Solo Mission First Time With Seeds

[PpmOver9000]

Not familiar with the nutrients but if youre using Ca the solution should be ok. Its proba ly from them being a bit light stressed and not transpiring properly. I think youll see improvement in the next week.

And yeah cemchris is the man wrt rockwool. I only used it once but i really liked it, i had excellent results with it.

Yea I followed that entire thread, awesome stuff!

 

[PpmOver9000]

Thanks for the tips again gentlemen! The babies are looking much better and finally growing at a rate I can at least notice each morning. However, the cube ph seems to still be an issue.

2 days ago I did a heavy bottom feed 5.5ph/0.7ec; today the syringe samples read 7.1ph/0.5ec. Is this an indication that I need to feed stronger?

In general can someone help me find what each combination of ph and ec swings usually indicate inside the rockwool? Just so I have at least a starting point to diagnose in the future.

*below is the 3 day progression then some close ups this morning.

 

[PpmOver9000]

Penny for your thoughts? @Aqua Man @Dirtbag

 

[Dirtbag]

They look much much better already. I would increase feed maybe to 0.8ec, but id also maybe feed a little lower ph closer to 5 and then syringe test the block an hour later to see where it settles. The wool will eventually stabilize its ph a lot better as the roots fill it up and it starts cycling wet dry cycles more frequently.

 

[Aqua Man]

Never done rockwool but something rings a bell on some brands needing to be conditioned in a ph water soak for a day or 2? I though almost all of it is good to go out of the box but maybe not?

The PH will rise as the plants take up nitrogen. But this is probably something @Dirtbag Could help ya with and probably has all the info ya need.

 

[Dirtbag]

Ive only used Grodan cubes but they say you dont need to soak anymore. That said, i had the same ussue of ph rising on me at first, i just had to counteract it with lower ph solution until it stabilized.
Felt weird feeding 5ph, but it was the right thing to do. An hr later it would settle in at 5.7-5.9.

 

[PpmOver9000]

Ive only used Grodan cubes but they say you dont need to soak anymore. That said, i had the same ussue of ph rising on me at first, i just had to counteract it with lower ph solution until it stabilized.
Felt weird feeding 5ph, but it was the right thing to do. An hr later it would settle in at 5.7-5.9.

Ah good to know, ya it just feels unnatural going below 5.5. A buddy of mine just told me the same, to feed super low ph next time. Thanks again.

Any advice on how to read typical ph and ec swinging in either direction inside the cube?

 

[Dirtbag]

EC going down typically means it can take a little more food, but i like to see it going down between feeds a little. If it comes out the same as it goes in thats about ideal imho. If it comes out higer than it goes in you need to either lower the ec or run more solution per event to prevent buildup.

Ph i dont usually test the runoff for unless there is an issue.

The thing with testing things is its possible to go overboard and start chasing numbers around the room and that can drive you nuts, and cause you to do shit thats not necessary.

As long as whats going in looks right and the runoff ec is in a good range, thats all you should really need to worry about. If runoff started coming out way high, id check the ph to see if it was way off, but its unlikely with the frequency of fertigations in wool. Just keep inputs in check and test runoff and block numbers every couple days. Try not to overthink it.

 

[PpmOver9000]

Theyre not d

EC going down typically means it can take a little more food, but i like to see it going down between feeds a little. If it comes out the same as it goes in thats about ideal imho. If it comes out higer than it goes in you need to either lower the ec or run more solution per event to prevent buildup.

Ph i dont usually test the runoff for unless there is an issue.

The thing with testing things is its possible to go overboard and start chasing numbers around the room and that can drive you nuts, and cause you to do shit thats not necessary.

As long as whats going in looks right and the runoff ec is in a good range, thats all you should really need to worry about. If runoff started coming out way high, id check the ph to see if it was way off, but its unlikely with the frequency of fertigations in wool. Just keep inputs in check and test runoff and block numbers every couple days. Try not to overthink it.

Great info per usual, thanks for the guidance. Kind of a rough start haha

 

[BorealCuring]

Definitely hungry IMO. I don't think the roots are air pruning. I think they're well past ready for transplant.

When feeding in rockwool beyond where they are, you need to increase feeding to 3 or 4 times a day and reduce the amount you feed proportionally per feeding. But your roots need a lot of humidity.

I met someone who grows his whole plant like that. He drops the cube in hydroton in buckets and feeds with almost zero runoff. The Humidity in the buckets keep the roots from drying out.

I grow in peat pots and make sure they always have water at the roots by feeding from the bottom only.

If you still want them in there, try feeding lots from the bottom by keeping water in the bottom tray.

 

[PpmOver9000]

Definitely hungry IMO. I don't think the roots are air pruning. I think they're well past ready for transplant.

When feeding in rockwool beyond where they are, you need to increase feeding to 3 or 4 times a day and reduce the amount you feed proportionally per feeding. But your roots need a lot of humidity.

I met someone who grows his whole plant like that. He drops the cube in hydroton in buckets and feeds with almost zero runoff. The Humidity in the buckets keep the roots from drying out.

I grow in peat pots and make sure they always have water at the roots by feeding from the bottom only.
View attachment 1073156

If you still want them in there, try feeding lots from the bottom by keeping water in the bottom tray.

Got it thanks for the tips. Im more accustomed to growing from clones so I was waiting til they were about that size, but I guess going by the root system makes more sense. The roots are getting more abundant by the day. The only thing I am really worried about is them getting light bleached by the full spectrum LEDs considering they got light bleached by the fluorescent fixture theyre under currently..

 

[PpmOver9000]

Transplanted yesterday and experiencing some transplant shock or possibly too saturated of a cube? Tried to drain some of the cubes and sat some on top of spare cubes to have it drain. Decided to check the readings of the drainage from the cubes; original cube soak was 5.2ph/0.9ec and it drained out 6.5ph/1.2EC, then checked a few hours later and it was 6.5ph/1.5EC Should I have backed off the EC a bit for transplanting?

Is this just a waiting game for the cube to dry out a bit longer or is there anything I can do to have them snap out of it? The rising EC salt buildup seems concerning.

Temp 78, RH 50; best I can do on the RH atm, second humidifier on the way.

 

[PpmOver9000]

Yesterday I did some reading up on hugo blocks and read on their brochure that the volume of a hugo is 3200 mL. So I went to go soak a spare hugo exactly the way I did it on transplant (10 seconds with water wand) it weighed about 1700 grams minus the 250 gram weight of a dry hugo for a net water weight of 1450 grams.

So then I made the assumption that I didn't soak the cubes enough and it may have caused salt buildup without an established root system. So I added 2000mL diluted solution to one plant of 5.2ph/0.6ec, it seemed to have perked up a bit this morning. So I then did the same to the rest of the plants.

Is this an okay assumption and the correct action? Would love to hear any others' diagnosis or comments on the overall process.

 

[PpmOver9000]

Got them through their initial transplant shock, my initial thought of not saturating the cubes enough seems to have been correct. I did a heavy feeding and they bounced back. They've been growing now for a week since transplant and I am seeing some uneven color in the leaf margins mostly in the lower leaves, thinking Mg deficiency?

An ongoing issue I've had since the start of these seeds is the cube ph is always sitting around 6.5-7.0 whenever I take syringe samples. Which is why I think I am seeing some deficiencies. Every feed thus far has been ph'ed at 5.0.

They've been fed every 2 days or so at 5.0ph and 1.0ec. My syringe samples usually come back 6.5+ and a lower or equal ec. I was thinking maybe I am not feeding enough volume so today I did a much heavier feeding at 5.0ph and 1.2ec. My thinking is to saturate the cube more to see if I can have the ph settle under 6.0 and i raised the ec because it seems like they are eating still. I am handwatering for a 5 second count (roughly 1000mL). Today I did a 10 second count. Other than lowering my feed ph is there any other thing I can adjust? Should I go even lower than 5.0? or is simply saturating the cube more the correct response?

For reference; a 6 inch hugo block holds around 3200mL according to grodans website.

Tent is sitting at 78F, 60-70RH

 

[PpmOver9000]

The saturation levels on my phone camera attempt to make everything look more vibrant (samsung) so the discoloring in the lower leaves is actually a bit more pronounced than the pictures lead you to believe. Just to point that out..

 

[PpmOver9000]

bump?

 

[Justlovetogrow]

That is 1 clean setup u have there mate good luck with it I’m sure u will get on top of your little problems and grow some fire for sure

 

[PK1]

nice setup

 

[PpmOver9000]

thank you thank you, I used to be at a bigger grow with a top drip rockwool. So this was the closest thing that I could find to build myself. Of course credit is due to @cemchris and @Dirtbag, I pretty much copied their builds to the T haha. Imitation is the highest form of flattery

In better news, been a couple hours since the heavy feed and cube is sitting at 5.9ph hooray!

 

[Justlovetogrow]

Sweet congrats mate hope it all works out for ya