Germinating in DWC

Islandgreen said:

by the way I like you little cloner.

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Thanks. Cheap lil setup. $1.50 for the quart bucket. Net pots, $0.44. 2' of air line, $0.43, Air stone $0.65. I had the air pump, and one bank of it is MORE than enough. You def don't need aeroponic nozzles, it bubbles like crazy and splashes up. Total besides pump, $3.02. I use the rest of the inventory for other projects I have in mind. I plan on some veggie gardening with the family this spring. I'm waiting on my General Organics Ancient Forest to come in to make an actual killer microbial tea.

The clones I pulled from Rockwool. I did have a dome and it was not going well, pulled em right out and rinsed them with my solution, and flushed the perlite with solution before adding to the pots. Not a perfect situation, the perlite is coarse but is falling in. I'm going to get some 1.5" net pots so I can put Rapid Rooters in. I think that is going to work good. The clones were in rockwool for a week and a half. Put em in the pots like 3-4 days ago I think. Two have roots working down toward the water, and the other two have some nub formation. Really cool. I want to get my temp down a little though. 68 is best and Im running about 72. I have some Reflectix insulation I was going to wrap the bucket in, and ph some water to keep in ice cube trays in my minifridge freezer. I need to test it though. I don't want to get the water too cold, but I don't want root rot either.

Islandgreen said:

Is your hole setup DWC or do you also do soil? That's a nice add on to your water mix for you baby's and it's a must with RO water.I myself changed over to DWC I love soil but gets to dirty. Here's my girls in my 5g of water.

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Oh Man, Nice.

I've got 4 in Sunshine #4 Advanced with 10% Grow!T Clay Pebbles, and a clay pebble drainage layer. I'm just toying with DWC. I am probably going to start slow and do two DWC buckets and see how it goes and keep going with my soilless, because I'm starting to figure that out. My dream is to drip system my soilless. The struggle is the chilling. I just hate to add more electricity and high cost. I've been toying with just putting a bunch of water in a trashcan and throwing 1 gal jugs of ice water in it, really simple in winter/cool weather. Insulating it. Putting a coil of 1/2" pex in it and recirculating it into a control bucket with a stainless steel wort chiller element in it. The circulation pump being run on a programmable thermostat set to turn on at 68 and turn off at 66. I mean, I could just put an element in each, but they are like 30 bucks each. I saw one for 19 and I tried to buy it and it didn't process, and then the price was higher. Cost wise it would be like maybe $150, but should be cheap to run. Could be a pain in the ass, but it won't add to ambient temps like a chiller, and would be a hell of a heat sink.

I'll probably get crap about size, but 3.5 gal, 3" net pot, thermometer, 4" air stone. Going to insulate it.

There's really no need to PH adjust water for seed starting or non rooted clones. Ph adjustment is done for nutrient availability. Seeds and clones only need water. Waters uptake isn't affected by PH. My quickest germ/ rooting rates have been with 50/50 RO/Tap with no PH adjustment, usually running around 7 ph. Once I see root bumps on clones, or the tap root throwing lateral roots, they go on weak nutes.

That is a sick setup underground I use 5gl buckets and a 6" air stone sitting on the bottom that I got from petco. What did you use to wrap it up?

Islandgreen said:

That is a sick setup underground I use 5gl buckets and a 6" air stone sitting on the bottom that I got from petco. What did you use to wrap it up?

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Reflectix from Lowes. $16.25 for a 16" wide x 25' Roll. 3' long piece wraps the bucket almost perfect.

Giberellic acid is only way just put some water into cup and add the correct amount of acid,stir well and leave for about 12 hours and they will germinate maybe even sand down seed before and even use some hydrogen peroxide to soak before acid.This method has been used to germinate ancient seeds by the Russians

Starting my Microbial Tea

I wonder if brewing this tea would be hindered by low temps? Setting on the floor it's running at 58. Maybe I should put a piece of foam under it?

mmajunkie100 said:

Giberellic acid is only way just put some water into cup and add the correct amount of acid,stir well and leave for about 12 hours and they will germinate maybe even sand down seed before and even use some hydrogen peroxide to soak before acid.This method has been used to germinate ancient seeds by the Russians

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Do you germ in the solution or soak then plant? Just ordered some.

Underground Scientist said:

Do you germ in the solution or soak then plant? Just ordered some.

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Yes make up the solution as directed on package instructions and then soak in that solution for about 12 hours but before maybe sand down a little bit. Hope it goes well.

Underground Scientist said:

I wonder if brewing this tea would be hindered by low temps? Setting on the floor it's running at 58. Maybe I should put a piece of foam under it?

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Put the foam under it. I think this is perfect. Now I'm adding 1 tsp of Extreme Gardening Mykos with the soil. RO water and 2 ml Golden Barrel Blackstrap Molasses, 2 ml GH Floraliscious Plus, and 2 ml AN B-52.