rid of the tent and do the whole room,
anyway kudos for the comments especially nice to have experts take a look...
Hey Biggs as for the tds fan S and P it is the bolloks mate, a lot better then the rvk and the tt's, well worth the extra cash if you want quite but i brought the 8" first and when i got it home it was sie of a jumbo jet engine and i didnt fancy it in the tent so i went back an swapped it for the 6" which even on half speed does an excellent job, only down side is the flooking thing has not wired plug either!
I brought a tt 6" for my loft yesterday an the thing is noisy, i should have spent the extra and got another tds.. now i got to get some more insulation so i can stop my neighbour hearing me in the loft,
well here is some picture update taken a few mins ago
comments good or bad welcome
cheers

 

[mrsmall]

Also biggs I forgot to mention i brought a acostic fan before this tds, it was a boxed square one supposed to be silent,,
well unless you need a hearing aid the thing was about as silent as a shotgun in bank,,,
absolute shite, i sent it back cannot remember the make but i thing its common it had temp control on it but was expensive and shit,,,
deffo reccomend the tds,

 

[mrsmall]

Another add is also i had these girls in a 5 litre pot and my head cracked as i thought they were not growing due to the small pot he he he,, so i re potted them into the 18l pots and caused even more stress an slower growth so self inflicted,, well at least i got loads of decent cuttings for next round and i hope the girls can make a come back to earn their way

cheers

 

[indianajones]

nice lookin setup, wish my local store carried the wilmas

 

[mrsmall]

Thanks for stopping by indianajones,
i would have prefered to have got the nft trays in hindsight as i could work with them much easier, well i not grown for years and the nft was my way back in the day!
I will be getting rid of the wilmas after this grow due to the amount of media needed,,,,
damm hard to get rid of the pebbles after a run, i was throwing half sacks in the garbage one a fortnight,, its such a drama

 

[Bob-Hope]

Hi Mrsmall

Id like to pass on a few tips if i may.

If you can, Go to the tropical fish shop, and buy 2 aquarium water heaters, around $15 each, place 1 in each tank,

I started with a water temp of around 19.c.

Im not sure what your feed pattern is in the wilma, but when i filled my pots with just hydroton, i got far better results with the pump on constant,

The constant flow on nutrients, coupled with the warmer nute solution,plus the extra oxygen created by the constant flow, really helps the plants,and the hydroton.

when i used this method i used the drip rings supplied with the kit and the pots sounded like a bowl of sugar puffs.

I also found that filing the plant pots right the way up to the top eliminates the cold spots that can develop near the centre, this coupled with cold nutes imo can slow growth quite sharply.

I only ever used the drippers when growing in coco, as their design is to add oxygen via the tapered channel inside,feed times tend to be shorter in coco, but the pot gets saturated a lot quicker. Atami mention it on the website somewhere.

I used to start with a ph that was quite low around 5.2 to 5.3 and over the space of around 14 days this would slowly rise to around 6.2 to 6.3, when it reached this i would change the tank, i found this wide range of ph swing far better for the plants than constantly adding PH down to control the reservoir swing brought on by constantly recirculating the same nutrient solution.

If you're feeding on timers and your EC level suddenly starts to climbed i found it better to increase the length of feed, but dilute the tank by 50%.

A Wet Vac and a wilma come hand in hand.

Hope you dont think im teaching you how to suck eggs its just a few things i learnt when using wilmas.

BoB

 

[mrsmall]

Hey thanks very much for the tips bob-hope, i appreciate it,
not to sure if i will runt these again for a while, i considering doing the whole room now so may have to switch to compost to make it simple,
looks like a dust gather or the tip for the wilmas, will see how much i can yield,
thanks for the tips i shall try the pump and i already got a water heater in loft so will pull it out..
cheers appreciate the advice

 

[BIGGS]

cheers for the info bro, i think i'll defo be investing in one myself. i got a eta line fan thinking it would be quiet, but because of the amount of air it moves its fucking well noisey, even with a silencer on.

 

[mrsmall]

Well this grow has been 3 weeks into flower now and half the girls are looking good, other half well not the best i have seen,
strain on my head as i thin the risk outweighs the reward now and i just want to get this one over and start the next as so far 25 out of around 50 cutting s have taken,
i have been lucky as i could not get such results in the past with cuttings,
so i will do the room soon as this is done and also get the vertical grow going in the loft..
had to leave the house at 3am and left the window open for the air, damm froze the girls it was down to 14 in there last night, very cold they was sagging like bet lynches tits this evening
fotos to follow in next day or 2
cheers

 

[mrsmall]

not as good as i thought!

not as good as i thought!

well heres some pictures i took tonight, there is around 2-3 reasonable sized plants,
i cannot beleieve i changed the pots in a hydro grow but i thought they would get bigger! what a nutter yes i potted up from 5 litre pots on most of them to 18 litre pots and all it done was slow the growth right down as roots needed to establish again...
at least my cuttings are well!
hope to get at least 1k from the 2400w of lights
i have pushed the parobolic reflectors right down so the bulbs are doing a vert in places,, these are on the side that i flowered far to early as i want to get them all flowered at same time...
anyway heres some pictures
they are now 3 weeks into 12/12,
not the fastest bud producers these but i can blame myself for that as its been up an down temps, along with pot ups an all sorts