Evening all,
I decided to try a hydro grow of a few different strains. I'm a complete noob at this but have spent the last 2 weeks or so researching and preparing for it. From everything from germination to flowering. I didn't even know what germination was 2 weeks ago so be gentle with me
Seeds
I ordered 3 seeds from Delicious Seeds Feminized Cannabis Seeds. They came very quickly and discretely, so if you are looking for somewhere to buy seeds, these guys seems to be pretty good. Anyway, there are the seeds i bought:
- Il Diavolo Auto (Feminized)
- Northern Lights Blue Auto (Feminized)
- Fruity Chronic Juice (Feminized)
Germination
I have already successfully germinated all 3 of these seeds and they have already been transferred to Rockwool and are sitting in a homemade propagation unit (until my heated propagation unit arrives)
I plan on keeping this unit in the dark until the seeds sprout, then I will be using my CFL 20watt cool white light.
To germinate the seeds, I dropped the seeds into a glass of tap water (not distilled) on Tuesday evening. I waited until all 3 had sunk before removing them. The Northern lights blue dropped to the bottom after 20 minutes, Il Diavolo sank after a couple of hours. The Fruity Chronic Juice sank the next morning, however I left them all in the glass until i got home from work (in all, approx 19-20 hours).
I then used the wet tissue method. I placed the seeds in between a few sheets of damp, warm tissue and left them for approx 72hours in between 2 plates (creating a shell like container) so that all of the seeds sprouted a tap root of between 1/4 an 1/2 inch. The first to pop was the Northern lights on the Wednesday morning, the last was the Fruity Chronic Juice Friday evening.
Planting medium
I am using Rockwool for planting the seeds. I soaked the Rockwool in ph 5.5 water for a few hours. I then drained the water they were soaking in, and soaked them in ph 5.5 water again. This is because Rockwool has a higher ph to start with so needs to be adjusted. After an additional 15 minutes i removed the Rockwool from the water, I did NOT squeeze the Rockwool to drain the water. I poked holes in 2 of the Rockwool to plant the seeds (Northern Lights Blue and Fruity Chronic), i then covered these holes over (2 down 1 to go). As for Il Diavolo however, I split the Rockwool and placed the seed inside because the tap root was considerable longer than the others and would have been difficult to manoeuvre through a hole without damaging it. Once all were prepared, i placed them inside my propagation unit (cheap plastic container wrapped in a carrier bag to keep humidity) and placed it next to a medium heat radiator.
Growing Medium
I plan on building (i have the parts on their way) my own hydroponic growing system using the following:
45 gallon black plastic box with lockable lid
1 x water pump + black plastic tubing
1 x air pump + transparent air tubing
Hydroponic 3" grow pots
Clay pebbles
Lighting
First 2 - 3 weeks - I have a 20w cool white CFL bulb for the early stages
I plan on purchasing a 90w (2x45w) 6 spectrum LED Light for the veg stage
90w Seven Spectrum - Deep Red / Red / Blue / Orange / White / UV / IR UFO LED Gr GrowLights.co.uk
I was thinking about maybe purchasing an additional RED only LED light to use along with the above during flowering as this has been known to bring out more potent flowers (correct me if i am wrong)
The reason I have decided to go LED is because of the heat and power consumption factor. For me this played a major part in my decision. I understand that HID is still a proven lighting system. However, recently people have been able to demonstrate real results using LED, and this only reinforced my decision.
Summary
Ok, to get me started i needed the following for my Germination phase shopping list:
- Seeds
- Glass and Paper towel
- Tap water
- Ph DOWN solution and dropper for application
- Rockwool
- Bucket/Water carrier
- Heated propagation unit (if you can afford one, about £20 from amazon)
- Patience
- I have used NO nutrients so far
Tuesday 5th November dropped seeds into glass
Wednesday 6th November moved seeds to tissue
Friday 8th November moved seeds to Rockwool
At the moment I'm just going to leave the seeds to it and check on them every day. When they sprout i'm going to apply light and start feeding.
I hope that i am doing things right. I spent a long time researching and this is what i have come up with
I decided to try a hydro grow of a few different strains. I'm a complete noob at this but have spent the last 2 weeks or so researching and preparing for it. From everything from germination to flowering. I didn't even know what germination was 2 weeks ago so be gentle with me
Seeds
I ordered 3 seeds from Delicious Seeds Feminized Cannabis Seeds. They came very quickly and discretely, so if you are looking for somewhere to buy seeds, these guys seems to be pretty good. Anyway, there are the seeds i bought:
- Il Diavolo Auto (Feminized)
- Northern Lights Blue Auto (Feminized)
- Fruity Chronic Juice (Feminized)
Germination
I have already successfully germinated all 3 of these seeds and they have already been transferred to Rockwool and are sitting in a homemade propagation unit (until my heated propagation unit arrives)
I plan on keeping this unit in the dark until the seeds sprout, then I will be using my CFL 20watt cool white light.
To germinate the seeds, I dropped the seeds into a glass of tap water (not distilled) on Tuesday evening. I waited until all 3 had sunk before removing them. The Northern lights blue dropped to the bottom after 20 minutes, Il Diavolo sank after a couple of hours. The Fruity Chronic Juice sank the next morning, however I left them all in the glass until i got home from work (in all, approx 19-20 hours).
I then used the wet tissue method. I placed the seeds in between a few sheets of damp, warm tissue and left them for approx 72hours in between 2 plates (creating a shell like container) so that all of the seeds sprouted a tap root of between 1/4 an 1/2 inch. The first to pop was the Northern lights on the Wednesday morning, the last was the Fruity Chronic Juice Friday evening.
Planting medium
I am using Rockwool for planting the seeds. I soaked the Rockwool in ph 5.5 water for a few hours. I then drained the water they were soaking in, and soaked them in ph 5.5 water again. This is because Rockwool has a higher ph to start with so needs to be adjusted. After an additional 15 minutes i removed the Rockwool from the water, I did NOT squeeze the Rockwool to drain the water. I poked holes in 2 of the Rockwool to plant the seeds (Northern Lights Blue and Fruity Chronic), i then covered these holes over (2 down 1 to go). As for Il Diavolo however, I split the Rockwool and placed the seed inside because the tap root was considerable longer than the others and would have been difficult to manoeuvre through a hole without damaging it. Once all were prepared, i placed them inside my propagation unit (cheap plastic container wrapped in a carrier bag to keep humidity) and placed it next to a medium heat radiator.
Growing Medium
I plan on building (i have the parts on their way) my own hydroponic growing system using the following:
45 gallon black plastic box with lockable lid
1 x water pump + black plastic tubing
1 x air pump + transparent air tubing
Hydroponic 3" grow pots
Clay pebbles
Lighting
First 2 - 3 weeks - I have a 20w cool white CFL bulb for the early stages
I plan on purchasing a 90w (2x45w) 6 spectrum LED Light for the veg stage
90w Seven Spectrum - Deep Red / Red / Blue / Orange / White / UV / IR UFO LED Gr GrowLights.co.uk
I was thinking about maybe purchasing an additional RED only LED light to use along with the above during flowering as this has been known to bring out more potent flowers (correct me if i am wrong)
The reason I have decided to go LED is because of the heat and power consumption factor. For me this played a major part in my decision. I understand that HID is still a proven lighting system. However, recently people have been able to demonstrate real results using LED, and this only reinforced my decision.
Summary
Ok, to get me started i needed the following for my Germination phase shopping list:
- Seeds
- Glass and Paper towel
- Tap water
- Ph DOWN solution and dropper for application
- Rockwool
- Bucket/Water carrier
- Heated propagation unit (if you can afford one, about £20 from amazon)
- Patience
- I have used NO nutrients so far
Tuesday 5th November dropped seeds into glass
Wednesday 6th November moved seeds to tissue
Friday 8th November moved seeds to Rockwool
At the moment I'm just going to leave the seeds to it and check on them every day. When they sprout i'm going to apply light and start feeding.
I hope that i am doing things right. I spent a long time researching and this is what i have come up with
