So this is my first dwc grow. I am on week 3 . I plan on putting a scrog screen in this weekend. My question: is this normal for them to grow so short and stalky? I’m just wondering how tall I should make the scrog screen. I was going to make it 20” from the top of my buckets but at the rate it’s growing I wonder if they will get that tall. So anyone with experience running dwc out of 5 gallon buckets, what are your thoughts? Will they get taller? How tall should I make the scrog sceen? As always Much appreciated !
What strain- gg4 and runt’s from ilgm
Method: Hydroponics, Deep water culture in 5 gallon buckets
Mars 5x5 grow tent with mars hydro 800 watt bar light
PH of Water, 5.8
PPM/TDS 1400ppm
Indoor grow tent
*general hydroponics trio, genera hydroponics floralicous, rapid root starter , cal mag
Temps; Day, 68 night-70 day
Humidity;
Ventilation system; In-line fan 6 inch witb carbon filter, in-line fan to bring cold air in from air conditioner
It’s also time to do a little selective removal of primary leaves: this will elongate side branches and open plant up to more air and light.
A couple of other observations:
More than likely this is going to cause trouble unless you are able to stay on top of them daily: Plants will drink a gallon or more a day, causing the liquid level to drop dramatically. This means you are adding nutes daily. Adding a reservoir eliminates that.
IMO too high: in veg you want to be around 900 ppm in veg and around 1,100 ppm in flower with the GH product line. Silica is a good addition as this helps support strong stems and all trichomes are composed of silica.
No need to run this until mid flower: expensive and not recommended for DWC as it’s organic.
Also the exhale bags really do nothing? That’s such a disappointment I really thought those worked on my previous grow but I have not other references. What do I need to give my girls the c02 they need?
Running CO2 effectively requires a sealed room, pressure tank and regulator, generally hydroponic to push high salt levels and finally insane amounts of light. Due to the high CO2 environment heat is built up and also requires special air handling. It’s expensive and finicky but can produce huge plants.
Exhale bags simply don’t produce enough gas to add anything to the grow space. You’d be as well off just sitting in your grow space and breathing lol.
I remove large fans that I can’t tuck, anything that is down in contact with the substrate and at week three of flower I strip the lower third of the plant and remove most fan leaves. One more defoliation at around day forty five of flower. Just before harvest I remove most leaves simply to make wet trimming easier.
I would recommend looking at other journals; in particular…
Hey @matty777 they are looking good. I run the DWC as well without a reservoir. I tried a Scrooge screen once and it did work well. My only issue was when I wanted to drain my buckets to refresh the water.
The Runts I grew were a bit compact so you may need to lift them a few inches to even out your canopy.
If you use a scrog you may want to raise all your buckets to better drain them.
How much should I ease them? Also I’ve been wondering how I am going to change the water when they are big. I bought a water transfer pump. Is that what you use?
I would raise them about 3-4 inches. Then you can twist your water level tubes and drain the last couple of inches of your bucket into a oil drain pan or something that you can place under them.
Looks ok for week 3 to me. This is what you want. Lots of nodes to wrap around the net. I don’t use the net until they’re 14" or so. I’ve gone lower, but less yield in my cases. If you want to get me to reply faster, you have to put @skgrower then I see your reply.
@OldSkunk these are going on week 4 and I just cannot get them to stretch. I’m going to put a scrog net but they are growing to short and stalky. You can see the stalks. I put the light as far up as it would go and have it turned down to 40% and they still won’t stretch. What should I do ? Will they stretch when switched to flower? Also when should I switch to flower? As always much appreciated.
If they’re not autos, they will stretch. Autos stretch when they want. Once you get the plants tied down to the net…switch to 12/12. Are the leaves drooping from just turning lights on? They don’t look real happy @matty777
How often do you replace your water completely with a new fill? When was the last time you changed the water?
Do you check the pH of your buckets before adding more between replacing completely?
Your pH will drift between adding more water/nutrients. Always check pH of buckets and adjust before adding more water/nutrients.
Check your roots and make sure they are happy. Use Hydroguard to protect your roots. They will power your flowering.
I change my water weekly. When I feed I completely empty and clean. I also use hydro gaurd. The girls are actually doing much better . It was a light issue( too much light). That mars hydro 800 watt is no joke , had to turn it down to 15% to get the girls to stretch. As of now roots are white as snow and the girls are stretching to the light. As you can see they are doing much better .
Yup, I have the same Hyphotonflux light, I did the same with my first grow, the plants stayed short and bushy but produced a lot more flower than I expected for a 24" plants. About 30% on the dimmer, 30" above canopy in seedling stage, slowly raise the light strength as veg continues. 50% in 1st - 2nd. Weeks of flower. weeks 3 - harvest I went to 70%. Some say that they have never been above 50% with the Hyphotonflux HPF-4000
