Need Your Grow Questions Answered? Come On In!

[Grow Thread]

question for lst training....how do i do it?

 

 

 

here's a GREAT tutorial by glaucoma1

 

http://michiganmedic...__1#entry218100

[Grow Thread]

So vegging longer and with a more sincere purpose will increase yields? Thanks for that insight BG!

 

it's a sure thing

[Royal Smoke]

after they hit flower and stretch for a week or two i start whacking off the lower branches. by now they are too far away from the light and too shaded by the canopy to really help us..... they are more of a parasite in my eyes...... sucking usable energy out of our plant in effort to just stay alive and maybe produce a little 1/2 gram nugget??

 

nah.... i whack them off during the end of the stretch period. this "lollipopping effect" gets rid of the riff-raff scrub underbrush and makes the plant concentrate on the upper stuff..... and that where the goodies are at. it also aids tremendously in allowing air flow throughout the room.

 

Interesting.....

 

I didn't know you did this. Do you take clones off of what you whack off during the end of the stretch period?

 

No worries about shocking the plants? Turning Hermie or anything?

 

I guess I've kinda been afraid to hack off some of the lower branches that I know need to go (I didn't get them in veg), because I'm worried I'll shock them.

[Grow Thread]

Interesting.....

 

I didn't know you did this. Do you take clones off of what you whack off during the end of the stretch period?

 

No worries about shocking the plants? Turning Hermie or anything?

 

I guess I've kinda been afraid to hack off some of the lower branches that I know need to go (I didn't get them in veg), because I'm worried I'll shock them.

 

here's a little something i put together awhile back. i probably could have used a prettier plant but the education is there nonetheless.

 

i try to take clones while they are still vegging. if by some weird chance i lose clones, or need to have more, the ones taken after the flip to 12/12 "can" be used... but i prefer not to.

 

it can cause them to have to fully reveg and that can take some time so i try to avoid it.

 

http://michiganmedicalmarijuana.org/topic/18150-need-your-grow-questions-answered-come-on-in/page__view__findpost__p__256837

[Grow Thread]

 

 

No worries about shocking the plants? Turning Hermie or anything?

 

ooops. i know how you hate it when i miss something

 

no, never had problems whacking on them this early in flower

[Royal Smoke]

ooops. i know how you hate it when i miss something

 

no, never had problems whacking on them this early in flower

 

LOL..... I did notice too.....

 

I was like...."maaaan!"

 

 

Thanks. I guess I'll chop the branches off I've been doing acrobats around in the Flower room then.....

[Grow Thread]

LOL..... I did notice too.....

 

I was like...."maaaan!"

 

 

Thanks. I guess I'll chop the branches off I've been doing acrobats around in the Flower room then.....

 

oh i know that feeling

 

feel like walter payton getting from one side of the room to the other cut back, side step, find the hole and run like hell.

[BubbleBerryKush]

can someone please explain to me why I am having PH swings in my buckets???? I flushed and refilled everything with PH balanced 6.0 water, I added nutes and corrected the PH, my PH is now up near 7...WTF is going on???

[Grow Thread]

could be a number of things bubbleberry. what nutes are you using? starting with r.o. water?

 

if you add nutes, add air, and let it set overnight without a plant in it how much does your ph swing without adding any phUP or DOWN?

[BubbleBerryKush]

I am using GH 3 part....and I dont use RO but I bubble it for 48 hours, and I already thought of that, I get a solid .9-1.0 higher after 24 hours.

 

its week 5 weeks in these buckets and I dont want to waste this time...going a little crazy trying to figure this out..

[Grow Thread]

it is more than likely your starting water that is causing you the problem. are you using the nova series or the flora series?

 

best bet is to stay on top of it, flush regular if you find that you are adding a lot of phUP or DOWN because that can cause major probs as well..... and get an r.o. filter asap

[BubbleBerryKush]

I am thinking I have some bad bacteria some where, I am going to flush and use an H2o2 dip, then refill and hope for the best.....

 

I am using the Flora series as of right now, but I cant afford an RO system just yet

[Grow Thread]

you may wanna look into the nova series until you can get a filter.... it is more for messed up starting water

[BubbleBerryKush]

well I did the dip and flush and fill...so we will see what happens....I hope the new beneficial bacteria start growing and new roots start popping out so I can know everything went well...

[BubbleBerryKush]

so about 3 days after going the H2o2 treatment I am getting this frothy foamy thing happening in one of my buckets...I just drained/flushed it and I am going to run straight water for a few days and see what happens..the plant looks fine, but I am not sure what happened...

 

anyone have any clue??

[BubbleBerryKush]

looks like the frothy residue was just excess from the H2o2 eating away the bad bacteria....flush it a few times now everything seems good..

 

but I have found another problem, after toping my purple kush I am now getting TOO MUCH interior plant growth...I am trying LST but seems like she just wants to grow towards her interior....looks like I might have to set up some poor lighting and make her stretch a bit.....lol..never thought I would say I wanted to see stretch.

[Dlo]

12 SITE BUBBLEBUCKET HYDRO SYSTEM

 

i have had a couple questions about linking a bunch of bubblebuckets together and then to a central reservoir. this makes your grow as easy as can be as all of your checking/filling is done through the rez instead of each bucket individually. also, when operating like this, the initial build is much less complicated than building a single bucket. i am a little short on pics at the moment, but i will add more as i build my new system soon.

 

PARTS LIST:

reservoir...... anything from a 10 gallon storage tote to a 55 gallon drum is fine.

13 five gallon buckets

160gph water pump

100' black vinyl tubing

14 air stones. i like the 6" dark blue kind.

100' aquarium air line

20-60 gallon aquarium air pump. dual outlet.

26 barbed coupler/connectors

26 rubber grommets

enough hydroton clay pebbles to fill (12) 5" net pots.

12 net pots. 5" is fine.

2 commercial 6 outlet air pumps. this is overkill on the air/bubbles, but i like bubbles you could just get the larger model pump and an extra splitter and feed all 12 buckets. i like having 2 separate air pumps because it makes moving things around much easier.

 

 

here is your basic design:

 

 

 

ok, looks complicated but don't freak out. it's really not.

 

lets start with the 12 buckets you will be growing in. (green circles above). each bucket will have 4 holes in it total. 2 in the lid, and 2 on the sides. for the lid, one hole should be centered and be 4 3/4" in diameter. this is for your net pot to sit in. the other hole in the lid is just a little 1/8" hole and i try to keep it close to the edge of the lid. a hole just big enough to pull the air line through. the 2 holes on the sides of the buckets should be 13/16". i put those 2 holes on opposite sides of the bucket and about an inch from the bottom. this is where your rubber grommets/couplers will be pushed through each bucket, and then we will be linking them all together using the 1/2" black vinyl tubing. (black lines above).

then we will drill that same 13/16" hole an inch from the bottom of the reservoir and connect them all together. the dual outlet (cheapie) air pump is for the reservoir. hook up 2 lines to the pump, with 2 air stones on the other end, and drop them in the rez. keeping the rez bubbling is a good thing. the "rez" in this application really isn't "reserving" anything, i am simply calling it a rez, and it is just really a bucket with no plants/roots and you can access the water easily to check levels/add nutes. you could also just use another 5 gallon bucket for the rez.

 

the grommets are pretty cool, just drill your hole, and push it through, you will know when it is seated properly. then take one of the 1/2" connectors and shove that through the grommet. as i said, i am a little short on pics right now, so lets just pretend this red coffee container is a 5 gallon bucket:

 

this is how you make the "entry set-up". here we have our 5 gallon bucket, rubber grommet, and barbed coupler.

 

 

after you have your 13/16" hole as seen above, push your rubber grommet through. you will know when it is seated properly.

 

 

then push the barbed connector through as well.

 

 

and finally, attach your black vinyl tubing. i usually use a zip-tie here also, just for safety.

 

 

ok, get all 12 buckets built, get the first bucket in the chain connected to the rez, and the last bucket in the daisy chain to your 13th bucket.... the "control bucket" (smaller blue circle above). really this bucket isn't controlling a dang thing, we will just call it that. this bucket does absolutely nothing but hold a pump to pump water into the top of the rez. this keeps a constant flow of water, and kills 2 birds with one stone. moving water = more oxygen, and this also keeps everything stirred up constantly.

 

get your 2 commercial air pumps set up and run a 1/8" aquarium air line from the air pump through the lid of each grow bucket, all the way to the bottom, and attach a 6" air stone.

 

 

 

 

 

ok......... looks like we have everything set up. lmao... yeah right. anyways, this system is gravity fed. once everything is connected and tightened up, its time to fill the system. as you can see, filling the rez will allow water to flow through all 12 grow buckets and then into the control bucket. from the control bucket, it gets pumped into the rez and the cycle continues. so anyways, keep filling with water until you reach a level about 1/4 inch below the net pots. then make a mark inside your rez. this is your optimal water level and should be maintained daily. so everyday it is as simple as opening the rez, checking your ph/ec/ppm.... whatever you check, and then backfilling with water/nutes anything that evaporated or the plants drank. this is SO MUCH EASIER than checking all 12 grow buckets individually. and much easier to maintain proper ph/nute levels in one central rez as opposed to each bucket individually.

 

i am sure there will be hundreds of questions and i am sorry. i dont have my system set up so i cant take pics for a real step-by-step DIY tutorial, but the basics are here for now, i will be updating this in a couple weeks when i build my system so check back then. until then......... ask away and i will do my best to explain the cloudy points of it.

 

 

 

EDIT:

ADDED 8-9-2010

you can also eliminate the rez altoghter and use the control bucket for all checking/filling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDIT:

in the pic directly above instead of running those 2 lines into a tee and then into the control, i cut the tee out and ran one line to each side of the bucket. major flow increase.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not sure what im doing wrong. I have the 160gph pump(turned all the way down), 1/2"ID hose, but I cant get it to flow. It just fills the first bucket in line up and then I have to unplug the pump or it would overflow.

Any help would be appreciatied

[Grow Thread]

Not sure what im doing wrong. I have the 160gph pump(turned all the way down), 1/2"ID hose, but I cant get it to flow. It just fills the first bucket in line up and then I have to unplug the pump or it would overflow.

Any help would be appreciatied

 

this should help:

 

 

having 2 return lines to the control bucket helps tremendously as well.

[Grow Thread]

seems like she just wants to grow towards her interior....looks like I might have to set up some poor lighting and make her stretch a bit.....lol..never thought I would say I wanted to see stretch.

 

i have some chemo iranian like that right now

 

stout lil ladies..... they cute as a button but no height to them at all

[Jipo]

Not sure what im doing wrong. I have the 160gph pump(turned all the way down), 1/2"ID hose, but I cant get it to flow. It just fills the first bucket in line up and then I have to unplug the pump or it would overflow.

Any help would be appreciatied

 

I tried and tried to get it working right, it needs a tiny tiny water pump to circulate. Heres what I ended up doing. I took a 1/2" sprinkler riser and screwed that into my pump, then got a 8 outlet drip manifold, Apollo 8 to be specific, and ran 1/4 drip line to a drip stake in every net pot on my 8 bucket recirc from the control, I use a 290gph pump and it works flawless, water drips through the top of the bucket, and the bottom feeds it back and keeps all the buckets even.

[Grow Thread]

50,000

------------------------------------------------------

 

+rep to everyone.

[BubbleBerryKush]

wow the site was down for a while...glad to see its back!!!

 

Now on to my question.....I guess I am running into the gift and the curse of DWC buckets, I think my root mass is getting too big, my air pump (eco air #5) does not seem to be moving enough air, I think the root masses are engulfing all the bubbles. Am I going crazy, or does this happen to everyone in this type of system, is it to be expected?

 

when I started, the air was moving the water around and now my rootmass is so big that it seems like I am getting much less movement...

[Jipo]

wow the site was down for a while...glad to see its back!!!

 

Now on to my question.....I guess I am running into the gift and the curse of DWC buckets, I think my root mass is getting too big, my air pump (eco air #5) does not seem to be moving enough air, I think the root masses are engulfing all the bubbles. Am I going crazy, or does this happen to everyone in this type of system, is it to be expected?

 

when I started, the air was moving the water around and now my rootmass is so big that it seems like I am getting much less movement...

 

I've noticed that too, however its still the same amount of air being injected, its getting trapped in the root mass which probably isn't a bad thing, I haven't noticed any issues or anything with any of my dwc buckets, all 16 in flower or 8 in veg.

[Grow Thread]

wow the site was down for a while...glad to see its back!!!

 

Now on to my question.....I guess I am running into the gift and the curse of DWC buckets, I think my root mass is getting too big, my air pump (eco air #5) does not seem to be moving enough air, I think the root masses are engulfing all the bubbles. Am I going crazy, or does this happen to everyone in this type of system, is it to be expected?

 

when I started, the air was moving the water around and now my rootmass is so big that it seems like I am getting much less movement...

 

 

 

I've noticed that too, however its still the same amount of air being injected, its getting trapped in the root mass which probably isn't a bad thing, I haven't noticed any issues or anything with any of my dwc buckets, all 16 in flower or 8 in veg.

 

 

------------------------

 

yeah all is well.

 

it's like jipo said.... we are forcing air into the water.

 

natural bodies of water like lakes, rivers ect depend on movement for oxygenation but thats not the case here. since we are pumping air into the water, there doesnt have to be movement to maintain air.

 

you may not be able to physically see the water swirling around anymore, but there is still plenty of air in there.

 

often times, when i let one get real big and keep it in a 10gal tote throughout its entire life cycle i have to stick my hand in and move the huge 10lb root mass out of the way just to make sure the stone isnt clogged

 

there was definitely no visible bubbles in this 5gal bucket

 

[Grow Thread]

just sippin' the morning java and figured i'd throw a few thoughts and ideas out there.

 

rdwc

 

 

 

there seems to be some confusion with the newer folks just putting these things together and getting them dialed in.

 

the recirculating part of the system isnt as important as what you think. its important sure........ it makes life easier for us, but thats really about all it is doing for us.

 

many people are trying to shoot water through at 100mph and thats just not needed. moving water = oxygenated water...... no denying that. but we are also pumping air at the plant roots from an outside source and that gives us plenty of grow power. the recirclulating part just makes our jobs 10 times easier, and can save a lot of headaches and money.

 

rather than fill 8 buckets (or whatever) separately we can link them all together and then just fill the control bucket and have it slowly pumped into the system to mix with all the other water/nutes/plant sites and then it lazily returns via gravity back to the control bucket and the process repeats. also, if your water is a bit warm, you can throw a frozen jug of water in the control bucket and it will cool the water as it is being pumped out to the plants. this is a very easy/cheap way to properly maintain many plants from one spot rather than tending to each plant individually........... and thats really all it is. it doesnt have anything to do with the growth of the plant. they will grow with or without the control bucket/recirculation.

 

the smaller the water pump, the better off you will be. this will allow for the buckets to fill/drain easier and more uniformed. remember we are working with gravity here and you cant speed up gravity.

 

after adding fresh water/nutes to your system it may take a few hours or even an entire overnight period for everything to mix itself up well enough to take another accurate reading. it seems that people are thinking the faster they can get the control bucket to pump itself empty the faster things will mix up....... well that may be true, but you cannot pump water out of the control bucket faster than gravity fills it back up. a smaller, adjustable water pump is better than a 2hp johnson. obviously if you are linking 20-30-40 plant sites together you are going to be dealing with more water. more water means more weight. more weight means that gravity is going to move a bit quicker for us and you can probably use a larger pump. (still not the 2hp johnson though ) this is why i like the adjustable water pumps for this application.

 

have patience. let the water sloooowly pump out of the control bucket and into the system......... no need to rush things...... its not gonna help the plant grow any faster or stronger. plus having your water whipping through the buckets at 100mph isnt doing the plant roots any favors.