12/12 From Seed Experiment - 21 Strains

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
Chapter 3 Update
Day 34

Things are still going very well. I diluted down my reservoir a little...I felt some of them were being fed a tad too aggressively. Next water change will be in a few days and I'll drop down some.
I feel like I'm in uncharted territory for a variety of reasons. I'm seeing plant growth like I have never seen. As these girls are entering the stretch, the amount of node growth is like nothing I've ever seen. It could be the breed. It could be the fact I'm running a 1000 watt and not a 600. It could be that the vertical light is why. It could be the hydro. It could be all of them. These things look like they have the potential to not grow straight up and give me a meaty top cola and rather try and bush out on me.

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I also got my 1st 4 mini-DWC buckets in place. Once I got everything connected I've got a few issues. Some minor leaks near the manifold and water pressure variation. One of the 4 pots cannot drain fast enough too.

Will be replacing the drain lines with 3/8" hose instead of 1/4". Also need to learn about what kind of water pressure regulators I could use. My manifolds have individual screws I can use but I'd rather something I could put right inline that affects all of them. Will be putting some reflectix up for the buckets too. The buckets have an air stone and they are getting a constant flow of fresh water and the run-off returns to the rez. I guess this is RDWC. Whatever you want to call it is fine. I'm going to call them 'The Buckets' The 4 plants I chose were the best of the duds...the ones that never got strong enough and long enough roots to put into the octagon.
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Just a rough prototype to see how they do....
Until next time :)
 

akhiymjames

Well-Known Member
Looking good glad everything is going well for you. It does look like they will make a nice cola and branch out. I believe it is cus of the vertical light IMHO what I've seen from vertical light runs is the plants love to branch out so it looks like that's what in seeing. Man that's a great setup bro loving it should produce well for you. Look forward to seeing more
 

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
Looking good glad everything is going well for you. It does look like they will make a nice cola and branch out. I believe it is cus of the vertical light IMHO what I've seen from vertical light runs is the plants love to branch out so it looks like that's what in seeing. Man that's a great setup bro loving it should produce well for you. Look forward to seeing more
Thanks man! I'm learning a lot with the tubes and based on other things I've tried I wanna really give this technique a try. I've got some modification ideas and by the time these are nearing the finish line, I just might have a brand new one ready.
 

hayrolld

Well-Known Member
Chapter 3 Update
Day 34


Things are still going very well. I diluted down my reservoir a little...I felt some of them were being fed a tad too aggressively. Next water change will be in a few days and I'll drop down some.
I feel like I'm in uncharted territory for a variety of reasons. I'm seeing plant growth like I have never seen. As these girls are entering the stretch, the amount of node growth is like nothing I've ever seen. It could be the breed. It could be the fact I'm running a 1000 watt and not a 600. It could be that the vertical light is why. It could be the hydro. It could be all of them. These things look like they have the potential to not grow straight up and give me a meaty top cola and rather try and bush out on me.

View attachment 3459768 View attachment 3459769 View attachment 3459770



I also got my 1st 4 mini-DWC buckets in place. Once I got everything connected I've got a few issues. Some minor leaks near the manifold and water pressure variation. One of the 4 pots cannot drain fast enough too.

Will be replacing the drain lines with 3/8" hose instead of 1/4". Also need to learn about what kind of water pressure regulators I could use. My manifolds have individual screws I can use but I'd rather something I could put right inline that affects all of them. Will be putting some reflectix up for the buckets too. The buckets have an air stone and they are getting a constant flow of fresh water and the run-off returns to the rez. I guess this is RDWC. Whatever you want to call it is fine. I'm going to call them 'The Buckets' The 4 plants I chose were the best of the duds...the ones that never got strong enough and long enough roots to put into the octagon.
View attachment 3459771
View attachment 3459772

Just a rough prototype to see how they do....
Until next time :)
Looks good Hot Diggity. It is fun how fast plants in grow in active hydro with a big light. Are you planning to trim branches off the backs or sides of the plants? I like that your tubes leave enough space between holes to not need SOG style single colas. The dwc looks like it came together well. I think your testers will perk up quickly. They make ball valves for various diameter lines you could put between the pump and manifold. You probably want to paint your res, or switch to black, and add a lid. All that lovely oxygen/nute rich water can get algae. It will be interesting to see if dwc can catch up to the tubes, but everything is looking healthy and happy.
 

Sativied

Well-Known Member
It could be the hydro. It could be all of them.
I'm sure the 1K watter has a positive influence and there are multiple factors at play, but, it's kind of a classic for people growing in tubes (or similar aeroflo clone like setups), the grow rate and vigor is exceptional. I was warned for that myself but thought people were exaggerating... so I got this the first run:
17.jpg 23.jpg
Had to buy a spreader to put under the HPS bulb as I ran out of space.

During transition they still veg and the hydro veg rate carries on. It's during that time of the cycle the plants branch out the most, so I'm not surprised you're seeing more bushy plants. You could perhaps steer them a little by pruning the lowest and smallest branches from the smallest plants. i.e. let the bigger ones spread out and let the smaller plants catch up with their main cola.

I like the mini buckets a lot. I think you're going to get great results with those too.

You seem to be recirculating each bucket individually... so you can replace one of the buckets with a larger one without having to reconnect the RDWC chain... yet still have a recirculating system... I think you may have just solved my problem. I would just need to create a hole in the larger buckets in which the lid+netcup of the smaller fits for easy plant transplant. And plant mobility is achieved by simply moving a bucket around. I could start with 36 mini DWC buckets and replace 4 small ones with 1 larger, and end up with 9, and keep a few males in the mini buckets... Nice. Ideally the buckets would be able to easily snap on a drain system. Like a grid of 2" pvc... By circulating fast enough the mini buckets may not even need an airstone.

Still got 10+ weeks on another soil run so got some time to work it out but that sure sounds good.

I love how you keep experimenting with new options! Great work :clap::clap::clap:

:bigjoint:
+1 Really nice to see someone just do it.
 

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
I'm sure the 1K watter has a positive influence and there are multiple factors at play, but, it's kind of a classic for people growing in tubes (or similar aeroflo clone like setups), the grow rate and vigor is exceptional. I was warned for that myself but thought people were exaggerating... so I got this the first run:
View attachment 3459835 View attachment 3459836
Had to buy a spreader to put under the HPS bulb as I ran out of space.

During transition they still veg and the hydro veg rate carries on. It's during that time of the cycle the plants branch out the most, so I'm not surprised you're seeing more bushy plants. You could perhaps steer them a little by pruning the lowest and smallest branches from the smallest plants. i.e. let the bigger ones spread out and let the smaller plants catch up with their main cola.

I like the mini buckets a lot. I think you're going to get great results with those too.

You seem to be recirculating each bucket individually... so you can replace one of the buckets with a larger one without having to reconnect the RDWC chain... yet still have a recirculating system... I think you may have just solved my problem. I would just need to create a hole in the larger buckets in which the lid+netcup of the smaller fits for easy plant transplant. And plant mobility is achieved by simply moving a bucket around. I could start with 36 mini DWC buckets and replace 4 small ones with 1 larger, and end up with 9, and keep a few males in the mini buckets... Nice. Ideally the buckets would be able to easily snap on a drain system. Like a grid of 2" pvc... By circulating fast enough the mini buckets may not even need an airstone.

Still got 10+ weeks on another soil run so got some time to work it out but that sure sounds good.


+1 Really nice to see someone just do it.
Thanks a lot Sat. That means a lot, especially coming from you.
 

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
Chapter 3 Update
Day 35
Flowering Day 2

I've decided to call day 1 of flowering yesterday so here we go! I will probably post daily pictures up thru the stretch as I really need to well document the growth pattern.
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From left to right, here are some individual close-ups.

Chronic Thunder
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Blueberry Headband
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Blue Dream
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Sour Blueberry
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C99
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akhiymjames

Well-Known Member
Chapter 3 Update
Day 35
Flowering Day 2

I've decided to call day 1 of flowering yesterday so here we go! I will probably post daily pictures up thru the stretch as I really need to well document the growth pattern.
View attachment 3460771 View attachment 3460773

From left to right, here are some individual close-ups.

Chronic Thunder
View attachment 3460775

Blueberry Headband
View attachment 3460776

Blue Dream
View attachment 3460778

Sour Blueberry
View attachment 3460779

C99
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Bro this is really looking amazing. I love how this is really going for you. I swear if I wasn't a soil lover I would have to build a system like this and run straight clones. I would have to have you make it for me cus I could do it but I love the way you've made this system. Of course I would pay you very good for your hard work :)

That bare vertical bulb is really got them branching out. I love that I've seen some bare bulb grows and most use some type of trellis or net cus of they way it makes them branch out. I wanna make a bare bulb veg area and I prolly will when I upgrade the whole area. Can't wait to see more they are really gonna make some nice buds on them.
 

Hot Diggity Sog

Well-Known Member
Chapter 3 Update
Day 36
Flowering Day 3

After carefully weighing my options and comparing the pros and cons to all of these various ways to grow, it is finally settled and I will be doing no more prototyping. It's going to be tubes, more tubes and nothing but tubes. Had @Sativied not provided all of the valuable feedback that he did, I probably would continue down the path of trying different techniques. But the reality is that I've seen enough to know that this is the technique for me and once he confirmed this, the decision was easy. I've gotten rid of everything in the room and am back to the original 5 sided octagon.

These tubes don't really *need* major modifications but my next design is all ready to go. It's going to be modular in that the number of rows and their spacing will be completely customizable. Each row will not be physically connected to another row. Once this run completes, I will have more than enough data to determine optimum spacing between plants, optimum spacing between rows, and how many rows a 1000 watter can handle. Yes, I'm done with 600's...(Probably). Starting with James and then Nerd and now after the short time I've been using one, I'm converted.

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Alaric

Well-Known Member
Chapter 3 Update

I'm a little late getting started but the seeds went into rockwool on Thursday. Everything is tested and water tight. I've got the seeds sitting in perlite because I need them to grow their taproot out of the net pot by about 2 inches before I can transfer them. Hopefully it works.

The only other thing worth mentioning is a minor line-up change.

  • (20) Humboldt Seed Organization Blue Dream
  • (20) Humboldt Seed Organization Blueberry Headband
  • (20) Humboldt Seed Organization Sour Blueberry
  • (20) Female Seeds C99
  • (20) Barneys Farm Chronic Thunder
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HDS ------major kudos for your effort.

If you're interested, I will offer my perspective of your tube design. Not my first rodeo with tubes.

Again, nice work.

A~~~hangingtubes.jpg
 
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