My first hydro grow

[budz4me]

I am having issues with my seedlings. Grown in rockwool. I soaked them in 5.5ph water 30 minutes, drip dried.

THey are stretching bad, I never had this issue with straight to soil....they are stretching to the point where they may fall over.

I have them in 3" netpots and lined the bottom with hydroton...but they are far too skinny and weak.

Should I just put the rockwool in and then fill? Leaving the wool to sit at the bottom of the pot? To allow for more support on the little stem. I do have fans running and all that...

 

[budz4me]

Over in my veg tent I swapped in the HPS since the autos are flowering now.

Still unsure what to do with the seedlings, lost one already.

I think the rockwool in the bubblecloner isnt working, the rockwool seems to always be saturated by all the bubbles

 

[budz4me]

I am having issues with my seedlings. Grown in rockwool. I soaked them in 5.5ph water 30 minutes, drip dried.

THey are stretching bad, I never had this issue with straight to soil....they are stretching to the point where they may fall over.

I have them in 3" netpots and lined the bottom with hydroton...but they are far too skinny and weak.

Should I just put the rockwool in and then fill? Leaving the wool to sit at the bottom of the pot? To allow for more support on the little stem. I do have fans running and all that...

Over in my veg tent I swapped in the HPS since the autos are flowering now.

Still unsure what to do with the seedlings, lost one already.

I think the rockwool in the bubblecloner isnt working, the rockwool seems to always be saturated by all the bubbles

Any thoughts? I have pulled them out of the cloner and are now in a starter tray with a heat mat. Tryng to see if I overwatered them in the cloner.

 

[zem]

yeah rockwool is not good in a bubbler. its either or. in a bubbler you only need the clone suspended in moist air. or you can skip the cloner and water rockwool regularly. i do that with oasis cubes. in my bubbler i used that styro thats in kids floaters to hold the clones up

 

[next]

Hey Buds

I usually take mine off the heat mat as soon as they pop. I think heat mats are a necessary evil, they work, but they can also roast your plants. I've had 1 or 2 dry out over night, I think they were sitting on a hot spot.

I'm not sure if the rockwool in the bubble cloner is causing them to stretch, but im with zem on that one. It's either, or, but not both. Usually stretching is directly related to light, but if your sure you have that under control it must be from overwatering, due to the rockwool in the bubbles.

Goodluck man, you can always bury them up to their first set of leaves when you transplant them.

 

[budz4me]

yeah rockwool is not good in a bubbler. its either or. in a bubbler you only need the clone suspended in moist air. or you can skip the cloner and water rockwool regularly. i do that with oasis cubes. in my bubbler i used that styro thats in kids floaters to hold the clones up

Right the noodle things for a pool, got ya. What about rapid rooters? Highbrix uses them and looks like it is working for him. Thoughts on rapid rooters for hydro?

I will be doing my clones with like you said noodles cut up or some sort of foam to suspend them in air. I just need to get a few seeds to pop first LMAO!

Fumy thing is, the ones I am growing now were auto seeds, and I used the EXACT same method that is killing these fem's.

Hey Buds

I usually take mine off the heat mat as soon as they pop. I think heat mats are a necessary evil, they work, but they can also roast your plants. I've had 1 or 2 dry out over night, I think they were sitting on a hot spot.

I'm not sure if the rockwool in the bubble cloner is causing them to stretch, but im with zem on that one. It's either, or, but not both. Usually stretching is directly related to light, but if your sure you have that under control it must be from overwatering, due to the rockwool in the bubbles.

Goodluck man, you can always bury them up to their first set of leaves when you transplant them.

Thanks for input buddy.

Overwatering I think is most of it.....Its so weird because I have NEVER (was 100% until this happened) had these issues with just burying a seed in soil and giving it some water...

also I didnt know that about heat mats.....I have had them on the whole time (76* or so) The dome does get pretty moist with condensation.

 

[Kraven]

Yikes, its easy to cook seedlings, the mat is good till you see a sprout then it needs to come off the mat.

 

[budz4me]

:holysheep:

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I never put whatever I have started the seeds in (rapid rooters or rock wool) into the hydro unit until I have really good root growth out the bottom of the cubes. And then, I put the cubes on the bottom of the net pot and fill around them with the hydrotron. Your stretch is not being caused by your medium. But other problems could be. I don't use rockwool because I find it a lot harder to keep them the proper amount of wet--they always seem to retain too much water. I also do not use a heat mat. It is very very easy to overheat the seeds using a mat. And regardless of whether you think you are doing the exact same thing from one grow to the next, you are not. Just changes in outside temps can affect things.

 

[budz4me]

Well said THG.

I did get some rapid rooters, they are pretty cheap so I grabbed some.

Rockwool does not seem to jive with me, ive had better results from jiffy pellets lmao.

Heat mat I use all the time for my veggies, this is the last time I use it for MJ.

 

[budz4me]

This is the newest side by side.....the bubbleicious is doing wonders above grade...but below it you will see hardly any roots popping out.

the other set of roots is the lethargic northern lights. Much better root growth, much less plant growth. I would not complain but the NL plant (Nirvanas auto version) this is my 5th one I have grown, all of them were very poor, whereas the bubble has rocked and produced more than I expected.

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[budz4me]

other pics

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[zem]

hey budz what type of netpot is that? it looks like it needs more holes and maybe less height. there should be a separation humid zone between the bottom of the netpot and the solution

 

[budz4me]

they are the pots one would use with ebb&flow.

I just left them in the same pot once I realized that ebb&flow system was not going to work.

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[budz4me]

day 3 for seed in rapid rooter.....nice white roots popping out.

Thoughts on having a mother in dirt, then cloning into hydro.....I just dont think I can handle keeping a mother in hydro and all my plants.

I really wanna get this new baby under some t5 and let it veg and take clones. I figure a 3g-5g bucket with some pro-mix I have left over should keep it for a while, I do have worm castings to mix in for her.

Sorry for no pics, its a pita for me because my work phone is a no go as I would hope you would agree....so the only personal phone we own is hers.(wifey)

 

[budz4me]

rez temps starting to creep around 72-73*F

I have been rotating frozen 16oz bottles of water, seems to be doing a good job of keeping it around 68-70*

I just put 2 bottles in the am before going to work, then replace them with the 2 in the freezer when I get home, and the cycle continues....hopefully it works when the 1k HPS is fired in the other tent, may have to add more bottles to my cycle.

 

[budz4me]

also, I think the northern lights plant may not be an auto.

The other plant has been flowering for 3 weeks. The northern light just has pre-flowers. And from the pics I am going to post soon you can see it has doubled in size with no buds.

The NL auto I grew before would have already had buds...the bubblicious has one huge cola forming in the middle (like most autos one huge cola..and some scrappy ones here and there)

The NL looks like a mother plant....nothing but growth.

Still running 20/4 with HPS

 

[budz4me]

Notice no bud sites at all on the NL plant....even though it doubled in size...it hasn't done the stretch associated with the first few weeks of flower.

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[The Hemp Goddess]

hey budz what type of netpot is that? it looks like it needs more holes and maybe less height. there should be a separation humid zone between the bottom of the netpot and the solution

I'm with Zem--I just don't think that pot has enough holes to let enough roots grow through. That is just like the type of pot I use for soil grows.

 

[budz4me]

I'm with Zem--I just don't think that pot has enough holes to let enough roots grow through. That is just like the type of pot I use for soil grows.

Yeah, I know...these were the plants/pots I started in the hydrofarm ebb&flow unit remember? I didnt want to try to transplant them into a mesh pot due to the fear of killing them.

I will not be using those for this again.

Please could someone('s) look at post #157 & #158 and please give me some advice...I am really convinced I had seeds mixed up and that it is not an auto....it should have some bud development by now, not just showing sex and getting bigger and bushier.