First time in Hydroponics.

[JimmyJames420]

I have been saving up to do a hydro grow after hearing about a friends. the results were amazing. I bought a pre-constructed model from sunlight sheds.com http://www.sunlightsheds.com/cool-cab.htm (its a pretty sweet setup) After looking at what all I get I am fuzzy on pretty much the whole process. I dont know how I would germinate and start a seedling without dirt. I have grown many a plant in the past but outdoors. Pity the shed i bought didnt come with a care and instruction guide as fas as how much nutrients and pH, etc.... SO someone point me in the right direction. I still have like 10 feminized white widow seeds left over from a greenhouse grow i did in the spring. I would love to try those out. Any help??? I feel like a newb...

[hubebaba]

Did you get help? I can offer some if you are still in need (in week 4 of 12/12 currently). Not an expert, but have germinated and cloned. Never grown in soil, only hydro.

[JimmyJames420]

nah not yet... no one responded. im just looking for some literature/how-to guides. grew shrooms all this year and got that down cold. but i researched it for like 9 months. not gonna do the hydro for a while till i know what im doing. Not gonna grow outdoors at all. hydro looks like the best financial investment. i just wanna do all the research I can so I dont waste money on that kit from sunlite and do things wrong.

[strokertoker]

I germinated my White Widow Seeds in paper towels then went to jiffy pots which I planted in 2 gallon containers a week later. I then vegged them and cloned the Widows not knowing Widow is HARD AS HELL to get to root from clippings. It's not that mine died or anything they survived remarkably well with misting in 55% humidity and now after using the Veg solution as my rooting solution I find out I'd have been better off using the bloom or buying a dedicated rooting solution. Anyway man Widow is a good soil strain that will regenerate after harvest I hear. I am day 24 into flowering right now using crappy dollar tree soil and miricle grow mix mixed together. You can also grow in soil and switch to hydro by rinsing the soil off the root systems and just going with it. I prefer the soil clone method because I can sex and harvest the plants for next to no cost. Then I can keep the soil grown plants I like as mothers and just take clipping after yielding like 4 Oz of bud in 2 or even harvests! Keeps the strain alive without the risk of loss from a failed hydro unit. It's just the way I decided to go. I've posted a pic @ 24 days flower. Just don't get impatient with the clones taking 4-6 weeks to develop roots with widow. That is normal!


PS. Widow is an easy grow. General Hydroponics Veg & Bloom solution seems to make them happy enough! If I was to try the soil to hydro transplant I have heard people talk about I bet the Widow as hardy as it is would do very well in this! 5.5-6.5 PH seems to make them happy when watering the soil grow. I used rockwool and clay for the clones and not one of these died even though all the posts I read talk about losing these clones easily. I also airate my water but even giving them the wrong nutes they are right on schedual showing new growth 24 days into the process! I am happy with this. This is my first hydro grow too! Actually my first real grow period and my plants are looking better than anything anyone I know has grown at home! Widow is probably one of the hardiest plants there are but it's a bitch to get the clones to take root so I'd plan 6 weeks for rooting the clones! Much faster starting from seed! MUCH FASTER! I don't think hydo would increase the growth rate over my soil grow either. The Widow went from seed to 30" in about 30 days from paper towel with strait water in crap soil! Not to bad! Were at like 50" now with a good steatch in the flowering with the 400HPS 8-10" from the tops! I think I might like a stroker light yet though!




One last thing, My widows did not like MH light at all. I started with a 150 HPS and they did 24" very fast and did not grow at all when I went to a 400MH. Swapped bulbs and in like 3 days we were at 30"! My grow was started on June 1st from seed. Nothing too impressive but for a first grow I am happy!

[strokertoker]

BTW I'd skip the jiffy pots and go with 2-5 gallon pots since my female to male ratio was so low. I've read that if the tap root is not given enough room to do it's think the plants will have a much higher male to female ratio. We don't want that and I attribute my ratio to the use of the jiffy pots. I think they create a berrier to grow through and thus would just eliminate them! This is supposed to be important when you consider the depth of the cups you use too. In my reading it appear there is a higher rate of hermies in shallow hydro containers. I give my roots a full 10-12" of depth but can't tell you how that is going as of yet. Right on schedual though!

[stiky dodo dumb]

jj420-i dont like recomending hydro advice cause i failed at it but i would say look at icmag for their search and look for your rig their (is it DWC, drip, look for somethignalong that line). maby someone grew with it befor i go their for advice and would probly use AN grow micro bloom if i ever venture away from dirt. i like strokertoker's results with GH so id look into that bafor desiding personally. if the nutrients didnt come with instuctions id e-mail the company for it or toss them and other nutrients.

st-thats not true at all, like your re-(veg)generation finding. its just more productive going from healthy clones after each cycle or have starters on the ready but im a dirt farmer and failed my first attempt at dwc/drip hydro (your rig is kicken ass) the male to femail ratio has notheing to do with how deep the tap root is allowed to run ive started a seed in a shot glass ended up to be female an i put it outside. i think it has a little to do with temp during germination but the genetics are most resposnable and sex is allready writen down in the dna, some berds of something i forget had a higher femail ratio when incubated at lower temps. ive allways kept seeds in a sock drwr or vidio game case on the counter never heated, i doubt temp has any reaction with sex eather. plan around 50% give or take 10% male and its allways a gamble cause soem fem might have hemri traits you wont see untill you really inspect the first half of the bud cycle and look for balls or opened up flowers at the joinst where pre-flowers are. some hermi traits are only in the full fem flowers but are still not 100% fem -rootech jell and oasis cubes are a sure way to get 100% clone rates and oasis is or hydro as well as soil. i start my seeds in small 6oz insulated cups of soil after the germinated a few days then i put them in 2-3 gal pots to veg and show sex after toping at teh 5th set of shoots makeing 8-10 branches a plant and the sex is shown the the joints of branches and the main stem. i dont grow with hydro at all but once i planed on it and still do alot of research at ICmag.com

where is this information from, its junk man. unless youve re-grown a crop befor in that case id encurage you to start a jurnal here and share your techniques cuz id like your style. if theas are untested and i beleave untrue techniques then pleas have regard when recomending it and useing it with your opp its doing great now but plan on the final harvest not around it if you can get clones made up by then. trial and error are steps in the right direction but with the proper information and prooven production techique is what where all after. look hard enough or use the search here and you'll find some good grows but not neer as many as icmag and you get insperation from that shit too, seeing what may work with your limitations and potenchal.

[strokertoker]

I believe the information on the sex ratio came from a scientific farming study out of the Ukraine that I found on the web in my research. The genetics are predispositioned but in several tests in farming they incresed the ratio from 30/70 to 70-30 in favor of the fems with deeper rooting. The 3 year study suggests deep rooting will produce 100% more fems than shallow rooting counting any and all hermies as male. It was a good read not just a little post on some board. As far as temp any stress can cause hermies I have heard so temp could and most likely is a variable that can cause a lower or higher fem to male ratio. I've never had any hermies that I know of taking into account the high male ratio I got when using jiffy pots as pure genetics. None of my fems have ever grwon balls. I did do Deep soil and shallow soil with ratios of 90% and 30% fem. I have not done enough grows from seed to conclude this was not just luck however but it sort of backs up the farming study findings from the three year study that I read.

Although there is less shock planting the jiffy pot which is why some people use these there is no transplant shock so many have recomended them. I'm saying skip the jiffy and go from Germ to 2 gallons. I had much better luck that way and only mentioned the study because it was a scientific study which supports the same results. I am just one of those people who asks why and looks for an answer that backs up my findings. Nothing is taken directly from any source and shared unless I state "I have read this" without having the same results myself. Just makes since not to share info with others that has not shown itself to be accurate for me. I believe the Jiffy Pots may have caused some of the fems to flower male with only the begining stages of bud set making them appear fem as first. They strated just like the fems but after the 5th day appeared male. I really thought I have 7 fems and 2 males and later saw balls and plucked... Nice part is these were White Widow plants smelled great and the new growth had a pretty high THC content and even tasted like unflushed bud. My wife actually prefers these leaves over the comercial bud that is circulating. I do too! Tasty Leaves!

[stiky dodo dumb]

seeds are just random, you have you male your fem and your random mutations. i wouldn't blame the jiffy cups but that study is ineresting, i just use the smaller cups if the sprouts like to streach befor seting the primary leafs or if they just dont come up even after germination like huh . then a week or so later i put them in biger deeper pots, maby the resticted root-set made them streach. i only use seeds rarly to introduce a new flavor to the garden allways labeling and cloneing each one keeping only the best cut. i have allways germed 4 of each flavor at a time to save the seeds focusing on clone stock but still have hopes of a good fem rate, i started them in the average 6-pack flowers come in - the wider square pack. i like my clones though, their my live stock gota keep 'em alive and just made seeds for fun and insurance to keep the clone-only genetics on deck. look around icmag for a bubble-cloner home made some times its as easy as a pot and a slice of sirofome floating and holding the cuts with an air stone int eh bottom of the pot to keep high oxigen levels in the water.

[stiky dodo dumb]

theirs gota be an easier way for you to clone, it should take a week 2 at the most and much faster then seeds. ill start a few dif strains and clone each seed, elliminating the male and hermi's finally keeping the few fems to see wich is the best at harvest. i know even with 4 seeds each fem is gunna be an individual and has its own personality or growth trait and aromas. some strains will show indica and sativa ratios wich is why i would take a cut from each seed untill i know to drop it, with all the seeds i need to start in small cups. check out my work this past winter


-when some seeds are just un-reliable growing short or sheaching for the ligh with the same nutes adn soil i resort to small cups at first and then go biger once they show me they are gunna grow and i know if the need to go deeper into the soil or not to suport the weak stem.

i think its important for jimmyjames420 to note that a spare cab for a mother or 2 if you want dif flavors and a 10x20 propigation tray/dome for clones unless a dome can be feshioned for the hydro set up you have (i dont know, but some hydro rigs are basically like cloneing rigs just larger).

root juice is a good root formula, jackel has used it with the easy cloner befor and i used it with alg a mic once roots had formed and also a foliar throught to provide nutrient that way also useing oasis cubes cuz their the best medium ive cloned in yet. http://homeharvest.com/seedstartingrootingmedium.htm
Oasis®
Horticubes®
Growing Medium
and rootech clone gell

[strokertoker]

Yeah your cloning set up is far superior to my first attempt. I'm getting that new growth now though so I think this Widow is pretty hardy since I cut, used powder rooting hormone, and then used a weak solution of my veg solution with a PH of 7.5! LOL I also did it in 50-60% humidity without a dome too. I made lots of mistakes but after reading about the Widow strain taking 4-6 weeks to root I don't feel like I have ruined the clones since they have begun growing and all of the widow plants were so forgiving in the soil. Next time, I'll be using a second clear 2 litre to dome the clones to keep them moist and happy and I'll warm the solution to 80 in addition to the airator. I am very supprised none of these just died but I watch them closely since I am bringing in the Flowering Widows in the evening and putting them out in the morning to use a single light for Veg and Flower. Limited Budget... I've got the 150 HPS on the clones and they began to show a responce after getting the PH to 5.5, swapping the light and using the bloom solution rather than my Veg. I did the change gradually by adding pure water and then changing it out. Now I have a rooting solution. I've just begun using a weak Nirvana solution for foliar feed as well using only the H20 from my dehumidifier for my water source. I also added the Nirvana to my flowing soil grow as a growth and carb uptake inhibitor and the Sugar in the Raw for added carbs and microrganisms to assist in carb uptake.

This is my first indoor & Hydro Grow and my first experience with Widow. Pretty much I've only grown Afghan back in the day. I did grow a lot of that back then and I'd say those plants were as good as anything I've seen grown today but there are some sweeter strains now. I'll probably let the Afghan grow to 5-6' before flowering since I have 1200 sq feet & 12' high ceilings to work with. The Afghan are at day 26 from seed and 20-28". The Ice I have not researched much but plan to since they are at 12-14" now. I do like the BB but I hear it's not so easy as the strains I chose. I do hear that it clones easy taking roon in 3-10 days however. Widow is known for being slow to root 4-6 weeks though so I'd say maybe I was lucky when I chose widow in that it roots slow but is easy to keep alive! Everyone I talk to about Widow says it's a bitch to clone and grows faster from seed than from cloning. I believe it because it definately grows fast from seed! 30" in 30 days is pretty good under 150watts I hear. That's what my Widow did and like I said those leaves were sweet like bud, and give a long lasting THC HIGH that you cannot get rid of by eating that only seems to increase in potency with proper aging like you would bud! I was very please with the leaves from Widow unlike Afghan leaves which taste like crap and don't even catch you a buzz. I already knew that though so no new news there...

[stiky dodo dumb]

this set up is areoponic, the cloner was bought at hardwear stores. th especal mystars are .50 cents ech from ezcloner -its basically i mcagyver home mad ez-cloner (look @ post #2 http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=121246 - that is a proper coner an could be made with less holes for fewer plants.. i clone for dirt but my set up is also useable for hydroponics aslong as i remove most of the oasis, rapid rooters that could clog the system once the break down -rapid rooters need to be carfully taken apart cause the chololate cake type medium hold too much water and could rott then stem if used in hydroponics i take it aprat carefully even tranplating to soil.
{"I'll have to sit down and total out materials but it is very very cheap. I think I spent about $210 for all the PVC / vinyl fence rails and rubbermaid containers needed to build all three flowering units, the veg unit, and the cloner. Everything was bought at homedepot and lowes. Then online I picked up 5 eco plus 396gph pumps at about $24 each. The nice ezcloner nozzles were about .50 each..... and then everything else like your netpots, neoprene collars, nutes, lights, ventilation, odor control, etc... you can price out as needed."}

[strokertoker]

I've heard that BlueBerry is a difficult strain to grow. Why do people say that? What tricks would I need to know to propogate the BlueBerry over the strains people call easy to grow like Widow, Afghan and Ice. I figured since I was going to do this on the fly with little money and lots of thinking I'd just get the basics down with these strains but I'd like to mother out a new strain each grow and clone different strains as desired. I figure about 10 different strains should cover all of my moods well with different havest times.

[brandylorton]

strokertoker and stick dodo dumb both of you have given very nice information here and it has helped me in setting up the new hydroponics garden a lot. Keep sharing such a nice information.