First time grower in RDWC

Failmore said:

Spent all that money but did not buy an RO unit for the well water?

If you want to do hydro I think it is a must have...makes life easier. Then you know exactly what is in the water...only what you put in it. That well water already has a ph of 5.5??? That is bad stuff.

Turn the light all the way down and move it way up...like 4 feet up.

Keep it simple is the best advice.

I run sterile hydro with jacks 321 in ro water.

.4 ec for seedlings. 0.8ec for a small plant.

1 ec for veg. Then I just read the plant and the ec of the res. If they are eating a lot raise it up a lil.

I stunted a lot of Autos learning my lights and environment. They will be fine. I grew huge plants that I stunted for a month. They will just take a lot longer. And that defeats the purpose of an auto but such is life.

My guess is your well water is junk. With RO water i do not use ph up or down. The nutes put it at the correct spot.

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When I got my ph and ec pens the first thing I did was check my ppms. When I seen the 50ppm I thought that we was good and we didn’t need one. I was looking at an R/O system last night before I went to bed thinking it must be the well water. I’ll buy one this week and get some distilled water for the new seeds until I get it hooked up. Hopefully that will solve my problems.

We wasn’t sure about getting to high with the light and causing stretching. So 4 ft should be a safe height?

Rolltideroll0420 said:

When I got my ph and ec pens the first thing I did was check my ppms. When I seen the 50ppm I thought that we was good and we didn’t need one. I was looking at an R/O system last night before I went to bed thinking it must be the well water. I’ll buy one this week and get some distilled water for the new seeds until I get it hooked up. Hopefully that will solve my problems.

We wasn’t sure about getting to high with the light and causing stretching. So 4 ft should be a safe height?

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As you found out the internet is full of bad information. Everybody has a different environment and different lights so it is not possible to look at what other people do and expect the same results.

So you learn to read the plants.

Start with the light way up on low. Then as the plant comes out and if you see stretching start to lower it or increase output.

You start with low ec..I usually go .4 (reads 400 on my pen) to start. You want a nice lime green. Not a dark green. So you watch the color. As they grow they will get lighter.

So you increase the ec.

This is how I think about it.

Light hits the leaves. Moisture evaporates from the leaves and then is replaced from moisture from the res. Blah blah science and what not.

So the more you evaporate the more it pulls from the res. Sp you can control how much feed you pull through the plant by controlling these factors.

I fucked up a lot of grows before I got things more dialed in.

P sure my light was a good 3 or 4 feet above my plants at all times till they grew.

This was April 24

May 31. You can see how hi i have the light here.

I don't use ro I just use tap in dwc. I think you cooked em with the light. I would start at 3 feet 25% power. The se7000 is powerful . You cooked em. No way a sprout can take that

Ya first kick for me was a 1000w MH light,about 5' away.
Never killed anything,no internet or help from anyone.No calmag ,no meters.
Just used half of what the bottles said.

Didnt even know what pH was,but yet we got good smoke.

i would use rapid rooters instead of rockwool. top feed until roots come out the bottom of the netpot.

and use 1mL each of micro/bloom/grow per gallon to start with. they need food once they have leaves.

rkymtnman said:

i would use rapid rooters instead of rockwool. top feed until roots come out the bottom of the netpot.

and use 1mL each of micro/bloom/grow per gallon to start with. they need food once they have leaves.

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Agreed. Tap has enough of a charge to grow the serrated leaves and get the begining of next leaves started. That's is just what I do.

I have a super skunk 20 hrs out of rockwoll. First time I have ever not used a towel in 15-20 years lol. I soaked it till it sank. Like a hr later I put it in a cube that was soaking at like 5.6 in tap, gave a lil squeeze. I kept it moist by watering the next a day with non adjusted tap water, it was already starting to push up. The next day more regular water, and it was breaking the surface. Ill take a picture of today. Still no nutrients added. I'll get a pic in a few

That’s

ProPheT 216 said:

Agreed. Tap has enough of a charge to grow the serrated leaves and get the begining of next leaves started. That's is just what I do.

I have a super skunk 20 hrs out of rockwoll. First time I have ever not used a towel in 15-20 years lol. I soaked it till it sank. Like a hr later I put it in a cube that was soaking at like 5.6 in tap, gave a lil squeeze. I kept it moist by watering the next a day with non adjusted tap water, it was already starting to push up. The next day more regular water, and it was breaking the surface. Ill take a picture of today. Still no nutrients added. I'll get a pic in a few

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what we did we put 10 seeds in a glass of water for 24hrs then put it straight in rockwool. 9of them sprouted. I bought some rapid rooter on Amazon this weekend wasn’t sure if I was going to use them or rockwool again. Was leaning towards rapid rooters.

rkymtnman said:

i would use rapid rooters instead of rockwool. top feed until roots come out the bottom of the netpot.

and use 1mL each of micro/bloom/grow per gallon to start with. they need food once they have leaves.

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How often would you top feed? Once every three days?

Rolltideroll0420 said:

How often would you top feed? Once every three days?

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more like 3 times per day. you only need to pour like a cup or so from the top. rapid rooters are nice in that they can stay really wet without any issues.

then once the roots poke out the bottom of the netpot, stop top feeding and keep the water level about 1 to 2 inches below the netpot.

Rolltideroll0420 said:

How often would you top feed? Once every three days?

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When the cube starts to get so light I'm scared I might miss it drying out. Then fling once to get extra water out. And your good

Keep it simple. Everything does not need to cost money or b complicated

So yesterday evening I put my seeds in a glass of water to start germinating. Today I looked and one of the seed husk is open and at the bottom of the glass is the inside of the seed. Is that one dead or should I still put it in a rapid rooter?

Rolltideroll0420 said:

So yesterday evening I put my seeds in a glass of water to start germinating. Today I looked and one of the seed husk is open and at the bottom of the glass is the inside of the seed. Is that one dead or should I still put it in a rapid rooter?

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i start mine in the RR. i keep them wet and covered and usually a day or so and they start to sprout. then uncover and watch em grow.

Yea I bought rapid rooters but they came in the same day as the seeds and I wanted to soak them first so I just put the seeds in a glass while the rooters soaked.

ProPheT 216 said:

I'm not gonna lie, and I'm ready to take the heat

I don't check ec unless I notice something isn't right. Then I will start taking notes, and monitoring the situation. Dwc I can instantly change my plants root environment in minutes. I just watch my plants. Tacos, and claws, leaf tips, color changes. They talk I swear

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That's how I roll too lol. I used to take meticulous notes. After a while I pretty much know what the ec should be. I watch my pH like a hawk tho.

You will get it straightened I'm sure. You can try out that photone app and calibrate it to your light specs. Then get some readings and go to photones website (growlightmeter.com) and use the calculator. I know it's a free app and I've not checked it against a meter or anything but it seems to get you in a good ballpark. Listen to these dudes and don't get butthurt by the dick comments when they come and you guys will be fine. I also recommend rapid rooters for seeds.
My girls

Got 7 out of 10 sprouted two more looks like something is happening in them. One might be a dud. Picked up two of them and saw roots out the bottom.

Today makes day 5. I put seed in glass of water day one. Paper towel day 2. Then on day 3 I put them in rapid rooters under the humidity dome. I have a 1/4” of tap water in my tray. I haven’t added anything to them and one looks burn. What could have caused it?

i'd start feeding very lightly