Seedling Light and Schedule

I'm setting up for my first grow. I'm going with 5 fem. "Little Devil" seeds, (lowryder #2 style I've been told, autoflowering). I have made a 5 net pot, 18 gal. DWC bubbler system with a 14' airstone, with a 4' disc stone in it with the appropriate pumps. The walls are mylared up, ventalation is provided, everything is light tight. I have a 600w. covertable ballast with both the HPS and MH bulbs, my question is the lighting on the germination/seedling stage. I'm going to use rockwool as my medium, and I'm going to germinate the seeds using the paper towel method. I'm looking for advice for transferring the cracked seeds with the taproot to the rockwool, and also what type of light to use for the two weeks before I put the rockwool cubes into the DWC setup. I purchased a T8 2 foot light for a reasonable price and was wondering if that would take care of the seedling stage. Should I throw a couple of 26W cfl's on top of that? Whats the tell tale sign that they are ready to be put into the system. Any and all help will be appreciated and important

The t8 would work just fine.
18/6 or 24 hrs for the lights. Take your pick.

Dirtyboy said:

The t8 would work just fine.
18/6 or 24 hrs for the lights. Take your pick.

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If you do 18/6 for a bit then switch to 24 hour would that be bad for the plant? Do you use that schedule all through the veg also?

thanks for the quick reply, any tips on transplanting to rockwool?

if it is autoflowering just use 20/4 all the way through
and as for transplanting do they already have holes?

yes, the holes are precut

what i do is i take my germed seed drop it in the hole and pinch off enough of the corner to cover the hole make sure its loose. dont forget to precondition your rockwool

I like to run 24/0 for the first two weeks, followed by 2 weeks of 18/6 before I throw the plants into 12/12 flowering. I've worked out a structured program, but the plants like the quick changes while they're young. Good luck, you'll need to experiment to find what you like and what works best for you

KC

I was doing 24 but changed to 18/6 to keep the energy bill from going nuts, now I'm back at 24, still have 2 weeks before flowering.

dbo24242 said:

I was doing 24 but changed to 18/6 to keep the energy bill from going nuts, now I'm back at 24, still have 2 weeks before flowering.

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Hey DBO, nice to meet you. I would suggest that once you revert back in light for more than a weeks time, you shouldn't increase the lighting again. The hormones in the plants gets disrupted by the descepencies in nature and your environment. Keeping a smooth transition is the best way to get healthy plants, and your buds may develop hermaphoditic traits, even it the plant seems to be growing beautifully after the revert. Good luck mate

KC

what i do is i take my germed seed drop it in the hole and pinch off enough of the corner to cover the hole make sure its loose. dont forget to precondition your rockwool

- Do you mean soak it and check the PH, or should I soak in a pre-mixed solution with nutes ?

if u do 24 hour light , they will suck it up, and they will enjoy it,

if u go for 18 on 6 off they will love it aswell as they will work on building a good root system

i reccomend the light u have atm, and maybe 20w cfl

as they get older, add more cfls

HOPE THIS HELPS

umm i precondition it to get the ph right (6.3)

I have the general hydroponics nutrient system, I have heard for autoflowering strains to use the bloom with the grow and the micro nutrient. Any truth to this, what should my PPM reading be ?

Treat the nutrients as if the plant had two distinct cycles of light instead of 20/4. When you start to see flowers, start using the blooming nutrients. Your PPM will depend entirely on which stage your plant is in, I start my feeding at 600ppm and slowly increase until I get to around 1200-1300 in flowering before flush. Others will have higher PPM counts but I use organic nutrients and it's harder to get feeding that high, however the soil does make a big difference if you can keep you soil at a certain PPM. Mine usually sits around 450-550ppm for my seedlings and young starts before feeding begins. Good luck mate

KC