My 1st BubblePonics

Hello all,

This is my first legitimate grow, and I'm pretty excited to get started after having to wait for a month and a half to finally get my seeds, ordering from 3 or 4 different places.
I got my seeds in today, a 10 pack of Killing Fields F3 from Sannies. With a bonus 5 pack of JackHammer.
I really have to give a shout out to Sannies, they got here within 7 days, and very discreetly.
I also have to say that BC Bud Depot is a scam as far as I'm concerned, I ordered twice from them over a month ago and never received either of my orders.

MY EQUIPMENT:
Six T12 4' fluoro's for vegging booth, and a 600w HPS - with a YieldMasterII Supreme reflector and hood - for flower booth. -pics

2 modular hydro BubblePonix eco flo w/ air injection technology.
(each of these have six, 3in net pots) -pics

Right now I'm germinating the Killing Fields F3 in some damp paper towels that I've put in a sealed plastic baggy.
They've been in my closet in total darkness for about 6 hours, and I'll check on them tomorrow around noon to see how things are going. (crossed fingers)

I will post some more pics if and when they sprout.
Oh, and the last picture shows my veg booth to the left with my floro, and the bench on the right is going to be my flower.
I like feedback, whether or not its positive or negative, I'm doing my best to learn as much as I can. -thanks

My seeds germinated ! or at least 4 of them have.
I put the 3 strong lookin ones into my grodan cubes, after letting them sit in pH balanced water of course, for about 5 hours. Left the other one in the towels to get its shit together.
Then I popped them into my bubbleponics kit, and disabled my top feeder tubes, letting my air injection tubes bubble away.
Filled the res with 3 gal.. Im using the Lucas Formula, and started the nutes at 1/4 strength.. 6ml Micro and 12ml Bloom for the whole res. I wanna be gentle with em.
-havent turned lights on..

-Turned the lights on-

After a nice sleepy morning, I checked on the other three seedlings I put into cubes, and then into the bubbleponics yesterday.
The lights have been on 24/0, and these next 3 I have put rooting powder in as well.
Some of these potential ladies... Are not behaving properly.
Instead of sprouting up towards the light, they are curling down or to the side.. which I'm not sure about, any words of wisdom would be much appreciated.
-Im spraying them twice a day with pH'd tap water.

I started germinating three JackHammer f2's, and decided to get creative with the naming process.

The Killing Fields 3, "Nowitzki", has sprouted.. Which I''m excited about, even though I've read that the one's doing well in the beginning are most likely males..
Oh well, at least I'm seeing some green! - I have been told to go ahead and put my seedlings in cubes, and throw them under the lights before they've sprouted, and I've read that most people leave them in the dark until sprouted a couple of inches... Does anyone know which will work better?
"Nowitzki" sprouted under the lights.. But is the only one to have done so thus far.

Little happy sprouts..

The only two that look to be thriving are the ones I didn't put any root powder into.
Hopefully some of the others will pull through...
Rookie move doing that, but never again.

Go ahead and place those rockwool covers back on top of the cubes, but make them much smaller, just barely enough to cover the hole without falling in the hole... and it's fine if it falls in the hole as well, as long as most the light is blocked, and it remains humid. You can also scrape your finger nail across the top of the wet cube to cover the hole. Clean your nails first if you've been playing in the yard.

Jozi!
Thanks for checking them out. That's pretty much what I've done, I just put really little pieces gently over the top, in kind of a checkerboard pattern.
Another three have sprouted though! I don't know why I ever doubted your advice.
Oh, and I lowered the lights to about 6 in away.

600W in that closet will get hot really fast. You got fresh cool air exchange in that room? You will need more than fans, which provide air circulation bu tnot air exchange. You need air from an outside source, where you planning on venting the hot and scrubbed air too? If you cant keep temps down your bubbleponics will rot. You gotta keep the res temps at around 75. Oh and your gonna need some protection with that nice clean carpet or that will rot too, but not as fast as your plants. If this is your first time growing you will see what I mean soon enough when you spark that big lamp.

Those flouros might be good for vegging for a while like 12 inches or so then they will stretch and your gonna hvae to put them under the HID. Not sure what your plan is about how your gonna grow? you gonna grow out mothers and take clones and then flower? good luck

I haven't hooked up my air exchange yet, but plan on venting the hot air into my room from the 600- and using the air vent in my restroom to pump cool air in. I plan on venting it up high in my closet, so the cold air will start out high and sink down.
The pics with the sprouts in them are my veg booth, I will have a tarp shortly that will keep out the HPS, it is coming in with my ducting and clamps and shit that I will use to complete the ventilation system as well.
This is my 1st grow, so I haven't (didn't) think of a place yet to keep my mothers.. but out of these 10 seeds hopefully I will have 1 awesome JackHammer and 1 awesome KF3... I plan on vegging all of these and topping after the 2nd node so as to induce 4 colas, and then taking those cuttings and flowering them to determine sex.
I know they'll be veggin for awhile, probably like 2 months, or at least 1 and a half, before I know their sex, so maybe I'll do some pruning n whatnot, although I'd prefer not to.
Then I was going flower all but two of the females, and take new cuttings from them. Before I start my 1st batch of real clones, I will have to find another area for my mothers. Under the sink or my desk with 2, 2ft fluoros is my only real option.

Bad news buddy boy, that fan isn't strong enough. that is a duct booster, not a inline fan
That is probably not enough to pull air through your filter and cool your light at the same time, you can give it a shot, but you are probably going to have to buy a inline fan. The EcoPlus and Hydrofarm fan's are cheaper than most, but they are soooooo fucking loud!!! I have to wear ear plugs at night, and I can still hear it.

Cold air intake must be down low! All the hot air up top is just going to warm that cold air and keep it up top. You need to bring it in to the bottom, so as it slowly warms it rises to the top, spreading all of it's cold love over your garden before ascending into heaven. What you can do is pull that cold air through a duct to the the floor, and use that duct booster to pull that air down, because it probably wont work otherwise.

Remember when cloning you want nice large cuts about 4"-6" in length, and with nice green stems, no whimpy little stems.

Damn. Its 240 cfm's though, and I have another fan built into the scrub that's like *250+... so its not just the one fan..

so is the air gonna go through the scrubber then the light then out the room? Im worried you wont have enough ventilation and have some heat problems unless you can keep your room very cool, like 70 degrees it might be too hot in the closet. So your bathroom fan gonna bring in the cool air but where is the hot air in yoru room gonna go? You have to vent that too or your room will be like 80 degrees from the heat of the 600. If you can keep your room cool with some kind of air exchange the closet will work but you have to vent it outside somehow. That hot air cannot recirculate back into your grow room.

Hmm... I was going to leave the other side of the hood open.. or possibly put one of the little fans I have inside the opening blowing inwards. It fits perfectly, but I don't know if it would inhibit the 240 booster from pulling more air in. It might not be worth it because that little fan is a piece of shit.

I do have another air vent in my room, but that lamp is hot, so if I am venting the exhaust into my room it might be too much.
I guess in that case I would have to vent it outside somehow, which I was really trying to avoid. I'm not really an expert renovator, and I sure as hell don't have a saw or anything to cut through my apartment wall with, nor do I want to, so I'm really really hoping it doesn't come to that. I'm going to start looking into a plug-in ac unit maybe?..

http://www.amazon.com/Frigidaire-FRA053PU1-000-Portable-Conditioner/dp/B004P8K39G/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1308122331&sr=8-5

-I might add this to the room if need be.. the dimensions are manageable. That way I wouldn't be burning up in my room from the 600.. What do yall think?

I disassembled my carbon scrub, and finally got my 6in ducting in today.
I have hooked up about 4ft of ducting to the exhaust from my inline booster fan coming off the Yield Master, and plan on running that to the carbon scrub, which will then vent into my room.. This would keep the air moving at a faster pace... BUT i have the issue of completely rebuilding the carbon scrub and not having adequate filtration..
Whereas if I put the scrub before my lamp.. the filtration would be excellent, but the air flow might not be as good.

I need a beer and a joint.

I haven't hooked up the ducting to my AC vent in the restroom yet, because the temp is perfect for veg right now, and I don't wanna screw that up. I will do all that when I have to start cutting through the walls.

Other news; one of the JackHammer seedlings looks as though it will sprout. It's already raised above the cube and is making it's way to the lights..

put up my tarp
and connected some ventilation equipment.. not done yet

All your seedlings look amazing. that last picture of the seedling that is still in it's seed may not make it. But the rest are very healthy! Go ahead and begin lowering your lamps to prevent stretching, but don't get them to close, you don't want to heat up your seedlings too much.

That tarp, however, does not block out enough light, you may have to double it up. I should have said this earlier, but you can buy Panda Film or just plain white plastic sheeting and hang it up, it's reflective and blocks out 100% light (panda does at least, I've never even been able to find plain white polyvinyl sheets.) But Panda Film is available at any hydro shop and it's much cheaper than tarp. But I hear they are hard to come by in the South. there is 1 in every city here in Cali.

Benefit of a tarp is that it breathes easy, but if you have to double up it doesn't matter.

One of my JackHammer plants, "Kate Beckinsale"- has flopped over on its side. They are just sprouting, and have only one set of leaves, but it looked fine yesterday, and now it doesn't look so good. the leaves were starting to droop, and like I said she was on her side.

I have propped her up with a little grow rock, so that her leaves will be open to the lights, and I am going to remove the little fan I had that was circulating air behind them
I've only been giving them pH'd water, no nutes, and spraying them 3 times a day.
like I said.. all the others look really happy.
here are some pics of the bad apple, and the others for comparative analysis