Thanks Tap, I'll post what it looks like tomorrow. Hope the rest of them turn out as sweet girls for you!
Hi everyone, well I'm getting a little worried now. After letting it dry out for about 8-9 hours yesterday, I put it on a 1 hour drip 4 hour off period since last night around 9pm. I'm starting to see some black on the edges of the first set of leaves. I guess I'm still giving it too much water? Ph is holding steady, don't have a meter, but I estimate it at 6-6.5. Fan is blowing across lightly, the stem seems really solid. 2nd leaves are kind of coming in. Not sure what to try next, should I stop watering it for a longer period now? It just finished watering, so the rockwool is moist on top. Anyway, here are some picks.
is the rockwool always wet/thoroughly moist? If so, then the cycle needs to be lowered to maybe 1 hr on, 6 off an see how it goes. You'll get it figured out then you'll be set dnt stress urself too much over this
Thanks myles, the top of the rockwool dries out in between waterings, but I'm not sure down below, it had quite a few roots coming down out of the rockwool when planted in there, so I'm kind of scared to remove the hydroton to take a look. I shouldn't have left the drip running so long when I first put it in there. I'm going to lower the water scheduling like you suggested and see what she looks like. Thanks for stopping in!
Here's another update, I haven't watered it now for over 24 hours. Rockwool is pretty dry on top. Seeing some purple/black fringes on the 2 main leaves and looks like a little on the 2 new leaves. Hasn't grown much at all. Stem seems strong. Think I should let it dry out some more or start it back onto a shorter watering period now?
Well, I think this one is starting to have problems now, not growing at all and the base of the stem is looking a little funny. Had put it onto a 1 hour on, 3 hour off watering, but am going to stop that for now. Does this look like damping off? Not sure what to do with this one, stem still seems strong, but nothing is going on with it. Projected harvest date is now May, 2012.... although this one doesn't look like she is going to make it either. Ph has been pretty stable, temps ok, must be my watering of it.
The only difference I can see in what I did was wait a little longer before transplanting. The second pic shows the "mute" the day after he was transferred to the hydroton pot (he grew up into one of the males I had to dispose of). The first pic is the second group of seedlings which still spent about a week just in the cubes before planting in hydroton. To water these, I dipped the entire cube in pH'd water once daily. There were a lot of roots showing out the bottom and sides of the cube before they were transplanted. I'm not saying that you transplanted too early, because I really don't have the experience to say which time frame is better. I still feel that yours is just overwatered, and now is a critical time to let the roots breathe but not totally dry out. Don't give up yet! The other watering method I used was to take an eye dropper and water with about 2-3mL on top of the cube. This was probably not necessary, but made me feel better about it when the cube looked dry. Btw, I have confirmed 4 females, and more than likely a 5th! That gives me 5/7 girls for my first seed grow, not bad! I'll update pics soon.
Hey Tap, thanks, I totally agree with you, I should have waited longer before putting it in there, should have let alot more roots come out and it was doing pretty well outside until it got overwatered in the farm. Do you think I should try pulling it out of the hydroton and letting it breathe in a try for awhile, see if it will start growing again?
I probably would not take it out cuz that main shoot may already be fairly deep in the rocks. One method some people talk about is taking a scale and weighing the whole planter periodically between waterings. Over time, you will be able to tell by the weight how much water is held up in the rockwool. Unless you have extreme heat, the rockwool should hold moisture for a few days. If it were me, I wouldn't water it until the plant told me to. Keep the light on her, and wait until the leaves perk up a little bit. You will see some shriveling if she is losing too much water, which I doubt will happen. This is a time when you will need to check in fairly often. Good luck!
Wish I would have waited a little longer before trying what I just did. Probably not smart at all, it has nice looking roots all over the place. I don't know though, now that I put it back in like that, hopefully didn't damage them. I tried placing it up a little more this time, so maybe the rockwool will not take in so much water. Damn, I should have just let it dry out some more, but was getting impatient. I hope I didn't damage it... I'll let this one dry out and try to just water it by hand down the sides getting to those roots and see what happens. She's probably really freaking out now!!
You should be okay. The roots look intact for the most part. Could you tell how saturated the cube was when you had it out? I think she will be fine once she gets settled back in. It is obvious that you transplanted at a good time. If you were too early, you would not have such impressive root growth already. It looks like she is creating the footwork to support a big healthy plant.
The cube was pretty wet and still is fairly wet, I'll try to let it out dry out some more before starting the watering. Down where the roots were the hydroton was just slightly moist. Problem is of course I wasn't able to get the roots back like they were, tried to be careful and lay them on their sides, so hopefully they will be okay. I guess I'll wait until the cube dries out some more and then try less watering and see how that goes. I was going 1 hour on 4 hours off and that caused the cube to get pretty wet. Think I'll go to 1 and 6 and watch it carefully, see if I can keep it just moist down where the roots are going. Hope she lives, she still is standing as of this morning.
hey slippy... having some issues hey buddy.... lets start with the easy stuff, never water more then 15 minutes at a time. cover the top of the cube with hydroton, see the green thats algae and it will cause a ton of issues for you, if you cover the algae it will die as it needs light to survive. they were not put in to early. set up your water svhedulle when you first put them in every 4 hours for 8 minutes, put a fan blowing over the hydroton a oscilatting one is best. As she gets bigger you can adjust the drip timing and every week add a minute or two until you reach 15 minutes, is the water in your res circulating? it needs to be to get adaquate oxygen in it. Do this and your girls will thrive...Hope this helps buddy, i hate to see girls in distress ....Yoda out
Hi, Budslinger, thanks for stopping in. I do have an airstone running 24 hours in the tank. I'll cover the top of the rockwool as suggested too. The rockwool has completely dried out now. I'll try to get it onto a watering schedule like your suggesting, might need to get a different timer to do that though. Thanks for the advice. I'll post some pic's maybe tonight or tomorrow after 24 hours of watering in small amounts over a 4 hour period.
its a shame you pulled it out. Those roots were takin off from the looks of it. Hopefully they werent to to stressed out by it all nd werent damaged wen put back into the pellets
Yeah Myles, I was shocked when I saw the roots, wasn't expecting that. Pretty stupid. One good thing though is I got it planted higher and more level with the hydroton that was under the drip, so it's all level across now. The way it was before the rockwool was sitting kind of low in there. I got a better timer now, so can do smaller incremental waterings. Hopefully she'll pull through, she looks okay right now, same as before, we'll see over the next few days.
hay man... she will recover... youll need the digital timer 20 bones but worth ecery cent.... lets see some pics///
Hi everyone, not looking too good now. On Saturday evening I put her on a 10 minute drip every 4 hours drip and that watering cycle has been going now for 48 hours. Yesterday I added a little water around her with a dropper and she was looking okay when I left for work this morning, but came home to find her not looking so well. I'm assuming she is under watered now? Maybe have to get another seed soaking, this could be my 2nd fatality. Well, I think I'm learning a little bit each time. Was really hoping this one would at least get to veg.... still hoping she'll turn around.