Hey guys this is going to be my second attempt with my DWC system i had a plant going had no problems germinating it or transplanting was doing fine but then develeped root rot. I think this was because i fed it nutes to early maybe?? I def know that i didnt have enough hydroton i the net pot the holes on the net pot were visible allowing light to get to my res so that too helped kill off my first attempt. I was rushing through it, excited because my seeds had just came in the mail along with my set up so i threw it all together put a seed in a paper towel and threw it in the DWC after 4 days of germinating with no rapid rooter just straight into the hydroton. I journaled the whole thing. This time i have been reading up and learning more and more about hydro grows and what they need to thrive. I got more equiptment. My current set up is a 5 gallon black DWC bucket with large bubble bar 250 watt cfl bulb i also have my ppm pen my ph pen humboldt honey nutes and voodoo juice. I have a fan in the closet to keep the air moving around. i only grown one plant at a time so my seeds are always femalized. What i want is for people to read this and tell me whats the ideal temp for my DWC what ppms do i need every stage how many ppms is good for when i transplant the rapid rooter with seed into my system. Tips on controlling temp and Ph. What other nutes i should get if any. All tips are helpful and appreciated i need all the help i can get i dont want to lose another seed
Some advice is not to add ph down everytime your ph goes up. You want it to fluctuate a bit between 5.5 and 6.0 because the plant takes up different amount of nutrients at each level. This will become especially important during flowering.
i just ordered the Floraduo nute set it says it has ph buffers in it so hopefully that works do you have any experience with these? and when should i add the nutes? right from the start or do i wait? i now have all the tools i need to do this right except experience ive done soil grows outdoors and in a few times but hydro def seems less forgiving
I use Advanced Nutrients ph perfect which works well for veg but not so well for flowering because the ph doesnt fluctuate and its causing nutrient problems right now. Im still pretty novice myself though but I will impart any knowledge I know and have gained. Only started growing this year. Do not add any nutrients at the start. Wait until maybe the second week after it has sprouted. The plant shouldnt need it until then but it all depends on how fast it is maturing. A good indicator of when it is time to add nutes is when it starts to develop the second set of true leaves or afterwards. You can add it when the first set grows in but be cautious. From the two sativas ive vegged they dont see to need much nutrients. Read the instructions and start with the minimum amount of nutes and up it as the plant needs it. I didnt need to go past 2 ml per liter for almost a month for my sativas but watch your plants for deficiency and up as needed. As for ppm I like to keep it where it is when I add the nutrients. When it drops about 200 I add new nutes. When vegging I changed the rez once a week so I didnt need to use the ppm much because the ppm never dropped lol. It only started dropping regularly after flowering but again remember I was growing sativas. If you ever notice some briwn stuff floating in your rez some people say root rot but I noticed it came from the air pump so I guess it can be one or the other. If you ever notice some kind of slime inside your rez add h202 after changing your rez. Just a little bit. Not exactly sure what the slime is but I know its not good. The leaves might yellow a bit but it takes care of the slime. Since you have done other grows I dont know any other wisdom I can impart. Just be sure to check your ph and ppm once a day. Adjust as needed. Get rid of any dead leaves. Air pump should run 24/7. I would suggest not putting seeds from paper towel or cup of water (whatever method you use) until after ut looks like the tap root is really going to grow. Make sure it faces down. Guess you would know all this. Uhh make sure water from rez actual is keeping the rockwool or whatever wet. You want the water level just inside the pot. That should do it. Personally I kept the seeds inside if a cup on my window in the sun until after the root stretched all the way through the cube. Saves water when all you need to do is put a tiny amount of water in a cup to keep the cube wet.
thank you very much my seed is germinated now not awhole lot but the root busted out of the seed and is getting longer im going to do what you said and put it in a cup on my window untill i see that it sprouted then ill add it to my DWC thank you everything you said has helped alot
Youre welcome. Dont put too much water in the cup. You dont want to drown the cube. Just enough that it stays wet. The water will evaporate in the cup and when it does just add some more water. You should only have to do so for maybe a week before the root has reached all the way to the bottom. It doesnt matter if the root gets flattened. It will grow just fine. If you are worried about the cube staying wet enough just pour water on the cube once or twice a day depending on how fast it dries up. After the roots stretch out of the pot you can let the cube dry out. Keeping it wet will make more roots grow so if you want to be cautious you can just keep it wet. When the roots get out of the pot i am told at least a part of the roots should be in the air and thus water level should be lowered a bit. Dont know how true this is but I am not going to argue and lose a plant lol. I love watching the roots grow because it starts as that one strand that get really long and then out of nowhere you get this monster. Oh and watch the roots and the air tubing. I dont know how big your rez is but given the chance they will wrap around anything you put in there so just watch for that. Happened to me once and I ripped some roots off untangling it. Plant didnt die because there was already a gazzillion of them but yeah they tangle up.
i have the Rapid Rooter in a shot glass now with about a 1/2 inch of water maybe a lil less and the cube its self is pretty damp i let it soak for awhile and then i put my germinated seed in it and covered the top with a piece of the corner of the rapid rooter. Do you think i should keep the top covered or just leave it open?? and would i want to add the root booster with benificials now or should i wait untill its time for the nutes? lol im having alot more fun with this then soil haha i feel like a mad scientist stoner hahaha so i should wait untill the root comes out the bottome of the cube to put it into my DWC and my rez is 5 gallons
I swear by Rapid Rooters. They Rule!!! Also make sure you keep your res temps between 60 and 68 degrees never getting above 75. The colder the water the less bugs can form. I have a 30 Gallon DWC and it is my first grow! http://forum.grasscity.com/absolute-beginners/1331428-my-first-grow.html I now have 4 autoflowers in and they are doing well. I use the 2 liter frozen bottle method and it works for me. I keep my PH at 6.0 I am using ROCK nutrients. I also have 1 regular (bagseed) still in the Hydro system but I am transplanting it to soil to flower. I already did this with the 3 other bagseed I started to experiment with before I started the AUTO's I ordered. They are flowering now. The bigger the res the easier it is to keep cold. My temps never rise above 64 degrees. Also try insulating around your res. I did and it helped tremendously.
When I first started I had lots of problems getting seeds to germinate. I dont cover the seeds simply because I want to make sure it is growing. I dont know if it matters but ever since I left the plant uncovered and put it in the sun the seeds germinate and kkept growing instead of stopping. It could be coincidence but I am much too new at this to try any other way. Dont fix it if it aint broke, right? Right. As for adding anything at this stage if the root booster says you can then do it but never using it I would say it is unneeded. The roots grow fast already.
ya i bought it when i was trying to kill the root rot in my other plant but from what i seen on youtube and read online it works really well to help boost root growth and health but i guess your right. I also got some homboldt honey and that floraduo idk of any other nutes i should get at this point so hopefully it all goes good. I took the cover off too i just didnt feel too confident with it being on there i want to be able to see it too plus every picture i seen with seeds in a rapid rooter they have been uncovered. This whole process is fun lol. I cleaned out my DWC today and my tubing and airstones i got my hydroton cleaned up cleaned all my net pots my PH is goos added another airstone to the end of my bubble bar to double the oxygen in the rez my temp is at 71 degrees right now im going to try to get that to around 66-68. I really hope this works i only got one seed left and thats another straind. I really want the one i have to grow. The straind is Red Purps ive seen lots of pictures and the buds are sooo sexy lol. Once i get it going good ill keep you updated any other words of advice from anyone??
Dude I can tell already that you put a lot more work into this than I have lol Then again mine is a small grow. I was worried about growing which is why I started doing hydro. I wanted the control and was scared of using soil and seeing all the info on soil growing confused and scared me. Hydro was much more straightforward. I was nervous but once I started I was like "This plant grows itself" it is not until you switch to 12/ 12 that the real problems start. Haha. Well everything is a learning experience. Hopefully more experienced people will come in and impart wisdom.
the seed is growing inside the Rapid rooter i took the lil piece covering the hole off so i could see i hope i put it down far enough into the rooter. How long you think untill it sprouts im on day 3 of germination and the last time i did it with nothing but paper towels it sprouted the first two leaves in 5 days so im hoping for those results then as soon as it breaks through the other side in my DWC it goes. Im glad i bought the rr's this time last time like i said i was just way to excited like a kid on christmas i had ordered my DWC set up and it got here with all my stuff i THOUGHT i needed (turns out i needed alot more lol) i was sooo happy so ofcourse the second my seeds arrived from the UK i jumped to action and threw one of them right into a paper towel i let the root get to about 3-4 inches the nestled it the clay stones with nothing to protect it im surprised it didnt dall through lol but oh well you live and you learn right??
The seed does not need to be far down inside the rr. It just needs to be indide the hole so that the seed can get a foit hokd to start going upwards. I dont know how many days it will take for the leaves to grow but when they do start growing if you notice the leaves seem t I be havibg a hard time take the seed shell off then get a pin in pry it of yourselg but be very careful. Its like paper thin and you dont want to damage the plant. But you can take a picture un once the seed leaves develop and sort of pricj and pry at it until it comes off. I had to do it twice because the furst set if true keaves would start growing but the seed shell would be stuck on the plant. Only thing I needed to buy after buying my kit were bulbs because tge full spectrum wouldn't flower the plant. Stay calm with this grow. Dont treat every wrong move like a crisis. Ive come to learn that these plants are resilient and unless you do something stupid like I did and mess with the roots the plant will bounce back. Always stay calm. Most problems can be solved easily.