Dave's Area 51/Inda-gro combination grow

daveroller

Well-Known Member
I have a backup generator that runs on gasoline that's 3000 watts. That would power my grow room plus refrigerator with more watts to spare. But if I kept it running outside at night, my neighbors would get pissed because it's pretty loud. I think that brother Dawg makes a good point. I'm guessing that it would take a bunch of batteries to get your grow room through a power outage that lasts long enough to do any damage.
 

daveroller

Well-Known Member
Ignore that last link to the eBay listing... I had to change it to a fixed price because of a stupid eBay rule that the "Buy it Now" option disappears when someone bids 99¢!

So now it's a fixed price of $525 with an option to "Make an Offer". (Just between you & me, I'll definitely take $495.)
Here's the new link:

 

daveroller

Well-Known Member
Both seeds popped, so I put them in Rapid Rooters. One of them actually grew completely out of its shell and sent down a tap root about 2” through the paper towels. That’s a vigorous grower! The other seed, which I put in the paper towel a day after the first one, cracked open, but had only about a 1/4” root sticking out.

Just set them in the grow room today on top of a heat mat:



Yesterday I poured about 5 ml of Advanced Nutrients Voodoo Juice on each of them. It promotes root growth.



There’s about 1/4” of water in the bottom of the tray. I hope these babies both survive.



Edit: I wonder if they need the heat mat when the grow room temp is 80°...?
 

greatbranch

Well-Known Member
Both seeds popped, so I put them in Rapid Rooters. One of them actually grew completely out of its shell and sent down a tap root about 2” through the paper towels. That’s a vigorous grower! The other seed, which I put in the paper towel a day after the first one, cracked open, but had only about a 1/4” root sticking out.

Just set them in the grow room today on top of a heat mat:


Yesterday I poured about 5 ml of Advanced Nutrients Voodoo Juice on each of them. It promotes root growth.


There’s about 1/4” of water in the bottom of the tray. I hope these babies both survive.


Edit: I wonder if they need the heat mat when the grow room temp is 80°...?
I was hoping you would just try planting the seeds in a Rapid Rooter after soaking them for 24hrs, so I would see if it would work...lol. This looks like a job for...bag seed...lol.
 

daveroller

Well-Known Member
I was hoping you would just try planting the seeds in a Rapid Rooter after soaking them for 24hrs, so I would see if it would work...lol. This looks like a job for...bag seed...lol.

Good idea... You can be the Guinnea pig and I'll watch! lol

I usually soak for roughly 8 hours in a glass of water, after scratching the shell slightly with sand paper. (Got the idea from Cervantes' book.) Then I put them between paper towels on a dinner plate with a heat mat behind it. Then watch carefully to make sure the paper towels don't dry out completely, adding water as needed. They pop open pretty reliably for me that way. I have the dinner plate standing upright so that the seedling sends the root down and its head goes up. I put it all inside of one of my empty res containers so that it catches the runoff water.

>> It would be nice if I could just put the seeds directly in the Rapid Rooters and not fuss over them so much!
 

greatbranch

Well-Known Member
Good idea... You can be the Guinnea pig and I'll watch! lol

I usually soak for roughly 8 hours in a glass of water, after scratching the shell slightly with sand paper. (Got the idea from Cervantes' book.) Then I put them between paper towels on a dinner plate with a heat mat behind it. Then watch carefully to make sure the paper towels don't dry out completely, adding water as needed. They pop open pretty reliably for me that way. I have the dinner plate standing upright so that the seedling sends the root down and its head goes up. I put it all inside of one of my empty res containers so that it catches the runoff water.

>> It would be nice if I could just put the seeds directly in the Rapid Rooters and not fuss over them so much!
I soak my seeds for 24 hours in a shot glass of water, then plant them directly into a cup about 1/4 of an inch down in a coco/perlite mix. They are usually up and running in about 3 days. I'm going to try the same thing, but use the Rapid Rooters in the top of a cup. I asked about the scarification of seeds some time ago, and nobody knew what the hell I was talking about...lol Had some trouble getting Blue Thai seeds to germinate, and wondered if they were one of THOSE that did better with the sandpaper trick. I have since just thought I'm cursed to not ever grow anything with the word "blue" in it... I have only ever had issues with those...lol
 

daveroller

Well-Known Member
I guess the downside to sprouting the seeds before planting them is that the root can get too long to fit into the Rapid Rooter. And it's easy to break a fragile little sprout while trying to stuff it into something. So I hope your experiment works. :fire:
 

greatbranch

Well-Known Member
I guess the downside to sprouting the seeds before planting them is that the root can get too long to fit into the Rapid Rooter. And it's easy to break a fragile little sprout while trying to stuff it into something. So I hope your experiment works. :fire:
I just dropped a bag seed in the water now, we will have our answer in a few days, or I will repeat.
 

daveroller

Well-Known Member
I just dropped 3 old seeds I've been holding onto for 3 years, directly into the Rapid Rooters. Details later...
 

daveroller

Well-Known Member
Teeny’s growing like a monster now!



And her node spacing is nice and tight. The leaves in the middle really grew fast in the last 4 days:



Those tiny leaves where I topped her are really big already.

I’ve been following The Dawg’s advice on using the Area 51. It’s 35” above the top of the bucket and I have it turned on full power with the red LEDs on.

Also, the tds in the res is around 650 ppm, which is less than half strength for the AN nutes I’m using. It seems high, but hey it’s working… I’m following the advice I got from AN via email.

Pump schedule: 10 min on, 2 hours off.

Here’s the one sprout that grew so far:



Her stem’s getting too long, so I cut up a Rapid Rooter and piled it around her to hold her up:



I didn’t see any movement in the other seed at all:



So I pulled it out of the rooter and saw that its root stopped growing altogether:



So I put 3 old seeds of mine directly into Rapid Rooters after scratching their husks slightly:



I picked these Tahoe OG seeds because they were plump suckers. And they’re already 3 years old, so I want to use them before they go bad.

Teeny is getting a flush with plain water (@5.9 pH) tonight. I’ll replace with a nutrient mixture tomorrow. I’ll probably have to plant the Liberty Haze seedling in the 2nd bucket tomorrow as well.

In other news: my Area 51 RW-150 is on its way! It should arrive on Friday.
 

The Gator

Well-Known Member
Great pics Dave! Its great getting to see how the process unfolds. Its not too often that i get to join a thread and see the whole growing process. Its interesting to see how things are similar and different from grower to grower
 

spazatak

Well-Known Member
doesnt sound like you are having much luck with seeds Dave...

fingers crossed you get a nice haul anyway
 

daveroller

Well-Known Member
Hey Spaz! I recall many years ago being in Manilla and a little short on change. It seems with your avatar you have found a picture of the companion I was able to negotiate an evening of unbridled passion that to this day I remember quite fondly. Bless you my son.

That's got to be the least appealing avatar that I've seen so far. Dear old mom needs a shave. :o
 

daveroller

Well-Known Member
doesnt sound like you are having much luck with seeds Dave...

fingers crossed you get a nice haul anyway

It's usually not this hard for me to sprout seeds. Bad luck this time I guess, plus it didn't help that I broke a sprout. The Rockwool fiasco was another thing I needed to learn about. If something can go wrong, I usually find out how. :wall:
 

chazbolin

Well-Known Member
You're too kind Spaz. I tell you what, let's keep that tongue trick option open. You see I am somewhat faithful and currently involved with an anemic transvestite who while sporting the same 5 o'clock shadow has pledged to gain another 200 pounds. We shall see.
 

The Gator

Well-Known Member
It's usually not this hard for me to sprout seeds. Bad luck this time I guess, plus it didn't help that I broke a sprout. The Rockwool fiasco was another thing I needed to learn about. If something can go wrong, I usually find out how. :wall:
I have the same problem with my Graphics work. The benefits are that we learn the hard way and then we can master the problem. Besides if everything worked perfectly all the time, life wouldn't be fun. Sorry im an optimist, i try to see good in bad
 
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