Bubbler DWC Tutorial - PART 12

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Bubbler DWC Tutorial - Part 12

This tutorial has been copied and pasted from 420magazine.com

LOLLIPOPPING.
I shudder at the sound of the word!

The cutting off of the lower third of a plant's growth so that the plant's energy goes to the upper 2/3s of the plant to make larger buds. I call it BULLSHIT!
They say it makes the plant look like a lollipop.

Two years ago, I loaned two tanks to my X-wife who is also a friend. She remarried an idiot. LOL. She had followed two of my grows and learned well how to do it. I had two personal grow journals to loan her too. The entire grow, she argued with her husband on how to do it. He is a jerk, of course. (tickles me)
After they were into 4 weeks of BLOOMING, she came home from work to learn he had lollipopped all of the plants. He cut off every leaf in the lower third of every plant. He swore it was what was best for tomato plants. Later, he removed ALL of the fan leaves saying it sent energy to the buds. They waited an extra 4 weeks for it to happen, but it never did. Look at the attached pics of two of the plants in one tank, and notice the dates. From September to mid January, they barely grew any taller and they did not grow taller after the Lollipopping.

Those plants never grew any taller or larger and the buds never grew any bigger over the next 9 weeks until harvested. Matter a fact, they just barely stayed alive. They got as little as a quarter ounce per plant and no more than one and a half ounces per plant. They were pitiful looking too.

If you have to listen to those that recommend Lollipopping, please only do it to one plant, so that you learn the hard way. It is one of the most ridiculous procedures any grower can suggest in my book, next to adding urine or mollasses to the reservoir tank.

Whacking the Male Roots

Everyday I hear from a new grower that is doing his very first DWC Grow and now he has realized his male and female roots are very tangled in his reservoir tank. He has arrived at the time to remove the male plant, and he asks me how is he going to untangle those male and female roots to separate them?
When I tell him how, (just whack them in two, and cut off the tangled roots) I later always see him seeking the advice of other growers, doubting me and looking for a much different answer from someone else. Just like I did on my first grow.
You might want to save this post, bookmark it, save it in your Favorites, so you can later share it and the pics with other new growers.
When I did my first grow, I must of spent hours trying to untangle those roots so I could get that male plant out of that tank and not injure the female roots.


Haven't you ever went to a plant nursery, or Lowes or Home Depot's Garden Department and bought a one quart container with 3 or 4 flowers in it? Didn't you take it home and find all 4 plants root-bound, completely filling up the container? Didn't you then tear those 4 plants apart, rip the roots apart into 4 groups, plant them, set them out in the yard or garden spot and see them just thrive the very next day? Did tearing those roots up kill it or put it in shock over one day? Nope.

I've been doing this 5 gallon bucket grow to show new growers it can be done and how to do it and get decent sized plants. I started 3 unfeminized seed in the bucket, knowing I would later get one or two males and one or two females. Lucky me, I got two females this time!
Here you see the bucket after I cut off the top of the one male plant, leaving me two 38 to 40 inch tall females. One female has alot of upward branches and will yield many ounces of buds.



Look at this tangled root ball of the three plants, it is larger than a basketball, but the pic doesn't show it well.


It took me all of 15 seconds to cut those roots apart, I did not waste any time trying to separate them. I just cut them apart with some shears.
Here you see them AFTER the whacking.

This is what I removed, all in one clump, about 75% of the total roots.It completely filled up the bathroom sink.


I sure am glad to have that extra hole in the lid now, to go in and out of, taking water samples.
I will put this empty grow cup back in the hole to cover the hole.

When I discover a male, I cut the top of the plant off and I wait to see if I have any more males in the same tank, before I cut the roots. I always take the opportunity to clean the air stones with a brush and metal scrubber and I completly clean the tank when I remove the males.

This is the bucket 24 hours after cutting out the male and the roots. The plants looked great the next morning and looked great the next night. No shock at all, and the two remaining females drank almost a full gallon the next day, as it normally does.

I also wanted you to see the lower branches of the two females. From experience, I can tell that the smaller plant on the left is good for over one ounce of dried manicured buds, and very close to two ounces.
The larger plant with all the upward growing branches and larger base will yield over 4 ounces of buds.



If you look closely in the first pic, you can see the start of a flower or bud.
In the other pic, I am just showing you my closet full of pot.

Weekly Drain and Replinish

Topping Off the Tank's Reservoir

I have tried to not use scientific terms or even get very technical, but I might have to, to explain something that needs explaining here. I really do own 14 books on Hydroponic Indoor Growing. And I have studied them too. Some of the books were written simply, and some are difficult for me to comprehend and even more difficult for me to explain. They all vary a little on the perfect pH level, and they all vary on LIGHTING, some books were written way before CFLs were sold, or when CFLs were new on the scene. But they all agree on Topping Off the tank and Draining and Replenishing the water and nutrients.

To address this, I am going to post it twice to be sure I explain it. You will need to read both explanations.

After the nutes are added to the tank and the pH is balanced, the plants start eating, consuming the food. Logically, the larger the tank, the more water there is, and the more nutes you need. Logically, the larger the plants, the more they will eat from the tank. Logically, the more plants that are in the tank, the more they will eat. And logically, the more they eat, the more nutes that you need in the tank. The amount of nutes provided is in relationship to the amount of water, NOT the amount of plants. It is the Ratio or Proportion in the water that is important. The amount of nutes added to the tank are measured by we commonly call a PPM Meter, PPM meaning parts per million.

The Instructions on the nutrients contain the proper amount of nutes to add to the water, usually determined by "per gallon", and not by "per plant" or "size of plants". In the beginning, we start with 1/4 dose of nutrients, because a full dose is meant for full grown plants. If we use a ppm meter, we seek a ppm of 150 to 250 ppms above the ppm of the water, on average for small young sprouts, it varies from nutrient to nutrient. As the plants grow, we then slowly and gradually increase the nutrients fed to them, and consequently we increase the ppm. By the time the plants are over a foot tall, we will be in the neighborhood of a ppm of 600, then 800 on up to 1200 ppm. Some growers risk even higher ppms, watching the leaves tips for yellowing, to know when to back off with feedings. And as we add more food, the plants grow and eat more, indicated by them also drinking more water. As a rule of thumb, we figure if they drank half of the water, they then must of ate half the food. That is close to being right, but not precisely. If the grow room was exceptionly HOT, they can drink more water without eating more food. And consequently, some days, they eat more, some days they eat less, regardless of the amount of the water missing.

As they eat, they do not eat all of the delivered nutes at the same rate, or same proportion, and that changes the pH and the ppm. It also changes what they call the RNC, or RELATIONSHIP OF NUTRIENT CONCENTRATION. That CHANGE is not easy to calculate or measure, like the ppm or pH is easy to measure.
When the nutrients are first introduced or added, the RNC is perfect, or properly proportioned. In other words, there are specific amounts or precise amounts of each needed nutrient. The exact amount of needed Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potash, also commonly called Potassium are present and available for food for the plants.

BUT, as the plants eat, they do not eat all of the nutrients in a perfect proportion or at a perfect rate or equal rate. Some days, they want what grows longer roots, some days, they want what makes more leaves. The plants actually nibble at some nutrients in the mix each day, and gobble down some others. Some of the nutrients are not hardly eaten at all, some are absorbed very quickly. This creates an IMBALANCE of the mix. If you add more water and nutes daily to replace the eaten nutes, (CALLED TOPPING OFF) the IMBALANCE INCREASES. If you only add plain water daily, again, Top It Off, you still get the imbalance. AND the nutes not eaten, or the nutes that are increased daily cause a build up of nutes, and that creates a BAD imbalance of the RNC.
When this happens, the water becomes TOXIC and unusable even tho the ppm meter says there is a proper amount of nutrients. The plants say I AM NOT HAPPY WITH THE BUFFET and like a spoiled child unhappy at the dinner table, they suddenly refuse to eat anything. This is called NUTRITIONAL LOCKOUT. This happens even tho the ppm meter says there are plenty of parts per million of nutes in the water. The ppm meter does not indicate if the nutrients are balanced or at a toxic level. It just indicates there is plenty of food on the table.

THIS IS WHY WE MUST WEEKLY DUMP IT ALL AND START ALL OVER.
THIS IS WHY WE MUST DRAIN AND REPLENISH WEEKLY, regardless of whether we TOP OFF with plain water, or TOP OFF with water and a fractional dose of nutes.
Changing the water weekly maintains the proper RNC.

Weekly Drain and Replinish

Topping Off the Tank's Reservoir


Daily Maintenance of the reservoir is mostly keeping the pH at the proper level, and keeping the same level of water in the tank as it is used or evaporates. It is also keeping the nutrient mix or nutrient solution at a proper level, a level that is NOT toxic or too strong.
In the day to day course of maintaining the tank two problems occur. Remember how we discussed ppm, parts per million? Then we discussed RNC, RELATIONSHIP OF NUTRIENT CONCENTRATION. Well, we also need to discuss TDS, Total Disolved Salts. (Some books say Total Disolved Solids, for some reason unknown to me) As the water evaporates or is consumed, the concentration of TDS becomes stronger, to the point of being Toxic. The TDS increase as the amount of water decreases. This creates the need to replenish the water, to replace the water, to "top off". As we replace that missing water, we create an IMBALANCE. Hydroponic grown plants eat what they need, as they need it, and they leave some nutes to build up and accumalate into a posionious or toxic level.
This creates the need to daily TOP IT OFF. (to put a cut on it) I have already discussed starting Feedings and Draining and Replenishing in this thread twice. It is simple enough, daily replace what you estimate is gone, consumed, eaten, and absorbed.

But weekly, you need to clear the buffet table and start all over with fresh foods. This gives the plant not only a well balanced buffet table to eat from, but also supplies it with FRESH Food that has not been altered by the plants being picky and choosey.


And, there is the Growth Spurt you will get during the Drain, as the roots get a 5 to 15 mintues air bath. It also gives you the opportunity to look for crimped air hoses, scrub the air stones clean and look for debris and trash in the tank that messes with the pH balance.

Also, as the water ages, undesirable harmful microbes appear and grow in the water. You also take the chance of insect larvae and algae appearing, and weekly draining the tank helps prevent those problems too.

I have NINE Females!
2 are the smallest runts that I have ever seen, like 12 inches tall, 2 are the largest that I have ever seen, 47 and 50 inches tall, and one is extra large but not a giant about 38 inches tall, and two are mediums between 30 and 36 inches tall. And I have 6 weeks to go!
I have never had so many females out of the number of seeds that I started.
I only had 14 plants at the beginning, now I have 9 females.

And let me remind you, these are from old seeds from my previous grows.

You will notice that the plants do not smell as strong, (stink as bad) in Flowering, as they do in Vegging. That is because they are being fed less Nitrogen.

I took a few pics of the closet. It is a closet FULL of pot!

I have not taken the chains down yet that the lights hang from, but most of the lights are hanging off of the closet pole and the closet shelf now. I have the very tall plants bent over, tied with thin wire and tape.
This grow is going way beyond my expectations.

The bottom base of this giant in the far corner is way larger than a silver dollar. The other one you see closer to you is the 5th largest plant.

I put a regular cigarette lighter next to it, so you can see compare the size.

The root ball draining in the sink from two small males.

If you are following along with this grow,
I highly advise you not to try and duplicate the three reservoirs and as many plants on your first grow.
It is a lot of work. Of course I might yield a pound of dried manicured buds, I have done it in the past with just two reservoirs.
I think this grow will yield more since I have 9 females, but two of them are the smallest runts that I have ever seen for their age, like only 10 or 12 inches tall.
But I have never got one over 46 inchs tall either and now I have two females taller than that.......with about 5 weeks to go.

Flowering Cycle

This is a critical and important stage or cycle that will determine YIELD and Quality.
During this stage of the game, you can experiment with increasing nutrient levels, if using high phosphorus low nitrogen nutrients.

PPM levels are different for CFL growers and HID light users. With HID lights you can have higher ppms. If you use a ppm meter, and stayed in the 500 to 750 ppm during late VEG, then you can get into the 800 to 1000 ppm levels now, discounting water ppm and any sups you use. Some growers with HID lights can go higher. If you do not use a ppm meter, then increase nutes every so slightly daily. Getting little yellow tips on the leaves as a sign of over feeding is not going to do a tremendous amount of harm or kill them, and is just a warning sign that you are over feeding.

You need to reduce humidity now, or if you was doing anything to increase it, like wet towels and Misting, then stop it. DO NOT MIST NOW, DO NOT FOILAGE SPRAY NOW. You MUST have and use an oscilating fan now blowing toward the tops and into the middles, AT ALL TIMES to avoid bud mold. It is simple and easy to avoid, with proper air circulation. Growing in small areas and enclosed tents and cabinets is where the real danger lies for high humdiity causing bud mold.

If you are growing with CFLS, you can tremendously increase yield of buds with more lights, especially by adding SIDE lights. The low kelvin bulbs help increase flower size and high kelvin bulbs increase the trichome and THC production. You also need to be bending them over to allow more light to penetrate deep into the middle of the plant. Position your CFL bulbs near the highest, biggest top to get that coke can cola you want. Additional 42 and 65 watt CFLs can be found very cheap at Lowes, Home Depot and Walmart.

Expect to see more lower leaves die off now in Flowering, that is normal. Or they say it is normal. You can add a pinch, a drop of VEG Nutes, like 1/8 to 1/10 dose, to avoid those large fan leaves falling off.

pH Battles
pH Swings
pH Roller Coaster

Yes, it happens and it happened to me, so let me tell you about it.

The 5 gallon bucket and one of the tanks, the tank to the left, are doing just fine, just like they are supposed to do. All three containers are really growing fine, but one tank's pH is flucuating too much in one day.
I get home daily, and the bucket and the tank to the left have a pH of 6.4 to 6.7, which is normal to me. As the plants eat, the pH is going to go up. I add a gallon of water, 1/6 packet of nutes, and reduce the pH to close to 6.0 as daily maintenance. That is the EVERYDAY ROUTINE.
But the tank to the right, I find it at 7.4 to 7.8 daily. That is not normal to go from 6.0 to 7.4 in one day. And I know something is wrong to find it at 7.8. I reduce it to 6.0 in two steps, one adjustment in the morning, another adjustment in the evening. Adjustments from 7.8 to 6.0 in one step are too drastic and not as safe. In an emergency, ocasionally, it is OK, but not daily, everyday. Really, its not ever safe to ever adjust it from 6.0 to 7.8 at one time.

I was able to ask my Deep Water Culture friends if they had any ideas or suggestions and a good friend named MostlyCrazy asked me about my airstones, something I did not think about. He suggested the possiblity that the airstones are holding embedded trash. He reasoned the water pump and hub were out of the tank, there was no dead debris in the tank, and it had to be something causing the pH spikes. So two days ago, I stopped at Walmart and bought two new 12 inch airstones for that tank. I brought them home, and soaked them in 4.0 water for an hour. I drained the tank, and refilled it 4 times with plain water, draining it again after each re-fill. I really rinsed the tank clean.
I cut 3 or 4 inches of the bottoms of the root off. The root ball was gigantic and may of being harboring trash. I added my nutes, one and 1/6 packet of BLOOM nutes, one packet of Micro nutes, and with my water at 100 ppm, it made my tank a ppm of 1000. That was Thursday evening, and when the dark period began, the pH of that tank was 5.8. I got up this morning and the tank was 6.2. When I got home this evening, it was 6.4 and a gallon and a 1/4 of water was gone.


If you are battling drastic pH fluctuations, something is causing it that you can do something about. Sometimes a Drain and Replenish really needs a complete draining and cleaning of the bottom of the tank. I would rather get it clean, than to resort to buying one of the additives like SM-90 or Hygrozyme that balances dead debris in the tank.

I have plenty of Bud sites starting.





Thick and bushy too!

A closet full of pot! All Females, too!

Link to Part 13 - http://www.strainhunters.com/portal/forum/bubbler-dwc-tutorial-part-13