First Time Hydro Grow

Ok, so this is my first time growing with Hydro. I have had plenty of outdoor soil grows but no living in the burbs that is kind of hard. So this is my journal and first attempt at hydro. I cheated and just ordered the kit from SH as I just did not have the experience or time to put it together myself but after seeing everything and putting it together I could do it. I welcome any advise or constructive criticism, but I dont welcome people that just want to bash me for doing something wrong or being a newbie so start your own thread and bash yourself for being an idiot. With that out of the way, I am just now on my first day and after reading some threads I think I may have already screwed up with my first bonehead move. I put the seeds in the rockwool thinking that would provide the same effect as doing the paper towel method but from what I am reading it will not. So now I am left with either pulling the seeds from the rockwool and doing the paper towel method to germ. or just leaving it as is and hope for the best. Any advise in that department would be great. I have also posted an album with pics of the box I created and will cover the grow with pics here when I get a chance. As for lighting I am using the fluro that were provided with the complete kit. I installed a fan at the top of the box and a vent tube at the bottom, how it will work? I guess we will all see. Wish me luck and I welcome your advise.

Ok, so I just kept thinking and it kept bothering me about trying to germ in the rockwool so I took additional seeds and put them in the paper towel and use that method, now we will see which comes first.

bigdaddyju34 said:

Ok, so I just kept thinking and it kept bothering me about trying to germ in the rockwool so I took additional seeds and put them in the paper towel and use that method, now we will see which comes first.

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So here I am a week later and nothing. I think I flooded one of my cubes as it turned to nothing but mush. I wondered if I even had sprouts so I pulled another cube up to dig out the seed and the damn thing had not even sprouted. The seeds I put in the paper towel started to sprout but then I went away for the weekend and forgot about them and dont know if they will make it now. I took three that had a small sprout and put them in the rockwool to see if I could get anything. I have plenty of ideas what I am doing wrong at this moment but no real way to control it. I may give them another week and start over. So I will post again in another week.

Alright, now I actually have 3 sprouts, I will post pictures of this later but really nothing to brag about yet. Today is the day when I will change the water out for the first time, even though I have a drainage spout I am concerned about this process as I dont have anywhere to drain the water without transporting the res. outside, this does not concern me so much now but once they get bigger this could be a problem as I have read that the roots should not get any light so I am wondering how I am actually going to accomplish this feat. Anyway not much more going on other than I do actually have some sprouts and happy about that.

WOW, I dont guess i can grow anything. So here I am dont even know how long it has been, a month or more and my poor little plants have done nothing. I really only have 1 left and noticed today that it wilted over after I changed the res. yesterday. I dont think I will even post any pictures as it is really bad that I cant even grow 1 plant, been at this for over a month now and all I have to show for it is a 1 in sprout that is now wilted over. Not sure what I was doing wrong. It could have been multiple factors, my box was to hot, I did not have the right amount of nutts, pH was off (I checked that with the strips that came with my set) could not really tell as it looked good to me. So I have tried to sprout some more seeds and start from scratch again. This may be the neverending post if I dont get growth. I took 2 of the sprouts out because they have nothing other than the first 2 leaves that come so I took them and put them in dirt to see what would happen.

Alright, now we may be getting somewhere. Of the two that I have put in soil both look like they are going strong now. One actually has 3 levels of leaves now and the other is starting on 3 levels. I also put some more seeds in jiffy pots to sprout. I decided to experiment some more so I took the smallest of the 2 plants out of the soil today, loosened the soil around the plant and it pulled right up roots and all. Washed all of the dirt off and put back into a new fresh water res to see if I can actually get this hydro thing to work. I did it right after the lights went off for the night. So we will see what happens in the morning. I think I will have to move the lights up a little bit tomorrow. Now that I have 1 soil and 1 hydro in my box and both were about the same, assuming that I care for them properly and try to read more and figure out what I am doing then we may get a different story for both. I hope this works. Will try to post pics soon. Dont really want to humiliate myself.

Here are some pictures of 1 plant in soil, I have another in water but this one is twice the size of the one in water and more leaves and just seems like a healthy plant overall but the bad side is I THINK IT IS A HE!!!!

I am going to start another thread to see if anybody can tell me but the pictures I have are crap so I doubt anyone could tell. But also questions about HERME! I am pretty sure this seed came from the swaz and the bud was full of seeds so I dont know if that i what would help to say it could be a herme as I am pretty new to this. Take a look and let me know what you think.