Drip and recover, LED 1st time

I have grown outdoors for years and have had a phototron for a few years.
I thought I'd try the new LED's that are popping up all over the net.
And I know about MH and HPS lights, have seem and used them in the past.
Not an option now, so don't break my balls about it.

First off, feel free to chime in on anything, if I'm doing something dumb then call me a dumbass.

So here's the setup.

Got an old tall dresser, 20 x 30 by 72. Painted the inside flat white. (need mylar, lack funds)
Got a 120mm hole at the top with a computer fan mounted pulling out air.
Negative Ion generator to stop the smell, worked great setting on top a phototron.
Two power strips mounted inside the box along with two digital timers, lights and feeding.

Mounted 2 square 14 watt red\blue LED's on the sides along with 3 T5 flur at the 3500K range, the bulbs are 14 watt each, six bulbs. ( will be adding a 90w UFO red. blue, orange)

Have a 6 hole drip recover hydro box. Using FloraGro, Grow, Micro, bloom.

I think that is the setup.

 

Oh forgot, have 5 feminized NL seeds and one bag seed I'm using.

 

Now for the germination, I used a Wendy's boneless chicken box for it. Small black bottom, with clear plastic top, perfect for rockwook cubes.

Soaked the 6 cubes a couple of days, rinsing each day.
Soaked the seeds one night in tap water, they all sunk to the bottom.

Put em' in the cubes next day, no nutes, with lights on in the box at 18\6.

We will call them like this.

nl1 nl2 nl3


BS4 nl5 nl6

They sprouted like this, 1 and 3 on 10-25, 5 on 10-26, 6 on 10-27, 2 on 10-28, and the BS, (bag seed) I had to crack with my teeth and put back into the cube. It came out on 10-31.

 

On 10-29, put em' in the hydro with 1\4 nutes mixed at 1\4 tspoon of gro, micro, and bloom.

PH is 5.8 with the nutes.

Set the water cycle at 1 minute runs, at 6am, 10, 1pm, 4, 7, 10, 3am.


10-30 ph is up to 6.4, added some down, went to 6.0.

 

11-1, ph 6.2 going up again.

Added BS4 into the hydro. 1 and 3 have second set of leaves.

11-2 changed water, went to 1\2 on the nutes.

White roots coming out the sides of the 3 inch net pots with the grow rocks in them on #3.
#3 is the biggest, with starting to see a hint of roots from #1.

 

11-7, 1 and 3 have their second set of 5 leaf suckers, 2 and 6 their first set of 5, and 4 right behind.

New set of leaves each morning, with the previous set filling out.
Need my fucking UFO, bastards are slow on shipping.

 

Here are some pic's.

 

Look at the second image above.

See how the tips of the roots hanging out has turned brown.

Do you think I need to turn this drip method into a aeroponic or maybe a dwc to stop the roots from becoming brown?

But the growth is great, leaves look good.

?????

 

Here is one days growth at half strength nutes.
New set of leaves each day.

Look at the middle pic, it has some white\yellowing spots coming up on some of the leaves....What is that?

 

Sunlight solutions LED.
We will see how these LED's really work.

I have read mixed reviews, some like them, other hate them.

I'm un-biased, if they are shit I'll say so.

 

Here is a couple more pics.
If they look a little droopy it cause I dropped the fucking light on em' while taking these pics.

 

Yesterday, went to full strength nutes, 3 minute runs on the watering, 9 waterings per day, 20\4 lights, PH 5.9. The roots are coming out and hanging in each net pot now.

Still some brown tips on the roots, I think I need to make a feeding circle on top of each plant to get all the rocks wet.

Still thinking about adding misters in the bottom and an air stone.

Thoughts or suggestions?

 

Oh, these are now 14 -- 17 days old from seed.

 

Little update.
Had a pump failure , they all wilted real bad, lost several big suckers and you can see some damage on the leaves.
They are just now starting to grow again.

 

Forgot the pics hehe

 

Added a 10" air stone and pump yesterday. All but #4 has roots in the water, and it will make it today. So I have a drip and recover and DWC at the same time.

Node lengths at about 1\4 inch apart, all the lower limbs are starting to grow out now, looks like small shrubs.

Stalks as big as cigarettes now and only 3 weeks old from seed.

 

Here's a little update so you can compare the growth in just a few days.

I've been pulling some of the bigger suckers from the plants to try and promote bottom limb growth, also tying over the plants slowly.

At less than a month old from seed, they are not very tall, but the the main stem on some are big as swisher sweets.

They are drinking about a quart a day now.

Taken this morning. Look at the roots from today vs a few days ago.

 

Oh, light height is about 10 inches. If you notice the 2 in the middle, #'s 3 and 5, they are shorter and more squat, and than #'s 1 and 3.

Due to a more concentrated light from being in the middle ??? They are a couple day younger than the others too. #'s 1 and 3 were first to sprout.

It could also be that the UFO is not dispersing the light across the 24" tub as much....But I could raise the light, and that would increase coverage but with less intensity, which would make em' stretch a bit more but with linger internal node lengths.