@420autoflower do you top your reservoir with plain RO water or add a little Calmag? Would 5 gallon reservoir for resilculating be enough or go higher?
Indoor Growing Scrog
- Thread starter 420autoflower
- Start date
FWIW ... I use 3 gallon reservoirs, filled with ~2 gallons of nutrient. Only down-side with this small-ish size is maintenance during flower when the plants drink a lot of water. But it's manageable. I'm being adventurous with this grow -- only two 4" Grodan blocks. But as I've posted previously, most of the root growth happens in the drain bins, which I line with scraps of rockwool cubes.
FastBuds Amnesia Haze. Day 7.
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Thanks @Mongoose
Any difference between rockwool and coco/perlite? You need to water less in rockwool? It would be great to grow in rockwool because you don't need to prepare the coco. I used cheap coco bricks and buffered couple of times. Amnesia Haze should be stretchy nice plant
And nice clean setup you got there
Thanks @Mongoose
Thanks GreatWhite. I've only grown DWC ( not anywhere near the results I've had with rockwool ), and rockwool.
I can't imagine anyone could over-water rockwool -- water runs right through. I've done auto-fertigation for 10 mins
every two hours, and 12 mins every three hours, 24/7. No difference that I can tell. I start the seedlings on auto-fertigation
at first true leaves. I followed 420's recommendations from the start: ~$15 Vivosun pumps, tubing, a cheap drain bin, and $8 light-proof reservoirs. And a bit of DIY in my case with the 1/4" plywood covers, painted white, to keep the reservoir water as cool as possible.
420 has written that he finds no difference in coco vs larger rockwool cubes under his 4" 'starter' blocks.
When ever I watch commercial growers talk about rockwool they say you can over water it easily it’s not for beginners. I will try them out on my upcoming grow with an automatic watering system. With rockwool, it’s much cleaner. You don't wait 20 days to hook them up on auto irrigation, you start when you see the first true leaves? How frequently do you irrigate in the seedling stage?
I've watched some of those videos too. I don't understand the concerns about 'dry back', for our purposes. Rockwool is too easy, I would encourage anyone to start with it, rather than anything else. There are different ways to start, but after trying them all, I've found this to work every time, and is easiest/simplest. I soak a seedling cube, and the two 4" blocks for each plant, in 5.2 pH RO water to get the pH to around 6.0. I drop the seeds into 1% hydrogen peroxide solution, in a shot glass, let them sit for ~3 hours. Then right into the cube towers, and water them in with the peroxide solution. I cover them with a clear plastic cup so they don't dry out. I then water them with about a half shot glass of nutrient mix 3 or 4 times a day for a few days. Again, it runs right out the bottoms of the stacks! I start auto-fertigation earlier than 420, because I'm lazy, and I've found it works just fine.
I then up the EC gently, roughly this schedule:Day
01 Sprout
02 .25
03 .4
04 .5
05 .6
06 .75
07 .9
08 1.0
09 1.2
14 1.3
( Benefit of 1% hydrogen peroxide dip. YouTube, search: Improved Cannabis Seed Germination with Hydrogen Peroxide )
Thanks @Mongoose for in depth answerI've watched some of those videos too. I don't understand the concerns about 'dry back', for our purposes. Rockwool is too easy, I would encourage anyone to start with it, rather than anything else. There are different ways to start, but after trying them all, I've found this to work every time, and is easiest/simplest. I soak a seedling cube, and the two 4" blocks for each plant, in 5.2 pH RO water to get the pH to around 6.0. I drop the seeds into 1% hydrogen peroxide solution, in a shot glass, let them sit for ~3 hours. Then right into the cube towers, and water them in with the peroxide solution. I cover them with a clear plastic cup so they don't dry out. I then water them with about a half shot glass of nutrient mix 3 or 4 times a day for a few days. Again, it runs right out the bottoms of the stacks! I start auto-fertigation earlier than 420, because I'm lazy, and I've found it works just fine.
Day
01 Sprout
02 .25
03 .4
04 .5
05 .6
06 .75
07 .9
08 1.0
09 1.2
14 1.3
( Benefit of 1% hydrogen peroxide dip. YouTube, search: Improved Cannabis Seed Germination with Hydrogen Peroxide )
That was really informative. I will try rockwool and find out myself
Have a good grow buddy
So if you run the pump for 10min then 35 gallons per irrigation or am I missing something?
