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This is my first grow and I decided to go hydroponic. I am using a home-made DWC setup, your basic bubbler. I am just using some bagseed I had, I am considering this more of a learning experience so it doesn't matter if I get some sensi. Posted pics below. Any suggestions or comments? I am using 2 47 watt 2700k CFL's, 4 6500k 26 watt CFL's and 4 27 watt 6100k CFL's for a total of about 18800 lumens.
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The picture with the dollar bill in it is a week 3 pic since the seed was germinated,
Ok so here is the rundown on my grow, I know I have made 4 consecutive posts but I had to take breaks and go down stairs for a little :stoned: if ya know what I mean ;). Ok so I have a 2 5 gallon buckets with one lid so resevoir changing is made easy. They will be covered in thick black tape in a week or so when I change the water so I dont have to tape a full bucket... seems like it'd be a bit more tedious. I have a whisper 100 pump running a 5 in. airstone and the whisper 40 running 2 bubble wands run circularly around the airstone at the bottom. I am using GH 3 part nutes with GH ph up/down, hydroton/rockwool medium. It has been about 3 weeks since germination, I had 3 seeds, 2 sprouted, one of the sprouts limped over and died. This guy is the survivor. I plan on topping it once it gets to that point, which by the way is when? I get pretty good ventilation through the vent on the side wall which is an inlet to the closet this is set up in. There is also an outlet which is the vent that the A/C uses to suck air so I have good air quality in the room. I use the heater below the vent to warm the air if its cool. It also creates some turbulance and give the plant a good little shake so I haven't needed an occilating fan yet. I was thinking of running some ducting from the side vent once I start to flower with an HPS so it can cool the light and the just run the end of it to my plant so the plant has warm air. Thoughts?
Well, I don't really have anything to add, except I LOVE the custom cfl reflector hood! Good job on that one!
Thx bro, shows what 50-60 bucks at home depot/walmart can do.
For topping you should top it when it has four full nodes and has just started its fifth. Reason being you will be adding stress to the plant by doing it and the plant will be decideing its sex soon. According to Zandor's Grow Report, by topping it at this stage you will help avoid stressed related sex problems.
I have no idea what is going on with my stem.. can anyone tell me how to prevent this from further developing? I already have the plant propped up with a paper clip. What else can I do?:stoned:
Stem rot! Not sure as to the best fix for it though.
It is my understanding that the main cause is too much moisture coming in contact with the stem. It happens sometimes in Rapid Rooters when one doesn't squeeze out enough moisture before planting the cutting. The stem is in constant contact with the wet surface of the R.R. and slowly begins to rot. I've done a little research for you, but it seems a cure is hard to come by. I've seen some articles that mentioned using a fungicide, since it is a living fungus feeding on your precious plant.
Sorry for the bad news. Do a sh*tload of research before doing anything drastic.
Ok so stem rot... shit... well it doesn't appear to be progressing any. I have been monitoring for about 24-28 hours and the plant is still getting larger like crazy and the rest of the plant except for that one part looks perfect... Any chance that this WON'T affect my plant and given a few days time the plant will repair itself or at least be able to survive?
Hmmmmm.......cross your fingers, meditate, pray to whomever you pray to.... Usually from what I've read, stem rot is fatal. I've read that this seems to have one recurring theme, rockwool. It seems that rockwool is awesome for germing because of it's ability to hold moisture---practically forever---but as you've found out, it can be a bad thing for plants once they get older.
I found the same thing with Rapid Rooters, as I mentioned earlier.
For what it's worth, I'm really sorry this happened to ya. Don't give up though. Keep us updated.
Can do, if not rockwool then what though? I don't know what else I can use as a medium for a DWC. Just hydroton?
I know people are always having trouble with Rockwool, but I've been useing it with little problems. Sure I need to watch the PH balence as the PH in the res is sometimes way off from what is coming out of the Rockwool. But I have had no problems with root rot, stem rot...etc.
However, like I said, I've heard nothing but bad things about it. =)
Day 2 of rot watch... Hermies (yes, I name my plants) is still doing well, growing like crazy. The stem rot has stopped progressing. I stopped the humidifier and am trying my best to keep the room reasonably dry. Here are some pics.
hbbusa....I don 't know off the top of my head, what would be the best replacement for rockwool applications. I'm not a hydro-grower, I run coco, so I'm certainly no authority. Sorry.
paht hed...I'm glad to hear it is not progressing. Maybe someone with more experience in stem rot will be able to give you a better prognosis. Lowering the surrounding humidity was a good move. Can you pull a little bit of the rockwool away from the stem at the affected point? I can see from the pics that the rockwool is not touching the lesion, but how about pulling just a little away from the stem below that point? I don't know how much it would help though....?
Hopefully you'll get some more help with this. I don't think I've done you much good .
I would say that since you are already have your rockwool in hydroclay, there is no reason to wet the rockwool.
In your DWC setup, how is the rockwool getting wet? If you have the nutrient solution high enough so soak it, lower your solution. You could leave the rockwool completely dry and allow the roots and hydroclay to get wet and that should solve the problem (and potential for others) by not allowing moisture in the rockwool.
Nice setup also :)
I had kept the rockwool wet because the roots weren't yet long enough to reach the solution. They only started protruding out the bottom of my net pot about 4-5 days ago and the rockwool was still wet from then. The top of the rockwool is dry now so I am hoping that it won't get any worse.
Update! The stem where the rot was is actually starting back to grow normally with the plant so I think it is healing from the inside out basically. Still no progress on the stem rot which I hope is a good sign. She/he is still growing quick. Here are some pics.
WOW it does look better! Maybe instead of actual "brown stem rot" you may have just had a tissue breakdown due to the soggy rockwool touching the stem for so long..?...
Anyhow, glad to see it!
Update: The leaves are starting to weigh the plant down and within the past 12 hours its developed several new growths on it.
Hey,nice thread keep us updated on how your little one is doing.Ive had stem rot in soil and was able to save a couple of them and the others kept them alive long enough to get cuttings from them.Now that your roots have dropped down into the nutrient solution you should be able to let things dry out a bit.
Ive been researching and looking at diy dwc setups for about a year and half and will probably take the plunge this winter.Great pics and the stem looks thick and healthy around your rot problem,good luck.
She just might make it huh, paht hed.
I have a feeling it's definately going to survive. Should I let the temp drop to about 70 F during the 6 hours of darkness or should I let my heater run and keep it around 77-83 F?
More pics!
You have overcome the odds Paht Hed--lol. She's definitely gonna make. You've done great!
On the temps question, it's my understanding that the less temperature swing you have the better with optimal being 75-79 without added CO2. With CO2, the temps can go up a few more degrees and still be considered in the optimal range.
How do I get my plant to start growing taller? All it seems to be doing is getting super bushy. I want it to stretch out so the bottom and inside leaves can start getting some more light.
Don't let it stretch. Instead, place some type of wedge under one side of the bucket to make the plant tilt. Then, once a day, you rotate it one-quarter turn. Personally, I think that is the best way to side-light a plant if your not running vertical lights.
So side lighting will help it grow taller then? Because I can do this with my grow light setup!
Neat little trick huh?
The thing most growers strive for is a shorter bushy plant while it's in veg. The reason for this is that you will get stretch once you switch to a flowering light cycle of 12/12. So, if you have a short bush to start with, you get tighter packing of buds up the main stalk. If you stretch it out in veg., you end up with a bunch of small buds instead of the big colas most of us strive for.
It's completely up to you, but I'd say you should be very pleased with how short and bushy that plant is.
Just keep your lights like you have them in the pic directly above this post, and giver her some time. Right now she's telling you that she really likes her environment. Be happy bro. Your doing it right.
When you thinkin you might put her in flower mode?
Not sure when I want to flower, though I was thinking of not setting a particular date. I was planning on just letting it grow to a reasonable size or whenever it's ready. 4 feet of some sensi would be sweet. Unfortunately last night while I was checking my ph and tending to the plant the grow hood fell on the plant. It didn't do too much damage but I lost one small leaf, the two brand new leaves growing on the top and part of one of the bigger leaves :mad:. Should I expect the two new leaves on the top to regrow any time soon or just split off as if I topped the plant?
if u have the room u can wait like i did i veg'd for 10weeks and they were 3 1/2 ft tall then when in flower went to5 1/2 ft and yes it is worth it if u have the room
1. Don't sweat the loss of a couple of leaves.
2. If you can wait, yeah, your waaay better off to do so. Most peeps just getting going don't have any patience. It's hard to wait sometimes, but always better to do so.
Update pics.
Pic 1 is the top of the plant where the new developing leaves broke.
Pic 2 is just a shot of how big the plant is now.
You'll be fine! No real damage done there. Think about what gets done to one outside in a thunderstorm.
Update picture.
:weedpoke: :smokebong::bonghit:
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/6743/dscf0680id8.jpg
Anyone know why the image uploading isn't working?
Pardon my language but, that's one bushy bitch! --I'll forego the obvious Madonna similarity remark---lol oops said it anyway didn't I?
Good grief. Goes to show you she's not longing for lights. Good job man.
Fixed.
So if I am correct, which I generally assume myself not to be when it comes to something I have no prior knowledge of, then the part of the picture below that I have the arrow pointing at would be the part of the plant that shows sex right? Call me crazy but that looks like a ball if I ever saw one :(
Pics of the roots. Do these look healthly? They have a very slight greenish tint at the tops.
Well, I'm not the botanist that some of these guys are, but those roots look killer to me. Nice bright white.
As far as you having balls (on the plant)he he I can't tell by that pic. It's a good close up with good focus, but usually in picture form, it's easier for your audience to see if the ball or pistil(s) are shown going from left to right, or right to left. But a "straight-on" view like that makes it tough for us to tell.
If your at this point now, just wait a few more days, ,and you should easily see pistils or more balls.