Trying this DWC thing again

[emrldthumb]

As quick background, I'm a longtime soil grower but I had never tried my hand at any kind of hydroponics. But I have always been at least a little curious. So, I threw together a DWC bucket a couple months back but the plant I put in it was a mutant weird0 (that's a swear word?) with all sorts of issues, one of which turned out to be hemaphrodism. So I tossed the plant, cleaned the equipment, and set it aside for a bit.

Except, I just wanted to try again using normal, healthy seedlings, and I just happened to have started three mystery/freebie seedlings in soil! Here they were on January 31:

I still had some ElDorado seeds, and I didn't want only unknown genetics, so I popped 3 of those into soil as well to germinate. I wasn't thinking ahead, I was being spontaneous. And stoned.

Well, the next day I remembered that I had an 11 day vacation coming up less than a week later. How would my poor little seedlings survive 11 days without me! I began to plan and plot. Two bowls later, it came to me. I would go ahead and put them in DWC reservoirs large enough to maybe make it a week and a half. I knew the pH would drift, but I had a week to try to get everything stabilized. In the meantime, the seedlings were getting larger:

After a few nights of cutting and taping and drilling, and a couple quick runs to pick up additional supplies, I had an 18-gallon tote, a 7-gallon bin, and a 5-gallon bucket all ready to be reservoirs, with two baskets in the 18-gallon and one in each of the others. So, I filled them up, pHed the solution, added a tiny dash of micronutrients and grow nutes (since it would be 11 days), and started them bubbling. Three days later, after nightly pH down additions, they all seemed to be stabilizing in the 5.5-5.8 range. It was time to transplant. At this point, I had six seedlings, but one of the ElDorados wasn't looking so great and one of the freebies had to pull the short straw. Hated to do it, but the only other option was putting it in the flowering room with my auto-watering setup, and that just didn't seem wise. I tell myself he was a boy, but I'll never know.

Here are a few photos right after transplanting from soil to hydroton:

After two more days of topping (overfilling to be honest) the reservoirs and ensuring that the pH seemed fairly stable, I had to leave for vacation. The pH was 5.0-5.5 for each, which I know is on the low end but since the pH had been slowly drifting upward, I wanted to start low. Plus just a dash of micro nutes and a dash of veg nutes, maybe less than 50 ppm on top of the tap + ph down. I knew their chances were not great, but I figured I'd done all I could.

Here they were 12 days later:

As you can see, alive but not exactly healthy. As I had feared, the pH had drifted up near 6.5+ in all three reservoirs. Cotyldons were yellowing, too, and the plants looked hungry. So, I did a res change, upped the ppm to around 250 over the baseline numbers. Just a few days later, the change is impressive in three of the four plants, though some of the leaves still look a bit curly/twisty:

One of them is being a major runt, and even worse it's one of the two ElDorados. The pH and ppm seem to be about the same as the other reservoirs, so I'm not sure what the issue is. Hopefully it's just lagging a bit. Here are the latest photos from tonight, showing both leaves and roots (which look pure white and clean). The two plants on the left are the freebies, ElDorado are the ones on the right in the first photo:

Since this is my first hydroponic grow, I welcome ALL criticism, comments, feedback, suggestions, and thoughts. More later!

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[zem]

that's cool, it seems that you are gaining hold over your growing skills. try posting a little bit smaller less pics/post to make it easier to follow. took me a lot to scroll up/down your single post LOL otherwise, the white roots are growing and plants are looking like they are liking the conditions more. keep us posted

 

[emrldthumb]

The pics didn't show up in the middle of the post for you? I thought I had inserted them in the middle to make it easier to see which was which.... Sorry about that! The future updates will all be shorter.

 

[emrldthumb]

The plants have been growing quickly, but I've noticed a strange splotchy look on the margins of the fan leaves of two of the plants. The photos below show them. One is a freebie and one is an ElDorado, so it's not strain specific.

I've never seen anything like this in plants grown in soil. Anyone have any thoughts about the cause or whether it's problematic? They seem otherwise healthy enough.

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[emrldthumb]

Oh, and pH has been fairly stable in the 5.5-6 range, ppm are around 450 now, using GH two part, veg. Res temps vary from 65 to 72, mostly on the lower end.

 

[zem]

i guess that you can begin raising your ppm level a little. otherwise looking good

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

Yes, they are looking very good. I also believe that you could bump the nutes up a bit. What GH nutes are you using?

 

[Dr. Green Fang]

I'm about to be 100% hydro again, and I've never been happier. I should have never left, but I'm exceedingly happy for the knowledge gained. Especially the "hard lesson learned" kind of gain. *Note to self* Root zone temps should NEVER go below 60°!! Technically not below 65° but definitely not in the low 50's where I have been for months...and getting poor yields!

Bah, sorry.. rant over! DWC is amazing, and I just love Hydro! *shouting to the world!*

 

[Kraven]

Looking great. Greenest of Mojo.

 

[emrldthumb]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I'll be updating with photos tonight or tomorrow, but the three larger plants are starting to alternate nodes and two have sexed (90% sure on one, can't find my loupe though and eyes aren't what they used to be, you know?). Looks like one freebie is a boy, one ElDorado is a lady.

As soon as my new light arrives these are going into the flower room. Well, the ladies are. The boys are going in the compost... Tracking shows it should get here tomorrow or Wednesday! Already have the new fan ready to attach to the cool tube.

 

[emrldthumb]

Oh and as far as nutes, I'm currently just using FloraMicro+FloraGro, plus Armor Si, which the guy at the hydro shop swore by and even threw in as a freebie when I expressed skepticism. Based on the suggestion from my other post, I'll be adding cal mag, but haven't yet.

 

[emrldthumb]

False alarm for both plants I thought may be sexing. When I found my loupe and checked, neither had preflowers. I think I should look into some reading glasses.....

As the photos below show, I moved one plant into the flowering room. I figure it should sex soon enough. Others are looking pretty good too. Runt is still a runt but seems healthy enough other than the slow growth.

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