Barney's Farm - Tangerine Dream - Waterfarm!

Thanks for all the tips guys!! I've added my CFL light back this evening and it's setup to come on about an hour after the 400 comes on, then off about an hour before the 400 goes off again. Got a pic update of the setup below - it's still looking healthy and green, but has had a slow start. The root still hasn't reached the rez yet so no explosive growth spurt yet! I pH adjusted the water in the rez back down to 6.0 from 7.6 this evening. Having added straight RO water a few times during the week caused it to creep back up.

I was wondering - would colder water temps cause the seedling to start out slower like this? The tent is on the concrete basement floor which is a bit cold still from winter - could that cause my waterfarm to have a colder rez than it should be? Feeling the side of the rez I can tell it's a bit chilly but it doesn't seem extremely cold... just curious as to if that would be a factor.

Well, here's the pic.

I'll hop aboard......
Pretty amazing to see one of the most temperamental seeds to germinate, take off in a Water Farm.
Good for you and I like your detail so far with sharing your solutions.
I've also got the same lady from seed, 20 days old after an UB Topping, set up in DYI Water Farm for about 15 days.
So I'm definitely here to learn.
By the by, I would be concerned about cooking that baby with your MH, But if all is well, then ignore the following..........
if it was me, I'd be just using your CFL(s) or Floro. till I got some good green that can use all that light & heat from your MH.

Just a note, My TD was a slow starter also, but then she caught up quick & I topped her when she was 6+ inches tall, above the 2nd node, now she's 10" & climbing.
From everything I've read you are on top of it, Just remember to breathe now & then, I find it helps..............

dishinit said:

I'll hop aboard......
Pretty amazing to see one of the most temperamental seeds to germinate, take off in a Water Farm.
Good for you and I like your detail so far with sharing your solutions.
I've also got the same lady from seed, 20 days old after an UB Topping, set up in DYI Water Farm for about 15 days.
So I'm definitely here to learn.
By the by, I would be concerned about cooking that baby with your MH, But if all is well, then ignore the following..........
if it was me, I'd be just using your CFL(s) or Floro. till I got some good green that can use all that light & heat from your MH.

Just a note, My TD was a slow starter also, but then she caught up quick & I topped her when she was 6+ inches tall, above the 2nd node, now she's 10" & climbing.
From everything I've read you are on top of it, Just remember to breathe now & then, I find it helps..............

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Thanks dishinit - yeah it looks like overkill with all that light so early on, and really it may have contributed to the slowish start this girl has had, but things are looking better and better now. Even since that last picture, the second set of leaves are now as big as the first set and the next set is starting to come up the middle! It's quite possible that adding the flouro yesterday has given it a small boost... I'll be flushing the rez this weekend for the first time (been 2 weeks now since start) and starting it on a small amount of FloraNova bloom. I've noticed that there's a small buildup of silt from the hydroton that's settled on the bottom of the rez so I think I'm going to pull it right out and clean it again good before refilling it. Once the plant is bigger I won't be able to clean it that well between flushes so I'm going to get that done now.

Hey bro, I do believe that colder temps would mess with a seedling for sure. On a side note, I tested my water last night (tap water) and it was 134 or so ppm; so I put some in a glass and let it sit out all night and I checked it again and it was 162ppm!!! WTF, I thought the chlorine evaporating would make it go down??? At work we have a water fountain with a "filter" on it, so I brought some of that water home and tested it, and it was the same reading as my tap water! I'm gonna get some activated carbon and fill up a funnel and run some water through it and test it out! What do ya think??? Should work right???

Here's my Tangerine Dream from Barney's Farm seeds, only 3 days old

Dayzt said:

Thanks dishinit - yeah it looks like overkill with all that light so early on, and really it may have contributed to the slowish start this girl has had, but things are looking better and better now. Even since that last picture, the second set of leaves are now as big as the first set and the next set is starting to come up the middle! It's quite possible that adding the flouro yesterday has given it a small boost... I'll be flushing the rez this weekend for the first time (been 2 weeks now since start) and starting it on a small amount of FloraNova bloom. I've noticed that there's a small buildup of silt from the hydroton that's settled on the bottom of the rez so I think I'm going to pull it right out and clean it again good before refilling it. Once the plant is bigger I won't be able to clean it that well between flushes so I'm going to get that done now.

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Glad to hear you've decided to make a light adjustment and already see improvement. Soon enough she'll be able to bask in the sun, it's just that babies and sunburn don't do well together.
Just info, I find a small deposit of silt every Res change and I change every week. So I don't think it's a big deal.
I also started at low feed rate, maybe 10 days after she popped and have been slowly adjusting up from there.
I did space at one point shortly after my transplant to the Water Farm from Hempy, and let the PH drift to high for a day. Luckily, that mistake shows on just one fan leaf.
Since then, I've been following (I think) Scotty's guide of daily monitoring of PH to help define plants nute requirements, and that seems to be working well. I am now feeding at approx 650 ppm, with a stable (for awhile) PH, and she is looking well fed & happy, and is showing no signs of nute burn.
I'm all for any information to teach me how to take better care of my plants.
With that in mind, you may want to refresh yourself on that PH Guide, as you start giving her nutes.

At just over 2 weeks since germination, my girl is still looking okay. Growth hasn't 'exploded' yet by any means, and I don't see any roots coming through to the rez yet, but she's getting bigger on top now, so it's just a matter of days I think.

Today I did a complete flush and change of the reservoir for the first time since the start. There was some brownish residue built up still coming from my hydroton - I pulled the bottom bucket right out and scrub-cleaned it again to ged rid of the dirt. I then filled the rez back up again with RO water, to the white line on the tube (2 gallons). Then I tested the water for both PPM and pH levels. Here's a pic of the first test:



So the rez here filled with straight RO water measured at 21 PPM and 7.5 pH. Before anything else, I use a small amount of pH down to lower the pH lvl down a bit. I mix it in good and then retest the pH to be 5.1 which will accomodate for the small amt of water still soaked in my hydroton. I want to start out light with the nutes, so I measure in 1 tsp of Flora Nova Bloom nutrient:



...to the 2 gallon rez and mix it in good. I wait a few minutes and then retest the rez. See the below pic:



So this brings the rez to a reading of: ~320 PPM and 5.1 pH. I think these numbers will change a bit yet as it adjusts, so in the meantime I put the waterfarm back together and plug my water-pump back in to get the new solution circulating. By now, i'm close to 'lights off' time and my CFL light timer has went to OFF leaving me with just the 400 W. Here's a few pics of the setup now after the rez change - sorry it's bit darkish w/o the CFLs on..







After these pics, I covered the top with tin-foil as well, to keep the salt-buildup away from the drip-ring as much as possible. This will be more important now that I have nutrients in the water. At this point, I take 1 more PPM and pH test:

PPM: 285
pH: 5.5

Looks good - I'll keep a close eye on it for the next few days and see what happens!

For me, this detailed and descriptive process (with pics) will help as a reference for creating future nutrient mixes to use with topping off the rez as needed. It should help keep my measurements consistent as well.

Tested the rez this evening:

pH: 6.7
PPM: 315

I think it was still adjusting after the flush when I tested it yesterday.

Lookin' good bro. Yeah, that's the part I'm worried about too, the pH. I haven't started growing yet but I'm concerned about controlling the pH in the waterfarm??? Everyone that uses them seems to love them though.

Dont worry much about PH guys unless you have some real shit water.. when you get up to 500-600 ppm with the Nova bloom it will have enough buffers to keep ph stable and It will still be about a week or more before the roots will hit the resivor.. still looking good Daytz

SCOTTYBALLS said:

Dont worry much about PH guys unless you have some real shit water.. when you get up to 500-600 ppm with the Nova bloom it will have enough buffers to keep ph stable and It will still be about a week or more before the roots will hit the resivor.. still looking good Daytz

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Heard that bro...straight from the man. Thanks Scotty, I was beginning to freak myself out over the whole pH thing man. Whew!

SCOTTYBALLS said:

Dont worry much about PH guys unless you have some real shit water.. when you get up to 500-600 ppm with the Nova bloom it will have enough buffers to keep ph stable and It will still be about a week or more before the roots will hit the resivor.. still looking good Daytz

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Right on - thanks man. I'm using RO water only with the waterfarm and from the jug, it's ~7.5 pH and ~21 PPM. I've been using a bit of pH-down to lower the pH up until now, but since i've started with the nutes now, I want to try and not use the pH-down anymore, and let the nutrient buffer out the pH as much as possible.

Scotty, is it possible my hydroton is not 'seasoned' as this is my first time using it to grow in? I know the ones you've been using as of late were ones you'd already used in a few grows beforehand - do you think that makes a difference? Did you notice your very first grow in the waterfarm hydroton to be a bit slow to start?

How's the lady lookin'?

Still looking pretty good - a little lanky looking but it's coming along. I'll have some more pics up in the next few days.

No, I meant in my Avatar, just kidding bro, I meant your plant. Good to hear, she'll be taking off soon for sure. I'd still like to walk up behind that girl on the tractor though and give her a good tongue lashing!

I just picked up a waterfarm and excited to play with it. Do you check the PH through the water level gauge? Seems when the plant gets bigger you cant directly check the resivor

ChrisGGG said:

I just picked up a waterfarm and excited to play with it. Do you check the PH through the water level gauge? Seems when the plant gets bigger you cant directly check the resivor

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Yep, that water-level 'gauge' is actually a movable tube that you just bend down to drain a sample into a cup to test. Then the sample is just poured back in the top. The same drain-tube/water-level-gauge is used to drain the rez when changing the water out - for that reason, the waterfarm unit should be up on something so you can easily drain the whole rez into a shallow container lower than the bottom of the rez itself.

Dayzt said:

Yep, that water-level 'gauge' is actually a movable tube that you just bend down to drain a sample into a cup to test. Then the sample is just poured back in the top. The same drain-tube/water-level-gauge is used to drain the rez when changing the water out - for that reason, the waterfarm unit should be up on something so you can easily drain the whole rez into a shallow container lower than the bottom of the rez itself.

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I have found that a couple of pieces of 4x4 work good.

Here's the pic update I promised - she's looking nice and green today, most likely is tasting more nutes now that A ROOT HAS APPEARED COMING THROUGH THE BOTTOM OF THE TOP POT!! Yep, things are going to start happening now - there's a nice bright-white root making it's way through the holes in the bottom of the top container!

Here's the pics - enjoy!

Oh yeah, it's on baby. She's gonna jump through the roof! Lovin' it! Just compared the pics from 4/3 and the one you just posted...definitely a difference in growth...Time for lift off!