For all new growers with questions... Tons of information and answers..

Yeah I'm being too anal about it, thanks for the help. Question: Is there any reason not to recycle the water that drips out the bottom? The other day when I watered with the nute water I let the excess drip out the bottom back into the container i was using and then poured it back into a gallon water jug (little bits of dirt and perlite with it). Is there any reason not to do that?

yeah.. there actually is a reason not too use it.. its not good.... lol

heres why...

as your plant uses nutes and such there are salts that get left behind.. ideally not much.. but there is...

when you water, and the water travels through the soil, it picks up pieces of stuff.. such as the salts i was talking about, pieces of soil, and whatever else is located in the soil...

this means that the run off water is not the same as the water you originally just fed with...

since you cant be sure what is in it, how much of whats in it, if the ph changed, ect ect, its not a good idea to re use it...

its also not a good idea to pre mix nutes and let sit... they can form salts and shit that alter the make up of the nute mix..

Crap ok well i just fed them all that water again, this time just used a cereal bowl and poured a drinking cup of water over each one a few times while they sat in there also soaking in from the bottom. Yeah I have been just using distilled water cause I haven't gotten any ph testing stuff to check the tap water with and I figured I was better off with that for a moment. Ok will be dumping what I have left now. Yeah I was thinking to keep the runoff since it would have whatever goodies were washed out by the water, totally forgot about salts and such!

it seems silly to throw out the run off water.. i know.. i used to think the same thing.. but like i said there is so much more that comes out of the run off than goes in.. so its not a good idea...

plus, nutes go so far.. i mean, a little goes a long way... so its a relatively small investment and loss (loss being what you throw out) in the end.. it isnt worth compromising your plants over it..

well first off congrats... i know the feeling of the first sprout... this will be one of the quickest and longest periods of time you have ever gone through.. just know you have a good 8 weeks ahead of you.. and you cant speed it up... lol

so now down to business... from the looks of where they are at now you will have a good 4 or 5 days before they will be ready to put in the system... but i cant be for sure... in a couple days check and see if roots are coming out... if so take a pic and throw it up here and i'll tell you ya or na.. dont look on the bottom of the cube either.. the main tap root will pop out of there pretty quick.. you are wanting to see roots coming from the sides of the cube....

now if i remember right you have a 400w hps right?? regardless of what you have, once you move to the drip system you can move the light hps light over them.. the catch is that the stronger the light the further away you want it to be at first... the sprouts will be sensitive to heat and extreme light.. so you have to gradually decrease the distance between the light and the plant as it grows.. i would say 18" is a good start for a few days... then drop it down a few... but again i can kind of help you with that if you keep pics up..

go ahead and remove the dome... as long as the cube is moist the sprout will be able to get what it needs from the cube now... the dome is basically just a way to keep in heat and moisture until they sprout up from the cube..

Originally Posted by simpsonsampson420

go ahead and remove the dome... as long as the cube is moist the sprout will be able to get what it needs from the cube now... the dome is basically just a way to keep in heat and moisture until they sprout up from the cube..

Right on brotha, dome off tonight.

Affirmative on the 400watt HPS (or halide, but pretty sure you advised against halide for due to heat). It isn't a high tech, fancy rig. With the cool tube, or ducting that hooks right to the light.

It's a standard bulb with just a "bat wing" style reflector (fairly cheapo).

My fan is positioned in the tent at approx. the level the light will be at.

I'll take pics of the v-drip set up in the tent w/ ducting & all that jazz to ascribe your prognosis.

SO 4-5 days, perfect, just what I needed. Def keep ya updated w/ pics.

I can't thank you enough, ur time & advice is obviously invaluable.

the picture titled 18 was taken a moment earlier tonight. 16 was taken the night of the soaking treatment with the nute water like you said, and the 14 and 15 were the 2 days up to that. Seeing how the smallest looks like its trying to curl up into a ball (or maybe that only seems so bad for the same reason its first couple leafs never unfolded all the way), and the leafs on the largest are drooping, and those of the 2nd largest are curling in, I am worried. I know you said that they would try to soak up extra because they didn't get watered often enough. But isn't there a greater risk with me over watering them as opposed to what I was doing before? I read everywhere the over watering is the #1 killer of plants for newbs like me. Before I was watering every 3 days, and aside from the dead end of the leafs on the largest they all seemed healthy. Would watering the same way I was before except every 2 days or less really be better for them? I'm just being a worry wart. I've seen first timers get successful runs on their first try with worse equipment so I am worried that I am still doing something wrong with the watering. *gosh I wish these plants weren't as picky haha*

PS: These pictures are taken between 9 and 11 every night, with pictures 18, and 16 they were watered about 1pm, and the last time they were watered before picture 15 was 9:30am the day before (watered until the containers were twice the weight before being watered without dripping, the 2 times after that was being soaked for about a minute*up to 50% heavier than the old method*

there is some great information here!!
thank you!