Dutch Passion Billy Wu's FIRST DWC HYDRO GROW - DP Auto White Widow

[BillyWu]

Day 7 update

Alrighty just a little update. Things have been a little slower in the last few days, not seeing much development and a few little brown spots have been forming on the leaves.

My pH is 5.8 exactly (hasn't changed at all) and my EC is 0.85-0.90, consisting of 6/8ths Formulex and 2/8ths Voodoo juice with a little bit of CalMag.

I believe my problem has been due to my reservoir temps, they were about 73.5 degrees Fahrenheit the other day. Now though, I've doubled insulated my bucket with Mylar and metal tape, insulated the hose from the air pump, put a small fan blowing over the top of the res and I've also put a fan on to blow cool air to the air pump (it gets a little hot).

My temperatures are now at 69.3 degrees Fahrenheit and still dropping, however this is with both fans going and the tent door open. My goal is to get the temps stable, then work my way up to fully closing the tent door and removing the fans if possible.

I'll post picture updates in a couple of days

 

[BillyWu]

Nevermind here are some pictures

 

[BillyWu]

Also turns out my pH pen has been reading dodgy, which is surprising because I frequently calibrate it. I'll be testing my pH pen in pH 4+7 buffers prior to using it every time from now on so that my readings are 100% accurate, I can't afford to screw up.

Temperature of res seems to have settled a bit at 70.3 degrees Fahrenheit, which I'm almost happy with I'm gonna add some more insulation layers to the bucket to see if I can get it to stick at that perfect 68°F..

 

[insert name here]

Hey Billy I would drop that pH too 5.5, 5.8 is more for flowering, IMHO, I keep it low untill I switch over to flower, you will most likely have to adjust it frequently, esp as your nute concentrations get higher and your plant starts to eat more. I check my pH at least three times daily.

 

[BillyWu]

Alright dude thanks Just been and done that now.

 

[Groff]

BTW, mylar is a reflectant, which certainly help radiant heat, but try to get insulation too, that will keep heat out, or better, the cold in. You can get the combo insulatio with "mylar" reflectant stuff. Try for the thickest you can find. I only found the thin 2mm

A little premature of me, but today I finished triple insulating all the buckets except for the head pot which wil be done tomorrow. I managed to drop the temps to 18c, lights went on while I was cutting away the pieces to insulate, took me about 3 hours to finish, temps rose to 23c, finished insulating, another dose of ice bottles, took alot longer to cool, I could swear but not sure, but what I am am sure is that about 2 hours later it dropped to 20c and about 2h later back up to 21c.

:High 5: Fingers crossed for both of us!

 

[BillyWu]

I'm not sure how much the insulation will help bud It'll just keep the high ambient tent temperatures in the buckets.

 

[Groff]

I'm not sure how much the insulation will help bud It'll just keep the high ambient tent temperatures in the buckets.

No no, on the contrary. It creates a thermal barrier between the two. So if you have high heat out side and cold inside (or vice versa) insulating will prevent thermal exchange, so the time it takes to reach equilibrium is much longer.

So with insulation, if you cool your rez, it will last longer, but yeah, eventually rise up again. No miracles can be expected.

Reflection serves to ping-pong radiation heat away as much as possible, because it will not absorb the radiation (IR, UV, 440nm, whatever)... like on a warm summer day you feel the sun-rays burning, but inside a gym it may actually be warmer than outside, yet you dont feel the "burn". Mylar will do nothing to fight the thermal difference inside/outside the bucket, but will do wonders to reflect the strong HID lights, where it can be 40c right under the lamp but 25c about 1meter away.

Two very different physical heat properties. Desert people usually wear heavy clothes, in the desert. Ever wonder why? Not so much to keep the hot out, but to keep the moistness in from evaporating. Sweating is the body's "air conditioning", so by wearing heavy clothing they prevent the sweat from evaporating quickly, so massively increasing the time it takes to promote heat equilibrium. So you're actually cooler in the desert with lots of clothes on, than with just a t-shirt where you will dehydrate quickly

Did that just make sense?

 

[BillyWu]

Makes sense I've double insulated the bucket with bubble wrap now, I don't see much point in insulating the lid as well so I've left that just reflective. Temps are currently at 68.9°F with the tent door open, gonna see how it holds up.

It's day 8 now and the plant is just about to start it's third set of leaves. Do you guys think I should make the switch to veg nutes soon?

 

[Mr ganjamoto]

Hi Billy

Have you made a beneficial tea.... To innoculate the reservoir with?

May prevent problems with slimes if temps continue to remain high....

Good luck

Mr Jorilla ganjamoto.