Back into Good Water area

[closetpower]

Lived about 20 months in a town where tap water quality was abysmal - nothing I would do worked, algae strikes immediately, had to use more hydrogen peroxide than ph down. Now I've moved back into area where tap water isn't worthless, algae-infested swill and improvement is pleasing. These have 4-5 weeks to go, under 600w hps - ebb&flow and single 10 Liter bubbling bucket, 3,5l per minute air pump, two 30cm flexible air stones in it. Ebb&flow is 25L per plant, 47 liter nutrient reservoir, a water pump that lifts water up to 1.3meters, 600 liters per hour. Water pump is on 15 minutes per every 2 hours, air pump is of course on constantly. GH Flora Nova nutes.

 

[chileno1978]

I have the same luck my water is great, but in general in others sides of town really suck!
nice Hidro!

 

[Desert Hydro]

looking nice. i know all about shitty water. my tap is 600 ppm lol

 

[chileno1978]

Lucky for me now is about 0.2 EC and 6.5PH good?

 

[Dr. Buddington]

looking nice. i know all about shitty water. my tap is 600 ppm lol

PPM is one thing. My water comes from a 200' well. I have a plethora of anaerobic life in it. Conveniently it can colonize the RO filters / per-filters and cause continuous flow of root rot causing pathogens straight into the root zone.
Also there is a lot of fracking around my place. A person I know that lives a few miles from me has enough methane in her water to briefly light it on fire...

 

[closetpower]

A week later - this is where we stand now.

A week later - this is where we stand now.

So, a week later, and here are some pictures. Sort of worried about the skinny, few bud-site tops but maybe it is just the sativa genes. These plants are: Nirvana Jock Horror male X Ceres Seeds NLxSkunk female, first generation seeds so i'm still kind of finding the best phenotypes from about 50+ A1-seeds... all three plants in the photos are from those seeds, and the one in the bubbler is a plant which I think started to flower about week earlier than the rest. Fifth week of flower.

 

[closetpower]

Next time, I will definitely top the plants more - there is some light going to waste, and I think the tops should be more even in height. But, I do think these big trichomes on the leaves bode well for the harvest - also, as you can see I have pruned the branches some, and... well, those trichomes are NOT just for show...

 

[closetpower]

Oh, and about the quality of water - it was safe to drink, but it had whole lot of algae, almost no oxygen and other little things that result from getting your water downstream from paper mill.. A 2-liter bottle of clone nutrient water would sprout algae in 3-5 hours if anywhere else besides complete darkness. And here? I can leave the same bottle into dim light for few days, and it still wont smell of rotten eggs - which means that algae/bacteria grew in the bottle and ate up ALL of the oxygen...

 

[closetpower]

Lucky for me now is about 0.2 EC and 6.5PH good?

That is quite good I think - the "Bad Waters" were about ph 9.0, and about 0.5 ec. Only way to succeed there would have been to grow in soil, but I figured people in the apartment complex might get curious about "why is that guy hauling 250 pounds of turf/soil mix into his flat in the middle of winter?"...
Also, what it is in your water makes a difference - maybe it is just calcium from lime stone? Some minerals? Or, if it is aggressively vigorous microscopic life, willing and able to ruin your growth to propagate themselves.

 

[anon0988]

Unless you're on a pretty large scale, you can always buy gallons of distilled water at the store. I do that because I don't have a ppm meter and as long as I put distilled in (close to zero ppm), I know as long as I mix nutes to spec I'll be fine. Yes it's a pain running to the store, but it's one way around having a bad local supply.

 

[closetpower]

Well, the weird growth in my main plants was because of over-fertilization. EC-meter reading was 4.4... So, at least my hybrid can take nutrients! I diluted the nutrient tank down to EC 1.8, and not a single bud shows any signs of hairs turning brown, so I figure I have 3-4 weeks to go - and if my babes fill out as the are promising to do, I can cut the plants down with a machete! and if they do not? Well, next ones should be ready for Xmas, or new year the latest.

 

[closetpower]

Unless you're on a pretty large scale, you can always buy gallons of distilled water at the store. I do that because I don't have a ppm meter and as long as I put distilled in (close to zero ppm), I know as long as I mix nutes to spec I'll be fine. Yes it's a pain running to the store, but it's one way around having a bad local supply.

Yeah, i thought of doing that. But then, i would have been spending money just to stay in that town - and when my term of employment ended, i just got out of dodge, so to speak. A dying town, where people, ALL of the people, used to work in the now-closed paper mills and lumber yards - now all there are is bars, liquored up losers and amphetamine. So, why not move back where my friends live, and where human beings can do their hobby with tap water? A no-brainer, surely. Water is pure, and cheap here. I understand that a broke-ass municipality has to get that scratch somehow, but 4 bucks per 1000 liters of water? 7,5 if it is warm? WHAT THE HELL people, WHAT THE HELL?

 

[closetpower]

The latest pictures

The latest pictures

So, bigness is getting bigger, and seems like that the bubbler plant is a good week ahead the ebb&flow duo. I'm already wishing that those two in the ebb&flow would start to 'fill out', so to speak, but seeing how their first hairs just started to turn last friday, i guess i just have to wait & see.

 

[closetpower]

Three more pictures, for the full view

Three more pictures, for the full view

 

[closetpower]

oh yeah, and for the roots fans?

oh yeah, and for the roots fans?

like the caption says, roots in my 47 liter nutrient tank look like this. Previously I had fine, hair-root growth in my nutrient tank, and a lot of it. Now I have these are actual, thick roots. So, my ebb&flow is also a passive hydro!

 

[closetpower]

Also, trichomes

Also, trichomes

So, these here pictures show off the trichomes. I Like.

 

[closetpower]

two weeks to go, i thinks

two weeks to go, i thinks

So, like the post of the title says, two weeks to go. Unless i get a strong impression that an extra week or so would benefit the plants mightily, at that time i will harvest them. And, do better next time ins'allah, god willing, and so forth.

 

[closetpower]

so, that's where it is at. These are the largest plants i've grown - the tallest tips of the plants are as tall as me - 6'3". As it is a new hybrid, which i've decided to call Northern Horror, I expect next grow to do better. I freaked out for no reason over the "overgrowing" of the tops, forgetting that they still have 5 weeks to go for 8week finish.
I suppose 9 weeks might be a good projection, and also i will stick air stone into my nutrient tank for the next one, turning this from ebb&flow, to ebb&flow + bubbler. Great Expectations, pip pip well done chap, what.

 

[closetpower]

couple more pictures, to give idea about the scale.

 

[closetpower]

Beastie Boys - Dr. Lee, Ph.D

Beastie Boys - Dr. Lee, Ph.D

So, like dr. Lee says, it's "Harvest harvest time". I should have taken photos of the plants, but i've no heart to cut the girls down without liquour, and also I sampled the buds. No, not sampled, what's the term - got baked as a bun.