First Solo Grow - DWC Kosher Kush

[BrandoGreen]

Thanks dude !

Just looked at your setup - looking nice - I kinda wish I had gotten a selection of seeds like you; but wanted to try and be consistent the first time around! Looks like youre going to be spoilt for choice for the next few cycles

Our systems actually look extremely similar function wise !

I think you transferred your seedlings to pots about 7 days after sprouting ?

Also, what sort of flow rate did you have from your water lines going into pots ? I installed a valve thats pretty good but no idea what to set it at.... Also grabbed myself some 4 liter per hour drippers just in case You got any suggestions ?

Wish you the best of luck with your grow bro !

Yeah I did it because there was a promotion going on from the lovely Attitude Seed Bank so I got all 9 of the seeds for like $70 (including shipping). Yeah my friend they are, we will both hopefully have good results with them! I didn't quite time them, I just waited until the roots were growing out of the rapid rooter then I transferred them into pots. My Drip was set to drip for 30 minutes every 6 hours. Its always hard determining a watering cycle so play around with the cycle times until you get a medium that isn't to saturated with water and not too dry. Besides that no other suggestions.

Best of luck to you too bud!

 

[BrandoGreen]

So I checked my root cubes this morning and root growth seems to have progressed nicely ! Got tons of roots sticking out from the sides and bottom of cubes now! Will try and update some pics when I get home!

is it too early to feed starter nutes that came with cubes and propagator ?

Also, at e moment I've only got a dual spectrum bulb 600w bulb - should I leave them under a 250cfl without reflector and buy a veg bulb instead ?

Any hints much appreciated !

AP

You can start adding nutes but be very careful not to burn the delicate sprouts. I would recommend using 40-60% of the recommended dosage of nute to prevent any nute related damage. Up to you, if you got spare cash laying around I definitely would go buy one but if you are on a tight budget, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

[Sky Rocket]

Looks liked we germinated our beans near the same time. I already transplanted my beans from rapid rooters into there medium coco and dwc.

 

[AlphaPrime]

Looks liked we germinated our beans near the same time. I already transplanted my beans from rapid rooters into there medium coco and dwc.

I wanted to transplant my cubes last night but realised that i had close to 0rh in the tent.... Nee to think of a way to fix whilst at work today.

Is a mini fogger or two the best route to go down ? I heard that humidifers tend not to work so well ?

 

[AlphaPrime]

So I finally managed to find time to get a mini fogger in the tent and rh levels seem acceptable now - depending on spare cash lying around i may also buy a small humidifier in the next few days.

Anyway here are some pics of the plants at current.

Sadly number 4 - the runt of the litter - took some damage from the propagator lid - but it looks to be surviving; at the time of injury it didnt have any extra leaves and it slowly starting its second 'real set'...

Do they look OK otherwise ? I thought they looked slightly overwatered - but maybe its first grow paranoia setting in ?!

Just started them off on 1/4 strength AN veg nutes!

 

[Xlr8]

They look great. Nice job so far!

You can give them light nutes at this stage, but with root riot style plugs you don't typically need to do so until the 3rd set of true leaves are fairly developed (or you see the cotyledons start to yellow - which is your cue that they are needing more food for energy). Typically a light 1/4 strength feed is okay, but sometimes even that will burn them slightly when they are this young. As far as tap water concerns, I like to have some quality bottled drinking water for feeding young seedlings. My favorite is Nestle "Pure Life" but Aquafina or most others are probably fine, too. No need to PH it either, unless you add nutrients to it. Tap water can be a crap shoot sometimes if you don't know exactly what's in it... Keep up the good work!

 

[AlphaPrime]

They look great. Nice job so far!

You can give them light nutes at this stage, but with root riot style plugs you don't typically need to do so until the 3rd set of true leaves are fairly developed (or you see the cotyledons start to yellow - which is your cue that they are needing more food for energy). Typically a light 1/4 strength feed is okay, but sometimes even that will burn them slightly when they are this young. As far as tap water concerns, I like to have some quality bottled drinking water for feeding young seedlings. My favorite is Nestle "Pure Life" but Aquafina or most others are probably fine, too. No need to PH it either, unless you add nutrients to it. Tap water can be a crap shoot sometimes if you don't know exactly what's in it... Keep up the good work!

Thanks Man !

They had me worried all day - everytime I looked at them I kept making myself more paranoid !

I've helped a couple buddies with much more developed grows in the past - so the solo hydro learning cycle has got me reading - processing - worrying - then reading more in what seems to be a perpetual cycle

It's awesome when someone with your level of experience gives a reassuring approval - now I should be able to sleep tonight !

I've got to also admit that I've got the hydro but in my blood at this stage - first and last thing I do every day is check on the plants - and every time I go into a store I see something that I want to integrate into my grow haha !

Thanks for the reply dude

 

[Xlr8]

Thanks Man !

...every time I go into a store I see something that I want to integrate into my grow haha !

Thanks for the reply dude

Yup, you're hooked! That's something we all have in common. I'm glad if I can help you sleep better!

 

[AlphaPrime]

Hi Everyone !

Sooo - its been about a week since I last posted; and I've been mighty busy doing tons of nutrient research and reading + rereading way too many grow journals and articles ! Why wasnt there a College degree in Cannabis Cultivation ?! lol =)

Anyway, i digress - here are some pics of the little ones 14 days post germination, and a week since the last photos were taken!

Leave growth is surprising me every day - and im always curious to see what the girls look like when i come home after a long day away!

I made the decision to switch from 24/0 to 18/6 - and maybe its just me but root growth definitely seems to have increased exponentially in the 4 days i have done so.

Is this sort of size typical for 14 days since germination ?

Also, apart from the slight watermarks on some of the leaves (I had a low humidity problem because humidifer went out of service for 2 days and overcompensated with non ph adjusted water as foliage spray...)

Can anybody notice that there are just a few whiteish spots on a couple of the leafs ? I dont know if this is just concentrated remains of non adjusted water sprayed onto leaf - but would rather know now if something is wrong than to let it progress !

And last - some of the leafs - mostly 2nd real pairs - appear to be slightly curled - is this anything to worry about or am i just being overprotective ?

As always - any love and feedback would be greatly appreciated ! This is my first solo grow and I feel like the more i learn, the more questions i pose myself !

AP!

 

[Xlr8]

As far as how big they are for this stage - they seem like they're progressing normally. Your new growth looks really good, so I think things look fine overall - I certainly don't see anything to worry about. Even with lower RH, you probably don't need to spray them. How low is your RH without the humidifier?

Good job so far!

 

[AlphaPrime]

As far as how big they are for this stage - they seem like they're progressing normally. Your new growth looks really good, so I think things look fine overall - I certainly don't see anything to worry about. Even with lower RH, you probably don't need to spray them. How low is your RH without the humidifier?

Good job so far!

Hey buddy!

I dont know if my dual temp/rh meter is playing games on me - but apparently close to 0 most of the time - managed to get it up to 40% with one fogger and 1 humidifier!

Had a slight root rot worry today - but hopefully (fingers crossed) it was only the start of an algae problem and i spent 4 hours taking my entire system apart and sanitising every last bit and filled with new water and nutes @5.6ph.

Will post some pics in a second to show plant growth - quite a lot when compared to last pics =)

 

[AlphaPrime]

Here are all 4 girls just before complete system sanitsation and nute change !

 

[AlphaPrime]

And completely forgot - a buddy hooked me up with his Halea - HC-100-A Water Chiller today !

Cant wait to get a pump and hose tomorrow to ghook it up to my system and keep the water at a fresh 19 Centrigrade!

Any suggestions as to pump stength ?

In total my reservoir has about 80L - was thinking of going with a 450l/ph pump - does that seem sufficient ?

Here are a couple more pics of compelte system after a little cleaning + tidying today =)

Notice the chiller just begging to be plugged in to work ^^

Thanks !

AP

 

[AlphaPrime]

Mini Update:
Finally got my environment dialed in :-
-RH at 40%
-light on temp @ 78.8
-light off temp @ 72.5
-Water temp @ 66.0 constant
-ph @ 5.5
-ppm 960

Hope everyones grow is pointing the right way up and any feedback / comments most welcome.

Thanks,
AP

 

[AlphaPrime]

Woke up today to find my plants looking rather sorry for themselves

They are all drooping to some extent - but this is the worst of them all at the moment -

Can anybody suggest what i should do now ? i checked all vitals this morning - ph was fine just around 5.6-5.7, rh was at/around 40%, water temp at 66, ppm around 850 (need to get new meter). Air temp was at 71 just before lights came on and sitting steady at 76-78 with lights on.

m really not sure what could do to remedy the situation. m feeding adv nutrients at 1/3-1/2 strength and up until last night / this morning they appeared to be thriving

also checked the water level and it has the perfect distance between roots and water, airbubble action from stones is giving them a nice mist / fog.

Further to this the recirculation system is creating small amounts of airbubbles when it re-enters each bucket and has a 2 inch drop....

Could it be possible that the water temp is too cold ? prior to installing chiller yesterday everythign was fine - but water temps were slightly high - hence i installed the chiller.

Dont want to mess things up anymore than they already are so begging for any input.

Thanks and god bless !

AP

 

[AlphaPrime]

Small update:
een thinking all day about what could have caused this reaction in the plants - it occured to me that just before i went to sleep i noticed ph sitting around 5.9 - therefore decided to add some ph down (litteraly only about 5-6 small drops). nstead of mixing it with a liter or so of water and adding to system the drops went straight to the main resrvoir from which a pump recirculates into all buckets.

Could this be a possible cause ? Also in the same reservoir is another pump (650lph) that recriculates through water chiller.

So the small ph down change and introduction of water chiller about 6 hours beforehand are the only changes which occured to waking up and seeing the plants as pictured above - could either be the cause ? [/I]

 

[AlphaPrime]

Bump... Anybody ? Please - i dont want them to die

 

[Xlr8]

66f isn't too cold for the water temps. I don't think the PH drops should have been an issue, either - but I don't know for certain. If the PH drops were hitting the roots directly without being mixed in yet, perhaps? Some questions I have to try to help troubleshoot this, as the info you are giving all looks ideal (and something must be amiss).

How do your roots look? White with lots of "fishbone" behavior is good. If the reservoir temps were slightly high before, had the rootzone become unhealthy at all? Brown or tan, slimy at all?

Is this a DWC system? Are roots just getting splashed, or are they submerged? Where is the water level in relation to the bottom of the netpots? In recirculating DWC, I like to see the netpot bottom about 1 1/2 to 2" above the nutrient solution, depending on how good the airstone "splash" is.

Are you confident in the temps, and are you measuring them at plant level? Make sure to set a thermometer right next to the plant that is looking droopiest, if you can measure the water temp there, too, would be good.

I doubt this is the problem, but I prefer white on top of the plant sites to reflective materials such as what you have. The folds in the metal tape that are reflective can cause hot reflective spots. You want to make sure anything reflected is diffuse and not focused.

Hang in there, we'll see if we can get to the bottom of it.

 

[wildbill38]

The Foil is not good Like X said. Im no expert
but you may need to look on the bottom of your
leafs to see if you see anything moving or any type
webbing. Spider mites will make them
very unhappy.

 

[AlphaPrime]

66f isn't too cold for the water temps. I don't think the PH drops should have been an issue, either - but I don't know for certain. If the PH drops were hitting the roots directly without being mixed in yet, perhaps? the ph drops were added to the central reservoir that doesnt hold plants - about 20 liters of water that gets distributed throughout the entire system.Some questions I have to try to help troubleshoot this, as the info you are giving all looks ideal (and something must be amiss).

How do your roots look? White with lots of "fishbone" behavior is good. If the reservoir temps were slightly high before, had the rootzone become unhealthy at all? Brown or tan, slimy at all?
Temps were in mid 70s only for about a day or so - i quickly installed the water chiller to remedy this as soon as i noticed. looked at the roots - and some <10% appeared slightly dark tan with a little bit of slime / mud. added some liquid oxygen to remedy this and pruned about 1-3 tiny roots on each plant that looked worst affected. However still plenty of fresh white root left much more than 90% now. Slightly off coloured because nutes discoloured water a bit.

Is this a DWC system? Are roots just getting splashed, or are they submerged? Where is the water level in relation to the bottom of the netpots? In recirculating DWC, I like to see the netpot bottom about 1 1/2 to 2" above the nutrient solution, depending on how good the airstone "splash" is.
Yes its recirculating DWC - bottom of roots are about 1 inch from the water level - and airstones are providing what appears to be just the right amount of 'splashing' The roots dont appear to be drowing and certainly arent dry either.

Are you confident in the temps, and are you measuring them at plant level? Make sure to set a thermometer right next to the plant that is looking droopiest, if you can measure the water temp there, too, would be good.
Temps are all taken at plant level, and used a thermometer to check that chiller is operating accurately - it was less than 0.2 degree off...
I doubt this is the problem, but I prefer white on top of the plant sites to reflective materials such as what you have. The folds in the metal tape that are reflective can cause hot reflective spots. You want to make sure anything reflected is diffuse and not focused.

Hang in there, we'll see if we can get to the bottom of it.

bought some an Revive whislt on lunch break and will try a partial flush and adding fresh water with revive at advised dosage.

Not really sure what else to try but its depressing seeing the girls taking such a turn for the worse over night - just when i had plant atmoshpere dialled in perfectly.

noticed that the recirculation hoses (from central reservoir to each pot) was in some cases spaslhign straight onto the side of the netpot - have sicne drilled holes to relocate these so they splash away from it.

Your help means a lot dude - nothing worse than seeing a problem and not having a clue how to address it !! =([/U]