youngdro and i started our big bud fluoro grow. using: (grow room thread) 2 - 4' t8 34w fluoro tubes 5 - 90w equivalent (forgot actual wattage) CFL's 2 - 18" 1200 lumen (forgot wattage) fluoro tubes 1 - 10" fan for stem agitation and air circulation 2 - 5 gal bubble buckets with double outlet 150 gal air pumps (using 2 1" air stones), 5" net pots and 2" rockwool cubes. in a 5ft w x 3ft d x 8ft t closet using cup germination method. as soon as tap root appears will transplant into bubble bucket system. any suggestions? pics to follow as soon as i borrow my friends camera. updates to follow as soon as i have something to write about!
Plant Number 1 (herein referred to as Esteban (esto for short)) shot a small piece of a stem out of the ground! Plant Number 2 (named Santana) was only cracked open (no tap root when i put her in the rockwool and bubble bucket) and still nothing yet. But of course i didn't post to give you such a lousy update. I had a question. My nutrients liquid earth (i bought "grow", "bloom", and "vigor") have the following instructions: (it also says [not shown] that one unit is equal to 1 teaspoon of nutrient per gallon of water) So i followed them and put 4 teaspoons of grow and 4 teaspoons of vigor into my 5 gal bucket filled with 4.2 gallons of water. changed ph to ~5.8. however, i read somewhere that you should start seeds on pure water, although i germinated in a cup full of water to get them to crack and show a taproot. what do you think i should do/comments/suggestions? thanks
Yeah, that's a lot of nutes for seedlings. However, hydro is a little different than soil. Tell me, what is the PPM of your nutrient solution?
@smknVTEC - no i don't know my ppm currently which i know is bad BUT the good news! Esteban appears healthy! heres two pics! But sadly, Santana still has not sprouted, although I checked and she has a nice taproot, so she should sprout by tomorrow Any suggestions about when i should change the water? i filled the buckets and nutes exactly last saturday.
Well, looks like the recommended nutrient levels listed on my nutes was way off. My leaves started turning yellow! They've been on that largely concentrated solution for 8 days, and today i saw yellowing, so my partner in crime young dro diluted the buckets by removing 3 gallons (out of 4.2 gal) and replacing with tap, so its basically pH balanced tap and a small amount of nutes, if not entirely tap. More pics tomorrow when i get the camera back. Any ideas what i should do about nutes? btw pH is about 6.0
You man, You need a ppm meter. Your nutrient solution was obviously too high. You need to change the resevoir every week to 10 days tops. That is, drain it completely and refill it with fresh, pH ballanced water. Speaking of pH your pH at 6.0 is a bit high. It should be as close to 5.5 as possible. Go real easy on the nutes if at all until you get a ppm meter.
thanks for the quick response. ive been in the market for a TDS meter, and im gonna do some more research about reccomended ppm levels in hydro. however, at what point in the grow are nutrients typically required? also, the cheapest meter i have seen so far was $70, any suggestions? thanks
Hey bro, check out this place. I found 'em a while back and the product is good and it ships quick. I think i picked up the tds, and the ph and temp meter for around 80 or 90 bucks shipped. http://stores.ebay.com/eSeasonGear
I got this one http://cgi.ebay.com/HANNA-HI-98129-...hZ018QQcategoryZ43555QQtcZphotoQQcmdZViewItem It is very good and I bought mine for $160 so at $129 that's a great deal. Again, nutes in soil are not needed until about week 3-4 from seed. In hydro, small amounts of nutes can be added right away to give about 300 ppm for example.
Thanks for the advice guys, plan on buying a meter tonight on eBay. I have flushed all the nutrients and Esteban is thriving, but Santana is totally fucked. She sprouted yesterday with completely deformed leaves obviously burned to shit by the over nutrients. I'm 99% sure shes a goner. More updates with pics soon. This Saturday will be week 2 in the buckets. GOT TO GET MY TDS METER!!!
UPDATES! ESTEBAN IS HEALTHY(er)! Still waiting on my TDS meter however Right now both plants have NO nutrients, but on this next change we are going to put 1/4 strength nutrients for Esteban, and none for Santana, because she is still fucked up. STILL waiting to get a good camera in there to show you all the room and good close ups of the plants. till next time
Well, Esteban has been really improving, and we just put him straight to 1/2 strength nutrients today. Santana is still very small and has no nutrients. She has to get a bit bigger first. More pics to come of the explosive vegetative growth! Is half strength ok to use on a 5 or 6 leafset plant? its very dense about 4" tall and 6" wide.
Wow, it's been a long time since an update. Well, I just received the TDS meter, and its pretty nice. YoungDro has been doing a lot of the work, so a lot of credit goes to him. He put the plants in flower yesterday! Pics coming soon.
Figured i'd update anyone who got pissed at this thread... One plant was male, and the other had an accident... apparently I didn't anchor my eye hooks firmly enough and the light fixture fell on the plant and snapped the base stem, sorry for the let down