Greetings everyone, I would like to begin by saying how much I've enjoyed this site and how helpful most members are. A great community here. So without further ado, I'd like to say that I'm an absolute newbie 1st time grower who has started educating himself and setting up the system about a week ago. I have found a lot of helpful and at the same time misleading information on the web and found this site particularly helpful and enjoyable. I would like to help everyone like myself and people who decided to go with the StealthHydro Bubbleponics system. I know that Roseman has a great article here about it, but some of the information is not detailed enough for newbies, so here I go. I had a bad experience with my original 6 seeds which I tried planting in the system b/c I didn't know enough about rockwool and that you have to soak it and TDS/PPM/CF control. Plus i had really bad freebie seeds from nirvana and half of them didn't sprout. So anyway, they rotted.

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That's just some background. Now here's my setup. SH Hydroponics > Dual Spectrum Bubbleponics™ Complete Kit with 2 DualSpectrum II CFL lights, grow and bloom spectrums @ 85W each. Plus I bought an additional hydrofarm 125W grow light for when the plants get taller. I'm growing in a closet and ordered mylar and will post pictures about how I will modify it and make it light proof. I also bought a powerful little circulation fan for later stages from Homedepot and a thermostat heater to have exact control during the colder months. Also equipped myself with 12 gal of spring water. I've also ordered the 6-in-1 water monitor kit a couple of days ago and a heated mini green house for seed germination/sprouting. Now I realize that I overspent, but this hobby is eating me up and I'm enjoying it more than I ever thought. So you can see why I got a little paranoid after my freebie seeds rotted and I ordered all the extra gear.

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Now here're the grow details finally. I have started over on Sept. 17th and have received new Nirvana Afgaani seeds which looked absolutely great compared to the Shiva seeds I got earlier (they were a little green and the freebies were 10-15 yr old durbanxskunk1). I will make this journal VERY detailed because I feel that a lot of newbie growers are not given enough details about germinating and most importantly sprouting the seeds in the first crucial week.

1) I germinated my seeds using the simple paper towel method with some room temperature, Brita filtered tap water placed between 2 plates on my router inside my computer desk. That worked very well and there were very large (1/2 inch tap roots showing from both seeds (i decided to do only 2 for this hydro grow until I get my water monitor in case I screw this up).

2) That same evening I prepared a 5.5Ph adjusted water with a tiny trace amount of StealthHydro's Bloom and Micro nutrients. By 'trace' amount i mean the tip of a teaspoon per 1/2 gallon of water which I then left sitting overnight to evaporate any chlorine which might be left. I did not soak the rockwool cubes overnight. Just dropped them in in the morning, kept them in for a minute and squeezed out excess water. From all the video's online, this is enough. The reason you want to a tiny amount of nutrients is because the rockwool is completely neutral and has no nutrients of its own.

3) I have placed the germinated seeds, tap root down into a little hole i've made in the rockwool cubes(really just big enough to completely insert the seeds) and brushed the hair fibers gently over the seed. I have then moved these cubes on to a plate and covered it with a clear plastic dome I've bought at HD to create a mini greenhouse and wait until the seeds sprout.

The 3rd step I'm still a little unclear about as most people say that the germinated seed should be sprouted with no light in warm darkness and others say that they sprout them with light as soon as they put the seed into the grow medium. I guess the temperature you desire also plays a role here. If it's cold in the room and you want higher temperatures, put them under the lights, if not, keep them in the dark. I simply put them on my router in my computer desk where it's pitch black. I will post pictures of my setup tonight. What might be interesting to note is that I have also decided to germinate 3 more seeds this morning and plant them in soil, just to see the comparison and double my success of sprouting. (hopefully also making mother plants).

Another reason is that I'm now slightly paranoid of rockwool and have experience previously growing plants in good 'ole soil.

Please feel free to ask questions, give tips, hints and generally add comments as you see fit. I'll be very happy as I want this to be a journal, but also a helping tool for newbies to hydroponics. And who better to make a newbie guide than a newbie since I'll be making and correcting mistakes as I go along (hopefully not too many). Also I believe that I can make this more helpful to newbies because a lot of guides skip very important details about sprouting for example which seems to be automatic, but is yet to happen for me. Good luck everyone!!

Well well well. Came home today and found this little beauty has sprouted. I couldn't believe my eyes because I really thought it wasn't going to happen. So I decided to post some pics of my sproutling and the setup.

The spring water was surprisingly alkaline, about 8.0 Ph. Had to lower it.

wow..long posts lol.. remember - "a picture says a thousand words"
good luck

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Thanks. Hehe I was bored at work so had nothing else to do.
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Quick update:

Another seed sprouted and has been moved to the system. My first sprout seems happy and is becoming green so photosynthesis has begun. I'm very excited!

You don't sqeeze the water out of rockwool. It compresses it and break the air pockets down. If you get them too wet use a "salad spiner" to remove the excess moisture. May be why you are having trouble with the rockwool?? VV

Well actually I got 2 sproutlings going now, I think it was a really bad batch of freebies seeds and unknown water quality.

By squeeze I mean to very gently press the rockwool cube to simply get rid of extra moisture. But thanks for a heads up, i'll be careful.

I have an update. So something went wrong with water overnight. I guess it's because I used the pH down solution which came with the system and it didn't take very well. The pH went back up to 7+ and the water turned murky with white foam and gave off a very bad smell. So I replaced it again (this is becoming a part time job) and all is well. My little babies are looking good, but the 3rd one hasn't sprouted yet for some reason. I'm attaching some pics.
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did u place the cubes with seedlings directly into the bubbleponics? and is it on or just sitting in there for light until the roots come through?

thanks

Hey Red,

Nice setup. Very interested to see how it goes. I'm thinking about starting something similar soon with some bagseed to see if I can get this down. I know what you mean about enjoying this new hobby.

I was wondering the same thing as Alfdaddy. From everything I've read and seen, I don't think your supposed to put the Rockwool cube into the bubbler until a decent mass of roots pokes out the bottom.

Keep posting for us Newbies.

Thanks

About the rockwool cubes. Everyone has an opinion about when to put the rockwool cubes in the bubbler but the majority as well as customer support at StealthHydro and several hydroponics books i've skimmed through, agree that it's absolutely OK to put them in once you see a sproutling.

Now the exact things i've done to get them to sprout:

1. Germinate the seed until you see a 1/2" tap root showing.
2. Soak your RW in 5.5 pH water (i use Brita filtered tap and the pH is great).
3. DO NOT use the little hole in the rockwool they've made for you, I find it's too deep and you don't have exact control over it, they seem different batch to batch. So flip the cube and make your own small hole (1/4" or just enough for the seed to completely be inserted) and gently cover the top of the seed with fibers so it's hidden.
4. After step 3, put it in a DARK, WARM place (i just bought a propagator with a heating pad) but my router inside my desk worked wonders! It get's nice and warm in there and totally dark.
5. That's it, after that I added a tiny bit of micro and grow nutes to 6 gallons of water (half of the yellow spoon that ships with the system) and aerate the water for 30 min before you put your rockwool cubes in with the sprouts.
6. TURN THE LIGHTS ON! The sprouts are absolutely ready to digest light at this point. I'll post updates tonight, mines are turning very green and became much longer.
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I have 3 more seeds which sprouted (the Afgaani strain seems beastly, sprouts like there's no tomorrow and always 100%). I'll be transferring them today into the cubes.