DWC bubble buckets, 3 strains. Maiden voyage with all water hydro.

This is my first purely water hydro grow. I've grown with ProMix and 3 gallon containers for some time now and felt ready for the switch. I was hesitant at first but I'm glad not to hand water every two days, and the growth is explosive.
Gear:
8 Home Depot 5 gallon buckets (wrapped in foil tape)
4 A. I. T. 9" airstones (tubes)
10" net baskets, clay pebbles
black air lines
hydrofarm air pump
1,000w Nanolux
oscillating fan

2 purple erkle
1 kandy kush
1 sour d

Nute recipe - 4-4.5gallons of RO water (since day one into bucket):
1tsp Protekt
1-2Tbsp calmag
4Tbsp BC Boost
2Tbsp BC Grow
1Tbsp Root 66 (only 2 weeks veg)
1tsp Dark Energy (every other bucket change, buckets changed every week)
1-2Tbsp Sugar Daddy

Recipe seems like a lot to have to measure, but with RO water I'm comfortable with this mix during veg. The Protekt brings the ph down some, and the rest balances it right where it needs to be. The ppm is right around 1000-1100 with out burn or deficiency. A couple days after bucket changes I'll throw in a half scoop of great white now that roots are established. These things are rocking it, the A. I. T. air lines are very nice. I think the "Air Injection Technology" name is kind of a gimmick, but they do the job well.

I'll try to keep this up to date as possible.
12-25

1-24

I'll keep it updated with info and pics but not daily. In between updates I assume to answer questions and reply to comments. If you've grown in bubble buckets yourself tips are highly welcomed. My last run had six plants (4 purple erkles, pineapple express, stacked kush) in promix under the one nanolux (first time with a 1k watt) and with the same nute recipe the yield was 28.8oz dry. I really surprised myself because I would have been happy with averaging 4oz each since I've only used 600w ballasts before. I'm only using that as a reference for the growth against only four plants under the same light.

I listed having 8 buckets but am growing 4 plants. This makes water changing easy until I get grommets and elbows installed. When I thats done I'll have something to set the buckets on so that they're up off the floor a couple of inches for draining.

I'm thinking of flipping them to bloom in the next week. If I can install grommets and elbows I'll put a screen over them and veg two more weeks. So far they're at one month exactly.

Good job even if you supercrop them to use up more of that space would be good or if you don't want to do high stress training drill some screw around the pots and do some LST will give the lower growth a chance to catch up and give you a even canopy all the best looking forward to see the girls in flower

Thanks for stopping by DirtyNerd. I'll keep your LST tip in mind as later today I'm going to test fit grommets and elbows on a spare bucket. I was going to use tomato cages but we're late into winter in our location and they were packed away in the shed. My idea now is to install grommets and elbows with a section of clear hose to act as a sight indicator and a drain tube. Of course, I would set the buckets up off the floor for easier drainage. My real concern will be the Purple Erkles taking over the Sour Diesel and Kandy Kush. You can see in the pics how much bigger they are.

Other information:
clones rooted approximately 14-17 days
straight into net baskets with water level 1-1.5" above bottom of net basket (to prevent roots from drying out before reaching water)
started ppm ~850-900
full strength nutrient solution ~1000-1100ppm
Great White added 1-2 days after nutrient solution change
Dark Energy added every other water change
Dynagro Protekt added first, before anything else
nutrient solution recipe will change when switching to Flower (for the obvious reasons)

Just some notes:

Next time will not veg with HPS. (clones came from cloner under a T5)
Will build trellis/support system before 4 weeks into veg (along with LST)
next cycle will have sight indicators/drain tubes installed before water ever goes into buckets

bought a 13/16th spade bit for the grommets I bought yesterday . Lightly sanded around the edges for a smooth surface and good to go. Sight indicators are installed and after I find something to prop these up off the floor I'll think about some type of screen.

group shot

kandy kush roots


sour diesel roots


The dark spot in the sour d roots is from the sugar daddy I put in on Saturday. I'm flipping them within days so its going to be cut from the lineup anyway. The roots aren't slimey at all so that's a good sign. These should turn out well.

Not much to update almost a week after the last one. Initiated photo period so there will be changes to note soon. Until any vital updates are made, here are a few pics from the past week.






Ive also got 5 Martian Kush flowering at the moment, about 20 days from switching the light cycle. They're in 3 gallon containers of Promix HP and using Canna nutrients. When I have a couple more pics of that setup I'll throw em up.

Looking Awesome the root bud is amazing

Looking forward to the next up date

Yeah vegging with a hps dose the job if you got nothing else but if you get a good T5 unit for the clones then veg under a 250watt cfl or even better a metal halide the nodes will be a lot tighter

Oh for sure. Ive got a T5 over the cloner itself and another to use for veg, but was lazy to hang it because I thought I was only vegging for two weeks. And well, about four weeks later I was wrong lol. I'd love to get a MH to veg with, I've seen what they can do at another growers place. I've also been tolf about these expensive ass bulbs that some people call 'big blue'. Have you heard of them?

Okay, so the last pic that was posted was taken at the tail end of veg. 12/12 has been initiated on Jan 28 so today we're in the middle of week 2. Holy cow. With ~30 vegetative days from cloner and now barely two weeks into flowering these things are monsters. I tried to take decent pics but they do no justice. I'm thinking about connecting the buckets to a "control bucket" of sorts before the bud shows up.

group shot

Well, after a few weeks of going without an update here is a short one.

Winter totally messed with the bud production. The water was too cold and bud production suffered majorly. I will have pics of the flowered plants to show you all, and shortly after they are being cut down.

The smell, resin profile, and healtg of the plants are awesome but the bud is tiny. I'll be back with a few pics later in the day.

Heck yeah looked good. Shame I just found this! I grow dwc and I used the BC stuff on my first grow, now I'm on my second grow and got clones going for my third, I'm thinking about doing my own dwc journal on my babies

k_elliott99 said:

Heck yeah looked good. Shame I just found this! I grow dwc and I used the BC stuff on my first grow, now I'm on my second grow and got clones going for my third, I'm thinking about doing my own dwc journal on my babies

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Go for it! I've used BC in Promix for years and always had successful harvests, even in colder seasons when the lower level of the house is very cold. This time, the plants look beautiful and healthy but the cold water that the roots set in was just too cold. I've read other threads about other countries using water below 55F, but I can say with confidence that you do not want the temp below 62-65F.

I have an associate that did a grow in the same time period as my DWC buckets (this thread). Everything was different: he used a Flo n Gro system, different fertilizers, and coco rather than clay pebbles. His crop had great quality, but the bud was tiny. The one factor we had in common was the cold water (below 59F). We did add heaters to our reservoirs but it was too late into the flower stage to really save them. Not all was lost, just disappointed I didnt catch the temperature issue sooner.

I have never checked my res for temp. But I started a journal for my 2 babies I look forward to posting pics and watching my own progress lol. Lets see how big yours are now!

k_elliott99 said:

I have never checked my res for temp. But I started a journal for my 2 babies I look forward to posting pics and watching my own progress lol. Lets see how big yours are now!

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Lol, sure thing. I'll get some pics soon as I can get them. They DID get to grow a large size for indoor plants.

I'd like to see how they turn out since this is my first real grow with 1000w and all correct I'd like to see how mine compare!

Ive been terrible about posting up dates and pics. The main reason is due to the fact that bud development seriously suffered from the cold temperatures during the winter months. The bud is actually really amazing as far as taste, smell, and resin production. They just are not the size I have previously achieved with a single thousand watter. This was my first time going pure hydro.... Ive grown passive hydro by way of drain to waste with Promix and 3gallon containers for years with excellent results. This weekend I WILL make a few posts to wrap up this grow and on to the next.