1st time grower seeking guidence.

Noober420 · Mar 7, 2015

Good Saturday morning everyone,

Now my next question. I just transferred my babies into the hydroton netpots (see pic). They are currently about 3-4 inches tall and appear kind of leggy (to me at least). Should I add any nutes at this point? Even a weak solution? Currently they are just getting water w/ a ph of 5.5. The coty leaves are still on and I am using a 63w CFL. My 200w has still not arrived and probably will not until next Wednesday or so.

Also, I have the auto water timer set to water 2x a day for 15 minutes (that's the smallest increments you can do), but there are 2 air stones adding air to the water, so air should not be an issue. I am, however concerned about over watering them since they are still so small.

Noober420 · Mar 9, 2015

Ok. 1 seedling has died, but based on what I have read, it was probably male. Evidently they grow leggy and fall over often, or so they say. At least, that's what I will tell myself to feel better about it.

1 of the other 2 looks very healthy and the 3rd is doing just ok.

Here's my question, I have added about a 25% nute solution to help stimulate root growth. However, the pH levels of my soup fluctuates wildly. If I set it down to 5.5 in the morning, it's back up to 7+ by the time I get home from work. Is this normal? I know you have to monitor it daily, but it's going to be difficult to keep it around 5.8 all the time with these wild swings while I am at work.

rnint · Mar 9, 2015

Noober420 said:
Ok. 1 seedling has died, but based on what I have read, it was probably male. Evidently they grow leggy and fall over often, or so they say. At least, that's what I will tell myself to feel better about it.

1 of the other 2 looks very healthy and the 3rd is doing just ok.

Here's my question, I have added about a 25% nute solution to help stimulate root growth. However, the pH levels of my soup fluctuates wildly. If I set it down to 5.5 in the morning, it's back up to 7+ by the time I get home from work. Is this normal? I know you have to monitor it daily, but it's going to be difficult to keep it around 5.8 all the time with these wild swings while I am at work.

I'm on my first grow too and I've noticed that having an air stone in my rez has meant that the ppm goes up slowly and the pH changes a little so I set mine on a timer for 2 hours before feeding to try and keep it down a bit, maybe try taking one of the airstones out and see what happens? although once again I'm still on my first grow so I'm by no means an expert at any of this just thought id mention it

Noober420 · Mar 9, 2015

It's worth a shot, rnint. I do have my air stones running 24/7. I have also read that, if the PPM of the nutes is very low, it could cause fluctuations in the pH level as well. I will try upping the nutes and putting the airstones on a timer and report back.

Noober420 · Mar 12, 2015

Good morning everyone. Here's my latest update and question.

We are about 2 weeks into veg, and the plant is still small (about 3 inches. See pic). I am pretty sure I am down to 1 plant now. You can see the 2nd one at the bottom of the pic, but after the stem bent just below the leaves, I think it's a goner. However, I will still try to keep it alive until it's brown and dead.

Here's the stats inside my grow box as of today:
Temp = 75f
Humidity=43%
Water temp=69f
PPM=325 - 350
pH=fluctuates between 5.5 and 6.1, but I try to keep it around 5.8
Grow lights=1 x 200w 2700k CFL and 1 x 65w 2700k CFL. I am waiting on a normal to mogul socket adapter and will swap out the 65w for a 65w 6500k cfl, as I have read this is better for the veg phase.

Question 1: I have my girls currently rooting in rockwool, but I do not see any roots protruding out of the rockwool cube yet. Up until today, I have been watering twice a day (morning and evening) using a drip directly into the rockwool cube for about 10-15 minutes until the cube is saturated. Just today I upped the schedule to 15 minutes every 3 hours. Is this too much water? There is also bubbleponics below the net pots, so the rockwool may be getting most at the bottom from that, but it should not be much. I would hate to over water my last seedling...

Question 2: Is 350ppm too much for the plants at this time? The 1 healthy plant seems to be nice and green so far.

Thanks for any input!

rnint · Mar 12, 2015

Noober420 said:
Good morning everyone. Here's my latest update and question.

We are about 2 weeks into veg, and the plant is still small (about 3 inches. See pic). I am pretty sure I am down to 1 plant now. You can see the 2nd one at the bottom of the pic, but after the stem bent just below the leaves, I think it's a goner. However, I will still try to keep it alive until it's brown and dead.

Here's the stats inside my grow box as of today:
Temp = 75f
Humidity=43%
Water temp=69f
PPM=325 - 350
pH=fluctuates between 5.5 and 6.1, but I try to keep it around 5.8
Grow lights=1 x 200w 2700k CFL and 1 x 65w 2700k CFL. I am waiting on a normal to mogul socket adapter and will swap out the 65w for a 65w 6500k cfl, as I have read this is better for the veg phase.

Question 1: I have my girls currently rooting in rockwool, but I do not see any roots protruding out of the rockwool cube yet. Up until today, I have been watering twice a day (morning and evening) using a drip directly into the rockwool cube for about 10-15 minutes until the cube is saturated. Just today I upped the schedule to 15 minutes every 3 hours. Is this too much water? There is also bubbleponics below the net pots, so the rockwool may be getting most at the bottom from that, but it should not be much. I would hate to over water my last seedling...

Question 2: Is 350ppm too much for the plants at this time? The 1 healthy plant seems to be nice and green so far.

Thanks for any input!

View attachment 3370256

hey man sorry to hear about your plant, but in an attempt to answer to your question I've been running mine at just about 400ppm since the end of the first week (which was about 2 weeks ago for me) so I don't think it'll be too much of a problem although one of my plants def did get damaged by it, I tried to attach a photo of mine to show you so you can see what I mean but my computer aint loving me at the moment but its under my first grow thing if your interested. Also though I have mine in coco/perlite and in much larger buckets than your little rock wool cubes, I've only been watering mine for about 6-7mins a day with a drip feeder and it seems to be going ok as far as I can tell so maybe try watering less(defs less than 15 minutes every 3 hours man that sound like a shit ton to me). I know coco and rock wool have different needs but I mean my coco feels dry as dust about 60% of the time. It was hard keeping the watering so little but i saw so many people with over watering problems and barely any under watering so I tried like 3 minutes a day to begin with and it was fine. Also just out of curiosity did you soak your rock wool first? I read a couple of things saying that you need to soak it for 24 hours before you plant to get rid of some of the residue from the factory or something. Apart from that I can't really help you cos I'm a noob too :???:

Good luck with your last seedling though!

Noober420 · Mar 12, 2015

Thanks for the info rnint. I read about the rockwool soaking as well, but only after I had started germinating my seedling, so I only ended up soaking it for a minute or 3 initially. I will know better next time.

I read somewhere that watering 15 min's every 3 hours was appropriate for rockwool, but that may have been for a more established plant.

I will keep my watering schedule to a minimum based on your feedback. It seems to be doing ok so far, so I won't mess with it since it's not broken.

rnint · Mar 12, 2015

Noober420 said:
Thanks for the info rnint. I read about the rockwool soaking as well, but only after I had started germinating my seedling, so I only ended up soaking it for a minute or 3 initially. I will know better next time.

I read somewhere that watering 15 min's every 3 hours was appropriate for rockwool, but that may have been for a more established plant.

I will keep my watering schedule to a minimum based on your feedback. It seems to be doing ok so far, so I won't mess with it since it's not broken.

theres a book that helped me a shit ton heres a link to the torrent, http://kickass.to/marijuana-horticulture-the-indoor-outdoor-medical-growers-bible-pdf-gooner-t8496946.html the quality isn't perfect but its free so eh if you want a better quality one pay for it, otherwise here and have fun reading. It goes though everything so its pretty long haha

ClymbRunFly · Mar 12, 2015

Noober420 said:
Thanks for the info rnint. I read about the rockwool soaking as well, but only after I had started germinating my seedling, so I only ended up soaking it for a minute or 3 initially. I will know better next time.

I read somewhere that watering 15 min's every 3 hours was appropriate for rockwool, but that may have been for a more established plant.

I will keep my watering schedule to a minimum based on your feedback. It seems to be doing ok so far, so I won't mess with it since it's not broken.

I want to echo why was recently said where I would water it less too. My first plant I just top fed once until the roots hit the reservoir.

Also, didn't see any note that you were using either a sterile or living res so keep an eye on those roots! I know some growers can get by without adding anything to keep off root rot but I couldn't.

Noober420 · Mar 12, 2015

Thanks Clymb. The Res is just purified water with the pH adjusted and the nutes. I will keep an eye on it and, if there is a problem, just add some tea.

Noober420 · Mar 17, 2015

Hello everyone,

I just got this 180w, full spectrum LED light. Do you think this is powerful enough for my grow box? It only has about 4 sq. ft of grow space.

The pic is from last night after I swapped out the CFL for the LED.

How far from the top of the plant should I hang the LED?

Thanks in advance.

http://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00FGFW0XO

rnint · Mar 17, 2015

Noober420 said:
Hello everyone,

I just got this 180w, full spectrum LED light. Do you think this is powerful enough for my grow box? It only has about 4 sq. ft of grow space.

The pic is from last night after I swapped out the CFL for the LED.

How far from the top of the plant should I hang the LED?

Thanks in advance.

http://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00FGFW0XO

dunno if its big enough but with LED's I'm pretty sure you can hang them as close to the plant as you like so id put it as close as possible. Looks awesome though man I wish I had LEDs

Noober420 · Mar 17, 2015

You should get one. $109 on Amazon. Pretty cheap compared to a lot of them. I will follow up with how it works vs. The 200w CFL.

rnint · Mar 17, 2015

eh i would if i could but first off I'm not in the states and second I'm saving for a snowboarding trip in a couple weeks so i gotta be cheap for a while :\ but yeah please do man cos I've got a 200W cfl at the moment for veg!

Noober420 · Mar 18, 2015

Hello again everyone,

I think I may have over watered my plant. Can anyone w/ experience take a look at this and verify or correct my assumption?

Thanks in advance!

Noober420 · Mar 19, 2015

Ok, the had been no improvement, but it had not gotten worse, as far as I can tell. I elevated the plant so that no water can bubble up into the rock wool last night. It's still damp to the touch thus morning and there had been no improvement. I dropped the reservoir this morning with just plain tap water that has been sitting for several days to see if a flush will help. The ppm is about 150 due to a little soup remaining in the tank.

Also, my LED is about 5 inches above the top of the plant. Is this to close?

The roots of the plant look good...nice and white. Still not sure what the problem is.

ClymbRunFly · Mar 19, 2015

Noober420 said:
Ok, the had been no improvement, but it had not gotten worse, as far as I can tell. I elevated the plant so that no water can bubble up into the rock wool last night. It's still damp to the touch thus morning and there had been no improvement. I dropped the reservoir this morning with just plain tap water that has been sitting for several days to see if a flush will help. The ppm is about 150 due to a little soup remaining in the tank.

Also, my LED is about 5 inches above the top of the plant. Is this to close?

The roots of the plant look good...nice and white. Still not sure what the problem is.
View attachment 3375511

The color of the leaves is hard to see from here but I don't see any yellowing so I would say your PPM is okay. From what I can see there's no burn.

If you can see the roots and they're reaching the water then I don't see any reason to topfeed anymore. Droopy leaves are usually overwatering I think.

In that picture it looks like light can get in to the reservoir. From what I understand that can be bad for the roots. In some of the other pictures it looks like the reservoir may be secure from any light getting in though.

I don't know about the LED! I've read it can bleach the plants. You could probably search around for "LED light distance" or "LED light distance from plant" if nobody answers here.

The plant looks good to me though. She's still growing day to day?

Good luck with your grow man :clap:

GrowUrOwnDank · Mar 19, 2015

Noober420 said:
Ok, the had been no improvement, but it had not gotten worse, as far as I can tell. I elevated the plant so that no water can bubble up into the rock wool last night. It's still damp to the touch thus morning and there had been no improvement. I dropped the reservoir this morning with just plain tap water that has been sitting for several days to see if a flush will help. The ppm is about 150 due to a little soup remaining in the tank.

Also, my LED is about 5 inches above the top of the plant. Is this to close?

The roots of the plant look good...nice and white. Still not sure what the problem is.
View attachment 3375511

Hey man. I see you have a nice setup but are struggling with hydro. I've done hydro before and was successful, but it was a pain in the ass chasing PH every single day. So many of us just do hempy.

I will suggest you consider reading up on HEMPY Bucket. It is a very simple, cheap and effect passive hydroponic method to grow. You only need a bucket with a whole drilled 2" from the bottom, enough perlite at 3 parts and vermiculite 1 part to plant in. Regular 5 gallon buckets work great. I feel this method will save you alof of headaches and stress.

Your plant looks ok and can be brought back. If you were to decide to go hempy you could just drop the whole net pot in it. Also you can use the same Nutes, just on the drain to waste recipe. Look up Lucas Formula while your at it. It makes hempy style growing almost fool proof.

This link gives a great description of the hempy bucket method.

http://www.cannabis.info/uk/library/2673-guide-to-hempy-buckets/

Good luck.

LetsGetCritical · Mar 19, 2015

GrowUrOwnDank said:
Hey man. I see you have a nice setup but are struggling with hydro. I've done hydro before and was successful, but it was a pain in the ass chasing PH every single day. So many of us just do hempy.

I will suggest you consider reading up on HEMPY Bucket. It is a very simple, cheap and effect passive hydroponic method to grow. You only need a bucket with a whole drilled 2" from the bottom, enough perlite at 3 parts and vermiculite 1 part to plant in. Regular 5 gallon buckets work great. I feel this method will save you alof of headaches and stress.

Your plant looks ok and can be brought back. If you were to decide to go hempy you could just drop the whole net pot in it. Also you can use the same Nutes, just on the drain to waste recipe. Look up Lucas Formula while your at it. It makes hempy style growing almost fool proof.

This link gives a great description of the hempy bucket method.

http://www.cannabis.info/uk/library/2673-guide-to-hempy-buckets/

Good luck.

yep you have to keep ph at exactly 5.80 at all times lol

1st time grower seeking guidence.

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