Wet Rock: a journey to the Darkside

yes, i was careful placing them and filling in the pebbles.

i made up a separate container with ph corrected water and poured around the area and down thru to the plugs.

i should be able to finish the final tweeks to the whole system and new setup in the next couple days after work.

as to my flower space, well, i'm eliminating the veg cabinet, which acted like a shelf. with that gone, my flower area is now about 6ft max if i leave them on the floor.
so, new flower capacity is 6ft hi, 32 inch wide, 4-5ft deep, with a 250hps.

my new veg cab is limited, so ill just have to move them sooner. i guess:wtf:

They won't need a ton of room in veg....just in flower and it sounds like you have it.

Water them as needed by hand. This way you can also control the ph very easily since you'll be gone at work all day. At this age a few hours at an abnormal ph can be too much.

Rock watch them carefully.....if necessary when they get a little bigger set your timer to water them once in the middle of the day while you are gone. This would be in about 3-4 days approx.....also depending on how fast your r-wool dries up.

Ps....make sure when you use the drip ring system to water them you have their little cups on to avoid getting splashed. We are all human......BUT....things like that CAN be the death of your little seedling at this point. Hydro is fairly unforgiving. ;)

ok, been a while, time for an update.

things got a lil wierd cause of the rockwool plugs.
they stayed wet a long time and slowed things down.
fine for the new rooting clones but not really for this hydro setup.

upon reviewing progress and chatting with my coach, couple days ago i decided to remove the rockwool.
upon removal, i saw the one SNL sprout had so much root that i didnt have the heart to toss it, so i took all the rockwool and replaced with a perlite core to my hydroton pebble-filled basket.

the other SNL sprout was definately struggling, so i did decide to end that one. that left me with an open bucket setup which i moved the bigger "Maria" (blue russian) clone, after carefully removing the rockwool and replacing with perlite.
the 2nd Maria clone had wool removed and into dirt.
both clones had rockin roots!

so, the landscape in the veg cab has changed a lil.

bottom left is SNLxNL sprout in hydro
bottom right is Maria clone in hydro
bottom center is Galina week-6-flwr clone, recovering better.
top left is Arjan's Strawberry Haze (ASH) sprout, in dirt (log coming soon)
top center is Maria clone in dirt
top right is ASH sprout #2 in dirt



I have had the hydro watering on-1hr, off-3hrs during daylite
1 hour on in middle of darktime.
lighting schedule is 18-6
this week i let the system start slow while i had no time to dedicate to it.
the ph has slowly crept up each day to about 6.5-7
i keep knocking it down, when i can, usually nite.
it has been warm in the cab, still trying to get circulation issues straight.



on my hydros.........

so far only a trace of superthrive only.
when should i start giving some nutes.???
i think the buffers in the nutes should help the ph stay stable

few more pics

You're on your own with the soil ones.....the hydros.....shit I'm on a temporary computer here and can't upload and download certain stuff....there's a hidden pop up blocker somewhere that I can't find and disable. How are the hydros growing? I can see the clone pretty well but not the seedling really. I think your ph issues are both hydroton and lack of buffer related.

If they are growing well you should go to 24 hour watering and see how they do. It certainly wouldn't hurt to change them out to some fresh water and a drop of ST....they like additions and fresh things. I would like to see you have them on 24 hour watering before upping nutes so I would use this time you have on the weekend to troubleshoot your 24 hour drip. (Pssss....you can go to 2 drops/gal ST and still be ok I think.)

Also good to change out a awhile because you've been adding ph down etc....and that will build up in your water as well and cause problems at higher doses.

i'll put water out to breathe and change it tonight.
i forgot to refill my jugs last time.:wtf:

Well I don't live in your area but I've never let water sit out in regards to the chlorine and my hydro guy doesn't think you need to either.....a small amount of chlorine can actually be beneficial....(SMALL AMOUNT!!!!!!) according to him and I've read that elsewhere too.

i remember when we tested my water stability that it was more stable after sitting out for 24 hrs.
knocking down the Ph everyday is getting old fast. kinda like the way u like plants that grow slow.
also, lately my water smells more chlorine-ish.