2nd grow: Dinafem Critical - Soil vs Hydro Waterfarm. The race is on!

badgerbadger

Well-Known Member
Greetings farmers!
This will be my second journal on here. After a lot of research i bought a waterfarm, Its been running since 11/12/10 So we join this one at week 3. I also germed two other seeds just incase one didnt pop, so now I have 3 plants to play with! the other two went into a straight multipurpose compost so we can watch as the waterfarm races the soil!
Im using the GH Flora series nutes
250w HPS - This will be changed for a 400w in a week or so and ill have more room to grow when i knock the wall down between the two wardrobes! then Ill be able to keep a mother and 1 veg clone in room A and grow out three in the flowering room, cropping every 3 weeks. and run 4 waterfarms from clones, giving me a 3 week perpetual harvest, yummy!
Day 25 from seed:
The seeds in the soil came up first, they are about 3 days ahead of the waterfarm plant.
I put the germinated seed into the hydroton and covered it for a couple of days, it took its time to sprout, but once it got a root down into the nute soup it shot up!
You can see that the waterfarm plant is already bigger than the soil. The roots are working their way down to the nutrient solution, and a comparison of the stalk thickness. I got what I think is a deficiency (Mg) Ive been told. So tomorrow its off to the shops to buy some epsom salts, will let you know if it worked!
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badgerbadger

Well-Known Member
Hi wyteberrywidow, welcome on board :)
Screen is in, ready to scrog! The two in soil are to be moved to the new room when its ready, so for now they can just chill in the corner.
You can see a visible growth in just one day, and the fan leaves are like a palm tree!
Im really looking forward to this grow, I feel Ive learnt a hell of a lot since I started growing bud last year and Im hoping for a big fat tree this time round.

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badgerbadger

Well-Known Member
Thanks man, really got good vibes for this one.

Update:
My new light arrived! yay. Now got 400w hps on them, they love it! The plant is touching the screen now, time to begin weaving for the next couple of weeks. The plant has grown a couple of pistils from one of the nodes, so shes a she, all gooood!
Bumped the nutes up to 700ppm now, and its stopped the Mg/Mn deficiency that I was getting last week.
As for the new grow room, Ive built the wall, tomorrow Ive got to wire everything, cover the whole thing in mylar and hopefully get it all up and running by the end of the day!
If I get time Ill post up some pics tomorrow, or tuesday.
 

badgerbadger

Well-Known Member
Well, i have got the second room setup, and moved the soil plants in there, yay! :D
They both suffered a bit of nute def. and the lower leaves are yellowed, but they are back on track now. They are gonna stay on 18/6 for a few weeks yet.
The farm is getting big and bushy now, I have been pushing fan leaves down, and bringing new growth up through the screen. Tonight Im flushing with plain water and switching to 12/12 tomorrow, Im going down the lucas formula track:
8ml/gal Micro
16ml/gal Bloom
Im a bit worried that Ive overdone it letting it get so big, maybe I should have put the screen a little bit lower, but lets see what happens...
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badgerbadger

Well-Known Member
Not really much to report, just thought Id throw up a few more pics. I have been weaving quite a lot, got lots of the screen filled, Im hoping it slows down a bit to be honest! By the looks of the main stem it has root buds on the lower parts, so it must be getting a bit cramped in the bottom bucket with all those roots, I cant lift the top off to see anymore due to the screen. The stem is a little bit thicker than a clipper lighter! Pistils are shooting out all over the place, she is a horny bitch! And she is drinking about 5l of water per day.

ppm 900
ph 6.0
temps 28'c / 19'c
RH 58-60%
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WakethBaketh

Active Member
Looks great! I'm sub'd and hope to learn a lot. Quick question...how are you finding ph stability with the waterfarms?
 

badgerbadger

Well-Known Member
Hi Waketh. Stability is good, rinse the hydroton several times to get rid of the red dust, then soak it in ph balanced water for a couple of days, and you'll be fine. I soaked mine in ph 7 water, so naturally at first it kept rising so i added a few drops of ph down, the ph buffers in the gh series nutes are pretty srong, once the farm is up and running it stabilises after a week or two. I use a syringe with a flat ended needle to add nutes and ph down, that way you can literally add it drop by drop. HTH
 

badgerbadger

Well-Known Member
Im starting to wonder if this is going to turn out as well as I was hoping, I dont think I have been filling the screen out in the best way, its such a mess! I have been tucking fan leaves under. New growth I have been pulling through the nearest hole, now its got a bit chaotic, holes are left empty, and other holes have three or four new shoots fighting for a position, some shoots are 4/5" tall, others are just under the screen, its all got a bit messy. I will try to get it as even as I can, but I think its going to be a bit of a nightmare! I'd love to pull it all out and start again, but thats not gonna happen so I'll just put up with a shitty looking screen :/ Lessons learned!
Im a bit unsure as to what to do with the leaves under the screen, some say chop em, others say chop em in 2 weeks time after stretch, others say dont chop em, So I'll leave them for now. But its sooooo feckin leafy under there!
As you can see in the first pic, it's all over the place, lol - I think Im gonna leave it alone for 4 or 5 days and then try to neaten it all up...

Please let me know your opinions.....:leaf:

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badgerbadger

Well-Known Member
I had a PH issue the last few days, I think its something to do with using the lucas formula, been ph levels of 3 or 4, so I bought a bottle of Liquid Silicon as it acts as a ph up, aswell as adding some silicon into the rez - good for cell strength and helps prevent budrot, so Ive killed two birds with one stone! PH is now around 6. Im using those little litmus paper strips as my digital ph pen went a bit senile in its old age, so I cant give an accurate ph but its good enough I think!
 

badgerbadger

Well-Known Member
Flushed, new nutes, ph back to 6, EC 1.8, humidity 62%, temps 27'C
Weathers been shite here, hoping it clears up a bit so I can get my humidity down. I cant afford to slash out on a dehumidifier :sad:

I have trimmed off a lot of the undergrowth, nearly a whole shopping bags worth!
porn:
first 15 pics are yesterday before the flush and trim...last two are from today

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badgerbadger

Well-Known Member
Hi Surphin, its critical+ from dinafem, i got 5 free from attitude, 5 tiny white seeds, 3 popped, i was surprised to get that many, they looked well rubbish, but actually turned out good!
 

WakethBaketh

Active Member
I guess I was heavily medicated and actually forgot to subscribe after I posted earlier. Thanks for the answer haha I'm still in the learning phase and have yet to start my op. I'm excited to see some buds! :mrgreen:
 

badgerbadger

Well-Known Member
lol, maybe get some stuff done, THEN have a spliff!
ooooo yeah, here we go...! Buds are popping out now, lookin good, trimmed some more undergrowth. moved a few new shoots to their final hole in the screen, and its all looking lovely!
I have a bunch of fungus gnats hanging round the base of the plant, if it gets really bad I'll buy some GnatOff, but £20 a pop its a bit pricey. They came from the soil the other plants are in, so NEVER BUY B&Q MP compost, its shit! As for the soil plants, they are all unhappy in the crap soil, I think ill grow them out and see what happens, but Im not really expecting more than 1oz off them.

1.8ec
ph 6ish
10ml Micro, 20ml Bloom in the rez. Rez is about 8 litres...
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