A few questions

[cfh0636]

Hey guys I'm new to this forum but I have plants that are about 2 weeks old. I've just been using a very simple flood and drain hydro system. I currently have had the light on for 18 hours and off for 6 hours. I just changed the water for the first time and added full nutrients to it. I was using half the nutrients for the first couple weeks because I had read somewhere that if you gave full nutrients to seedlings it would just burn them up. Most of my plants are a couple inches tall. Some are just lying on top of the rock wool blocks. I covered the top of the blocks last night because I was getting algae growth on top of the blocks so I wanted to cut off the light the algae was getting. Some of the plants don't seem to be getting any taller. I wanted to know if and when I should tie my plants up to the cieling so they grow upward and the stems get stronger I know I should put a fan on them as well so that they will also get stronger. I also want to know when I should be able to tell which ones are male and which ones are female before its too late. I read on this forum earlier that between 4 to 6 weeks you should turn the light back to 12/12 so that flowering can begin but I was not sure if I should know which ones are male and which ones are female before that. The plants other than that seem to be growing well they are a very rich green color and have a little odor but nothing to worry about yet. I also need to find a way to get rid of that odor when that starts to occur. I currently have 10 plants so I'm not sure how much that will accumulate because I don't even know which ones are male and which ones are female. I may only end up with 3 or 4 plants in the end. If anyone could answer any of these questions for me it would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Happy growing :cool:

[snuggles]

Hey guys I'm new to this forum but I have plants that are about 2 weeks old. I've just been using a very simple flood and drain hydro system. I currently have had the light on for 18 hours and off for 6 hours. I just changed the water for the first time and added full nutrients to it. I was using half the nutrients for the first couple weeks because I had read somewhere that if you gave full nutrients to seedlings it would just burn them up. Most of my plants are a couple inches tall. Some are just lying on top of the rock wool blocks. I covered the top of the blocks last night because I was getting algae growth on top of the blocks so I wanted to cut off the light the algae was getting. Some of the plants don't seem to be getting any taller. I wanted to know if and when I should tie my plants up to the cieling so they grow upward and the stems get stronger I know I should put a fan on them as well so that they will also get stronger. I also want to know when I should be able to tell which ones are male and which ones are female before its too late. I read on this forum earlier that between 4 to 6 weeks you should turn the light back to 12/12 so that flowering can begin but I was not sure if I should know which ones are male and which ones are female before that. The plants other than that seem to be growing well they are a very rich green color and have a little odor but nothing to worry about yet. I also need to find a way to get rid of that odor when that starts to occur. I currently have 10 plants so I'm not sure how much that will accumulate because I don't even know which ones are male and which ones are female. I may only end up with 3 or 4 plants in the end. If anyone could answer any of these questions for me it would be much appreciated.
Thanks,
Happy growing :cool:


I can help with some. What kind of nutes are you using? Some strains will show sex before flower, called preflowers some will show in flower. It usually takes a month or more IME. Also put the fan on now, the earlier the better. What kind of light are you using, cause the plants should be growing towards the light. Any pics? I think you might have atretching problem but I need to see something...sorry.

Oh I forgot, welcome hope you like it here...no flamers or nasties here and lots of knowledge.

[cfh0636]

I'm using Fox Farm Hyrdroponic nutrients. I'm not sure if this is the exact stuff but this is what I found on their website. I don't have any pictures I could take some tonight or possibly tomorrow. I'm not keeping them at my house its a project me and my friend have been working on and its kept at his house. We're using a 400 watt sodium bulb. "Sun system" is the brand I believe we bought it at a local hydroponics store along with the rest of the stuff. The plants do seem to be growing towards the light but it is our first time doing this and we had pushed down the holes of the rock wool blocks because the water wasn't reaching the roots at first. We did not realize that we were supposed to soak the blocks before we used them. We just pushed down some and placed the germinated seeds in the holes. So the holes are deeper than the way they came. This may be the reason for them having trouble getting taller. The leaves and everything are up and out of the blocks they're just sitting on it. The plants all have about five leaves right now and some look as though they're forming seven. Thats about all I can tell you at the moment I'll get pictures posted later.



TOTAL Nitrogen (N) 3.0%
0.15% Ammoniacal Nitrogen
2.85% Nitrate Nitrogen

AVAILABLE PHOSPHATE (P205) 2.0%
SOLUBLE POTASH (K20) 6.0%
Calcium (Ca)2.0%
Magnesium (Mg) 0.5%
0.5% Water Soluable Magnesium

[bigbudsbruddah]

For your fox farms feeding schedule check this link: http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26443

[cfh0636]

Wow thanks! That chart will help me a lot. Apparently I haven't been giving them enough nutrients. Since they're small and I haven't been using enough should I wait until the end of the fourth week to start flowering?

[cfh0636]

Here are some pictures of the plants they seem to be doing alright. Sorry the quality is bad I took them with my phone with the regular light on because the grow light was messing up my camera for some reason. If anyone could suggest anything to make these look and grow better because some of them are not reaching out of the blocks. I upped the nutrients last night to wear they should be and put a fan on them but I don't know if they should be tied up. I used the cardboard as a temporary solution to cover the algae on top of the blocks. I know the cardboard will get moldy too if it gets wet enough lol. I'm going to take an old plastic tote probably and just cut that up and use that to cover it.



http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b337/MisfitsFiend0636/plant5.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b337/MisfitsFiend0636/plant4.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b337/MisfitsFiend0636/plant3.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b337/MisfitsFiend0636/plant2.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b337/MisfitsFiend0636/plant1.jpg

[The Hemp Goddess]

They look really nice. I don't think that I would up the nutrients yet...they look nice and green and healthy. There is no sign of any nutrient deficiency that I can see. When you start upping the nutrients, do it slowly. If you are doing hydro, 2 things you really need are a ph meter and an ec meter.

Anything that is waterproof and will not let light through will work to cover the top of the rockwool.

[cfh0636]

Ah alright well I only upped them because of the guide that was posted above. The chart for my nutes said that they should be at 3 tsp/gallon at week 3. I don't even know how to use an ec meter lol.

[HippyInEngland]

If anyone could suggest anything to make these look and grow better because some of them are not reaching out of the blocks.

This is a good thing, it means the plants are happy where they are, they are telling you the lights are just perfect with specral correctness and distance, as they naturally grow move the lights accordingly in height, of course when they start big grow bursts everything will change, they look healthy, well done :)

[cfh0636]

Thanks! I'll post pictures in a week to show how they're doing.

[cfh0636]

So today I noticed the plants have a couple leaves that are turning brown. I don't know if thats because theres too much nutrients or anything else. There were also a couple leaves that had holes in them like bugs were eating them. I haven't seen a lot of dead bugs in the water but I have seen a couple now and then. Should I pull off the brown leaves that look like they're dying or leave them? And is there a way to prevent bugs from eating plants if that is the case.