Stardawg17, Dutch Bucket, Cookie Wreck, 2020: Dive Into The Deep End

[stardawg17]

Consider buying a bag of rapid rooters.
I use them to start seeds and clone with great success.

Rapid rooters sounds the way to go.

On my pH issue, do you see that in your system? How long does it take for pH down / nutes to circulate through your buckets?

 

[BeanTownFan420]

Ph is hydro can be the biggest issue to deal with exposure to light temps and ppm all effect Ph drift. When I ran a 200 gallon Dwc my Ph would be different in almost every bucket which really had me baffled. All the same rez.

 

[PGA Caddie]

To germinate a seed I drop it in a glass of well water and let it sit 18-24hrs. Then I grab a rapid rooter and some scissors. Dip the rooter in the water the seeds soaking in and then squeeze out the extra like you would a sponge. The rapid rooter has a hole in the top that goes down about 1/2 inch. I use the scissors to cut open one side so I can open it up. Then insert the seed pointy side down or if a root is already sticking out root down. Close up the rooter and put it in your grow medium...soil/perlite/etc... Then wait and be patient. If the rooter starts to look a little dry I use a 10ml syringe and give it a squirt. 3-5 days and you should have a newborn. I'm a firm believer the less you handle the seed the better.

Not sure about your ph issue. Its going to drift which is natural but mine takes a week to go from 5.5 to 6.0. If mines low I top off with well water which makes it rise. Once it gets around 6 I top off with water from my dehumidifier which lowers the ph.

When I start up a new res I always use well water. 190ppm and ph around 7.8. I add all my nutes/hydroguard and then add one ml of AN ph down per gallon. Usually has me right @ 5.8 After a few days it will drift and I'll adjust but after that its always been stable.

 

[BeanTownFan420]

To germinate a seed I drop it in a glass of well water and let it sit 18-24hrs. Then I grab a rapid rooter and some scissors. Dip the rooter in the water the seeds soaking in and then squeeze out the extra like you would a sponge. The rapid rooter has a hole in the top that goes down about 1/2 inch. I use the scissors to cut open one side so I can open it up. Then insert the seed pointy side down or if a root is already sticking out root down. Close up the rooter and put it in your grow medium...soil/perlite/etc... Then wait and be patient. If the rooter starts to look a little dry I use a 10ml syringe and give it a squirt. 3-5 days and you should have a newborn. I'm a firm believer the less you handle the seed the better.

Not sure about your ph issue. Its going to drift which is natural but mine takes a week to go from 5.5 to 6.0. If mines low I top off with well water which makes it rise. Once it gets around 6 I top off with water from my dehumidifier which lowers the ph.

When I start up a new res I always use well water. 190ppm and ph around 7.8. I add all my nutes/hydroguard and then add one ml of AN ph down per gallon. Usually has me right @ 5.8 After a few days it will drift and I'll adjust but after that its always been stable.

How do you swing a club? Is it this complicated also? I am joking of course oops did I say course I ment obviously.

 

[stardawg17]

Michelle

• 2.7 cm
• Cotyledon
  • dark green
  • 1.5 cm
• First leaves
  • Dark green
  • .9 cm
• Stem green
• Looks healthy
• Rockwool moist
  • Drying
  • Spray w/ reclaimed water
• Light
  • Lowered to 9”

 

[PGA Caddie]

Those look fine. I think you were keeping your rockwool to damp on the ones you lost. Same thing would happen with rapid rooter if they were soaked. Hyena switched from rooter to rockwool and has been happy with the results.

 

[BeanTownFan420]

@PGA Caddie i thought my comedy was spot on what happened no thumbs up?

 

[PGA Caddie]

How do you swing a club? Is it this complicated also? I am joking of course oops did I say course I ment obviously.

I been swinging a club for 40 years and still not sure what I’m doing. Some days it’s easy but most days it’s not

 

[BeanTownFan420]

I been swinging a club for 40 years and still not sure what I’m doing. Some days it’s easy buts most days it’s not

I feel that your a good sport to happy to have you with us.

 

[PGA Caddie]

@BeanTownFan420 This is the kinda thread I enjoy. DIY Set up and some tech I have no idea about. Maybe I’ll learn something and possibly help out a new Dutch bucket grower.

 

[stardawg17]

Well I hope I found the issue with the pH level spiking. My medium in the buckets wasn't well rinsed, especially the hydroton at the bottom of each bucket.

I pulled the medium out and rinsed thoroughly using a large plastic tub with holes drilled into the bottom. I pulled out the medium in the paint strainers and put them into the tub. Ran the hose over them until the tub got 25-50 % full and let it drain. Did that a few times. I'll probably need to do it again tomorrow.

The buckets felt a little slimy at the bottom so I emptied the reservoir and I'm running a bleach solution through the system. It'll be a couple of days before my new fancy schmancy pH probe for the reservoir comes in so I figured now's the time to clean the system.

Meanwhile... Michelle's rockwool cube was starting to dry out, so, I moved her into a new apartment.

I mixed 16 oz of a light nutrient solution and poured it into the perlite around the rockwool but not in the cube itself. The cup has holes in the sides near the bottom and fits inside a tupperware container... It's like a mini Dutch bucket

I put her new digs inside the tent and completed what I'll call the Minimally Viable Product (MVP). The climate in the tent is fully controlled by the mycodo system. I set the heater in the tent to 72 F +/- 2 degrees. If it falls below 70 a mini desktop heater will kick on to bring the temp back up. The humidity is set to 70% +/- 10%. If it drops too low a humidifier in the tent will cycle.

I have 2 circulation fans at the top of the tent that run 5 minutes every 15 minutes. I also have a mini oscillating fan that runs full time. The intake and exhaust fans also run full time since they're only rated at 100 CFM and they're each pushing through a carbon filter.

The lights are currently 9" from the tops of the plant.

 

[stardawg17]

How to delete a double post?

Anyway... The other feature of the system is automated time lapse images sans grow lights. One side angle and one looking down from above.

 

[stardawg17]

 

[stardawg17]

Well, I'm starting to wonder if this grow is ever going to get off the ground. I'm pretty confident I'll need to drop a new seed soon.

About 4 days ago the stem started turning red. At first I thought it was just a reflection of the cup I had moved her into, but, now it's pretty apparent the stem is red. The leaves are starting to look droopy too.

I'm having trouble maintaining humidity in the tent so for now I've scheduled the humidifier to run 5 minutes every 30 minutes and I'll not give her any more nutes for a week or so. Maybe she'll survive.

I also read the red stem could be caused by light burn so I raised the light to about 12" above the pant.

The ballast on each of the other 2 lights keep going out so looks like I'll be pulling the trigger on the new grow light. Perhaps I'll get a cheap florescent just for germinating seedlings too.

Also, with these autos should I be running an 18/6 schedule or can I just keep the lights on 24/7?

 

[stardawg17]

Oh yeah, some of the perlite looks a little reddish/pinkish too. Is that from the nutes or do I have a mold issue?

 

[johnnystackz]

Well, I'm starting to wonder if this grow is ever going to get off the ground. I'm pretty confident I'll need to drop a new seed soon.

About 4 days ago the stem started turning red. At first I thought it was just a reflection of the cup I had moved her into, but, now it's pretty apparent the stem is red. The leaves are starting to look droopy too.

I'm having trouble maintaining humidity in the tent so for now I've scheduled the humidifier to run 5 minutes every 30 minutes and I'll not give her any more nutes for a week or so. Maybe she'll survive.

I also read the red stem could be caused by light burn so I raised the light to about 12" above the pant.

The ballast on each of the other 2 lights keep going out so looks like I'll be pulling the trigger on the new grow light. Perhaps I'll get a cheap florescent just for germinating seedlings too.

Also, with these autos should I be running an 18/6 schedule or can I just keep the lights on 24/7?

18/6 is fine. Light should be about 12” off the plant now. She needs light and maybe too much watering going on

 

[stardawg17]

So Friday night I had to make an emergency run to Lowe's as the last LED panel flaked out on me as well. Since I still haven't pulled the trigger on the new grow lights (anyone know how to enter the Mars Hydro discount code?) I picked up one of these...

Today she looks a lot more perky

and it looks like she's growing again

The cotyledon look like they're giving up the ghost and she looks like she's ready for some nutes. I just gave her a spritz and tomorrow I'll probably give her about 10 ml of a light solution.

 

[PGA Caddie]

You enter the discount during checkout

 

[stardawg17]

So it's been a couple of weeks since my last update. Michelle appears to have rebounded quite nicely. The stem is green again and she's getting bushy. The nodes are very tightly spaced. My regimen was spritzing with light nutes twice a day. I let the humidity oscillate between 40 - 70% going through about a gallon of water / day. I had the intake and exhaust fans running constantly to keep fresh air circulating in the tent. I also circulated the nutes in the bottom of the tupperware back through the medium about every 3 - 5 days. The seedling light was kept about 9" above the plant and was on 24 / 7.

As you can see, she's moved into her permanent home. I didn't get pictures, but, there were small roots growing out of the sides of the rockwool cube. Hopefully I didn't harm them in the move. I've also setup the new Mars Hydro TS 600 light and have it about 12" above the plant..

Here's the nute lineup

I've got a new heater for the tent and I think I've dialed in the PID controllers for temp and humidity pretty well.

I also upgraded my pH and EC sensors. I had to get over a bit of a learning curve with the pH Down...but hopefully I've got that under control now too.

i Unfortunately, my raspberry pi camera quit working, so for now I only have the top view looking down on the plant. However, I have all of the basics of the system setup and Michelle looks healthy. Hopefully this grow is back on track.

 

[stardawg17]

Here are some better pics from my phone... Day 31 from seed