Newbie to DWC Growing With Setup & Feed Schedule Questions

[adamblues]

Hi Everyone, I'm about to start a small grow with CK Feminized White Widow and Green Crack using 5gal bubble buckets with GH farmkit drip rings added and air stones in the buckets. I will do 2 tents with 2 buckets per tent, 1 tent per strain. I'm going to use 1 Mars Reflector 192 LED light per tent. Tents are 4' x 3' x 6.5'. I also have an 8" fan for ventilation if needed. If all goes well, I will clone each strain and buy a 3rd tent setup identical to the other two for mothers. Does this sound like a good starting point?

I have seen many nutrient feed charts and read through the forums and will use either Botanicare Pure Blend Pro or GH Flora series plus Z7 since I have both of these on hand from my vegetable grows.

Also, since I am a DV (Disabled veteran), my thought processes are not always so great so I have a few questions so as to not waste my expensive seeds:

When germinating using the CK approved method, at what point of sprout growth does week 1 (Clone / Seedling) on the nutrient feeding schedule charts begin? Is it when the 2nd node first appears, or is Step 5 (Transplanting) on the CK Germination instructions the start of that week? I know this seems like a silly question but seeds are expensive and hard to get where I live, plus my brain is not working right all the time and I have to reread things about a 100 times.

It says not to use rockwool to germinate, but once germinated is it ok to place the new sprout in rockwool before putting in the bubbler bucket, or is there a better method?

I really need to get this going for med purposes...traditional meds have not worked and I need some meaningful sleep at some point...

Thanks

 

[Rifleman]

I place my germinated seeds into Rapid Rooter plugs and bury them in my dwc basket and wait. I avoid rockwool, too much water holding ability with small plants. Wish I could help with the nutrients, but I'm an AN user myself.

 

[DukeO]

I also use Rapid Rooters like Rifeman. But I pop my seed and then put it in a RR under a dome for about 3to4 days and then into my DWC.

The RR have a little bit of nutes in them. The first week in the DWC with 3.5 gal of water I put 5ml of base/bloom/grow and z7 the second week I will up the nutes.

 

[adamblues]

Thanks for the quick responses guys, that helps a lot. I will start a journal for DWC organic grow of each strain using Botanicare when I am ready to start.

 

[Lazarus13]

Just for a different opinion than rifleman and duke, i put my sprouted seeds directly into my grow medium (hydroton in my case) and top water once a day with a small submersible pump or sometimes by hand if im too lazy to dig out the pump.
It works for me but i hear a lot of positives about rapid rooters, too. Different means to the same end...

 

[LEDBud]

It's my first time using them but I have 4 seeds in RR plugs as of last night ( I do not have the trays )

I made a clay pebble bed and weaseled in the plugs burying them about half way or more

dropped in the seeds covered them with a snipped off piece of plug and watered them down using a teaspoon with PH 6 rain water. Then placed them in a box with a spare router in stand-by mode. It keeps the seeds between 75 and 77*

In the past have had seeds pop in 20 hours using the router

 

[DukeO]

I have the bottom half of an egg carton that I put the RR's in under a dome.

Good Luck to you!

 

[LEDBud]

First time using this particular set up and with its lid on so have been monitoring its temperature with a IR thermometer pretty closely.

The white container has a false bottom on it supported off the the bottom a inch for drain off

I used the container to keep some warmth in as the room is cool at 68* , the router has the power hooked up.