Timer ruined. Need quick help!

[Admire]

I have a big problem. Went to work on friday and came home sunday night, to find my growtent being without light. My timer is broken and I don't know how long the plants have been without light.

I took them into the hydro on the 15. so they aren't very tall yet..

Don't know how long they have been without light but since saturday night or friday morning.

Is the grow ruined or what should I do?

 

[hurricane]

They might get a bit of a hermie tendancy, but dont worry, just think of it as a few really cloudy days Get a new timer in there and back on schedule and all should be well.

Hurricane

 

[MynameStitch]

Na, the grow is not ruined, just like hurricane said, but I am sure they are very very stressed.
Just watch for hermies and balls to form......

 

[Admire]

But is the chance of herma enough to just start over?

 

[MynameStitch]

Dude, no it won't, but I will tell you this now. The alge growth on that rockwool I would worry more about, if anything could cause a hermie; it's the alge on that rockwool, it starves the rockwool from breathing enough and it causes the roots not to rbeath and causes the roots to die, thus causing the roots to rot and you kill your plants.

Your rockwool is staying too moist; get some h202 1 tsp per gallon and water on that rockwool, normally you don't put seedlings into a hydro setup like that until they get roots sticking outside the rockwool.

How high is your water level in your system? those buckets?
Don't worry about them herming right now, they are too small, but the alge is your problem right now, get rid of it; your seedlings are slightly yellowing from not getting enough air.

 

[d4.]

If you get hermies just cut the balls off and grow em out. Your grow will be fine.

 

[Admire]

Dude, no it won't, but I will tell you this now. The alge growth on that rockwool I would worry more about, if anything could cause a hermie; it's the alge on that rockwool, it starves the rockwool from breathing enough and it causes the roots not to rbeath and causes the roots to die, thus causing the roots to rot and you kill your plants.

Your rockwool is staying too moist; get some h202 1 tsp per gallon and water on that rockwool, normally you don't put seedlings into a hydro setup like that until they get roots sticking outside the rockwool.

How high is your water level in your system? those buckets?
Don't worry about them herming right now, they are too small, but the alge is your problem right now, get rid of it; your seedlings are slightly yellowing from not getting enough air.

There might be a language barrier here. But H202? I don't know what that is.
There are roots sticking out, although not very much yet.

should i squeze the rockwoll boxes very gently to get some of the moisture out?. There are 20 liters of water in the buckets....The buckets are AquaFarm (complet) L:45,5 - B:45,5 - H43cm so they are half full.

They look like this

 

[MynameStitch]

no, do not sqeeeze the rockwool cubes, you can risk damaging the roots, they are very small and fragile at that size. One mess up and bye bye seedling.

h202 is hydrogen peroxide, you can get it from any pharmacy or store that carries medical supplies, grocery stores... stuff like that.

3% grade hydrogen peroxide at 1 tsp per gallon 5ml/ 4 liters of water.

You have to get rid of that alge growth quickly as possible, the longer you keep it there the more problems they get and the harder it is for the seedlings.

You need to mix the h202 in a gallon of water and water the rockwool cubes, one application should do it, but if not repeat every 5 days until it's gone.

Are you watering those rock wool cubes? Or is the bubbles hitting the rockwool keeping it moist?

Is the rockwool ever sitting in water?

 

[HeadyPete]

What kind of light and how far is it? Those seedlings look awfully stretchy....

If they survive I would consider transplanting and burying them almost up to the first leaves to shorten and compact them.

As stitch said, the algae is the problem...plus the risk of damping off, a fungal attack that weakens the stem at the base, and kills the plant. Too much moisture and inadequate air circulation cause this.

 

[YwouldntI]

you have some real pros helpin you admire,if you do as they say your grow will be fine you gotta watch out on that rockwool it gets too moist and it will rot your little stem on the babies,i know from experience bro,i use to use rockwool too.stitch and heady will help you save it, if it can be saved.peace-Y-

 

[Admire]

I am not watering the cubes and they are not sitting in water but the bubbles are hitting the cubes.

I have a 400watt HPS and its as far away from the plants as possible because I didn't wanted to put too much heat on them this early.

Will get some h202 tomorrow from the store

I just changed the water and the nutrient solution and lowered the lights so that they are a little more than one meter from the plants..

Thanks for the help so far guys.

 

[HeadyPete]

Yah, that hps is a problem. Wrong spectrum, and because of the heat, it is too far to be effective. Spectrum + distance + heat = lanky, stretchy seedlings. Hps also emits a lot of radiant light energy than can burn your plants. This is not the same as burn from heat. More like a sunburn or scald of the plants.

They will do best under cool white fluorescent, CFL or whatever, 6500K. Flouros can be brought to within an inch or two and give perfect light with no heat for seedlings, clones, moms, even vegging. If you have $$$ the T5s are the way to go. If not, cool blue cfls can be had at a good hardware store. The one brand has blue/black packaging and is called daylight, i think. 3 x 27 watts or 6 x 15 watts would suffice for a 2 x 3 space.
The cool white keeps them short, keeps nodes close and encourages veg growth. This all goes toward bigger, denser, thicker colas.

 

[Admire]

Heady - I know that HPS aren't too good to veg under but since I mostly run a SOG kinda mode i thought it would't be a problem. I was only going to veg for about 4-5 weeks.

So i should change to a CFL? I might end up buying one here when the first of the month comes along....need som cash first.

 

[Admire]

I just watered the cubes with h202. Hope this will solve the alge problem.

 

[MynameStitch]

Petey pretty much gave you some solid advice there admire, he is most truly correct. The bubbles are keeping the rockwool too moist, not to mention they are not supposed to be in that system to begin with right now, just risk having problems like this.
The lighting has to go if you want them to stop stretching, not all strains can handle this spectrum in veg, especially this size of a seedling, you just can't get it close enough to stop the stretching, otherwise you burn them..

How much h202 did you use?
The h202 will also help aeriate the roots in the rockwool, one or 2 applications should remove it, but you have to solve the too moist problem, lower the water just a bit to where a little bit of water is hitting it, keeping the rockwool moist but not saturated like it is.

Take peteys advice and get some other lighting

 

[HeadyPete]

Hey Stitch good to see ya!

Admire, burning a 400 just for seedlings wastes a lot of electricity and $$$, plus all the other stuff I said. You can buy the cheapest 3 or 4 bulb bathroom light fixture and wire a cord, like this:

and a few CFLs for around $30.

Buy these bulbs or any that say "daylight" or "cool white":

It doesn't take much too get seedlings or clones off to a good start for the first few weeks.

 

[MynameStitch]

:nod:

Hiya petey

 

[Admire]

I am very grateful for the advice so far.
i took a chance and took the cubes into the hydro system way to early but this is my first hydro grow so i wasn't too sure when they should go in. Learned my lesson for next time.
Will lower the water and buy lights when we reach the 1st. I have no cash for the rest of this month so I have to do the next six days without.

Stitch - I took 4 liters of water and added 5ml of h202. I then watered the cubes with the water. There are only two cubes with alge problems now so the h202 really worked perfect.

There are 7 cubes right now. one is in pretty bad shape but the rest look solid. The plant has gone though all the cubes except two.

Took this picture.

 

[MynameStitch]

You should always wait until they have roots about 3 in's out of the bottom of a net pot, if you use a mediumless setup, from where the tip of the roots start out of the bottom of the plant, about 6 in of roots.

Or you can wait until they have at least 3 to 5 sets of leaves if you want to be safe.
Ya, those are very healthy roots there, keep them that way
Keep them looking white, if your roots turn brown and your plants start showing problems you can have root rot, sometimes nutrients stain the plants roots, but you can tell the difference between nutrient stain and rot.... the rot seems to look like it swells the roots up or at least makes them look weird.... nutrient stain they keep there natural look, but with a brown tint. Just a tip for ya so you won't have to go through the rot.

What water temps are you keeping those buckets at?

 

[HeadyPete]

Pot is one resilient mofo. You'd be surprised how much abuse she can take and fully recover if the problems are corrected quick enough.

Nice looking baby. Don't stress, they will be fine. The overwater was the real danger. Do you have gentle air blowing on them? That's very important.

They can wait for their new lights, no probs. Keep them as close as possible to the CFLs. Try to make some kind of reflector, even aluminum foil is better than nothing. These bulbs are best orientated sideways, like a football in the air. When you transplant, remember to bury them right up to the first leaves, and they will be real happy.

Be sure to buy a grounded, 3 prong extension cord. Cut off the female end (with the slits, not prongs), strip back the wires and instant cord for wiring and pugging into a timer or outlet. Ground the fixture body to the green wire first, then black to black and white to white. Use orange wire nuts to connect. You may have to bend or cut a hole in the fixture for the cord to pass if you mount against a wall.

If you have any electrical ??? or whatever, PM me.

take care and good luck