First try w/o soil...Waterfarm with bubbles

After hours and hours of reading here on RIU I came to the conclusion bubbleponics is the way to go. I give most of the credit to Roseman and his incredibly detailed posts about growing this way. His threads gave me the confidence to give this a shot.

I was leaning toward a Stealth Hydro starter kit or piecing one together since I have all the lights I need (minus the MH). My local hydro shop had this Waterfarm for a great deal so I picked it up for my first hydro endeavour.

Went to Petsmart and bought an air pump and air strip. Pocked a hole in the side for the hose.



Bubbles!



Germinated 2 seeds I got from a buddy from a hermed plant in his grow, can't think of the name but it was from a cannibus club clone. In the third rockwool is a feminized AK 48 from Nirvana (great place to buy from) that split after a day and a half into germination.





The little girl in the middle is another AK from Nirvana that I germed and put in soil but started off a little retarded so we will see what happens. I think she was in soil for a couple off weeks, roots are very short still so I rinsed them off good.

For now I have 6 23w 6500k for lights.

That leads me to my first question. Is that good enough until these girls get a little bigger?

Next one is...I am running the air pump for the drip one hour on then one hour off per instructions from GH. Is that the best way to run it?

Also spent too much at the hydro shop today and bought a sweet digital PH meter. Super stoked about it!

I know I need help so please give me any input. As far as nutes I am following Rosemans instructions for feeding.

nice! i'm subbed for that.

be careful not to overwater the rockwool in this stage.

I think everything you're doing is great so far. I can't wait to see some sprouts. Subbed.

Thanks! I will be sure to keep things updated with pics.

I can't wait to see sprouts either!

phreakygoat, what do you mean by over watering the rockwool? Should it dry out occasionally?

It shouldn't dry out completely until the roots are established in the water. Your schedule of 1 hour on, 1 hour off should be perfect, but keep an eye on the moisture level too. The rockwool should be moist to wet but never soggy if you catch my drift.

i agree not to let it dry completely, but the less water the more air the quicker roots can form. if by each watering the bottom of the cube is moist and the top is dry-ish, i think thats optimum at this early stage.

Oh I'm getting excited! Came home from work and a sprout from one of the unknown seed!

This is the first one that germinated, wish I would have taken a pic it only had a little nub of a root coming out when I put it in the cube. That was 2 days ago!

The AK and the other unknown seed went in yesterday before my original post, I can see them getting close to the top.



Thanks for the advice guys I moved the cubes in a little so they don't get soggy, they are really wet. I'm thinking of hanging something on the drip circle holes so the water trickles down, there is a lot of "splash" off of the hydroton.

My other thought now is to make another res for the unknown seeds with two mesh pots. I'm worried if one or both turn male its going to be a pain in the ass mess to remove them at that stage of growth.

Anyway that's where I'm at right now, super stoked to see the sprout! Time for a celebration bowl

Hopefully I will posting pics of two more sprouts tomorrow!

Lt Shiny Sides, I looked through your whole thread. Very nice grow, very nice! Those colas look great, good job.

yarddog35 said:

Lt Shiny Sides, I looked through your whole thread. Very nice grow, very nice! Those colas look great, good job.

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Thank so much man! I really appreciate it. Congrats on the sprout!

sprout looks super healthy.... and he's off!

The sprout is looking good. I used some black zip ties to flow the water to the media to prevent "splashing". Seems to be working like I thought it would keeping the leaves of the sprout dry.



Cant believe I forgot about the third seed from the the unknown germinating. This is what I found



sprouted in the paper towel, its in a cube now



Working on a separate res for the known AK 48 female, will post up tomorrow when I'm finished with it

Things are going about as good as I could ask for. Moved the AK 48 to its own dwc system that I built. Here is the thread to it:

https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/285111-my-diy-dwc-system-ak.html

And a pic of her as of tonight. She was planted on 12/16! 4 days ago she was a split seed!



As for the other 3 in the Waterfarm



This plant is strong, growing super fast. It was planted on 12/15, 5 days ago!



A little overview of the closet. I need to build an 8" platform for the ak box to get it as high as the Waterfarm



I'm really excited about this grow, can't wait to start seeing roots popping out.

Today is a good day, went and picked up some Grand Daddy Purps from a buddy. Came home and got to work...tonight is a complete water change with nutes.

My AK 48, she is now 10 days old from split seed.

ROOTS!



Really excited to see roots, now they are really soaking up that bubbly water.

And a top view of her



Her clean res with fresh water and 1/4 nutes





On to the other plant (hopefully she...)

I named this one JK today. First thing I really thought after watching it grow like crazy is its a "freak". Then of course I thought of Jevon Kearse. So "she" (fingers crossed) is JK



Only 11 days old from split seed, I love it.

Bought one of those ceramic air strips today from Petsmart. It put's out a really good amount of fine bubbles.

Bubbles in fresh water with 1/4 strength nutes



That's all I have to report for now. Loving the growth rate!

Here we are 14 days into the AK 48 from seed and 15 days from seed for JK

The AK's roots are really growing



And a top view of the lady



As for JK, she (hopefully) found the bottom of that big ass bucket lol



And a top view of JK



The leaves are really broad on this one

Been checking PH everyday, the waterfarm rises in PH everyday almost to 7. The diy tub get up to about 6.7. No big deal though I just adjust and its good.

Thinking of building a flower box for my closet. I really like those grow tents but for almost a $100 I don't know.

Also concerned about res temps when it comes time for the HID. Oh well I will cross that bridge when I come to it...

i just got my waterfarm. ive been reading posts on here but....when should i start adding nuts? and what should my levels be(ph,ppm,etc.)or be close to? also. how long should I leave the drip on? does the water in the res has to stay circulating? im so confused. i wish some would could just tell me how to start. how often do i clean/change the res/nut solution? anything would really help. Thank you.

nice looking roots. good job!

tblazeallday said:

i just got my waterfarm. ive been reading posts on here but....when should i start adding nuts? and what should my levels be(ph,ppm,etc.)or be close to? also. how long should I leave the drip on? does the water in the res has to stay circulating? im so confused. i wish some would could just tell me how to start. how often do i clean/change the res/nut solution? anything would really help. Thank you.

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At seedling you want almost constant flow, never let the rockwool (or whatever your using) get dry. Right now I'm running it 30min every two hours as my roots are finally hitting the water. Once I have more roots in the water I will set flow for just a couple times a day.

You want to try and stay between 5.8-6.2 for PH.

Posted by another member about nutes:

"day 1-7 - Nothing but PH water.
Day 7-14 - Either just PH'd water or 1/4 strength.
14-28 - Here is when you increase by how your plant reacts. Keep it slow, and add more weekly to get your plant accustom to the higher level of nutrients."

I do a water change and res cleaning every four days, some will say you can longer but I like everything nice and clean.

You want to put bubbles in your res too. When those roots hit the water they will need as much oxygen as they can get.

Good luck

Thought I should give a little update, a lot has changed in the last 17 days.

I chopped the plant in the waterfarm so its just my AK 48 in the DIY tub.

So she is 30 days from seed today, these pics were taken two days ago.











She is 4 days into flower

Hurry up and wait!!