Thanks for the feedback everyone. My little deepblue wF girl looks nute deficent as of this morning. She getting a bit more yellow so im going to up the nutes tonite.
thanks bluzey for taking time answer GG49s questions and concerns. YOu do a lovely job explaining everything. much better than i could. and i always learn a great deal from you as well.
Hey, its the least I can do for all I've learned on this site! I'm glad to know that my comments are helpful.
does anyone think i should be concerned about my large rockwool cube babys sitting in that little white plastic dish. The bottom of the rockwool is always pretty moist. I was thinking getting some pebbles to set the rockwool up on , do you think that might be a good idea or just overkill?
You might consider getting a few small rectangle pots slightly larger than the rockwool, put a layer of rocks or hydroton on the bottom of the pot, then fit the rockwool on top. If you do that, I would remove the polyfilm from the outside. My grow store carries the perfect pots for 59¢ each. If you look at my recent pics (in my journal) of the clones, you'll see them in those little 4" rectangle pots.
At this stage, I certainly wouldn't try to remove them. I had one bad experience with roots getting torn and I will not risk that again. I *might* have saved my VK, but I still can't be sure, and I've lost an entire month of vegging for my mistake.
As for seed germination, here's what I do. I use the small (1.5" square) rockwool cubes.
1. Prepare a gallon of water for use with the seedlings that is pH'd to 6.0 and contains 1/4 strength nutes.
2. Soak the rockwool cubes (without the plastic film) for about 15 minutes in a little of the solution from step 1.
3. Remove the cube from the water, squeeze it gently (so as to not completely wreck the square shape) to get most of the water out.
4. Gently place the seed into the rockwool, pointy side down.
5. Pinch a small corner off the cube and use that little pinch to cover the seed
6. Set the cube on a saucer and put it under lights. I put mine in the room with my grow lights, but further away so it is not right under strong light
7. Wait patiently until the little seedling pops out! For me, it has consistently been 2 days.
I have 100% germination success so far with this method (okay, so I've only germinated 4 seeds, but they all germinated!)
My clone process is very similar and I use the same small cubes:
1. Prepare a gallon of water for use with the clones that is pH'd to 6.0 and contains 1/4 strength nutes.
2. Soak the rockwool cubes (without the plastic film) for about 15 minutes in a little of the solution from step 1.
3. Remove the cube from the water, squeeze it gently (so as to not completely wreck the square shape) to get most of the water out.
Here's where the steps differ:
4. Turn the cube upside down so that the seed indentation is on the bottom.
5. Take a toothpick and poke a hole in the wet cube, just off center and about 2/3 the way through the cube.
6. Rotate the toothpick a little to make sure the hole is as big as your stem, but no bigger.
7. Take your cutting and slice the stem at a 45 degree angle
8. Dip the cutting stem into Clonex (or other rooting compound)
8. Stick the stem down into the hole you just created. Pinch the cube a little to make sure the stem is stable
6. Set the cube on a saucer and put it under lights. I put mine in the room with my grow lights, but further away so it is not right under strong light.
Again, I have had really good success with this method. I've had 15 clones, and successfully rooted 14 of them. The 15th might have eventually rooted, but I didn't have time nor energy to wait for it and I really didn't care because I had more plants than I needed anyway. If that one took that long to root, it was probably not going to be a strong plant anyway.
Once my clones/seedlings are ready for the big game, I just plant the rockwool cube where ever I intend to grow the plant, be it soil or hydro. If it goes in soil, I just plant the whole thing, and cover the rockwool with soil and forget about it...same with hydro, just cover it up with hydroton and go for it.!
so I need to get a few moms going and save the big yields for the carport for spring. Maybe after awhile i can get crafty and do some wild pictures lol, love what ya do ...as they say you go girl
today was a good day
Amber, how old are the plants in the pictures. How many days since the tap root emerged from the seed? When I did my seed, I put the small rock wool cube in a home made cloner, bubbler, until the roots showed good long growth into the nutes in the cloner. The pic with the roots showing and nice leaves is at day 9.
