Δ9-THC's closet 4 bucket DWC

[Truth]

you are allowing airflow over your light yes, but not your plants..the more airflow you put on the plants themselves, the better off they will be. plants expel water and other things into the air, and over time these can build up. Water evaporation can also cause this in hydro.

 

[Δ9-THC]

I cut a hole in the top of my cabinet and added a blower to exhaust some of the air. With all the windows open in the room I was able to get the RH down to 65%. This should work for now hopefully. Now I just need to build a carbon scrubber to put on the end of the blower.

 

[Δ9-THC]

Had to post some pics... startin to get some sugar

Had to post some pics... startin to get some sugar








In the last photo, it's plain to see that the plant on the right hand side is struggling a bit. Should I try to add more lights, or just keep the light beefing up the two in the middle? I'm going to move the reflector up a bit so that it gets better spread onto the plants. I started building a carbon scrubber last night out of a cardboard box. It's a huge joke, so we'll see if it works .

 

[Guest]

Hi Delta......

Hi Delta......

Plants are looking really nice. Hell if they are doing great I wouldn't worry too much. You must be in a humid area and not need much heating. It is very dry in my area and have to work to keep humidity up to 60s and 50s.

Wish I could think of a way to help but can't think of anything that does take lots of energy except the silica that rule suggested. Seems like it would take alot to drop RH in a grow cab. If you are not using CO2 you could vent some of the hot air from the light into the cab since you are going to add an exhaust anyway. Even some up at the top above the light would help drop the humidity and then draw it out through the exhaust. Any heating and cooling would drop RH but just pulling more air in probably won't do much due to your high humidity out of the box.

Are you using a MH or HPS lamp. From the pics it looks like MH? Just wondering?

Peace

 

[Truth]

Yeah, you can definitely see the reason why the other is staying smaller than the others... it is not getting enough light, the other plants are shading it. What is your growth area? can't you place the lights in the center, and still have light reach all the plants? Raising the light a little more will allow for more coverage area, but less intensity... if you throw something else reflective on the other side of the plants, across from the wall.. this will help you counteract that loss of intensity. You should consider growing in a box of some sort, and add reflectives on all sides. maximize your light potential.

"but just pulling more air in probably won't do much due to your high humidity out of the box."

more airflow = less humidity.


what are your temps/rh like at the tops of the plants? bottom? in rest of room away from light?

 

[Guest]

Truth.......

Truth.......

More Airflow does not equal less humidity.

If the humidity outside the box is 63% and the humidity inside the box/grow area is 65% pulling more 63% humidity air around the plants does not decrease the humidity but like 3%..... definately circulation and such but just as definately not humidity. If the humidity was from his plants only I could see some benefit but he obviously lives in an area where there is high humidity everywhere not just inside the grow area.

When air is heated it expands and therefore the RH goes down so if some of the heated air was vented into the room it would drop the RH and then could be pulled out. Cooling like air conditioning would drop the humidity to by condensation but pulls lots of juice.

Not trying to be contrary just pointing out the facts. Circulation is not equal to drop in humidity unless the air you are circulating has less humidity.



Peace

 

[70s_PotHead]

I've got the same problem, the humidity where I live is always high, my cab is in the 60-80% range all the time. All you can do is keep the air moving all the time, its doesnt reduce the number but it keeps the moisture from becoming stagnant. Hydro does amplify the moisture in the cab and hydro plants perspire most that dirt plants so you need to keep an eye on mold especially if your growing large single kola plants.
Nice grow and good luck

70s

 

[Guest]

Hi 70s..... Good to have a long timer wade in.

Hi 70s..... Good to have a long timer wade in.

Definately agree that moving the air will help prevent some of the bad side effects that the humidity can cause. Do you have any problems with moldy buds? I am in a dry area so much so that even when we have to swamp coolers going in the summer, I have to still use humidifiers. Hear about but rot and molds but never really seen any for myself.

I always wondered that if you kept the humidity lower like in the 40s it would be much like turning up the heat with CO2 so that the plant is almost forced to process more fluids and nutrients. What do ya think of that? Not convinced but have thought of that before.

Peace

 

[Truth]

my lows are 69F/55%, and highs 80F/45%... avg 75-77F, 45% humidity. I see good growth, but it is nothing like adding co2.

 

[Δ9-THC]

It's odd. I wouldn't think of my location as particularly humid, and my only guess is that it's up because, well, it's winter and rain = high RH. I don't heat my house, so the house probably tends to get a little more humid than most, but I do my best to open up windows and air it out.

Bree: Thanks for the compliments man! This grow has gone so smoothly so far (knock on wood), I'm astounded. Like I said in the intro, this is really my first noteworthy shot at growing, and I'm having a great time doing it. If nothing else, it's brought me a considerable amount of happiness, and from the looks of those buds, there's more in store!

70's: Thanks for the kind words. I've got my oscillating fan + exhaust fan running full time now, so that should minimize the humidity immediately around the buds and help prevent mold. I'm still planning to check out the budget super stores (i.e. walmart) for a small dehumidifier. I've got the same Q as Bree, any mold probs? I suppose just because you have all the ingredients for mold doesn't mean you'll get it.

Truth: Heh, well.. consider yourself lucky I suppose?? Save your $ for things other than taking water out of the air!

 

[Guest]

Delta..... You definately have more in store......

Delta..... You definately have more in store......

Delta--You didn't say whether you had HPS or MH... am guessing MH due to nice color of pics.

Humidity in the 50-70s range is high to us who are from areas that run 20-40 and 40s are rare. The only time it is higher around here is if it has snow or rain but only snow this time of year.

I really know what you mean about the growing bringing happiness. I have not been able to partake of my products for over a year now and won't be able to for almost another year due to personal circumstances..... Damn LEO but my own fault. I still can't stop tending the ladies though. More addicted to that..... have given several crops away now...... not just saying that because on here. They want to try and trace this bounce of internet around the world they better have lots of time and tax money to spend....hehehehehehe.

Truth-- glad you have such a good environment, sure it is a big part hard work and planning. I have mine mainly in the 50-60 range but have some damn big humidifiers doing some hard deuty. Have to replace 2 per year due to wear and tear.

Peace all

 

[Δ9-THC]

Sorry, yup, MH. I'm running a 400w HQI ballast, which is meant to run the double ended bulbs that I haven't seen in the horticulture side of things, but they're popular for aquariums. All this means is the ballast actually puts out ~430watts and overdrives the bulb slightly to give a whiter color (in my experience). The bulb is a GE regular MH bulb, not a grow bulb or anything.

Wow, two humidifiers a year? you must have a serious room going, heh. Anyhow, more pics later this week probably. Peace.

 

[Δ9-THC]

5 weeks flower

5 weeks flower

Hey guys.. can't believe I'm at 5 weeks of flower already . I must admit, I'm a little bit disappointed . Looking at my plants, I'd guess I've got less than 1ounce of buds on them, though I'm not really sure how long I have left to go. I didn't do any trimming where maybe I should have. I didn't change my nutes out until last week (doh!). I don't have airstones in my buckets, only in the res (heh, lazy). So, maybe I'm getting what I deserve. It's REALLY stinkin up the house now, too. I'm being far too careless in not constructing a carbon scrubber.

I figured out the humidity issues without buying a dehumidifier. Basically, I sealed up my cabinet instead of leaving the front open all day. That way the cabinet gets up in the 70's (see pic), and the hot air is then exhausted out the top. I also get a ton of condensation on my windows in the morning, which I've been wiping off with a sponge (no idea if this is doing anything, probably condensation from me breathing at night).

Anyway, here are some pics, maybe my guess is wrong. Hopefully my guess is wrong. I don't think I want to buy a scale though. It's not something I want sitting around when LEO stops by.









Any suggestions on what to do now, besides wait? How long do you think I've got (grapefruit & blueberry)?

 

[ItsGrowTime]

They are looking good but very leafy, especially for week 5 of flower. Have you tried tucking shading fan leaves away to give your buds more light? If not, definitely do it. A flower PK booster would help a lot right now too since its week 5. Your plants look VERY healthy but you probably just arent giving them the "flower power" they need. You've already noticed where you can improve so make a note for your next run if you cant maximize this one.

 

[Δ9-THC]

ItsGrowTime: Thank you for the reply! I'm using the Lucas formula, and so I've pumped up my nutes to 1400ppm, which should be plenty of P and K, right? How high can I raise this before I start to see root burn? I'm not sure if I understand how to 'tuck' fan leaves away so they don't shade as much.

I know there's always next run, but I'm not rich by any means, and that lamp running regularly is really sending my power bill through the roof... I work incredibly hard to conserve with every other activity. I don't know how you guys can do it with 3000watt grow ops. I commend you. I just need enough medijuana to stay healthy... hopefully I'll get atleast that.

See ya.

 

[Δ9-THC]

Woah... so I figured out that my TDS pen uses a conversion factor of ~0.5. If I'm at 1400ppm, does that mean my nutes are WAY too strong??? Could this be stunting the growth of my buds?

 

[ItsGrowTime]

1400ppm at .5 is pretty high. Are you seeing any burning on the leaf tips? Organic supplements and nutes dont generally count against ppm so it might not be too much. I meant a PK booster like Koolbloom thats specifically for enhancing flowers. Adding more base nutes will add more PK but it will be adding more of everything else. That 1400ppm might be evidence of that.

By tucking fan leaves I meant that you just get them out of the way somehow (not cutting tho) so they arent blocking light directly to the buds. Ive been taking 2 or 3 big fan leaves and stacking them on top of each other then using a twist tie to keep them that way. No problems noted. You can just bend them however you can to get them out of the way.

 

[Trichome Toker]

I think the idea of tucking fan leaves is to expose the branches etc to light.

The buds themselves don't use light, it is the leafs that do.

Just want to make sure people are tucking the fan leafs the right way to expose the branches or other leafs they are blocking.

 

[ItsGrowTime]

I think the idea of tucking fan leaves is to expose the branches etc to light.

The buds themselves don't use light, it is the leafs that do.

Just want to make sure people are tucking the fan leafs the right way to expose the branches or other leafs they are blocking.

Ive seen this debated in many threads so I dont think its conclusive whether buds use light or not.
I know that once I tucked away fan leaves to expose more bud sites and get better penetration I saw a noticable improvement all over the plant. The lower leaves dont get much light with big fans shading them so the buds arent going to develop as well.

 

[Δ9-THC]

I tried to tuck in some of the leaves. I don't add any organic supplements, only the Bloom + Micro. I suppose the Micro has a little bit of organics in it, but not much. I don't have any noteable signs of leaf tip burn. I'll go talk to the guys at the hydro shop and see what they've got in the order of PK supplements.