Need Help With Dripper Timing

I'm a hydro newb on my first grow and need some help.
I currently have 8 seedlings going in a home built drip system. I'm looking for any advice on how to best determine the amount of time I should run the drippers for.

I have .5gal/hr drippers, currently set to run 3x per day for 45min each time.

Room temp hovers around 72F and 35% humidity.

I noticed today that one of the plants roots are showing a bit out the bottom of the rockwool cube. They seem to be a bit fuzzy tho, so I'm worried that I'm overwatering the cubes.

I've attached 2 images - "08-20081117s.jpg" is the top of the plant while "08-Roots-20081117-4.jpg" shows its roots poking out the bottom of the cube.

Fuzzy roots are healthy roots, the little hairs are feeder roots, LOOKS GOOD.

I am also doing a drip system. I have mine set to start running in two days. Mine will be in rockwool cubes set in hydroton. I will probabally go 1/2 hour on, 2 hours off for a week or two then 15 on 45 off when they start taking off.

What medium will you transplant them into once they get bigger?

Thanks for the info - can't tell ya how happy I am to hear my roots are good

Planning to do the rockwool cubes in hydroton once they get a bit bigger, and shortly after that it'll be time to do some sexing!!

im no weed guru or anything, but i would water for less time but more frequently. i would think 45 minutes is too long to saturate roots unless your solution is well oxygenated. i drip for 15 min 5x daily and when i get a new timer im gonna drip for 8-10 min 6x daily.

I have an airstone in my res and use H2O2 so I should be well oxygenated.
Either way, I'm going to set my timer for 10min 6x per day and see how that goes.

SlikWiLL13 said:

i drip for 15 min 5x daily and when i get a new timer im gonna drip for 8-10 min 6x daily.

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What's the flow rate on your drippers?

its a ghetto homemade system out of a peristaltic pump i had laying around, it has a dial 1-10 for flow. i just adjust it till i have a pretty good drip goin, it only takes a few seconds for nutrient to flow out the bottom of my RW blocks. i just took updated pics of my system, im gonna put them in my signature journal right now. check in 15 minutes.

SlikWiLL13 said:

i just adjust it till i have a pretty good drip goin, it only takes a few seconds for nutrient to flow out the bottom of my RW blocks.

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Sounds like you are moving much more water per cycle than I am - I didn't really get much water draining through the rockwool cubes even after 45min as I had the system setup previously. My calculations say I was moving .375gal water per cycle on my previous schedule. Maybe I should get the 1 or 2gal/hr drippers instead of the .5gal/hr ones I currently have?

Do you have a guestimate on how much water you're moving over each plant during a cycle?

i bet i run around half a gallon, maybe more, over the three blocks i feed. its a very unprecise system so i make sure i water the hell out of them. my rez doesnt have an airstone, but it does have the waterfall airation when the tray drains. i only use a 1.2 gallon ice-cream bucket for a rez. what medium did you say you were using?

okay, rockwool. its really hard to overwater RW. and its my opinion that when you feed you should always have 10-20% runnoff. this ensures that any mineral/salt buildups get rinsed away and you avoid lockout later on. are you set up for your runoff to riturn to the rez? if so feed 'em 4-5 times a day till plenty of solution washes through.

That helps a ton!!
I have an extra set of .5gal drippers that I'll exchange for the 2gal model.
I think on the next cycle after I put the new drippers on I'll just let it run manually until I see that plenty of water has gone through (I have a recovery system setup) and use that as my running time going forward - make sense??

im no expert, but that sound just like what works for me. i was hand watering daily up untill a few weeks ago and since ive been feeding this way i swear ive seen faster growth.

oh yeah, i feed about every 4 hours or so. give the roots plenty of time to breath too!

Got the 2Gal/hr drippers installed and setup. Seems to get the rockwool good and wet in 10min time, so have the timer set to run every 4hrs for 10min.
I also did a little fluorescent light rearrangement in the room so I can get more light on the little ones.

...noticed the faint smell of skunk coming off the biggest one too - mmmmm skunky

you prolly shouldnt feed in the dark. the plants dont need it and it basicaly just adds humidity, which goes up at night anyway. forgot to mention that. everything else sounds good to me. how about some pics?

I am not currently running any dark time - they are in 24hr light, but thanks for the reminder!
Here's what I have so far - #8 is the skunky one I was talking about previously and, oddly enough, the one I was concerned about initially.

that all looks real nice and clean, well put together too! ive been thinking about converting my flood table in my flower area to drip like yours. they make a kit to change it over for like $28. do you know what strain your growing?

SlikWiLL13 said:

that all looks real nice and clean, well put together too!

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Thanks!!

SlikWiLL13 said:

do you know what strain your growing?

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Unfortunately I don't know exactly what strain they are - these are from some bag seed I had been saving. I know they are either White Russian, White Rhino, AK47, Super Skunk, Great White Shark and/or Mr. Nice - lol.
Hopefully my state will hop on the Medical Marijuana bandwagon soon so I can purchase known seeds online rather than this guessing game (I have glaucoma, so a good medical excuse too).

alot of folks in non-med states order seeds. i hear lots of great things about attitude seeds, if i order again i will order from them. im in a non-med state and i ordered some about 3yrs ago from nirvana with no complications. if your still concerned order them to a friends house, just make sure its someone you can trust with your freedom. cause thats what you do when you tell someone about your grow.

luck

SlikWiLL13 said:

alot of folks in non-med states order seeds. i hear lots of great things about attitude seeds, if i order again i will order from them. im in a non-med state and i ordered some about 3yrs ago from nirvana with no complications. if your still concerned order them to a friends house, just make sure its someone you can trust with your freedom. cause thats what you do when you tell someone about your grow.

luck

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Thanks for the info - I may just give that a try if these don't work out.