Newbie hydroponics grow, need help getting started/selecting equipment!

[Don Cotyle]

Hi SoEx, did you remember t clean out your tub and everything that went into the tub? It's a good idea o use bleach or Hydrogen Peroxide to clean and then rinse the hell out of everything!!!

The rock Idea is good to hold down your hoses at this time, just clean it well!

You might to want to get a $3.95 bag pf lava rocks to put onto the top of your hydrotron this will give you the extra support you'll need to keep plants from bending-toppleing one way or the other...It works well!

Muyrky water? Whith the air pump off can you see clearly to the bottom? If not you may want to do a quick clean with bleach etc. (no soap) just to be sure! Better safe than sorry. Also use your nose to check your murky water usually id itsmel ok it is!

Good Luck and Stay Safe!!!

You may want to ut 2 plants in each pot and double your chances at more females?!?
Just a thought.

Your first grow is gonna be a learning experence, you should do a daily log of everything you do with your grow. If your plants yellow, get sick, etc. you will have a record of what you you did or didn't do! Will be much easier to explain what is going on with your grow. If you have a great grow you can use it as a blueprint for your next grow. Down the road someone will tell you what a marvelous grow you have or ask about a specific strain and yu'll have all the info needed to help them!!!, or make slight changes from grow to grow as you gain experence!!! I keep individual grow report-diary on every grow I do!

 

[SoEx]

Eh, maybe I'll invest in a ph pen next time around if I ever get there. I have two test kits for ph, incidentally, so I hope I'm good for this go around.

Anyway, my first little seed finally came out from under the rockwool:

(image is a bit big, but not too bad)



Didn't get a chance to pick up more hydro so these other ones might have to sit here until morning. Hmm. Would it be too bad if I shoved the other three in this one net pot, temporarily, then moved them out once I fill the others?

 

[Don Cotyle]

YEA HOPE IT'S A GIRL!!!

Your photo size is fine, just go back and click on it...they will go full page

You can put them all in one pot for now but don't wait too long as the roots will get all tangled in the hydrotron and each other in 2 weeks!!!!!

Sometimes there is a "skin" over the 2 cotyledons... I help mine along a little...wet your finger and ever so gently rub the "skin" off so they ca open and get more light easier BUT BE CAREFULL!!!!!!!

 

[dc105]

You can pack them in until they start to over grow each other! Looks like you off to a good start!

 

[SoEx]

Hi SoEx, did you remember t clean out your tub and everything that went into the tub? It's a good idea o use bleach or Hydrogen Peroxide to clean and then rinse the hell out of everything!!!

The rock Idea is good to hold down your hoses at this time, just clean it well!

You might to want to get a $3.95 bag pf lava rocks to put onto the top of your hydrotron this will give you the extra support you'll need to keep plants from bending-toppleing one way or the other...It works well!

Muyrky water? Whith the air pump off can you see clearly to the bottom? If not you may want to do a quick clean with bleach etc. (no soap) just to be sure! Better safe than sorry. Also use your nose to check your murky water usually id itsmel ok it is!

Good Luck and Stay Safe!!!

You may want to ut 2 plants in each pot and double your chances at more females?!?
Just a thought.

Your first grow is gonna be a learning experence, you should do a daily log of everything you do with your grow. If your plants yellow, get sick, etc. you will have a record of what you you did or didn't do! Will be much easier to explain what is going on with your grow. If you have a great grow you can use it as a blueprint for your next grow. Down the road someone will tell you what a marvelous grow you have or ask about a specific strain and yu'll have all the info needed to help them!!!, or make slight changes from grow to grow as you gain experence!!! I keep individual grow report-diary on every grow I do!

Mm. I have enough rockwool to do 2 plants per pot, but would it be better to go for more plants or fewer, seeing as I only have 250W? I was hoping to do some LST with the aid of some supports at strategic heights, but I'll ask more about that later once they're actually movin' along

I raised the light a few more inches and added a fan to blow air into the chamber, it's been running for 24+ hours now and normally I'll do an 18/6, just figured I'd let them come out first before turning it over to 18/6.

With the pump on and the overhead HPS on I can see to the bottom, even. The rockwool kinda smells funky but it just smells like wet fabric or something, I don't know. It's not really unpleasant or anything. All of the rockwool cubes smell the same, even the ones not there yet. Otherwise I can't smell any odor noticible from the tank. But the temp did go up to 73 or so. I'm going to make sure to keep it lower, though.

Would a metal encased temperature probe do something bad to the water if I stuck it in there and left it so I could monitor water temperatures from outside the room? I have a long thermocouple that has a metal probe attached to it that goes to a thermocouple meter, it'd be nice to not have to open and take a look at the temperature probe. Is even opening the tank for brief times (a minute or two ) like I had to earlier acceptable even? Or have I already messed myself up?

I have some h2o2 here, at 3% strength I read 1ml per gallon, sound right?

Haha, I can't believe I ask so many questions of you guys. Thanks for all the help, EVERYONE who has posted here so far

You can pack them in until they start to over grow each other! Looks like you off to a good start!

Ah, thanks. I'll have more hydro before that starts happening, hopefully!

 

[SoEx]

Okay, just got them all moved under the light:







The very first seedling has two small nubs growing on either side of its first two leaves or whatever (I'm bad with terminology), check it out

 

[Don Cotyle]

If you can see the bottom of the tank you'r fine...so the bubble action made it hard to see the bottom. The rockwool is suposed to smell that way, just is it starts to smell mouldy or bad!

Just because you double your plants you'll not necessarly double your grow, I have 9 females is just a little larger area than you, but you will get a better selecton of females!!!

You can open the tank top a few times and it won't hurt, just remember to duct tape the tank lid on tight!!! The water will try to make your tank sides push out, ducking the top on now will help. You can always pull a pot long enough to get a temp measurement. Depending on what kind of metal you have, stainless steel should be OK, other types of metal will rust-corrode and play havic with your TDS.

Wat to use the H2O2 (HP) till your plants are a little larger, that way they'll be bigger and should be able to handle it better!

Sounds like your doing fine. The lower temps 73 should be fine, that they won't dry out as easily. When they actually go into the tub, higher temps like 80 lights on will be fine for them. They will have all the water they need and won't be able to dry out!!!

Ask away, how else ya gonna learn...just reading gets boreing after a while!!!

 

[ogatec]

if in doubt, change your cloudy rez, problem solved. A ppm meter($25 on ebay) that reads to atleast 2000ppm would be a good investment for the future, its just as important as PH. you can get by on your 1st harvest by giving your plants 1/4 strenth nutrient solution & changing your rez out frequently. DONT BE TEMPTED TO GIVE THEM MORE w/o a ppm meter!

 

[Military]

I personally dont see the point in the those hydroton rocks.. I bought them and find they were a waste. I use zero Median. My plants just sit there without a problem. Just have a hole in the top for the stem. No net only a few peiece of rubber to hold it up.

 

[eLiguL]

Okay, just got them all moved under the light:







The very first seedling has two small nubs growing on either side of its first two leaves or whatever (I'm bad with terminology), check it out

You might wanna give each rockwool cube their own basket. Keeping them so close together in one basket of hydrotron will cause problems when they get bigger. The roots will cling to the balls and you wont be able to move them around. When they get bigger, they will begin shading out the light on each other and you cant spread them out cuz they are stuck to the balls.

 

[SoEx]

You might wanna give each rockwool cube their own basket. Keeping them so close together in one basket of hydrotron will cause problems when they get bigger. The roots will cling to the balls and you wont be able to move them around. When they get bigger, they will begin shading out the light on each other and you cant spread them out cuz they are stuck to the balls.

As I said, I'm only keeping them like this until I get more hydroton (a few days).

Edit:

The first seedling perked up and faced the light properly while I was asleep

 

[Klaczek]

question

question

hey SoEx i have question:

when you put seeds to rockwools you "rooting"in warm paper?

2nd question: Do you watering rockwools?

and last: where are rockwools?Do they touch water surface?


sorry for english and thx for awansers!

 

[SoEx]

hey SoEx i have question:

when you put seeds to rockwools you "rooting"in warm paper?

2nd question: Do you watering rockwools?

and last: where are rockwools?Do they touch water surface?


sorry for english and thx for awansers!

*I* did not germinate the seeds in warm paper before putting the seeds in the pre-moistened rockwool. The seeds did sprout, but I might germinate them in a paper towel next time beforehand. The key, it seemed, was to make sure the rockwool was moist but not wet.

The rockwool, in my system, sits at the bottom of the net pot, surrounded by hydroton, about an inch above the water surface. No, it does not touch the water surface. Bubbles come up, break the surface, and wet the rockwool that way.

I got some more hydroton, and while I'm letting that dry, I thought I'd ask everyone:

2 plants per pot or one?

If I had two plants per pot I'd have odds in my favor, but the plants would be smaller and I imagine LST/SOG becomes harder for an amateur with more plants?

I'm not 100% sure myself, I'd like some opinions while I wait for the hydroton to settle from its vigorous washing (I made sure no muck was left this time )

 

[SoEx]

Ah, shoot. I have a ton of light leaks. I sealed things up, planted all four in seperate net pots, then filled the sides of the net pots and gradually decreased the hydro height until it went to the sides of the rockwool, but bleh. I looked in through my peeping port (covered) to see if there were any light leaks, I see a lot. I tried putting some aluminum tape around the sides of the net pot toward the top of the rubbermaid container, but it didn't seem to help. BLEH!


EDIT: Should I have not put the rockwool cubes all the way touching the bottom of the net pot? should I have put a layer or two of hydroton before that? I just realized that the cubes were pretty moist, maybe even almost wet at the bottom due to the bubbling action, I imagine this will be bad later in life for the plant once its roots are all the way in the water -- none of which are, btw.

 

[SoEx]

Ugh. Well, I just spent the last 2 and a half hours lightproofing without much luck. I added "flanges" to all the net pot holders in the roof of the lid to keep light out, but there are still 2 places where some faint light is getting through from the HPS -- does this mean things are doomed from the get-go? One other seedling is above the surface (still has its seed on).

One master kush is nowhere to be seen, the other is struggling to get its head up.

Anyway, so anyone have any ideas? I have a pump, but no water was sitting out so I can't refill my res immediately (using tap water). Can I just add some h2o2, hope for the best, and fix it on the next go around?

This is truly sucky, I tried my best to lightproof it three times now, but there are still a few tiny glints coming in :/

 

[Military]

ya about where you put your rockwool.. Id put about 2-4 layers of hydroton rocks at thebottom of the net first. Those bubbles will for sure "slash" a lot to make areas close enough to stay wet. THose hydroton are designed to hold in moisture yet keeping things airy so mold doesnt set in to easily. with few layers of those at bottom of net and them getting wet, they will transfer enough moisture for the rockwool.

 

[SoEx]

ya about where you put your rockwool.. Id put about 2-4 layers of hydroton rocks at thebottom of the net first. Those bubbles will for sure "slash" a lot to make areas close enough to stay wet. THose hydroton are designed to hold in moisture yet keeping things airy so mold doesnt set in to easily. with few layers of those at bottom of net and them getting wet, they will transfer enough moisture for the rockwool.

Thanks for the advice, I changed this up.

 

[eLiguL]

If you have a hydroshop around you pick up some black/white poly plastic and cut out some covers for your basket.

 

[SoEx]

If you have a hydroshop around you pick up some black/white poly plastic and cut out some covers for your basket.

I actually picked some of that up today, I wrapped the bucket in it in hopes that that might help. Hmm, a lid might do it...

Edit:woo woo. I did it quick and shittily (holes were cut imprecisely, gotta be nicer about it next time around) but I think that should do the trick. The entire thing is wrapped in this reflective sheeting now, lid to bottom.

The bubble wands coming up was actually due to me tugging a tiny bit on the tubes from the outside I think, after I taped them in place they stuck.

So what's the ruling on my water? Can I put some h2o2 once all the seeds are out to get rid of anything that may have been growing while light was available?

 

[eLiguL]

You can throw it in now if you want. Just keep a close eye on your rez for things like browning and foam.