DWC Northern Lights

I'm a first time grower so all help will be greatly appreciated. I've made a custom DWC Hydro system. here's a pic:



This needs some explanation. The cardboard base is actually 3 layers of cardboard with the crossing grains for strength. Underneath is a layer of styrofoam for buoyancy. I have extra styrofoam for later use, when the ladies get bigger/heavier.

I'm using Technaflora's B.C; nutes, a Dolphin three star air pump; a small desk fan and a number of computer fans for air circulation. For lights i have a 250w Sunleaves light that is designed to switch between MH and HPS. So all i'll have to do is switch the bulb.

I ordered a bag of Northern Light seeds from Nirvana, but i'm only gonna use 4 per cycle. My first attempt germination attempt ended in complete failure. I did the wet paper towel method and got not one of them popped after 12 days of waiting. The second batch i put in a cup of water for about 24 hours and then moved them over to the wet paper towel. It's been a little over 36 hours one sprouted so i put her in the rockwool and started the 18/6 light cycle. Of the remaining 3, one showed signed of sprouting so hopefully she'll be out by the morning and the other 2 are still dormant.

well that's all for now.

good shit man, looking into flood and drain myslef i will keep a close eye on this one, i'm in the learning stage now. Good luck juice hope all goes well....how often are you going to flood?

Hey! what are those rockwool cubes doing in the middle? Don't let them congregate!

I'm working on some NL as well. I have my good eye on you!

Cheers!

mo201320 said:

good shit man, looking into flood and drain myslef i will keep a close eye on this one, i'm in the learning stage now. Good luck juice hope all goes well....how often are you going to flood?

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It's not a flood and drain system. It's a Deep water culture system or a water culture system. That platform with the pots is floating in the reservoir. Ok well in the picture it's sitting ontop of some coke cans but right now it's floating.

Kant said:

It's not a flood and drain system. It's a Deep water culture system or a water culture system. That platform with the pots is floating in the reservoir. Ok well in the picture it's sitting ontop of some coke cans but right now it's floating.

Click to expand...

sorry got a little mixed up i hear its a lot of upkeep though changing nutes and balancing EC and PH, how has it been going for you?

well it's been about 3 days now or so and still no change. I'm getting an annoying feeling of deja vu. I've got them wrapped in a wet paper towel and plastic wrap. that whole bundle is in a altoids box that's sitting on my computer. Is there any reason why my seeds aren't germinating? *sigh*

mo201320 said:

sorry got a little mixed up i hear its a lot of upkeep though changing nutes and balancing EC and PH, how has it been going for you?

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well for changing nuts i plan to lift the platform just enough to rest it on the edges of the reservoir by twisting it so it doesn't align. then i have an extra pump that i can just pump out the res in to some bucket then dump and then mix the new water in the res. As for the EC i can easily add nutes or fresh water depending on whether it's high or low.

PH might be a problem since i cringe at the idea of adding chemicals, that aren't specifically designed to help the plant grow, to the res. Of all the reviews and descriptions i've read for ph adjusters, the only thing they talk about is how effective this product is at adjusting ph levels. there's never really any mention of side effects. While i'm sure they're perfectly safe, there's just something about this lack of info that doesn't sit right with me. So for now if my ph is on the acidic side i'll just add fresh water to neutralize it, and if it's too far on the neutral side i'll add fresh lemon juice or something similar.

that's assuming my seeds ever germ.

Could have saved time money and hassle by going out and buying a 4 dollar rubbermaid container with a lid.Then just cut holes for the net pots put the pump in and bubble awy or put misters in and aeroponic away.Youll want the part where the roots will be to be dark as light on the roots is bad and promotes algae and fungus

FilthyFletch said:

Could have saved time money and hassle by going out and buying a 4 dollar rubbermaid container with a lid.Then just cut holes for the net pots put the pump in and bubble awy or put misters in and aeroponic away.Youll want the part where the roots will be to be dark as light on the roots is bad and promotes algae and fungus

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I thought about rubbermaids but they're too tall. the amount of water (and subsequently nutes) needed to fill it to reach the roots would have been an unnecessary waste. That and i needed something that would maximize my limited space.

As for the spare pump, it doesn't have a air tube so it wouldn't aerate res water. it was just there as a backup pump in case my main pump for my aquarium crapped out on me.

kant,
how did you germ your seeds, i used a simple moist towel and let that sit for 3 days and i got all of my sprouted but i put them in soil not rockwool, i'm just wondering because my next gig will be flood and drain and i will need to use rockwool. thnx

mo201320 said:

kant,
how did you germ your seeds, i used a simple moist towel and let that sit for 3 days and i got all of my sprouted but i put them in soil not rockwool, i'm just wondering because my next gig will be flood and drain and i will need to use rockwool. thnx

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it's been a while sorry bout that guys. Well i'm about ready to declare this next batch dead since it's been about 6 days now, and not one of the remaining three sprouted. also the one that had sprouted hasn't popped up. this is really getting frustrating. as i am now 0 for 8 on germ attempts and getting kinda desperate, i've ordered giberellic acid and go that route.

https://www.rollitup.org/indoor-growing/12376-germination-problems.html
this thread explores some interesting ideas mo201320. it's were i got the giberellic acid idea from. if that doesn't work maybe it's just not meant to be.

Dude I just today bought a 2, 14 gallon rubbermaid containers. Had them both cut and built within a half hour. I am using the foxfarm line and when I filled them little buggers today it didn't even make a dent in my nutrient supply. I NEVER had to use anything to make seeds open up. Just use a wet paper towel and a sandwhich baggie. Never gave it no heat or anything....just put it in the cupboard and in a matter of 2-3 days all of them sprout.

So i realized that the place i ordered the gibberellic acid from is in canada, which means it's gonna take like a week or more to get here. In light of this new information i decided to try my remaining two seeds. They're wrapped in a wet paper towel in a plastic bag that i blew into so there was plenty of oxygen (may have been one of my problems) and placed in my closet, away from excessive heat (also may have been one of my problems).

Where did you get your seeds from?

i got them from Nirvana

kant.....i got my seeds also from nirvana (NL)

3 days and no sign of sprouting (10 seeds)

did your seeds look premature (light in color and no tiger stripes)

i have papayas (10 seeds) all sprouted 48hrs

Cool setup kant.
I will be watching as I am getting ready to start something simmilar in a rubermaid with out a float platform.

I was thinking of setting something in there to take up space so less water and nutes would be needed.
My box is approx 1 1/2' x 2 1/2' x 3'/
My planters will only go about a quarter of the way into the height from the top.

Also that clear box should be covered with some sort of light proofing.
Roots do not like light.

Happy growing

BIGMIKE13 said:

kant.....i got my seeds also from nirvana (NL)

3 days and no sign of sprouting (10 seeds)

did your seeds look premature (light in color and no tiger stripes)

i have papayas (10 seeds) all sprouted 48hrs

Click to expand...

yeah i'm starting to think that nirvana gave me a bad batch of seeds. most of my seeds were light in color, but the first four i tried were all dark and they didn't sprout. I tried soaking a few of the light ones in water for 24 hours and they all floated. i was told that is a good sign but still nothing. I'm down to my last two they're both floating in water...it's been about 4 days.

when my gibberellic acid gets here i'm just gonna toss all the seeds in a mixture of that and hope for the best. If they don't sprout in a 2-3 days after that i'm giving up until after august. in mid august i'll be out of my apartment for like 2 weeks, i was hoping to have them harvested by them but at this rate i don't think they'd be even close.

thx midgrade, yeah i realized that after i took the pic so it's since been covered with cardboard

aww man good luck with those seeds.
Don't chunk em.
keep em wet dark and slightly warm.
It may take longer than expected to germ them

my gibberellic acid arrived today. the problem is i'm going out of town in a tomorrow morning and i'll be out until thursday night. Assuming it takes another day or so to germinate do you think the seeds will be ok if they sprout and then sit in the solution for another day and a half?

BIGMIKE13 said:

kant.....i got my seeds also from nirvana (NL)

3 days and no sign of sprouting (10 seeds)

did your seeds look premature (light in color and no tiger stripes)

i have papayas (10 seeds) all sprouted 48hrs

Click to expand...

All the seeds I got from them looked good. All 8 of them sprouted, 1 looks kind of stupid. It's only grown the starter set of leaves (sproutling leaves the round ones) and no fan leaves. This might have been my mistake though.