I'm starting this journal on day 4 of my first hydro grow. Here's what's happened so far: 01/28/09 - Ordered seeds from Nirvana-Shop.com: 10 WW; 10WR 01/30/09 - Received notification of shipment of seeds. 02/06/09 - Received seeds in the mail. Placed all 20 in wet paper towels for germination & left in a dark, warm spot in a tupperware container. 02/07/09 - 6 WW and 6 WR cracked and were ready for rockwool. Planted in 1.5" rockwool cubes, which were presoaked in pH 5.5 water for 30 min and flushed with pH 5.8 water. Placed under a homemade humidity dome with two fluorescents. 02/08/09 - The remaining 4 WW as well as 2 of the WR cracked and went into rockwool. The other 2 WR seeds look different than the rest, especially one of them. I had a feeling it wouldn't even germinate. We'll see if either of those ever crack. TODAY - WR2 WR3 and WR5 have popped through the top of the rockwool, and so has WW1. This is a very exciting day for me that I've been waiting for quite some time to enjoy. I'm happy
A few more have popped up out of the rockwool, but I just quickly checked on them this morning before leaving for work. I'll post new pics today when I get home from work. I'm going to wait a full week before I put them under my 1,000W MH, which will be around 3 ft from the seedlings. I'll also have fluorescents on two sides of the plants, and I'll rotate them daily. Does that sound good? Any suggestions/advice to help out? I don't want them to have any heat stress, and 1,000W is quite a bit.. I figure if I start at 3ft and slowly lower it day by day they should be fine.
Today the seedlings are looking great, although two of the WW still have not showed up.. I can see them just below the surface so they should be out by tomorrow. My grow room is 8'x4'x8' and I just got it all set up today. I hung the chains for the light and I have hooks up to hang the exhaust fan and carbon filter. I also lined the lower half of the walls with reflective Mylar, and I plan on covering the top half of the walls when I get my lazy ass over to the hydro shop about 25 minutes away to buy some more. Attached are pictures of my HydroFarm Drip Setup and my 1,000W Metal Halide. Also, I'll be using the TechnaFlora Recipe for Success so I bought the Starter Kit... I've heard good things about it and it seems very simple to follow, just what I need on my first hydro grow.
Of the 20 seeds, 18 germinated. The last two White Rhino seeds have failed to crack. Of the 18, 15 are doing really well. 1 just finished with opening up the first leaves all the way, 1 is just poking up out of the rockwool, 1 has not showed up at all but looks to be just below the surface. I'll leave these three in the humidity dome until they pick up the pace a little bit. Today I took the 15 that are doing great and planted them into the 4" rockwool cubes. I have now placed them in the trays where they'll stay until they're ready for their own planters with hydroton. I'm still hand-watering right now, and I'll continue to do so until I start adding nutes. When they're ready for nutes I'll set up the drip system on the timer and everyting should be good to go. I feel like everything has gone very smooth so far, so I'm just waiting for something to get f*cked up. I'm throwing some pics up. Take a look and let me know what you think. Are they stretching a little too much? As always, suggestions and advice are very welcome.