Hydroneer
Member
Hello ladies and gents. This is where I will be starting my very first grow log for my very first hydro grow. I gotta say, buying all the materials online and in hardware stores got me really pumped for growing, but I wasn't sure I could sack up and follow through. The more I read on this forum, the more I needed to do it. So here you all go. This is dedicated to all those whom I forum-stalked for the last few months.
I chose an upstairs closet because the downstairs gets far too cold in the winter. The upstairs will get hot in the summer but you can bet your buds I will be crankin' that AC. Since it is upstairs technically in the attic, it has a funny slanted shape so instead of covering the walls with mylar, I decided to purchase reflective half-inch thick foam board. I think it is used to help insulate, and is designed to reflect 98% of light or something similar to mylar. I went ghetto and taped it to the bottom of my highest shelf, and hung the sides.
I have a 4" inline duct fan with a home-made activated carbon filter, 2 timers (one for the lights and duct fan, one for the water pump and air stone). I decided to go with plastic tubs with a sliding drawer for easy water maintenance. I am using Botanicare Pure Bled Pro nutes (I will say NUTES instead of NUTS because my mind is forever in the gutter).
I really want to post my day-to-day log that I've kept, but it would be best to have some text, then embedded pictures, then more text... do I need to have the pictures hosted somewhere else and linked? Also, it looks like the website is SEVERELY compressing the photos as I upload them. Strange. Hope it looks OK to y'all.
I'll post the first few notes here, until I can smooth out my method of posting.
Enjoy!
(SSH = super silver haze, OB = orange bud, and I received 5 free seeds of some unknown strain)
3/4/10: One SSH seed crushed under medium pressure between my fingers and was discarded. The OB seeds are significantly larger than the SSH seeds, which leads me to think they will perform better. 2 SSH and 2 OB seeds are now in water, floating, under heat lamp in a closed dark container.
3/5/10: 2 SSH seeds showing tiny root tip, transferred to damp paper towels and left in same dark container under heat.
3/6/10: 2 SSH seeds have roots almost as long as the seed, SSH seeds placed in rockwool cubes in hydro system, flooded once a day with nutrient solution at 380ppm (140ppm well water, 240 nutrient) pH between 5 and 6. 1 OB shows white root tip starting.
3/7/10: 1 SSH seed nearly protruding from rockwool, 1 has no change. OB seeds appear not to have changed. Possible cold night made them stagnant? OB seeds transferred to paper towels. One unknown "free" seed placed in damp paper towel since I expect the OB seeds to fail. I am afraid that the one that appears to be doing well is planted upside down. After inspecing it, the root seems to be going the right way again, and both SSH seeds seem to be happy. I will continue to flood them once a day and as soon as they pop out of the cubes I will turn on my lights, 12" above the plants initially. I just put another OB seed in the paper towels, I want to try OB!
3/8/10: Concerned that the upside down seed was having trouble, root appeared to be growing up and out of the cube, so I used a tiny screw driver to push back the cube material and let the seed free. I also turned on the lights so It can have something to reach for. I will leave the light on overnight and photograph the morning results. Also, the unknown seed sprouted INSANELY fast and long. In about 18 hours the root was longer than the seed! I planted him in rockwool too. I started 1 more OB seed in a paper towel, thats 4 total. Still no results. Placed the containers with OB seeds under the lamp overnight to stay warm and happy.
3/9/10: I helped the seed skin off the tallest sprout and its first leaves are open, and I can see the central part between them that is going to keep growing! I put in all 4 23 watt daylight (5500K) bulbs and lowered them as low as possible (about 6 inches from the seedlings). I want to lower the lamps more when the plants sprout, but maybe leaving them at 6 inches is fine until they grow up to them. The other two seeds are just trying to push out and establish some sort of root system. Still no luck on the OB seeds but I am leaving them under the lamps in their containers to stay warm. I just checked, and the pH has risen to around 7, perhaps because I did not soak the rockwool long enough (24hrs?) I adjusted it back down between 5 and 6, but the PPM count is around 650. I suspect the PPM count is rising every time I feed the plants because there is still some debris left in the expanded clay pellets. It should stabilize soon.
I chose an upstairs closet because the downstairs gets far too cold in the winter. The upstairs will get hot in the summer but you can bet your buds I will be crankin' that AC. Since it is upstairs technically in the attic, it has a funny slanted shape so instead of covering the walls with mylar, I decided to purchase reflective half-inch thick foam board. I think it is used to help insulate, and is designed to reflect 98% of light or something similar to mylar. I went ghetto and taped it to the bottom of my highest shelf, and hung the sides.
I have a 4" inline duct fan with a home-made activated carbon filter, 2 timers (one for the lights and duct fan, one for the water pump and air stone). I decided to go with plastic tubs with a sliding drawer for easy water maintenance. I am using Botanicare Pure Bled Pro nutes (I will say NUTES instead of NUTS because my mind is forever in the gutter).
I really want to post my day-to-day log that I've kept, but it would be best to have some text, then embedded pictures, then more text... do I need to have the pictures hosted somewhere else and linked? Also, it looks like the website is SEVERELY compressing the photos as I upload them. Strange. Hope it looks OK to y'all.
I'll post the first few notes here, until I can smooth out my method of posting.
Enjoy!
(SSH = super silver haze, OB = orange bud, and I received 5 free seeds of some unknown strain)
3/4/10: One SSH seed crushed under medium pressure between my fingers and was discarded. The OB seeds are significantly larger than the SSH seeds, which leads me to think they will perform better. 2 SSH and 2 OB seeds are now in water, floating, under heat lamp in a closed dark container.
3/5/10: 2 SSH seeds showing tiny root tip, transferred to damp paper towels and left in same dark container under heat.
3/6/10: 2 SSH seeds have roots almost as long as the seed, SSH seeds placed in rockwool cubes in hydro system, flooded once a day with nutrient solution at 380ppm (140ppm well water, 240 nutrient) pH between 5 and 6. 1 OB shows white root tip starting.
3/7/10: 1 SSH seed nearly protruding from rockwool, 1 has no change. OB seeds appear not to have changed. Possible cold night made them stagnant? OB seeds transferred to paper towels. One unknown "free" seed placed in damp paper towel since I expect the OB seeds to fail. I am afraid that the one that appears to be doing well is planted upside down. After inspecing it, the root seems to be going the right way again, and both SSH seeds seem to be happy. I will continue to flood them once a day and as soon as they pop out of the cubes I will turn on my lights, 12" above the plants initially. I just put another OB seed in the paper towels, I want to try OB!
3/8/10: Concerned that the upside down seed was having trouble, root appeared to be growing up and out of the cube, so I used a tiny screw driver to push back the cube material and let the seed free. I also turned on the lights so It can have something to reach for. I will leave the light on overnight and photograph the morning results. Also, the unknown seed sprouted INSANELY fast and long. In about 18 hours the root was longer than the seed! I planted him in rockwool too. I started 1 more OB seed in a paper towel, thats 4 total. Still no results. Placed the containers with OB seeds under the lamp overnight to stay warm and happy.
3/9/10: I helped the seed skin off the tallest sprout and its first leaves are open, and I can see the central part between them that is going to keep growing! I put in all 4 23 watt daylight (5500K) bulbs and lowered them as low as possible (about 6 inches from the seedlings). I want to lower the lamps more when the plants sprout, but maybe leaving them at 6 inches is fine until they grow up to them. The other two seeds are just trying to push out and establish some sort of root system. Still no luck on the OB seeds but I am leaving them under the lamps in their containers to stay warm. I just checked, and the pH has risen to around 7, perhaps because I did not soak the rockwool long enough (24hrs?) I adjusted it back down between 5 and 6, but the PPM count is around 650. I suspect the PPM count is rising every time I feed the plants because there is still some debris left in the expanded clay pellets. It should stabilize soon.
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