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wasson

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Hi Guys/Girls long time lurker here who has finally got a grow under way :)

I've got a 1.2m x 1.2m tent setup with a 1m x 1m Flood and drain table inside with 4 foot by 8 foot T5 hanging over head.

I popped some seeds in water last Friday and waited for tap root to show before dropping them in some pre-soaked ph'd rockwool cubes. I removed excess water from rockwool cubes so they weren't saturated (i think i still had them a bit too wet but lesson learnt).

So now a couple of questions.

When shall i transplant the current cubes to bigger ones? (some roots popping out of rockwool alread)

When can i start using the food and drain table? (i'm guessing a couple weeks yet, after i transplant and can start them on some low nutes?

When shall i lower my t5? ( they are about 500mm away at the minute was thinking when they all pop up i can lower the t5 a bit?

Thanks wasson

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Transplant now. Start flood and drain with water after you transplant. Add nutes @25 % strength when the cotyledons turn yellow.
 
Nice set up....but it is not possible to have a 4 foot by 8 foot t5 in a 1.2×1.2 meter tent. Just saying.
 
Thanks Lesso, i will soak my cubes now and transplant tomorrow. I was holding back on using the table for now just because it seems a waste of water for the smaller cubes but i suppose once they are in the bigger ones it will be ok?!

I'm a bit worried about over watering them with the table at the moment to be honest.

wasson
 
I would set it to once a day for a 15min flood. Check and see if that keeps the rock wool too wet...if so go every other day until they are bigger and need more water, they will let you know what they need. Rockwool keeps a lot of water so once a day should fly for a couple of weeks.
 
I would set it to once a day for a 15min flood. Check and see if that keeps the rock wool too wet...if so go every other day until they are bigger and need more water, they will let you know what they need. Rockwool keeps a lot of water so once a day should fly for a couple of weeks.

Thanks again Lesso, today i will be translating to the bigger rockwool cubes and commencing with the flood and drain system. I will post some pics again when all set up.
 
Good luck with your grow Wasson.
 
Hi guys just a quick update, they seem to be getting bigger day by day and the roots also seem to be forever searching for more water.

A couple of them seem to have a bit of an off colour on the original two leaves that sprout up.

Temps are about 22-26 degrees c
Ph of water is 6.1
Temp of water is about 17-18
PPM of water is about 70-80

Any ideas or is this a normal occurrence?

They are 11 days old as well.

Thanks wasson

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They are getting hungry I think. Keep a close eye on the pH. Ideally you want to have the pH "drift" within a range that is from 6.2 to 5.3 with 5.8 being the optimum. Don't let you pH go outside of these numbers for more than a few hours right now. As they get older and bigger, they can handle a wider swing of the pH but I try to not allow them to be outside that range for more than a day.

When you do the first feeding, start out with very light nutrients. No more than 300ppm until they get a little bigger and look like they are really taking off,(probably 7-10 days) then you can bump the nutes to 450ppm and each week increase the nute levels until you reach about 700ppm(average max veg nute, some strains will like more while others will prefer less.)
 
Actually, I don't like to let my pH get above 6.0 with hydro. There is nothing that they absorb at that pH that they do not absorb at lower pHs.

You are probably going to want to try and get the hydrotron over the top of the rockwool as the rockwool will grow algae when exposed to light.
 
Thanks for the replies people! I've just covered the rockwool over and have upped the PPM to about 275 and got the PH to 5.8 (took some time).

Hopefully will see some progression over the next couple days.
 
be sure to continually monitor the pH in the reservoir every day until you feel out the trend of the pH as it will drift due to the changes in the water from the plants taking in both water and nutrients. You will find that as the plants get bigger and you increase the feeding, the pH will become more stable ffor longer periods of time. At that point you will be able to monitor the pH every few days rather than every day.
 
Thanks Hushpuppy your right the PH is a bit unstable at the minute but it's not to bad.

A quick question for you. I want to keep the tent in the pictures as a veg tent and have a separate flower tent, are the roots going to get out of control and cover the table?

Have you got an suggestions on how to keep the roots under control so i can move them safely to another tent once they are ready for flower?
 
If you continue to veg them on that table, they will air prune the roots that come out of the medium, so they shouldn't get too difficult to handle. Once they get big enough to really hide the roots from light, you may get a little more root growth but I would think it shouldn't be too much trouble to move them. I wouldn't let them get too big before moving them to a more permanent location. Of course with that many plants, they will not get too big before they are cramped together anyway. :)
 
They've had a couple of feeds now at 280 PPM and i think they are showing signs of a little bit of nute burn so i've backed the PPM down too 200. If they still show signs of nute burn after a couple of days shall i lower the PPM again?

PH is still 5.8 temps got a little bit hot today so going to get myself a couple of 100mm clip on fans to clip on the side of the table which will hopefully get the hot air moving away from the top of the plants.
 
What kind of exhaust system do you have set up? Your exhaust fan should be able to deal with the heat. You do need an oscillating fan in your space though to move the air around--it won't remove heat though--that is the job of your exhaust system.
 
Hi THG i don't have any exhaust fans at the minute just some ports open at the top with some ducting leading out the room and a port at the bottom with some ducting leading to a fresh air supply.

I didn't think i would need any due to it being winter but the temps sky rocketed outside today and the sun was out all day. I was planning on getting one when the temps outside started too rise, but maybe that was bad judgement and i should get one now?
 
You should always have ventilation in your grow space. Not just fans stirring the air, but an exhaust fan to pull the heated and stale air out so that fresh air can be pulled in. This removes the heat that builds up from the lights (even in cold weather), and it removes the stale CO2 depleted air from the space and brings in fresh air for the plants to breathe. I have my exhaust going continuously but when it gets very cold out, I turn down the fan speed controller some so that I can maintain a decent temp while still refreshing the air. :)
 

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