Okay so I am New here to 420mag although I have been learning so much from all of you guys so thank you very much for all the wonderful information!! I have failed in the past trying to grow with soil and a 300w HPS/MH bulb so I don't want to give it a shot again. (At least not right now anyway) I also hear that hydroponics are way better and quicker so I have decided to go with DWC!
So I have ordered the 144 reflector from Mars hydro with the 5w diodes and am currently waiting for it to get to me. May I say this light looks badass! I can not wait for it to get to me! I had ordered my seeds back in the middle of November from herbies which took a month to get to me, but hey they were free because they took so long that they refunded my money back to me, so I am not complaining at all. I have decided to do two strains at a time. The first two I have luckily chosen are: lemon haze and sweet red poison.(Lemon haze is bred by Royal queen seeds, and is a feminized hybrid of lemon skunk and amnesia haze and Red Poison is bred by Sweet Seeds, and is an auto-flowering hybrid of Green Poison and a Pakistani landrace strain, believed to be a Hindu Kush phenotype.)
I started the paper towel germination process for both seeds on December 18, 2015 shortly before 8pm. Left them in the dark and in a slightly warm environment. (Above my fridge worked perfectly)
The night of Tuesday December 22nd I checked my seeds to find that both were sprouted and that Both seeds had been fully cracked. So therefore I knew that I needed to plant both of these seeds ASAP before my roots either: started growing those small hairs on them, started sticking to the paper towel, or even before they started to dry out.
So my next step I thought to myself was to plant each seed into a rock wool cube. Although I have heard from a lot of others that rockwool tends to lean more alkaline than acidic and in terms would raise my PH. In which I did not want that! Especially since I have had troubles with rockwool in the past. So I decided to collect multiple PH readings of all the different water sources I had in my home.
Here is the collection of data I recorded of all The water sources I tested and their PH.
(Now I do not have a digital PH meter so I'm using the Suretest PH solution I bought from my local hydro store)
Tap water: 10.0 - 11.0
Brita filter water: 5.5 - 6.0
Great value drinking water: 5.5 - 6.0
Great value spring water: 6.5 - 7.0
After testing the PH of these four different types of water I then created my own PH up and PH down. (Using sulphuric acid and sodium hydroxide) <----- I had learned this from tons of reading on here so thank you once again for all the helpful information everyone!
I then for shits and giggles, tested the PH to make sure that I made my PH down and my PH up correctly. The test results I received were:
PH up solution (Roebic): 13.0 - 14.0
PH down solution (sulphuric acid): 0 - 1.0
So everything seems to be on point and going well!
After collecting all of the data I wanted, I next researched that rockwool cubes should be soaked in water with a PH of 5.5. So I chose the Brita filtered water to soak them in. (Because I used the gallon of great value drinking water to create my PH down solution and I used the gallon of great value spring water to create my PH up solution. Which left me with Brita water or tap water and the Brita water was perfect) I soaked both cubes for a little over an hour. As I did not have time to soak them overnight like some people recommended. After I removed the cubes from the water that they soaked in I decided to take the PH. The water did slightly increase its PH by .5 so I took note of this but knew that around 6.0 should still be okay, and that if the PH was to rise I could slowly bring it down with my PH down solution. I set each rockwool cube on a plate and covered each with a plastic cup with some water on the insides of the cup for humidity. (Since my girlfriend threw out my damn humidity dome) lastly I put them under some light overnight and now that it is the morning and that 12 hours have gone by I have already seen them slightly get taller! It's so amazing to watch them grow! I can not wait to get my LED reflector from Mars hydro! Also if I may add I now do believe that rockwool is as good as people say for oxygen and water for the plants. I believe that my problem in the past was just simply that I never tested PH on anything and never knew much about PH.
Now I have the following items for my garden: 5 gallon buckets, net pots, commercial air pump, air line (black), air stones, Mars hydro 144 reflector (on the way to me), 10L bag of hydro ton, and the PH up and PH down solutions I created. I was wondering what other items I will be needing to improve my grow or keep things working and running smoothly? Such as calmag I hear a lot about. And the types of nutrients that I will need? Although I do not plan on giving my plants any nutrients until it is in the DWC bucket.
Thanks for all 420Mag
So I have ordered the 144 reflector from Mars hydro with the 5w diodes and am currently waiting for it to get to me. May I say this light looks badass! I can not wait for it to get to me! I had ordered my seeds back in the middle of November from herbies which took a month to get to me, but hey they were free because they took so long that they refunded my money back to me, so I am not complaining at all. I have decided to do two strains at a time. The first two I have luckily chosen are: lemon haze and sweet red poison.(Lemon haze is bred by Royal queen seeds, and is a feminized hybrid of lemon skunk and amnesia haze and Red Poison is bred by Sweet Seeds, and is an auto-flowering hybrid of Green Poison and a Pakistani landrace strain, believed to be a Hindu Kush phenotype.)
I started the paper towel germination process for both seeds on December 18, 2015 shortly before 8pm. Left them in the dark and in a slightly warm environment. (Above my fridge worked perfectly)
The night of Tuesday December 22nd I checked my seeds to find that both were sprouted and that Both seeds had been fully cracked. So therefore I knew that I needed to plant both of these seeds ASAP before my roots either: started growing those small hairs on them, started sticking to the paper towel, or even before they started to dry out.
So my next step I thought to myself was to plant each seed into a rock wool cube. Although I have heard from a lot of others that rockwool tends to lean more alkaline than acidic and in terms would raise my PH. In which I did not want that! Especially since I have had troubles with rockwool in the past. So I decided to collect multiple PH readings of all the different water sources I had in my home.
Here is the collection of data I recorded of all The water sources I tested and their PH.
(Now I do not have a digital PH meter so I'm using the Suretest PH solution I bought from my local hydro store)
Tap water: 10.0 - 11.0
Brita filter water: 5.5 - 6.0
Great value drinking water: 5.5 - 6.0
Great value spring water: 6.5 - 7.0
After testing the PH of these four different types of water I then created my own PH up and PH down. (Using sulphuric acid and sodium hydroxide) <----- I had learned this from tons of reading on here so thank you once again for all the helpful information everyone!
I then for shits and giggles, tested the PH to make sure that I made my PH down and my PH up correctly. The test results I received were:
PH up solution (Roebic): 13.0 - 14.0
PH down solution (sulphuric acid): 0 - 1.0
So everything seems to be on point and going well!
After collecting all of the data I wanted, I next researched that rockwool cubes should be soaked in water with a PH of 5.5. So I chose the Brita filtered water to soak them in. (Because I used the gallon of great value drinking water to create my PH down solution and I used the gallon of great value spring water to create my PH up solution. Which left me with Brita water or tap water and the Brita water was perfect) I soaked both cubes for a little over an hour. As I did not have time to soak them overnight like some people recommended. After I removed the cubes from the water that they soaked in I decided to take the PH. The water did slightly increase its PH by .5 so I took note of this but knew that around 6.0 should still be okay, and that if the PH was to rise I could slowly bring it down with my PH down solution. I set each rockwool cube on a plate and covered each with a plastic cup with some water on the insides of the cup for humidity. (Since my girlfriend threw out my damn humidity dome) lastly I put them under some light overnight and now that it is the morning and that 12 hours have gone by I have already seen them slightly get taller! It's so amazing to watch them grow! I can not wait to get my LED reflector from Mars hydro! Also if I may add I now do believe that rockwool is as good as people say for oxygen and water for the plants. I believe that my problem in the past was just simply that I never tested PH on anything and never knew much about PH.
Now I have the following items for my garden: 5 gallon buckets, net pots, commercial air pump, air line (black), air stones, Mars hydro 144 reflector (on the way to me), 10L bag of hydro ton, and the PH up and PH down solutions I created. I was wondering what other items I will be needing to improve my grow or keep things working and running smoothly? Such as calmag I hear a lot about. And the types of nutrients that I will need? Although I do not plan on giving my plants any nutrients until it is in the DWC bucket.
Thanks for all 420Mag
