New to growing and using hydroponics specifically DWC. I have one little sprout and the color started getting a little yellow. I'm worried about it. Suggestions? I have yet to change the water. Everything I have read is suggesting wait an extra week for new plants. This is two weeks in.
No new grower should try starting with hydro unless you've got someone to kind of help you manage it until you get the hang of it. I suggest you toss that DWC bucket out in the yard and go buy yourself some good formulated grow soil (we use Roots Organics Original). It's expensive, but the soil will feed your plants for you and you don't have to worry about nutes. Simply repotting your plant into a larger container and fresh soil will pick up the nutritional needs of your plant once it expends the old soil it was growing in of food. Hydro is totally dependent on the grower to understand and handle the feeding of the plants and for someone who has no knowledge of the plant, how it grows and what it needs, this usually just means trouble. Once you grow a couple in soil and understand the plant better, you might want to try the hydro again. We've been in soil since the start and I don't plan on changing anytime soon. If you're only growing a plant or two for personal consumption, the soil is a much easier path to a decent harvest. What you do have to have is adequate lighting for each and every plant you flower without them being crowded up together and shading light from below the canopy of the plants. Each needs space to let light penetrate and enough wattage of correct spectrum lighting to force it to come on out and grow. Weak light just gets you a lanky thin plant that spends it life stretching for better light and underdeveloped buds. Good strong light and space is what gets you real weight per plant at harvest. Best of luck. TWW
Don't sweat the above advice..if you want to do hydro, do hydro. How steep the learning curve is, is entirely up to you and how much research you do. I start new growers (IRL) out in hydro all the time and they do fine as long as they follow a proven method. it's hard to say exactly what it is...a lot of factors go into a hydro environment. Looks like hydroton. Hydroton should be presoaked to adjust the ph. It can cause ph rise for weeks after you start to use it. Your seedling should look like that on maybe day 2 or 3. Starting new seeds in a better environment might be quicker then waiting on this one to recover. Maybe next time start a seed in a little puck, rockwool, etc..then transfer to the hydro after a few days or a week. If something isn't working right, make a change.
Thanks. I did a lot of research. In fact, I have a notebook. I did soak the hydroton. I have a detailed set up. Maybe starting over is a better idea. Rockwool kinda scares me with all I've read on it. I will say, my seedling seemed to be stuck in the hydroton so I did after a week uncover the end with the baby leaves. Maybe I shouldn't have
I have a really expensive light and did a lot of research. It doesn't appear to be a difficult process. I have the pH balanced according to what I read. 6.0-7.0 with no greater than a 0.5 fluctuation in a 12 hour period. I also have my nutes good too. It was fine for a bit. I'd like to give it a good try before giving up. It wasn't a cheap set up and honestly it didn't seem to difficult to control the environment. It actually seemed easier than soil. I have a schedule and graphs, pH meter, grow tent, etc. I don't know if that makes a difference or not. I'm a fairly experienced gardener outside. This is more experimental to see if it can be done.
Hang in there. Perseverance is key, just like with anything else. It's always worth buying a couple rockwool cubes just to get them going and to then transfer into your setup with a couple. Good luck! J