My first hydro grow - Critical Orange Punch autoflower

[john818]

Hi again!

Yesterday evening marked the start of Week 7 of flower, and I did a complete drain/fill of my system. Like the previous drain/fill, I prepared a new nutrient solution in a tote prior to draining. I prepared the new nutrient solution at about 75% of the manufacturer’s recommended concentration, and refrained from adding bloom-boosters like “Big Bud” or “Overdrive” that were present last time. I did include “Bud Candy” at 75% the recommended concentration for mature plants (1.5mL/L). The solution ended landing around 1000ppm which is what I was aiming for, awesome!

Additionally, I added some CalMag in response to the previously described condition of a number of fan leaves. Over the last few days, the condition worsened slightly. I would not describe the condition as severe, but obviously, we want to avoid any undue stress to our plants! It does seem like the plant is demonstrating a lack of calcium and/or magnesium and given that the solution PH and temperature all are within a healthy range, I don’t believe it to be a locked out. Therefore, I decided to add 2mL/L of CalMag in hopes of seeing a positive response.

Finally, I added some Hydroguard. I’ll be out of town this weekend and tasking my wife with topping off my system as-needed with PH’d water. I’ll ask her to adopt my frozen water bottle regiment, but she may be out of the house one night as well, so I thought adding some Hydroguard may be a good safety precaution in case the solution temp climbs a bit outside the safe zone.

After filling my system with the pre-mixed nutrient solution and allowing it to circulate a while, I measured PPM at about 1050 which is a nice improvement over last drain/fill. I put more effort into getting as much of the old nutrient solution out as I could, which seems to have been successful. I’m definitely looking forward to my next run where I’ll incorporate a better system for draining!

When I checked PH this morning, it was quite high at arount 6.2, so I added some PH down. I’ll check it again when I get home from work and throughout the next couple days before I’m away. I understand calcium uptake occurs within 5.5 to 5.9 pH range, so I want to be within that in hopes of improving my plant’s condition.

I’ll share some photos later today. Have a good one, ILGM!

[john818]

Sorry I forgot to share photos after my last post!

Yesterday marked the start of Week 8 for my autoflower. I inspected the trichomes using a USB Microscope and it looks like she’s not quite ready for harvest yet. Here are a couple of the better pictures I was able to get… not an easy task!

As you can see, there is a a little bit of amber but mostly milkly / clear-ish trichomes.

So I’m going to do another flush/fill tonight with fresh nutrients, and keep a close eye on trichomes throughout this week. I intend on doing a full week of plain water flushing with RO water. I just picked up the last couple fittings I need to plumb the RO system in my workshop. Because the water pressure out there is only 30-35psi (kinda long run from the house in 3/4" PEX) I am boosting it with a pump. Once I plumb this together I’ll share a photo.

Here is how the plant was looking this morning.

The issue of spotting/yellowing on my leaves has not stopped, but I don’t think I have much to be worried about at this point in the grow, or at least I hope not! The plant is still overall very green. I’m wondering if maybe the plant is suffering from some heat stress as it was very close to the LED lights which I had turned up to 100% strength. The temp/rh sensor/logger I have is positioned below the canopy, so that is not giving me a true reading for the temperature and humidity at the budsites. I did the “hand test” and felt it was too hot so I turned the light dial down to around 70%.

We’re tentatively at one more week of nutrient feeding, then one week of plain RO water flushing, then HARVEST!! Exciting!!

[john818]

Happy Monday ILGM!!

Harvesting Time
I’m coming up on the original estimated date of harvest, but trichomes are telling me to wait!! I checked this morning and seeing a little more cloudy, but still not as much amber as I’d like. I’ll try to snap some more pics tonight!

Flushing??
I’ve been doing some reading on “to flush, or not to flush” and it seems like it is one of the areas of growing that has no strong consensus. Since I do not have enough experience to accurately predict the date of harvest, and because there is no strong evidence for or against flushing, I think this run I am going to forego it.

New Setup!!
The most exciting grow-related news for me is that just last night, I ordered the parts for my next hydro setup. I am specifically seeking to address a couple major and a couple minor shortcomings of my current setup. Those are:

• Water temps climbing / tedious to manage (many frozen water bottles!!)
• Inadequate circulation of nutrient solution (cannot run pump often enough due to temps)
• Plant sites are undersized
• Draining could be easier

I ordered all my new parts from PA Hydroponics. I found their YouTube videos very helpful and I get the impression they are a small business operated by a real enthusiast (Gary). Those things matter to me, and thus they earned my business.

I opted for (3) 8 gallon square buckets where (2) will be inside the tent and (1) outside for a controller bucket / reservoir. I picked up the 1/10 HP chiller which given its sizing for 10-40 gallon systems, I think it will work well! I’m going to run a few Active Aqua pumps, all of which will be run as “inline” pumps. One pump will be dedicated to the chiller, which will only be plumbed into the res. Another pump on the opposite side of the res will be responsible for pumping water to each grow site in the “Fallponic” manner. I hope to be able to run this pump 24/7 to keep the nutes circulating and well-agitated, without temps climbing too high thanks to the chiller. Finally, a third pump will be dedicated to draining. Both grow sites will have bottom drains, tee’d together, with a ball valve in the run to the drain pump. I picked up a 3/4 NPT to garden hose adapter for the drain pump’s outlet, so when its time to drain I’ll just connect a garden hose, open the ball valve and kick that puppy on. For return plumbing, I’m using 3" PVC following Gary’s recommendation. I picked up some aquarium filter material that I intend to put in the “mouth” of the bulkheads in each grow site to help keep the roots from invading.

I’m super excited for these parts to arrive and I’ll be sure to share some pics when I start setting it up!

Thanks all, have a great week

[john818]

Tuesday Trichome pics!

I estimate that I am 56 days, or 8 weeks into Flowering. I originally anticipated an 8 week flowering period, but it looks like she wont be ready for at least another week, heck maybe even two or three!

Here are some tric pics I snapped last night with a USB microscope

The last pic there is the largest cola at the “top” of the plant, which is showing the most cloudy trics of all them all. As you can see in the other two pics, there are still a lot of mostly clear trics, so harvesting will have to wait.

I’m a bit anxious about the harvesting window as I have a brief out-of-state trip coming up the weekend following the 4th. Ideally, I’ll be able to harvest early that week (e.g., 7/4/23) and leave for a few days while the plant drying in my other tent.

I’m going to do another drain/refill tomorrow and keep the same nutrient schedule, around 75% strength. I may dial it back a bit for the week that follows that, but haven’t decided.

I’ve read that some folks do around 48 hours of darkness prior to harvest. If anyone has experience with this and cares to chime in, I’d love to hear some opinions.

Lastly, the parts I ordered from PA Hydroponics shipped yesterday, super quick!! They’ll be here tomorrow so I’m excited to open them up and start building!! Big shouts to PA Hydroponics for the quick shipping and awesome YouTube content.

Thanks for reading ILGM!

[Graysin]

@john818

“to flush, or not to flush” and it seems like it is one of the areas of growing that has no strong consensus

The biggest reason to do a pre-harvest flush is to save yourself money on nutrients for the two weeks leading up to the chop.

I don’t bother, never really have. Some swear by it, others can’t tell a difference.

@john818

Water temps climbing / tedious to manage (many frozen water bottles!!)

Yep.

@john818

ordered all my new parts from PA Hydroponics

They have a ton of highly instructional videos. I learned a lot about a DIY setup through watching their stuff.

@john818

(3) 8 gallon square buckets where (2) will be inside the tent and (1) outside for a controller bucket / reservoir

Let me suggest using a larger bucket outside the tent as the control/reservoir. Once you adjust for water levels, your 8 gals will be more like 4-ish per bucket, meaning your system will still be under-sized (not enough water to keep the reservoir pH and PPMs stable). An 8gal bucket is beautiful for a plant, but you can go bigger outside the tent for more reservoir room. I used a 27 gallon tote as my external reservoir and only had to pH adjust once or twice a week.

@john818

Finally, a third pump will be dedicated to draining

Definitely the easiest way to get water out of the reservoir to be able to clean and reset the system.

[Graysin]

@john818

I’m a bit anxious about the harvesting window as I have a brief out-of-state trip coming up the weekend following the 4th. Ideally, I’ll be able to harvest early that week (e.g., 7/4/23) and leave for a few days while the plant drying in my other tent.

Definitely. If you cut her down on the 3rd, let the temperature and RH stabilize overnight, and check parameters on the 4th before you leave the next day, you’ll be golden. You want a little time to make sure airflow and circulator are maximized though.

@john818

I’ve read that some folks do around 48 hours of darkness prior to harvest. If anyone has experience with this and cares to chime in, I’d love to hear some opinions

There’s a video out there from Dr Bruce Bugbee, major lighting geek and super scientist when it comes to lighting and marijuana. He suggested to do 48 hours of light, as opposed to dark, and said something to the effect that “48 hours of darkness is actually harmful.”

Most of our practices from cannabis growing are either old wives’ tales or they’re from Bugbee’s science, so it’s generally a mish-mash of both. I try to shift myself away from the old wives’ tales and more toward the science when the science becomes available.

[john818]

Hey @Graysin thanks a bunch for the replies! I was reading your “seeds in rockwool” thread the other day and enjoyed it – haven’t made it all the way through yet, but enjoying it nonetheless! I got the impression that I’m at a similar place to where you started out, eager to learn from the experienced people on this forum. So I appreciate you chiming in here!

I used a 27 gallon tote as my external reservoir and only had to pH adjust once or twice a week.

Heck ya, thanks for the advice! I actually have an unused tote that would be perfect for this. I didn’t think about sizing the buckets differently inside vs outside… duh! Makes total sense.

Are you growing in a RDWC type setup now? Sorry if you’ve already answered this in this thread or elsewhere. I’ll be doing what Gary (PA Hydro) calls “Fallponic” – not sure if that’s an “industry term” or his own lingo. Either way, I’m excited to give it a try. I’m hopeful that the constant recirculation of the nutrient solution will benefit my plants on the next run.

I’ve got it on my agenda to do some research into preferred methods and nuances of draining and refilling. Personally I’ve been mixing up a new solution in a separate tote and pumping that into my system via transfer pump, but wonder if I should instead just fill my system with water and add nutrients with the pumps running. My fear with that approach is the roots getting a sudden hit of highly concentrated nutrients, hence why I’ve gone about it as I described.

Plant Update
Here’s a few pics of the plant I snapped this morning! The buds are feeling SO dense and starting to get pretty frosty!!! I had a bud snap off a lower branch last week that I let dry for a bit for an “early preview” and despite the lack of a proper cure, it was pretty nice! Definitely feeling optimistic about the quality of the rest of the plant after a proper flowering time and cure.

Anyhow, here’s a few pics! Yeah there is some burning on the leaves… I don’t know if its nute burn or light burn. PPM’s have been under control since I’ve been doing weekly flushes so I wonder if its light related. I turned the lights down a bit, as the bud sites are0 really close to the LEDs. Obviously not a good thing, but nothing I can do about it now. Next run will be photos that I’ll train and scrog!

Thanks for reading ILGM – I hope to be sharing a successful harvest very soon

[john818]

THE TIME HAS COME ILGM!!!

The plant trics are telling me she’s ready and at the perfect time – I have tomorrow off from work and headed out of state for a couple days on Thursday. So I’ll be harvesting / wet trimming tomorrow and beginning the drying process.

Here’s a recent photo of the plant:

It has been wicked damp here in northern VT and humidity in the 80s and 90s so I’ve been worried about how to control humidity in the drying tent while I’m away. I decided to relocate my drying tent out in my workshop where it stays nice and cool thanks to the building being mostly below grade, and the building has a floor drain so I can drain the dehumidifier into that.

I prepared the drying tent and environment yesterday afternoon. I removed the upper portion of the drying tent frame and tied a few lines of string from which I’ll hang branches.

I then reassembled the tent out in my workshop. I kicked on the dehumidifier to do a “test run” and make sure it was up for the task of keeping this environment under control. When I checked this morning, the tent humidity was right at 55%, perfect!

Inside the tent, I have a tower fan pointed at the wall to avoid direct airflow on the buds. I have a small dehumidifer running in there as well, and may add a second. I have the inside dehumidifier controlled by an Inkbird controller (visible on the outside of the tent, top right in the previous photo). I left the two duct openings open to promote some air exchange during this process.

So tomorrow is the day! Harvest day! Wahoo!!

Have a safe, fun and happy 4th everyone! Thanks to everyone to helped me make it to this milestone!!!

[john818]

I hope everyone had a great 4th! I sure did!!

Here’s the last photo of my plant before choppin’ her down

Close up to give perspective on trunk size

Look at this root mass!!! Totally consumed all space within these buckets. Lesson learned these buckets were WAY too small!!

But wait there’s more!

Lesson learned on bucket size and circulation design
I actually did switch to plain water on Friday 6/30 but it turns out the roots were blocking the 2" PVC pipe. This explains why the plant was showing some signs of nutrient defiency / nutrient lock that never seemed to change despite my efforts. It turns out that the grow site bucket was more or less isolated from the rest of the system with very VERY little circulation. Not good! But for my first time growing hydroponically, overall it went good. The way I plumbed this sytem was fundamentally flawed where the middle bucket housed the pump and “pushed” water out into the two adjacent buckets. Each of those buckets has a vertical spout inside that would only allow water to return to the middle bucket once it was above that point. These were two bad design choices (bucket size being a third bad choice) that I will learn from and not repeat on my next grow!

Back to the fun stuff
Trimming station! I started with the big fun nugs. My wife was gone for most the day so I stationed up in the kitchen, poured some coffee, and trimmed away while listening to some podcasts. It was a lovely, relaxing 4th for me!

After trimming all the big nugs, I weighed them wet to give me a number to compare against after I’m done curing. Hard to see in the photo, but it reads 1 pound 14.2 oz of wet flower.

Here’s the pile about to go out to the drying tent

This is the biggest nug from the harvest that came from the kola atop the trunk of the plant:

Heading out to the drying tent, I had to take a photo in direct sunlight!

I ended up trimming some of the smaller stuff and hanging it on clothing hangers but the rest of the plant (from the previous photos here) is strung up on the string I added to the tent structure in my previous post:

I have the humidity controller set to 50% for the tent with two small dehumidifiers running in there with a big dehumidifier outside the tent controlling the rest of the enclosed space. The tower fan in the corner of the tent is NOT oscillating and is pointed into the corner to prevent any direct breeze on the nugs, whilst ensuring some air movement. I also moved my wireless temp/humidity sensor/logger in there so I can keep an eye on it while I’m away for a few days. Since closing up the tent around 1PM yesterday, the humidity has kept rock solid between 51-54% so I’m happy about that.

I expect the buds will be done drying by Tuesday, 7/11 at which point they’ll begin curing. Hoping to have some nicely cured buds to enjoy by my birthday in mid August

Next up, I’m SUPER excited to build my new hydro setup!! I think I’ll start a new thread for that one.

Thanks for reading ILGM!!

[john818]

After drying, I ended up with a little over 6oz of bud, or about 20% of the ~30oz wet. The wet weight including some substantial stems and the dry weight was as trimmed nuggets. I’m happy with it!!

The bud is now curing in mason jars. I categorized the nugs for fun. And for science, of course

Just a few weeks of curing left!

[Darkeligos]

Love it! How’d it turn out?

[john818]

Aye thanks for following up! Bud quality is OK, the best I’ve grown but not where I’d like it to be. Some of the buds are foxtailed pretty bad, which isn’t surprising given what I observed during harvesting (namely the grow site bucket was not getting any circulation, so was likely badly nute locked)

I spent the last few months overhauling my grow setup and am excited to start another run soon! If you’d like to follow along, here’s the thread: My second hydro run - 2 site RDWC in a 2x4... with an external reservoir!