Hey guys - Got my new/better seeds from nirvana on Tuesday - Papaya. I started germinating 5 of them and within 24 hours they all had tails. I let them get about a half inch/inch in the paper towel, then carefully transfered them to the rockwool in which I soaked overnight in 4.5 Ph, I started my system up and put on the lights. Since this is my first hydro I really appreciate any feedback because I keep trying different things/positions for lights and other things hoping to get them to respond well to some little change, but also im hope i dont kill them from too much change.. So last night I noticed that my humidity was way too low (30%) and my temp was kinda high (98). So I threw a fan on it, then put a box in the middle and threw clear wrap over the top of the system held up by the box in the middle. I figured this would create a kind of green house. It worked well, this morning when I woke up the Humidity was 80% and the temp was 91. The only thing is i couldnt get the lights to close to the plants them. So this morning I figured they might need some air, so i took off the humidity dome and put the lights much closer. What do you guys think the best setup for these growing babies is? Should I throw back on the humidity dome and keep it that way with the lights a foot and a half up for now until they get bigger or should i try to get the lights as close as possible w/out burning them?? Anything helps, Thanks a bunch, Im really glad theres so much support on this site. Anyway, heres some pics, heres a pic from day 2 (yestarday) then heres some more from this morning
Forgot about the specs : Humidity : 35% (as of now, i could throw that clear wrap back on to get it back to round 80, but then the lights arnet as close, which is better?) Temp : 91 Ph : 5.75 Lights : 3 flouros 105 W, multi spectrum Seeds : Papaya Nuits : None yet...I was reading some people holding off on the nuits, should i add them already since the plants are still young? System : SH Bubbleponics (Please dont give me shit about this, I know I got ripped off and I will have problems like others have, but im going to make this work one way or another with all your help) Ventilation : one fan right now, need to work on this part of my setup
Day 4 now, still no nuits, could use some feedback as to what a good time to add them is. the humidity dome i made seems to be working good, the plants are growing fast to me idk if its normal though. Humidity holding out at around 65% but the temp is around 100F, cant seem to find a way around that being so high. Theres the one which is going better than the others, i think its because the rockwool is less wet than the others, thats the only difference i can make reason out of. Heres pics, day 4...
Couple things about the SH Bubbleponics set up: It's impossible to have 6 full grown healthy plants in that small of a reservoir. I believe the usual water to plant ration should be at least 3-5 gallons per plant. So you can either try a sea of green technique in which the root systems don't get large enough to need as much water and space as full grown plants, or you're looking at a maximum 2 or 3 mature plants. LIGHT GETS INTO THE RESERVOIR!!! I have no idea why SH sells see-through reservoirs, but you're going to need to tape mylar all over that thing, or put 3 or 4 layers of duct tape on it. I didn't know that at first, and light getting into the reservoir caused orange algae in my system. I hope you rinsed the hydroton for a long time, because it will cause some orange sediment in the reservoir as well. There's really no need (in my limited experience) to start nutes until the plants are a couple weeks old. I've learned (again, in my limited experience) that plants with no nutes or less nutes is definitely preferable to plants with too much nutes. Using this bubbleponics system, I had explosive root growth. However, my roots ended up turning orange, and I'm dealing with root rot. I've tripled wrapped my reservoir with duct tape, and am trying to keep the water temperatures down (65F is where you want it), but no matter what I do I keep having root issues. Hopefully if you start out making that thing light proof and finding a way to keep your reservoir temperatures down (anything over 75F is asking for trouble) you'll be able to get a leg up on the problems I had. And you want your ambient temperature to be around 75-82F. Anything in the 90's stunts plant growth unless you have some kind of C02 system in there. Just my 2 cents. Good luck.
Also, it looks like you're overwatering your rockwool cubes. They should be wet, but not drenched like that. I think that's inviting root rot as well. Rockwool holds moisture better than almost any growing medium and you only need to keep it damp, not soaked. If the bubbleponics hoses are causing the cubes to stay that wet, you might want to consider moving them down a bit. I believe underneath the cubes and a little to one side to be the best placement (in my experience). Peace.
Thanks for the feedback Darth - I was reading your grow thread before i started and picked up a bunch of good info. I already got my rockwool a bit dryer, its kinda what i thought too since the one that was doing the best was in the dryest rockwool. Im trying to keep my temp below 90 and my humidity above 50, its getting a bit hard since the humiditiy dome i made also traps a lot of heat and i want to get the lights closer to the plants, anyone got suggestions? Yea, i rinsed the shit out of the hyrdoton im sure they are clean, i really want to avoid any gunk in my pumps. Tomorrow im going to try to tape up the box to avoid light getting into it, good call Darth. Ill post some more pics tomorrow, im hoping my those wet ones will start growing more!!
Id post some day 5 pics but they arnt too much different, ive been trying to get the rockwool looking dryer but its kinda hard to squeeze the water out without damaging the roots. Can they grow in just the hydroton once they have a bit of a root? Im wondering if it would be better to take one or two of the wet ones and just putting it straight in the hydrotron? Darth - did you end up taping up your whole box or just the top to prevent the light from getting in? Hope everyones enjoyin this gorgeous sunday!
Don't squeeze the rockwool! It's supposedly bad for the oxygen-retaining capacity or some such. I wouldn't bother trying to dry them manually. They should dry up on their own in a few days. I have no experience growing in just the hydroton. I've heard of people doing it but I don't know what to tell ya. I taped the entire thing, including the bottom. Three layers of duct tape is what worked for me. Best way to check is next time you go to dump your reservoir and put in fresh water and what not, hold it up in front of your lights where you're looking inside of it. You'll see how much light is getting in. After putting the third layer of duct tape on it, the difference was (literally) like night and day. I think it's more important to get the temperature down then to keep the humidity up, personally. You can always get some containers, put water in them, and keep them near your plants. That way the water evaporates into the air raising the humidity. When I wanted to raise my humidity I kept a cooler full of ice water outside my grow box right next to the intake. Worked well for me. Anyhow, good luck. I think I'm going to set my plants on fire at this point.
I was browsing through here and saw that you are using the same system I am from Stealth Hydro. Although the system could be better, it has been working like a charm for me. I built my own grow box for less than $40 to place the hydro kit in. Even though this is my first grow, I have learned a ton of important information during the process. For starters, with this system, a Sea Of Green is the way to go. The resevoir just isn't big enough for full-sized plants. That being said, the system has been effective enough to make these babies grow like crazy. I have been reading about temps and humidity quite a bit. I actually did a "dry" run for about a week prior to germinating my seeds to make sure I would be within reasonable parameters. Humidity is ideal at 40-65% or so. The less humidity, the narrower your leaves will be and the more energy the plant will use to produce buds when the time comes. My humidity has been about 62%, therefore my leaves are a little wider...but still within reason. My temp maintains around 80 degrees with one small fan pointed down at the plants. Above 85 degrees or so, the plants are using their energy to combat heat rather than growing...so make sure ot get your temps down. I got the Dual Spectrum CFLs with my kit, and they barely put out any heat at all. I placed them about 2" from the top of the plants and have had no issues with heat burn. They have done a surprisingly good job at giving the plants enough light. For a budget-minded grow...these are just fine. The nutes will get you. The stealth hydro nutes aren't all that great. I don't think they are ph balanced because I have had to adjust Ph every time I have added nutes or done a water change. The largest dose I have given the plants is a 1/2 suggested dose. More than that, and I ended up with nute burn. I will buy some better nutrients on my next grow. Your nutrient solution should be delivered via the resevoir tubing directly below the rockwool cube. It will wick the water up to your growing plants. Once you have roots growing into the resevoir(actually hanging in the water), they will be feeding constantly through their root system. At that point, I bought another timer and set the nutrient delivery for 15 minutes every 3 hours. This seems to work. Set the pump up just like the lights. Set it and forget it. I do have a very small amount of orange growth, but I have been cleaning out the resevoir every week and it seems to keep algae to a minimum. No plant damage or negative effect that I can see. I just started flowering today. I am anxious to see how my Northern Lights turn out. Of course...I am hoping for girls. And yes, the Sh Bubbleponics is a little pricey for what you get, but I wanted to see exactly what went into building this type of set up. Doing a little research online, it would cost less than $60 to build this kit. I enjoy smoking very much....I think I am enjoying the grow maybe even more. Once you get a few fan leaves on your plants, they really take off. Every day you check on them there will be significant growth...this is where it gets fun. Hopefully this is of some assistance and not too repetitive. Since we are using an identical system, we may be able to benefit eachother greatly. Feel free to check out my Grow Journal.....HydroFarmer72.
i use a home-made DWC system similar to that one. but i had to learn through trial and error that 6 slots for plants is way to much for that res. i did a re-design where i made it with 3 slots instead, check my grow journal. if bacteria gets into your roots thats bad business. so i try to couner this by pumping more air to the water, oxygen eats algae in its natural form. so in theory the more air the better. i tried stealth nutes out as well, was not very satisfied with the process i now use the lucas forumla. highly suggest looking into it Happy Gardening, TeXas p.s. - becareful with that rockwool, if you dont take good care of it, there could be some promising root rot.
Yo. Thanks for the feedbacks. I worked on my setup a lot yestarday, getting some intake and outtake fans and what not, finally got the temp down to around 80F and the humidity to about 50-60, i figure thats pretty close to what I want right? The taller one has some lighter spots on its leaves? Sup wit that? Then theres the smaller one thats doing the best I suppose. Is this pretty normal growth after a week from germinating? Still havent seen any roots but im sure they are right there waiting to come down. I took the one that was in some bad looking rockwool out and put it directly in the hydroton....well see how it does, it hasnt died yet, but also hasnt grown, it seems like they havent done too much the past couple days, maybe because of the heat? Im hoping they start moving quick again. This one looks like a mouth......"Please grow and smoke me"...... Heres the one with the lighter spots on the top that hasnt done too much the past day or so... Heres the rest... I still gotta tape that box up, i was thinking of just getting a whole new one thats bigger and black and just moving the setup into that... maybe later this week ill do that.
Heyo - Alright i feel comfortable abuot my temp/humidity control now! I got it down to between 40-60 humidity and between 79-85F temp, seems like what everyone is saying is ideal conditions, right? I couldnt figure out a way to get the air temp down, but then yestarday i just moved my setup close to a window and hooked up my AC on the window, then it blows directly into the grow box... Ive got it on low, it not the most energy efficient way of cooling it down, but what the hell it works. I really want to get my box looking hidden in the room i have it in, its not too big, 4ft tall, 2ft wide, 3.5 ft long, but its made out of PVC and tarp, lights getting through the tarp, but eventually i want it so i can still have it in the room but totally hidden from an unwanted visitor, just in case, anyone got ideas as to what to put over it, i was thinking of piling a bunch of boxes around/on top of it, maybe make it look like a elaborate game or a really weird dresser or something, anyone got an idea? Heres a pic, u cant really tell all that good from the pic but u get the idea i guess... So the plants..... I had the temp problem for a while and now that I have it down to between 78-84F I can tell that the plants were not growing because of that. However I cant say im having a great start. Seems likes I messed up each baby in a different way but Im not sure how bad of damage I did or how I did it, theres the tallest one which was lookign real good, but then got the yellow leaves, Im hoping it was because of all the heat it was getting and now it will get better, what do you guys think? Will it be alright now with better conditions? Then I got this one which i took out of the rockwool a couple days ago and it seems to be growing now that the temp is down but it also has some yellow/burnt looking edges, not sure if this one will be alright either.... At first I was thinking maybe it was not getting enough water but the hose is running right to its roots, so im not sure, any advise would be appreciated... Then theres this one which is looking the best, some roots popped out the bottom yestarday and today are about an inch above the water. This one is growing a lot different though, much more full and not as tall. Anyone have an idea as to why this is. Maybe overwatering, I was going to change out the rockwool cause it was looking pretty wet, but then it just kept growing OK with it, so I figure what the hell, its going the best out of all of them im afraid to mess with it..... Then theres another which isnt lookin so hot so I put it in another rockwool cube but its still not looking great so I threw another germinated seed in there a closed up the top so it would be dark for the seed, im hoping the new seed grows just right in the better conditions now. Any feedback you guys could give would be awesome. I wish I had a huge stash of asian pics like darth but i dont, ill think of something for motivation though
Yo - Can anyone tell me whats up with my yellow leaves. Ive been battling betting my air temp down, and finally i have a system that seems to be working, its holding around 80-84, the plants seem to be growing much better now, but i cant figure out whats with the yellow leaves!!!! The one i thougth was from the temp, but now the better one has a leaf that seems to be lighter color. Anyone any ideas??? Heres the one that was going so great, now the bottom leaf is turning lighter, im afraid its going to get worse like the other.... Heres the one that began the yellow idea, little bastard, but hes still growing.... Any ideas would be awesome! Thanks!
Please, anyone know my problem/solution to my yellow leaves? It seems to be only on the fan type leaves, im out of ideas? Anyone?
Don't quote me on this, but the general idea of the SOG (sea of green) technique is to grow a larger number of smaller plants by cutting down the veg time substantially in order to get quicker harvests. While most people do this in order to speed up the harvest time, the reason to do it in this res if you have more than 2 plants is because the root masses will be smaller, thus hopefully minimizing the negative effects of the small size of the reservoir. As others have pointed out, six plants can literally not flourish in such a small reservoir. I think (again don't quote me) that you either go straight to 12/12 and flower off the bat or only give them about a week or two of veg time before the switch. As to the yellow leaves, I'm honestly not sure. I'm a n00b myself, especially when it comes to diagnosing such things. You might want to try posting in the sick plants forum. I noticed that the plant on the last pic of the last page looks like it's stretching. How close do you have the lights? If using CFL's you should keep them within inches of the plants to minimize stretching and maximize your light output. HTH. Good luck, mane.
I am growing 5 plants just fine in a system very similar to this (same res size) and have had no root problems at all. I have heard of Sh nutes causing root problems though. Start adding 1/4 nutes and get the lights closer and the yellowing should go away. Also look into Advanced Nutrients, I have never had a Ph,algae, or def/over nute problem with these nutes (crosses fingers and knocks on wood) just some advice.
Thanks for the feedbacks Comrade & Darth! As a noobie it feels good hearing stuff like oh just do this and it should be alright. I got my lights way closer than they were, I had them distant before cause of the heat problem i was having but now that I got my ventalization good its keeping the right temp with the lights close, theyre about 2 inches away. Im gonna add some nuits to it a little later today... I was reading on some other site about people not feeding their mediums through the hoses all the time. I know SH recommends that after a while only feeding them 3 min an hour or seomthing, but what about when they are young, did you guys have the water pump on all the time or on a timer? Im getting ready to kick back and puff some of this beautiful big bud i just got. Hope everyones enjoyin the day.
Well mines more of a drip system I think but I have my pump run 24/7, works fine, or maybe just run it when the lights are on.