starting new...need help

here is a few pics of my set up

im starting from seed, "afghan kush" or something, my roomate bought the seeds online

does this set up look good so far, ill hang the lights and stuff soon but i just wanna know how to get this seed started

I am pretty new but I had the hugest issue with starting from seed, I always did soil from clones.
I recently started my first grow from seed and they are doing good, I think.

Take two paper towels the nice thick ones, fold them about three or four times to make squares small enough to fit in a plastic sandwich baggy, fold both of them the same size, fill a gallon with water and let it sit a few days, then adjust your ph to between 5.5 and 6.5, after your water has sat a few days and the water is ph'd, wet both napkins but not dripping wet, place the seeds in between the napkins, place napkins in the sandwich baggy, press all the air out seal it, and put the baggy in your sock drawer, check them daily, you should see them crack and start to grow the tap root which will have some fuzz all over it. Once your tap root is about 1/4 inch long then place them in your rockwool just deep enough to cover the top with some rockwool (which should be prepared with ph'd water before) and into an incubator the moment they pop their heads out place them under some lights (18 and 6) when the roots start to come out from the bottom then they should be good to go into the buckets.

I messed up about 20 seeds before I got them to germinate properly, this is what worked for me. I am a newbie so your might want to get some feed back from the pros here. If I am giving some wrong info please correct me, I have been getting a lot of help figure I would try to help someone.

I just use one paper towel. I pH the water to 6.0, soak the paper towel in it for a while, then squeeze out some excess and fold it in half, then in half again so it is in quarters. I place the seeds on one side, fold it in half again to cover the seeds, place it in a sealed plastic bag, and set it somewhere mildly warm, like on top of my LED lights. Two or three days pass and you should have sprouted roots showing, time to transplant!

The only things we do different is soak seed in a cup of water for 24 hours then into the plastic baggie and blah blah blah. No sock drawer or LED light for us, we put our ontop of the cable box and then cover with a cloth or something to retain a lil heat. Can pop in less than a day or could take a couple weeks, depends on if they want to sprout and also if you waved your magic wand at them or not. Do not leave the top of the RW exposed like that or you could have an algae problem real quick. Need to have a full layer over the top to block light. Once they grow the problem lessons as the canopy of the plant will provide the shade so algae can not grow.

Oh BTW good job ELEL :thumbsup:

Thanks guys,

I went thru about 6 seeds in my other (homemade) hydro system

all I did was throw the seed in the rock wool and let a continuous stream of water run for about 2 weeks

half the plants turned out amazing, they got to maybe 3 inches high and 3 inch leaves...however after that the plants ended up getting severe root rot and shit like that

that's whAt made me change my system

alsothis drip system I am about to use doesn't look like it is getting the rock wool nearly as wet as it should, I've just let it run for about 2 days now just to see how it works and it just doesn't seem like it is going to get the job done

any thoughts?

It will get the job done. When the plant is ready to go in there it will work.
1) Germ seed of whatever style you choose
2) Take seed with tap root and insert into medium of your choosing (Rapid Rooters here but oh well) Tap Root Down PLZ!!
3) Place seeded medium into a nice warm area with 75-80% humidity. You dont even need light at this point.
4) When sprout emerges place under a mild Blue spectrum light (either MH or "Daylight" bulbs. 6500k) 24/7 and water as needed. Plain PH'd water is all you need. Get light as close as you can without burning the poor thing.
5) once the babies are all standing up and living, place a small fan to create a MILD breeze to give them just a lil wiggle to strengthen stems. What we are looking for is root formation atm and once there are a good amount of roots poking through the RW you can put into system.
6) About the 3rd to 4th set of true leaves start 1/4 strength on nutes and can probablly go into system with bigger lights. Once in the system watch carfully as you might need to hand water to help it all come together. When the root mass grows into the Tron the drip ring dampens the Tron and plant gets what it needs from there. Vegging under the 400 then flower under 1000 sounds like a good idea to me. They only be under the 400 for about 5 weeks but make sure you have an MH bulb for veg.
7) By the time you get to here you should have read enough on your own to carry on.

Drawbacks:
Rockwool sux IMHO!!
1) Must soak RW in PH'd water till water stays at PH you want so soak for an hour check PH, change water as needed.
2) Can have huge salt buildup which can effect the plants simply by throwing off your ppm readings.
Hydrotron is a Pain:
1) Hydrotron is worst about soaking than the RW is. Start soaking your Hydrotron about 4-5 days before you really need it.
2) Had to say this before Weezard did :D
3) But in the end most of us still use it so welcome to the soaking club

One last thing ........
Name and address of who/where to send the bill??

haha seriously, that is probably the most help in the easiest way to understand that ive seen through all my online searching

i will not be giving out my address haha but maybe you can give me yours and i will give you a sample of the finished product

ill be posting pics every couple of days just to bsically keep track and to maybe get some help along the way

feel free to keep giving me some pointers periodicaly

thanks again!!

ps...does it matter if the seeds sink or float?

Rumor has it that the ones that sink are better than the ones that float /shrug
we have not found that it makes a diff as both sinkers and floaters have sprouted and grown.:jointsmile:

so this is day 4 in the paper towels soaked in 6 ph water after being soaked in water for 24 hours previously...nothing has happened to the seeds so far

i have then in the paper towel, in a plastic baggy, on my cable box :thumbsup: , with a towel on top

im thinking about placing them on my window sill to get some sun like i had done before with my some other seeds, bad idea?

are the papertowels "wet" or "damp" you dont want wet you want damp. If you have had luck with sunlight it up to you I have never tried it

Cable box with towel on them may have cooked them beans.

Hope not, it's the way GF has been doing since day 1

Well it's actually on the DVD player and that hasn't been used, soreally no heat has been touching it... Day like 7 trying to get then to sprout and nothing so far but it looks like thy are about to start in the next 24 hours

let's cross our fingers

alright, so over the past couple of days ive done some experiments with the seeds ive bought online, some seeds from a few bags of crappy outdoors that has been vacuum sealed into a brick, and a few seeds that ive saved from some high quality buds

ive got the seeds that i bought online on a paper towel damp with just water (ph is 5.8), ive placed that into a jar, put the cap on and placed it under my light

ive got the crappy outdoor seeds on a papertowel with the same water only with a few drops of miraclegro all purpose liquid plant food...ive also put that into a jar and under the light

in the third jar, ive done the same as the outdoor seeds, however ive placed a paper towel on top and underneath the seeds instead of just placing the seeds on top of the damp paper towel

its too early to see which method has worked better, but what conclusion i can draw is that putting the seeds into the jar is basically like a steroid for most of the seeds

i set everything up, went to work, 7-8 hours later several seeds have started to open up and expose the taproot :)

here are a few pics, has anyone tried this before? or have anything to say about this method?

if not, hopefully this can be helpful to some of you :clap:

Damp papertowel in sandwich bag usually works.

Wasnt sure if it developed the soil roots so left some in water til they taped..took 24 hrs and the roots did resemble hydro roots. seemed to take instantly when transf to a swc system.

constant low heat is key.

Good Luck :thumbsup: wish i could get my hands on some Afghani :jointsmile:

Hey Smoke if you dont mind could you explain the diff between soil roots and hydro roots?? Never knew there was a difference :wtf:

interesting, please do explain the two roots!

so heres what i have

ready to place in rockwool you think??

and also, why are these roots different colors? one is green and white the other is like brown and white?

yup they ready and no clue on the colors, I would maybe guess at genetics??

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tinytoon

Hey Smoke if you dont mind could you explain the diff between soil roots and hydro roots?? Never knew there was a difference :wtf:

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In the early stages of root development the roots soon learn their enviroment and adapt. Roots in soil are tough and thick to break through soil. While hydro roots relax and grow fast not having to do any real hard labor. Hydro roots are long fishbones to pull in large amounts of nutrient and then develop thick roots. If roots have developed too far they can not go from soil to hydro or vice verse without a hella stress.

Thanx Loc!! :thumbsup:

The difference between soil roots and hydro roots is soil roots tend to be finer and have more hairs. Hydro roots tend to be smooth, thick, and have very little hairs.

Basically he's saying air roots and water roots.

What they said :thumbsup:

Ya they're ready, and the colors are the beginnings of the stem. I've left some in the damp towel for a week, to find branched root systems and full leaves.

Get em Goin Already :jointsmile:

heres what i have so far, its been a week of 24 hour light and being in the drop system

what do you guys think?

Looks good, but seems to be feelin some stress.

Light distance looks good, maybe 3"+ to ease its transition and get used to searching the new medium for water. (when it seems to start putting on new growth, then lower lights )

I know a lot like and use 24/0 lighting, but i find it helps to let them sleep in hydro with all the transferring and slight changes in root development. Max i ever use and what a lot go by is 18/6, but i usually go as low as 16/8.

They do a fair amount of growing and recovering during the night :thumbsup:

Keep the ph level correct and its still small enough to thrive on 1/4 - 1/2 nutes.

are you using any nutrients in your reservoir also whats the PPM and PH, im just saying that seedling leaves look like hell.

i have a mister set up to a pump to spray mine its one of those bendable ones from rain mist . mysts it just right highly recommend :thumbsup:

I got my money on a PH issue and I'm willing to bet I know what caused it.
One question for you, but also plz tell us the ph and how often you been checking it, when you were doing the setup of your equipment did you soak your Hydrotron in PH balanced water until the PH of the water didnt change? Meaning PH water to 5.8. Soak Hydrotron. Wait couple hours or so and check PH. If it is off by more than .1 or so drain water and refill with fresh PH'd water. Continue this process until water that is soaking Tron is within .1 of what you PH'd it to. My example of 5.8 would allow 5.7 or 5.9.

Did I win?? :wtf: