Can I go to Hydro setup now?

H

howlinmike

New Member
I have 2 babies now 2 weeks old. I started them in 1.5" rockwool til the roots came out then went to 4x4x2.5 rockwool, now the roots are coming out the bottoms of them too (about 1/8", lots of them)! My issue is, I currently have them under lights (300 watt LED) on top of the Gro-Smart tray, (you see one on amazon to see what I'm talking about), I got from Grodan thats sitting in my grow tray. Can I go ahead and put them in the hydro setup now? My fear is the roots aren't long enough to reach the water/nutes. I don't want the roots to get light in the situation they are now in. Any help?! They are about 2" height with a lot of vegetative growth, lots of leaves, don't want to kill by getting light on the roots!

Plus, my plants are only 2" tall, is this OK?
I have my lights about 18" above them is this OK? Like I said my LED is a Advanced Platinum Series DS200 300w 11-band LED Grow Light - DUAL VEG/FLOWER SPECTRUM from amazon.

Thanks for any help ya can give me out there!!
 
You could have put them in hydro the day you found roots growing out the 1.5 cubes. The secret is to keep using very week nutrients until the plant is strong enough to withstand a full nutrient assault. I often cram a seed into a 1.5 cube and shove that into my bubble buckets and then just hand water them until the roots poke through my net pots.
It would be helpful to know, as Upinsmoke535 asked......What type of hydro set up are you going to be using?
 
Upinsmoke535 and MikeTbob,

Im using a drip/side spray type hydro setup, you can see it at fastergardens.com (https://fastergardens.com/3_PLANT_BUY_NOW.html) which I bought from ebay, the 3 pot version. I thought if anything I would go to hydro setup, leave it empty, and just water by hand till the roots got long enough. My main concern is keeping the roots out of the light. the roots then can get fed by using the sprayer versus the drip ring. I know the situation I was in the roots were getting some light which was stopping them from growing out longer!

My roots are only about an 1/8" long, and by the time I put hydrotron down then my 4x4x2.5" rockwool block, the roots are pretty far from the bottom for the sprayer to reach, the top of the block is about an 1/2 down from the top of the basket. The drip is going to be worthless I think because it sprays out away from the basket, which would be OK for nice root ball, but not these. Until the roots get long enough, I was just going to use the same 1/4 strength General Hydroponics Flora Series solution (pH 5.6), put in a bowl and just dip the in it to feed the roots.

I've done plenty outdoors, this my first attempt with hydro, so there is a learning curve for me. I knew to paper towel germinate, go to 1.5 til roots poked out, then to the bigger block til roots popped out, but forgot about what to do with them til the time the roots were long enough to go to the hydro.. The plants look good with plenty of vegetative growth and about 2" tall. I'm stuck now on how to feed em til the roots get longer. The guy from Gro-dan seemed to think it was OK sitting on top of Gro-Smart tray in a grow tray, I tried to tell em that they where getting light, not a blast, but still enough to concern me, roots are supposed to be dark like if they were in dirt.

Any other ideas, would be nice to here!

Thanks,

Howlinmike
 
howlinmike said:
Upinsmoke535 and MikeTbob,

Im using a drip/side spray type hydro setup, you can see it at fastergardens.com (https://fastergardens.com/3_PLANT_BUY_NOW.html) which I bought from ebay, the 3 pot version. I thought if anything I would go to hydro setup, leave it empty, and just water by hand till the roots got long enough. My main concern is keeping the roots out of the light. the roots then can get fed by using the sprayer versus the drip ring. I know the situation I was in the roots were getting some light which was stopping them from growing out longer!

My roots are only about an 1/8" long, and by the time I put hydrotron down then my 4x4x2.5" rockwool block, the roots are pretty far from the bottom for the sprayer to reach, the top of the block is about an 1/2 down from the top of the basket. The drip is going to be worthless I think because it sprays out away from the basket, which would be OK for nice root ball, but not these. Until the roots get long enough, I was just going to use the same 1/4 strength General Hydroponics Flora Series solution (pH 5.6), put in a bowl and just dip the in it to feed the roots.

I've done plenty outdoors, this my first attempt with hydro, so there is a learning curve for me. I knew to paper towel germinate, go to 1.5 til roots poked out, then to the bigger block til roots popped out, but forgot about what to do with them til the time the roots were long enough to go to the hydro.. The plants look good with plenty of vegetative growth and about 2" tall. I'm stuck now on how to feed em til the roots get longer. The guy from Gro-dan seemed to think it was OK sitting on top of Gro-Smart tray in a grow tray, I tried to tell em that they where getting light, not a blast, but still enough to concern me, roots are supposed to be dark like if they were in dirt.

Any other ideas, would be nice to here!

Thanks,

Howlinmike
Click to expand...

It looks like a RDWC Recirculating Deep Water Culture with a drip feed and root sprayers.
This is perfect. This is what I would do.
Sprout your seeds however you like......and then get them into the 1.5 cubes. You do not need to use more than one cube per plant. Once you see roots pop out the cubes you can put the whole cube into the netpot at the very bottom of the netpot. Cover the 1.5. cube with hydrotron to block out the light. Fire up the hydro system and the drip feed should keep it moist or you might have to angle the root sprayer somehow to get the cubes wet. You only want moist, not soaked.
 
MikeTbob,

Sounds great for next grow, but is what I am doing now going to be ok?, or should I pull the 4" block out and sit it on the bottom like I would in your scenario, and as the roots get longer keep moving the block up! Right now I am dipping the basket every 2 days to keep from overfeeding and drowning them. It's only a 6" basket so its easy enough to do.

Thanks!

Howlinmike
 
Ok Thanks MikeTbob,

For future reference, are the blocks, be it the 1.5" of the 4" supposed to go directly on the bottom? The guy Brett from Grodan says to put about 1 or 2" hydrtron down first, then the block then fill in the rest. It would seem to me, if ya looked at my system, that the sprayer is going to get the bottom of the basket about 1 or 2" anyway.

Any thoughts?

Howlinmike
 
Haven't we already been over this in your previous thread? What are you waiting for Mike? Don't be scared, it sounds like you've given your girls a great start, and now its time to get them in your buckets! You're probably doing them more harm than good by procrastinating....

As far as your last post, you can do it either way. Maybe just a thin layer of hydroton at the bottom at first, but you can put the rockwool at the bottom if you want.

:Namaste:
-Monkey
 
howlinmike said:
Ok Thanks MikeTbob,

For future reference, are the blocks, be it the 1.5" of the 4" supposed to go directly on the bottom? The guy Brett from Grodan says to put about 1 or 2" hydrtron down first, then the block then fill in the rest. It would seem to me, if ya looked at my system, that the sprayer is going to get the bottom of the basket about 1 or 2" anyway.

Any thoughts?

Howlinmike
Click to expand...

Your guy is correct. Normally, you don't want the cube sitting down that far because I think it promotes root diseases when it stays soaking wet all the time. This is just a trick I learned to get smaller plants into the system quicker. I like to raise the blocks off the bottom until there is at least 1 inch of rocks under the cubes.
 
Monkey,

Someone asked me a question, I answered. I ain't scared of nothing! I TOOK YOUR ADVISE and put them in the basket as we discussed! They've in the baskets now for almost 2 days. I was actually interested in what I can do NEXT TIME to prevent this thing from happening!
Now I know! I am going to dip them to feed and water til I see roots and go to the spray head instead. If you read the post they great for NEXT TIME! I don't want to worry about light next time. I'll now what to do thanks to you and MikeTbob's advise.

Thanks,

Howlinmike
 
Thanks MikeTbob,

Like I just told someone else, I'll know what to do next time, just trying to keep healthy for this time. Its all a learning experience!
If it was outside in dirt, I wouldn't be asking shit. But beings this is my first hydro grow, I'm gonna ask if I have questions.

I thanked Monkey for his advise, because of that I already put them in pots!
 
howlinmike said:
Thanks MikeTbob,

Like I just told someone else, I'll know what to do next time, just trying to keep healthy for this time. Its all a learning experience!
If it was outside in dirt, I wouldn't be asking shit. But beings this is my first hydro grow, I'm gonna ask if I have questions.

I thanked Monkey for his advise, because of that I already put them in pots!
Click to expand...

It's all good my man. We're all here for the same things. If I had seen your previous thread I would have just recommended you to keep asking questions in that thread.But as long as we are learning it's all good.
 
No worries here,

Your all a great help, That's why I asked. If I don't know something, I ask. I'll definitely use your advise next time, just as I have used Monkeys this time for this grow. Hey Monkey, if your reading this, or MIkeTbob, how often should I be dipping my plants. I only go about 1 to 1 1/2" just enough for the roots every 2 days plus I spray the top with a hand spayer as not to build up algae. Is that OK? Or do you all have a different thought?!

Thanks to all!

Howlinmike
 
Awesome,

Thanks allot for your help MikeTbob.

I'm hoping the roots will go mad now that they are in a nice dark place.

Good Luck and Thanks!

Howlinmike!
 
howlinmike said:
Monkey,

Someone asked me a question, I answered. I ain't scared of nothing! I TOOK YOUR ADVISE and put them in the basket as we discussed! They've in the baskets now for almost 2 days. I was actually interested in what I can do NEXT TIME to prevent this thing from happening!
Now I know! I am going to dip them to feed and water til I see roots and go to the spray head instead. If you read the post they great for NEXT TIME! I don't want to worry about light next time. I'll now what to do thanks to you and MikeTbob's advise.

Thanks,

Howlinmike
Click to expand...

Sounds good! I just saw what looked like a duplicate thread and wanted to give you a little extra encouragement. I didn't mean any offense if it came across that way.

Good luck with your grow!
:Namaste:
-Monkey
 
Hey Monkey,

No offense taken, I ain't like that! I originally posted in the hydroponic section of the forums, I wasn't really getting any responses, so I posted in the grower forum. And when I did that, low and behold you came thru with some good answers. So probably my bad for having 2 threads at once.

You had great advice which I am using as we speak!! All I knew as HAD to get them out of any light source, you helped allot, much thanks!

Hope your growing goes great.

Have a good one!

Howlinmike
 

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