PhatNuggz
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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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New growth looks good, nice colour, just keep an eye on your tips.
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)
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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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
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
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.
Let's Do It Again!!! 2nd Hydro Grow
I have taken the suggestion of a fellow Farmer and reworked my germinating operation. First put about 1.5 gallons of 6.0 PH RO water into the res. Each of the bottom net-pots have been filled with hydrostone to the top line of holes. I then set each of the RW chunks into a second net-pot. When...www.thcfarmer.com
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