First Grow and Journal

Perfect time to finally get off of the porch and get my first grow going. I'm sure I'll screw something up and need advice.

It is going to be RDWC in a 4x4 tent, 6" exhaust fan, Timber Redwood VS light at 3500K for the entire run. 4 12 gallon totes and a 17 gallon res. GH Flora nutes, still not decided but will probably due regular for veg and switch to Lucas formula for flowering.

I popped the 4 seeds (JBC Seeds, Rare Dankness GTH #1) into shot glass for 24 hours, 2 of them had cracked so I put them into RW cubes that had been soaked in 6.0 ph water. The other 2 had cracked the next morning so I put them into their cubes. 1 of them had just barely cracked so I may have moved it too early but it should be ok. After work today I checked and had the first 2 had broken through. They are in a humidome with a heating mat and a T5 light on top of the dome doing 18/6. Hopefully the other 2 will pop out tomorrow.

Game plan is to take the dome off tomorrow and start just a touch of water for the sprouted ones twice a day. No nutes added.

That's it for todays report. How many days does it normally take a bean to come out of the RW cube? Just curious if I need to be worried about the other 2 or just let them ride another few days. The RW cubes were not dried out today so they should be ok??

Bean #3 came through last night. I've got 3 of the 4 at least out of the RW cubes now. I gave the 3 that are already out a small sip of water this morning and cracked the dome so they could get fresh air. I will probably remove the dome completely this evening.

Ill come along for the ride. We have very similar set-ups. I went straight "lucas" from the beginning and a 400w mg for veg and then HPS for flower. Other than that the systems are very close in regards to tote sizes and qty.

When i put them in the systems I kept clear plastic cups over the net pots for what seemed like 2 weeks to help keep them in higher humidity. I put them in well before the roots were ready for the system though.

Mr. Mohaskey said:

Ill come along for the ride. We have very similar set-ups. I went straight "lucas" from the beginning and a 400w mg for veg and then HPS for flower. Other than that the systems are very close in regards to tote sizes and qty.

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Welcome along, should be interesting. I'll probably go lucas all the way through as that was the original plan.

The 4th one broke through the rockwool today so my first 4 beans are all 4 officially sprouted.

I have a lot of the RD genetics myself but none grown yet. GTH #1 is a tuff strain to grow for a first timer I hear. I hope you do well. I'll be checkin in to see how it looks. Off to a good start with 4 of 4.

Ok, all 4 are still doing ok. They are a couple of inches out of the rockwool cube. No roots showing on the sides or underneath yet. I am giving them a shot of 6.0 ph water twice a day. Planning on keeping them there until the roots come out so I can move them to the netpots.

Would they do better under the Timber if turned all the way down and left 36" or so away? Or just leave them under the small T5?

Should I be adding any nutes to their twice a day watering? I'm going to use GH Flora series and was planning on mixing up the res to 200 ppm once I move them over.

Just fed the seedlings their first touch of nutes. I decided on the entire trio for the seedling/veg stage. I mixed 1/4 teaspoon of all three in a gallon container and then adjusted the ph. PH was 7.8 so I dropped it down to 6.1. The orignal "ppm" of the tap water was 157, after adding the nutrients, it was measuring 323. I'm dipping a shot glass in the bucket to feed the little gals with.

When calculating what I am feeding the seedlings....would it be the 323 that it is currently at? Or 323 - 157, so I am feeding them 166? I don't think it will make much difference later in the grow but I don't understand this beginning part with the ppm being so low.

I got the 4 tote lids painted today so they are now blocking all the light for the roots. I also went ahead and plumbed my res for a chiller just in case I need to hook one up. I'm sure I will need it by mid to late July where I am growing.

Thanks for any nutrient tips on seedlings.

I use hard water, and my ppm readings always include the hard water ppms. I would not subtract out as they plants will use any nutrients in your water.

I'd have to look at my notes, but I dont think I added nutes to them until almost 2-3wks old. Keep a close eye on them, they dont need much in terms of nutes at this stage. Nute Co.'s feeding charts are usually on the high end. As others in this site have said, less is sometimes more. I'm 4 wks into flower and just scratching 700ppm, 1500ec.

Mr. Mohaskey said:

I dont think I added nutes to them until almost 2-3wks old. Keep a close eye on them, they dont need much in terms of nutes at this stage.

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Will do....thanks

The tallest one was not quite 3" today and the only light that I had been using was the little one that came with the propagation package. So I went shopping this morning for something better and managed to find some 4100K T8 bulbs. I had an old T8 shop light laying around so I rigged that up 3" above the tallest one this morning. I didn't take any pics tonight but they actually looked greener and hardier as far as the leaves.

Maybe I'll see a second set of leaves or some roots coming through soon.

The girls have not stretched any more since putting the T8 a couple of inches away yesterday morning. Still no roots showing out the sides and bottom. I gave them a small drink tonight and misted them. It does look like there are some more leaves trying to start though..good stuff!

I did put a fan blowing across them this morning trying to sturdy up the stems. The tall one is still at 2 3/4" the short 2 are only about 2". They should be ok now....hopefully

Well Thursday morning when I checked in the morning, I thought I had lost 2 of them. One was totally laying down and another was about 3/4 laying down. The one that died was the bean that took a few days longer to pop. I would bet that I killed it with either too much/too little water though after I had allowed it to stretch. This is what they looked like.

I put some pipe cleaners around the ones that were leaning and hoped for the best.

Now that it is Sunday, my three survivors look to be doing pretty good. Leaves are starting to develop but the stalks don't seem to be gaining much to me. They are on 18/6 2" under 4 T5's that are 4100K now. Still no roots popping out the side or bottom of any of them. I am still hopeful that I didn't screw all of em up with getting stretched.
Pic of them standing on their own now.

How do the leaves look? They first ones have a bit of yellow tint to them that I had not noticed earlier. Could be from over watering? Gonna let them dry out a touch and see if that one quits drooping.

I use rapid rooters so I wont be able to help much in the Rockwool. I do recall people saying that the rockwool tends to hold water though, and possible too much water or root rot is a concern. Hopefully some one with more experience in RW chimes in.

Idk much about rockwool but it looks like they need some food.

Romulanman said:

Idk much about rockwool but it looks like they need some food.

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Might be. For the last 4 or 5 days I have been giving them a drink of like 1/2 to 3/4 of a shot glass twice a day, depending on if they are totally dry or still have some weight to them. This has had Flora nutes, the trio, with 1/8 teaspoon per gallon. It came out to like 325 ppm which really isn't much as my water reads like 167 so I am not feeding them much. You think more or less? And talking about the amount of water, is that too much or not enough you think?

hilltopbud said:

Might be. For the last 4 or 5 days I have been giving them a drink of like 1/2 to 3/4 of a shot glass twice a day, depending on if they are totally dry or still have some weight to them. This has had Flora nutes, the trio, with 1/8 teaspoon per gallon. It came out to like 325 ppm which really isn't much as my water reads like 167 so I am not feeding them much. You think more or less? And talking about the amount of water, is that too much or not enough you think?

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I always thot you had to drench them when watering. So prob a whole shot glass would be fine for those.

@rkymtnman Here is your chance to give me shit about using the rockwool! You have to laugh or at least smile a bit.

Seedlings have been up for about 10 days. I have been feeding them GH trio at 325 twice a day. The leaves are beginning to droop a bit and a couple of them have yellowing on the first leaves but a lot of new leaf growth happened in the past 2 days.

Here is a profile pic and a leaf pic from above on each of the 3 seedlings. Please give me thoughts.....too much water/too little water....too much nutes/too little nutes...or something else?
Plant 1. This one got too much water yesterday morning I know for a fact as I spilled it, so I did not water it last night and just barely this morning.

Plant 2.

Plant 3.

@RainDan I am going to put these in my rdwc system as soon as the darned roots comes out of the cubes under the Redwood VS. At what point should I switch away from the T5 4100K lights they are now under. I could put move the tray into the tent under the Redwood now if they would benefit. What height would be best when I do? Turned all the way down? Halfway down? Thanks for any tips on when / how to use the Redwood.

the new growth looks fine to me. i don't worry much about the first true set of leaves.