Star Ryder Grow! Let's Do This Right!

[Bashar Assad]

So after two attempts to get a seedling from my seedling room to my tent, I think I've dialed everything in and am ready to grow properly!


So let's get on to my first grow where I'm not tinkering around with my equipment as the plants grow (which I've learned is a bad idea when they're seedlings, they dont take the stress very well)


I'll be growing three star ryder feminized seeds, although only two will make it to the veg/bloom tent due to size constraints. Im growing three to increase my chances of getting two viable seedlings. The seeds were bought from dutch passion and I've read and heard nothing but good things about the strain and company.


The seeds have already all successfully germinated and are now in the seedling closet. This is how my closet is configured.....


Seedling area


2'x3'x6' mylar lined closet with sliding door
Seedling tray
Two t8 florescent tubes (800 lumens, full spectrum, 5200k) w/balast and reflector)
Cool mist humidifier
12" oscillating fan
4" fan
Analogue timer w/15 min increments
Digital thermometer/ hygrometer
5000btu ac (if needed)


The seeds were planted in 1" rock wool cubes that were ph adjusted for 7 hours with ph 5.7 water. They were put a 1/4" down and a piece of rock wool was put over the hole. Then moved to the germination closet in a humidity dome at an average of 75*F and 85% RH.


I got the seeds last thursday, which is when I planted them, and by Monday morning all of them had pop'd. They were then moved into the seedling closet.

Now that the sedlings are in the seedling closet they are dipped in pH 5.8 water at least once per day and exposed to a light cycle of 18/6. The temperature averages 76*F and the RH averages 67% for lights on. Lights off the humidity remains the same but the temperature dips to about 72*F.


As said the most viable looking two seedlings will be chosen to be placed in the tent so let's hope I get two that are obviously way better! That'll make my choice that much easier!


Here's a pic of my girls and the closet :)

 

[Bashar Assad]

So it's day 8 of my grow and I have three good looking seedlings! I water them twice a day with ph 5.9 water. The average seedling level temperature is 76*F and the average rh is 65%. So far everything is going perfect! Here's a pic of what these little gals look like!

 

[Bashar Assad]

I'm ten days in now and all three ryders seem to be growing perfectly! It's amazing what a difference buying seeds from a reputable source and keeping conditions for the seedling constant can make. I'm almost sad that I only have room for two little gals in my tent cuz at the rate these seedlings are going all three will be viable to veg out! I just checked the bottoms and edges of the cubes and little roots are just starting to emerge! Looks like I'll probably pick the two in square rock wool but you never know!

Here's a few pics!

 

[Bashar Assad]

And one more pic

 

[SmokesalotofVT]

Good Luck.. Seems you are def on a much better track.. :)
little ones are looking pretty Happy Keep em green and Happy
beware of Over Watering once transplanted~!.. grow strong

 

[gardnguyahoy]

Encouragement vibes your way mane. Hope to see a female out of those!

 

[Bashar Assad]

Yep this seems to be a case of third times the charm for me in the sense of raising seedlings!

I generally water them when I wake up around 1030am and then when I go to bed around 1130pm. Seems to be a good watering schedule, as in the morning the cubes are slightly moist. Then by 1130pm they are once again slightly moist and in need of a bit of water. As for how I water I have premade ph 5.9 water that I pour into a dish and then dunk the cube in for maybe 4 to 5 seconds, take it out and give it a gentle shake shake to expel excess water. So far it's been keeping the seedlings happy so I'm guessing it's a decent technique.

 

[gardnguyahoy]

Kinda like a flood table technique. The roots get water then air. They love that

 

[Bashar Assad]

The seeds I got were all feminized so I shouldn't have to worry bout the plants sexes.

As for how I'll be watering once transplanted; the plants will be in 6" net baskets with hydroton pellets. The baskets are surrounded by 8" plastic pots that are about 8" tall. This pot in a pot set up is put in a 5 gallon bucket with about 2 gallons of water in it (its hydroponics inception hahahah). Every 6 hours water is pumped from the bucket to drip rings which water the plants for 30 mins. So the plants get water and then have a dry period.

 

[Bashar Assad]

I'm just under two weeks into this grow and everything seems to be going great! :D. The little seedlings are developing quite rapidly. The two in the square rock wool have roots (other than the taproot) that are beginning to poke out of the bottom; a few out the sides of the cube too.

All three have their second set of true leaves. I have a question about the leaves. How close is best for one set of leaves to grow to the set below it? The second leaves on my plants are literally right on top of the first true leaves, is that a good sign?

I mist say that the T8's I'm using are great! I love them! Using two 2' tubes at 800 lumens and 5000k I'm getting way better results than before! I tried using a 60w 450nm blue/6500k white led. After that didn't work I kinda half heartedly attempted to use a 240w 450nm blue/10000k white led. Which had some success until I accidently fried my seedling by leaving the led way to close and forgetting about it for about 2 hours. Then for my last attempt I used three 42w cfl's (4100k, 2600 lumens, 150w equivalent). These had the most success out of the three, but my dumb seedling heaved itself out of the cube and grew all wonky.

After all that trial and error I decided to just buy the T8's I have instead of using what I already had at my disposal. Seeing as I was causing a mass genocide on my seedlings and the T8's were cheap and almost everyone was using them for seedlings and was having success I gave in (plus I got my good seeds that cost a good amount and weren't for fucking around with) So glad I did!

Anyways here's some pics of my babies!

Also one question, when should I start giving them nutrients and be ready to move them. I know that usually moving is supposed to be done when roots poke out of the sides of the cube as to prevent inner cube tangling), right? But when should I start feeding them and at what ppm? I'm using AN grow/micro /bloom.

 

[Bashar Assad]

Here's my little babes

 

[Bashar Assad]

Well its the two week mark for my seedlings! The ryders in the square cubes have roots galore coming out the bottom and are starting to get roots out the sides.

Over the last day and a half the seedlings above cube growth has also picked up dramatically and their all developing their third set of true leaves.

I figured tonight was the best time to do the transplant to the tent where they'll undergo the vegatative stage and bloom stage. Let me first describe my set up for them.

Growing area
Tent (2'x4'x6', mylar lined)

Lighting
Three 26w cfl's (3100k, 1650 lumens)
Three 26w cfl's (6500k, 1650 lumens)
Three 42w cfl's (4100k, 2600 lumens)
150w 670nm red LED
300w 6 band/ir/uv/12k lumens led

Hydroponics
Two five gallon buckets w/6" net pots surrounded by 8" plastic pots (pot in a pot in a pot lol)
Two 6" drip rings w/70gph pump on 30 min incrimant timer
Hydroton growing media

Oxygen
Two 7lpm air pumps connected to two 2"x1" air stones
8lpm dual outlet air pump connected to two 2"x4" air stones

Ventalation
200 cfm 4" inline fan connected to carbon scrubber
5000btu a/c air intake
12" oscillating fan
4" fan

Cooling
Two 25L capacity water chillers w/300lph pumps

So that's what they are now growing in, which I hope works well. Right now I have a seedling level temperature of 75*F and a rh of 49%. Also my reservoirs water temperature is 62*F. So ad far as I can see all my conditions are good.

I fed the seedlings they're first dose of nutrient water. I'm using AN grow/micro/bloom, I used a quarter dose strength of each one which yielded a reservoir tds of approx 95ppm for each bucket. The ph in each bucket is about 5.9, do that's looking good. The seedlings are on a two times per day 30 min water cycle until they develop a bit as I don't want to over water.

I'll post pics soon!

Any advice welcome!

 

[Bashar Assad]

Here's my babes!

 

[Burned Haze]

Good luck and subbed

 

[gardnguyahoy]

Nice. Keep doin it! Hope to see some strong greenery soon my friend!

 

[Bashar Assad]

Hey everyone!

Well the tent transplant was a success! The star ryders seem to be happy in their new tent environment. I was a bit worried that the light from the LED's and the 6 cfl's would be a bit much for them to be exposed to, but so far they aren't showing signs of light burn or anything.

My average temperature for the tent is 75*F with everything running (the ac really helps with the heat). Ad for the humidity it was a bit low at an average of 32%, so I took my humidifier and duct taped ducting to the outlet of it and lead ir to one of the ports of the tent. Now the humidity averages 50% with the humidifier on low and 69% with ir on high. As for reservoir water temperature each buckets two gallons of water is a stable 17*C which if the math in my head is correct is about 62*F. The plants are on a cycle of 30 mins of watering at 12pm and 12am.

I do have one small problem that's popped up tho. One of the seedlings has yellow/greyish tips on its oldest leaves. I checked my books to determine what it might be and I'm thinking it's a potassium (k) deficiency. So I'm trying to remedy this bit hand watering it with the reservoir what which is around 100 ppm of AN grow/bloom/micro as that should make sure the seedling gets a dose of complete fertilizer (just incase the drip rings not enough). I'll post pics of the leaves.

So other than that it's going pretty well.

 

[Bashar Assad]

See the tip?

 

[Bashar Assad]

Hey all its been a while since I last posted in this thread, so I thought an update was due!

Well things have been better, but things aren't hopeless right now. My poor little seedlings have seemed to progressed in thier symptoms of whatever is causing them to look lighter green and have brown tips between them moving into the tent a week ago and about half a week after that. I couldn't find any help from anyone so I tried my best to figure out how to save my babes. I figured from my textbooks it may have been a potassium deficiency. Thinking this may be the cause, I began watering twice a day for 30 mins with a 140ppm solution @ 6.3ph of AN g/b/m. I also hand watered them once a day when I check the tds and pH of the reservoirs at 530pm. This seems to have remedied the problem as about 2 days ago both seedlings showed signs of recovery and less progression of the yellowing. I'm still kinda weary as to the future of my seedlings because they just don't seem to look like what I think they should to be healthy. Just as a back up I ordered 3 afghan ryder seeds and some rapid rooters just in case I have to call it quits with these babies. I just want to make sure I can go to germination right away and not have to wait like a week or two for new seeds. But here's to their good health. Any tips on what I can do to make them happier is welcome.

Yesterday I did a reservoir cleaning and water swap with fresh nutrient water as I want these seedlings to have fresh nutrient water every week. I switched one seedling to AN sensi grow A & B to see if maybe that nutrient regime may boost it's recovery time.

I'm also planning to add a third bucket to the tent and use a bucket outside of the tent as a main nutrient reservoir for all three buckets in the tent. So that's kinda why I'm using the sensi and gbm I want to see which plant does better and then that will be the nutrients I use in the main reservoir when I set it all up at the end of the month. I've attached a photo of my design below if you guys wanna check it out and tell me what you think :)

Anyways what I'd really like is an idea of what's up with my babies and how I can make them all better if anyone has any idea do tell!

Peace

 

[Bashar Assad]

So it's been a while since I've updated and I thought I'd post on how the grow is going!

Well I decided I would revamp the nutrient delivery system, which I have finished working out the kinks of as of tonight. Basically I have one 5 gallon bucket outside of the tent which has the following fed into it......

Two 2"x1" air stones on 7lpm pumps
Two 4"x2" air stones on a dual outlet 8lpm pump
Two 25L capacity water chillers fed by 70gph pumps
One 160gph pump feeding one drip ring in tent
One 300lph pump feeding the other drip ring in tent

Basically the water is fed from the reservoir to each drip ring and the plants get watered. Then in one bucket the water that runs off is pumped to the other bucket and them a pump in that bucket returns the water to the reservoir.

So far no problems with ir running for 30min every 6 hours. The water is on average 17.5*C which is optimal for max d/o and root rot prevention. The ph is kept at 5.6 - 5.7 and the tds is around 300 ppm. I check the ph and tds once in the morning and then again in the evening with a ph pen and a tds meter. I ordered a hanna grochek continuous dual ph/tds/temp meter off eBay a few days ago and it should be here within 10 days. Thought I'd spoil myself heh with a cool gadget. It'll be nice to be able to get on the fly readings and not have to wait till the morning and evening to check. Plus the meters I have now are kinda dinky so I thought I should invest in something proper. Heh my bucket is like a Frankenstein bucket all these random parts running in and out and tons of equipment running into it. I really am pleased with how it turned out.

Jeez it kinda seems like I'm going a bit over kill on the equipment since I'm only growing two plants in two 5 gallon buckets. I ordered 3 afgan kush seeds a few days ago so when this grow is done I'm going to do those ones and have all three in the tent now that there's more room in it.

As for my plants they seem to be fairly happy and healthy. Both are a nice lush green colour with healthy looking leaves. Healthy new leaves that is, the first set of true leaves had signs of potassium deficiency which caused the tips to turn yellow and die. I've stopped that in its tracks now that I've slowly raised my nutrient solution from 100 ppm to 300 ppm. Also for nutrients I'm using the sensi grow and bloom bottles, I like them way more than the m/g/b and my plants seem to be growing a lot more rapidly on it and look healthier.

So my plants are just over 4 weeks old and they're starting to develop their 4th set of true leaves. They seem to be growing large three fingers leaves, that are a dark vibrant shiny green colour.

You know for someone who has never grown a plant before this (seriously I've never had a garden or indoor plants, I used to grow mushrooms but that's a different method of care) I think I'm doing really well! Like I may have accidently killed my first 3 seedlings before I got these star ryders to get into the tent, but that was mainly because I had worked so hard on my tent and all that that I ignored the process and needs of the germination and seedling phase. Once I got those nailed down the first seeds I tried in my set up I have now all were successful. I think it helps that I'm such a meticulous person and I take note of every little detail and log my findings or thoughts in a note book for future reference. Also having a background in organic chemistry really helps with understanding the nutrients and how important it is to use a ph meter and tds meter and record their values in a log boom at least once a day. It also helps that I have 2 years of engineering schooling so all the building and designing ideas that I come up with is a lot easier for me to take from an idea in my head to a draft to a list of equipment I'll need to building it and having it work how I want it to.

Growing hydroponically is literally the most fun, rewarding, depression lifting, source of fulfillment I have I think ever had. I love doing this, like I really want to get into this legitmently and make a business out of this once I've got a lot of knowledge, grows and skills under my belt. Actually there's a college offering an online program in cannabis growing, cannabis biology and how to set up a grow of your own as well as you get set up with all the forms and knowledge you'll need to get a license to do this legally and half of the program teaches you how to start your own business venture. It's a two year program and I'm definantly signing up for it in January. This is something I can really see my self doing as a means of supporting myself and as a career that will bring me a lot of satisfaction.

Anyways enough of all that pics to come!

 

[Bashar Assad]

Here's some pics of my new reservoir set up both in and out, my new tent set up (nice and clean and organized and spacey now), my two baby girls, and my new thermostat I got to keep the temp at 76*F as trying to get a stable temp with constantly adjusting the ac intake was getting to be a nightmare.

So my tents stats are as follows.....

Average temp lights on and off: 76*F
Average tent humidity: 58% RH
Average reservoir water temp: 17.5*C
Light schedule: 20/4
Air exchanges per min: 4.2
Average ph: 5.7
Average tds (atm): 300 ppm
Total wattage of light (factory stated not necessarily drawn): approx. 650watts
Watering schedule: 30min starting at 12am followed by 30min every 6 hours