Dutch Passion Groff Labs: DP’s Desfran in a 6 pot RDWC & 900w LED

[Groff]

Hey AFN !!

Long time no see!
Sorry if you missed me, real life got in the way I've certainly been missing hangin' around here!

Lets get right to it.

Specs;

Seeds: Dutch Passion’s new Desfran! (photoperiod feminized)
System: Alien Hydroponics Pro - 6x 34 liter pots
Lights: 2x HGL SOL 9 450w (total 900w) actual power draw
Nutes: Metrop
Location: remote, unfortunately I cannot be fully hands on. I can visit once a week more or less…

I relocated to a friend’s loft. He’s never done hydro, but he’ll pick it up just as fast as I did. Here are some setup pics. Yes, that is indeed a dismembered tent for some more efficient light reflection :no:

Setup was fast and zero leaks. This Pro system is the shnitze!! Really easy to set-up.

On the 10 of September they germed, and were potted on the 15[SUP]th, [/SUP]when the second true leaves started peeking out. These next pics were taken only 2 days later!! So this is day 7 from sprout.

 

[Groff]

1 week later, 25[SUP]th[/SUP] September … (day 15)

Here in southern Europe, we had a damn hot September. Ambient temperature in there peaking 30ºC …. The Hailea 150a water-chiller did help, but needed some extra help, so we insulated the pipes and put some reflective sheets over the lids. This absolutely helped the water chiller get down to 19-20ºC.

New system and new nutes… we had a bit of trouble dialing in the system. EC ended up too high and the pH was 6.0. But I decided to see how it went… not cheap dumping out a 250L water system. After a few days, no tip burn, but clear nitrogen toxicity. Notice the dark green and clawing. This was quickly rectified, lowered EC to 0.8 and pH to 5.8

Oh yeah, by the way, root staining is due to bennies. I’m not running sterile.

So here they are, Day 22

 

[Groff]

Now this is where it starts getting crazy!! This is just 6 days later! (Day 28)

The gals are true Sativas no doubt. Topped of the two fastest growers to even the canopy, and they didn’t even care less. Today was water change-out.

The Pro system comes with a kick-ass filter. This was from the bennies I dropped in. Even though I filtered it out, nothing like a proper filter to keeps things clean

Despite lowering EC and lowering pH out of the N rich absorption zone, for some reason the clawing and dark green is not getting better – nor worse… Maybe I'm way to used to small tents and autos? I like seeing the leaves praising up to the light. Maybe too soon to expect improvement?

Despite that, never before have I seen any plant grow this fast! But if you have any suggestion on why the clawing persists, I'm all ears.

If this were my place, I'd be foliar spraying with my super-duper secret mix... but unfortunately I can't.

 

[derek420colorado]

I love the setup! I am doing a similar version, just home made with 2 1kw HID's I plan on getting the Alien in the spring when my house is built, I want to do a rdwc greenhouse grow

 

[Groff]

Week 3 flowering

Long time since update! Sorry folk. real life stuff kept me away. Will be able to update more often from now on, right in time for the most interesting part of the adventure

We're at week 3 of bloom. These are definitely the biggest fastest growing plants I've ever seen grow! Nothing stops them. No topping, supercropping, stretching, nothing... even with all this, the canopy is still 1,6m high, and just keeps going!

Still on veg nute schedule as per the Metrop chart, MR1, Amino Root and Calgreen. The rez is pretty damn stable pH wise. EC is dropping gradually due to the massive water intake, the top-up rez does not contain food. Pretty concentrated stuff, but a pleasure to work with as it doesnt shoot the pH out whack and need much correction when mixing.

Another supercropping session is in order...

done!

surfing the string...

Healthy healthy plant! Nice lush green. Not very apparent since these pics are white-balanced due to the LED pink light. Loads of tops in the making. Temperature has dropped significantly this past week, need to get heater in there ASAP, ambient temps = 19-20ºC

Stems are so thick already, wow! This one was the first to be topped

And a final "aerial" view

Still not much of a smell, can't wait for it

 

[gone1]

WOW Nice setup mate and plants looking great, i bet you´ll get a big yeild!

 

[Groff]

Week 4 (last wednesday)



Girls are doing just great. Glad to hear the clawing is a strain thing, was starting to worry my thumb had gone off... EC has been still around 1.1 - 1.3. The slight tip burn here or there, but the vast majority is spotless. pH around the 5.8 mark. The filter was absolutely clean. They're on full on bloom feed now, Metrop MR2, Amino Bloom and CalGreen. Keeping it really simple for this run. No added silicon, no daily foliar feeding, no bloom boosters.



Flower formation is a bit uneven thus far, but with all the torture its normal they got a bit mixed up deciding who will "cola" the lead. I expect (and hope!!) stretch to stop soon and full bloom to set on.

Sorry about the blurry pics, will try to do better next time...

























Oh yeah, I forgot to mention... a very light lolipopping session, just the odd branch or two from each plant. Didnt need any more than that.


















Not very apparent, but these lights really do spread and fill the room. Even still, I'm thinking a bit more juice might be in good order...

 

[Groff]

Mid-week 4 update.



Wow !! Went back yesterday to check on the girls, and my jaw dropped. Flower formation is in turbo mode. They were "late" to show show sex, but by the massive speed at which buds are forming everywhere I think they'll make up for some "lost" time, if any!



Again, stretch has slowed but still made a significant leap. Thought the last round of tucking and super-cropping would do the trick, but no.















Lots and lots of tucking...











Ok, lets get down and dirty... "bulldozing" the canopy!

 

[TaNg]

An 8ft tall gro room would be use bro lol.

 

[Groff]

An 8ft tall gro room would be use bro lol.

I'm working on it loool.... It all starts with a dream :Sharing One:

Oh universe! When will I have my dream greenhouse... ? :grat: