wammers

Well..I started my first grow last friday in my closet and it didn't go very well. For starters I have 2 - 315 watt CFL multi spectrums from stealthhydro for a 3x3 grow area. I'm growing 3 hindu kush and 3 aurora indica. Since I plan to grow these in DWC, I started them in rockwoll that I presoaked for 24 hours in B1 thrive alive from technaflora. I soaked each rockwool cube every 48 hours and shook out the excess of water. They seemed to be growing well, but then after 6 days they seemed to just stop. They finally started falling over earlier today, and to help determine where I went wrong i ripped open the rockwools to see that each plant's root hadn't really grown down. Did I do something wrong with the rockwool? Or should I be water less frequent than 48 hours for seedlings? If you know what I may or may not be doing wrong please help! THANKS!

HIGHWhatsup

dwc i used this system befor with the rock wol thing problem is the roots dont grow down enoff into the nutrents because the clay pepels dont reach and the water wont go past the bottem of the rockwol cube . So if you want it to work what i did to make it work in the dwc is.
Start the seeds off in soil let them grow to about 6 inchs tall so they have fully formed roots that will reach down into the nutes. Then after there about 6 or 8 inch tall transplant them into the net pots. all you got to do is take the plant out of the soil rinse the roots with water to get all the dirt off the roots then get a net pot.
Stick the roots threw the lil wholes in the bottem of the net pots each root in a diffrent hole or a few in each or just put them in 1 or 2 it will spread out later on then put clay peples all around the roots in the net pot with out riping roots or tairing them gently put them in then fill the net pot around the roots fill it up till the stem and just put clay peples around the stem then your all set just stick it in the dwc hole and turn on the air bubbles and it should take and grow rapidly only think i noticed is the leafs that will grow will be lighter in color then the ones that formed when they where in soil.

but the bottem leafs dont matter as much as the top ones anyhow so you can fully grow them and harvest them this way.

El Magico

I have never personally used rockwool to start seedlings, but I have also never used a hydro system to grow.

I think that 48hrs would be waaaaaaay too long to wait between waterings in such a rapid-drainging medium. In soil, I give the pot a good soaking before moving the germinated seeds in. Then I take a water bottle, and poke a hole in the top, to get a very controllable stream, and lightly water them probably 3-5 times a day (I shake the bottle vigorously to oxygenate the water). When I say lightly water, I mean use just enough water to make the top surface evenly MOIST.

The company Grodan sells a rockwool with horizontal fibers, to drain slower, but I can't say I like the idea.

The concept of "watering" your plants is lost in the label. In the absense of oxygen, plants cannot take in the nutrients they need, roots suffocate, and die (or, in your case, fail to grow). Water is capable of holding very little oxygen, and when "drowned", plants use all the available oxygen rapidly.

This is why we use porous mediums, such as rockwool, and we don't just grow in play-doh.

Also make sure you keep the substrate temperture around 80F. Low temps slow root growth substantially, and coupled with a lack of oxygen, or water, kill your prized genetic lineage.

I am certain all the same principles apply to hydroponic growing, so use my techniques next time, and you will be very surprised with your results.

Also, something my girlfriend said made me think this is worth mentioning:

Once cannabis is sprouted, it is impossible to give it too much light. The reason people keep their lamps away from foliage, is to prevent burning. Use your hand to judge how close to put lights to leaves. If it burns your hand it'll burn the leaves. Also take into consideration how the radiant heat will affect the temperture of your substrate with prolonged exposure.

Right now, I have an 8-day old, 3" bagseed monster with it's first two nodes (6 leaves not including cotyledons) grown with 2-23W 2700K CFLs. Out of the 24 seeds picked for germination (stored over 2 years now), I have 17 healthy seedlings. It's just too bad they aren't all like Erica.

Grow on, and keep asking questions!

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bluecheese

I soak my rockwool cubes for a few hours in water pH'd to 5.3.

Also, I places the rockwool cubes in a holder in the seeding tray & keep the seedling tray bottom wet, so the moisture comes from the bottom of the rockwool cube. I add water once or twice a day.

I set a heating mat on towels underneat and a dome on top until the seedlings appear, then I remove the dome.

I wouldn't try to transplant until roots are growing out of the rockwool, and then if you're using a DWC system, you've got to water from the top until the roots hit the solution.

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wammers

on my second try now.. soaked the rockwool in ph 6 water overnight, then placed the seeds w roots about 1-2" into the holes and tried to close the walls a little so the roots would be touching as much rockwool as possible. Using both my 315 watt lights and having a fan running with the door open the room is at a constant 80 degrees F. I dipped the cubes in some ph 6 water today at 1pm, then around 11pm the rockwool, just having gotten yellow-dry, the roots looked shriveled up like they were underwatered...what's that about? I assume the 80degrees is too high, so i turned one light off for now and its at 75 degrees. Help please.

EZMark

OLA wammers

Welcome to the GardensCure

So Sorry ta read you are having these problems with spouting your seeds.

I move your thread here in expectation it will get better help here.

One thing you may try is building a "Mini Hempy" in a 22 oz "Beer Cup" and put a Clear plastic cup over it as a humidity Dome

You are drying out way to fast.... how close are your lights?

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wammers

my lights are about 12-15 " from the rockwool cubes. i still need to buy a zipper to finish my plastic wall w/ in/out vents. That should cool the room a lot better and allow both lights to be near 75 hopefully. can you explain more about what a mini hempy is? what is the ideal room temp for seedlings? Also, if the ph is too high, would this cause the roots to shrivel? i have been using ph sticks, but its not the easiest to tell the shades of colors always. tomorrow i'm going to buy an electronic ph meter and check the rockwool.

El Magico

Alright buddy, we're gonna get you on track.

Here's the skinny....

Cannabis requires 6 things to grow.

Water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, light, nutrients, and heat.

Water:

Do not worry about overwatering your seeds. A germinated seeds that dries out, even for 2 minutes, is dead. This is most likely the problem you are having. If all parts of the root system are not kept moist at all stages of development the plant's growth will be stunted. How much it dries out, will determine how much it's stunted, and how long it will take to recover. With water, I believe too much is always better than not enough, as long as the roots are not drowned (drowned meaning submerged in water, without oxygen).

Oxygen:

The ideal water to oxygen ratio for cultivating Cannabis is always 1:1. The farther you are from a 50/50 mix, the farther you are from maximizing your plant's productivity. Plants are alive, and react to environmental stimuli. If there are roots that cannot get oxygen, or water, the plant will stop using them, and let them die. This is the plant protecting itself, by not wasting energy. The roots are the only part of the plant that use oxygen, everything else is fine with none at all. Oxygen is used by the plants (roots) to affix nutrients, without it, they starve.

Carbon Dioxide:

Carbon dioxide is critical for photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process of using carbon dioxide, and light, to make complex sugars & starches from different elements. Fresh outside air contains on average 300ppm of this gas, and is sufficient to grow world-class reefer. Lower altitudes generally have higher concentrations, and higher altitudes generally less. Fresh air should be all you need to take care of this requirement.

Light:

The most important thing to remember about horitcultural lighting is: The Inverse Square Law, which states: "Intensity is inversely proportionate to the square of the distance.". In english, this means that a plant 1 foot from a light source will recieve 4 times as much light as a plant 2 feet away. A plant placed at 3 feet gets only 1/9th the light of the first plant.

Here's an example to help:

Intensity = 100,000 lumens
Distance = 4 feet
4 squared (4 x 4) = 16
100,000 / 16 = 6,250 lumens

This means a 1000W HPS light at 4', is 2/5ths as effective as a 150W HPS @ 1'. Lamps should always be as close as possible (without scorching). Light movers are the most efficient way to get lamps closer, though not the most effective.

I just lost over an hour worth of work finishing this post. I have to make something light tight & locked down A.S.A.P. I'll try to get through all the basics tonight.

__________________
An ounce of prevention, is worth a pound of cure.
You can only be wrong if you make an assumption.
When in doubt, toss it out.