My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

[mrrobert420]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

Hi Tim.
I agree with Dooski, 9 days is way to long, & you should turn on the light for your 1 seedling. I found if the rockwool is too wet the seeds don't do well, Its almost like they drown. I stopped using the cloner that came with the closets. Now I use a mixture of coco and clay pellets in solo cups to start my seeds and then transplant them into the closets when the plant is ready.
Good luck, if you have any questions don't be afraid to ask.

for sure spot on - the cloner is not very good...... Stealth grow is very experienced with the closets - He knows his stuff

 

[SmokeyMacPots]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

Subscribed.

 

[Bangabong]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

So far from your experience, how easy would you say it is for a first timer to do things properly? I know you can always mod, etc. but I mean from someone with absolutely ZERO experience whatsoever with plants in general.

That is a great question Puff. While I do have a lot of experience growing outdoors, I am still a noob to indoor hydro growing. It is my opinion that if you have the right basic equipment, like lights, a good hydro setup (it does not have to be expensive) or growing medium, nutrients, ph meter and a good grow area (room, closet, stealth closet or tent) things will go good for you. While outdoor growing is easier and more forgiving, indoor growing is a tad more demanding, not hard, just that you have to keep a closer eye on things. It has been my experience that the biggest problems most new growers experience are: over watering, over feeding and way too much worrying about everything. Just remember, "It is not called weed for no reason". For your first grow use either bag seed or pick a strain that is considered easy to grow, that way you lessen the likelihood of becoming frustrated with a high maintenance plant that has too many special needs. While you are learning do not try to over control every little thing, that sucks the fun out growing. With each grow you will learn more and more and before long you will be giving advice to another new grower. 420 has many great growers that are willing to share their vast knowledge and will give you their honest opinion on many different aspects of growing. Really the simple answer is, don't be afraid to try growing, just jump in and go with it, keep it simple, learn from your mistakes, and have FUN. Hope this helps!

 

[KingJohnC]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

Cannabis is a type of plant that male to female germination rate is partially controlled by temperature, I would not use a heat mat when germinating cannabis seeds. A heat mat is perfect for use when rooting cuttings into clones.

 

[ClosedCircuit]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

Subbed

 

[Skybound]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

Cannabis is a type of plant that male to female germination rate is partially controlled by temperature, I would not use a heat mat when germinating cannabis seeds. A heat mat is perfect for use when rooting cuttings into clones.

John, can you elaborate a bit more? Are you saying that heated incubation has more influence on gender assignment? If yes, would this also apply to feminized seeds? I realize that the term "feminized" does not guarantee it will be a female plant, but rather that the breeding procedures used often produce seeds that germ into female plants.

 

[KingJohnC]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

John, can you elaborate a bit more? Are you saying that heated incubation has more influence on gender assignment? If yes, would this also apply to feminized seeds? I realize that the term "feminized" does not guarantee it will be a female plant, but rather that the breeding procedures used often produce seeds that germ into female plants.

Cannabis is influenced by temperature in determining which sex to express when germinated. Cannabis seed that are heated above room temperatures express more male than female plants from the same genetics. I believe that this sexual determination by temperature also applies to Feminized seeds.

 

[timrey08]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

Hello everyone,

Thanks to everyone who subbed!

Time for an update:

Another seed popped a few days ago and one more today! So, there are now 3 babies under the T5's in the cloner. Added RO water in the cloner as I noticed the water level decreased from the last time I checked. Water is approx 1/2inch from the bottom of the cups. Hopefully, the last seed in the dome will pop soon so she can join her sisters.

Too early to start on the nutes right?

Here are some pics!

Thanks again for the subs. Will update again soon. Advise is most welcome!

Peace!

The first 2!

The 3rd baby!

 

[Sharky88]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

Once these babies start to take off I would keep an eye out for CalMag deficiency. I'm running RO water also and the process strips out everything. So if you're nutrients don't have CalMag you are going to need to add some. Not 100% sure if this is what caused my issues, could have been Ph swings, but I would keep an eye on this. Some pictures of my grow are here, I started just a few weeks ahead of you and am using the Superlocker. My grow is at 4 weeks from seed today. Link below:

SuperLocker DWC Grow - 2 BF Critical Kush & 2 RQS Amnesia Haze - INTRO

 

[Sharky88]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

One other thing. You might consider putting a box under your Supercloner to move the seedlings closer to the T5. I think you want to be about 4" from the light. I left mine down a bit and the seedlings started to stretch out a little. The T5 doesn't put out much heat so you can move them close.

Sharky

 

[Skybound]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

Next time you snap some pics, can you get some that better shows the whole grow space, even if in segments? When seeds germ and grow out, they rely on the cotyledons to feed them for a while and I was told to wait till they fall off before adding nutes (but this was when I was in soil) so it likely doesn't apply to you. I would wait till about the 2nd or 3rd set of true leaves form before starting the nutrient regimen and I would start at right around 100 PPM and gradually increase as my confidence that they can handle it increases. Sativa dom strains tend to be more fussy about strong nutes, so ease up on the Sativas, or at least be watchful for nute burns if you're pressing them. When mixing weak nute solutions, I find it easier to mix 1 gallon to 400-600 PPM, then mix that solution with plain RO till I get my desired PPM (+/- 25 PPM).

 

[Bangabong]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

I have had cotyledons stay on for months, so definitely don't wait until they fall off before adding nutrients. I agree with Skybound, wait until your plants have at least three nodes before you go with one third strength nutes. That way the plants have an established root network and not just a tap root, of course that is just my opinion, I am still learning how to do hydro dwc myself. I would suggest that if you have the Technaflora feeding chart, go with the nute mixture that they advise, but at 1/3 of the strength and slowly build up to the full strength mixture as your plants get stronger and more vigorous. Hope this helps!

 

[cannacrazy]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

Put those seeds in a damp paper towel in a zip lock bag. Tape it to the back of your TV. 2-3 days later, you got a sprout. Plant it. 2 days later, seedling. Boom. Been using this method since I was 9 years old growing beans in my yard.

 

[timrey08]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

Hello everyone!

Time for an update.

I think I’m in trouble. Its been 23 days since I germed 4 seeds. All 4 seeds are finally under the T5’s and I think growth is very, very slow. So, I finally decided to install the Bluelab Guardian Monitor and after calibrating, found out that the RO water that I’m using has a pH reading of 7.0 (and PPM reading is zero). I thought using RO water without checking the pH of the water is ok. So, I replaced the water in the cloner with ph’d RO water. Also added a few drops of the Root 66 (approx. 3ml) since the first 2 babies started showing roots already and are almost in the water. Water is around 1.5 gallons. Final reading of the water after changing the water is seen on the pic below.

Is this the reason for the slow growth? Are the girls going to be okay? Will I have problems on the growth because of this? Should I just start over with new seeds?

Any advise would be much appreciated.

Pics below.

Happy holidays everyone! Peace!

 

[cannacrazy]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

I never start seeds in rock wool. My first question would be how did you prepare the rock wool before putting the seeds in it? You say they're growing slow? How long have they been growing? Could be your temp, could be the rock wool. How wet is the rock wool? I always squeeze out the water with clones because rock wool holds too much water. The seedlings looks like they'll make it, just leave them alone and be patient. Test your PH of the rock wool. Always test your PH of the nutrients, because mistakes like this happen. Check that your temps are in the right zone day and night. Seedlings like it a little warmer and humid. I'm not sure what you have them growing in, but it looks like some kind of covered flood table. That could be the problem too. How much and how often are you watering them? I generally keep my clones roots on the dry side and they love it. Roots don't like being wet, just damp. The drier the rock wool is, the easier those new roots grow, but not too dry. Use common sense and make sure they are damp and not dripping wet.

 

[cannacrazy]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

Shit I forgot to answer the rest of your questions. OK, throw them out? I wouldn't. Will this affect their growth? Everything affects their growth man, but you can pull out of this. Ride this out, trust me. Those seedlings could turn out to be seriously dank, you never know. Stress at this young age could make them turn male though. I wouldn't start over, just get everything locked down and organized. Soon you'll be busy trimming buds and trying to smoke yourself into a coma. If those seeds don't work out, pick up some clones or other seeds.

 

[PirateBob]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

Hi Timrey,

I am by no means an expert (I am also on my first DWC run) but I can share my brief experience with germing/sprouting in rockwool;

I followed the Sensi Seeds guide to germinating to the letter (highly reccomended for the detail and the pictures).

Like yourself I had rockwool and no way to check pH. Maybe I got lucky but I just ran some tap water over the cubes, squeezed them out and left them on a window ledge with a clear dome over the top.

I would occasionally add some water to the bottom of the tray or give them a light foliar spray but being careful not to let the cubes become completely soaked.

I later found out my tap water has 183ppm and is ph 7.3. Still all 8/8 of my seeds germinated. One of them was a couple of days later and a bit smaller, it looked a bit like your ones, definately the 'runt' of the pack. Anyway the runt never really grew like the others, even when given all the very best of everything, I eventually killed it off to make space for the other much healthier plants (it was like this thing really just didn't want to live).

In hindsight I would have pH'ed the rockwool before doing it but I happily use tap water again, I've heard of RO actually being the cause of some problems (lack of certain trace elements).

Hopefully with some extra veg time your plants will come back on just as strong and you didn't somehow get a batch of runts.

 

[Skybound]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

If your res is not in circulation already (feeding the babies), I advise you to take a small portion of it into a cup and over a separate empty container, pour small gulps over the cube with the seedlings in them and wash the cube of the previous contents. By doing it in gulps (small amounts of water), you're constantly changing the purge rates and helping to walk the old contents out of the cube and replacing them with the new contents of 130 PPM @5.9 PH which is ideal.

Also, I am primarily a rockwool user seed to harvest and I also find that the roots like it damp at best. My last run I water 3 times daily for 15 minutes. This run I am only watering once daily for 15 minutes. In future grows I am looking to decrease this even further to maybe feed once every 36 hours or so. I notice the plant responds well on both sides of a feeding if I let them dry out a little. I know a few others that water 4 times daily with still great results. Rock wool is difficult to over water, but this is less applicable for seedlings as they are much more sensitive to damping off so try to stay on the damp side as opposed to wet side.

Also, you should look into making a compost tea. Here's mine;

[video=youtube;5uTEA6Y-YdY]

[/video]

 

[Sharky88]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

Hi Timrey. You should at least have some tap roots by now. One thing to think about. I germinated 4 plants and used rockwool and the same exact system as you. 3 out of 4 of my plants sprouted tap roots within a day or two of being put into the SuperCloner. The 4th one took several days longer and I couldn't figure out why. Finally I noticed the rockwool cube was lower in the net cup and the bottom of the net cup was really close to the water. I think it might have oversoaked the cube? I pulled it up just a bit and it popped a tap root within 1 day. The others, the ones that popped roots quickly, had the bottom of the rockwool cube maybe a 1/2" from the water in the reservoir. Like a previous poster I also watered the cubes every couple days with some RO water mixed with some rooting solution.

One other thing to note from the pcs above is that the seed leaves "cotyledons" are starting to turn brown, especially on the larger seedlings shown above. That means the leaves are either running out of energy (nutrients) or they are getting light burned. I doubt its light because you are using the T5's and the other leaves look fine. The cotyledons store energy for the early seedling growth and when they turn brown it's a signal they are being depleted. 23 days is long time, even though you don't see huge growth, they are still burning energy. Just something else to think about.

I almost gave up and started over when my leaves were turning brown and dying. Glad I kept with it, things are getting much better and I'm learning through my mistakes. You'll get there man, hang in there!

Sharky

 

[mrrobert420]

re: My 1st Grow Ever - Incredible Bulk

Hi Timrey. You should at least have some tap roots by now. One thing to think about. I germinated 4 plants and used rockwool and the same exact system as you. 3 out of 4 of my plants sprouted tap roots within a day or two of being put into the SuperCloner. The 4th one took several days longer and I couldn't figure out why. Finally I noticed the rockwool cube was lower in the net cup and the bottom of the net cup was really close to the water. I think it might have oversoaked the cube? I pulled it up just a bit and it popped a tap root within 1 day. The others, the ones that popped roots quickly, had the bottom of the rockwool cube maybe a 1/2" from the water in the reservoir. Like a previous poster I also watered the cubes every couple days with some RO water mixed with some rooting solution.

One other thing to note from the pcs above is that the seed leaves "cotyledons" are starting to turn brown, especially on the larger seedlings shown above. That means the leaves are either running out of energy (nutrients) or they are getting light burned. I doubt its light because you are using the T5's and the other leaves look fine. The cotyledons store energy for the early seedling growth and when they turn brown it's a signal they are being depleted. 23 days is long time, even though you don't see huge growth, they are still burning energy. Just something else to think about.

I almost gave up and started over when my leaves were turning brown and dying. Glad I kept with it, things are getting much better and I'm learning through my mistakes. You'll get there man, hang in there!

Sharky

good advice sharky - I have a supercloner (well trinity LED with a supercloner in it - which i have dismantled to remove that space entirely ) and yes too low in the water and they will just DROWN.....

keeping your box clean and tidy - it looks good - what an experience unboxing that supercloset was huh?