Part 4 - Getting seedlings established & trouble
The Plan: Once seedlings are established take clones, root them and put them in the flower room to determine sex.
As I stated in the last post my first batch of nutes were mixed as the seedling phase (6.25ml each solution in 5gal tap water pH adjusted to 5.8 ), and the pumps set to run 3x per day for 20min each time. A few days later I noticed the cubes were feeling pretty light, so upped the pump times to 30min on.
Topped the nute tank and adjusted the pH back to 5.8 a few days later.
At the beginning of the second week on the original nutes I had become well versed in the preachings of Al B Fuct, so went and got myself some H2O2. I slightly misunderstood Al's dosing though, and only dosed the 1gal of water I used to top up the tank (rather than topping the tank and dosing for the full 5gal).
Ran into issues with the pH pen I initially purchased (the readings would jump all over the place - guy at the hydro shop said he'd never seen on act like that before), so I exchanged it for a Hanna pH/TDS meter.
I noticed that the roots on plant #8 were looking fuzzy and was worried it may be mold, so posted the
Need Help With Dripper Timing thread (3rd attached image). Got a few replies that the roots looked good and suggested I was watering for too long. I adjusted the timers to run 6x per day, but for only 10min. I also changed out the 1/2gph dripper tips for 2gph tips figuring that would allow me to get enough nutrients into the rockwool cubes in a shorter period of time. I also adjusted my Veg Room config to have both of my fluoro fixtures mounted on the ceiling as I was no longer using the one for the humidome tray (first attached image). While I had the tray/shelf out of the room I noticed that #8 was starting to smell a bit skunky (second attached image)
Ran like this for a couple days, topped the tank with some H2O2 prepped tap water and adjusted the pH.
Beginning of week 2 I dumped the nutes, washed the tank/pump/stone with bleach water and rinsed the hell outta them. Used the 2nd week nutrients (12.5ml Grow/6.25ml Micro/6.25ml Bloom + 25ml 35% H2O2 in 5gal tap water). Got all nutes mixed and lowered pH to 5.8 - noted ppm was 414. Did a little plant shuffle in the tray so the taller plants were on one side to make adjusting the lights easier - set lights to approx 4" above tops.
After a couple of days went to top the tank and noticed the pH had crept up to 6.7 (before adding any new water). Topped tank w/1gal tap water treated w/H2O2 and corrected pH to 5.6.
At this point I started to worry about spots that were showing up on a leaf of #8 (4th image), so posted to the Hydoponics thread here on Rollitup. Per a suggestion from potroast I changed my drippers to run 4 times per day rather than 6. I also checked the pH in my tank and noticed it was up to 6.1 - lowered it to 5.8.
The next day during inspection I noticed the roots on #8 and 10 were looking a bit brown in spots (5th image). I again posted to the Hydro thread and was informed it was overwatering and "air pruning". Checked the res and it was at pH 6.3! Dropped it to 5.3 as I was going to be away for a little over a day.
When I returned #8 had gotten a bit worse (6th image) - more spots on more leaves. Transplanted #8 & 10 to pots of hydroton (7th image) so the roots could have more room to grow without being pruned, and lowered lights to 1" above tops. Checked the tank and it was at pH 6.3 again! Lowered it to 5.5.
Around this time I was reading the Al B Faqt and found that H2O2 is not compatible with GH nutrients - what a bummer! So, when I topped the tank I just used plain tap water. Initial pH was 5.9, lowered to 5.7.
Yesterday morning I checked pH and it was back up to 6.2 - lowered it to 5.5. Noted that #8 continues to get more spots and spots have now shown up on #14 also (images 8-10) - other plants are fine other than a few "character marks" here and there. Adjusted the timer to run 3x per day for 10min each.
Last night went to check on nutrients and noticed some whitish-grey slime in the tank. Cleaned out the tank/pump/air stone with some bleach water and rinsed the hell outta everything. Pumped some bleach water through the pump/feed tube (not connected to drippers) and then ran several gallons of fresh water through it. Remixed the week 2 nutes omitting the H2O2 - set pH to 5.8 and noted ppm at 407. Late last night I checked and the pH was up to 6.2, so I lowered it to 5.5.
The pump ran last at 3am, so I checked pH this morning and it was at 5.8 so I decided to leave well enough alone. Will check it again this evening...