so i guess you keep the plastic on the RW...

yeah so me and a friend started growing some white widow in rockwool cubes. germinated the seeds in them but did not wait until i seen roots before i transplanted them into a 6gallon rez bubbler/drip system. almost overnight the plants were about an inch tall with thier first set of real leaves growing. then about a week in the system growth had completely stopped and leaves were starting to turn yellow. how could this be? we were using somewhat ph balanced water (hard to read the pool water strips, electronic ph tester and ppm tester on the way) so finally i decided to take a look into the hydroton rocks and see what the rockwool cube/roots looked like. what i found was that the rockwool was almost completely gone and absolutely no roots had grown. we're gonna start over and keep the plastic wrapping ON the cube and see what happens from there. any advice or comments are welcome

Good idea on keeping the wrap on the cubes, I would suggest getting grow plugs instead next time. Were you giving them nutrients? They were far to young to get nutes. Just let them chill in a tray with ph correct water till they have 3 or 4 sets of leaves then throw them in your system.

Don't start your new ones till you have your ph meter, the correct ph is imperitive in a seedling, I learned this the hard way.:thumbsup:

yeah your ph could very well be the whole problem.

$40 pen pH tester will be the best $40 you ever spend with regards to a hydro grow. Its a necessity.

i went over to start this whole project over again and come to find the plants as green as could be. instead of just throwing them away and starting over again from seed i transplanted them in new rockwool cubes that i soaked overnight in around 5-6 ph water and have them in a tray with a little hydroton and put a clear plastic cup over the top hopefully in a few days the roots will grow back i'll keep ya posted

If I'm wrong someone correct me but the younger a seedling is the closer they want the ph to 7 and the ph they prefer drops steadily toward 5.8 to 6.2 as they get bigger so if they are still very tiny I'd try to keep it above 5 for sure

If you are using those pool testers you'd want it to just look as yellow as possible and you should be fine till you get the tester in especially if they started growing in the first place it's obviously good enough to work so don't kill them...especially if this is your first grow you will have more mistakes that ya might as well get outta the way...from experirence working through an entire grow is more valuable than junking them even if the mj isnt' the most potent it should still be just as good as you can buy anywhere cause it's fresh...that and it's something to look forward to

Anyone have experience for what stages of growth the seedlings start to like the ph dropped?