Newbie here...I have read so much on this great site my head may explode! Love it!! I have a few questions though. If you can provide any help it will be mucho appreciated!! I have some AK47 auto fem seeds and don't want to screw it up. I have a 2' tall hydro box with three CFL lights. All the walls are reflective. For these autos should I use the 6500k full spectrum light 24/7? 20/4? Should I start germinating outside my hydro box? Or put the seeds in rockwool in the hydro and start there? What kind of nutes would be best? When should I stop/start use? Where to buy? Do I ever change out the water in the bucket of just add to it? I think I have the Ph figured out. I have a meter that I stick in the water. I wish the rest was that easy. Thanks for any help
Hey MTam! To answer your germination question - I have had really good luck by doing the following: Get a small sealable tupperware container. Line it with paper towels. Wet the paper towels, but drawn any standing water off the towels in the tupperware. I typically fold up my papertowels to fit into the container. Drop however many seeds you want in there. Preferrably not touching. Seal up the container. I take a black t-shirt and wrap it up. Then I set it on top of the cable box because it's warm. In a few days you should have beans starting to pop (see pic below) Once the beans start popping get them into the medium your using. Once the tap root shown in picture above pops out of the seed you want to get it into the rockwool cube. Make sure you have your rockwool all ready in water. I suggest throwing them into a 5 gallon bucket with a gallon or two of water. Then you want to PH that water with the cubes in it to 5.6ish If you are doing DWC - clean your bucket every 7-10 days with new water, I like to wipe out my buckets as well up until my plants are too heavy to move. You can use whatever nutes you want that fit your budget. I have been using FloraDuo by General Hydroponics. Seem to work well for me. Everyone is different and most nutes work well so whatever your wallet can afford. Do a little research. Look for a local Hydro store where you can get them, or if there isnt one close you can go online. I try to advoid buying things on line whenever possible. No nutes until after 2 weeks of the green growth in the rockwool cube. The seed holds enough nutrients to keep itself alive for that long. When you start using nutes, less is more. Start with 1/4 strength and never go by the charts, it's way too much.. PM or message me in my current thread when you get to the point you are about two weeks into your green growth (seedling) and I can give you some wise words I was told about 'listening to your plant'. Best of luck! -D
Great advice on the nutes! Less is definitely more. I use Botanicare, start with 1/4 nutes of the recommended level after 2 weeks of green, and then stay with exactly 1/2 of Botanicare's program. Most manufacturer's schedules are way too high. If you can do it, I would recommend building a DIY recirculating system on the DWC. Once the plant gets large with buds, it becomes very hard to change out the nutrients/water solution. BTW, my first grow has a pictorial of building a Recirc system, and I have a link to Budslinger's buckets which is easy and self-explanatory. Good luck man.
I completely agree with Dr here. Midway through my 1st grow I used budslingers DIY RDWC. It made my life so much easier.. Lifting the lid all the time on each of you bubble buckets can get overwhelming towards mid flower. Now I just check 1 bucket in a rotation every few weeks or so to make sure my roots look healthy. And as a chic, the DIY was super easy to complete so it's too hard can never be an excuse not to mention the time saving in just checking the res versus each individual bucket for ph and ppm. And If you don't have those meters get them!
wholly crap thanks for the great advice!!! Man that bucket setup thing looks great! If I can figure out how to post a photo I will show what I have. Its small but all I can do for now...
Yeah, if you only have one bucket, you can just use a bucket the same size as the one you are using. Then if you have them level, you can guage the level of the bucket with the plant to be the same as the level of the one without it. In other words, if you have one inch depth in one, you will have one inch depth in the other. What size buckets are you using, do they block out light? If you use Lowe's buckets or something similar, you want to cover the buckets with a good tape to block out light. Pics definitely can help us dial you in a little better too. Good luck.
screw it, I can't figure out the pix. Its a plastic tupperware thing about 1' long 6" wide and about 4.5" deep with 6 net pots. I plan to try 2 one at a time on each end. To drain the water I can either put a hole in the bottom side with a hose or just pump it out from the top. I found a local hydro shop not far away. Can't wait to make a visit!!! Hell yes!!!
here is the box. Awesome! With helpI kinda figured it out. Now that you can see my small setup any comments?
I've never used this kind. I have 4 individual 3.5 gal buckets with a resevoir outside the tent. Do you have a res outside the tent, or is all your water contained in the bin? Do you have a way to change the water in the bin without having to lift the lid of your bin? Sorry for all the questions.
The more questions the better!!! LOL I plan to go to walmart and get a new top for this bucket and only have 4 holes in it that are a little bigger. I only plan to plant 2 seeds but may do 4 in the future. When I got this kit I didn't realize I would have ot change the water. I think I can figure out an easy way to do it though. It may be just a simple pump you hook to the end of your drill taht will siphon the water out. Put it in reverse and add water back. Am I correct in thinking that the level of the water should be about half way up the net at all times? It does have a little pump with a small stone for aeration. I was just watching another video and had an idea. I can get a second bucket of the same size and when its time to change the water out just pop the top off and put it on the other. Then clean the one I just took out. Seems simple... I got the floraduo and pH up down today. Pretty cool shit!!
you are going to want to place your seedlings as close as possilbe to that CFL so they dont stretch for life
I will get "something" I can put the box on to raise close to teh lights. I may even get a new strip and lower it first then raise it as needed. Nice catch, thx!
It will get incredibly hard to pull the resevoir out, and replace with another once the plants get into flower stage. You really will not want to take that top off once they are in flower. As to the water heighth on the net pots, you want your water to be an inch or so below the net pots.
Great point! I guess I'm stuck with using a small pump and just pumping out the water every week or so. Or until I think of something else here is a plant I am trying to grow. I just through a see dirt. Only read a little at first. When the damn thing didn't die I started to read more. Can anyone tellme anything about this plant? What kind? How far along in flower is it? When should I harvest? Exciting times!!!
I believe so..not sure though since i only use MH and HPS bulbs. But if i remember correctly it was 6500 for veg and i think 3k or 4k for flowering not sure.
ok, I germinated in the tupperware. They look just like the above photos! I put them in the grow box and away we go. CFL lights on 20/4. the lights are about 1" above the seedlings. Air stone on 24/7. No nutes, pH 5.6ish. I'll post a photo of the setup when I can. And away we go...
I have used many DWC setups similar to that over the years. I leave one hole vacant, and cover it with a 6 inch ceramic tile. This gives easy access to check pH and PPM, and to look inside the tank to check on root health and possible scum buildup. To change the solution, I just lower a tube with a small pump on it and pump it out.