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

they look fine take a photo of the roots/ bottom of plug. don't get impatient

Day 8:

2 of the 3 plants are showing increased growth. other one is slowly coming along. watered tops of plugs with just PH tap water.

Temps are around 78*F during the day and drop down as low as 65*F at night. Been lowering the 400 watt MH Conv. bulb an inch every day. Bringing the lightsource closer to the plants

**Pic** the one with the roots is the biggest. 2 of the 3 have roots coming thru

i think you are ready to toss the 2 showing roots into the buckets they probably would enjoy a very light feeding really soon

Day 9:

Added a mild nutrient solution (floramicro and floragro) ~ 430ppm to bottom of tray. PH of tap water was about 5.8. Also topped off plugs with mild solution (i'm trying to be careful of not overwatering them)

I have to wait till all 3 plugs are ready for transplanting because I do not have enough room in my closet for waterfarm buckets and the plug tray.
How long can I keep them in the tray? Will it harm them if they stay in the tray for a few more days until 3rd plant is a little more grown?

make sure you bring the roots out of the water for a while each day untill u get em over water with an air stone, they should be fine

how are you going to get the plugs out without damaging the roots? and get them into the dwc system ? i would transplant them all now , the one not showing roots will root through better in the bucket anyway. the only thing the hot house is for is germination and sprouting

jammin26 said:

how are you going to get the plugs out without damaging the roots? and get them into the dwc system ? i would transplant them all now , the one not showing roots will root through better in the bucket anyway. the only thing the hot house is for is germination and sprouting

Click to expand...

true i also think they are ready to go into the system. as for getting them out he can always cut em out of the tray. but yea id put em into the system now they will love it.

Going to be very busy tomorrow. Won't have time to transplant until Thursday.

Will staying in the plug tray for another 24-48 hours hurt them?

**PICs (Day 9)**

The one pic with both plants are my 2 strongest. The other pic with the single plant is the slower one.

they will be fine just make sure to not damage the roots when you are cutting them out of that tray. they will stay alive for some time in the plugs but they will boom under in a system that keeps feeding oxygenated water. roots love oxygen!

Day 12: (Transplant day!)

Today is the day I transplant my plugs into my Waterfarm units.

I started by washing/cleaning the bags of Hydroton in my bathtub. I poked numerous holes all around the bag they came in and ran hot water several times thru the bags until the water coming out of the holes was clear.
BTW, this will leave a mess in your tube (See pic**)

Next, I worked on modding my Waterfarms. 1st mod was to add more bigger holes to the bottom of the growing chambers of the Waterfarms. The extra bigger holes will allow more roots to pass thru into the nutrient solution in the reservoir. I used a 3/8th's drill bit. (See Pic** for comparison between stock growing chamber on left and modified one on right)

2nd mod was to add an Air Stone to the reservoirs of the Waterfarm units. This will provide extra oxygen in the nutrient solution. I ran the hose to the airstone thru one of the holes i drilled in the bottom of the growing chamber. I secured the hose using a wire tie to the pumping column. (See Pic***)

My plan was to use (1) 40gal air pump and use an air regulator to run 3 airstones off it. However, I underestimated the strength of the pump and can only connect 1 air stone to it. (Tetra Whisper pump)

I will have to goto the Pet Store and pickup another 2 pumps or 1 more dual pump for the other 2 air stones. BTW, the air stones are disks... but weren't putting out alot of bubbles it seems. May look into getting a bar-type air stone (might increase air bubbles)

Nutrient solution I followed using GH's feeding schedule. (mild growth, week 2) I reached an approx. ppm of 300-350 and PH of 5.8 for my buckets. Finally, I added Drip Clean to the nutrient solution (this is suppose to help keep my hoses unclogged from mineral buildup)

Was careful when removing plugs from tray - made a cut on the side of the tray insert so that I could easily grab ahold of the plug and gently pull it out.. making sure roots are not geting stuck when removing from tray.

Today, my Air purifier/fan/humidifier (all in one unit) arrives. I will install this in my closet to provide extra air circulation and increase humidity.

See Pics below - show all 3 plants in Waterfarm units. 2 of them are growing fast, one is a little behind.

**Update**

checked on plants in new system, seems that the drip ring is causing slight splash-up on the leafs of the plants and my walls. I guess this is okay. Although, I heard with HPS bulbs that water on leafs can cause them to burn. I'm using my 400watt MH Conv. bulb right now and its about 22inches from the tops.

i don't get want you have done with the buckets, i thought you were doing dwc i.e air stone in the bottom. looks like you know what you are doing anyway

Waterfarms are a drip feed system by design. Nutrient solution is pumped up from the reservoir and into the drip-ring up top.

What I did was modify the Waterfarm unit by adding an air stone in the reservoir. This will increase the oxygen in the nutrient solution. This will also be beneficial when the roots get long enough and start seeping into the reservoir thru the holes in the growing chamber. (which I added more of)

Day 14:

Plants have been in Waterfarm systems for about 3 days now. They are showing signs of growth and look healthy.

The 400 watt MH Conv. bulb that they are under has been running 24/7 since I started 2 weeks ago. I figure I have at least another 1 or 2 before I can start flowering. Is it okay to continue with running lights 24/7 for vegetative phase? Been lowering lights a little each day. They are roughly 18inches above plants now.

Pumps on Waterfarms are also running 24/7 (I read this is preferred) - plants are getting continuous supply of nutrients from drip ring.

Air circulation may become a problem as plants get bigger. Might have to get smaller fans to mount on the walls. Tower fan i bought is too big to install in closet, just using it to clean air in outside room. How can I tell if I need more air circulation?

Been trying to keep temps in closet between 75 and 82*F

PICs** first 2 plants - 1 seems to be more densely packed together while other is a little more spaced out between the nodes.
3rd plant is my runt and is slowly coming along.

**Update**

Checked on plants this morning and they look sick!

Edges of plants are turning yellow.. all 3 of them. Only change I did since putting them in the Waterfarms (which was 2 days ago) was lower the lights a few inches yesterday.

See pics below

did some research and it looks like I may have a Nitrogen Deficiency

Day 14: Plants show signs of sickness

So in summary: plants are 2 weeks old and I have just recently transplanted them into Waterfarm units 3 days ago. This morning plants showed signs of sickness. (see above pics)
Did some research and it looks like my plants are suffering from Nitrogen Def.

Corrective Action:
Flushed all 3 units. Added fresh tap water - adjusted PH down to 5.8 Added my Flora series nutrients (this time increasing the dosage to compensate the N Def.) ppm ~ approx. 450-500
Also added correct dosage of Drip Clean to each bucket.

Raised lights a few inches. Going to monitor plants very closely over next 24-48 hours. Checking PH and PPM levels freq.

if you were to use something like 3/4.5ml micro/bloom per gallon that should be a decently mild solution with the right ratios for your plants. i dont use flora grow so i cant tell you how to work with it. but using only micro and bloom u get all that you need. so grow is a bit redundant to me. what ppm where you feeding before they looked like this? what ratios of grow/micro/bloom are you giving them? and it looks to me like its probably magnesium deficiency cus its only the leafe edges. nitrogen usually makes the whole leaf yellow up and eventually die. Mg deficiency is more of a yellowing of the tips, and its what i think ur problem is. GH flora grow has no magnesium and micro has low amounts of magnesium. Flora Bloom has the most magnesium out of the 3 and thats why you should be using it even for veg. i hope all this made sense, my recommendation is to switch to a micro/bloom blend 3/4.5ml per gallon. Think about it, then if you are with me, give it a try and you should get better looking plants by tomorrow.

Day 15:

Checked PH levels last night and this morning... the trend is: PH is going Up and PPM slightly (PPM is roughly 550.. I started with around 450 when I changed out the reservoir yesterday.

So last night and this morning I added PH down to bring PH levels to around 5.3-5.8

So here is what I'm adding to my reservoir. Using this GH Feeding schedule - Flora Series - on Growth phase

Currently in Vegetative growth phase:
- 2 gallons of Tap water (PH of my tap is 7.3 approx. and has a PPM of ~70)
- I used PH up and PH down to bring tap water solution down to around 5.3-5.8
- GH Flora Series (3 Part): I add 5ml per gallon of FloraMicro, 7.5ml of FloraGro per gallon, and 2.5ml of FloraBloom per gallon. (Total amount of nutrients in 2gallon res:
10ml FloraMicro, 15ml FloraGro, 5ml FloraBloom)
- I then add Drip-Clean which is suspose to help keep my hoses clean (solution is suspose to by 100% safe)

Note**** The above nutrient ratio is what I'm now using since the plants are sick. Before I was using half the amounts of nutrients.

I agree Mr. Bitti, it looks like a Magnesium Def. - looking at the plants today ..especially the lower leafs...the entire outer edges look yellow. I went from having 2.5ml of Florabloom to 5ml in my res. Guess i'll have to give it a couple days to see improvement. Will adjust PH as needed.