First time grower, I have AK-47 seedlings that are now 16 days old in rock-wool cubes. Leaf tips looking dried out and leaves generally yellowing. No fertilizer, pH 6.0 water. T5 fluorescent tube 2" above the plants and oscillating fan. Terrified of over-watering, I may have been under-watering. Now dip cubes in water for a couple of secs in the am and spray a couple of time in the pm. Suggestions? Thanks!
There are no nutrients in rockwool - you should have been feeding them mild nutes from the beginning.
Water pH is 6.0. I'm seeing conflicting advice re nutrients. Was going with the no nutes to seedlings, but maybe little to lose trying say 1/4 strength?
No sign of roots from the rock wool cubes yet. Should I just put the cubes in FFOF soil and hope for the best?
rockwool is my favorite.. within a week from popping they already have a root or some roots and i put them in coco at summer and hydroton dwc at winter.. r/o water ph 5.5 to 5.8 without nutes then EC of 0.2 then at third node to about 500 then raise 10% every water. with a new strain id keep raising until they show the very first signs of nute burn, with hydroponics its very easy to tell what your plant likes.. if ph drops and ec up, ur giving too much, if ph rises and ec drop, u give too little.. at flower i repeat this method. cheers hope this helps Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk
Thanks Shreder. For some reasom I thought they shouldn't have been transplanted until ~4 wk old. They started great. Should have moved to soil sooner. Hopefully not too late. Thanks again.
I grow in coco which like rockwool is inert. I feed daily from the day they sprout with great success. 14 days old and fed daily.
They look beautiful! Does coco have advantages over rock wool? What do you feed? What humidity & temp do you aim for?
I have always viewed rockwool as a starter - I use rapid rooters and place them directly in the coco from the beginning - that way the roots grow directly into the medium. I feed MaxiBloom from start to finish and the only additive I use is silica blast. Temperature around 80, and I only become concerned about humidity when in flower.
Thanks for the advice. Hopefully my first attempts will survive and next time round I will do much better. So happy to have found this forum!
Day 3 in FFOF under the dome with heat, humidity. No change. I fear it was too late to rescue these 3 plants. Key mistake I am guessing is not realizing I needed nutes in the rock wool water. I will try starting 5 more seeds. If successful they will be transplanted into FFOF. I'd welcome any advice re whether to use rock cubes again but dip daily in pH 6 water with nutes, or whether to skip rock wool and plant in small pots of FFOF. I really appreciate the help, thank you all.
Growing in soil is most simplistic way. Even easier if you pop the seed in the final container without transplanting. Can't go wrong with straight seed to soil homie
No problem, I've been using 50% fox farms ocean forest and 50% fox farm happy frog. Really good combo you can skip nutrients feeding up to week 4 but I usually start nutrients at he end of week 2