Seedling Help - Flood & Drain Hydroton

[fortphoenix]

I finally sprouted a couple seeds (afghan) in rapid rooters!! but i have a few questions! I used rapid rooters to germinate/sprout in a dome/tray and used a water bottle to spray and keep everything moist.. then after a week i transplanted to the hydroton. the bottom of the rapid rooters are like 1/4-1/2" from the flood level. I'm using an a/c 400w hps, like 10-12" from the tops on 24/7 and flood every 4 hours in 1 gallon pots. i already know i fucked these seeds up from over watering (they are drooping a bit) and transplant shock, i transplanted them on the 24th and like no vertical growth has occurred but the leaves yellowed a bit so i gave them 200ppm of maxigro and i think they're just recovering now. but i have 2 more I'm transplanting tomorrow so i want to make sure i don't mess things up on 2 new ak-48 seedlings, so heres my questions...

1. Once transplanted, should i water the rapid rooter directly? i was using a spray bottle but wasn't directly watering the plug, just around it. also, should I still be flooding every 4 hours when watering from the top?

2. How often should i water the top? when the plug is like really dry, like a beige color? or when its still kind of moist (light brown)? or should i just not hand-water them myself at all and make the roots stretch to the flood level?

3. Is it safe to transplant into the flood table at such a young (1week) age? some people say to wait till the roots develop but logically i feel like the more roots sticking out the sides and stuff, the more damage can be done and more shock when transplanting. any thoughts?

4. Should i put hydroton on top of the rapid rooter when in the pot or should i leave the rapid rooter uncovered?

5.What could be causing the tips of the taproots to turn brown? the taproots on the afghans were brown and skinny/shriveled. i read some places it could be from light hitting it or under watering and some other stuff too... or maybe my heat mat?

6. Also, i have a thermostatically controlled heat mat. when should i take it off?


Sorry i typed so much but i would really appreciate if you could help me out!!! thank you!!

 

[fortphoenix]

i know i just posted this last night but 183 views and not a single response? lol. not surprised, that always happens on this site.... i got pics too if that'll help anyone helping me

 

[Papageno]

Is this a double post?

I get answers right away usually unless I ask something complex. Did your questions get answered in the other post or do you still have questions?

These sound like basic questions. It sounds like you could get all of these answered at any website that explain flood and drain hydro techniques. I do DWC as it is much easier. Flood and drain is a better but more advanced technique that probably shouldn't be taken on for your fist few grows. But go for it. Growing weed is easy. I am sure there are a ton of journals in the journals section that explain how to do flood and drain.


Completed Journals


I typed "flood and drain" into the search tool and found this journal. I am sure the author would love to help if they are still around.

Hush 2 x 4 Flood / Drain 600Watt / Many CFL's - 02-2010


But most people do some sort of DWC nowa days as it is so much easier.

my answers to the questions

1) If you are using a flood and drain system then once transplanted in there you need to adjust the flood and dry times to get the medium the right moisture while mostly being not flooded.

2) Once transplanted into the system you don't need to water the top you need to adjust the flood and drain times.

3) The more roots showing the stronger the plant is and more able to take the shock. If you transplant correctly there will be just triivial shock and in a few hours it will take off again. You can transplant at any age it just depends if you have the system setup to provide the proper cycle. that means keeping things slightly moist but not wet. The roots need air.

4) Always cover your rooting medium with the growing medium.

5) Those are signs of over watering and having water at too warm a temps.

6) You don't want a heat mat after the shells of the seeds have broken open. So as soon as you see seeds pop out of the rapid rooter the heat mat should be taken away.

 

[fortphoenix]

Is this a double post?

I get answers right away usually unless I ask something complex. Did your questions get answered in the other post or do you still have questions?

These sound like basic questions. It sounds like you could get all of these answered at any website that explain flood and drain hydro techniques. I do DWC as it is much easier. Flood and drain is a better but more advanced technique that probably shouldn't be taken on for your fist few grows. But go for it. Growing weed is easy. I am sure there are a ton of journals in the journals section that explain how to do flood and drain.


Completed Journals


I typed "flood and drain" into the search tool and found this journal. I am sure the author would love to help if they are still around.

Hush 2 x 4 Flood / Drain 600Watt / Many CFL's - 02-2010


But most people do some sort of DWC nowa days as it is so much easier.

my answers to the questions

1) If you are using a flood and drain system then once transplanted in there you need to adjust the flood and dry times to get the medium the right moisture while mostly being not flooded.

2) Once transplanted into the system you don't need to water the top you need to adjust the flood and drain times.

3) The more roots showing the stronger the plant is and more able to take the shock. If you transplant correctly there will be just triivial shock and in a few hours it will take off again. You can transplant at any age it just depends if you have the system setup to provide the proper cycle. that means keeping things slightly moist but not wet. The roots need air.

4) Always cover your rooting medium with the growing medium.

5) Those are signs of over watering and having water at too warm a temps.

6) You don't want a heat mat after the shells of the seeds have broken open. So as soon as you see seeds pop out of the rapid rooter the heat mat should be taken away.

hey V.I. yes sorry i posted it twice because it had so many views but noone had anything to say so figured i may have posted it in the wrong area but thank you very much for replying i appreciate it, i actually trashed those afghan plants (they were test plants) and planted some ak48 then transplanted after a week and when i transplanted they seemed to barely suffer any shock because i transplanted them on wednesday night and when i came hope friday morning they both grew (i put the timer to flood every 2.5 hours as i seen people suggest, some people even suggest every hours when they're first transplanted) but now one of them is looking over watered while the other looks healthy and i haven't noticed growth from either of them in the past 48 hours so i switched to flood every 6 hours, the only thing that sucks is i can spray the rapid rooter and make it really moist but it will completely dry out in a couple hours, should i just leave it alone or keep spraying? I'm going to put hydroton over it as you suggested and hopefully it won't dry out so much but what do you think, do you think this plant is over watered or underwatered? again, thank you very much for your input. and you're right, i got rid of the heat mat after my 2 ak48s sprouted and they didn't have the brown root tips

 

[Dontscrewup]

This is probably too late but I just did this and I put my little starter pots into a block of rockwool before placing them in the hydroton. The Rockwool will wick up the moisture to the seedlings and give them a nice firm foundation for roots to take hold.

 

[fortphoenix]

This is probably too late but I just did this and I put my little starter pots into a block of rockwool before placing them in the hydroton. The Rockwool will wick up the moisture to the seedlings and give them a nice firm foundation for roots to take hold.

its cool man thanks for responding. i fixed the problem i just stopped watering the rapid rooter and cut the flooding down to once every 6 hours