Light Schedule 400w MH 24/0 Weeks 1-2 1000w MH 18/6 Week 3-5 1000w HPS 12/12 Weeks 6-?? RDWC Six sites 18 gallon control tote 5 gallon buckets 3/4" feed 1/2" return 5" airstones Nutrients SuperThrive General Hydroponics Maxibloom General Hydroponics Armor Si Dutch Master Zone Atami Bloombastic Botanicare CalMag+ General Hydroponics Flora Kleen Strains Agent Orange (fem.) - TGA Subcool Black Kush (fem.) - The Cali Connection (Blackwater x Girl Scout Cookies) Kandy Kush (fem.) - Reserva Privada Brainstorm (fem.) - Dutch Passion Moby Dick (fem.) - Greenhouse Seed Co. Northern Lights x Big Bud (autofem) - World of Seeds 11/11/15 Placed BK, KK, BS, and MD seeds pointy side up 1/4" deep in 1.5" rockwool plugs pre-soaked in 98ppm tap water pH adjusted to 5.5 AO and NLxBB(a) seedlings still under 26w 5500k CFL. 307ppm (SuperThrive/Maxibloom) pH 5.5 I currently have three ladies (Green Crack, Pineapple Express, Papaya) finishing up in my 4'x8' tent right now, so I'm vegging in a 20"x36" panda film box in the closet until they're done in a week or two, at which point I'll transplant into that room and dry in the closet. Germination and Seedlings Rockwool plugs with seeds are placed into 1.5" wide plastic bud containers from the dispensary with 1" holes drilled in the bottom. In each container there is a thin rockwool layer at the bottom across the whole then approximately 1" of hydroton on top of that. The rockwool plug containing the seed is then placed on top of the hydroton making it level with the top of the container. These containers are placed in a small blacked out Sterilite container on top of a 4x6" reptile heating mat. This keeps the rockwool cubes at ~80F and maintains a high humidity within the container. I put my rockwool plugs in the plastic containers from the dispensary as it allows me to move them to the bubble bin. The bubble bin is identical to the germination container, but it has six cups of nutrient solution (SuperThrive and 1/4 strength Maxibloom) as well as an airstone and eight 1.5" holes cut in the lid for the containers I germinate in. The thin rockwool layer covering the hole in the the bottom of the germination container acts as a wicking pad, catching the drops of water from the air bubbles popping on the surface and in turn transferring the moisture to they hydroton. Typically a few hours after being placed in the bubble bin the hydroton will become saturated and will keep the bottom 1/3 of the rockwool plug damp which encourages quicker root growth as the plant wants to seek out the water due to the plug not being entirely saturated. Once the roots start poking out of the rockwool pad at the bottom of the container they are transplanted to five gallon RDWC buckets with 6" netpot lids filled with hydroton in the 4x8 tent. Here's a picture of the 4'x8' tent, where the girls this thread pertains to will spend most of their lives. The picture is about a week old and shows the ladies I currently have going. The 400w vertical is off so you can actually see. Normally there is a single 1000w in the hood, but my ballast shit out on me and I'm currently waiting for the new one to get here.
I will be experimenting with manifolding and mild defoliation on every plant besides the NLxBB(a) which I will LST to keep from interfering with other plants. I may end up doing a ScroG across the entire horizontal axis and then 2' up the side and back walls to utilize vertical space in the tent as it would add quite a decent amount of square footage. We'll see how it goes though. If not this grow, definitely the next. 11/12/15 BK, KK, BS and MD have all germinated, but have not yet sprouted. A replacement 1000w ballast was shipped to me today and should be here within 3-5 days.
11/13/15 AO seedling mysteriously died overnight. Not sure if it's actually dead but it sure looks like it. From what I can tell the container it was in wasn't low enough to get enough water so the rockwool plug dried up and the seedling is very dried and withered. The root still looks healthy so I rehydrated and pushed the container lower, hopefully it will recover but it doesn't look too promising. I will most likely end up popping two regular AO seeds and hoping for a female. All seeds with the exception of BK have sprouted and most have tap roots almost through to the bottom of the plug. So far I've had a 100% germination rate using this technique with the exception of the Kalashnikova Autoflower seeds.