Blueberry x Afghani 1K Trees

[WaterFarmFan]

Hey Rainman. Thanks for stopping by and for your very kind comments.

The waterfarm system is gravity feed with the buckets and controller all on the same level. A seperate rez sits on top of the controller and tops off the system keeping it at the ideal level.

The main drawback of the stock water farm system is lack of recirculation. Some plants can eat more than others leaving you with different ph and ppm in each bucket. You can see the diagram at the beginning of this thread to see how I solved the recirculation with adding a drain bucket and seperate return lines. I run the water pump on a timer so it constantly mixes of the nutrients.

Here is a pic of my of rez/controller/drain bucket setup:



As to your question about whether the water farm system is right for you, I would say it really depends on your grow space and style.

I find that the water farms are perfect for my 4x5 closet space and tree style. But if I had a 10x10 with 4-5 1Ks and high ceilings, I would follow Blaze's tutorial or KBS with the 5 gallon buckets.

Properly modifying the water farm buckets and system requires some work and extra parts, but it is great platform to start off with.

They grow huge healthy plants, and you can not ask for much more than that... Hope this helps.

WFF

 

[Rainman]

Thanks for the info bro!! I appreciate the lesson and knowledge gained. I think I am gonna run the system but make it from scratch using blaze's tutorial as i already have the buckets. I have grown some tall plants for sure but nothing like i envision with this system. Thanks again and I will def. be watchin your finish with these! Amazing!

 

[WaterFarmFan]

Day 11 Flowering

Here are some shots from today. The plants are all doing great.

The canopy is now about 42 inches - They have about 2 feet to grow still!!!

 

[WaterFarmFan]

Day 13 Flowering

The plants are really doing great. The canopy is now at 4 feet (48 inches) and has filled out the closet very evenly.

I switched out the nutrients. Here is the current mix per gallon at ph 5.5:

1 ml Flora Grow
8 ml Flora Micro
15 ml Flora Bloom
5 ml Floralicious Bloom
.8 ml PH Up

Next week I will add liquid KoolBloom to the mix. More pics in a few days.

We are starting to have some trees!!!! They have another foot and a half to grow.

WFF

 

[Don Cotyle]

So the streach is on WFF, you sure got some beautiful healthy looking trees in the makeing!!! I belive I saw some 9 leafers in there!!!

What do you do when the training is done and your waiting em out till harvest time???

Well I go Bonsai Log Style...LOL! I started training today and found a shroom peeking out between some lava rocks =P








Don

 

[LV_Kid]

Whats you cloning method??

 

[Rainman]

Lookin good WFF! I want to do some trees real bad now! cant hardly wait till cooler weather. I am gonna try the GDP tree style like you have yours!! good luck with the finish!! I will be watchin for sure!!

 

[WaterFarmFan]

Don - The stretch is indeed on!!! The plants always go apeshit when I switch to the 1K Hortilux HPS. The were pretty mature (about 9 weeks from seed) when I switched to 12/12 from 24/0. This combined with the solid Indica genetics should mean the strech should slow down quickly. I expect 5 - 5 1/2 foot trees with lots and lots of big fat colas!!!

That is a cool little project and the training picture made me laugh. Did you drill or hollow out the log before placing the seedling in? Looks really neat.

LV - I start by soaking Rapid Rooters in ph 5.5 water with a little Superthrive. Squeeze each RR and make sure they are well rinsed in the solution. I then take my cutting from the source. With a clean knife I scrap the stem about 1 inch from the bottom. I dip the scrapped stem into CloneX gel for about 15 secs. I take a RR and with a knife I make a hole deep into it. I then insert the cutting into the RR and place it into a humidity dome.

This has always worked great for me.

Rainman - Hey bro. Trees kick all kinds of ass!!! It just seems like the natural way to grow lots of pot.

 

[Murphle]

Trees look great! Lovin the picture show.

 

[WaterFarmFan]

Day 15 Flowering

Here are some photos from today:















Here are a few shots of my veg chamber and rez closet:

 

[WaterFarmFan]

Hey Murphle. Thanks for stopping by and checking out the grow. Glad you like the pics. My trees are just getting started - so stay tuned.

WFF

 

[LV_Kid]

Thanks man..Grow looks great, keep us posted on your progress. Definitely excited to see how this pull turns out!!

 

[pokerman2006200]

looks nice waterfarm...
what kind of yield can you expect from the waterfarm system you have under a 1k?

 

[Don Cotyle]

WWF, I did drill a small 1/8" hole thru the log to get the seedling roots to touch the dirt on the bottom side. I'll be training and playing for a while with this one. If it's a male I'll start over with a female clone!

 

[gazcat]

Hey waterfarmfan, im about to create basically the same setup. Im planning on using the 8 waterfarm pack with about 1000w in a 4x4x9 closet.

I just have a few questions:

How do you water those plants when they get that big? It looks like you have no room in your closet lol! Do you simply fill up the resevoir?

Would you say modifications to the waterfarms are absolutely necessary?

And how do you think they would do from seed? Any harder than from clone?

Thanks in advance for your help man I really appreciate it!

 

[gazcat]

PS do you have any odor control in your closet? And is your light aircooled?

 

[LiLWaynE]

looks like you need more room for those plants...

 

[bigbrokush]

looks like you need more room for those plants...

Either that or take a ton of clones.

 

[WaterFarmFan]

LV - No problem. Stay tuned as the buds are starting to form.

Poker - With this setup I yielded just under 2 lbs on the first grow and just over 2 lbs on the second grow. With this hearty indica strain, anything less than 2 lbs would be a disappointment. I will also be adding a couple hundred watts of CFL to the room for the final 2/3 of flowering.

Don - Cool little project man. I am getting more a green thumb and starting to grow more regular plants around the house.

Gaz - You are really going to enjoy your waterfarm setup. I think that is the perfect combo of room size, amount of light and hydro system. With the 9 foot ceilings, you will be able to grow some monsters in there.

Growing in closets in kind of a catch 22. IMHO closets are the best at focusing a light footprint in a given area with the reflective walls so close. The main downside with growing large plants is that you can not walk around the edges to tend the garden. I have learned to accept the limited access.

As for watering, I add nutrients to the top rez and remove all the nutrients from the drain tub. I do however periodically flush each bucket with ph adjusted water to remove any salt buildup, and this requires reaching into the closet and pouring a gallon of water at a time over each bucket.

I would say that the only mods truly necessary are drilling larger holes in the bottom of the buckets and adding some type of recirculation. The larger holes allow increased access for the roots to grow in the bottom bucket. Recirculation is important so that the nutrient solution is balanced and mixed in all buckets.

Many say that adding airstones to buckets is required, but I have done it with and without and not noticed any difference. This run I am not running airstones in the buckets, but I have a total of 6 airstones in the controller, rez and drain bucket. My system recirculates every 3 hours so the buckets get lots of fresh oxygenated nutes.

I have grown from both seed and clone in the waterfarms. Clones are ideal, but sometimes you have to use seeds. The main drawback of using non-feminized seeds is sexing. You can veg the seed plants to maturity before placing in the waterfarms if you will want to use all of buckets. If not, you might end up only using a portion of the buckets due to the number of males.

Another solution is to place multiple plants in a single bucket and remove the males. You must be very careful when transplanting to not damage the roots. If roots are left in the bucket, they can cause some problems.

Let me know if you have any more questions, as I am happy to help.

LilWayne - I would love to have a 10x10 space with 5K and lots of room for the plants, but I am limited to my current 4x5 space. This is my growing style and it involves maximizing the space that I have.

BigBro - Since these are from seed, the only cones I took were to create moms. I will pick the best two plants from this grow to be moms for many grows to come.

 

[WaterFarmFan]

Day 21 Flowering

It has been a little while since an update. Things are really looking good in the garden and lots of buds are starting to form. I have been using liquid Koolbloom for 7 days now. I will use this for another 2 weeks and then switch to the powder for 3 more.

Here are some photos of the progress:













I also really trimmed up the bottoms to allow for better airflow and cut off shoots that would not get any light: