Need advice with clones straight to DWC

Hey ya'll. I just started my first grow last week and would like a little feedback. I'm doing DWC in 5 gallon buckets with an airstone in each. I picked up 4 clones in cubes from a dispensary that contained roots within the cubes but none actually poking out from them. I filled up the net pots 2" heigh with grow rocks, set the clones/cubes on top of them, and filled the water up so the airstone's bubbles are popping right at the bottom of the rockwool's level. I then covered the net pot with a reflective material so the light doesn't reach the water. It has been 5 days and the clones look healthy, but little to no growth from them (including their roots). Is there a faster way to get these girls to grow their roots faster so they dive into the water below? Is my water level okay? I've heard mixed feedback for others in this situation.

A little more background:

Light is a 600w MH @ 50% 30" above the plants
Misted tupperware over each plant as a dome
Temp: 70°
Humidity: 57%
Water temp: 65°
PPM: 225 (tap water + very little ultimate thrive from SuperNatural nutrients)
pH: 7.9

ur ph is 7.9!!!!

get them some nutes if they have roots they need nutes, and get you ph lvl down to 5.5 to 5.8, and dont do the nutes full strength

and take some pics, i would probably take the domes off

just my 2 cents

From what you've written there is a possibility that the cuts were not rooted enough to warrant a 600w light (dimmed or not). At this stage I would be using a 125w cfl 3' above and off to the side ( indirect lighting) to prevent foliage growth (which would make the cuts concentrate on root growth). From your description , these cuts do not have enough roots yet to warrant plenty of light . If you starve them of light for just a few more days the roots will really pop.

Your ppm is correct (I usually recommend around .4-.5 ec once the rooting begins (which seems to be the stage the cuttings were in from the time they were acquired). No need to adjust pH to the 5's yet( not enough ppm yet , you will probably cause wild swings which will stunt root growth , do more harm then good) but because your pH is kind of high I will suggest putting just enough pH down to get to 7.0.

Me personally, I have 7.2 at the tap with low ppm so I do not adjust at all in this stage until they show hints of accelerated growth and then I will raise it from .4. ec to .8 @ pH 6 and I will then put the light directly overhead and instead of 3' away (and off to the side) I will go 2 feet above (so that my lux meter reads about 3500 fc when the sensor is aligned with the center of the arc tube but at the same height as the cuts).

Once I have the 3rd set of true leaves (you should have a nice but little root mass by this time) I take the water to 1.0 ec @ pH 5.7 and I change the light to a 400 watt Hortilux Blue MH 40" away. Ill keep em there for another month and depending on the strain I might need to raise that light a bit after a few weeks at that intensity or I might even put that light 6" closer to begin with.

This is what I do with my dwc/bubble cloners. Just an example.

That ph advice is sooooooooo wrong. At 7.0 it would be like there were no nutes in the water because they would be completely locked out. Get it to 5.6-5.8 so they can actually use the nutes. Not gonna argue with you, i know ph and if u follow that advice you will not make it.

There's a reason why pH adjustment is usually not necessary at low ppm. Not going to argue it because you obviously don't understand how buffers work and balance out. I've always had an issue or two when I tried to adjust pH at low ppm but always had abundant success when I let my nearly pH neutral and 200 ppm (.4 ec) water do the job for rooting cuts. Never took more than 11 days for me with this method but it always took a little longer (about 16 days) when I was adjusting too much too soon. Like I said, just an example.

superstoner1 said:

That ph advice is sooooooooo wrong. At 7.0 it would be like there were no nutes in the water because they would be completely locked out. Get it to 5.6-5.8 so they can actually use the nutes. Not gonna argue with you, i know ph and if u follow that advice you will not make it.

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He doesn't have roots popping out past the pebbles yet. You want to trick the plant into thinking there are no nutes at this point because you don't want foliage growth yet. Yet you do want a little ppm just to keep the water quality parameters stable.

First thing is this, when u are rooting cuttings they have no roots so they can not uptake nutes. Water is all that is needed and then adjusting ph is a waste because ph affects nute uptake VIA the roots and with no roots it doesnt matter. I have cloned well over 2000 plants in the last few years and only lost one due to a misplaced spray head. When plants grow roots and move to veg stage they need almost all of the elements available in the ph range 5.6-5.8 and hardly nothing over 6.0. In early flower they need more balanced meals provided at 5.8-5.9. And in late flower they need almost none of what is available below 5.8 and 6.0-6.1 provides perfectly at that stage. Anything over 6.3 in hydro will lock out the plants ability to uptake any nutes. This is scientifically proven, not just bullshit. And really, who feeds anything 200ppm? Not even my new strains start that low.

Water quality parameters? Roflmao. If water is all they need then that is all they need. Actually adding nutes when trying to grow roots will slow them down.

We actually agree with each other. You misunderstood that I was telling him what to do to get roots and extra advice on what to do after. Yes, you want water quality even when going for roots. The 200 ppm wards off bacterial growth. I gave advice on how to get roots (in concurrence with what you wrote except that going to 5 ish pH at low ppm is where we differ) and the advice on nutes is what I would do after the roots develop. . It has worked very (read:extremely 100%) for me and I also noted that it was just an example. Meaning there are so many ways to skin a cat, so I never said that your method (whatever it may be) wouldn't work. So do not say that my method of not pH ing until later is wrong . Because it does indeed work. I run 18 kW. How am I gonna use a method that isn't consistently working? I'd be out of business.I do it this way and you do it that way. Either way works.

superstoner1 said:

Water quality parameters? Roflmao. If water is all they need then that is all they need. Actually adding nutes when trying to grow roots will slow them down.

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If you have no nutes at all in the water with cuttings that were bought with some roots already grown you need some nutes because you don't want to leach them but at the same time you want the pH neutral because you don't want the cuts to absorb nutes either.

I appreciate all the help you guys, I'm off to the store now!

what nutes did you get? and what did you get to fix your ph, 7 is retarded. i have done dirt and coco and i didnt even do their ph that high, and even if you arent adding nutes you still need to ph correct your water.

I ended up getting some pH down and adjusting it to 5.8 because that's the number I see all too often with DWC. Then I wired together a light fixture, screwed on a splitter, popped 2 CFLs in there, attached a quick DIY reflector, and lowered it within 8" of the girls. Finally, I pulled out the clones in their rockwool, omitted the grow rocks, and placed the girls back in the net pot with a reflective disk over the top. In addition I pulled down the water level to an inch below the net pot because the roots were growing within the rockwool and couple out the sides (and one or two roots out the top), but none downwards, so I felt like they were gasping for air.

Since the HID isn't being used at the moment, the temps dropped to about 60-65, which I felt was too low. I borrowed a mini space heater from a friend which brought it back up to a cozy 78, but it dries the air to 37%. So then I picked up a small humidifier for $16 this afternoon and its now at 50%. After all of this, the girls seem to be growing a bit. Slowly but surely.