All you need is WATER...and a little LOVe

[FONT=&quot]I have started this grow journal to show those who have not tried the wonders on Hydro what they are missing. This guide is devoted to ONLY using water to grow (with the help of a few added nutrients). There will be no soil, rook wool, or anything else that is not in liquid form being used on these beauties of nature. You will find, just like I have, that you will have impressively strong plants, the most amazing roots systems you have ever seen, and a very good chance that you will never have any little pest problems (that in general start because of soil contamination).

I am no expert, in fact if you ask me technical questions I probably would not be able to give you the best answer, however I am a very natural grower and believe that if you spend time with your plants you begin to know what they want and how they are doing. I also believe that nutrients are needed but are not the end all and be all. In my journal you will see that often fresh water flushes do an amazing job of keeping your plant happy (and can be quite necessary at stages).

I will be posting pictures of my babies as well as some of my big ladies. I am currently in my second cycle of Blue Widows (not a lot of yield but a very powerful smoke).

WARNING FOR HYDRO: do not go lightly into Hydro growing. In some ways it is a lot easier than soil. In some ways it is incredible complicated. It can be what you make it. Often, an inferior plant will not survive growing in Hydro, you typically only end up with very strong and healthy plants but it does have a tendency to kill things that are just not strong enough. If you are looking to have every seed you grow survive you might not go hydro. But, if you stick it out, get your females and clone then using only water (as I will describe later) you will have incredibly strong clones (with incredible roots). You have to pay special attention to your seedlings in particular as they really don't like getting their leaves wet (fickle little girls) and will wither away if it lasts too long. Hydro can also be a bit more expensive than soil but I think it is worth it.

My first few grows were soil based so I can answer some questions based on that but really I am in LOVE with hydro and would love to talk to like minded people, hence the reason for this journal (it is not easy to talk to people about your **ahem** not quite illegal hobbies. Maybe it is just the hippie in me emerging but I thing there is nothing better.

Please feel free to give advice and help or ask questions as any who have grown knows that there is a lot of feeling your way through things. Also, do not take what everyone says to heart. Read a little bit of everything and then do what is best for you. Not everything that works for one will work for others, especially if you are not growing strains that are close to one another.[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]Hope you enjoy what I have to say.
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[FONT=&quot]Sincerely[/FONT]


[FONT=&quot]POison Ivy Grower aka 'ARYKKAH'
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I am going to start from the beginning with my current clones. For anyone who is already at this stage you need to give your hydro plants a good few days of fresh water (called a flush) to make sure that your clones have a better chance. Maybe it is just nature but plants when trying to root always do better in fresh water. Once your plants are prepped, take a few clippings from the bottom of your plant. Try to make sure you take a clipping that has at least three sets of leaves.

Step One: Get your water ready.

You will want to get a jug of water ready. This water should be treated in one of two ways.

1) Either leave it out over night so that the water reaches room temp and most of the minerals in your water have settled, or

2) Take the water straight from the tap at about room temp and use your PH tester to see what your natural PH is for your water. Weed grows best if you can maintain a 6.0. If you don't have one you really need one for hydro, it is important to maintain your PH and this is your chance to play GOD and be in control of your environment (the beauty of hydro).

Note: Some people will insist that your PH never fluctuates and that you check it a few times a day. If you have time, that is great, go ahead, and you will have more time with your plants to get to know them. You will not always have this time so just know that your plants will still be fine even if your PH is a little high at 7.0 (which is usually where your water starts depending on where you live) or as low as 5.0. Just try not to go below that and definitely do not go higher than that.

Once your water is ready you really should get a few glasses that are coloured (don't mind the spelling, I am Canadian). Roots do not want any light at all so having a coloured glass (especially if it lets nothing through is perfect). I am going to post a bunch of pics for everything I talk about. If you don't have any you can use clear classes and cover them with something (say tin foil) but I have found that they will not take as fast.

Step Two: Taking clippings (called cloning)

Now there are a lot of people out there that have methods of cloning. As the title says, this is the all water journal, and so yes, we will only clone with water as well. Call me old fashion but if it worked for my grandma with her roses it will work for this as well, and time has shown that (at least for me) that this method is almost a 100% grow rate.

When taking your clipping as previously mentioned, you need to flush your plant with fresh water before clipping. Take clippings just before you want to start flowering. If you absolutely have to take clippings during flowering, do it just when you start, but your success rate dramatically drops when you take a clone from a plant that is starting into the flowering stage.

Take a healthy clipping (though I have successfully taken some weaker looking ones and not had a problem getting them to root) from the base of the plant that has about three leaf levels. Cut the stem right at the base with which ever method you would like, just know that you are going to have to make a second cut. When you clip your plant put it directly into water while you are collecting the rest. Take what you need from your plant (depending on how many plants you want to maintain, or depending on how much trouble you can get into -- KNOW YOUR LEGAL LIMITS, ONLY FEMALES CAN GET YOU INTO TROUBLE IN CANADA).

Once you are ready with your clippings get yourself a small pair of scissors. Cut your clipping INSIDE the water on a 45 degree angle. This will open up the stem so that it can start to absorb water (this is a must because plants need water to LIVE!). Once it has been cut put it right into a root hormone (these usually include germ killers as well as root stimulus). Then you want to remove extra leaves if there are too many. As a rule of thumb you want your leave circumference as large as the base of a pop can (again, I am Canadian, we say pop, if you like it means soda). In water you are okay with a few extra leaves as long as you spray a little more (more to come on that).

Once your cutting is ready put it into your coloured glass with a piece of tin foil covering the top of the glass with a small hole large enough for your stem. Let your clipping settle into the cup. Do this for all your clippings and then put your plants into a growing dome (included in pictures to come) as your plants want to be warm and humid. Let your plants go without light for about 24 hrs. Also, clones do not want to be under direct sunlight so a dome really is recommended. Once your clones have gone lightless for 24 hrs you can decided on your grow schedule. You can go for anywhere from 18 hrs of sun to 24 hrs depending on how fast you want these to grow. Slower is usually better but it is up to your needs. I have an 18 hr sun with 6 hrs dark (that way the babies can store up their food).

You should get a spray bottle. Try to spritz your clones anywhere from 4-7 times a day. Right now your clones have no roots so will have a hard time getting food. Leaves also absorb water so this will help keep them alive. You might also want to spray a little water on the top of your dome to keep up the humidity. Usually your plants will absorb the water within 10 min.

Changing Water in your Clones:

You will need to change your water every few days to make sure that everything remains healthy and clean. Do that same for your spray bottle.

Roots:

You will start to see small white bumps form on all your stems when they are starting to root. If these bumps are not showing you will still notice that some of your leaves will begin to turn yellow. You hope not to see any serious death on your leaves but just that the colour is starting to fade. A growing clone tends to look light green (they turn back dark green when they settle in the hydro buckets). Those little white bumps will start to grow and create long beautiful white roots. Just remember that the majority of the roots will start close to the water level in the glass. You want to try to have at least 3inches of stem with your roots starting below that. But you can't control everything.

Plant your clones into buckets when they are about four longer roots. Sometimes you will get insane about of roots (pictures of that includes as well).

are you saying that your clone clippings are only suspended in water....being supported by the tin foil...the end that you clipped is sitting in water only???

Of course, Water only in this post. If someone can help I want to post my pics but I can't seem to get them posted. I keep getting an error. I have pics of my whole set up including the cups (and the how the plants are situated), the roots starting, planted clones and their roots.

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-pics/index.php?n=12015

This is a pic of my current two rooting clones. They are really close to full roots and that is why the leaves are starting to yellow, but as you see there is no death in the leaves. They will be perfectly functioning leaves for when these babies go into their buckets.

This is a pic of my tiki glasses (don't laugh), a close up of one of my clones so you can see the health and the roots on my current (planted two days ago) clone.

Correction,

Pic one: glasses
Pic two: planted clone roots
Pic three: current clone stem that is in water. You can see that start of the roots on the stem.

Here are two more pics.

The first is one of my healthy clones sitting in water. You can always tell the health by the new growth at the center. The second pic is my most recent two planted clones. You can see that one of them has already turned dark green (that one was planted a few days ago). The other planted clone is still light green because it was planted yesterday.

A handy things to have when hydroing is plastic covered twist ties. They don't hurt the plants and help to keep your leaves above the water line. I use twist ties on my seedlings as well if they look like they are about to fall over during their growth.

This is my eldest clone that was planted just over a week ago.

Forgive my getto set up. I have mylar but have not set up the room quite the way that I want it yet so right now I have tin foil to reflect light. As I said I am not the most sophisticated set up but I am only doing this for myself and to get Widow which is not the easiest thing to buy. But it is the best smoke to me.

Your posts are very appreciated...the pictures of new root growth will be a great help!!!
do you think rooting in water is better than say using rock wool????

I have never really had much success using rockwool for cloning. It might be a specific breed thing such that Widow does not like to take in the medium. I am sure that people have had success with other methods but an really important part of cloning is keeping your plant alive and I have found that there is a lot of death and wilting when I used rock wool.

Why using water only for cloning?

Think of it this way. Plants need water to grow. I am sure that people are thinking "but it also needs air". That is what water has in it. There is enough air in the water (if you keep it fresh) and enough water and air getting to the leaves that you really don't need anything other than water and a covered glass. In my way of doing it there is generally no death on the leaves (which is the most important part of your plant until the roots take).

I will post pics again in a few days which is about when my last two clones should have some real roots so that everyone can see how nice they form. And because I save most of my leaves the clones tend to root very well in the buckets because they have enough root and leaf to get the energy that they need. I still recommend spraying your clones once they are in bucket (or soil if you decide you want to just try water growing during cloning only). All plant still like to have a nice 'bath' every few days as leaves do absorb water as well.

The reason that I started this All Water journal is that when I first started out I was using soil as well. I had a pest problem start on the surface of my soil (you start to see little white specs on the soil which is eggs and larva which turn into tiny fruit fly like bugs). Using soil also have the unfortunate problems (occur more often) of leaves discolouring due to all kinds of over or under feeding problems.

Since going all water I have had zero problems with bugs (which is best because I am a house grower for personal use). And unless one of my ladies decided to reach too close to my light and get a little singed usually my leaves are all uniform and healthy.

My set up is a few (not telling how many) General Hydroponic Water Farm buckets (which is the drip system and I absolutely recommend a drip system to anyone).

All my buckets have clay pellets in them (remember no soil or anything else that can pollute my space). Clay is just a great medium for the roots to hang on to, that is really their only purpose as well as staying damp for the roots.

I have posted below pics of my two last babies that have not been sexed yet so we can watch the fun. The first pic is of one of my babies (Widow as some know is a really sparse leaf plant and I am trying to see if I can slow their growth a little to make them more bushy, so far so good). The second pic is of the 'trunk' of my plant. I stay truck because it is almost strong enough to be one (one of the other benefits of hydro). The third pic is of the root growth inside the bucket. I have the unfortunately feeling through experience that the one pictured might be a boy (the boys tend to have a lot more bunches of roots earlier on) but since I slowed down their growth I will not know for sure until I start to flower them.

Just to clarify, I moved away some of the clay pellets so that you could see that roots as they grow down (which I like better than some surface growth that soil has). I am fascinated by the roots that these plants produce in this system.

A word of caution. The roots will begin to grow up the stock a bit where it meets with the clay pellets. This is okay in a drip system because it stays wet but you should try to cover up any exposed roots with pellets.

This is the most recent pic of my clones in water. I think you can see that the one if the foreground seems to have perked up a lot making me think that it is not too much longer until those roots really spout.

Here are some updated pics of my clones. You can see that the roots have started to really sprout on my stocks. They are already sitting away from the green and it will not be too much longer until they are full length roots. I have also posted picks of my three other clones that are in buckets and growing nicely.

Let me now introduce your to my pretty girl and her very hairy flowers. This blue widow has only been flowering for about 3 weeks so there is still more than a month to go but she is beautiful so far. If anyone has any experience with widow and have a suggestion on how to increase the yield please post it because besides using things like Kool Bloom, this plant does not have the largest buds but a great high.

There has been some really strong growth on my flowering girl (pic to come). She is filling out the way that I had hoped. Around the top of the cola that is hairs starting on the leaves (always a good sign). I am still just over a month away but I have 'HIGH' hopes.

I have just changed the water in all my buckets and it made me think about bucket maintenance and cleaning and thought that I would put some info here for people who are thinking on going hydro.

First off, it is good to know what kind of minerals are in your water. Where I live there can be a high amount of calcium in the water. Though you would think that this would be where most of the deposits on your drip system or your tubing comes from, it usually is the deposits from your nutrients (if you are using General Hydro products a lot of the crusting is from their Flora Gro).

Due to this, your tubing (the air tube as well as the water tube) can get clogged by debris and the water stops dripping. This is a really quick fix. Just pull out your tubing and where you see the clog poke through it with a tooth pick, breaking up the clog and then rinse with water. All done. You should also wipe down the drip ring when you can so that you don't get stray and spluttering (your leaves and sometimes your stocks don't like that).

Some people (and I only do this on occasion) use hydrogen peroxide to keep micro organisms (like bacteria) out of your water and sometimes this helps to breakdown the debris in your water (depending on what is in your water).
But you really need to be careful with this as you don't want too much in your water and it is really not good to get it on your skin (and sometimes it even eats through its own bottle!).

I have attached a few pics below of some of the things that I am talking about.

I will post again shortly with pics of be beauties.

Here is my big beauty. She is just starting to fill out (though she has some weeks to go)

This is the update on my clones. They are getting really close to planting. Probably only a few more days as once the roots start they really start to grow.