Indoor DWC/Fog LED/CFL/ HPS (Maxi, JH, blueberry x ak47)

[LEDnuggetsFTW]

Hey gearbear great looking grow so far. I too am growing some autos right now in a DWC system which is my first time growing in hydroponics. Man it's been a lot of learning and a lot of screwing up ha but it is fun for sure. I am super interested in your fogger/DWC system that you run, how exactly does that work? I love browsing grow journals and have never seen that before. I guess my main questions are what is your water level with the fogger and do you still run airstones and pumps? You're roots looked amazing early on, I have been plagued with brown slime algae which has seriously stunted root growth but man I would give a lot to get some roots looking like yours.

Sorry to hear all your autos didnt auto. All i can say is I was amazed to see little white hairs coming from my plant after two weeks on a 20/4 light cycle.

Also I doing an LED only grow and I really think autos are PERFECT for LED's. The shorter height allows for great penetration everywhere and man my girls sure do love it. Good luck with the rest of your grow, i will stop back to see what you had to say about that fogger!

 

[Androth]

@ LED nuggets The trick to preventing things like algea is to make sure no light is reaching the water in your rez, algea cannot grow without light just like plants, root systems should be kept perpetualy dark. I would recomend giving your unit a good thurough cleaning, flush the plants and you can use a dishwasher sprayer or something of the sort to rinse the algea off your roots, be very gentle with the roots when you do this, then refill the rez and make sure it is light tight. then place your plants back inside, keep your PH at arround 5.8 and things should work well for you. hope this helps ya

 

[gearbear]

@ LED nugs, thanks man! Glad you enjoyed looking through my grow. Here is my take on the fogger. basically I kept my res at 3 gallons and had little to no heat problems. My Fogger actually does have an LED red light but it is tephlon and I think it may help sterilize the solution as well. But anywho, Here ya go.

My take on Ultrasonic Foggers and Cannabis grows:

Note Roots do not have Root Rot or other problems, they have been inoculated with beneficial fungi:


*My take on a Ultrasonic Fogger: It works amazingly well up to 3rd or 4th node, and gives a great nutrient mist that does not burn and keeps them growing big and making a lot of fine hair roots, that will become the vines later. After the 4th set, the plants act like they are looking for something more than fine small roots that they have at the beginning, they want vines. At this stage DWC (or something continual water soakage with high oxygen) is wanted by the plants. The fog continues to support the upper fine root hairs but seems unessential (I've left off the fogger once or twice for a full cycle and noticed no change in the plants behavior). If you are running a DWC system I see the fogger working great for the plants beginnings (better than, putting roots straight into the water. It allows a gap space with super high oxygen to water environment to really stimulate new root growth (great for younger developing plants). But unessential, or does little after the roots begin to really develop once they get to the water as you see suggested from my root structure in the pics above. I will continue to use it for developing plants and roots, but after a certain age I will begin to take it out of my grow, and leave a smaller gap between water and net pot as to maintain a still moist roots dropping into the water created by popping bubbles from airstone maybe 5" or so.

*The only thing I can see that would work as well as a fogger in a complete DWC system for the beginning stages, Is a micropore airstone with a very large (about $70-100 or more!) air pump to create the super high oxygen (Boiling water effect). It may work even better than a fogger for beginning roots (not tested only theorized). However, current big air pumps for large aquariums cannot create the same amount of airflow. So, you can get the big louder air pump or a quieter fogger with both similar effects. Not saying that either is "Needed", but I can see the real benefits in small plants trying to develop a root system but after a certain age not needed or really that beneficial.

I still like keep my fogger to keep res temps where I want them at extra cool nights and I actually think it helps prevent mold growth. Oh, and I float the fogger. You can pick up one for a few dollars to keep it at correct depth.

 

[Androth]

I use two air stones in a 5-7 gallon rez and it gives that boiling water effect you were talking about this lets the net baskets sit right above the water and the bubbles pop on the baskets and gets wicked up to the plant via the rockwool and HEC, I use a spray system to supplement just like gearbears mister except instead of mist it directly sprays a small stream of water from the rez directly onto the net baskets from the side near the top. I have this sprayer pump on a timer that I adjust as the plants grow. i originally had problems with it drowning seedlings when i had it running all the time, but with some timers it really helps boost the plants in early stages of growth. DWC is awesome for later stages of plant development (once the roots hit the DWC water there is little that can compete with DWC) but there are several good ways to supplement in early stages and get better results than DWC alone does.

 

[gearbear]

@ Androth, awesome info and seems we agree on the beginning stages. What size pump do you have to run the two airstones to achieve boiling?

 

[LEDnuggetsFTW]

Man you guys are great, I'm glad I found this forum! What I have going on actually isn't an algae even though its referred to as brown slime algae for some reason haha. Its actually a bacteria that doesn't need light to grow and thrives off organic matter and oxygen, pretty crazy stuff. It colonizes on the roots and usually the air stones and will suffocate the plants. Its looks like a brown slime and is very often misdiagnosed as root rot. I have cleaned everything with 35% H2O2, and am running 10ml per gallon H2O2 + Dutch Master Zone in just pH'd water and it still lives on, my poor plants. I have some benificial bacteria/fungi brewing as a tea right now and from the research I have done it seems to work 100% of the time. My plants have a month left so hopefully they will perk back up. If anyone else has this problem its main symptoms are unstable rising pH and brown covered roots that DONT smell like they are rotting. Check this thread out! Great thread by Heisenberg.

I'm growing Automaria II, La Bella Afrodita, and Auto AK as my first autoflowers and man am I excited. The automaria has such amazing buds forming already, and the smell is just awesome. I will try and get a grow journal started on here sometime soon. Definitely subed to this one though!

 

[Androth]

I know Cave Dirt Cody at one point had a slime problem exactly like the one you are describing that he solved with hygrozyme. He was growing some Auto Hindu Kush (a strain I am growing atm also) in DWC
here is the link
http://autoflower.net/forums/showthread.php/662-Lowlife-Hindu-Kush-DWC/page3

Gearbear heres a pic of the air pump, the air stone (I use two), and the boiling water effect It is an Ecoplus eco air 2

View attachment 9167View attachment 9168View attachment 9169 I keep the air pump at full power 24/7

 

[gearbear]

Thanks Androth, looks like ya got some good bubbles going. very nice airstones too.

@LED, thanks man. thanks for the info too. I have a bit of that from time to time. You can pretty well keep it in check with regular 2 week or so nute changes and wiping everything down real good and letting it dry a bit before ya refill. Sometimes it does get bad on the roots though.
I believe that's actually might have been what attacked my male roots and kept raising ph.

 

[gearbear]

12/12 Day 26:

1130 ppm (at top level, I thought I may up my ppm to watch for a bit it will peak at about 1300ppm max depending on how much nutes they take in with the water [Just thought I'd run atest for a day or 2 as I will change res soon anyway])
89 temp.
50 and less humidity
CO2 gen bubbling away

I am going to post pics of the "frost" coming in as soon as they transfer.

 

[gearbear]

some frost coming out on Lil Bee (Ak47 x Blueberry Auto)