First grow in a hydroponic system, need some tips

[StickyNp0t3nt]

Hey everyone, I just started growing about a month ago out of my new stealth hydro bubbleponic system. I need some tips and suggestions to make this go a little faster. I have three plants growing. Two are already sprouted and about 4-5 inches tall each but i stretched the stems by having the lights to far away for the first week and are now held up by a stake (pencils, only thing i could find) and the stems seem to be getting thicker and they look pretty healthy. The only problem is the leaves seem to growing slower than when i grew outdoors last year. I would gladly appreciate any guidance or tips the next couple months for my first hydroponic grow. Ill supply pictures later tonight.

 

[StickyNp0t3nt]

One other question i have before i go off to hockey is that should i leave my water pump on 24/7 or turn it off once in awhile. My plants have been growing for about 2 1/2 - 3 weeks now and have no signs of over watering but i just want to be sure before i fuck up and have to start all over considering the one seed came in a prescription medical trainwreck container with the bud and people would kill to have that shit.

 

[greenearth5]

are you checking your pH, humidity, temps?

what type of lighting do you have?

 

[robotninja]

sick avatar man! but we need more information to help you out. Like what greenearth said, whats your water temps? humidity? ambient room temp? water PH? Are you using RO/Distiller/Tap Water? PPM of your water is important, are you useing clonex solution? Are the leaves healthy? Curling? Yellowing? ect... pictures do alot of justice man

 

[StickyNp0t3nt]

My Ph is in between 6.25-6.5 which is about perfect for growing, i use sink water, the temperature of the room is around 70 some degrees, but my humidity is like 25 and i cant seem to bring it up, any tips for that? And i use one daylight 120w Florescent and one 60w red spectrum florescent light for flowering and i just hooked up another light, but idk what kind it is i think it may be incandescent, but here are some pics.

 

[greenearth5]

Other than the fact that they are looking stretchy, I would say they look just fine.

If they are only 2 weeks old then they look perfectly find

 

[StickyNp0t3nt]

Other than the fact that they are looking stretchy, I would say they look just fine.

If they are only 2 weeks old then they look perfectly find

Ya i fucked up on the lighting i had the lights like a foot away from the plants cuz i didnt do any research on lighting and how far away they should be from the plant until the first one fell over but now i have them like an inch and a half away and a fan blowing on the plants 24/7 and it seems to be getting more bulkier but what should i do about lighting arrangements my second time around. Would you recommend all daylite lighting for vegative growth or keep it how i have it now with the mixed spectrums?

 

[greenearth5]

I done 24/7 lighting from the get go... and im still on 24/7

I am running a 150W HPS but im soon going to upgrade and get an additional 250W HPS/MH light

I had my lighting 4 inches away from my plants for a week and then the leafes started to droop so i brought it up to 7 in away and now there starting to do better

TIP: If at all possible dont mess around with your grow... If you must change something then only change ONE thing at a time and give your plants a few days to get used to it... this is so they can help not be put into shock AND so you will know if this "CHANGE" will have a good or bad affect on your grow

Ya i fucked up on the lighting i had the lights like a foot away from the plants cuz i didnt do any research on lighting and how far away they should be from the plant until the first one fell over but now i have them like an inch and a half away and a fan blowing on the plants 24/7 and it seems to be getting more bulkier but what should i do about lighting arrangements my second time around. Would you recommend all daylite lighting for vegative growth or keep it how i have it now with the mixed spectrums?

 

[StickyNp0t3nt]

I done 24/7 lighting from the get go... and im still on 24/7

I am running a 150W HPS but im soon going to upgrade and get an additional 250W HPS/MH light

I had my lighting 4 inches away from my plants for a week and then the leafes started to droop so i brought it up to 7 in away and now there starting to do better

TIP: If at all possible dont mess around with your grow... If you must change something then only change ONE thing at a time and give your plants a few days to get used to it... this is so they can help not be put into shock AND so you will know if this "CHANGE" will have a good or bad affect on your grow

so your suggesting i leave my lights on 24/7 till its time to harvest?

 

[greenearth5]

No, I would do 24/7 lighting for the first few weeks..

 

[StickyNp0t3nt]

No, I would do 24/7 lighting for the first few weeks..

iight. After i switch my lighting to 12/12 for flowering, how should i get rid of the smell. Its on my otherside at the complete other end of my house of my parents room so i dont think ill have to worry about it getting upstairs but when i was drying out my purple haze plant it wreaked downstairs

 

[StickyNp0t3nt]

Just updating from the last post. My plants are huge as fuck now thanks to the idea of 24/7 lighting. The one plant already had pistils coming out from where leaf stem meets plant stem so i know thats a female, and the other two are unknown still but they grew a lot. And my humidity went up by 5% so i think adding that incandescent light helped with that problem

 

[greenearth5]

Im still trying to figure out how I can raise my humidity level in my closet

 

[robotninja]

Aside from buying a humidifier, you can put a bucket/pan/whatever full of water under your light to evaporate. This will raise your humidity, by how much I dunno, but it will defiantly raise it.

 

[peach]

You need to watch you pH. My tap water is about 6.8, but the nutrient producer (Ionic) and Green Seeds both suggest running the pH around 5.7 to 5.8. The nutrient it's self dropped the water pH a tiny bit, but I had to do quite a bit of acidifying to get it down to the recommended amount. The pH also bounces up as the acid is neutralized over a day or two, so it may need some more after initially setting it. Start off with about half strength nutrients. It also needs a lot of stirring and patience the first few times, you tend to overshoot a lot.

If you see any yellowing on the tips of the leaves, dilute the nutrient a touch and make sure the pH is around 5.8

Also be very careful filling up the system. I used a water can for mine and then remembered I'd used it with bleach earlier that month to do the drive. :O A reverse osmosis unit would be nice for chlorine free water, but I can't quite stretch to that at the moment.

I have a kW lamp, so the top of it's cool tube still gets quite warm. I might make some kind of smart water tray for the top to encourage water to evaporate off.

Watch your temperatures. You want them 21 / 25 C. It's very easy to bake plants with hydroponic lamps in enclosed spaces. Creep the lamp towards the plants an inch or so a day until you see heat issues, then back it off a couple.

 

[StickyNp0t3nt]

You need to watch you pH. My tap water is about 6.8, but the nutrient producer (Ionic) and Green Seeds both suggest running the pH around 5.7 to 5.8. The nutrient it's self dropped the water pH a tiny bit, but I had to do quite a bit of acidifying to get it down to the recommended amount. The pH also bounces up as the acid is neutralized over a day or two, so it may need some more after initially setting it. Start off with about half strength nutrients. It also needs a lot of stirring and patience the first few times, you tend to overshoot a lot.

If you see any yellowing on the tips of the leaves, dilute the nutrient a touch and make sure the pH is around 5.8

Also be very careful filling up the system. I used a water can for mine and then remembered I'd used it with bleach earlier that month to do the drive. :O A reverse osmosis unit would be nice for chlorine free water, but I can't quite stretch to that at the moment.

I have a kW lamp, so the top of it's cool tube still gets quite warm. I might make some kind of smart water tray for the top to encourage water to evaporate off.

Watch your temperatures. You want them 21 / 25 C. It's very easy to bake plants with hydroponic lamps in enclosed spaces. Creep the lamp towards the plants an inch or so a day until you see heat issues, then back it off a couple.

alright thanks for the tip on the PH and the water tray idea. Its been a few days since ive been on here due to hockey but my plants have come along way since i started this thread. The stems have bulked up, the growth production on all the plants has increased tremendously. Ill be on later tonight with some updated pics, if not tonight tomorrow morning.

 

[blazin an 8th]

"The one plant already had pistils coming out from where leaf stem meets plant stem so i know thats a female, and the other two are unknown still but they grew a lot..."



I noticed you said one of your plants is already showing its sex? are your plants still in the veg cycle or have you changed it to 12/12 to flower? The reason I ask is because I'm currently growing and I started to flower my plants and 2 plants started to show their sex and then I had a catastrophe with my clones so i put those 2 plants back into my veg closet (18/6) for maybe 3 or 4 days and both of the plants went hermie on me. I'm concerned that if your one plant is already showin its sex under 18/6 or even 24/0 then youll most likely turn your plants hermies and that just totally fucks up your crop, believe me. the reason they go hermie once they have pistels is bc of the stress you are putting on them. GOOD LUCK MAN

 

[StickyNp0t3nt]

"The one plant already had pistils coming out from where leaf stem meets plant stem so i know thats a female, and the other two are unknown still but they grew a lot..."



I noticed you said one of your plants is already showing its sex? are your plants still in the veg cycle or have you changed it to 12/12 to flower? The reason I ask is because I'm currently growing and I started to flower my plants and 2 plants started to show their sex and then I had a catastrophe with my clones so i put those 2 plants back into my veg closet (18/6) for maybe 3 or 4 days and both of the plants went hermie on me. I'm concerned that if your one plant is already showin its sex under 18/6 or even 24/0 then youll most likely turn your plants hermies and that just totally fucks up your crop, believe me. the reason they go hermie once they have pistels is bc of the stress you are putting on them. GOOD LUCK MAN

naw man i phrased that wrong my bad, its not budding but another set of leaves is coming in where branch meets stem and if i recall when i grew my first time outdoors this means i can start to bud if i want now right? And another question i have is about getting a Carbon Filter. Where can i buy one in a store for a good price, if so which stores? Would you recommend a homemade one, and if so could anyone explain how to make one with in depth detail bc every instruction booklet ive read on this site and other sites are confusing

 

[peach]

naw man i phrased that wrong my bad, its not budding but another set of leaves is coming in where branch meets stem and if i recall when i grew my first time outdoors this means i can start to bud if i want now right? And another question i have is about getting a Carbon Filter. Where can i buy one in a store for a good price, if so which stores? Would you recommend a homemade one, and if so could anyone explain how to make one with in depth detail bc every instruction booklet ive read on this site and other sites are confusing

Until you get more used to setting up and working with hydro, I'd just buy a carbon filter. They definitely work! The air leaving it will smell of absolutely nothing, after a few hours in a room the room will be similarly void of any smell and probably smell cleaner than most rooms you've been in. There are lots of ways to DIY hydro and grow setups, but you 100% appreciate the best ways to do it once you've had a go with some premade gear. You can read a million guides on it, but hands on is the only real teacher. You'll quickly discover certain things would work better for you arranged a different way.

The carbon dust is very, very messy if you're not careful with it. You don't want to end up with it everywhere or not working on your first go.

With the pistils, I would also say they're about ready to go into flowering.

 

[StickyNp0t3nt]

alright but carbon filters are too expensive and i dont have the money and im still trying to find a job somewhere. I was thinking about getting an Ionic Air Purifier and Deodorizer. Can anyone give me some feedback on this product or if you have something similar.