Grow Mediums My family's recirculating deep water culture

[trees4meandu]

Things are starting to look good

:X's Evil Laugh x:

I had to go and get the better cam. At the start of true week 3 of flower you can already start to see the "little white fuzzies" as we like to call them, it is the start of what hopes to be a ton of eventual tri-combs.

 

[trees4meandu]

Roots, Roots, Roots



I'm trying to keep up on the posting for everyone. Even tho our operation is quite small, it still makes me feel like a farmer hahahaha! Update on day 46...I think, and my apologies about the yellow color coming through. The only light supply in the grow cube we've built is a 600w hps, so for now I can't help about the yellow. But believe me when I tell you, and if you talked to any one of us you could tell from the excitement, the roots are protruding from everywhere and are bleach bright white in color. And as my buddy said, "They are hairy as f@#%."
We decided that after a nutrient change that we would find some way to supplement extra CO2 in the room. After walking to the grocery store and purchasing a medium size piece of dry ice, we simply hung a 5 gal bucket from the 1x3 framing in the ceiling, filled it 1/3 of the way with almost boiling water, shut off all the equipment (except the fan), and drop in the dry ice. It cost us $3.13 and it always gives us a laugh to see the 6x6 cube completely foggy with CO2. It actually works pretty well and the plants seem to love it. We try to do it at least once a week. We only have 4 plants, yet our canopy is just under 40in by 40in. The plants disappear in the fog and 8 minutes later come out smiling!

 

[trees4meandu]

Night time pics!

:drool:This is a picture to show how massive the auto kalashnikova has potential to be, I used a 20oz bottle for a reference. We also made the executive decision to tied down the top 6 inches of the plant.

:drool:These are the pictures I have been waiting to post taken with a much better cam than the others.
[/ATTACH]

:KISS:And last but not least the Charlie Brown of the bunch


Happy growing to all and may god put his blessings on all of our grows. Cheers!

 

[Groff]

Hey trees, what is your "secret" for spanking white roots? I think I was hit by rot but managed to treat it, at least I see white new roots growing...

 

[trees4meandu]

Hey trees, what is your "secret" for spanking white roots? I think I was hit by rot but managed to treat it, at least I see white new roots growing...

I have a motto when it comes to our cannabis grows, "The better the roots, the better the fruits!" First off, don't be suprised one bit if your roots have a little tan shade to them. In my book this is completely normal. Just like the part of the plant we see (above the ground), everything has a life expectancy. On the other hand, a large amount of tan or almost brown roots should bring worry to the grower. This is the start of the plants circulatory system that brings life blood to all things good to come. The reason we had to ditch the DWC system was due to root slime caused by some algae that we still can't identify. Our savior was the trusty bottle of H2O2 in the pictures below. I believe I got it on the internet for $15-$20. Caution Caution Caution...this is me and my words, others may have different opinions, but do not use at full strength unless you are 100% sure your plants are 100% strong and healthy. Someone already said on one of the earlier posts that autoflowers do not have time enough to heal from shock and they are RIGHT. My words of advice are, use 1/4 to 1/2 dose at first. If you notice it doesnt bother the plants then the next time (about 2 days later) up the dose a little. Remove any garbage roots a little at a time with a sterile, very sharp knife. Most pharmacies have at home scalpels that come 100% sterile, they work the best for me. If you have a rather large root mass, remove garbage roots over a weeks time period with addition of H2O2 every 2-3 days and continue H2O2 for an additional week. This is where I stop with the H2O2. As a matter of fact, if you have the right air stone, and good quality water (our water has a ppm reading of 7 after the reverse osmosis) you should not need the addition of H2O2. Like I said, others have their own opinion but this does work for me. I havent used H2O2 in probably 4 weeks now and they are still brilliant white in color.
Here are some more pics from the morning of day 46. Our auto's seem to be behind about a week from optimal conditions which is suppose to be 70 days from seed to scissors. Only a month left and can't wait to show everyone the results.



For my first time with the auto variety, I am really enjoying it and I hope you all are as well. I hope I answered any questions without making things too confusing. Growers I know don't like to give away true trade "secrets" so I hope I helped someone today. Enjoy and happy growing to all:X's Evil Laugh x:
I gave some pictures in reference to size so everyone can relate. Sometimes pictures can be deceiving, and I brought "charlie brown" outside to get a good clear picture of the roots and how white they are. Thanks to all that are following.

 

[trees4meandu]

Bucket setup after DWC failure

I have to laugh because we were scared to death to transplant our girls after the whole root slime ordeal early on in the grow. I apologize for no pictures of the slime, but at the time the last thing on my mind was a damn camera lol. Below are pics of our new setup. We did not remove the girls from their original 6" net pots. We simply used some of our 10" net pots that were lying around and became inventive. There is a 2-3 inch layer of rock wool cubes in the bottom of the bigger net pots, so the small net pots were flush with the top of the bigger 10" pots. We carefully placed the 6" net pots in and filled with rock wool cubes around so the small net pots could not move from side to side. I have 1/4 inch hose that is ran to a T fitting and then connected hose long enough to go around the small net pot for a make shift drip ring. All we did was made holes every inch or so on the bottom of the circle tube so water could leak out. It works freakin amazing to be quite honest. The rock wool is evenly wet and stays at a perfect moistness until the next feeding. My little cover fits around the 6" pot snuggly so there is little evaporation from the rock wool cubes. Maybe this will help someone in the future. Happy growing to all.

 

[Roark]

Lookin good trees. How old are your girls? I got a little confused there. Sorry. Do you use mycho beneficials?

 

[trees4meandu]

Day 48 of 77

Lookin good trees. How old are your girls? I got a little confused there. Sorry. Do you use mycho beneficials?

I went out and took just a few pics from different points in the room. About every 7-10 days we Do make an Ancient Forest and ZHO tea. We hand feed for 2 days or until the tea is gone. Dude other than that It has been just quality ro water (ppm of 7) and Dyna Gro nutes, the stuff seems to be amazing considering our feeding regiment consists of 2tsp per gal of Pro-tek (thats Dyna Gro's silica) and about 4 tsp per gal of Dyna Gro bloom (or until the ppm reaches almost 1100)

 

[trees4meandu]

We talked ourselves into it!!!!




:Cool: Every time we go to our favorite local hydroponics store the owner always tries to talk us into buying the Canna line of products. So today we made a decision to buy some type of carbohydrate and amino acid solution to add to the reservoir in hopes that the buds would explode in the final 4 weeks of flower. We thought about Advanced Nutrients and the likes of other companies, but we didn't want the hassle of buying bud candy, bud factor x, etc. and have 7 different supplements to add to the res every time we do a nutrient change. So we decided to go with Canna. We have been looking at doing a whole Canna grow on our next setup, which we will probably do. They said for the whole line up of Canna products in 1 liter size is only $291, and that's from start to finish. Granted it's a lot more money than going the Dyna Gro way, but I almost can't resist the temptation that I have toward something that is specifically formulated for the cannabis plant. Hopefully the Canna Boost will bring a smile to our faces by increasing the yield like the owner of the store said it would. Wish us the best and as always, Happy Growing to all!!!

 

[Roark]

Looks aweome! Keep it up!