Newb Question on seedlings I have in rock wool cubes!!

[Kushaholic88]

I currently have a 2 week old Seedling in Rock wool of Amnesia Lemon and two other 6 day old seedling in rock wool as well of Northern Lights. I have the seedlings under 125 Watts CFL Lights on a 18/6 schedule I have been watering with Ph balanced water of 5.5 ph level they look in great shape I have Pics at the bottom of the amnesia.

1. My first question is should I start adding nutes to the two week old seedling?

2. How do I determine when the plant is in the vegetative process? Do I wait to see roots?

3.Is pea gravel a good substitute for a grow medium besides hydroton? and can I use rockwool grow blocks as well?

 

[Kushaholic88]

Does anybody have an input?

 

[Brazko]

1. No, I would wait until they atleast develop there second set of true leaves. Light and Water is more than enough for your plants to thrive off of at this stage. I sometimes wait a little longer than that.
2. The plant is always in the vegetative process. As long as you have them under 18/6 they will remain in the vegetative process until you switch to 12/12. leaving plants under 18/6 is how mother plants are kept.
3. Pea gravel will work. I'm not sure about any downsides it may have as far as attracting pests, bacteria, etc.. But as long as your medium doesn't permit light through it and provides a sturdy base for your plant to grow in, what could be used as a medium can be limitless as you will come to understand. I would suggest using the rockwool as the holding medium inside your net basket and surrounding it with hydroton or the pea gravel to cover open space that light may leak through.

Also, I would normally have my hydro grow set up similar to how you have yours but I do DWC and would have them sitting in my container with a Airstones underneath. As the moisture created by the bubbling would be enough to keep moisture at the plants base until the roots grew out long enough to reach the water. The only thing you would have to be certain of at first is making sure the water was just high enough for the bubbling action to be effective.

 

[Kushaholic88]

Thank you so much bro that pretty much sums it up for me at this point... Reps have been added and if u dont mind maybe I can ask you more questions down the line once I get to the next stage

Thanks again.

 

[Kushaholic88]

1. No, I would wait until they atleast develop there second set of true leaves. Light and Water is more than enough for your plants to thrive off of at this stage. I sometimes wait a little longer than that.
2. The plant is always in the vegetative process. As long as you have them under 18/6 they will remain in the vegetative process until you switch to 12/12. leaving plants under 18/6 is how mother plants are kept.
3. Pea gravel will work. I'm not sure about any downsides it may have as far as attracting pests, bacteria, etc.. But as long as your medium doesn't permit light through it and provides a sturdy base for your plant to grow in, what could be used as a medium can be limitless as you will come to understand. I would suggest using the rockwool as the holding medium inside your net basket and surrounding it with hydroton or the pea gravel to cover open space that light may leak through.

Also, I would normally have my hydro grow set up similar to how you have yours but I do DWC and would have them sitting in my container with a Airstones underneath. As the moisture created by the bubbling would be enough to keep moisture at the plants base until the roots grew out long enough to reach the water. The only thing you would have to be certain of at first is making sure the water was just high enough for the bubbling action to be effective.

When u say use rockwool as the holding medium you mean putting the seedling on top of the rockwool grow rocks and surrounding the rest of the seedling in the net pot with pea gravel or hydroton?

 

[Brazko]

When u say use rockwool as the holding medium you mean putting the seedling on top of the rockwool grow rocks and surrounding the rest of the seedling in the net pot with pea gravel or hydroton?

Ummm, yes... Right now your seedling is in rockwool, and you have the cubes around it and at the bottom you have hydroton. You could have just used hydroton/pea gravel to secure, sturdy, and cover the rockwool cube at this point. The grow blocks could serve this purpose as well but as your plant gets bigger, it may start to give and tilt over from being to heavy, whereas the hydroton would not allow any or much give.