Coast2Coast 1st grow (Suggestions Welcome)

Alright so Ive been reading and watching video's for the past few years and ive decided its finally time to try my hand at it.

Ordered some Fem seeds: (already arrived and germed)
G13 labs Pineapple Express
Greenhouse seeds Bubba Kush
DieselRyder Lowryder
G13 Labs Gigabud

Lights I already have:
400w MH bulb
400w HPS conversion bulb (Only have one socket and ballast to run the 400's right now, may expand)
2x 175w MH
2x 150w MH
4x 96w 4 pin Powercompacts

Question I have about the lights is, Do you think I should run my Veg stage/room using the PC's and then run the Flower room using my all my MH and the one 400w HPS

I have alot of these lights from a saltwater aquarium hobby, so im familiar with the lights and keeping track of ppm and ph and temps and all that.
I used to grow coral, haha now im growing sweet buds

Gonna go hit up the hydro store tomorrow as I plan on doing this DWC style. still have to figure out which nutes im gonna use, dont plan on doing organic (Although I have a bubba kush I might put outdoors and do complete organic, just to see what it tastes like)

Right now I got plenty of room to do whatever I want, I have a spare room or two in my apartment, but with that in mind im gonna be pumping the air out through a scrubber and using ozone to try and cover up as much of the smell as I can.

but as of right now I just have the lights and the seeds, but like I said im gonna go to the hydro store tomorrow and pick up the stuff for the DWC and then probably 2 weeks from now will be that fan and carbon filter.

Like I said this is my first time through so give me some advice/tips from experience, like I said ive been reading up for a couple of years so im not a total noob trying to throw a couple of cfl's in a cardboard box and just hope for the best, Ide like to try and do this right.

Well I went to the hydro store and they only had one 5" netlid for a 5 gallon bucket, so I bought three 2" netpots and im gonna use some buckets i have laying around, gonna clean em with bleach and water, and then spray the outside of them black so im not letting any light affect my roots.

Will that be enough to just paint the outside of the bucket black? or am I going to still have some light leech through the walls, (its like a black spray enamel)

Anyways todays list goes:
1 medium sized bag of Hydroton
1 Black bucket
1 Black 5" netlid
and a tray of rockwool starter cubes.

When I got home I had made up some RO/DI water and let it settle to room temp earlier, around 72* F soaked the cubes and transferred my germinated seeds over to the cubes and put them back into the plastic bags I was using as a humidity dome.

One question I had was, if I have a freshly germed seed, say with the tip of the seed about 1/8" to 1/4" sticking out, do I need to close up the hole in the rockwool cube I just dropped the seed into, or do I just drop the seed in the hole and leave it be. Ive done this in soil before but not hydro, and Ive read up on the whole process but I cant remember anyone ever saying if they close up the hole on the germed seed or not, I know you do when your taking clone cuttings but it was just something in the back of my mind. I dont really want to cause myself any more headaches than I can help.

Now its off to the pet store to grab some airstone discs and maybe a new air pump I have a few laying around the house already, and I plan on buying a nice pump from the hydro store, but for starters i think i can use some of the cheapo air pumps

Is this thing gonna put out enough air for 4 DWC buckets? Its rated for 7 liters per minute, I know the one at the hydro store puts out quite a bit more, but this one was pretty cheap at 25$ Any experience with these? Anyone?

Just some shots of the buckets with the airstones in them

Close up

Gotta go back and get more of these netlids, unfortunately I bought the last one they had today, they said they'd have more next week. Evidently they're popular

RO/DI unit with in and out TDS

Close up of the RO/DI tds meter, outs at 002, which means I should probably change the DI resin

Evidently my eel came out to see what the hell I was doing in the kitchen, probably thought it was dinner time haha.

Just some pics of the girls in their new home, The Gigabud and Bubba Kush are sharing a bucket for now until I can get another one ready, but I wont let it root through the netpot before I switch it... lol wouldnt want to have two plants fighting for space.

the they are just about ready to drop the seed from the tops and show their shoots, the tap root is already about a quarter to half inch into the rockwool

Started the girls on some good stuff today...
started them off on the suggested amount for seedlings and we'll see what happens, I kinda wanted to find some organic stuff for my girls, little did I realize it what I got was organic... score

Heres some new pics of the girls. This is about day 5 since they sprouted, Just started them on FLora Nova by General Hydroponics, ive heard some good stuff about these nutes, and im excited to see what straight organics is gonna taste like...

started them off at 600ppm, or atleast thats what ive mixed for... I gotta go get a pH and ppm pen from the hydro store some time, i went today but didnt see a ppm pen just the pH one, but my pH has always been pretty good so im not stressing just yet, but when they really start growing im gonna make sure... but heres some pics of their progress...

1st is Bubba Kush
Heres the pineapple express
and you can see in the pic this is the dieselryder, which has a nice darker color than the rest
and last is the Gigabud, which seems to be getting the biggest the fastest

Quick question from anyone, ive heard around from other places that the leaves sticking up towards the light, im the "praying" position is a good thing, just wondering about this because today... because they sure were looking up today if thats a good thing haha

Nice variety of strains you got goin! Lookin' good so far.

Funny enough i just watched this documentary about how some people clone corals and make tons of money.

I f I was you I'd use the MH lamps for vegging. You'll have less stretching, tougher stems, bushier plants.

BTW do you have a fan blowing on them directly? that really helps in developing sturdier stems.

Yeah, ive got the 400w MH goin on them right now. you think I should use the other 2 175w's too? and yeah I noticed them stretching when I came back from being gone for the weekend so I lowered the lights down to about 12-15" away from the shoots, and no I havent put a fan blowing on them yet, You think I should go ahead this early on? I was gonna wait but if its a good idea im down to take advice

Nah I think the 4oow MH is more than enough, Don't be afraid to get a little closer though, as long as it's not too hot (just put your hand on top of the plant to see if it's too hot).

Trust me I let the fan go on 'em from day one. On my first grow I didn't, and the stems couldn't handle the bud weight so i had to stalk them. A fan blowing on them is kinda like lifting weights for us.

Just make sure you rotate the pots like 90 degrees everyday to get even "taxis" as we call it.

Ahhh word, I gotcha, +rep for your help man, Ill make some adjustments tomorrow when the light cycle starts over

Well im back from my weekend excursion and the girls look good this is about 1 week after sprouting
1st pic explains itself... Second is the Pineapple Express Then last... on the left is the Gigabud, and on the right is the Bubba Kush... everyone seems to be happy, the Gigabud continues to show more growth than the others, but I was happy to see the pineapple express filling out. I know a lot of people are talking trash about this strain but who gives a fuck, they act like just cuz the stuff was based out of a movie it cant be good shit... oh well I would really like to get a hold of some C99 though, heard that has an amazing pineapple taste...

next thing to do is get me a carbon filter and fan to pump some air out, not for temps as mush as that diesel ryder is gonna be smelling something wonderful in due time...

Heres the Diesel

Bubba Kush and Gigabud, b kush is up front...

Close up of the Gigabud

and a top view of the pineapple express...

Plants are lookin good bro!

Is it hot or humid in your grow room? It's powdery mildew season so take care of that before it's too late as it was for me...

I noticed it was a little warm the other day so I changed the fan up and adjusted the temps...

Yeah I saw some pics of that stuff looks pretty nasty... havent really read up about it though, Ill do it tonight when I get home, dont want any problems I can avoid...

Not tryin to be a buzzkill bro, but I have an extreme case of powdery mildew paranoia since my last grow (and it's back again!)

In the 2nd pic (BK and Gigabud) there's some white powdery stuff on the BK's rooting cube. Can you please examine it?

not a problem man, I appreciate anyone pointing something out that may become an issue, I noticed that myself... and was wondering if it was just condensation from evaporation... but Ill take another look at it and see if I can get some close up photos...

*edit* - yeah it does look like some kind of mold/mildew...

Dude I would try and get rid of those rockwool cubes.

Your best best is to get some sort of dehumidifier. That's why I hate spring/summer.

Powdery Mildew thrives in an environment with humidity above 50% and temperatures between 60F and 80F. So the ideal time in a grow room is lights out.

Try to take care of it now. It's almost impossible during flowering.

Make a solution of 1 part skimmed milk, 8 parts water and a dash of cinammon. Spray it all over your plants (ideally right before lights out) and repeat every week or so.

Still though, prevention is the key and that means reducing humidity.

Yeah im gonna try and increase the air exchange between my grow room and the rest of the house, How would I get rid of the rockwool? arent the roots all intertwined in them Ide just damage the roots by messing with them? yeah I had read somewhere about the milk, so im gonna give that a try and see what happens... I think tomorrow im gonna move the grow room out of the closet and into its own a/c controlled room where the humidity should be much, much less...

but on other notes Ive repotted the Gigabud and moved it to a container with around 1000 ppm of the flora nova grow...
the Bubba Kush is in a solution of about 650
Pineapple express is at 500
DieselRyder is sitting at about 400.

Next thing im gonna do is buy a Temp/Hum monitor, along with a carbon scrubber and exhaust fan... while I was working on checking ppm and moving plants I turned the fan off and noticed the dieselryder was starting to smell good..