Grow Mediums Georgia's DWC.. sorta..

Okay, so here's some pics of todays actions.. The starry starry night (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzBvZnLOBKo) is with teh bubble foil leaking some light (it was used when I appropriated it).
A shot of the door into the dope show..
The grow floor, some rockwool sprouting the Betty.
The bett really IS super-short. The first node on the one plant is formed up a half inch off the root. I knew it was going to happen, but DAMN!! it's gonna be tough to get these suckers to shoot up..
And finally in the peat pot is the Kosher Kush after a few days. It's looking exactly like I expected...

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Okay, so it's ten days since the seeds crossed my desk.. seven since they sprouted...
Betty Boo is certainly not off to teh races yet.. though I have my fingers crossed..

Decided on canna aqua flores with my rhizo for teh whole she-bang (considering there is virtually no veg time to mess around with..
here's some pics..

View attachment 135339A silly thing happened on teh way to the moon.. this silly little guy appeared outta nowhere (actually I'd just taken a buncha peat pots taht weren't germinating fast enough for me and mashed em up and made this peat pot for the kosher kush that hermied at work.. and well it looks like I gots me TWO new kosher kush to play with.. so.. I'm gonna top this sucker every single time that I can and see what sorta outta control bonsai type thing that it can make.. root-bound to keep er short, thenh smash that sucker down into some pro-mix at the old factory and stick it under a 1000 watt, surrounded by six foot wilderness (should say wildness) and see if the best yields come from volume or depraved love..
View attachment 135340so, the little guy is going in here, and I'm gonna try a sick dip and twist standing water swamp weed grow.. this of course is NOT with Betty
View attachment 135341here's the gist of the frankenschteining
View attachment 135342into this dirty ass clay pellet wash tub
View attachment 135343et voila!!
View attachment 135344and here's my advanced techniques in action. spoon a la unwanted plant!!
View attachment 135345a little rootage!
View attachment 135346mash that bee-otch home
View attachment 135347snap a little lid around her and it's like the dream of all dreams.. Im gonna hafta pee on this thing at some point just to see how strong this kk really is..
View attachment 135348and here's his buddy.. which I kinda topped (fimed really)< which I do with a paring knife, a small slit on the insides of teh "outside leaves" deep down into towards the stem.. it's pretty consistent.. this time I was just bein my regular rocket scientist and shanked a bottom leaf off and chopped through one of the side branches.. whcih I dcided to hold up with a big pieces of wood from my scrap pile.. yepp Frankenschtein lives here..
View attachment 135349betty, short, but relatively thick stalk already.. slow leaves, but I think I overwatered my rockwool in the early going, plus maybe the recirc is hitting the bottom and keeping it damp below surface.. I've made a commitment to do this blind, so unless everything gets all f-ed in the a, I'm gonna let it ride..
View attachment 135350growin nice, came up good, but I think it's bein drowned a little.. for SURE this recirc tube was constantl;y watering the rockwool.. at least there was Rhizo in that water and hopefully it boosted the roots down pretty far,.,
View attachment 135351this is the baby bettty nearest teh ODNO lights and to my eyes it has made a difference.. I'd hoped there would kinda be an absolute of light for them to feed off, but relaly, teh lights seem to be just kinda a little too far away.. ANd so I have already added some tiny little flowering lights, hopin to bring a bit more energy to the leaves..
View attachment 135352just nice.. like really for hitting teh dirt like the third or fourth and only being outta their seeds for a few days these guys ain;t doin too bad.. and tehy are just little betties,,..

so.. that's teh longer than the short, but kinda where I'm at.
I've also added a couple of fans.. computer style, a 10cm and a 5 inch.. the ten cm is 3 speed and is inside sucking air up from down near teh tubes, blowing it in a swirly way aroudn teh plants.. and the five inch is located above teh whoel damn thing.. creating a negative air pressure in the cabinet.. eventually there will be a carbon filter in front of it, with a booster at the other end of the tube.. maybe a bit louder than I want, but at least it should be relatively scent-free. (if betty even smells..)
that's it for taht..
 
so, today is the tenth day from soaking the Betty seeds in a cup of water.. that means approximately six days since breaking the surface.. here's some pics..

View attachment 136380the kosher kush.. doin okay.. you can see the hacked off true leaf on the bottom and the partially severed three leaf, but the stalk is getting hearty, the fim, although early, seems successful and this is so far in a peat only medium (plus rhizo and started with a weak nutrient mix (aquaflora). feeding five mils through the upper peat ball three times daily, and running a little down the sides, hopefully building some nitrogen for teh root explosion which is inevitable.. this is a self-pollinated plant (s'posed to be anyways, but I kinda think there mighta been a Purple Kush male that got put in the wrong room if it's a male I will have a 100% answer to that doubt) and I hope to have a Betty male to try a random cross with. More a fun project than a scientific one..
View attachment 136381plant 4
View attachment 136382plant 2
View attachment 136383plant 1
View attachment 136384plant 3

plant three has been suffering from a double whammy.. over watered AND the water it was getting was virtually sterile (no nutrients) ph'd at 5.5. I've started to load the Rhizo into the recirculation system. I think teh rockwool dipped into the res.. anyways, it's doin pretty good, height-wise.. time to crank the Rhizo to it..
 
Looks like you're off to a good start, Georgia! :thumbs: I'm going to see if we can get your thread moved over to the Indoor Growing Forum. That way we'll be able to better follow along with your grow and you'll be more likely to get answers to your questions from some experienced DWC folks. :smokebuds:
 
A sad day in Georgia.. well, maybe not sad, but troublesome..
So, I was preparing a mix of Rhizo and a bit of nutes to add to my recirc, to bring the watre level up into the mesh-pots. And at the same time, I'm getting ready to do my rhizofeed through the rockwool.. welllllllllll, dumbass fed the wrong nutes.. didn't notice until an hour later, seeing some brown.. and the ph was still pretty high in the additive mix( because my reservoir is pretty low).. so I flushed with some Ph7 Distilled water (and going to do another flush with some 6.5 ph water later).. but just because I am evil (the devil went down to georgia) I still filled the reservoir up.. I guess we shall see if Betty Boo has the ability to deal with a "Hangover".
at teh very least here's a laugh for ya..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbYt9ZaSCbMs keep

if the leaves get worse I will post a picture later..
 
Today after a coupla days of happy and successful plant growth, I checked my Ph and whereas the day before it had risen, today it tanked. I mean it dropped down into the 5.5 to 5 range (colorimetric method) from 6-6.5. It seems strange. very strange. I can;t imagine the plants are in flower mode that much, but I am using Rhizo as my N and Aqua Flores as a minor nute boost (1/4 mix) and didn;t didn't add anything in that time (2 days). My combined water amounts are in the 20 litre range, recirculating... Without the plants yellowing out, is it possible they were using a serious enough amount of teh bloom nutes to push the Ph down like that? Secondly, does Rhizo in a DWC drop teh pH as it's being used up?

EDIT: I added 1 litre of water Ph'd to high (like 8-9) by using Rhizo. I'm sure the plants can handle the extra N, and the water balanced Ph at 6-6.5. I don;t know my EC or PPM but I will be bringing a sample to work tomorrow to test it.
 
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How things looked when I discovered the ph woes..

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Today after a coupla days of happy and successful plant growth, I checked my Ph and whereas the day before it had risen, today it tanked. I mean it dropped down into the 5.5 to 5 range (colorimetric method) from 6-6.5. It seems strange. very strange. I can;t imagine the plants are in flower mode that much, but I am using Rhizo as my N and Aqua Flores as a minor nute boost (1/4 mix) and didn;t didn't add anything in that time (2 days). My combined water amounts are in the 20 litre range, recirculating... Without the plants yellowing out, is it possible they were using a serious enough amount of teh bloom nutes to push the Ph down like that? Secondly, does Rhizo in a DWC drop teh pH as it's being used up?
:confused:
 
New Hanna Combo Unit

ya know the one with the wall mounted unit and separate temp and diode units.. Yeah, got it brand new for wayy less than a hundred bucks..
anyways..
my tank this morning, (after my somewhat scientific balancing of the pH using seriously low pH'd nute addition because the plants were yellowing, and some Rhizo to give'em a boost of n, and a generous amount of pHdown) well my tank reads as such:
pH 5.5
ppm 683
ec 1.366

it's pretty nice to know I'm within some allowances.. The thing that's good is now I can do some good mixes and KNOW what's going in exactly, instead of just living inexactitudes .
 
Some Pics three weeks from starting seeds

Okay, so there's a few issues I'm looking down the barrel of..
First I guess is this sad little sucker..
View attachment 140780
It was always small and taht's where the second problem comes in..
The two plants which have the bubblers in them are too far from the vertical tubes.. and because the middle plants were ready for nutes I gave them their juice... and so.. this guy, not being ready.. has had it rough..

and the other baad news..I need to do a redesign.. the tubes need to be closer. but now I have a coupla 23 watt cfls and another coupla 13 watt cfls at 2700k which are in the space.. they should help considerably..

the redesign will be considerable and include an ODNO circline fluorescent to draw the plants UPWARDS,,

BUT they are doing pretty good when the light is available.. just not the height I was anticipating.., although.. they still have 40 days to finish.. AND they are dwarfs.. like super-duper dwarfs.. what should I expect?
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