Remote DWC Underground

newbie2323

Well-Known Member
Day 10 since I flipped on the lights. Since it's looking like this actually might work, I figure I might as well document it and get input from this fine community of cannabis cultivars as I go.

This is my first real attempt at growing some bud. I dreamed of growing weed in high school (20 something years ago) but never managed to get beyond the seed leaves before either I killed them from too much attention, or my parents found them and stifled my horticultural creativity.

So here I am, on the eve of 40, wife, kid, house, nice car, good job, and finally, FINALLY some top grade ganja plants growing under my house.

My dilemma, and the reason it took me over two decades to get here, is threefold. 1. I live in a state where growing pot is a crime, 2. My wife would kill me if she knew, and 3. I travel a lot, sometimes up to two weeks at a time. Someone might say, dude, just buy some and forget growing it yourself. But that person would be completely missing the point. My goal is not to have some bud. To be completely honest, I don't even like pot enough to smoke it more than a couple time a year. No, what I want is to enjoy the process of nurturing a tiny seed into a half a pound of the dankest nugs I've ever seen.

Here's a high level overview of my setup. Cheap 260 watt PARFACTWORKS LED in a 2x2x4 tent burried 2 feet deep under my house.

One 7.5 gallon res under the tent connected to a 20 gallon external res 5 feet away. 220 GPH pump flows water from the little res to the big one and gravity takes the water back via a second hose. 4 air stones in each res. Fresh, declorinated water is fed into little res using a small water level switch. An additional 220 GPH submersible pump lives in the space under the little res taking overflow and drainage out the side of the house.

Dry, CO2 rich air is brought in from the house via one of the floor registers in my livingroom, with a backdraft damper keeping the smell inside the tent when the fan kicks off. Air exits via a 4 inch AC Infinity fan and carbon filter.

PH is held between 5.8 and 6 using a Milwaukee Instruments PH controller wired to a solenoid that opens up a slow drip of PH Down anytime PH rises above 5.9.

There's a tiny dehumidifier and ceramic heater in the tent as well for the cool, humid nights

The two tiny plants are Critical Kush seeds that sprouted about two weeks ago. I'll be removing the smaller of the two once it's clear the larger one is going to survive.

Feeding them with the GH trio at about 25% recomended amount, and a dash of calmag. Current ppm is 200.

The roots are already branching out like crazy and reaching the bottom of the res. I've got a live feed streaming from the tent so I can watch em grow from wherever I happen to be.

So far so good!

Here a pic from day 10...

Please feel free to contribute!

photo.jpg
 
Last edited:

macsnax

Well-Known Member
You don't need any other reason for wanting to grow, than simply wanting to grow man. Lots to get done, but no where to be. Enjoy the ride. I can see you've done some extensive research, if this is your first go at it. Good luck, there's a bit of knowledgeable growers here if you run to trouble...... And you do know your wife will figure it out eventually right? The smell come harvest will stick with you, like for a while, lol.
 

horribleherk

Well-Known Member
You don't need any other reason for wanting to grow, than simply wanting to grow man. Lots to get done, but no where to be. Enjoy the ride. I can see you've done some extensive research, if this is your first go at it. Good luck, there's a bit of knowledgeable growers here if you run to trouble...... And you do know your wife will figure it out eventually right? The smell come harvest will stick with you, like for a while, lol.
My wife as well as the rest of the family figured it out right before harvest lol !
 

newbie2323

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I'd rather my wife found the plant than the receipts showing how much money I spent to grow it. :cool:

So I was thinking about dropping the light from 36 inches down to 24 inches now that roots are established. The light I'm using has 2 50w COBs (bare) and 24 5w LEDs. How high should this light be from the top of the plant at this point. The PAR map for the light shows 600 PPFD @ 24 inches with the lenses on.

41sDiN+wXuL._AC_SY400_.jpg

Lots of growth in the last 24 hours! :weed:

photo.jpg
 

horribleherk

Well-Known Member
Yeah, I'd rather my wife found the plant than the receipts showing how much money I spent to grow it. :cool:

So I was thinking about dropping the light from 36 inches down to 24 inches now that roots are established. The light I'm using has 2 50w COBs (bare) and 24 5w LEDs. How high should this light be from the top of the plant at this point. The PAR map for the light shows 600 PPFD @ 24 inches with the lenses on.

View attachment 4352995

Lots of growth in the last 24 hours! :weed:

View attachment 4352996
I kept the receipts at work in my tool box your light is similar to an amare i run cobs but no chips that looks like a nice light about 20 inches is as close as I've had mine 24 seems like the sweet spot for me
 

newbie2323

Well-Known Member
Today I dropped the light down to 24 inches and installed a new wide angle IP camera with pan and zoom controls and night vision. Not super happy with the picture quality. The thing that really sucks is I can't see the Bluelab screen when the grow light is on. I might put the mobile phone back in there just for monitoring the screens.

I also put a bigger air pump and four air stones in the 20 gal res and did a flush. The nutrient solution was starting to stink a little and I'm thinking it wasn't getting enough O2.

I'll be getting rid of stubby on the right tomorrow.

The first set of "real" leaves popped last night and the smell of cannabis is there when you open the tent. :)

20190622_225035.png
 

newbie2323

Well-Known Member
Alright folks, advice please. Since I dropped the lights from 36 to 24 inches, the top of the plant looks slightly pale. Not the best picture, but you can kind of see it here. Just a little less green than it was yesterday.

Lights too close or do I need to add more nutrients?

TDS is low at about 200. I was planning to flush and up the nutrient concentration next week. Should I go ahead and do it now?

Screenshot_20190623-203044_MIPC.jpg
 

macsnax

Well-Known Member
Not the most clear shot, but I'm thinking it's probably growing fast atm? If it's growing pretty good the yellow looking new growth is normal. Rapid cell division is what causes it.
 

newbie2323

Well-Known Member
Ah, that makes sense. It's definitely growing super fast. Thanks for easing my mind! I was thinking I probably burnt it.
 

horribleherk

Well-Known Member
they look hungry I'd kick it up a notch to about 250 - 270 ppm.& you should get growth cal mag increase sometimes helps keep in mind cal mag generally has a bit of nitrogen I used to do dwc but my Summer temps caused reservoir problems for me done right Dwc is highly productive
 

newbie2323

Well-Known Member
Upped the ppm to 500 and added some calmag. Looking pretty good this morning. I noticed some slime in the res so I'll be doing a flush and peroxide treatment shortly.

20190625_072119.jpg 20190625_073043.png
 

newbie2323

Well-Known Member
About ready to trim off everything above and below the third node. I'll be training using Nebula's Manifold method to get 8 equal length colas.

20190626_094627.jpg
 

newbie2323

Well-Known Member
Looking slightly better today after once again flushing the res. This time without using physan 20. It's still got these dark spots forming on the tips of the leaves. I'm starting to wonder if the brass fittings might be interacting with the PH Down and leaching metals into the solution.

I also just ordered an Ice Probe to take the res temp down a 3 or 4 degrees. Right now the temp is ranging from 70 to 72 degrees.

Germinating 2 new seeds in case I need to start over.

20190701_213057.jpg

This is what it looked like yesterday after my physan 20 debacle.

photoaf.jpg
 
Top