Devish
Member
400w RDWC, Arduino Controlled - Starbud & Sour Amnesia
So, I decided to start a journal for this grow, mostly to help keep track of the grow. I'm growing feminized Starbud and Sour Amnesia (from seed). 4 plants total, two of which are 'guaranteed' to be females and two I am rolling the dice on. The seeds came from Hortilab.
I'm running a 4 bucket custom RDWC, with a 400w MH / HPS light. The system is a replica, home-built undercurrent-type of setup. My grow room is partially automated with an Arduino YUN controller for temperature control of room and reservoir. I'm growing in a cold-climate attic space (only in winter), so cooling is not an issue. I heat the space with the light and a supplemental, small, space-heater when lights are off. This year, I isolated and insulated the entire DWC bucket area with foam and it is temperature controlled with a waterproof temp probe and a dedicated fan. This, so far, has been effective to keep temps in the res at 65-68 deg, while the main grow area is at 75-78 during grow hours. I will post pictures someday if anyone would like to see. Still new to the forums and posting photos. Working the bugs out of the controller system took a lot more effort than expected.. but was rewarding.
This is my second year growing in this DWC system. Last year, I grew some bag-seed (7+ year old seeds I saved that grew awesomely) and some Afgan with fairly good results. Love the Afgan. Made a bunch of rookie mistakes. Started with four plants but only had two at the finish. They were both stunted from an early case of damping-off, which will NOT be repeated this year. I learned a lot last year, being my first grow in DWC-territory. Overall, I was very happy with the end-results from last year. Hopefully, with luck and experience, this year will be even better.
The game so far:
12/1
Seeds were started. I have a stand-alone heating-pad system (in a cooler) to start seeds. I found the best way to ensure consistent water levels is to weigh the rockwool cubes. At 35 grams, they are watered perfectly. Drops down to 28 grams - add water, repeat. This would have saved me some seeds last year.. but we live and learn. Seeds popped up quickly with tap root on bottom of rockwool. Damn, they move fast!
12/7
Scurry to get DWC system clean and running again. Lot of cleaning with bleach, h2o2, and sanitization. There will be no PYTHIUM killing my plants this year, dammit. Rockwool cubes are placed into netpots with hydroton and some other lava rock I had. System is slowly coming together, working out controller bugs. Added foam and dedicated fan to insulate and cool reservoir. The buckets are not bubbling yet, just holding the netpots and seedlings while I bottom feed (dunk bottom of netpots in buckets once daily).
Slowly increase MH light setting from 50, 75, to 100% power and lower on top of seedlings. Seedlings stretching a bit, surprising - given that a lot of people say you don;t need a lot of light during this stage. At full-power, and close to seedlings, they stop stretching and start growing.
Seedlings doing well.
12/11
Added some low-level nutes to the system.
12/15
Start grow log.. yup, here we are. Seedlings are growing, although one is curling, distressing. Overwater? Underwater? What is it? I finally get around to testing EC of RES - 400! Dammit, I have the tools and am not using them! Flushed netpots with PH corrected water and waiting to see recovery. Will lower EC in RES to 200 tomorrow. That was a silly mistake.
Photos to follow.
So, I decided to start a journal for this grow, mostly to help keep track of the grow. I'm growing feminized Starbud and Sour Amnesia (from seed). 4 plants total, two of which are 'guaranteed' to be females and two I am rolling the dice on. The seeds came from Hortilab.
I'm running a 4 bucket custom RDWC, with a 400w MH / HPS light. The system is a replica, home-built undercurrent-type of setup. My grow room is partially automated with an Arduino YUN controller for temperature control of room and reservoir. I'm growing in a cold-climate attic space (only in winter), so cooling is not an issue. I heat the space with the light and a supplemental, small, space-heater when lights are off. This year, I isolated and insulated the entire DWC bucket area with foam and it is temperature controlled with a waterproof temp probe and a dedicated fan. This, so far, has been effective to keep temps in the res at 65-68 deg, while the main grow area is at 75-78 during grow hours. I will post pictures someday if anyone would like to see. Still new to the forums and posting photos. Working the bugs out of the controller system took a lot more effort than expected.. but was rewarding.
This is my second year growing in this DWC system. Last year, I grew some bag-seed (7+ year old seeds I saved that grew awesomely) and some Afgan with fairly good results. Love the Afgan. Made a bunch of rookie mistakes. Started with four plants but only had two at the finish. They were both stunted from an early case of damping-off, which will NOT be repeated this year. I learned a lot last year, being my first grow in DWC-territory. Overall, I was very happy with the end-results from last year. Hopefully, with luck and experience, this year will be even better.
The game so far:
12/1
Seeds were started. I have a stand-alone heating-pad system (in a cooler) to start seeds. I found the best way to ensure consistent water levels is to weigh the rockwool cubes. At 35 grams, they are watered perfectly. Drops down to 28 grams - add water, repeat. This would have saved me some seeds last year.. but we live and learn. Seeds popped up quickly with tap root on bottom of rockwool. Damn, they move fast!
12/7
Scurry to get DWC system clean and running again. Lot of cleaning with bleach, h2o2, and sanitization. There will be no PYTHIUM killing my plants this year, dammit. Rockwool cubes are placed into netpots with hydroton and some other lava rock I had. System is slowly coming together, working out controller bugs. Added foam and dedicated fan to insulate and cool reservoir. The buckets are not bubbling yet, just holding the netpots and seedlings while I bottom feed (dunk bottom of netpots in buckets once daily).
Slowly increase MH light setting from 50, 75, to 100% power and lower on top of seedlings. Seedlings stretching a bit, surprising - given that a lot of people say you don;t need a lot of light during this stage. At full-power, and close to seedlings, they stop stretching and start growing.
Seedlings doing well.
12/11
Added some low-level nutes to the system.
12/15
Start grow log.. yup, here we are. Seedlings are growing, although one is curling, distressing. Overwater? Underwater? What is it? I finally get around to testing EC of RES - 400! Dammit, I have the tools and am not using them! Flushed netpots with PH corrected water and waiting to see recovery. Will lower EC in RES to 200 tomorrow. That was a silly mistake.
Photos to follow.