Hail Hydro 2.0: New Beginnings

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PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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Whew: Finally Seeing the Light
Plants are all stabilized but will not start growing until new roots get established, probably in a week there should be enough take some root pics

Since they are stunted, not expecting much (where have we heard that before)
laughing.gif


Anyway, dropped 5 seeds into sea mineral water (sans salt) so I can make up for the last 6 months of poor grows


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Indiva710

Indiva710

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with over 42K visitors to my Hail Hydro thread, which covered a lot of ground for those interested in hydro, I felt it was time to start this new thread to explore some new ideas and to follow up on some recent ideas, all in the name of potentially better, more consistent grows. As with anything new, some failure can be expected, and I've had my share

While I have had very good success germinating seeds (drop in pure water + a drop or 2 of sea minerals), getting them to the seedling stage has been challenging with new concepts. The newest being water beads, which are probably better suited for clones, but could well serve as the ideal method to bring seedlings along; the biggest problems being over/under watering and how to support the long man stem in the early stages

Not being a fan of Rapid Rooter Started Cubes (the seed holes are too wide making it hard for root hairs to anchor= death)

My best success came when using coco + coco net pot cups, but I don't need a whole bag of coco, and it tends to harbor gnat eggs, so I went back to Rapid Rooters, and lost 4/6 seeds.

My go to hydro store had no alternatives, but another in the area had perhaps the perfect seed starter Planters Pride Pellets, which consist of compressed coco inside 20 individual bags, which expands to ~ a 3" x 1.5" cylinder when soaked in warm water. The seed is than inserted and easily covered with coco; 2/4 new seeds are in them now. Note I surrounded them with water beads (another experiment)

The next problem is weak main stems and how to support them. I have tried many things (see coco clone plug): enter water beads. I tried WBs for germinating, which might be excellent now that I have the PPPs, but they are excellent for supporting weak young main stems. The key being to use a tall enough jar to surround them and keep them straight (see picture)

My other issue has been how to keep nutes cool without an expensive chiller (and to keep mosquitoes at bay), plus eliminate air stones. Since I only grow 1- 2 plants per tent, the rezes need to be individual as the plants may be in various stages and so cannot be fed from a single source. In the middle of last grow I started using an igloo cooler, ad switched from air stones to flooming. Flooming required a second pump, but it must be on a timer or it will quickly overheat the nutes, which fried my primary leafs last grow.

Almost anything can be used on the flooming pump to circulate/aerate the nutes, but I had a couple Hydro Halo drip rings which works well. A deep cycle timer is needed as a 15 minute timer would overheat the nutes. I run it 3/20

I do need to move the 2 older seedlings into my DIY bubbler, but will stick with 4 air stones as that is where I have had best results

OK here's a few photos

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A good tip for any gro plug either rockwool or peat moss cubes like rapid rooters root riots etc you dont have to use the premade hole just make your own or Rip a small piece off of the cube and put it in the hole so the seed can have a nice cushion and makes em feel like home...hope this helps and you no longer loose expensive seeds over stupid shit...I like root riots best personally esp for my rdwc setup and my superponics cloner that I use which is a top fed dwc and does wonders for propagation actually I dont have to worry about drying plants out etc best of luck
 
AnselAdams

AnselAdams

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Whew: Finally Seeing the Light
Plants are all stabilized but will not start growing until new roots get established, probably in a week there should be enough take some root pics

Since they are stunted, not expecting much (where have we heard that before)
laughing.gif


Anyway, dropped 5 seeds into sea mineral water (sans salt) so I can make up for the last 6 months of poor grows

View attachment 864881 View attachment 864882

Nice recovery! :cool:
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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Thanks

Not expecting much from these 3, BUT, finally solving the problems that plagued my last 3 grows is HUGE

The plant on the right in previous pcutre has a bunch of 3-4" roots with lateral roots. The other 2 not so much, but starting to see 1-2 in each net pot

I dropped 6 seeds 3 days ago, so far 4 tap root tips have popped out of their shells. Im going to let tem get ~ 1/4" before sticking them in the coco pellets, which I THINK will help them to anchor
 
Indiva710

Indiva710

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I soak my seeds 12-24hr til they sink pretty much and then I put them in the root riots and call it a day and never have a issue..I've seen ppl not use cubes at all and just stick em in the hydroton or growstones but keeping them wet is key for that way tho
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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I soak my seeds 12-24hr til they sink pretty much and then I put them in the root riots and call it a day and never have a issue..I've seen ppl not use cubes at all and just stick em in the hydroton or growstones but keeping them wet is key for that way tho


I used to do that, but allowing long tails makes it easier to make sure the taproot is down. Now I am using a bit of coco to top them off
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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2/3 are doing a good job growing new roots. Next week should see a good bit of plant growth

Dropped 6 seeds in water with a few grains of HR V + B. 4 taproots popped out of their husks and are no in coco pellets

the hole in the upper right is where i rotate ice bottles 3 -4Xs a day

Pics taken 2 days ago. I forgot post an update


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PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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I have played around with SW..I actually and cook and mix nutrients with it

Now that my root rot problems are behind me, I expect to benefit from mixing nutes and foliar spraying with it

 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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I made fresh nutes, and cleaned the tote, There was a lot of coco mixed into the nutes also coating the air stones. I cleaned everything, and soaked the roots in h2o2

Not going to use coco pellets for hydro anymore as the delicate wrapper breaks down and screws up the nutrients, which seems to add to my root rot woes. The roots tell the story as to which plant is doing 'better'

I decided to do what I should have done from the beginning and cover the lid with HD foil.

I had started 4 more seeds in coco pellets, but they haven't broken through yet so will transfer to Rapid Rooter starter cubes.
 
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PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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A reward for salvaging these 3 Triple berry plants from seeds gifted by a new breeder (so sorry for my bad showing sir) is the biggest one is a female, the other 2 are male, so at least I can pollinate and get get some fresh seeds
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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Im back to using Rapid Rooter starter plugs. I had 4 old plugs that had dried out so I soaked them and placed 4 cracked seeds in them, BUT, I was gone most of the day yesterday and neglected to moisten them when I got home. This morning they were completely dried out. Not sure the seeds will survive.

Now, this gave me an idea for all future seed grows, put the RRs into netpots which are then placed in a shallow bubbler with just enough water to keep the RRs moist until the roots exit the cubes.

While I cobble this together, it occurred to me that I could simply put 2 RR cubes in an empty 3" net pot slot from my DIY bubbler: I decided to pull the small male and use that slot for the other 2. This is temporary as that system has bloom nutes which are too hot for seedlings. I probably need to buy an extra air stone to provide enough bubbles

Pictures after I have it all together
 
AnselAdams

AnselAdams

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Im back to using Rapid Rooter starter plugs. I had 4 old plugs that had dried out so I soaked them and placed 4 cracked seeds in them, BUT, I was gone most of the day yesterday and neglected to moisten them when I got home. This morning they were completely dried out. Not sure the seeds will survive.

Now, this gave me an idea for all future seed grows, put the RRs into netpots which are then placed in a shallow bubbler with just enough water to keep the RRs moist until the roots exit the cubes.


. . .


Morning PhatNuggz;

I am still having a hellofa time getting my next set of seeds to pop , just like you are.
Question for ya regarding the Rapid Rooter starter plugs. Can i put that plug directly into a 3.75 net pot of hydrostones? My concern is for the amount of cast-off from the rooter plug mucking up my res. Justified or not?

https://www.thcfarmer.com/threads/lets-do-it-again-2nd-hydro-grow.102287/

Thanks in advance
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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Fortunately, I had everything on hand to cobble my newest preflight system together. As I only have 4 seeds I am able to get by with one air stone. I tried the small single stone pump first, but was concerned that it didn't pump enough air into the shallow water. Although I am using a 2 stone pump one side is more than sufficient as can be seen in the pictures. The plastic grate is used to raise the bottom of the net pots high enough so tehy don't soak, but stay damp.
 
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PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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Morning PhatNuggz;

I am still having a hellofa time getting my next set of seeds to pop , just like you are.
Question for ya regarding the Rapid Rooter starter plugs. Can i put that plug directly into a 3.75 net pot of hydrostones? My concern is for the amount of cast-off from the rooter plug mucking up my res. Justified or not?

https://www.thcfarmer.com/threads/lets-do-it-again-2nd-hydro-grow.102287/

Thanks in advance

You need some moisture or else whatever you are dropping the seeds into will dry out

I just posted my new method. Hopefully it answers your questions and solves our problem
 
AnselAdams

AnselAdams

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You need some moisture or else whatever you are dropping the seeds into will dry out

I just posted my new method. Hopefully it answers your questions and solves our problem

It appears you and I are on the same wavelength. I came up with basically the same idea. However i had an old SuperCloset cloner to start off with. We'll see how it works.. The link below will take you directly to my solution.

 
AnselAdams

AnselAdams

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It appears you and I are on the same wavelength. I came up with basically the same idea. However i had an old SuperCloset cloner to start off with. We'll see how it works.. The link below will take you directly to my solution.


Good Morning and Happy Easter.

What brand of pellets are you using? Do they shed? If so how badly?

My concern is cast-off into my rez. I am going to try and keep it running between runs, so keeping debris & extra light out will be critical. Right now i am going to tear the flower cabinet apart and make the post-first run mods to improve functionality & practicality in order to accommodate my developing growing "style".

Peace Out!
 
PhatNuggz

PhatNuggz

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The Rapid Rooters are very good. They don't break down at all

I should have never started using coco pellets.

Too many of the good ideas in my mind turn out to set me back instead of propelling me forward
 
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