my first water farm

[redrum83420]

ok thank you. i will keep a eye on water temps. about to go soak the starter plugs in 5.7 ph water for 5 min then put the seeds in them.

 

[K21701]

Put seeds in with tweezers pointy side down....and if the water gets to warm in the bucket keep water bottles in freezer and you can throw them in the bucket without changing the ph

 

[redrum83420]

Put seeds in with tweezers pointy side down....and if the water gets to warm in the bucket keep water bottles in freezer and you can throw them in the bucket without changing the ph

ok. thats a good idea. i changed the water in the dwc because it had a little clay power on the bottom. i must have moved it around to much. i added ph down again to get it to 5.8 the ppm is 514 now. seeds are in the starter plugs now in plastic cups.

 

[K21701]

Instead of Hydroton I am currently using Hail. No rinsing, no dust and I love it...here is a link if you are interested.

http://www.suretogrow.com/stg-hail-promotion

 

[redrum83420]

never seen that stuff before. looks kool. any pix of your grow using it?

 

[redrum83420]

i just checked my water in my dwc its up to 6.45 already. the plug isnt even put in it yet. why does it raise so fast? is there a way to make it stable? how much ph down can i add before it becomes toxic to my plants? its just tap water running right now. i'm doing test for my plugs.

 

[K21701]

I always ph my water before adding it...Hydroton will make ph fluctuate like crazy is if is not rinse well...and this means like rinsed for 10 minutes...you have to keep mixing it around so it all get rinsed well. Add ph down a little at a time until ph is between 5.5 and 5.8. I buy RO water from the grocery store from one of those machines that fill up the gallon jugs....only .39 a gallon with your own jug. Check out my Hempy Buckets grow. I think the first couple of pics are 3" net pots with the hail.

 

[redrum83420]

i cant go out and buy that much water that often. i live in a trailer park, some one will notice if i keep bringing alot of water home. besides the 5 gallon ones i buy to drink every couple of weeks. what if i put some water in a bucket and then keep adding snow? there's a shit load of snow here. is tap water better then snow or should i just stick to tap water.

 

[K21701]

Well just fill buckets with tap and let sit 24hrs to get rid of chlorine and then ph it...snow is good but it will take a lot of it. I buy 5 gallons of ro water and it last me almost a week.

 

[redrum83420]

as of right now i have 6 med plants in soil. 6 mimosa's in soil. plus my mother has her plants and a fish tank. so i go threw tap water alot. how many times a day should i ph my water? every week or 2 for res change?

 

[K21701]

I ph once a day but I would check it a couple of times a day until you see yours stabilize a bit...Res change is up to you...some do once a week, others once a month and I have heard of some that do not do a change at all. Too lazy to read back to see if you already said but what type of lights are you using?

 

[redrum83420]

im using a 400 watt mh its less then 2' from my plants. botanicare nutes i bought for my soil plants. what is the highest my ph should get before i ph it down to 5.8? should 2-3 weeks between be good between res changes with out costing me an arm or leg in nutes?

 

[K21701]

I do not let my water get over a ph of 5.8. Start if off at 5.5 and when it goes over 5.8 get it lowered back down. Once plants get a good size they start eating a bit more. I am currently growing Hempy style with Osmocote time released fertilizer which last for 4 months. All I do is water every couple days and thats that!!! lol

 

[redrum83420]

so its ok to add ph down every couple of hours? i put the plug in the hydroton as soon as i see roots coming out the plug right? what should i set my timer on? i have a dig timer with up to 6 settings. i cant wait for these seeds to start growing. sorry so many question. i guess its the excitement of growing hydro for the first time, and the noob part also lol.

 

[K21701]

What is the timer for? If those rings are some sort of drip system I cannot help you there....I use net pots and keep the water level right below the bottom of the pot so the water bubbles splash the bottom of the pots. As soon as my seeds sprouted I put them in my buckets.
This is my newly sprouted Bubblelicious in her DWC. I have a hole drilled in the top of the bucket...tube goes thru the hole with an airstone attached....this is hooked to the air pump so the bubble splash the net pot to keep her moist. I have never used a drip system and have heard a lot of people over water with them. I never have watered my plants from the top using dwc. She will only be in here until she has some roots coming out of the bottom of the net pot then she will be transfered into her hempy bucket.

 

[redrum83420]

yea my setup has a drip ring. thats why ive been asking about a timer so i dont over water the hydroton. and end up killing my plants. i went with the starter plugs instead of the rockwool, because they seem to not work good with a water farm setup. the lady at the hydro shop was growing a carrot in a GH water farm. and started with these plugs. and there organic from tree bark i think she said. it says good for soil or hydro so it gives me option on what i want to do with my cuttings.

 

[redrum83420]

i bought a new air pump today. its a 30-60 gallon air pump (2 air outlets) it should run both water farms drip systems at same time. the smaller 10-30 gallon air pump will be used when the root make it threw the net pot into the water/nutes. i'll be hooking up the valves inline from the pump to the unit(for drip system), to try and control the speed of the drip.

 

[redrum83420]

first seed is coming out of the top of the starter plug. will be put into the water farm once roots make it out of the plug. will be using RO water with some cal-mag added. i'll start nutes first res change at about 2 weeks. its a lph seed which is lemon pepper haze. still waiting on the cbb seed(cali big bud)

View attachment 1318522

 

[redrum83420]

pic
View attachment 1318524

 

[redrum83420]

she's getting there. slowly but surely. how many roots should be coming out of the starter plug before i but it in the waterfarm?