question about bubblers

[pashi2004]

hello all , i have 5 plants 3 weeks old from germination and they are now in my 100 ltr bubbler and under a 600wt dual spec bulb on 18/6 , my question is how long before the roots come through the bottom of the net pots so i can switch my air pump on ?
many thanks peace out
rich

 

[Coco_nuts]

Shouldnt take longer than a week. Pics?

 

[DTFuqua]

turn your air pumps on to start with just keep the water level about a 1/4 -1/2 inch below the bottom of the net pots

 

[Coco_nuts]

The plants will "sense" the water, ive seen roots shit out the bottom of a pot a few days after being placed into the dwc tub. Just top feed until the roots hit the water, also roots get more oxygen from air than from water so lower the water level as the roots get longer and longer (dont have the entire rootball submerged.)

 

[FreezerBoy]

Never place plants in a non bubbling bubbler. Air first, plants second. Until you see several inches of roots sticking out the bottom of the cup, you want direct contact between tap root and waterline. Failure to maintain such contact could cause death by dehydration in less time than a good night's sleep.

While there's obviously more air in air than in water, air has no water to prevent dehydration and death. Water has all the moisture needed to prevent such death and (properly aerated) more than enough air to prevent drowning.

 

[pashi2004]

Hi all ' my plants germinated in some spongey stuff that came with the propagator i then placed them inside some rockwool cubes then into the net pots which are full of hydroton ' in hindsght i wouldnt have used so many different mediums but this is my first hydro grow and u learn as u go along eh ? They appear to have been doing fine without the bubbler turned on and i thought i was supposed to wait for the roots to show before turning the pump on because i thought i would drown the young roots if it was switched on from day one . So as we stand now the bubbler is turned on and the water level is about 1/2" below the netpots . Ive got to nip out for batteries for my EC meter so im planning on sorting out the nutrients and water ph as soon as i get back in. Ill post some pics this afternoon. In the meantime please dont desert this post lol

i'l be back

rich

 

[Coco_nuts]

Do what freezerboy told you.



So lift water level until some of the netpot is submerged. Makes sense, then you dont have to water daily, rockwool can dry out real quick.

A guy i know grows in homemade bubblers, he uses pots of coco and just waters the coco until the roots hit the waterline, for hydroton or rockwool do as freezer said.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Hi all ' my plants germinated in some spongey stuff that came with the propagator i then placed them inside some rockwool cubes then into the net pots which are full of hydroton ' in hindsght i wouldnt have used so many different mediums but this is my first hydro grow and u learn as u go along eh ?

If I could clone with naked stems, I'd lose all that stuff too. Good news is, as the plant grows it will rip that stuff to shreds and discard it.

Just hang in. Before I got here, my indoor grows were puny. I measured colas against my thumb and cut my stalks with needle nose pliers. Now I measure colas against my forearm and need a tree lopper to cut my stalk. The difference between to two is what I learned here at IC.

 

[pashi2004]

hi again , yay ive got my first roots coming from the bottom of one of the net pots, looks like one baby may have dried out as was suggested on here but ive not given up on it and have watered them from the top and hopefully i shold see some roots from the other pots very soon , ive taken some pics and now im going to try and post them . ive adjusted the waterph to 5.6 and yesterday i fed them but instead of the 700ml that was recomended ive only given them 500ml just to be on the safe side.Personally im still concerned that they look awfully skinny' what do you think ?

 

[pashi2004]

 

[FreezerBoy]

That's light starvation. Seedlings, from the very second they sprout, are looking for and depending on the full strength of the sun in all it's blazing glory. 600 watts doesn't even qualify as a penlight. HOWEVER, because you've starved them, they built themselves accordingly and can no longer survive proper light levels without an acclimation period. Lower lamp slowly over several days until its 12-8 inches from the top of the plants.

 

[pashi2004]

thanks freezerboy ' ill try that but im begining to suspect i have to start from scratch ' will they recover or am i fighting a losing battle ? i checked them again today and ive still only got 1 tiny root out the bottom of one net pot , or am i just bieng impatient ?

 

[Coco_nuts]

Dude dont give up! Ive rescued FAR worse off plants. They have just stretched a bit thats all. Yes you being impatient, raise the waterline so that the bottom of the net pot touches the water.

 

[pashi2004]

Ive got roots thru the bottom from 3 of the plants now but the stems dont seem to be getting any thicker and im concerned that they wont be able to support themselves ' any ideas as to how long it will be before the stems start to thicken ?

 

[Coco_nuts]

If you worried about them falling over then stake them up with a chopstick or something. Have you been progressively lowering the lights each day?

 

[pashi2004]

hi coco nuts , yeah ive been lowering the light a bit per day and its currently about 12" above the plants, what i can say with much happiness is that they look alot better today , ive got loads more foliage and the stems on 3 of them are improving slightly , lots of roots thru the net pots also . My only concern now is the ec level ' i deliberately underfed them but the Ec remains at 1.7 which i think is a bit too high for seedlings and young plants so i took out about 7 litres of the res and replaced it with plain water which i let stand for 24 hours before using, but my Ec stayed at 1.7 which leads me to believe that my ec pen is proper crap or ive not taken enough of the nute mix out to make a difference ( its a 100litre res ) or maybe i didnt wait long enough to take another reading , what do u think ? oh by the way the ph has been a doddle ' its hardly moved from 5.6 to just 5.7 over the last 48 hours , does this sound ok ?
i really appreciate everyones input and cannot stress enough how much ive learned from this fantastic site .

peace out
rich

 

[Coco_nuts]

1.7 ec would be like 1000ppm.... that should destroy seedlings.

My clones get about 200ppm max...

 

[FreezerBoy]

My only concern now is the ec level ' i deliberately underfed them but the Ec remains at 1.7 which i think is a bit too high for seedlings and young plants so i took out about 7 litres of the res and replaced it with plain water which i let stand for 24 hours before using, but my Ec stayed at 1.7 which leads me to believe that my ec pen is proper crap or ive not taken enough of the nute mix out to make a difference ( its a 100litre res )

1.7 is WAY too high. Replacing half the res (50L) with RO will drop you to 0.8 EC, still way too high. Because you're using tap, you'll want to drain 80-90% of the res and replace with tap. At his point you'll want to use your micro and bloom formulas at 1/4 strength, about 0.3ml (less than a single drop) per liter, 30ml (2 tablespoons) each for the entire res.

 

[pashi2004]

hello , why does the bottle say different ? it says 7ml per litre ' i put in 500ml ' 200 ml less than the reccomended dose , maybe its my ec pen ?? it came pre-calibrated but i do have some calibration fluid ill try that , other than that they look great ,

 

[Coco_nuts]

What bottle? What nutes are you using? Post pics.