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

[SoEx]

By mistakes we learn. My sympathies on your horrible day. You are not alone. We've all been there. Not That I would ever - coff -admit to any mistakes myself ...

As Don sez, prop her up and give her a chance. Either way it's a relativly cheap lesson you'll never forget.

Sorry

!!!!


I peeked underneath the cover and, rather than resting, limply, on hydroton....

It picked itself up!

IT doesnt' seem fully sturdy or anything yet (Still kinda squiggly) but.. IT PIIICKED ITSEEEELF UUUUUUUUUUUUP.

Should I put it back in the light?

 

[Military]

o man sorry to here about your wilting babies. Hopefully they turn out fine.

 

[Don Cotyle]

Nice save!!!

Raise the shade up to say 5-6" the ambient light-inderect will be good for her so she won't streach and in 24 hours take the shade off. She'll have a little more recovery time thatway. Put a cup plactic or 2 and rest the shade on top.

Told ya they's tough little plants!!!

 

[SoEx]

My cat (or man eating lion) went into my setup and uprooted one of the baby seedlings in rockwool. That's the only explanation I have for it, it had to be him.

The seedling was just sitting there, turned on its side in the rockwool on top of the hydroton, stem seemed bent over at a point (possibly crushed?) and it had a 1.5" taproot sticking out the bottom. It had been growing REALLY well until that fucking point.

I don't know when this happened, but the god damn poor seedling had been sitting there in the rockwool, uprooted, away from water for at most 6 hours.

I put the lights on 18/6 finally (they were 24/0 for the seedling sprouting and due to some unforeseen circumstances).

UGH. I thought the damn tarp was well-enough sealed. All the other plants were undisturbed. I made a little resting place on the hydroton with a hole for the taproot to stick underneath the net pot, watered the rockwool a bit (and a bit of water around the taproot), and placed a cover on it.

The other one seemed to pull through, this one isn't going to, I don't think so. Damage was pretty severe.

This happened to Master Kush B.

Lemon Stinky A seems healthy, but hasn't really grown (from what I noticed, stunted growth for recovery time? Or maybe it'll just plop over and die sometime soon here, with my luck ).

I broke my commitment to taking daily pictures, but I will again hopefully today.

Master Kush B (completely uprooted) is being passively covered, lights should be firing up sometime soonish. I don't think this one is going to recover due to the stem bending-over and possibly being crushed.

God damnit, I'd not be annoyed if it was some REALLY stupid error I made myself, but I had no real control over this :/ I need to find a way to make sure the cat can NOT enter the closet in any way shape or form, possibly some of that fencing material at the bottom. of the closet door.

None of the other plants have shown any taproots underneath the net pots so far, I don't think.

Lemon Stinky A's growth seems stunted. If Master Kush B survives (HIGHLY unlikely, it'd be a fuckin' miracle), it's growth will probably also be severely stunted?

Lemon Stinky B is still kind of small and not growing very fast, but seems healthy.

Master Kush A is by far the healthiest of the bunch. It has quickly accelerated to having the largest set of true leaves, looks perky, and seems nice.

Oh well, the perils of a first grow. Obviously I'm not fuming/mad with anger management issues punching holes in the wall or anything, but it's kind of frustrating

I'll hopefully have pics up later when the lights come on.

Edit: ugh. Sorry for sounding crazy in this post, I just had to vent a bit. I am getting a veg chamber set up sometime this week, hopefully, and I can make sure to do things right with the last net pot and when I replace any of the males that I have to pull.

 

[SoEx]

Some pics. -- Day 8 --

Lemon Stinky A



Lemon Stinky B
(kinda small leaves, maybe it was in a darker spot of the light)


Master Kush A


gigantic version: http://www.icmag.com/gallery/uploads/30600/mkA_8_1.jpg


... and

Master Kush B (RIP?)

 

[Don Cotyle]

Your plants are streaching from lack of adequate lighting. When your plants break the "soil" they have to have full intense lighting. The full lights won't hurt them, it's the heat that will hurt them. That's why I said to use your had as a guide!!

Cats will attack any greenery in the house, don't know why they just do! Especially the ones that give off green shields...LOL!

Sorry for your bad luck! Mabey it's time to germ some more of them seeds and keep on trying!

 

[SoEx]

Your plants are streaching from lack of adequate lighting. When your plants break the "soil" they have to have full intense lighting. The full lights won't hurt them, it's the heat that will hurt them. That's why I said to use your had as a guide!!

Cats will attack any greenery in the house, don't know why they just do! Especially the ones that give off green shields...LOL!

Sorry for your bad luck! Mabey it's time to germ some more of them seeds and keep on trying!

Heh, yeah, he's a mischievous one this guy

I got some shots of Master Kush A and I've been playing around with my camera. Is the VERY slight yellowing/lightening normal at this point? It's not too apparent unless you get really close:

Super close up of one of the leaves



Smaller:

bigger version: http://www.icmag.com/gallery/uploads/30600/mkb81.jpg

Hairy seedling stem


Cotyledon image


... and hydroton like you've never seen it before?


Sorry about the lots of random pictures, I just like taking them for my own amusement.

I'll hopefully be able to get more in there once I build my small veg chamber. It's pretty ridiculous how much I've already learned at this point, makes me wish I could go back and do things more properly


Thanks for still checking the thread!

 

[Don Cotyle]

Nice shots! We learn from our mistakes and become better growers because of and in spite of them!!! Let's hope ya get a female or 2 to get some clones from.

I took 3 clones from my dark green branchy OD. Think I'm gonna keep that one around for a while!!

Keep on keeping on!! The Don

 

[Don Cotyle]

Thanks for peeking SoEx, I just did an update day 41 flowering for ya!

 

[FreezerBoy]

Dude, so sorry to hear about the butt faced little f..., oops, I mean, adorable kitty. Didn't mean to be a prophet of doom

A little LST or cropping of your remaining harem should fill the void.

 

[SoEx]

Dude, so sorry to hear about the butt faced little f..., oops, I mean, adorable kitty. Didn't mean to be a prophet of doom

A little LST or cropping of your remaining harem should fill the void.

I'll hopefully be replacing the dead seedling (it hasn't perked up by this point, it's probably dead) and the empty net pot with more seeds, so it's all good.

 

[SoEx]

New, crappy seedling shots. Thinsg are so red/yellow due to the lighting, I had to use a different camera and didn't have time to make the colors look proper.

(Note: they are not yellow, it's just the stupid light! )


Only survivng Master Kush, day 10


Lemon Stinky A


Lemon Stinky B


Edit: these pics are worthless, I'll take more later.

All three have their second set of leaves developing

 

[SoEx]

I think my cannabis seedlings hate me or something.

I keep running into really bad luck . I had a fan in the chamber to blow a light breeze on the three seedlings, which was working great (kinda shaking them around a tiny bit, nothing harsh, seemed to make them rigid).

The fan fell over on Lemon Stinky A, even though I freakin' taped it in place. It looks pretty damn beaten, and it took a beating earlier in its life.

In GOOD news:

LEMON STINKY B HAS ITS ROOT IN THE WATER! :yay:

Master Kush A hasn't shown a root down, but it's growing very well and its second set is coming along. I'm ashamed to take pictures of Lemon Stinky A due to its decrepid nature. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, but I'm still hoping to fix them and salvage something out of this.

DON'T LOSE FAITH IN ME YET!

I'm building a veg chamber so that when I (hopefully) get some seeds in I can veg them under some CFLs and have to worry less about getting the bigass light extremely close to the bucket and such.

Anyway, sorry if anyone is disappointed in my abilities . I'm trying to learn a bit more as I go (yes I read up prior to starting this all ), and I have to say I've made a million mistakes that I know to avoid in the future. But that's what it's all about, isn't it?

 

[FreezerBoy]

Way to hang in there, dude. Those who make no mistakes are those that never do anything.

I understand the need for air exchange but, I prefer to strengthen my stems the old fashioned way. I beat up my plants by hand. I make a "V" of index and forefinger. place the stem in between and gently shake my fingers back and forth. As they get bigger, I'll push them over a bit to each side. The kind of push they'd get from an animal passing by.

 

[SoEx]

Way to hang in there, dude. Those who make no mistakes are those that never do anything.

I understand the need for air exchange but, I prefer to strengthen my stems the old fashioned way. I beat up my plants by hand. I make a "V" of index and forefinger. place the stem in between and gently shake my fingers back and forth. As they get bigger, I'll push them over a bit to each side. The kind of push they'd get from an animal passing by.

Thanks for the kind words.

I'm running into a lot of ventilation problems and I can't really figure out what I should do. I have a few fans to manage, but only 1.5" x 20" of clearance between the door frame and the floor for ventilation if I want to keep the room closed, and I'd LIKE to be able to at least when I'm not here :/

I rigged up a cage blower that pushes out a LOT of air to push some air inside in a bit, but I'm going to get massive positive pressure since the fan cooling the HPS isn't as strong as the blower.

Temps in the closet are 75ish, temps in the chamber itself are nearing the 90s. Humidity is way low, though. This does kind of suck that I can't seem to find a reasonable way to make the area cold. The entire thing is very far away from windows (opposite side of the room) so I can't even open a window and blow air in or anything.

I have to figure out how to maintain negative pressure and keep temps down sometime soon here

 

[FreezerBoy]

Plants in the wild grow well in hotter temps than that all the time. The problem with hi temps indoors is the stretch that comes with it.

Did you ever replace the glass on the hood? Trapping the heat inside the reflector and drawing your air through it may help.

 

[SoEx]

Plants in the wild grow well in hotter temps than that all the time. The problem with hi temps indoors is the stretch that comes with it.

Did you ever replace the glass on the hood? Trapping the heat inside the reflector and drawing your air through it may help.

I kinda had a theory that the thing I was using to gauge temperature (a black encased plastic unit w/humidity) was a bit off because the black was absorbing a lot of heat. I hooked up a remote thermocouple unit to a thermocouple meter sitting outside of the room so I can monitor room temperatures with the door closed.

I tried the door closed the entire night last night and things went pretty well I think. Temps seemed around 82-84 directly in-chamber. I hope they'll go down a bit once I get a chance to replace the glass. Also, the glass I used was SUPER thin (cheapo glass), so using slightly thicker glass may reduce my temps a bit more too, hopefully.


GOOD

NEWS!

The master kush seedling has gotten root-happy . It has one long taproot that went down a whole 12+"! I didn't even see a taproot sticking out two nights ago!

The surviving Lemon Stinky seedling seems to be doing okay, if not a bit wilted. It has 2-4 roots all coming down only an inch or two out of the pot, hopefully it'll do well soon here.

I did some long overdue fixes and maintenance. I cut 2" off each of the bubble wands so they are now able to sit parallel like || instead of in an X formation, hopefully this will make sure they stay put.

I checked my water -- it has a few paint chips in it and some hydroton, but otherwise it's clear. Will the paint chips make a big deal? The plants haven't seemed to mind much yet... and it'd be a BIG hassle to pump all the water out and clean it all.

Ph has remained surprisingly stable. I am going to buy a ph pen and EC/tds meter within the next few days here, hopefully, so I can stop guessing that it's "about" 6.0ish and actually get a real number. Are the cheap hanna handheld ph meters (~$30 ebay) okay? The EC meter I imagine is pretty simple really, but the ph meter I worry about since I am always hearing about maintenance, calibration, and that I have to store the semi-permiable glass probe in a storage solution otherwise it'll get ruined.

I'll update with seedling pictures a bit later, hopefully! Thanks for looking of anyone is still reading this

 

[SoEx]

Took some quick and dirty pictures, sorry about the quality.

The exhaust system I have set up to vent underneath the door (I cleaned the room up after this ):





DAY 13 FROM SOWING

Surviving Master Kush seedling:



Surviving Lemon Stinky:



Ah, well. Lets hope things look up from here on out.

 

[Military]

O man sup SoEx. sorry havnt been keeping up with your thread but from your last few posts iv read, it seems like something went wrong somewhere and caused some problems?

Everything looks good though for what i can see of the pics. Seedling looks alright,

Mind cluing me in with a sentence or 2 if something did go wrong? thanks man

Good luck man

SMOKE ON

 

[SoEx]

O man sup SoEx. sorry havnt been keeping up with your thread but from your last few posts iv read, it seems like something went wrong somewhere and caused some problems?

Everything looks good though for what i can see of the pics. Seedling looks alright,

Mind cluing me in with a sentence or 2 if something did go wrong? thanks man

Good luck man

SMOKE ON

Cat ripped up Master Kush B, a fan fell on Lemon Stinky A while I was out :/

Those are the two tales of catastrophe.