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

[Don Cotyle]

Hi SoEx, Can you get your lights any closer to them plants, without burning them???(sorry never used CFL's. They are streaching due to lack of light or wrong spectrum, seedlings that tall should have at least 3-4 nodes on em and be 2 weeks old. Just trying to help.

 

[SoEx]

Hi SoEx, Can you get your lights any closer to them plants, without burning them???(sorry never used CFL's. They are streaching due to lack of light or wrong spectrum, seedlings that tall should have at least 3-4 nodes on em and be 2 weeks old. Just trying to help.

Yeah, that's actually the fault of my OTHER lights, not this one. I started the seedlings outside of the closet using a ~40W CFL and when I turned off the light it was still daylight outside so they started to stretch. Also that one 40W cfl wasn't very big so a few of the seedlings had to stretch to get toward the light. Anyway, now the 105W CFL Is about an inch and a half away from the seedlings and they should stop stretching here soon, hopefully, and I've got a breeze going so they strengthen up their branches, hopefully.

But yeah, thanks for the help. They did all their stretching when I wasn't careful and I was using the small CFL :/

 

[SoEx]

Wee. Small update.

Day 29 from Sowing: Master Kush:





Lemon Stinky:



My overstretched seedlings



Since the 29 day old plants are well established should I bump up the nutrients a bit? Going to add some more water in a bit and I'm currently at ~226 PPM in the res. Ph has been stable, thankfully.

Edit: the plants are currently working on their 8th and 9th nodes

 

[Don Cotyle]

They look about 6" tall, I'd bump it up a notch and see how they do! Looking grrrreat for a first grow SoEx!!!!!

Keep green and stay safe, Don

 

[SoEx]

They look about 6" tall, I'd bump it up a notch and see how they do! Looking grrrreat for a first grow SoEx!!!!!

Keep green and stay safe, Don

Yeah, about 6-7" or so.

PPM is now at 295 or so in the big bucket, I might need to either bump it up or down. New growth on the Master Kush plant had a bit of light coloring on the out fringes of a set of fan leaves, going to take pics a bit later.

One of the seedlings was looking a bit unhappy. I checked it out and it seemed like the cube was a bit dry, so I made sure it was getting some water. This is water that has air being bubbled into it, so no worries in letting the cubes stay moist. Well, anyway, two days later and it hadn't perked up. I felt the stem and it was dead/hard, so the seedling died at some point. Anyway, I opened the cube to inspect inside and the entire taproot/going down was brown/yucky. There also seemed to be some small particulate matter in the cube itself, so maybe the cube got dirty or something. Anyway, I added a tiny bit of h2o2 when I added water just to be sure and threw away the dead seedling with the rotting cube. I checked underneath another cube and it has 6 or so brilliant, white shoots sticking out, so I think the other seedlings are all okay. No big loss, it hadn't even gotten its first real pair of leaves past 2mm long anyway. But the other ones seem pretty happy and are growing.

 

[Don Cotyle]

Could be a bit of the Magnesium deficency, get some CalMag or just add an 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of Epsom Salts per gallon, if it clears up bump the nutes a little at a time! You shouldn't have to back up on nutes at that low PPM and the size of your plants, I was useng 1/2 strength nutes on my plants at that size...but again it's better to raise nutes a little at a time then to burn em!!!!!

Never add straight H2O2 to a small area like a rockwool cube, always dilute it first or add to the res tank! JMHO. Sounds like the rest of the seedlings are doing good, sounds like that one cube had a contaminae in there that might of killed it!

 

[SoEx]

Could be a bit of the Magnesium deficency, get some CalMag or just add an 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of Epsom Salts per gallon, if it clears up bump the nutes a little at a time! You shouldn't have to back up on nutes at that low PPM and the size of your plants, I was useng 1/2 strength nutes on my plants at that size...but again it's better to raise nutes a little at a time then to burn em!!!!!

Never add straight H2O2 to a small area like a rockwool cube, always dilute it first or add to the res tank! JMHO. Sounds like the rest of the seedlings are doing good, sounds like that one cube had a contaminae in there that might of killed it!

Well maybe I just need to bump up the PPMs slowly, then? The plants drank like freakin' racehorses! I added ~2 gallons 3 days ago and it looks like it's back down to the exact same level. PPM went down to 280.

I think my nutrient has Mg in it, that's why I ask if maybe I just need to bump up the nutrients a bit. Garunteed analysis of my nutrients (From the label):

Part A:
2.54% Nitrogen (2.42 Nitrate Nitrogen, .12 Amoniacl nitrogen)
1.65% Soluble Potash (K2O)
2.20% Calcium (Ca), .
045% Iron (Fe, .006 chelated iron)

PArt B:

0.065% Nitrogen (N, Nitrate nitrogen)
0.75% Available Phosphoric Acid (P2O5)
4.40% Soluble Potash (K2O)
0.70% Magnesium (Mg)
0.25% Sulphur (S)
0.004% Copper (.0005% Chelated Cu)
0.0015% Manganese (M)
0.005% Zinc

They are really growing like crazy now, and it seems like they're drinking really fast.

Yeah, I added the h2o2 to the water before mixing it in with the seedlings. The seedlings are in the makeshift fake DWC type bubbler thing developing shitloads of small roots until I get the ebb&flow thing fully operational. That's okay, though, they're still tiny and are just now working on their second sets of leaves really.

Anyway, I have some updates/pics of the seedlings I need to put on here in a bit, hopefully. I'll also need to consider what to raise my PPM to at this point. Suggestions welcome.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Yeah, about 6-7" or so.

PPM is now at 295

Sounds a bit weak to me. Heck, my water is close to 250ppm without nutes. I'm using GH FloraMicro and FloraBloom. 1.25 ml each (1/4 teaspoon) per gallon during germ/clone. 2.50 ml each (1/2 teaspoon) per gallon at the first sign of roots and the Lucas Formula (5ml micro, 10 ml Bloom for veg- 8 ml Micro, 16 ml Bloom for flower) once roots show up in numbers. Certainly by the time they hit 6 inches.

Since replacing vinegar with phosphoric acid (AN pH down) my pH swings are history. I've been growing in the new res for a week now and my readings have been flat across the board. The only level that dropped was the water line (1 plant drank 1 gallon in seven days) but, pH(*) and EC never moved. Added a gallon of pH adjusted water with LF nutes and, again, no change in any numbers except water volume.

.... edit ...

Actually my pH bounced from 5.5 at lamp fire up (water 68 degrees) and 5.75 at shut down (water 75 after 12 hours under the lamp) but, they bounced like clockwork.

 

[SoEx]

Sounds a bit weak to me. Heck, my water is close to 250ppm without nutes. I'm using GH FloraMicro and FloraBloom. 1.25 ml each (1/4 teaspoon) per gallon during germ/clone. 2.50 ml each (1/2 teaspoon) per gallon at the first sign of roots and the Lucas Formula (5ml micro, 10 ml Bloom for veg- 8 ml Micro, 16 ml Bloom for flower) once roots show up in numbers. Certainly by the time they hit 6 inches.

Since replacing vinegar with phosphoric acid (AN pH down) my pH swings are history. I've been growing in the new res for a week now and my readings have been flat across the board. The only level that dropped was the water line (1 plant drank 1 gallon in seven days) but, pH(*) and EC never moved. Added a gallon of pH adjusted water with LF nutes and, again, no change in any numbers except water volume.

.... edit ...

Actually my pH bounced from 5.5 at lamp fire up (water 68 degrees) and 5.75 at shut down (water 75 after 12 hours under the lamp) but, they bounced like clockwork.

Now at 486 PPM and 5.90 PH. Should I go upward next time I add water if they respond well?

Anyway, I'll upload some pics of the seedlings and the ebb&flow setup. I pray I got all the leaks sorted, but it may not be the case. *shrug*. S'pose I'll find out tomorrow.

 

[FreezerBoy]

PPM only takes you so far. Turns out there are (at least) 3 different conversion scales. EC x 500, EC x 640 and EC x 700. Unless you know your conversion scale and that of who you're talking to, identical numbers could be entirely different strengths.

At six inches, I was shooting for an EC of around 1.4, a ppm of 700 - 980 depending on your scale. I'd consider adding 50% more nutes next time, provided you're there to keep an eye on it.

 

[SoEx]

Ah, okay.

I'm going to do some maintenance in a few and try to get the e&f setup completely done, hopefully.

Now, I need some advice! These two plants will (hopefully, if at least one of them is a female) be in this area vegging for another 3 weeks at least until the other seedlings will be ready to get sexed. I will need to top them at some point soon here, won't I? It's a good idea, right? I have about 9 nodes up now of healthy growth and it does seem like a bit of a big bush with a decent canopy. I'll take some pictures today. I've been making it so the growing tips are folded slightly above the big fan leaves to an extent and they've all liked it and decided to go for the top. I'm going to hopefully add a SCROG in, so I'm hoping to get many budsites up by the screen and a nice, even canopy.

Anyway, so, should I top? Where should I top? I have a lot of nice growth, and they're not too terribly tall yet, so can I likely top higher up on the plant? Like maybe only a few nodes get taken off? Or maybe I should just top and use the old main growth stem as a clone of each of them? Just wondering what everyone's experience has been, I've read up on the forums and everyone seems to have their own unique method.

Edit: I also might be able to add another 150W to this for flower, hopefully

 

[SoEx]

D'oh! I lost about half the images I just took in a transfer error using my old, stupid memory card reader -_-

Anyway, what I did manage:





Side shot of the Master Kush plant. You can see it really filled in quite a bit. The canopy shot was more impressive, but that got lost :/

And some crappy images of the roots, I didn't want to lift 'em up. So Just some vague overall images of them




Anyway, I have to COMPLETELY rebuild my ebb&flow pvc system. I need to make a change to the original design as well as use one type of adhesive throughout the entire project so I don't have any leak issues as I'm running into currently. Seedlings are happy&healthy (From what I can tell) and will update with more pics later.

BTW, the master kush has quite a few pre-sexual organs forming. Currently they look like indiscriminate bulbs/nubs, but hopefully I'll be able to tell if they're male or not in a few weeks as they form. Pictures I took of this got lost, unfortunately :/

 

[Military]

wow Very nice. . I remember when you started this thread i was around in the beginning You were having all sorts of problems man BUt never the less they didnt discourage you at all and with all of "us" helping you out and incouraging you more You really pulled through and you have a fucking LOVELY plant there.

That lady really really looks healthy and is loving her climate to the fullest


Ill be staying around man GL and Good Growing

Take a stop by my grow and check it out always nice to spread the love hehe

SMOKE ON

 

[FreezerBoy]

BTW, the master kush has quite a few pre-sexual organs forming. Currently they look like indiscriminate bulbs/nubs, but hopefully I'll be able to tell if they're male or not in a few weeks as they form. Pictures I took of this got lost, unfortunately :/

Ohhh, this doesn't sound promising. Are they forming grape clusters like the right image below? If they are and they're hairless, prepare for the worst. Hope I'm wrong.

 

[zappa66]

hope ya get some girls :-(

 

[SoEx]

wow Very nice. . I remember when you started this thread i was around in the beginning You were having all sorts of problems man BUt never the less they didnt discourage you at all and with all of "us" helping you out and incouraging you more You really pulled through and you have a fucking LOVELY plant there.

That lady really really looks healthy and is loving her climate to the fullest


Ill be staying around man GL and Good Growing

Take a stop by my grow and check it out always nice to spread the love hehe

SMOKE ON

There are actually two plants still ;p I just lost the latest picture of it I took. I actually did read through your thread a while back but hadn't posted up, will check it out again Thanks

Ohhh, this doesn't sound promising. Are they forming grape clusters like the right image below? If they are and they're hairless, prepare for the worst. Hope I'm wrong.

I should've mentioned, only one little nub per side at each node so far.

Looks more like the one on the left, but without hairs. So that means it could go either way, from what I read? I've been looking at examples of male/female preflowers online like mad and it seems like I might have to start getting worried here soon if pistils don't start popping out here soon

 

[FreezerBoy]

Assuming the worst, it would take 3 weeks or so to open up and spread pollen. Definately let them go a few more days. BUT, if they start clustering like grapes (and still no hairs) well, as Steinbeck said, a man's got to shoot his own dog.

 

[SoEx]

Assuming the worst, it would take 3 weeks or so to open up and spread pollen. Definately let them go a few more days. BUT, if they start clustering like grapes (and still no hairs) well, as Steinbeck said, a man's got to shoot his own dog.

Well I have some more pics of things now.

First, let me say, holy crap. The Master Kush is becoming gargantuan. I did make it so the growing branches were folded above some of the fan leaves to encourage their growth and it definitely worked, heh. I'm going to need to get my SCROG together sometime soon here, they are actually starting to get a bit too wide. This might be damn crowded if any females come out of it, heh

Day 38 from Sowing

Pics:

Master Kush:


Lemon stinky on the left, Master kush on the right:


Now, some shitty shots. I couldn't use the tripod that close in, and my hands are a bit shaky. Sorry, I can take some more detailed ones later if I need to/there's any need to:



I thought that looked like a TINY hair coming out of this one, and I actually had noticed it like a week ago... But it seemed awfully thin. When I first saw it I thought it was a hair (human) and gently saw if it would blow off, but it seems like it's planted firmly inside.




Completely different plant node, but it also has a hair and it seems to have thickened a tiny bit? Only problem is it's just a single strand, not a v as I often see in pre-flower images.


The Lemon Stinky's:

Seems distinct from the other one?






I really have no clue. Anyway, I'm still in veg -- should I increase the light schedule to 20/4, or would this possibly cause undue stress? It seemed to be the consensus that 20/4 was the best in terms of yield from what I read? I'm currently on 18/6 and I figured I might just increase it an hour each week for two weeks?

They'll be vegging another 3 weeks until the other plants can catch up and be sexed, hopefully.

Will provide updates on the seedlings/e&f happenings as it comes. I decided to scrap the first one I built and try rebuilding it. I made a few mistakes with the piping and need to fix it up.

Anyway, lets hope for some girls

 

[SoEx]

Small bump, anyone got a clue? I'll update with pictures of the e&f setup later, as it gets done (hopefully).

 

[ogatec]

you need to flower soon, those plants are going to get BIG! if those are both going to be female then thats all the plant you need for that lite. if 1 or both do turn out to be male its still a good idea to flower so you can get them out of the way for the next round. i wouldnt throw anything out until you are in flowering & its for sure a amle. you dont want to throw out the best and not even know for sure!


ITS TIME TO FLOWER!