new to growing D.W.C help is appreciated!

oo and also where can i get mylar? i went almost everywhere, wal-mart, lowes, home dept! and none of the bastards have it!!

That looks ok. You can start giving it light nutes now. Nutes should be ramped up over the plant's life. You may want to see if they have a website with detailed feeding charts. Nutes made for hydro mj are best because their feeding charts are plant specific. If you have walls that can be painted white that's almost as good as mylar and much easier.

Originally Posted by rotor7ven

sup guys and gals. well after reading a lot off this site, i decided to do a hydroponic grow! i once started growing in soil but my niece plucked them out. i read a lot of information on here but im overwhelmed with all the info. hopefully ya'll can help me out with a couple of questions i have. i didn't want to spend a lot of money just in case things go wrong, i want to make sure i got it down packed before i do it big like a few of you in here. so lets start off with what i have.

nutrients:

i baught a trio pack off ebay of botanicare "pure blend pro grow & bloom". it also came with a bottle of liquid karma. i also got a bottle of calmag +. from my understanding, these are the best for first time hydro growers and easy to use.

set up:

i baught a bucket of nepolian ice cream which is 1 gal and a half. ate all of it (yummy!) and washed the bucket throughly. i went to walmart and got an air stone, air pump, air tubing.

lights:

i got a pack of 4 6500k cfl's. they are considered daylight spectrum. got extension cord and sockets.

so here are my question's.

1. i germinated my seed on feb 26, its been a week almost and i think something is going wrong. is this correct? seems small for a hydro grow. i was thinking it would be a lot faster than soil.

2. can i use liquid karma now? it says on the back it helps growth for seedlings.

3. how often do i change the water in the bucket? every week?

4. when putting in the nutes, do i only use one dose a week? the back of the bottles say how much to put but not how often.


well that's about all that i can remember, hopefully ya'll can help me out! any input is appreciated! thanx!

Here's a few answers for you. As far as mylar, you can usually only get it at grow stores and online, but some plant nursarys carry it. As stated above, there are substitutes that work and are cheap.

You want to change your res roughly once a week, but more so when you have had to replace half the volume of the res.

plants do grow faster in hydro, but only really hit this peak if everything is set right for the plant. PPM and oh are the most important of these factors. You want a ph range of 5.8-6.0 and more towads the 5.8 range for veg. I highly recomend a way of testing and adjusting the ph, and it is very helpful to have a ppm pen. If you have or plan on getting those, I can give you a few more pointers on hydro growing, especially on the food strength side. Also, there is a ton of information in my journal about dwc growing, so if you have the time, take a look. The link is in my signature.

I that ice-cream tub semi-transparent? if so, cover it with some duct-tape or something to stop any light getting in & also use black air-lines as transparent/clear ones will let light in your res & encourage algae growth.. good luck with the DWC grow!!

thanx for the info guys! gonna look at that journal now.

Originally Posted by edsthreads

I that ice-cream tub semi-transparent? if so, cover it with some duct-tape or something to stop any light getting in & also use black air-lines as transparent/clear ones will let light in your res & encourage algae growth.. good luck with the DWC grow!!

hmm i didnt know leaving it clear would do harm, i'll change that asap.

Originally Posted by rotor7ven

hmm i didnt know leaving it clear would do harm, i'll change that asap.

Yeah get that done asap algae growth will suffocate your res of oxygen & slow the uptake of nutrients.. I made a similar mistake when I started DWC

I have to agree, it greatly slows growth. Solid tape of black paint on the outside(not inside) of the bucket work great.