Starting Seeds for Bubble Buckets

[noctorum]

This is the article I read about starting seeds for bubble buckets;

Start with standard rockwool seedling cubes. Soak them in pH adjusted RO Water, and then get your seeds ready. You can germinate them in paper towels, gauze, cheesecloth, or just do like me, and not fool with all that-- just poke the seed in the rockwool cube where the hole is pre-made. If you find that's too big for your seeds, turn the cube over and poke a smaller hole.

When you think your cubes have soaked up enough water, take them outside, or to the bathtub, and holding it loosely, give them 2 or 3 hardy shakes. (DO NOT SQUEEZE OUT!) This will release LOTS of water from the cube, thus making air pockets within the cube itself. These air pockets are very important for seedlings and clones. Also, by doing that, you keep your seed from soaking to death...too much moisture will kill the seedlings.

When you get the most of the water out, pick the seeds you want to grow and drop them in the hole about 1/4"-1/2" down. Carefuly squeeze the hole closed and place in a humidity dome. Light isn't all that important until the seed sprouts, however its very important to keep the temps around 80*f in your grow area. Warmth will speed up the process considerably as will a few drops of Superthrive per gallon of water.

Within 4 to 7 days (up to 14..) you should see seedlings poking out of the cube-- this is where I really watch whats happening as the TAP ROOT will grow faster than the plant itself. When this occurs, I get them ready to move to a 2 gallon rooter DWC bucket with 3" net pot holes. I will take the seedling, and place it in a 3" netpot with a few rocks on the bottom, as to support the cube, and leave plenty of space for the roots to grow without letting them lay on the bottom of the humidity dome's tray. I try to suspend the roots as long as they are in the dome. When I feel they are old enough (when there are a FEW small roots poking out of the RW cube) I will place the 3" pots with the seedlings in them, in the rooter bucket for about a week sometimes two if I am using fluorescents for vegging.

In that time, I will have a 5 gallon bucket ready, and I will carefuly try to weave as many of the roots thru the holes of a 6" net pot, and like with the 3"er, I will place a small amout of rock on the bottom of the pot to suspend the roots, and allow ample space for more roots. I place the 3" pot into the 6" pot and then fill up with rocks, finally covering the 3" pot (kind of like a BOG double pot method for soil) and placing that into the lid of the 5 gallon bucket.

Now, my question;

After the tap-root grows out of the rockwool cube, can I place it directly into my main 6" orchid pot/5 gallon bubble buckets as per the instructions for putting them into the 2 gallon bucket?

Thanks for any help

[AstralSativa]

Yup

There should be no problem

[unoit]

HIGH All, me I just use clones for Bubble Buckets...nothing worse than planting your seeds and finding 1/2 or more are male...I hate taking care and useing Ferts on Males that I don't want.

[noctorum]

Originally Posted by unoit

HIGH All, me I just use clones for Bubble Buckets...nothing worse than planting your seeds and finding 1/2 or more are male...I hate taking care and useing Ferts on Males that I don't want.

Thats the problem, I have no clones. I was thinking about after a week of veg growth, I could sex them early with a paper bag over a growtip. Get rid of the males then, take cuttings from the females, and fill back up the buckets. Half the crop would be ahead of the rest, but that just means more weed for me. Would this work?

[hoast]

hey bitch, i think you shouldn't use a 5 gal or anything that small. You should go with the big storage tub plan, you know those big rubbermaid plastic storage bins? you can fit about 6 plants in each one.

http://www.overgrow.com/edge/showthr...hreadid=327689

[noctorum]

Originally Posted by hoast

hey bitch, i think you shouldn't use a 5 gal or anything that small. You should go with the big storage tub plan, you know those big rubbermaid plastic storage bins? you can fit about 6 plants in each one.

http://www.overgrow.com/edge/showthr...hreadid=327689

Yeah, except one plant has more than enough room to grow in a 5 gal container sam. DWC buckets are cheap as hell, yield 5oz a plant easy (avg), and, with this plan;

http://www.overgrow.com/article/12

are easy to maintain

[hoast]

Originally Posted by noctorum

Yeah, except one plant has more than enough room to grow in a 5 gal container sam. DWC buckets are cheap as hell, yield 5oz a plant easy (avg), and, with this plan;

http://www.overgrow.com/article/12

are easy to maintain

have you ever seen a bucket when its ready to be harvested? the storage tub method is way better, you can produce LOOOTS more bubbles due to the giant amount of water, and that means more oxygen and nutrients pushed into the roots. You can produce lots and lots of bud with 6 plants in one storage tub. Way easier than doing 6 seperate DWC buckets

[noctorum]

Originally Posted by hoast

have you ever seen a bucket when its ready to be harvested? the storage tub method is way better, you can produce LOOOTS more bubbles due to the giant amount of water, and that means more oxygen and nutrients pushed into the roots. You can produce lots and lots of bud with 6 plants in one storage tub. Way easier than doing 6 seperate DWC buckets

You can produce plenty of bubbles in a bucket dude, and lots and lots of bud too. The instructions call for 7 buckets, too :P

I'll need more CO2 before a lack of oxygen is an issue.

I'm growing from bagseed, some plants are going to need more/less of nutes. I can't fix one plants problems as easily in a single tub as if they were in seperate buckets.

[joselima23]

I have the same perdicament. I am gearing up for my second grow and I dont have any clones. I orderered some Hindu Kush seeds but I am think that it may be better to get some feminized seeds so I wont waste time on males. Anyone have experiance with feminized seeds?