My self made 12-plant DWC system - Critical Kush strain

Here is a vid of my DWC system. The first vid was shot during the veg cycle, about a week before switching. The second vid was just shot today, one week into the flower cycle.



My system:



- 400watt mh, going to be switched out to hps within the next week.

- 2x 27gal storage containers from Lowes or Depot for around $12. Very heavy black plastic with YELLOW tops that I sprayed with a primer to make it so the light did not penetrate the yellow plastic.

- I have two 60-gal air pumps with two outlets (each outlet feeding a separate reservoir in case one pump goes out, neither reservoir is without air. I have had hit happen once and nearly lost a plant in "the learning curve")

- Right now we have low humidity and I have just one fan circulating air over the plants. It is mid winter, so the temps are maintained by using the night air and an cool tube around the light.

- 2x fountain pumps, forget how many gpm it is, but it was $13 on amazon. Once in each reservoir connected to a 1/2"ID tube feeding water to the top lid which fills until it spills over the 3.75" net pots

- Veg stage was done with ~600-800ppm floranova grow fert among other nutes.

- Flower is being done with Fox Farm big bloom and tiger bloom. I will run around 800ppm in the beginning and will increase as the plants desire. I take readings of the ppm to see if the plants are taking more water than nutes or more nutes than water. And I adjust the next feeding based on the last finding.





And here are the vids:



http://youtu.be/oUG5NSfGmqU





http://youtu.be/slVrxnXQodQ





mrgrowguy

Interesting to say the least. Are you concerned about algae blooms on the lid?

Bucees said:

Interesting to say the least. Are you concerned about algae blooms on the lid?

Click to expand...

Hi there. Yes, I am worried about it. And this is a trial run, but I have been practicing preventative maintenance.

I started to get a build up of something that concerned me at first. So I satrted doing more searching of relevant forum posts from all over and I took a few measures which I will get into in a sec. I first wanted to know if what I had was algae or bacterial build up. After a few partial water changes I noticed that the Floranova Grow that I was using was leaving deposits of whatever is in their mix. I used a turkey baster and was able to maintain the sediment pretty easily. Nothing was growing on the lid, just little dust-pile like grouping. So the first thing I did was throw a very light, just-in-case, dose of h2o2. I then cut out a template from a roll of mylar that I had laying around. I was able to cut off most of the light to the top of the lid while the plants were still small. But now that they are large enough to have a decently dense canopy. I leave that covering off and I have not had any problems with algae to date. A lot of little things, including using some black tape to cover the clear tube from the fountain pumps, went a long way... so far.

But, yes. I do worry about algae, and powdery mildew, and mites, and beetles, and many other things. But I am actually glad you asked about it because if I ever had any advice to give it would be to act now to prevent what may happen next. During the veg cycle, I hit the plants with bug spray every few weeks to a month and never during flower. I keep a circulating fan at all times to help with PMD and I use a systemic, Eagle 20, during veg right after they get their roots from clone. This way the process of veg to flower takes just the right amount of time for the systemic to become ineffective. This is when you have to be very careful about the circulation because those big buds aspirate a lot of water. I also spray the immediate area around my "closet grow" for bugs as a barrier. And on top of that, I regularly spray the ENTIRE perimeter of my house to also help minimize the intruding insects. The wife likes the benefit/side-effect of having a relatively bug free house. I keep as many piles of "stuff" away and not touching my house as I can.

Last grow I was unfortunate enough to push my 5-gal DWC bucket over the silicone air tube and put a huge gash in the tube. But I didn't see it and only noticed two days later as I came back to check the PH. Two plants were affected because the air pump has two outlets and both of them stopped pushing air into each respective bucket. There was definite root rot, but I was able to save one plant, which was stunted for sure, but still put out DELICIOUS buds. And the second plant was not so lucky. It still finished, but I use those buds for blunt weed. The ironic part is that that plant was actually the best genetic of the four genes of which I ran that grow. And it is the gene that I chose to clone and fill THIS grow with entirely. But it is Critical Kush, grown from seed ordered from a reliable source. It is a cross between OG-Kush and Critical mass. The stunted plant that put out great buds was Critical #47 which is a cross between AK-47 and Critical Mass. Given the awards the Critical Kush has had AND the experience I had with it, I chose the Critical Kush as the gene for this run. While I was vegging the four different plants last grow, I noticed the critical kush was growing stronger, denser, and generally superior to all of the other plants. It was very unfortunate that was the plant that was hit so hard with the air pump issue.

As a result, I now have two main buckets and two 60-gal air pumps and each pump feeds BOTH reservoirs just-in-case one pump goes out completely, the other will feed both reservoirs. Even if both pumps went out, the dropping of the water from lid to basin, would create enough o2 to cover the plants needs long enough.

Sorry for such a long winded response.

mrgowguy

Looks like you have everything well under control. Please post updates. I am curious how this system pans out for you. Good luck!

Here is an update, day 25 of flower. I saw the slightest bit of algae starting in the tube coming from the water pump and decided I would rather not fight the battle for the next 6 weeks and just turned the pumps off. The real reason I ran the pumps was so I didn't have to feed the clones by hand nor did I want to have to mix so much nute water to fill the 27 gallon reservoirs while I waited for the roots to break the water surface. So off they went. It worked great for what I initially intended it for. The plants are SUPER healthy right now, great root development. If I pinch a lobe of a leaf off and look at it under normal light, the green is dark and vibrant. The undersides look like satin. No browning, no burnt leaf tips. Faster nug development than previous grows.

I have been maintaining around 800 or so ppm. I find that if I put any more in there, the plants take more water than nutes and cause the ppm to raise. PH has been a stead 5.8 the whole trip so far, I have not been getting much of a PH swing at all. The most it has fluxed is from 5.8 to 6.0.

http://youtu.be/dxOgF6qlPHs

update

day 55

http://youtu.be/HcpBcgG7tJ4

Thanks for the tips.

I feel my problem with this one was that I let them get a few inches too big when vegging. I lost track and flipped to 12/12 a few days later than I wanted to and now I can see my error. I meant to have much smaller (in height) plants. My next grow I will start them at 8-10inches instead of 12-15inches. But I love how these buds are coming out. They are VERY nice up close. The nugs are fairly large for an OG Kush related strain but not huge. Though they are ultra dense. The upper colas are weighty! And they smell like musky socks - delicious. When you rub the leaf ends and smell the resin on your fingers, it has that OG-Kush hash smell. Very sweet/lemon. Right now the trichomes are milky (nearly 100%), so a few days still to go.

I'm also adding a picture of my next grow. Clones from this gene.

Looks great! Last Run I did was CC and it was as usual great! I used the same tote as u but put a 6" deep tote in top and circulate from bottom to top continuously. I get power outages here and the plants do great even after 24 hours they do ok. I always veg for 20-25 days due to height issues as well. I am doing a Kosher run now! Great job!!!

http://youtu.be/V-zO0uPZe08

waterdawg said:

Looks great! Last Run I did was CC and it was as usual great! I used the same tote as u but put a 6" deep tote in top and circulate from bottom to top continuously. I get power outages here and the plants do great even after 24 hours they do ok. I always veg for 20-25 days due to height issues as well. I am doing a Kosher run now! Great job!!!

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I tried growing a Kosher plant but it hermied right away. I only bought one seed and it did not make it very long into flower, I wish it had, it was a great looking plant.

Oh no!! I've stressed the hell out of these!!! Two weeks in to 12 and so far so good!!! I can only hope, but yes they look nice.