White Widow closet grow + Hydro Waterfarm buckets + 1st grow **PICS**

First time grower here. Starting a journal to get feedback on my progress. Going with a Hydro setup - bubble buckets using Waterfarms. Appreciate any tips (feel free to post!!)

Seeds: 3 feminized White Widow seeds - Ordered from The Attitude Seed Bank Co. (These are Seedsman seeds). The Attitude Seed Bank Co. also threw in (5) G13 Thai S-Skunk free with my order. Took about 9 days to deliver.

Grow space: 22in width x 33in length x 7 feet Height. Small tight closet, but with enough height to grow. Plan to allocate about 3-4 feet for plant height.

Walls are lined with OmniFlect (supposedly better then Mylar.. bought from HTG supply)

Lamps: 400watt MH conv. bulb and 400watt HPS bulb w/ 19inch Cooltube reflector and 400watt Digital ballast

Ventilation: Can 33 filter w/ 4 inch Can Fan. rated around 148 CFM (this thing moves air).
- 6 inch ducting goes from Can 33 filter to Cooltube reflector then out other end of Cooltube reflector and connects to 4 inch Can fan using a duct reducer.
The fan exhausts the air into the attic (drilled a 4 inch hole in the ceiling... sorry Landlord!!)

Germination setup: Hot house w/ heat mat. 6 in dome. Using Rapid Rooters for starter plugs.

Hydro setup: 3 Waterfarm bucket kits. Each comes with its own set of nutes, pumps, airstone, hydroton, tubing etc..


Misc. equipment: Bought a Hanna Tri meter (measures, PH/PPM/TEMP), PH Up & Down test kit, PH Calibration solution 7.0, measuring shot glass.

***See pics below for setup***

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So I started germinating the 3 White Widow seeds in my Hot House using the rapid rooter plugs late Sunday night (March 1st going into March 2nd).

Instructions said to soak the cubes, but they were already pretty moist right from the package and I read you shouldn't have your cubes too wet. I just simply sprayed the outside of the cubes using PH'd tap water.

My tap water measures about 7.3 - 7.5 PH. The PPM level of my tap is around 70-80 PPM.
So i use a combination of PH Up and Down liquid to bring PH level around 5.7-6.

I also filled the bottom tray of the Hot House with about 1/4inch of PH water and mild nutrient solution. FloraGro and FloraMicro - i brought the tap water solution to about 350PPM after adding the nutrients. This solution will sit in the bottom of the Hot House tray to help give the seedings a little boost. Feedback on this?

Internal temperature of Hot House is around 78* F (using an Indoor/Outdoor thermometer). I try to keep the temperature around 80*F. I'm using a heat mat under the Hot House tray and keeping the 400 watt MH bulb running 24/7 with exhaust running of course.

Lights are about 4feet above the Hot house. This keeps the temps around 80*F. Outside the closet is a 16inch fan blowing air under the flaps of my Closet door. This is pushing fresh air into the closet.

The seeds i placed a little over 1/2inch deep into the Rapid Rooters... So far, i been checking on the plugs about 3 times a day (checking for moisture and progress)

So far it looks like a root came out of one of the seed already. Other 2 plugs, i see no roots. (about 40 hours into germination so far) ***See pics below***

My waterfarm buckets are still sitting in the shipping boxes. I'm too lazy to setup now. I figure i have about a week before i have to start transplanting. All 3 plugs need to sprout so I can move out the Hot House and put in the Waterfarm buckets.

wicked man, keep will be interesting to see how it progresses

Day 3:

At work right now, but I have been checking on my seedlings like 3-4 times a day... I know this is excessive but I'm merely just a little excited to have things underway (this is my first time afterall!). Temps are hovering around 81*F +/- 2. I have a cup of water in there to generate humidity but thermometer is just showing (Lo) for my humid levels. However, this is the reading for outside the hot house. My remote probe which is in the hot house right now only shows temp (81*F currently)

It looks like the shells have cracked on the other 2 seeds and tap roots are starting to form. Going to check water levels in trays when I get home.. maybe add some more PH'd water w/ very mild nutrients (1 or 2 drops of FloraMicro and FloraGro). I hope this mild nutrient solution does not cause any harm to these seedlings. I will be adding the solution to the tray in which the rapid rooters sit over. I will shoot for about 350ppm and roughly 5.8 PH

Day 3:

Came home from work - checked on seedlings. All 3 have now cracked and are starting to poke their way up thru the cubes. I sprayed the tops of the cubes with Ph'd water and poured about a 1/4 in of water into the tray

is this the first time youve tried to grow anything or have you grown before. ? humiditiy doesnt matter as long as its not extreme humid or dry , if the top is on the hot house you wanna be careful when you take it off that it dont change the temp and humidity . also you wanna somehow lift them out cos they may be growing roots. if you need help ask me. ive grown soil (with average results ) and dwc. ive never used nutes before 2-3 weeks so i would say be careful not to over do it. i reckon u will need help soon

this setup looks sweet bro and ww you cant go wrong. kinda balsy going with hydro first time but it could be easier than soil with the right gear. i wanna see how this turns out

Day 4:

Over 72 hours in the hot house and all 3 seeds have cracked and showing little baby sprouts!

jammin26: This is my first time growing. Thank you for your feedback and suggestions! I will certainly need some help down the road.

Should I remove the dome and heat mat now that the seedlings have sprouted? Or can I leave them on for a few more days?

I will try an keep this blog updated daily.

Thoughts:

Originally I planned to use a stock WF setup with no mods and no RES. However, I been reading on the WaterFarm Mod thread and shutoff valves and a recirculating Res, would seem to make maintenance down the road much easier. So I was thinking of buying the WF controller Res. (about $90 with shipping).. or go with a DIY setup

up to you mate but i would go with dwc i dont understand shut off valves and recirciulation. when are you transfering them to the buckets cos you might break the roots if you let them grow to long and too early and it might not grow. i would keep the heat at 81F and a little lower for the roots about 70F. in fact i would put them in the stones then in the bucket and put the bubbles on let the bubbles splash up, soak the rocks, keep water level below rapid rooters , make sure rapid rooters are not too wet , and there is space between rocks and basket for roots to grow through

Day 4

sprouts look healthy. Since I dumped $$$ into my Waterfarm buckets, i'm gonna stick with the system. Seems like people who use these get good results, if watched carefully.

Waterfarms are still in the shipping boxes. Going to have to start unpacking them soon - will look into adding some modifications. Also, going to need a Reservoir for a recirculating system.
Space is tight in my closet and it will be a pain to maintenance each one individually when a reservoir would cut down on some work...hopefully!

**Update**

Just ordered some Drip Clean from GC Hydro. Read on the forums that you use this stuff at the beginning of your Hydro cycle and it will cut down on the salt buildup in your tubing and hoses. As well as cut down on salt buildups on your hydroton.

Figured this would be a good investment to help cut down on maintenance. Also, since i'm only growing 3 plants, I have decided to skip out on going with a reservoir at this time and just individually top off each bucket.

As far as modding my Waterfarms go, I will drill more bigger holes in the bottom of my growing containers of each unit to allow for more roots to seep down into the nutrient solution. I will also feed an air tubing down the Drain Level tube of each Waterfarm unit to provide a airstone for the nutrient solutions. (I was surprised the Waterfarms were not setup with this). This will oxygenate the nutrient solution.

Checked on plants, temps rose to 87*F under the dome! Mostly due to the ambient temp. of my room increasing (its winter here and heat is on blast). I took off the humidity dome and turned off the heat mat. I also opened up one of the windows in my room to let some cool air from outside get in. I will monitor throughout the day to see how the plants hold up in the changing conditions.

yea i feel you bro its 60 here today and ill probably have to turn on my ac if it doesn't cool down by tonight

Day 5:

plants looking good but humidity is very low in the closet. To offset the low humidity i bought a Fujitronic FH-777 Tower Air Cooler. This will provide air circulation within the closet as well as increase humidity (hopefully).

In the meantime, i put the humidity dome back over my plants - temps rose to 84*F. Under the dome, the humidity can reach to about 30% which is better then nothing according to my thermometer/hydrometer. I watered the tops of the rapid rooters and put more water with a mild nutrient solution in the hot house tray (roots have not broken thru the bottom yet). I have left the heating mat off.

As far modding my Waterfarms go:
Went to the Pet Store today and bought a 40 gallon Tetra-air pump with a 4 line air regulator. Bought 4 airstone discs (1 extra) and tubing. I will add an airstone to each Waterfarm bucket in the bottom of the reservoir.
Went to the Hardware store and bought a 3/8" drill bit for drilling more bigger holes in the bottom of the growing chamber. This will allow for more roots to get into the nutrient solution of the reservoir when they get bigger.

post some pics, mon , wanna see how big they are. what was wrong with the waterfarm pump, you could use both obviously. humidity dont matter only with clones. you'll do your head in trying to control it any way

Nice setup you got there. Im, also got white widow on my first grow. Hey I wanted to check out the seed bank you bought from; Absolute seed bank and didnt get anything on google. Is that the correct name ?

says in first post that the ww is from seedsman seeds i think absolute seeds is just a distributor

Day 6:

Leafs on the seedlings are getting bigger. Roots have not broken thru the bottom of the starter plugs yet.

jammin26: The pumps that came with each Waterfarm setup is for the drip ring. Susposedly, the pump is not strong enough for both drip ring and Airstone (which is a mod). So i bought the extra 40gallon pump to connect my airstones too.

I'm glad to here that humidity does not matter so much with seedlings. I was getting worried since I have low humidity atm.

Tatan: The website i order the seeds from are: The Attitude Seed Bank Co.
My bad, I got the website name incorrect! Going to fix my first post.

**PICS of seedling growth below** (still in starter plug tray)

Day 7:

Seedlings are growing. They look healthy. Middle one seems the strongest and is the biggest. Roots have finally broke thru the bottom of 2 of the plugs.

Watered the plugs with a mild nutrient solution - 320 ppm, 5.9 PH using GH Nutrients (FloraGro and FloraMicro)

Also added nutrient solution to bottom of tray for the roots.

Tomorrow I will start unpacking my Waterfarms and get them ready for transplanting.

looks nice man...keep it updated. +rep