Hi all. Been wasting lots of money on seed and cant get past the transplant stage in rockwool cubes. I have a 2X4' tent out fitted with a 400 watt MH/ HPS switchable with air cooled reflector. I am using the paper towel method to get them started without issue. I soak my starters in reverse osmosis water at 5.5 for about 10 seconds... no nutrients. I get them to come up as us usual, under 4 foot full spectrum florescents, and they stay there until I see the second set of true leaves comming in. I give them around 250ppm nutrient solution eventually ending up around 750ppm at transplant. The temps stay around 78F naturally with a humidity level of around 60% spiking to 80% with the lights off. After switching to teh 400w MH, I have a centrifugal fan set to only turn on when tenps rise above 78F. The inlet fan turns on only at this point as well. With a cool mist humidifier things stay around 45-50%. They are fine until its time to tranplant into the 4X4 blocks. I soak the blocks in 5.5 RO water for 45 minutes. Then I flush them thru with A N Sensi Grow 2 part at around 800 ppm. I used to use many of the same companys macro nutrients as well but due to this starting to occur I found that to be wasteful. They immediately start turning yellow in the veins and then burned leaf tips with curling leaves. Usually they wont need water a couple of weeks and start growing really fast. When the blocks are halfway dry I use a top feed drip system that used to turn on 3 times a day for 15 minutes. I have changed this to twice a day, 5 minutes same issue. I noticed a huge spike in the resivoir which is usually at 15 litres. Keeping things around 5.5 at night will cause a 6.5 reading after the first feeding in the morning. I was curious about that. I have had my nutrients for at least 15 months, but in speaking with AN they state a shelf life of 24 months or more. Nutes sat still for about 9 months unused. I pretty much have everthing called for under Sensi 2 part in their Nut Calculator and the shit is expensive. If I am missing any info please let me know and any help is greatly appreciated. I have had great success in the past and at this poit I have spent my quota on my setup. Pics attached:
Cant get past seedling in Rockwool!!! Great setup!!!???
- Thread starter jrgspga
- Start date
itsgrowinglikeaweed
Well-Known Member
This is the nicest way I can think of to tell you that you should grow in soil.
I wish you the best of luck.
I wish you the best of luck.
IamAbigMan
Active Member
Uh... use soil :O
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chitownsmoking
Guest
use something other then rockwool. rapid rooters ect.
abayareabum
Member
[FONT="]I would soak those rockwool blocks over night or 24 hours. Pockets of air hide in those things. But I dont think thats the problem. I think that is nute burn. I would never hit a seedling with 750 PPM. Im about week 4 in veg with Advanced Nutrients Organic formula and Im only at 600PPM and still burning up my White Widow. Id try keeping my PPM under 250 for a few seedlings to experiment and see what happens. Although Im curious why youre PH if changing in your reservoir so much? I use rockwool all the time for clones and never have any problems. 
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chitownsmoking
Guest
the ph of rockwool is naturally fucked up to begin with. you gotta soak them with proper phed water untill you get it in a respectable range and then start germing
abayareabum
Member
Like chitownsmoking said rockwool does have a high PH so soak it with a low PH water 4.5-5 to offset this. Plus its a little more susceptible PH shifts, so it needs a little more attention.Chitown, hehe. I'm from Wrigley-ville on the North Side lol 
slitherhead
Member
i use rockwool too, the only problem i have right now is my stivas are making no bud. but in your case use low ppm for seedlings and soak the cubes in low ph water.
I slowly increased teh nutes until I was at 800ppm. Ph is at 5.5 when applied
Maybe the soaking is the issue because the ph spikes way up there. I have ordered new nutes to see what happens as well. At this point most look like they will not make it.[FONT="]I would soak those rockwool blocks over night or 24 hours. Pockets of air hide in those things. But I dont think thats the problem. I think that is nute burn. I would never hit a seedling with 750 PPM. Im about week 4 in veg with Advanced Nutrients Organic formula and Im only at 600PPM and still burning up my White Widow. Id try keeping my PPM under 250 for a few seedlings to experiment and see what happens. Although Im curious why youre PH if changing in your reservoir so much? I use rockwool all the time for clones and never have any problems.
I appreciate the help on that... I think its the rockwool. I will soak overnight to see what the ph is thereafter. I have been super successful with it and thats why I want to stay with it.Like chitownsmoking said rockwool does have a high PH so soak it with a low PH water 4.5-5 to offset this. Plus its a little more susceptible PH shifts, so it needs a little more attention.Chitown, hehe. I'm from Wrigley-ville on the North Side lol
jeebuscheebus
Active Member
24 hours soak in 5.5 on that rock wool is the first step. Remove and shake out excess water. Do not squeeze the rock wool, just a quick shake. This will balance the PH in wool and stabilize your PH in your system. Then I would say dial down the PPM on the nutes.
What water are you using? Could be adding to your PPM if it is tap.
What water are you using? Could be adding to your PPM if it is tap.
I will do that with my seeds I plan to germinate within a couple of days. I will keep posting with pics. Soak in low ph at least 24 hours..... should I do the starters cubes this way as well? Or just the 4X4 blocks?
Honestly I used tap to get them soaked, then moved to RO water in the res. PPM was around 750-800 at transplant and they looked yellow then, but strong as hell. I suspected ph.
Thanks for all the great responses, and I am sorry for not trying again sooner... but you know how that goes. I have started some super silver haze and the difference is I have turned off the heating mat after germination. I had no clue why I decided to keep it running, and it was more than likely the cause of the problem with issues in the root system. They seem to be in pretty good shape now and the solution is around 250-300 ppm. I tossed out all my nutes and got new Advanced Nutrients Sensi Grow 2 part. I am still only using RO water, but I am still germing them in tap using the paper towel method. I only dipped the cubes in the solution and I plan to gradually increase the ppm until its at almost normal prior to transplant into the hugo blocks. There are pics attached of where Im at right now. I will keep posting my progress with these 4... This is only a test as I have thrown away enough time and money thus far. Thanks again for the support. 