1st Hydro Grow

[Retired One]

Hi all. A few people were following the runup to this grow in another thread but heres a very quick summary. Grew outside fow many years. Can't anymore. Bought 8 site DWC to use for clones. Bought seeds, got freebies. Decided to do a side by side grow DWC/Soil with clones from Freebies. Thought it might be intersting to see what happens.

Anyhow, thats where we are now. I had originally planned to take clones from free Thai Super Skunk for the side by side, but have decided since in the interest of time to take clones from the free fem Gigabud, if she makes it, have read its a pretty finicky strain, and use them for the side by side...keep your fingiers crossed, this is my very first attempt at hydro so anyone who has somthing to add or a piece of advice, dont hesitate

The Gigabud and 5 fem White Dwarfs went into rockwool less than an hour ago and are currently under humidity domes and light.

I'm going to keep the White Dwarf updates coming (they are there to provide a quick yield while I play with the Gigabud) so please toss out anything you think I need to know about those as well.

As far as pictures go so I'll start posting pics in a few days...not much to see right now...

 

[Tyrone Hamilton]

Do you have your DWC up and running yet? It might be a good idea to have it run 24hrs before you move the clones in...

Good luck with the grow!

 

[Retired One]

Yep its been running for about 48hours right now...ph 5.9...pure r/o water and no nutes. Temp is a little low but 24/7 HID lighting will cure that soon enough. However, looks like my temp/rh meter is not working properly...guess I'll have to replace it tomorrow.

 

[Retired One]

Well, morning update. All looks good, actually already have one little shoot popping out of the rockwool. Did notice that three seeds seemed to have turned themselves upside down, so everything is moving along (literally).

As far as my temp/rh meter goes, turned out to be operator error...I blame the bowl of Bigfoot Skunk for that.

ph 5.9
room temp 76.5
water temp 71.0
Rh 47%

 

[Retired One]

Hope the pic post works...

Day 3
ph 5.9
temp 70
Water temp 68
Rh 41%

Hard to tell from pics but 3 of six have poked shoots above the rockwool, the other three are lagging behind a bit but i would expect that by tomorrow they will be above the rockwool as well. I have been pleasantly suprised by the speed with which the plants are growing, i have root shoots showing through the rockwool, which is very encouraging.

It has been my plan to empty, clean and refill the res every week. Is this to often? I worry mainly about ph spikes due to a small (18 gallon) res. Also, I had also planned to start a light nute schedule in the beginning of week three, to soon or just right?

Thats about it for now...

ok...looks like pic post didnt work...my post rules say no attachments...guess that's the prob...anybody know what I should do?

 

[Tyrone Hamilton]

You are doing everything right except for the image location - if you're on a PC, click on the image after you have uploaded it, click again to get the big version, right click, then on the drop down menu click properties, then make sure the URL of the image location has .jpg at the end. Copy and paste this to the image tag.

 

[Be Irie]

Here you go Southern..
Photo Gallery Guide: How to Resize, Upload & Post Photos

 

[Retired One]

 

[Retired One]

You are doing everything right except for the image location - if you're on a PC, click on the image after you have uploaded it, click again to get the big version, right click, then on the drop down menu click properties, then make sure the URL of the image location has .jpg at the end. Copy and paste this to the image tag.

Many thanks...I'll get the sizes sorted out on the next post...Oh yeah, before everyone jumps on this, I removed the hydroton and rewashed it after finding some clay like sediment in the bottom or the res...It's back in now.

 

[Retired One]

i see boxes, just kidding. The 18 gal tote will work fine. In the first few weeks you can change out the water every 2 weeks. As the plants grow and get huge they will need a weekly change.

Thanks for the info Pitviper. I went ahead and bought a second tote to have a spare res, it only cost about 8 bucks and it seemed like that would make it a bunch easier.

 

[Retired One]

Ok all, sorry for the pic quality but I am not a very good photographer. I'll get my wife to set it up for me next time. She understands it a hell of alot better than me...lol

 

[Retired One]

Day 4

ph 5.9
room temp 72.5
water temp 68.5
rh 44%


One plant seems to be pushing roots up out of the rockwool. Any suggestions for this or should the root growth redirect itself on its own? I posted yesterday that it appeared that roots were beginning to appear out the bottom of the rockwool but closer inspection revealed that to be wishful thinking...just some stray fibers that strongly resembled root shoots...

So far so good, but I do have two questions.
1-when to remove humidity domes?
2-height of lights from top of plant, currently I have them set 8" above the top of the tallest shoot. There doesn't seem to be any problem with the seedlings, but I would appreciate any advise on this so I can keep it that way.

 

[Tyrone Hamilton]

I've gently repositioned roots before, but you do risk breaking them. I'd wait and see if it corrects itself unless it's really easy to split the rockwool and move the root inside.

I'd take the domes off as soon as you have two "real" leaves on the seedlings.

They don't need much light at this stage, so I'd just keep the light where it is.

My 2 cents...

 

[Retired One]

I've gently repositioned roots before, but you do risk breaking them. I'd wait and see if it corrects itself unless it's really easy to split the rockwool and move the root inside.

I'd take the domes off as soon as you have two "real" leaves on the seedlings.

They don't need much light at this stage, so I'd just keep the light where it is.

Thanks OBX...I could probably split the rockwool and reposition the root without alot of trouble...may go ahead and do that this am.

 

[Retired One]

One other question. My water level in res is currently right at the bottom of the net pots...should I drop the level an inch or two to encourage the roots to "reach" for the water?

 

[pan4gold49]

SouthernWeed you really don't need to do much at his stage. Your seedling's need to develop. The tap root on the plant might correct its self. I wouldn't mess with it they are fragile and easy to pinch or break IMO.

Pan4

 

[Retired One]

Thanks alot Pan. My main concern was that the root seemed to have grown in a loop and might be in danger from high light/heat. If it continues to come up and doesn't correct itself in a day or so, I'll slice open the rockwool and reposition the root.

 

[Retired One]

Day 5

ph 5.9
room temp 72
water temp 69.5
rh 44%

Over the last 2 days all vertical growth has stopped. I may be worried about nothing here, but I never saw a stop in growth in my outdoor growing. Is it possible that the water level is slowing growth? I posted earlier that my water level was at the bottom of the net pots, basically in contact with the bottom of the rockwool. Should I drop the level of the water an inch or so, or am I concerned about nothing?
Also, my hydroton must be of a very low quality, as it seems to be actually dissolving. I have been told that aquarium rocks will work just as well as hydroton. I feel like I should replace the hydroton, if for no other reason, to keep light out of my res.

Will post more pics later today.

 

[pan4gold49]

Day 5

ph 5.9
room temp 72
water temp 69.5
rh 44%

Over the last 2 days all vertical growth has stopped. I may be worried about nothing here, but I never saw a stop in growth in my outdoor growing. Is it possible that the water level is slowing growth? I posted earlier that my water level was at the bottom of the net pots, basically in contact with the bottom of the rockwool. Should I drop the level of the water an inch or so, or am I concerned about nothing?
Also, my hydroton must be of a very low quality, as it seems to be actually dissolving. I have been told that aquarium rocks will work just as well as hydroton. I feel like I should replace the hydroton, if for no other reason, to keep light out of my res.

Will post more pics later today.

I have never heard or have had hydroton dissolve, if it's not been rinsed enough you will get some particals from it but noting to be concerned about.

Do you have roots in the net cup yet? I'll look at your pict's when you post them.

Pan4

 

[Retired One]

I have never heard or have had hydroton dissolve, if it's not been rinsed enough you will get some particals from it but noting to be concerned about.

Do you have roots in the net cup yet? I'll look at your pict's when you post them.

Pan4

Pan, I have one root showing on one plant. It is a single shoot approximately 1/2" long. There are no visible roots on the other 5 plants. One of the 5 is the one that seemed to be looping the root. I haven't messed with it yet, mostly out of fear of damaging the root, but I may slice open the rockwool later today to reorient the root.

As far as the hydroton goes, i noticed sediment again this am. This had happened before and I assumed that I hadn't washed them off well enough, so I removed them and rewashed them. This am when i checked and found sediment again, I took one hydroton pebble between my thumb and forefinger and crushed it without any effort at all. My thought was a low quality hydroton may have been shipped with my DWC kit. I only paid about $165 for the whole kit, and the argument could be made that I got what I paid for.
anyhow, there are two hydro shops within 30 mins of my house so replacing it will be no problem, just figured if aquarium stone would work, I'd just go pick some of that up.