Looking for an expert eye please

Hi all.
I have previously done a small pc grow that was only slightly successful. i have recently fired up a new grow and its my first try at anything hyrdoponic and im hoping that this time ill get more than the cost of the electric back (although only for personal),

I Wont bor everyone with the details on the room, needless to say. Mylar lined, 2x red spectrum cfls rated at 200w each, 2x25w tubes from an old reptile tank. 1000l/h water pump, hailea air pump with 2x air stones. 8" output and passive intake (mayy add a 5" fan though) there is also a 12" oscillating fan fr air movement.

PH is usually around 6.1 although i have just pulled it down to 5.9 and plan to let it rise to 6.5 to allow the girls to get all their nutes.

My tap water measured 600ppm, 700ppm after phing and i was running to 1100ppm with formulex and rootex however i have just raised the ppm to 1500 as they are just over 2 weeks old.

I was watering for several hrs a day, but have just reduced this to 3x 30 min sessions (timers wont allow less).

some plants are in soil plugs and the rest are in rockwool. all on expanded clay pebbles

I have noticed some of the veins turning darker on one plant. is this likely to be genetics or a nute problem?

I have 5 autos on the go (2 in one pot) fro various strains
I also have a block of rockwool full of 12 bagseeds to experiment with
the other pot with many plants in is strawberry's, tomatoes and lavender as i figured hat i could use these as a control to see that the basic principals of my system are working satisfactorily

no one? Even if its just constructive criticism

Seedlings that small dont need nutes. Not untill they are a few weeks old with full sets of leaves. You are also over watering....alot! Once a day if not every other day at this stage of growth.

thankyou, thsats ideal info

I agree with dirtfree. You are watering them way to much, which could cause root rot. I say once every 3 days at this stage. And yes you dont feed then nutes this early, its not good for them. Other then that, it looks great

He's in hydro guys, water every 3 days???

The attraction to growing hydro is that it is faster. It is faster because they are fed (via the water)
so often. My buddy has a timer that turns the pump on for 6 minutes and off for 6 minutes all day.
The idea is that the roots recieve near-constant feeding and so grow fast. If you tried watering every 3 days in hydro
they will dry out as the roots should be not in rockwool. Wait until thery are a week larger then peel off the rockwool
and put the roots right on the clay pellets.

Good luck, BigSteve.

bigsteve said:

He's in hydro guys, water every 3 days???

The attraction to growing hydro is that it is faster. It is faster because they are fed (via the water)
so often. My buddy has a timer that turns the pump on for 6 minutes and off for 6 minutes all day.
The idea is that the roots recieve near-constant feeding and so grow fast. If you tried watering every 3 days in hydro
they will dry out as the roots should be not in rockwool. Wait until thery are a week larger then peel off the rockwool
and put the roots right on the clay pellets.

Good luck, BigSteve.

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Yes water everyday or many times a day is correct for hydro....but his plant doesnt even have its first set of true leaves yet! Its still a seedling! Im guessing you know nothing about root rot in seedlings. What is the point in excessively watering a plant that cant absorb that much in a week. It doesnt have a root system large enough to handle that much water. If a tender stem stays wet for too long it rots and falls over.

Dirtfree said:

Yes water everyday or many times a day is correct for hydro....but his plant doesnt even have its first set of true leaves yet! Its still a seedling! Im guessing you know nothing about root rot in seedlings. What is the point in excessively watering a plant that cant absorb that much in a week. It doesnt have a root system large enough to handle that much water. If a tender stem stays wet for too long it rots and falls over.

Click to expand...

One of the biggest mistakes people make - not enough water for themselves and too much for their plants. Killing with kindness so to speak. Lost a bunch of clones early this Spring when I changed rooting media. It stayed wet on our record-cool Spring, way too wet, and the stems dampened off before I got a day off to re-pot them. Easy to remember: If they need water they droop but do not die. Talking growing plants and not rooting clones. Water will revive most in short order. Over-watering is not so easy to overcome and requires emergency intervention at times. I have re-potted more than one in a hurry, feeling that yucky mess around the root ball but breaking it up to rid the roots of it. Haven't lost one yet being gentle but they do act wimpy for a few days after sometimes.

With my seedlings I do not feed until the first set of true leaves appear. The cotyledons (false leaves) do not count. Seems you are overwatering especially at this early stage. Do not be surprised to see your leaves claw or worser scenario root rot.

hi all, thanks for the info. overwatering was a definate issue and last week i changed the res. There has been a fair amount of growth since. Im due to do a clean and res change today, so ill try to get some pics.
Last night all 4 plants were confirmed as ladies, should be a good time
Ive also added another passive intake, but still having issues with the mylar pulling off the walls because of the reduced pressure, I remember seeing jorge cervantes using a little duck tape then staplegunning, any advise for a similar method with hardboard?

Hi all, bit late, but as promised, heres the update
As I mentioned, the reduced watering has made a huge difference. I am now at full strength nutes 20/4 ph around 5.8 and ppm is 600 (from the tap) brought up to 1900 with regenaroot and formulex 1 part.

As my temps are in the high 20`s, I have added extra waterings to prevent root drying

Lights are 2x 200W (actual) CFL @ 2700k

I have added a 4" intake fan as i was pulling so much air out of the exhaust that I was pulling the mylar off the walls!
1 12" oscillating fan running 24/7 giving the foliage a good ruffle! I have brought the cold feed up in front of the oscilating fan so that the plants are as cool as possible.


Here is an overall view (lights lifted for the pic) As you can see, I have 4 on the go (since the 3rd) however i am experiancing big differences in growth so ill move them about to try and even it out a bit. You can see my photo plants in the soil pellets (just for fun) and the next round of autos in the blue/white tub.
I have noticed that the plants in rockwool are much smaller so i might just stick with the soil from now.

Here are all 4 ladies 24 days old from seed

As youi can see there are some differences between them (the tube is a reptiglo 10 that i had from before. I also have a reptiglo 2.0, I plan to use these 2 to even out the lighting as reqd. Maybe even light from below the canopy??

As a comparison, there is a bubbilisious that was planted on the same day, Im using this to learn. I.e. you will see it has nute burn, thats so i know what it looks like before it gets one of the ladies in the main tub.


The keen eyed among you may have noticed that ive got something else in there, its just a few tomato plants as the seeds are cheam, the growing is similar and it should show me if im making any big mistakes before they nuke the girls (my reasoning is that the toms are a hybred that is prolly weaker than a ruderalis based weed, therfore more succeptible to nasties)



Here are the next round, due for planing in the main tub next tues @ 2 weeks from seed



The photo ladies for shits and giggles



Heres most of the important stuff in situ.
I realise its a state at the mo, but im due a full clean down in the next day or 2



Hopefully if my plans work out, ill be pulling 2 plants every 2 weeks and replacing the 2 pulled ones from the blue/white tub
This way im taking full advantage of the auto properties. I may also make a smaller tank/pump for the seedlings so that they can have much less nutes. either pumped, or manual.

Any input from anyone? always interested in constructive critisism.

p.s. pondering replacing the right CFL for a 600W HID when im in flower, that way i can move from the left to the right with growing intencities raising from left to right.

Oh and btw, all 4 main ladies are showing hairs

Looks to me to be nice and healthy little sprouts! Nice color and furry cute little stems. I have watered with constant drip at this stage.. Depends on the strain.. So I say keep doing whatever it is your doing.. Might want to cute the nutes..


This might have worked in your PC case.. That's what I'm breeding them for... First of this batch to show sex.. Yes it's a male.. But I am really excited about the size..


View attachment 2272546

oops.. imagine the timing.. You posted while I was writing my last.. Looking f-ing great!!

That PPM is way too high I'm not a hydro guy but I'm surprised you haven't ran into problems yet. your tapwater has crazy high PPMs coming out, so I would start with some R/O water which should have 0 ppms and bring it up to about 700 from there. Or try the tapwater with alot less nutrients? Idk They look good right now though man so whatever works for you make it happen.

Thanks all,
Im currently experimenting with de-chlorinator and O2 tablets (as well as air stones)

The nutes are getting munched up but that could be the toms

I shuffled the girls about today during a clean down, the bubbelecious has opened up somewhat, like she has hit a growth spurt.
I have a feeling that i got a couple of seeds confused, the 2 big bang plants look, different. Time will tell I guess.

The seedlings will be 2 weeks old on the 31st so will go into the main res (I will prolly go to around 1200 then) and i will get another couple of seeds going
The main girls will be 4 weeks on the 31st

Anyone got any info on:
Big Bang Auto
Bubelecious auto
Sweet afgani delight Auto
Speed devil Auto

Any experiance with any would be great!!

Relax bro! You are doing well. Keep doing what you have been and things will end up on the couch.

alley.walker said:

Relax bro! You are doing well. Keep doing what you have been and things will end up on the couch.

Click to expand...

Thats the plan. just want these ladies to be as strong and good as possible
A couple of these are already bigger than what i harvewsted from a pc case!

Well, i was feeling guilty about the state of my room after the last pics, heres a pic of my ladies tonight


Big bang



Big(ger) Bang



Speed devil



Bubbelicious



The next ladies, in the rockwool and pissing about photos in the soil pellets. These will go in the tub on tues and another 2 will go into some soil pellets for germinating. Ive got some airpots, so i might try one of these with 2 autos in it as i hear that depth is more important than width so i might be able to grow 2 alongside one another in the same pot, as long as i train then apart from each other so they have room to flower.

You can see the runt in the background, planted at the same time, in the same way as the 4 bigger ladies.