jbird

I've got a couple of seedlings in 1" rockwool cubes in growrox. I have the pump on a 12 hour interval (for 15 minutes or so). Is this too much water?? should I cut it back to 24 hours or more?? There seems to be alot of opinions that seedlings only need water once a week or twice a week... does this hold true with hydro systems too??

OzGrowa

Gudday jbird,
I would probably water the very young by hand evryday as opposed to running the pump, thats a lot of water and nutes for a little lady

Regds
OzGrowa

jbird

I see... so I should only WET the rockwool once a day huh? There getting drowned with the pump running? Could this be why some are looking healthy while others are looking a tad bit yellow and coming up slow?

thanks for the reply Oz...

OzGrowa

Hello again,
Yes the plant is in its infancy, it requires very little water and barely any nutrients whatsoever, as it grows increas the quantities. It would explain the slowness, are you fertilizing them ? if so you should only use real real small amounts.

Regds,
OzGrowa

jbird

Well I think I lost a good part of the babies already (sigh). A couple are looking ok but they have little brown leaf tips? I only started with a tiny bit of ferts (1/8 tsp. to 3 gal.) after I observed 1/4" true leaf. The rockwool seems to dry up completely within 12 hours but I take it that I should wait a full 24 and only wet them? Oz I take it from your comments that you only water once a day? This hydro stuff is tricky in the early stages...

OzGrowa

Gudday again,
Rockwool must always be kept moist, never allow it to dry out. You may have to water it twice, once early and once late in the day, just dont leave the cubes standing in water.

hmm the brown leaf tips sounds like nute burn, water them with just fresh ater for couple of days, it should fix this problem.

Regds,
OzGrowa

jbird

Hopefully this will do it... (im learning ;-P...) So how do you determine when to introduce some neutrient mix? (im using general hydro 1-2-3 stuff btw) I've been correcting the Ph to somewhere between (5.5 - 6) with Ph down (my water is quite high (8 or so). How about water temp and environ temp? any suggestions... my water (67-70) my environ (70-75). Maybe a space heater would be in order...

OzGrowa

hello there,
Your temps dont sound so bad actually, you may want to get the room temp to 78 F or thereabouts, 80 would also be OK depending on the strain you are growing.

Once the ladies have small roots you start giving them a 1/4 strength nutrient solution, the Ph of your ater is very alkaline...what arwe you using to lower the PH ?


Regds,
OzGrowa

jbird

I'm using "vita grow pH down" and a hanna pH meter to measure. I should mention that my water is also like 300ppm to begin with so maybe I need to find a good purified water source... I think I'll invest in a efficent space heater to get that extra 5-10 degrees in the space. I understand that this will increase the growth rate. speeking of genetics, I have no idea what I'm growing... just trying out the "straight out of the bag method" to perfect the process. I have ordered some "orange crush" and "haze special" seeds from our friends at Heaven's Stairway so this may improve my success rate dramatically!?! ;-) I'm guessing the answer is emphatically - YES!