Rigobert's Hydroponic PC

[rigobert]

Hi guys. I thought I'd share pics of my grow-in-progress. This is my first grow, so lots of advice is appreciated. It's basically modeled on Mr. Micro's design, except with an aquarium pump to bubble air through the water. Pics follow. Sorry, they're from a webcam because I don't have a real camera.

This is a repeat of the thread I started in the micro grow subforum (here: http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=118245). I'll just let that one die though, and use this instead, since I'm going to be logging my plants' progress.
The box:

Grow Chamber:

And all my new toys after my adventure to the hydro store


My seeds as of now:
I germed them in a shot glass, and transferred them to the case earlier today.


I made this plan to guide me through the grow
1.(12 hrs) Germ seeds by placing them overnight in shot glass with water, keep area dark, but warm (~78F)
2. (12-24 hrs) Transfer seeds to wet paper towel on saucer, cover with wet paper towel and saucer, put under warm (~78F) light for duration
3. Move seeds to perforated plastic cups filled with damp coir and a small amount of clonex, place under light, change light schedule to 20/4.
4. When coir loses moisture (1-2 days), water individual cups with ~3 tbsp each, as necessary, let small puddle accumulate at bottom of tray
5. At spouting of second set of leaves, add nute mixture at 1/4 strength, increase water level, start air pump, and start pH testing water. Keep the ph as close to 6.3 as possible. Water temps should be 70F or so.
6. Begin LST
7. After a week, change light schedule to 16/8
8. Move nute mix to full strength and increase water level in tray to full (~1 gallon)
9. At 2 weeks change light schedule to 12/12
10. As soon as possible, identify males and remove from box
11. Move remaining females into larger cups
12. Also as soon as possible, prune useless "popcorn buds" and branches off of females
13. Harvest
14. Cure the harvest

As a summary: I intend to autoflower the plants in the box (I will probably take cuttings and build a cloner and bigger/more sustainable system (perhaps out of a speaker tower) sometime around the first harvest)
Again, sorry about the repeat threads...

 

[rigobert]

Log so far...

Log so far...

Date
Time
Event(s)
Commentary

4/10/09
1915
7 seeds placed in covered shot glass with 1 oz of water
They're all floating up at the top, like the test seed did at first. Also, 5 are from Mr. Morrison's bag and 2 are from Allegra's. I did this because one of the two varieties will be better and there are enough seeds so that waste isn't a big deal. Also, the Allegra seeds are about 140% the size of the Morrison seeds. As a note, the Morrison seeds are confirmed citral, but I have no idea what the Allegra ones are.

4/11/09
1200
Upon tapping, 6/7 seeds sank to the bottom of the shot glass
1700
Removed floating seed, put back in jar.
Realized that there are in fact seven seeds when I only intended to have six in the shot glass... don't know how the balls I managed to miscount.

4/12/09
1930
Cracks have appeared in the four Morrison (citral) seeds and a small amount of tap root is visible

4/13/09
1600
I have discovered that running the 8.5 pH tap water through my water filter reduces it to about 6.5. Also, pH up/down is strong shit; a half mil produces the same effect on a full liter of hard water.
1945
All seeds have been taken out of the shot glass, dipped in cloning solution, and placed about 1cm deep in the pots with damp coir. The tray is filled with water up until it barely touches the bottoms of the pots. Light cycle has begun at 20/4.
Hope this works!

 

[rigobert]

Recent Pics

Recent Pics

Here are some recent pictures to supplement the progress log. Enjoy! Comments and questions always welcome.

Box in operation in my closet It's so quiet I forget it's running! It's so sneaky that I thought it had actually stopped working at one point.

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View image in gallery​

Pots in tray with seeds recently planted (my growing medium is coir). That tube going into the tray comes from an air pump; it just makes bubbles from an airstone in the reservoir. As you have surely assumed, the reservoir is under that black thing. This entire contraption is assembled from cardboard, tarp, and electrical tape (still manages to be totally waterproof)... can you tell I am cheap?

View image in gallery​

A look inside- you can see the tray, light, and CO2 source (that spacey-looking duct-tape-covered odwalla bottle). In the bottom left you can make out the intake fan.


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[greenatik]

looks nice man but if it were me I would of used any available extra space for more light rather than the hydro setup. coco is essentially hydro and hand watering is pretty easy on small scale. once you find a female keep it and run a SOG in a bed of coco in there. you could fit about 7, or do 1-2 plants scroged. But your gunna need more light, even 1 more cfl will help a ton

Also, instead of waiting to find the males, throw away the runts right off the bat, and baby the ones you have, i've never had less than 80% female/male rate!

I would flip them to 12/12 at 2nd leaf set no later.. and also I keep my ph for coco 5.8-6.0 I wouldn't go higher!

May I ask why you dipped the seeds in cloning hormone?

GL man the PC is a great starting place, and you'll be an expert on LST-ing and space management in no time

 

[rigobert]

If I'm not mistaken that's a 44W CFL (my partner in crime bought the light). So far, it runs pretty cool, which is why I hadn't considered adding another one... may not be a bad idea, though, I'd just have to see how the heck I'd get it in there and where I'd put it... Are you suggesting just basically putting the plants in a pot/tray of coco and hand watering them a water/nute solution? I could also lower the height of the holding tray deeper into the reservoir- it fits by friction, mainly.

Ah, interesting. I was under the impression that it was close to 50/50 all the time! For reference, this is all from bagseed.

Good tips for light and ph, thanks!

The cloning hormone stimulates root development, so it works just as well for recently germed seeds as it does for cuttings

Thanks! I'll be keeping this updated, so you can see how it turns out.

 

[rigobert]

4/14/09
1915
Added about a mil and a half of water from a pipette over each seed's little mound of coir.
The coir seemed not moist, but not dry, either, to the touch, so I added a tad bit of water to err on the side of mild overwatering instead of thirst.

 

[greenatik]

well with that one cfl you will grow bud no doubt, but your plants will really thank you with more! Also, as soon as those babies come out above the medium, keep that cfl within 2 inches of the tops... you have no extra room for useless stretching!

about the bed/tray of coco... that's just what I would do. You can put them all in the same bed/tray and they will be just as happy IMO.

50/50 male/female i think is in an average environment. but if they are well taken care of and never see stress (2-3 week period) you should get mostly females

ill be watching man

 

[rigobert]

4/16/09
1330
Watered two pots that had gotten fairly dry and readjusted tray so that their bottoms would be touching the reservoir of water. Uncovered one of the other seeds and observed a 5 mm tap root.
I am becoming slightly worried about these seeds. I test-germed one before I planted these and it had a 1 cm long tap root just from sitting in a shot glass for four days. How long should it be before they sprout a bit?

 

[rigobert]

4/17/09
1400
Pots 1 and 2 have sprouted; up to a centimeter of green material is visible.
FUCK YEAH. On the other hand, it is interesting that the pots that had less water than the others have ended up sprouting first...

Voila! Pot 1 in the upper left and pot 2 in the bottom left.
​

Closeup of pot 1.

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Closeup of pot 2.

 

[JamieShoes]

there is LIFE!!! glad to see you off and running, Rigobert :smile:

 

[rigobert]

4/18/09
1400
A set of serrated leaves can be seen growing from plant 1 (which is now 2cm tall) and are each about 3 mm now. Plant 2 has also grow to about 2 cm tall, but both cotyledon are leaning to one side (they have not separated and "bloomed out" so to speak). The tips of the cotyledon on plant two are also darker and a bit faded, which seems to be because they have coir residue on them.A small section of 2's stem right before the leaves also seems to be a more whitish color.
I will be so pumped if 1 is a female. 2 seems ok, I think it'll catch up to 1 shortly, and I can only hope that 3, 4, 5, and 6 end up actually sprouting sometime soon.

Closeup of plant 1- the odd shadows on the closer leaf are actually a pair of very small serrated leaves.

Closeup plant 2- you can see the leaves have not separated and can make out the odd browning on the tips and the whitening on the stem before the leaves.

 

[rigobert]

4/20/09
1100
Plants 4 and 6 are visibly sprouting, although awkwardly (in the same fashion 2 seemed to sprout). Plants 1 is about 6 cm and its serrated leaves are pointed upwards and not very splayed, whereas plant 2 is about 4 cm andhas its pair of serrated leaves splayed out. 1 mL of nutrient solution (Fox Farm Big Bloom) was added to the reservoir of about 0.25 gallons. Changed light cycle to 16/8.
Happy holidays, all!

Above: the tray with all plants visible and then plants 1, 2, 4, and 6, in that order.

 

[rigobert]

4/21/09
1230
Plants 4 and 6 have progressed and are now standing up on their own, each of them reaching about 2 or 3 cm in height. Plant 1 seems to be recovering its serrated leaves, which yesterday were pointing upwards and turning dark and withering a tad- they are now greening from the inside out and splaying more. I added less than a drop of the nutrient solution to the region around the bases of plants 1,2, 4, and 6. Reservoir pH test gave result of about 6.
I think plant 1 was actually suffering from lack of nutrients (since it sprouted so early), which I only started applying yesterday. Still have hope for 3 and 5.

Tray as is.

Plants 1, 2, 4, and 6, in that order.

Closeup of plant 1; you can make out the withered ends of the serrated leaves on 1 and the new greening which I referred to before.

 

[rigobert]

4/23/09
1230
Plant 1 is growing a second set of serrated leaves quite rapidly. Plant 2 has the largest leaves and is growing another set of two perpendicular to the first two, as well as three that go out in the spaces between these other four. Plant 2 also has a long root that can be seen emerging from the bottom of the pot. Plant 4 has a similar root. Plant 6 appears sick: the serrated leaves are oddly shaped and the cotyledons are shriveled and brown. 1/4 cup of neutral pH water and 1 mL nutes added to reservoir.Reservoir pH test gave result of about 6.
Plant 6 still looks shitty... if anyone has any ideas as to why this is, let me know. I've given up hope on plants 3 and 5. Going to empty and re-fill the reservoir over the weekend and start giving the full nutrient levels.

Tray

Plants 1, 2, 4, 6. Note how crappy 6 looks.

Height comparison of plants 1 (right) and 2 (left).

Root coming out of the bottom of cup 2.

 

[rigobert]

4/25/09
1500
Emptied and re-filled reservoir with 10 cups of water and 40 mL of nutrients (4 tbsp/gal, as recommended on the nute bottle). Plant 6 has shriveled up all of its leaves. Plant 2's root is at least 10 cm long and grows a few cm daily. Plant 1 has 2 small root ends peeking out from the bottom of the cup. Plant 4 has a root shorter than 2's curling around the outside bottom of its cup. Reservoir pH test gave result of about 6.
I apologize for the inconsistent systems of units... it works pragmatically. RIP plant 6, I think

Tray with my babies.

Plants 1, 2, 4, 6. If Anyone knows what I could have done wrong with 6 that made it die, let me know.

 

[greenatik]

What kind of nutes are you using? What light schedule are they under? How far away are they from the light? General rule of thumb is to start off at like an 1/8th of recommended dosage and work your way up. How wet does your coco stay? Does it ever dry out a little?

 

[rigobert]

4/26/09
1730
Plant 6 has shriveled up and fallen over. Plants 1,2, and 4 are healthy and have grown noticeable amounts since the addition of the full nutrient solution, especially 4. Reservoir pH test gave result of about 6.
They all seem quite happy, of course with the exception of 6 (who's sudden death remains unexplained). Assuming 6 stays dead, there will be no further updates on it.
I noticed something interesting: the second set of serrated leaves (the one parallel to the cotyledons) on plant 1 is much larger than the set on 2 or 4. Conversely, the first set of leaves on plant 1 is smaller than that of plants 2 or 4, leading me to believe that since the growth of the 1st pair was stunted by inadequate nutrients, it has compensated by enlarging its second set at a faster rate! Plants are incredible little things.
I am thinking about changing the light cycle to 12/12 to stimulate flowering... anyone have any suggestions as to when I should make the switch? I changed to 16/8 from 20/4 a week ago.

Tray

Plant 1. The first set of leaves is the one with the browned tips. The longer set is the second.

Plant 2. The larger leaves constitute the first set, the small thin ones the second.

Plant 4. Similar to 2, the larger leaves constitute the first set, the small thin ones the second. This plant has overtaken 2 in height and is now almost as tall as 1 is.

 

[rigobert]

@greenatik:

My nutes are Fox Farm Big Bloom. Light schedule right now is 16/8. Plants are about 2 inches away from the light (the tray is sitting on two big books in the box). I started with about 1/8th of the nute solution on 4/20 and upped to full dosage yesterday. Coir stays pretty moist, but not wet. It doesn't really dry out now that the water level is higher in the tray.

 

[greenatik]

Seeing that your using bloom nutes during the veg period I'd probably flip to flower right away(today). Expect them to triple in height by the time they are done stretching..

Looking good though!

 

[rigobert]

Cool, I was going to do it tomorrow, but that's a fine call, too.