Seedling Day 10, and something is going wrong ?

Delps8

Well-Known Member
The training must be done when the roots are fully developed. At this point even if the water level drop to 20% the plant is okay. With early roots the level must be higher everyday all day but under the wooden part of the plant/seeds.

20 dayz in flower : ( the roots look brownish because of the flash of the camera ) the top is totally dry, at this point in DWC the perfect water level is under the dry roots or 75% of the 5GAL bucket, the popping bubble will maintain a perfect environment. The 2gal bucket are very efficient for the roots build up in veg, if you start your plants directly in 5Gal the roots will be stretchy and weak for all the grow.

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I'm not clear on why there's an interest in dry roots but chacun a son gout.

"if you start your plants directly in 5Gal the roots will be stretchy and weak for all the grow."
I can't think of a reason why this would possibly be true.

I start my plants in a res that hold 28 gallons of nutrients. They're germinated in Rapid Rooters in net pots that sit in the res.

Below are a sample of some of the plants that I've grown in this manner. Could you point out the ones that have roots that are "stretchy and weak for all the grow"?

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Delps8

Well-Known Member
If I was to consider the small seedling pot my "net pot", then keeping it ~ 1/2" above the water level is what I have been doing. At the beginning of this post the consensus was that I was essentially drowning the plant because I had the water level higher. The root ball has continued to grow and thicken over the past two weeks, but they just aren't wanting to dive into the water and continue to grow vigorously. I figured the agitation of the air stone bubble, being directly under the plant may have kept the roots at bay, so I move the air stone disk to the side of the pail yesterday.
As with pretty much anything about agriculture, there are no "magic numbers" for net pot height. General guidelines work pretty well, one reason being that there are so many variables that it's impossible for an individual grower to do everything "correctly". It's a plant and mostly grown from seeds and growers fuck things up so there's lot of opportunity for things to not to work out perfectly.

If your level is "pretty close" to the net pot, you're good. I set it at ½" and that's worked well for me. If you want to go with 2" or 6" that will probably work to well, too but there's no reason to drop water levels to 6" and, when you do, you're reducing the amount of root mass that can function as roots.

This diagram illustrates the parameters of the grow environment. I use this as a checklist and found it helpful in improving my processes.

For me, the big dog is light because light drives growth and then temperature and RH in second and third place. Yeh, genetics is important (if your seeds or clones are sickly then your SOL) but the rest of these factors are really way below those top three.



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Griffon

Well-Known Member
En terre c'est un peu le même procesus, the plant should transit from different size of pots for the best roots possible.
 

Delps8

Well-Known Member
En terre c'est un peu le même procesus, the plant should transit from different size of pots for the best roots possible.
I've seen that for soil grows and I don't know why that's the case because the plant has no idea how big a container it is in. If it was just a question of container size, how could plants grow well in soil outdoors where there is no "container"?

That sorta makes me think that is has nothing to do with container size and is a function of how the plant is grown/maintained/watered but I grow in hydro.

In 3 ½ years growing in that res, it's never crossed my mind that the roots were weak. But I am improving my lighting to increase my yield and retention of secondary metabolites.

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DaveT

Member
Nice bud and monster plant pictures, but my line of questions concern what was a 10 day old plant. I had been keeping my dense root ball (growing out from my seed starter mini-net pot) slightly above the water level in the bucket. This was because at that time the thought was too much water was drowning the plant, Now in its fifth week I am wonder how much of the root ball (see picture) should be immersed in the water.
 

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Delps8

Well-Known Member
Nice bud and monster plant pictures, but my line of questions concern what was a 10 day old plant. I had been keeping my dense root ball (growing out from my seed starter mini-net pot) slightly above the water level in the bucket. This was because at that time the thought was too much water was drowning the plant, Now in its fifth week I am wonder how much of the root ball (see picture) should be immersed in the water.
My posting of 12:35 PM from yesterday shows root growth in a 10 day old plant. My argument is that allowing footballs to grow in the reservoir works out pretty well.

"the thought was" - whoever thought that did not understand DWC. That approach did not kill the plant but, by not allowing roots to grow into the grow medium, the plant will not reach its genetic potential.

"I am wonder how much of the root ball (see picture) should be immersed in the water."
In DWC (and its companion RDWC), the water level for the bucket/reservoir should be about ½" below the net pot. It is that simple.

You can not "drown" roots by allowing them to grow in a hydroponic reservoir. The entire point of hydroponic growing (DWC or RDWC) is to allow the roots to grow as much as they want.
 
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