Reave's Soilless: Peat, Bark, Sphagnum, Perlite, White Widow 2018

[Reave]

The hlg 65 was getting a little crowded so I fired up the hlg 135 x 4. I made the light frame out of aluminum. Currently at 18 inches from cannapoy. Watching to see if it is too close.

It is definitely warmer in the tent. Also watching temp to see where it settles.

 

[Reave]

Seedlings seem to be loving the lights at 18 inches. I'm running the QBs at the full 300 watts.

 

[Pennywise]

Happy babies!

 

[Emilya Green]

Hope I didn't miss too much! Pulling up a lawn chair to watch this!

 

[Reave]

Not sure why this one seedling doesn't look happy. She was dry this morning but didn't seem like a watering issue. Any ideas?

All the other ones are looking happy.

 

[Emilya Green]

She is pointing to her feet... are you sure you are not overwatering that half a cup of soil? Are there drainage holes in the cups?

 

[Reave]

She is pointing to her feet... are you sure you are not overwatering that half a cup of soil? Are there drainage holes in the cups?

Yes there is holes and I cut slots all the way around the bottom. I would have thought I overwattered it but I stuck the moisture meter right to the bottom and it registered dry.

I watered it last on Saturday morning. It was light and dry this morning so I gave it a small amount of water.

Currently just using distilled water.

 

[Reave]

She is the closest plant to the humidifier. Not sure if that is relevant but thought it could be.

 

[Emilya Green]

Some bad advice being given here... lets be careful folks. This is a soiless medium, so get out of the 6.3-6.8 pH range and start working in the 5.5-6.1 range, adjusting to 5.8.

Also, since this is soiless and has zero nutrients in it, the plant is going to starve unless you give it nutrients, even in lesser dilutions because of the age of the plant. It makes no sense to water this plant with plain distilled water... it needs nutrition.

Look up the feed rate at this age and start feeding your plant with EACH watering. If you are going to treat that container like a soil grow and let it dry out between waterings, do so, but if you want to water daily or even several times a day, you can do that too and treat this like a passive hydro... but then you have to add oxygen to your water.

 

[Reave]

Some bad advice being given here... lets be careful folks. This is a soiless medium, so get out of the 6.3-6.8 pH range and start working in the 5.5-6.1 range, adjusting to 5.8.

Also, since this is soiless and has zero nutrients in it, the plant is going to starve unless you give it nutrients, even in lesser dilutions because of the age of the plant. It makes no sense to water this plant with plain distilled water... it needs nutrition.

Look up the feed rate at this age and start feeding your plant with EACH watering. If you are going to treat that container like a soil grow and let it dry out between waterings, do so, but if you want to water daily or even several times a day, you can do that too and treat this like a passive hydro... but then you have to add oxygen to your water.

Thanks. I likely didn't pick the best medium for my first grow but it was all I could find this time of year. I will try and figure out what nutrients they need.

Would they be considered in vegetative state at this point or still Seedlings?

Before a planted the seedlings I did pre soak the soil with the thrive alive b1 res as per recommended on this chart. Since I have not transplanted other than from the paper towel to the solo cup I'm not sure which stage I'm at on this guide.

 

[Emilya Green]

still seedlings... your nutes should give you recommended dosages for each week of life. Please note that in your chart, the seedling stage clearly says to mix up the nutes and apply them ... it says nothing about watering with distilled water Follow your instructions to the letter and you should be fine.

 

[Reave]

Some bad advice being given here... lets be careful folks. This is a soiless medium, so get out of the 6.3-6.8 pH range and start working in the 5.5-6.1 range, adjusting to 5.8.

Also, since this is soiless and has zero nutrients in it, the plant is going to starve unless you give it nutrients, even in lesser dilutions because of the age of the plant. It makes no sense to water this plant with plain distilled water... it needs nutrition.

Look up the feed rate at this age and start feeding your plant with EACH watering. If you are going to treat that container like a soil grow and let it dry out between waterings, do so, but if you want to water daily or even several times a day, you can do that too and treat this like a passive hydro... but then you have to add oxygen to your water.

Can I just put an aerator on the tap to put oxygen in the water?

 

[Emilya Green]

Can I just put an aerator on the tap to put oxygen in the water?

It helps a little, as does shaking a jug of water vigorously. When I played with passive hydro (hempy) i just put an airstone in my water bucket and let it sit out overnight oxygenating and that seemed to work very well. I am thinking that you need a bit more O2 in there than just the aerator will do for you.
Lets call in a real soilless expert so you can follow his work and get some more detailed info: @Cultivator , are you available?

 

[Reave]

It helps a little, as does shaking a jug of water vigorously. When I played with passive hydro (hempy) i just put an airstone in my water bucket and let it sit out overnight oxygenating and that seemed to work very well. I am thinking that you need a bit more O2 in there than just the aerator will do for you.
Lets call in a real soilless expert so you can follow his work and get some more detailed info: @Cultivator , are you available?

I got a pump and an air stone. Got it in a 5 gallon bucket.

So if there is O2 in the water I don't have to worry about over watering?

Interesting.

 

[Reave]

Ok I was reading about the hempy buckets and they are fed from a reservoir.

Can I just hand water them normally once I have the water oxygenated or will that not work?

 

[Emilya Green]

Ok I was reading about the hempy buckets and they are fed from a reservoir.

Can I just hand water them normally once I have the water oxygenated or will that not work?

It will work perfectly... I did it for a year and grew some great product.

 

[Emilya Green]

So if there is O2 in the water I don't have to worry about over watering?

yep, you got it. Overwatering is a soil concept... doesn't apply in hydro really... unless you want to treat a hempy or a coco garden as soil and by letting it dry just like a container of soil, drawing the oxygen down to the roots by using the diaphragm that is the water table... but then you give up all the advantages of hydro, constant nutes and all that.

 

[Reave]

yep, you got it. Overwatering is a soil concept... doesn't apply in hydro really... unless you want to treat a hempy or a coco garden as soil and by letting it dry just like a container of soil, drawing the oxygen down to the roots by using the diaphragm that is the water table... but then you give up all the advantages of hydro, constant nutes and all that.

Interesting. This is complex stuff.

Do nutrients go bad in water. I mixed some up a couple weeks back is it garbage?

 

[Reave]

I'm going to show my ignorance here. But on that chart for my nutes is transplanting mean after I moved my seed from the germination place to the solo cup?

I think the whole time I thought it meant once I moved from the solo cup onto the next size. But I guess both are transplanting.

 

[Emilya Green]

yep, you already did the transplanting Yes, nutrients can drop out of the solution and become useless... best to mix it up right before use.