hyroot - how do you get your coco? I've found an 11 lb compressed block that I think is probably the best deal going. I ran hempy buckets with 50/50 sphagnum and perlite, and moved on to coco after learning about it. I now use cloth Geopots with the 50/50 coco/perlite mix, and I clone and sprout in the same mixture. I just prepare it differently. It's nice because it's neutral and NO BUGS come in it!
I have been watching, because that hydro kit I just ordered comes with the hydroton rocks, and I hadn't worked with the cubes before. I think I'm going to continue using my mix for cloning or sprouting, rinse the roots, and trasplant into the rocks as seedlings. That shouldn't shock them too much, ya think?Thanks, Mr Dawg! I'll try to flush the cubes for a while tonight. Maybe that will help. Next time I might plant my seeds in the Perlite as soon as they pop open. But those Rapid Rooter plugs sound interesting, too. Do you know what they're made of? They look like foam rubber or something.
I don't understand why people still use Rockwool with all the problems. The manufacturer should neutralize them before shipping them out. I'll never buy them again!
I get brick /bale of coco tek from the hydro shop.$10. Expands to almost 3 cu ft. I have a Rubbermaid with holes on the bottom. I place the brick in there and run water over the brick. It expands and breaks up. I continue to run water until the runoff water turns clear. By then all the salts have been rinsed out.
made from tree bark
Hey greatbranch, I was just thinking... You can use Rapid Rooters to grow your seedlings in and just plop each one into a net basket and surround it with Hydroton. The Rapid Rooter should hold together and won't drop pieces in your res like the Peat pots did to me. At least they look like they won't fall apart. Just a suggestion... I think that might work pretty well.
I appreciate it. You know I had been looking already
. I will be ordering some in the near future.Now that you dropped seeds, they will turn around and surprise you. It's what happens to me...The Twins looked pretty bad today, so I'm not too hopeful that they'll survive.
SO....... I'm going to sprout 2 new seeds:
Those are the 2 free seeds I got from Barney's in my last order. They both have similar flowering times that are pretty short, just under 60 days. I grew the Critical Kush last time, not very successfully. The thick foliage gave me some problems growing it, but mainly I just made some nute-lockout mistakes that I think I can avoid this time. I never tried the Chronic Thunder, so I'm eager to find out how this girl will grow for me.
- Critical Kush and
- Chronic Thunder.
I definitely will go beyond my original schedule, but screw it!
︎ Teeny’s leaves were getting pale. This is her today after fixing things.
I gotta admit, Dave. I am getting awfully nervous about venturing into hydro. Pumps...power outages...I am figuring out that I have to have a disaster plan. Lots of guys run redundant air pumps in case of a pump failure. Thinking maybe I should invest in one. More air will just be a good thing, I think. Any idea how long plants can stay in stagnant water before death? I guess during a power outage, I can pull the res,so the roots are in the air, and hand feed until the power comes back on, but worried what happens if I am not home?...these are the nightmares you guys have...well, maybe not you...you have a bit of a hybrid thing going on there that gives you a little bit of a buffer - I never really paid any attention to the differences or their reasoning before.My new seeds just popped open a day or 2 ago:
But I discovered a problem in my hydro system late last night, just before the lights went out. Both water pumps stopped working sometime, probably yesterday, but I’m not sure. So I’ve been hand-watering Teeny every now and then until I got a chance to pull the pump out and look at it. I think it was only because it was tipped nose down and the water level got too low. So I put it back in the res on its side and crossed my fingers.
Here’s what gave me a clue that something was amiss:
Besides fixing the pump, I set up the Area 51 light for Teeny, rather than that hot Inda-Gro light, while her future neighbors are still in between paper towels:
It’s a lot cooler in the closet now:
Right now she's getting a flush with plain water, pH lowered to about 5.75. Tomorrow she'll get fresh nutes.
