Vertical DIY LED recirculating hydro... thing

MacGydro

Gum Wrapper Grows
Hello fellow hunters!

This is my first attempt at a "journal". I'm normally not one to document and update on a regular basis, but I'll give it a shot. I've been enjoying the journals here, so figured I'd start one of my own for others entertainment.

Pics will be from past runs, and hopefully present and future progress as well.

I've been a fan of vertical growing since reading the forum legends and teachings of folks like Heath Robinson and others.
I'm just a small scale hobby grower, doing it for the love of the plant, and the fun of working to continuously improve my own product, and garden setup.

The veg area is a 2x4 tent with up to 360 watts of DIY LED fixtures- a 120w horizontal veg light, and a 240w vertical preflower light. The plants are in small net pots or sawed off 2 liter bottles, in a flood and drain tray.

The flower tent is a 3x3, with a DIY 480w vertical LED strip fixture. All fixtures are 3500k, Chinese Samsung LM561C, and were built about 3 years ago.
The tent (barely) holds 8 plants in 2 gallon pots, nested in sawed off 4 gallon water cooler bottles.
The reservoir is a ~17 gallon cement mixing tub.
Water is pumped from the rez via a 1200gph submersible pump up through a central manifold, top fed to the 8 sites, down through the water cooler bottles, through a 2 inch PVC drain manifold, and back to the rez. Timer is set to a minute on, an hour off.

What goes in the water is pretty simple, if I can help it. Currently, it's just Megacrop, pH down, and pool shock.
I had been using orca and enzymes, but my water is regularly 80-90f+, and they just had too hard of a time keeping up.
I never lost anything to root rot, but I've switched to pool shock for a change.

Strains I run vary as much as possible, but generally all share the same rez and feed strength. I like all different effects, depending on time of day and mood. The stuff I've been running lately includes varieties from Bodhi, Schwaggy P, Bad Dawg, and some personal crosses.

I guess that's about all the pertinent details I can think of for now, but if I skipped something important, lemme know.

Now onto a few pics, but fair warning, I don't have a bunch of beautiful flower shots like a lot of you guys... Mostly some boring ass veg and early flower shots for now :confused:

Here's the veg area until recently... Moved a bunch of stuff, and currently it's pretty pathetic and empty... Time to pop more beans I guess lol


IMG_20200724_112735~2.jpg

And here's a shot of the flower tent. You can't see everything obviously, but to give you an idea, strains are as follows; counter clockwise, starting with the front left, furthest along, which is a Bodhi Dread Bread. Next is a small Heavenly Hashplant, then Sky Lotus, both by Bodhi. Rear left is a Knights Templar V2 by Motarebel. Rear right is a cross I made, that I call Spring Training. It's a Florida OG crossed with an Ace Golden Tiger. Right side rear is a Skunky VD by Schwaggy P, then a Pillow Book by Bodhi, and another Skunky VD in the front right bucket.

IMG_20200726_000412.jpg

Here's a few closer shots of Dread Bread, Sky Lotus, Knights Templar (C99BX1 x Herijuana), and Spring Training in that order. The poor Dread Bread had some rough times till about half way through flower, but she should turn out ok.

Dread Bread
IMG_20200723_234736.jpg

Sky Lotus
IMG_20200723_235003.jpg

Knights Templar
IMG_20200723_231646.jpg

Spring Training
IMG_20200723_232352.jpg
 
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spyralout

🌱🌿🌲🔥💨
Staff member
Administrator
Moderator
Hello fellow hunters!

This is my first attempt at a "journal". I'm normally not one to document and update on a regular basis, but I'll give it a shot. I've been enjoying the journals here, so figured I'd start one of my own for others entertainment.

Pics will be from past runs, and hopefully present and future progress as well.

I've been a fan of vertical growing since reading the forum legends and teachings of folks like Heath Robinson and others.
I'm just a small scale hobby grower, doing it for the love of the plant, and the fun of working to continuously improve my own product, and garden setup.

The veg area is a 2x4 tent with up to 360 watts of DIY LED fixtures- a 120w horizontal veg light, and a 240w vertical preflower light. The plants are in small net pots or sawed off 2 liter bottles, in a flood and drain tray.

The flower tent is a 3x3, with a DIY 480w vertical LED strip fixture. All fixtures are 3500k, Chinese Samsung LM561C, and were built about 3 years ago.
The tent (barely) holds 8 plants in 2 gallon pots, nested in sawed off 4 gallon water cooler bottles.
The reservoir is a ~17 gallon cement mixing tub.
Water is pumped from the rez via a 1200gph submersible pump up through a central manifold, top fed to the 8 sites, down through the water cooler bottles, through a 2 inch PVC drain manifold, and back to the rez. Timer is set to a minute on, an hour off.

What goes in the water is pretty simple, if I can help it. Currently, it's just Megacrop, pH down, and pool shock.
I had been using orca and enzymes, but my water is regularly 80-90f+, and they just had too hard of a time keeping up.
I never lost anything to root rot, but I've switched to pool shock for a change.

Strains I run vary as much as possible, but generally all share the same rez and feed strength. I like all different effects, depending on time of day and mood. The stuff I've been running lately includes varieties from Bodhi, Schwaggy P, Bad Dawg, and some personal crosses.

I guess that's about all the pertinent details I can think of for now, but if I skipped something important, lemme know.

Now onto a few pics, but fair warning, I don't have a bunch of beautiful flower shots like a lot of you guys... Mostly some boring ass veg and early flower shots for now :confused:

Here's the veg area until recently... Moved a bunch of stuff, and currently it's pretty pathetic and empty... Time to pop more beans I guess lol


View attachment 18802

And here's a shot of the flower tent. You can't see everything obviously, but to give you an idea, strains are as follows; counter clockwise, starting with the front left, furthest along, which is a Bodhi Dread Bread. Next is a small Heavenly Hashplant, then Sky Lotus, both by Bodhi. Rear left is a Knights Templar V2 by Motarebel. Rear right is a cross I made, that I call Spring Training. It's a Florida OG crossed with an Ace Golden Tiger. Right side rear is a Skunky VD by Schwaggy P, then a Pillow Book by Bodhi, and another Skunky VD in the front right bucket.

View attachment 18803

Here's a few closer shots of Dread Bread, Sky Lotus, Knights Templar (C99BX1 x Herijuana), and Spring Training in that order. The poor Dread Bread had some rough times till about half way through flower, but she should turn out ok.

Dread Bread
View attachment 18805

Sky Lotus
View attachment 18807

Knights Templar
View attachment 18809

Spring Training
View attachment 18808
Very well written and easy to follow. Thank you for sharing with us. Glad to see another hydro grower on board, it seems like it's getting more scarce these days. I love hydro. I also like coco & soil but hydro is my passion. Your semi NFT setup is very interesting. Would love to see more detail about it. 1200GPH pump is no joke lol. May be one of the reasons why your water is so warm. As long as it works for you then it's all good. I am going to try pool shock next run in my F&Ds instead of bennies. I am also having a hard time with heat, since there is no chiller for the F&Ds.
 

MacGydro

Gum Wrapper Grows
Very well written and easy to follow. Thank you for sharing with us. Glad to see another hydro grower on board, it seems like it's getting more scarce these days. I love hydro. I also like coco & soil but hydro is my passion. Your semi NFT setup is very interesting. Would love to see more detail about it. 1200GPH pump is no joke lol. May be one of the reasons why your water is so warm. As long as it works for you then it's all good. I am going to try pool shock next run in my F&Ds instead of bennies. I am also having a hard time with heat, since there is no chiller for the F&Ds.

Thanks man, I appreciate it, and I'll try to keep things updated so it's interesting.

I'm all about the hydro for the most part too, but I've snuck some dirt and coco in here and there... Even put them in the hydro system, as a hybrid thing. I just like tinkering with the systems, and trying to get the most results from the least resources. Love to upcycle and hack stuff to fit garden, hence the user name ?

Any details you wanna know more about, lemme know.

The pump isn't the reason for the heat-it's not air conditioned, and it's not in a basement, so it's generally whatever temperature it is outside, plus a few degrees from the light. The pumps only come on for a minute every hour.

The flower pump is just a submersible pump like you might find in a basement.

The veg pump is also rated a supposed 1100gph, and is actually a bilge pump for a boat. It's DC, and fit everything i was looking for at the time- powerful, small, and pumps from the bottom, down to like 1/2" of water. The best part was that it was like $15 or something on Amazon. I also had to get a power supply, but I think it was still only like $30 total.

Most of my builds are from stuff you actually won't find at the hydro store, but more from home stores, or wherever I see something I think I can apply to the garden.

For pics sake, here's the Dread Bread from the tent, with her clone in the background, waiting to flower under the sun... She's also waiting for more food lol
IMG_20200801_102015.jpg
 

DopeDaniel

Taste The Spectrum
IPM Forum Moderator
Love me some outdoor hydro. 1st shot this year with strawberries in a f&d.
20200801_074613.jpg
Though they are srarting to fade/falter they have done way better than any I have had in soil.

Funny I think I need some of your hot water as cold temps are my suspect here. LOL welcome to pH.
 

MacGydro

Gum Wrapper Grows
Love me some outdoor hydro. 1st shot this year with strawberries in a f&d...
welcome to pH.

Thanks man, digging the strawberries! I should've tried some this year, but I'll get around to it...

So I brought some pics for a little update, and to illustrate the fork in the road I find myself at.

I'm seeing what look to be signs of deficiencies and excesses in different plants. No big surprise when you run genetics from both ends of the spectrum in the same rez, so now I'm deciding which step to take next.

I could bump the MC up, but I'm already at 5g/gal, and the more Sativa acting plants are already plenty green... But they also look like they may have a possible deficiency too.
I could just add Epsom salts to the rez at a tsp/gal for a magnesium boost.
Or I could drop nutes back to 4g/gal, and add Epsom.

Here's some pics and more info:

Left side and rear, right side and rear:

IMG_20200807_025609~2.jpg IMG_20200807_025519~2.jpg


Heavenly Hashplant, lighter green, with purpling petioles and streaking stalk. This is heavy Indica, being Bubba x 88g13hp

IMG_20200807_025615~2.jpg
Knights Templar v2, leaning heavy to her Sativa side. The tallest in the tent, you can see her fans, circled in red, acting like they're getting way too much N. They also tend to curl like this when they're higher than the best light, so it's tough to tell for sure. You can also see what look to be burnt tips, and rusty serrations.
Down at her bottoms, look to be deficient leaves. These are also down below the best light, so they could be wanting more there.
IMG_20200807_025633~2.jpg

The other most Sativa acting gal is the Spring Training. On her there's a little worse tip burn, and more rusty serrations. Leaves are plenty green, but I'm still not sure if she's looking like the beginning of a deficiency or excess...
IMG_20200807_025549~2.jpg

Here's a better lit pic of bottoms of both plants. You can see the yellow blotchiness better...
IMG_20200807_025657~2.jpg

I'll probably end up just adding the Epsom tonight, and watch for a few days, unless someone screams not to before then lol

Anyway, I'll get better individual pics for an update tonight.
 

MacGydro

Gum Wrapper Grows
Alrighty, so I took some closer shots the other night of the individual plants. The younger are around 2 weeks, and the older are about 6. For picture posting purposes, This post will have the 3 younger plants...

2wk Heavenly Hashplant:
IMG_20200808_022549~2.jpg

2wk Skunky VD:
IMG_20200808_022415~2.jpg

2wk Pillow Book:
IMG_20200808_022903~2.jpg
 

DopeDaniel

Taste The Spectrum
IPM Forum Moderator
Look at the container label if it says 3 in 1 or 4 in 1 or 7 in 1, balances pH, controls scale.....
Correct me if I am wrong you have the 52 or 54% ?
I found it was accumulated use that caused isssue, switched to 99% hypochlorite pH drift issue solved until I started using sulfuric for pH down, then adding silica has stabilized things. Point is the issues you are seeing I have seen myself when I had pH problems. The curl, tip burn, random signs of def on lowers. Some look like they have wet feet but I cant make that call without the plant in front of me. Did someone say this was a fun hobby? It must be.
 

MacGydro

Gum Wrapper Grows
Yep, 7 in 1, the number 2 in their series. 56% calcium hypochlorite. I'll have to check the pH and see if it's crazy when the lights are on.

It must be a fun hobby to keep with it through all the ups and downs... Wouldn't be nearly as fun if it was always perfect...I keep telling myself lol
 

MacGydro

Gum Wrapper Grows
Been way too long since I've been in here, so let's get on with the ups and downs...

I figured out through pics that my 6 weekers were actually at 7, and 2 have since come down, with Spring Training bringing up the rear, at 12 weeks, tomorrow.

The Sky Lotus came down first, at 9 1/2 weeks because I saw some mites on a lower branch, and the jar was getting low anyway.
IMG_20200825_184017.jpg IMG_20200906_140333.jpg

The next to come down was Knights Templar, at about 11 weeks. Saw some invaders on her lowers too, so she came down, got her last shower, and shes still hanging.
IMG_20200905_001128.jpg IMG_20200905_002127.jpg

Spring Training will likely come down in the next few days too, at 12+wks.
IMG_20200905_001538.jpg IMG_20200905_001609.jpg

The next round to come down will be the Heavenly Hashplant, Pillow Book pheno 1, and Skunky VD, which are at 7 weeks so far, I believe.
IMG_20200905_033703~2.jpg IMG_20200905_025737~2.jpg IMG_20200905_020741~2.jpg

The last 2 added, about 3 weeks ago, are Pillow Book pheno 2, and my lone Motor City Fighter gal. Looking forward to what she does!
IMG_20200905_033535~2.jpg

Unfortunately, because my propagation game sucks ass lately, I'm not sure when I'll get more gals in bloom again... Unless anything from outside needs to come in and finish.

I do have clones going, but they're all from different flowering plants, and will need to reveg.
I also have some new beans starting, which could be interesting.
There's a Zkittlez Glue bagseed, some unknown orange-y bagseed, and an unknown cross of Star Dragon, with a mystery father.
The father is one of the following, switched up as seeds:
Sky Lotus or Mango Hashplant, by Bodhi
Long bottom fighter or Chem D x Apollo 13, by Bad Dawg.
I wouldn't normally have popped these next, if my last two rounds hadn't crashed and burned, but here's hoping for happy accidents! Lol
There's probably gonna be a traffic jam in a couple months, when clones and seedlings are established, but I'll deal with that then.
 
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MacGydro

Gum Wrapper Grows
Things been moving along, some ups, some downs.... The downs mostly due to laziness on my part, so I'm all I have to blame!
Mites moved in after the aphids were beaten, thanks to my relaxation, so there's not many impressive pics lately... But ..
I do have a lot to catch up on.
Got some freshly trimmed pics of Heavenly Hashplant and Skunky VA x Skunky D, but no smoke reports yet.
Also got some contenders for next year swimming now (can't plan too early).
The seed projects seem to have taken, for the most part, now I just need to keep the moms alive till the beans are ripe. I'll likely be chickening out on the weather, and bringing the outdoor plants inside to finish the last couple weeks.
Here's the HHP and Skunky VA/D freshly trimmed, taken at 10 weeks:
HHP:
IMG_20201005_130812.jpg IMG_20201005_130821.jpg
Skunky VA x Skunky D:
IMG_20201005_130658.jpg IMG_20201005_130905.jpg

Flower is emptying, and I've got a big gap in veg right now, so new babies are imminent! Varieties will include:
AK x either Jungle party or Spring Training
Bubba Kush x either Jungle party or Spring Training
Heavenly Hashplant by Bodhi
Ortega durian x Snow Lotus by Bodhi
Skunky VA by Schwaggy
Skunky VA x Skunky D by Schwaggy
Star Dragon x ? Father (either Bodhi or Bad Dawg)
Candy Mac by Idlewilder
Star Pupil by MMS
Valedictorian by MMS
Lots of variety in the next few months... Chems, OGs, and purples, oh my!
 
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MacGydro

Gum Wrapper Grows
Cool stuff & it's always nice to see something different

Thanks man, yeah, there's always a lot of variety here.
It's mostly due to my shit luck at propagation lately. Haven't been able to clone to save my life, so been popping new beans for most runs.
Nothing in veg is flower size yet, so I'll be starting my first 12/12 from seed with a couple buckets of the AK and Bubba mystery crosses. There's some Golden Tiger in the genetics, so hopefully they'll fill out a bit.

I'm also on a bit of an unintentional purple hunt for now, and the foreseeable future.
I've got 2 different phenos of Pillow Book by Bodhi in flower, with a 3rd pheno in veg. The ones in flower are both purpling, but their smells are quite different. The pheno at 10+ weeks is a nice sweet blackberry, while the pheno at 6 weeks is garlic, almost Cajun seasoning like smell. Looking forward to both!
Also, thanks to Idlewilder, I'll be looking through those Candy Mac and MMS strains, which are all potentially potent purples.
All in all, it'll be fun to see how all the genetically different purples pan out.
Oh, I also pollinated a few buds of the 6 week Pillow Book last night with Skunky VA x Skunky D pollen. If they take after the mom or aunt, they should be some funky garlicky purples.
 

horribleherk

home grown
Thanks man, yeah, there's always a lot of variety here.
It's mostly due to my shit luck at propagation lately. Haven't been able to clone to save my life, so been popping new beans for most runs.
Nothing in veg is flower size yet, so I'll be starting my first 12/12 from seed with a couple buckets of the AK and Bubba mystery crosses. There's some Golden Tiger in the genetics, so hopefully they'll fill out a bit.

I'm also on a bit of an unintentional purple hunt for now, and the foreseeable future.
I've got 2 different phenos of Pillow Book by Bodhi in flower, with a 3rd pheno in veg. The ones in flower are both purpling, but their smells are quite different. The pheno at 10+ weeks is a nice sweet blackberry, while the pheno at 6 weeks is garlic, almost Cajun seasoning like smell. Looking forward to both!
Also, thanks to Idlewilder, I'll be looking through those Candy Mac and MMS strains, which are all potentially potent purples.
All in all, it'll be fun to see how all the genetically different purples pan out.
Oh, I also pollinated a few buds of the 6 week Pillow Book last night with Skunky VA x Skunky D pollen. If they take after the mom or aunt, they should be some funky garlicky purples.
I have the opposite problem in that I clone good but have rotten results at popping seeds
 
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