Hi all!! Great to be back after a nice summer...I'm still smoking my last harvest I decided I need to begin this journal now because it is clear I will need help and reassurance as I go. Please keep an eye on my first step into hydroland. The pics attached show the Wilma set up. Wierd...and a little worrying! Everywhere else I see drippers that ring around each plant. My system says that I can either flood or drip..depends which medium I choose. I just had to change the nozzle. Thing is it doesn't look like much of a flood!! Oh yes!! Very important: At the moment my timer floods the system for 15 minute intervals four times over 24 hours. Does that sound sensible? Take a look at the tube I lifted out of the hydroton: the water flows out of the holes at the top of the blue bit and runs down the spines. It gets the bit around it wet, but everywhere else appears to stay dry...makes no difference where in the pot you put it. Nowhere on GC can I find anyone else who has used this system...uh oh!! Right then: I germinated four seeds and one died when trying to open. I have another taprooted and in the propogation cubes you can see in the pics. The little seedlings are rooted in the propogation block which I then inserted into a soaked rockwool cube and into the hydroton. There are, of-course, no nutes in the water, but there is some ph up and down in it. Six was my last reading. I'm letting it go just to observe for the moment and also want to avoid putting more ph down in when they are so tiny. I am using tap water with all the chlorine evaporated. Lighting...Dammit!!! This issue has been a bit frustrating! I've forked out wedge on a cfl for the early stage of growth because I have read and been told that 400W MH is too much for young plants. But there have been problems waiting for missing bits and then the bulb fusing straight away. Now I'm waiting for a replacement and meanwhile I have roast seedlings....! They seem all right, but it's warm. (You can see the temp) Those are the main issues so far. My set up: In line fan with filter Large desktop fan PC intake fan 400W MH/HPS 125W cfl (well soon anyway) Wilma Four Pot System (using hydroton, rockwool) Flood Ph truncheon...CF truncheon Canna nutes Trying 18/6 lighting time for veg. Oh!!! I'm growing White Russian! again Please please keep an eye on me and help me if you can. GC was a godsend on my first soil grow! Any questions?
I'm not sure that 15 min every 6 hours is frequent enough. I've heard that hydrotron doesn't hold moisture nearly as well as other mediums. Then again, when I took my two male plants out of my system on of them didn't start to wilt for about 8 hours, and the other lasted over 24. So I could be wrong. FWIW, my system is a drip system and it uses hydrotron.
This was my worry, but over watering is worse so maybe see how it goes. (Hey nice to see you here, thanks for stopping!)
I don't know about overwatering being worse than underwatering, especially in the beginning! And with a hydro setup like a drip system it's a little harder to overwater than in soil. I flood for 15 minutes every 2 hours with lights on and the plants grow great. Good luck Squidge! Glad to see ya back at it again with a new hydro setup!
More worrying! I've set up a 125W CFL Blue for the little seedlings you can see and have turned off the roasting 400W MH. Temps are great, I feel a sigh of relief at the likely drop in power consumption (aaaahhhhh), seedlings look healthy...BUT...really...can this be enough light?? I hope so! I've had such a nightmare trying to position the light just right so that the three seedlings showing all get light. It's gonna get a bit complicated when the late seedling emerges cos the others will be ready for more light quite quickly I reckon. SO....do you think this is enough? Replies would be much appreciated as always.
Oh wow....you know...I wish I'd bought bloody CFLs in the first place!!!! SO much easier to control the environment. I'm still very concerned that it isn't enough light, even for seedlings, but we'll see how it goes for now. If you have a look at the pics you may notice I've added a pipe! It comes from the intake fan and is tied to the desktop fan. The bit you can't see is that I have linked a pipe to the other side whcih now leads outside. This means there is genuine outside air being pumped gently over my plants (only a little PC fan driving it, but it's enough for a flow of fresh air) aided by being tied onto the desktop fan...all riiiight!! Fourth seedling has now emerged and I'm burning to stuff it into the rockwool and get that black propogater thing out of the way, but I'll wait...for a bit....
The more light the better, 82 degrees isn't that bad man. The cfl will be fine for now but you will get the most growth with the 400 when they outgrow that cfl in a couple weeks. The fresh air system looks good
Thanks Mr. Goodstuff... 82? Yeah not too bad, but that was with the door open. Closed it can go over 90. It's one reason I got some air in from outside as I thought it must help reduce the temps. (It's not cold here, but autumn approaches so it is getting cooler) My fbiggest fear was that those temps and the MH were far too much for little seedlings. Yes perhaps two weeks at the most with that light...I plan to use it as well as the MH to help any that are slower: I'll prop it up sideways PS I'm interested in your thoughts on the lighting schedule! Last grow I decided 100% on 24/7 throughout veg, but am now trying 18/6...but then I read in another journal that you say 24/7 for two weeks then 18/6?? And that doesn't confuse the plant?
I think the choices between 24/7 18/6 or 12/12 are confusing you and not the plant. Opinions on this differ but if you ask me : 24/7 good for sprouting or seedlings (fluros or CFLs preferred) 18/6 good for vegging (MH preferred) 12/12 good for flowering (HPS preferred) In my current grow I did 24/7 for seedlings, 18/6 for a bit of vegging, 12/12 for presexing, again 18/6 for more vegging and now finally 12/12 for the real flowering. Are my plants confused? Nope, they still 'know' who they are. Don't worry about hermiefying your plants, it's takes bad genetics in the first place for this to happen, I've seen plants tortured to shits without them going hermie on their grower. What you do need to look out for is not messing up the 12/12 schedule once you're in it. This will cause the plants to go into revegging mode and may diminish the final yield if it was unintentional and followed by a quick switch back to 12/12. This is because switching to 12/12 (or back) causes hormonal shifts in the plants which take a few days to occur.
This is a great quote from Mr. Goodstuff's journal and I'm keeping it for my own referance! Give the guy some rep!!!!!
An update seems appropriate so here's some pics. They seem OK, but I'm watching the two at the back as their leaves are faded in places. There are no nutrients present, just rockwool, hydroton and pH Down! Perhaps someone would comment on this: I think I might be doing a first tentative nute session at the weekend. I'm using Canna Substra A + B and I was thinking 1/4 strength and see how they go? I considered Co2 but as I have rigged some fresh air from outside I'm hoping I will be OK without gas tanks and gadgetry. I watched again the YouTube vid "I Grow Chronic" and he uses a spray with fizzy water in it as well as a gas bottle, so I'm trying that. I also put some fizzy water in my humidifier...but I don't think it worked! Another consideration at the weekend will be giving in to firing up the 400W HPS. I was thinking HPS for 1 week and then over to MH. I will have the 125W CFL at the side also.
I thought the HPS puts out more lumens though? I'm just asking for your reasoning is all, I think the HPS and MH would be the same except for the way the plants would grow. HPS would cause them to stretch out more and the MH would keep them more compact. The MH might give off more heat though... Is that what you are talking about?
Yes that is what I'm talking about. And it's because Mordgrow posted here suggesting HPS is OK whenever, so I thought by doing a week of HPS I'm introducing them a bit more gently to lots of power. I had no idea about the difference in types of growth between HPS and MH, so thank you for that: it's got me thinking. Sounds like I should just crank up the MH when ready...maybe at the weekend then!