First CFL Grow Using 30 Watt CFLs

DP,
I'm gonna pull the seedlings out of my tent and try to revive them! I feel pretty comfortable in the fact I should have transplanted! So much different than soil. I Will use soil the next time or a cube to hyrdraton.

JTG,
Glad to see ya getting around to the journals! Great posts!!
 
its strange how people use different methods to germinate, i think jandre winters his in the fridge or something before germing...lol way too much work for me.

my germ method is simple, put warm water in a cup and throw all the seeds in. put in a warm dark cupboard. come back in 24 hours, pull out all the ones that have gained a tap root and drop them into the soil..when using soil i do not water it as its normally more than damp enough straight from a new bag.

come back 24 hours later and do a 2nd pass.. if they have not germinated by the 3rd pass they go in the bin....more than 3 days to germ and i dont want them in my gene pool...darwin says yer too slow =D
 
hi james, everything is good here mate, hows you and yarrow doing, is your bud drying out nicely, its been a while since harvest.

thank for the info on the seeds, i always used the paper towel method but started planting direct into soil when i found out that moving seeds from paper towel to soil causes stress and high male ratio, so now i plant direct into soil which works well, the only time i have used the paper towel method since was with the seeds i crossed, it was the sour kush and kiwi cross, i got hundreds of these seeds and i decided to soak 10 to see how they turn out, at the time only 2 popped and are now growing, after 7 days i chucked the other seeds that did not crack open into soil,, and after about 2 weeks i noticed another growing out the soil, so i had 3 out of 10.

i also use cfls for seedlings and clones, i have started seeds under the hps but it seems to dry the soil out way to quick and it also really stunts growth, i think the light is to much for the plants when they have just broke out the soil, so i use cfls for the first week or 2, i dont normally have problems with seeds, ive planted 6 purple widow and 6 have sprouted, i also have good fem ratio with herbies, apart from the bug bud 2 that is, i have not got a fem out of 8 or 9 seeds but i got 2 left so will try them at some point, the ak47 cross uk cherry cheese was also high male ratio but i was using paper towel method at the time, with the last 2 seeds i had i planted them direct into soil and had 1 of each sex so crossed them to get some seeds, i have now harvested the plant as the seeds where dropping out so they should be viable, but im waiting for the buds to dry so i know the seeds are dry as well, then ill get them out,

i also left the 2 lowest buds on the plant and its now under 24-0 under cfls, so im revegging it just in case i have problems with the seeds, ill pm you about these seeds mate,

im only really basing the seed info on the hundreds of sour kush cross kiwi seeds i made myself, i left these till they was falling out the plant as well, all the seeds look dark and look like any other seed, but out of 10 i only had 3 sprout, but we are in winter here so im wondering if the slight drop in temp in my property is causing this problem,

ill try a few more and use a method i had 100% with, what i did is use paper towel method, but then i put this tub on top of the fish tank, so its sits on the glass above the water in the fish tank, then a hood covers this with a light in it, i leave that light off and the heated fish tank keeps the temps up, so ill give that method a try at some point,

ill pm you james and we can talk,

hope alls well your end mate and you and yarrow are good, thanks for the msg its good to hear from you mate,
 
@spring, have you used the medium your using now in the past, if not mate id go with soil, its easy and wont cause any problems what so ever, i have not had any problems with my 2ltr dwc, i start the seeds in a small seed tray, each sections holds about 1 inch by inch square of soil and about an inch and a half deep, i start my seeds in here, once its grown its first set of true leaves i then transplant them,

so id go with soil till you are happy with the other medium, let me know what happens mate,

@GiGa, i have heard about the glass of water method a few times, i did try it twice, but i was told to put the seeds in a glass of water and when the seeds sink take them out and plant them, if they dont sink then their not viable, i will give this method a try with a few of the sour kush and kiwi seeds and see if i get different results, as for the wintering i have also heard about this and jandre explained it all, its basically just a copy of nature, when the plant releases its seeds they sit on the ground through the winter and then they germ in the spring, so the seeds are pretty hardy, so im wondering if wintering them will give me higher germ rates, maybe thats where im going wrong, seed banks also store their seeds in chilled environment,
 
donpaul.p said:
@spring, have you used the medium your using now in the past, if not mate id go with soil, its easy and wont cause any problems what so ever, i have not had any problems with my 2ltr dwc, i start the seeds in a small seed tray, each sections holds about 1 inch by inch square of soil and about an inch and a half deep, i start my seeds in here, once its grown its first set of true leaves i then transplant them,

so id go with soil till you are happy with the other medium, let me know what happens mate,

@GiGa, i have heard about the glass of water method a few times, i did try it twice, but i was told to put the seeds in a glass of water and when the seeds sink take them out and plant them, if they dont sink then their not viable, i will give this method a try with a few of the sour kush and kiwi seeds and see if i get different results, as for the wintering i have also heard about this and jandre explained it all, its basically just a copy of nature, when the plant releases its seeds they sit on the ground through the winter and then they germ in the spring, so the seeds are pretty hardy, so im wondering if wintering them will give me higher germ rates, maybe thats where im going wrong, seed banks also store their seeds in chilled environment,
Click to expand...

Thanks DP, I have never used coco coir before. I really wanted to try it out but I failed on the first attempt. It will work but as you said The soils is easy for me. I will sprout them first as you suggested in a tray. I feel that a mix of bad seeds, new medium, and over watering caused my issues. No way it had anything to do with the DWC. The setup is sound and proven. Hard to believe I have 4 successful girls full of buds! If the two seeds have issues Ill order some new seeds and try it in 2 weeks. Takes that long in the U.S.
 
hey DP if you use the glass of water method dont just go by if it sinks by itself after it has soaked awhile it still may float so take your finger and push it down and see if it sinks. I think though that even if it doesnt sink I would still try and sprout it.
sometimes it may have a hard outer layer and doesnt soak in right away. and I'am sure you have heard of putting the seed in a match box with a piece of sand paper and giving it a scuffing up before you soak it or use another method of sprouting.
Hey I just noticed that I got a conessuer title tooYAY
 
congrats on the status fishcake,

i have poked and pushed seeds down in the water in the past and find some sink after a bit of a push, now i have used the sandpaper method but i dont stick them in a box and shake it up, i get a sharp knife and run it around the edge of the seed gently scraping a tiny bit away, doing this seems to work with difficult seeds, ill give this method a try with the kiwi seeds, when i got the seeds out of the buds i collected them all up and picked them up 1 at a time and gave them a squeeze, several was empty and was just a shell, so not sure what happened their, then i kept the solid seeds, but the ones that cracked was just a seed shell, but the solid seeds i kept and get a few hundred of, so i got plenty to germ and if i only get 3 out of 10 then its cost me nothing, i did not buy the seeds so if they dont sprout then they dont sprout,

@spring, as soon as you give the soil a try you will have no problems getting it all dialed in, i think once you have done the first round with soil then you will have some idea of how much water they need and stuff like that, before the roots grow out the bottom i use a spray bottle and just give it a few sprays around the seedling, this seems to water it enough without being to much, the problem is the medium is so small that it gets drowned quick but it also dries out very quick, so until the roots poke out the bottom and into the res its just a case of giving it a couple of sprays twice a day or more depending on temp.
but id start them in the little seed tray type things, then keep them in that till they have grown their 1st set of true leaves, then transplant into the top of the dwc, i pull the soil towards the edges so when i put the seedling in it sort of fits into the hole you just made, then below this is about an inch to an inch and half of soil, then within a couple of days you will see the tap root sticking out the bottom where the lid of the bottles used to be, so this is when i fill the res and turn the air pump on, then i make sure the level of the res is below the level of the top part, so it leaves a gap of air between the top part and the level of the liquid, doing this will stop the top part getting drowned, then the root will be getting splashed by the bubbles and this will make it grow like crazy and once its in the res the growth of the roots is shocking,

i know you wont have any problems with the soil, its just a case of getting the watering right for the first week, then after that the roots drink all the want from the res, i then just water a bit through the top every 3 or 4 days to stop it totally drying out, doing these seems to be the best method. it works and works well, but once you get the hang of how much water to give at the start then you wont have any further problems, by starting the seeds off in a seed tray your giving them the chance to be a bit stronger before they go into the dwc, then its less likely to have the problems like you had,

give me a shout if your unsure of anything, but by looking at what you got it looks like you got it all set up right, it was just the growing medium thats causing the problems, if i had used that medium then i could of helped, but ive never used it yet so cant comment on how often to water and stuff like that.

now once the roots hit the liquid in the res you need to make sure the nute mix is not to hot for the plant, now i use bpn and i go about 3/4 strength of what it says for the 1st week or 1st res change, then after that the plant can pretty much take the strength given in the feed guide, ive not had issues with nute burn in any of the dwc's yet, but i have not pushed the plants to much either
 
DP,
Thanks man. I'm not giving up just slowed down for a few weeks! I am following your advice for sure. Easy lesson learned and not a loss as its early in the game!
 
hey bro
just back on the seeds thing again.

from personal experience i see that sinking seeds is a good indicator of viability, but its NOT written in stone. Ive had seeds that sink in the first hour but never cracked, i have also had seeds that stay on top of the water and push out a tap root super fast.

when using the cup of water method i find that WARM water is important, and a dark enviroment improves cracking but ive see some crack in daylight.

if a seed grows at full speed i leave it in the water until it has a tap about a cm long, or half a cm if a slow starter. i can then grab the seed with tweezers and plant it tap down in my medium. when i plant i make just a tiny hole for the tap and actually rest the seed on top of the soil, i then sprinkle a fine coat of soil on top of that, just a few ml.
 
thanks for the info GiGa, ill give you reps when it lets me, i did use the glass method in the dark, ill give it another try when i try more of the kush kiwi cross seeds, i always plant the seeds even if they dont sprout, when i did this last time i had a seed sprout after about 10 days, so i always plant them even if they dont grow a tap root, but i plant direct in soil now with the seeds i buy, but my own seeds i soak so i can get some idea of germination rates, ill go back to the glass method next time i give it a try

@spring, the only other thing i can add is to keep the res cool, as the res is a whole lot smaller it soon warms up, so when they are under the lights try and get the res in the shade, use paper or card to keep the res's in the shade, doing this will keep the temp down, when i took my big plants out of the grow room to harvest i noticed that the light was now shining directly on the sides of the bottles, so i just place a piece of card to keep them in the shade, i have not had problems with the roots yet so i may not even need to do this, but i thought id do it just in case, so i got my res's in the shade all the time when the light is on, in theory this should keep the res cooler as its not getting any light, it will be easier for you as you have got something to hold the bottles in
 
DP,

Thanks again for the advice! Too bad they do not sell 2ltr cushies!! They would work great for keeping them cool and light free.
 
has anyone yet tried using a mini fan to blow directly on the surface of the water in a res?

i know this will cause a little evaporation, but that isnt a bad thing. if your plants drained your ppm at 10% per day AND you used wind to evaporate 10% water volume in the same time frame...wouldnt that keep the ppms consistent? and thats just the side effect of wind cooling your liquid, lol
 
WizHigh said:
Um Gigs your trying to electrocute your self huh? Theres easier ways to take your plant out buddy lol

You mine as well put a air vent on the res and have a air fan blowing threw it. Or just let natural air go threw. Or how about putting a ducting to the vent connected to a fan? I think just adding a vent Sounds safer:thumb:
Click to expand...

lmao i was thinking of a 12v cpu fan for the experiment...but a full blown roll out would indeed use ducting. ideally from your external source so its at its coldest, then you could just rerout it to either the grow area or the cool tube layer depending on how much humidity its managed to pick up...and even then you could use a condenser in the path to pull some of it back if needed.

i know you laugh but in a decade 3 layers of air management will be normal instead of the typical 1 or 2 we use today ;)
 
great ideas everyone, all i do is make sure the res's are in the shade, this keeps the temps in the right range, but even when the res is not in the shade the temp dont go up to high unless the res is nearly empty
 

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