First post, first grow

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ott3r

Well-Known Member
Hey guys, first time grower here. Gonna try organic with SS. I'm 12 days in and was hoping my plants are doing well; I had 2/6 plants die after putting them under my HPS light however they were weak to begin with (partially damaged coty on both, neither grew their true leaves). Here's the plants the day before the transplant into dirt, you can really see the WW struggling in back:

IMG_20131031_212617.jpgIMG_20131031_212638.jpg

The other four are doing alright but the growth is inconsistent. All of the rockwool was soaked in 5.0 water for an hour then low 6s overnight while the seeds germed. Rooting enhander was added at 1/4 strength once true leaves showed up. Plants were watered with a 1/5 strength EJ formula and 1/2 strength rapid start rooting enhancer today (day 12). I also added 1/4 ML calmag as well to a gallon of water and bubbled into a tea overnight. PH of the water was around 6.8. Here's the six pots, both the dying WW are on the bottom left, the bottom right on the right picture is the only WW doing well:

IMG_20131105_031618.jpgIMG_20131105_031645.jpg

Question I have is, how often should I water a seedling in a rockwool that was put into lightly damp medium (FFoF)? I'm worried about the rockwool drying out and killing the plants, or overwatering and rotting the roots...

Edit: Also here's my grow area, 5x4 w/ 7' ceiling. I have a 430w HPS, and a 78w t5 for starting and fill later on. I have a vent going into a wall and out of a wall vent to re-circulate the air indoors and keep heat indoors. Hoping to keep this relatively efficient.
 

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spek9

Well-Known Member
Although I don't grow in rockwool so I don't really know how they should be watered, someone will.

Just want to say that it looks like you've got a good start there, and welcome to RIU!

-spek
 
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ott3r

Well-Known Member
Update! One of the WW seedlings died; I tore up the rockwool and inside I found a small root system that never quite reached outside of the cube. The other plant has all but stopped (no true leaves, just the one coty left) so I dug it up, pulled the rockwool apart carefully and transplanted it to a pot with another plant. It's still alive so I'll keep an eye on it. Perhaps a set of true leaves will grow one day? Probably not lol.

I've added four t5 bulbs to help light the area up. The plants seemed a bit small IMO so I wanted to add more "cool" light before I turned on my HPS light. I added two 2700k 23w 1600 lumen bulbs and two 6500k 23w 1600 lumen bulbs. I put them over the four established plants about 2-2.5" away and responses seem to be very positive; one of the bubblelicious is a little strange in that it has a single leaf growing instead of a pair like all of the others for the second set of true leaves. And the second bubblelicious seems to be stunted a bit and the cotyledons appear to be dying, but it has grown somewhat since I put one of the new bulbs near it. I think my problem with my first four seeds was a failure to PH the rockwool cubes properly before I put the seeds in, or I left them on the heating mat a few days too long..

IMG_20131110_020228.jpgIMG_20131110_020347.jpgIMG_20131110_020315.jpg

Oh, and if anyone has used Mykos WP (the water soluble mycorrhizal fungi) does it work on plants that have already been transplanted? I botched and didn't innoculate when I transplanted the rockwool into my 1gal pots..
 
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ott3r

Well-Known Member
So apparently I'm supposed to start these in their final container so I don't stunt my growth with transplants. If that's the case, should I just add nutrients with a tea and finish these 6 plants? Thinking that's my best solution at this point; and I think I'm going to buy some 3 gallon tubs to finish my last four seeds in too while I'm at it. My goal was low maintenance via SuperSoil but it's already high maintenance, lol.
 
Dr. Who

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
Rockwool is a stand alone media used for ebb and flow tray hydroponics.

With that said, if your plants roots grow outside the rockwool and into the soil you should still be fine. As far as the rockwool holding fluids (to much/to little),,if you water the surrounding soil when it feels dry down to about an inch from the surface you should still finish out just fine!

I might suggest that next time you use a "plug" to start your rooting in and transplant that to your soil. I use "ROOT RIOT" square plugs and tray with the "MONDI" dome lid to root my seedlings and clones in and enjoy a 99.9% success rate.

If you are using/making a bio TEA you don't need to add fungus of any kind as that is adding the living organics to your soil......a simple active bio tea 1/3 cup worm castings and 1/3 cup Dr. Earths alfalfa meal with 1/3 cup blackstrap molasses into a pail with a QUALITY aquarium heater set to 70 deg F with 2 air stones as far apart as possible with 5 gallons of water and "brew" for 48hrs....this will be good to use for about 2 days - up to 7 days if kept in the frig. Need to make less,,,,just reduce the formula. Always use air stones/air pumps but as long as the room temp is 68 - 75 deg F you don't need the aquarium heater.

Water with the tea daily or as watering is needed.
At around every 30 days you most likely will need to "add" some Bat poop/ bird poop/bonemeal/bloodmeal (your choice) to the soil surface to amend the N-P-K value of the soil......be sure to use the right stuff at the right time.....VEG vs FLOWER needs of the plant....

Follow that and your organic grow WILL be low maintenance....

good luck.
 
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ott3r

Well-Known Member
Progress update! Plants are doing well. I ended up caving and transplanting my autos anyway into 3gal tubs with 2" SS diluted with FFoF and Perlite. I cut the bottoms off the 1gal tubs and put them in the 3gal tubs and filled them up to the soil level in the 1gal tubs and lifted the tubs out to avoid butchering the rootmass as it's not really ready. Needless to say a few were butchered slightly anyway BUT nothing is showing any stunting. In fact, three of them are really going at it and are flourishing very well, I had two nodes come in on one plant on Saturday, while the smaller guys are playing catch-up (as they're a week or more behind). It's almost therapeutic to watch them grow... :lol:

So here's a roll call, top left to right. Everything is auto except the two bottom middle White Widow which are also doing very well;

Oger; Oger; Bubblicious; Bubblicious
WW; WW; WW
Bubblicious; WW (reg fem), WW (reg fem), Bubblicious;
The 1gal tub under the bar light is a month old bubblicious that is severely stunted and wont turn any useful bud. I think the rockwool wasn't PHd properly, like the other two WW.
IMG_20131120_012609.jpg

I'm thinking of using this space as a clone flowering bay; waiting until a few weeks before I harvest the last of the autos toward the end of January to top and trim my WW plants and get about 8-10 clones going. Two months is long enough to do that, right? I wont be overly stressing the plants, will I? I'm debating a SoG setup with a 3-4 week veg before I flower. I've got a 4'x4'x6' area to use with no lights right now, thinking a bunch of T5's to keep the mom plants going as I don't think my area can handle the added heat of another HPS/MH light.. Does the Blockbuster 6 do well as far as keeping heat out of the grow area?
 
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ott3r

Well-Known Member
Checking back in! I'm 77 days in on my first few girls and everything's looking great! Since these girls are all auto I'm unsure how much longer I should wait before I harvest, I haven't seen amber trichs on any of them from what I can tell. I'd like to avoid a couch lock but prevent loss of bud weight. Here's a few pictures of the oldest girls that are coming up for harvest:

Here's the third incarnation of the flowering area; I've moved the mothers and their E&F tray out of the flowering area and into their own spot along with the 430w HPS and put a 600w HPS air-cooled hood in the flowering area. The flowering area hovers between 79 and 84* and the RH is around 25%. If I run the humidifier I can keep is fairly stable at 55%. In the end the temps aren't that much worse off since the second hood is air cooled. I haven't gotten a months bill with the new light (though I did cut the cycle to 18/6 for both) yet, but if it's too high I'll have to invest in a T5 light fixture.

IMG_20140109_035403.jpg

And here's the new mother/cloning area with the 430w hps. I'm hoping the area I have will be enough but if not, I can put the clones in another room since there's no smell to worry about. The White Widow mothers were stressed to hell and back but are doing quite well now. They've doubled in size in the last few weeks, and I turned off flooding while lights are out to encourage root growth since they were moved soil to hydro. The stem on the more Sativa is quite woody and rigid, until about 2/3 of the way up where it flexes more. I will assume that's a good thing? :)

The pH has been pretty rock solid between 5.5 and 6.2, though it rarely goes up more than .1 or .2 per day now. I'm getting a bit of yellowing on the tips so I'm going to only do 1/2 nutes on my next res change and observe the changes. I'll probably start taking clones in a couple weeks, but I'm not sure which I'd rather try first, the Sativa WW or the Indica..? :leaf:
IMG_20140109_035621.jpg

Bubblicious - Germinated 10-24 - Currently on day 77
This girl started off rather strange, growing her first pair of leaves, than a third and after that she did the splits for me. Ooh MY~ :lol: The smell is very pleasant and sweet coming off the buds.
IMG_20140109_035927 - bubbalicious 10-24.jpgIMG_20140109_035949 - bubbalicious 10-24.jpg

White Widow - Germinated 10-29 - Currently on day 72
I've got an excellent main cola here, lots of secondary buds as well that are fairly dense too. The smell is hard to describe, very.. earthy.
IMG_20140109_042417 - white widow 10-29.jpgIMG_20140109_042443 - white widow 10-29.jpg
White Widow - Germinated 11-5 - Currently on day 65
Lots of VERY nice buds on this one, the secondaries are all roughly the size of an egg or larger and covered in trichs.
IMG_20140109_043109 - white widow 11-5.jpgIMG_20140109_043146 - white widow 11-5.jpg
White Widow - Germinated 11-5 - currently on day 65
Yet another large main cola, she's got a few large secondaries but also has a few areas that never properly developed and so is light in a few spots.
IMG_20140109_043702 - white widow 11-5 (second).jpgIMG_20140109_043759 - white widow 11-5 (second).jpg
Bubbalicious - Germinated 10-24 - Currently on day 77
This girl started out in rockwool that I forgot to pH and was VERY stunted (we're talking 1.5" diameter, 2" tall) and took off like a rocket ship a early December. I had two of the WWs fail to generate secondary leaves as well, so I'm surprised this one has gotten this far.
IMG_20140109_044025 - bubblicious 10-24 (second).jpg

Now here's the fun part; I haven't seen any amber trichs on any of these to the best of my knowledge (I believe I may have seen a few on one, but that may have been debris as I can't find any others on said plant), so I'm wondering how much longer I should wait to harvest or if I should harvest now or... I guess I just want to taste the fruits of my labor :lol:
 
O

ott3r

Well-Known Member
I went in to check on things today after lights on but just before the flood and turned my pots around; I'm getting roots out the bottoms of the pots of the two moms now (haven't been able to check until today so maybe it was like that for a while, but I like to think not flooding during lights out is pushing it to develop more roots) and the more sativa WW grew almost 3" last night over ~16 hours! I'm very pleased that they're starting to take back off after the transition but it might be a little too soon.. :lol:

Still hesitant to harvest anything yet, it seems to have the OPPOSITE issue most first timers have; I'm waiting too long! :lol:
 
Bucees

Bucees

Well-Known Member
I wish my first grow looked like yours. Congratulations on paying attention and doing your research sir.
 
S

Scarlet 420

New Member
I use Rockwool cubes but for clones and not seeds. I would put a cover on that box to increase the humidt as they root. It's good that you are careful with the nutes but i just soak mine at 5.2-5.5 and they will drift up anyway to 5,8-6.0. Also , cut some plastic squares and cover the top of the cubes. Algae is ugly and it will help keep the roots humid.

Keep that light high if HPS
 
NyQuilkush318

NyQuilkush318

Well-Known Member
lovely bro have u used mykos wp if so how much to a gallon of water20140510_012506.jpg
ott3r said:
Checking back in! I'm 77 days in on my first few girls and everything's looking great! Since these girls are all auto I'm unsure how much longer I should wait before I harvest, I haven't seen amber trichs on any of them from what I can tell. I'd like to avoid a couch lock but prevent loss of bud weight. Here's a few pictures of the oldest girls that are coming up for harvest:

Here's the third incarnation of the flowering area; I've moved the mothers and their E&F tray out of the flowering area and into their own spot along with the 430w HPS and put a 600w HPS air-cooled hood in the flowering area. The flowering area hovers between 79 and 84* and the RH is around 25%. If I run the humidifier I can keep is fairly stable at 55%. In the end the temps aren't that much worse off since the second hood is air cooled. I haven't gotten a months bill with the new light (though I did cut the cycle to 18/6 for both) yet, but if it's too high I'll have to invest in a T5 light fixture.

View attachment 2956818

And here's the new mother/cloning area with the 430w hps. I'm hoping the area I have will be enough but if not, I can put the clones in another room since there's no smell to worry about. The White Widow mothers were stressed to hell and back but are doing quite well now. They've doubled in size in the last few weeks, and I turned off flooding while lights are out to encourage root growth since they were moved soil to hydro. The stem on the more Sativa is quite woody and rigid, until about 2/3 of the way up where it flexes more. I will assume that's a good thing? :)

The pH has been pretty rock solid between 5.5 and 6.2, though it rarely goes up more than .1 or .2 per day now. I'm getting a bit of yellowing on the tips so I'm going to only do 1/2 nutes on my next res change and observe the changes. I'll probably start taking clones in a couple weeks, but I'm not sure which I'd rather try first, the Sativa WW or the Indica..? :leaf:
View attachment 2956819

Bubblicious - Germinated 10-24 - Currently on day 77
This girl started off rather strange, growing her first pair of leaves, than a third and after that she did the splits for me. Ooh MY~ :lol: The smell is very pleasant and sweet coming off the buds.
View attachment 2956820View attachment 2956821

White Widow - Germinated 10-29 - Currently on day 72
I've got an excellent main cola here, lots of secondary buds as well that are fairly dense too. The smell is hard to describe, very.. earthy.
View attachment 2956822View attachment 2956823
White Widow - Germinated 11-5 - Currently on day 65
Lots of VERY nice buds on this one, the secondaries are all roughly the size of an egg or larger and covered in trichs.
View attachment 2956824View attachment 2956825
White Widow - Germinated 11-5 - currently on day 65
Yet another large main cola, she's got a few large secondaries but also has a few areas that never properly developed and so is light in a few spots.
View attachment 2956826View attachment 2956827
Bubbalicious - Germinated 10-24 - Currently on day 77
This girl started out in rockwool that I forgot to pH and was VERY stunted (we're talking 1.5" diameter, 2" tall) and took off like a rocket ship a early December. I had two of the WWs fail to generate secondary leaves as well, so I'm surprised this one has gotten this far.
View attachment 2956828

Now here's the fun part; I haven't seen any amber trichs on any of these to the best of my knowledge (I believe I may have seen a few on one, but that may have been debris as I can't find any others on said plant), so I'm wondering how much longer I should wait to harvest or if I should harvest now or... I guess I just want to taste the fruits of my labor :lol:
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