Illusion's grow log #1

[Illusion]

No nutrients, using bottled water, sometimes RO bottled water, no superthrive or cal-mag

I guess it could be heat stress, the floros are about 6" away.. but the other one that is the same size looks perfectly fine. Sorry about the blurry picture.

So i put the cubes in my system, flood the pots half way.. then eventually the roots will grow down to the part that will reach the water? that means there will be like 6" of space that will never have water (which means those roots will never have water in those 6") below the rockwool right? which would mean i should water the rockwool by hand every few days, even when its in the system?

or what do you mean by watering every six hours once its in my system? the rockwool? sorry for being so slow hah..

[Opie Yutts]

Do not water the rockwool. Just increase the level of water in the bucket until it soaks about half the net pot, not the rockwool. This is assuming that you put the girls in when the roots reach at least half way down the inside of the pot, so they will get wet during flooding. This needs to happen. Make it so. Once you see roots start to come out of the rockwool, or the girls are looking nice and healthy, that's the time to put them in hydroton and start feeding at 1/4 strength. The roots in air will get what they need through the few inches of water covering the bottom of them, and when you flood them. Roots need oxygen. As much as possible. Obviously if you plan on having the bottom of the roots in solution as I suggested, you will need to have some way of varying the solution level. If not, flood more frequently.

I don't know what to tell you about big bertha. If the light is 6" back it's probably not heat stress, but some chemical thing. I do know that when plants are chemically stressed, they can't take as much light. Perhaps you should check the problem charts I and others have posted. Sorry I can't be more help.

[Opie Yutts]

Oh yeah, the paper comes off at some point before putting the rockwool in hydroton.

[Illusion]

Actually that was extremely helpful

My only concern is the duration of time where the roots aren't long enough to reach the flood level, and are just in hydroton that is never flooded.

Incase you haven't noticed I like to be triple sure of things, apologies in advance but:

This means I do not put my rockwool slabs into the system until the roots are long enough to reach the solution... What do I do with the slabs while the roots are growing out of the bottom? Is it Okay in a glass tray?

If I feed them at 1/4 strength solution, But it doesn't touch the roots poking out of the rockwool, only half of my net pot, will the water Wick up through the bottom or something?

again apologies.. I'm annoying *myself* with the same questions over and over, so I could only imagine how you feel!

also how to I go about testing the PH of the rockwool itself? Collect the runoff I know, But how do I collect the runoff?

[Illusion]

i just realized that when i've been watering the rockwool, i've been pouring the water on the top...

I tried watering them by dipping the bottoms in water this time.. is this how i should have been doing it all along? :stoned:

[dejayou30]

I don't hand water anything. The point of hydroponics is that the water and all the nutrients that that the plant needs are brought directly to them, therefore eliminating the need to water by hand.

Before I started trying to grow anything, I got the room completely set up, lights on, water flowing, etc. and ran everything for a while to make sure there were no leaks, check temps, etc. Then, I conditioned the medium (hydroton and rockwool) by soaking them in separate buckets of 5.5 water for a day, changing the water every few hours and monitoring the pH. Then, I moved the conditioned medium into the system and ran the system with the media in it, but still didn't crack the seeds. I did that for about 12 hours and checked the pH every so often, and THEN I cracked the seeds. By doing this I was able to troubleshoot a lot of problems that could have arisen before the plants would have to deal with them and suffer, and I was also able to provide headaches to PharmaCan, Opie, and Weedhound.

Once I cracked the seeds, I just dropped them into the rockwool, tucked them in, set the pump timer, and let them grow. I flooded the entire bin (about 90-95% full) for 15 minutes every 6 hours. The rockwool got wet but not submerged and probably stayed wet, but it wasn't too wet and it has worked out for going on 7 weeks now.

I think you are just thinking about things too hard. Your posts seem pretty frantic like you are just kind of going for it, which is a bad idea when it comes to growing your own cannabis. I would suggest taking some time, get your room and materials set up 100%, and THEN go start the seeds, or start them when you are pretty close if you absolutely can't wait. Maybe I am just OCD, but it seems to have worked pretty well for me. Good luck!


PS> This is my first grow too, so I'm not an expert by any means, but most of what I have learned, I learned within the first couple weeks. The system just kind of goes on autopilot from then on, you only have to monitor regularly.

[Opie Yutts]

Hydrponics Techniques

Take look at these illustrations to help you get an idea of how things are set up and what they do. Which one of these are you trying to do?

[Opie Yutts]

i just realized that when i've been watering the rockwool, i've been pouring the water on the top...

I tried watering them by dipping the bottoms in water this time.. is this how i should have been doing it all along? :stoned:

Well I thought I've been answering your questions. Remember when I wrote this?
I would not have individual coffins of death. If they are sealed up in one container I would tear open the bottom, and maybe once every other day add roughly 1/4" of water on the bottom of the tray.

Are you reading the stuff I write? What's with the dipping? What's with the watering on top? If you don't want to take my advice that's just fine and dandy with me. I completely understand. Just don't ask me the same thing again when your way doesn't work out.

Again, the rockwool cubes should be in a tray. In this tray you put about 1/8 to 1/4" of water that is PH'd to 5.5. In one or two days, or however long it is until the bottom of the tray is dry, then do it again. Repeat as necessary. Once roots are long enough that at least some of them will get wet when the system is flooded, then you put them into your system. Flood as necessary, but as little as possible to keep the plant from being under watered.

[Illusion]

Well I thought I've been answering your questions. Remember when I wrote this?
I would not have individual coffins of death. If they are sealed up in one container I would tear open the bottom, and maybe once every other day add roughly 1/4" of water on the bottom of the tray.

Are you reading the stuff I write? What's with the dipping? What's with the watering on top? If you don't want to take my advice that's just fine and dandy with me. I completely understand. Just don't ask me the same thing again when your way doesn't work out.

Again, the rockwool cubes should be in a tray. In this tray you put about 1/8 to 1/4" of water that is PH'd to 5.5. In one or two days, or however long it is until the bottom of the tray is dry, then do it again. Repeat as necessary. Once roots are long enough that at least some of them will get wet when the system is flooded, then you put them into your system. Flood as necessary, but as little as possible to keep the plant from being under watered.

Ive been doing so much reading over the past few days I guess it all got jumbled up in my head..
If i had remembered, I wouldn't have asked sorry about that

makes more sense to me now

thank you for all of your help

btw, im doing the EFT listed on the site, but not all the roots will be in hydroton.