From seed to DWC?

[trademanny]

Howdy!

So I have some fem seeds, my net pots and hydroton. Can I germ the seed and put it right into hydroton? Also, what should my water level be? Should it be beneath the net pots or 1" above or so?

I don't want to use rockwool if I can help it, nor peat or dirt or anything. I've read about folks germing seeds and going right into net-pots, but cannot find anything on it.

Anyone?.. anyone? Bueller?

Thx!

 

[FirstTracks]

you can skip the netpot by germing in perlite, rinsing off perlite after a few days of growth, and carefully 'floating' the hydroton around the sprout in the netpot by filling the netpot 3/4 of the way with hydroton, submerging the netpot to the rim so the hydroton is floating, then gradually submerg your baby plant in the hydroton in the netpot, being carefull not to snap the taproot and other roots.

It will be very important that the water level covers at least an inch of the taproot when starting, or the baby plant will simply dry out.

You can also skip the hydroton and just use pool noodle foam.

Whatever you do, be sure there are side roots off the taproot before it goes into the hydro system, or (IME) there is a high likelihood of the taproot just getting longer and longer and never developing a real rootmass. just as an example, i've had several seeds with 6-10" long taproots that refused to grow sideroots because i started them directly in pool noodle foam in my swc (shallow water culture).

any questions just ask

 

[trademanny]

FirstTracks: I would -love- to not use net pots and hydroton... So you're saying I could germ my seed, plant it in perlite, wait for it to be a couple inches tall and then put it in a pool-noodle chunk in the same 3" hole that the net-pot was going to go in?

I wasn't planning on scrog or anything, will the pool noodle support the weight of the plant?

 

[FirstTracks]

let me see if i can dig up some old pictures.....

and yes.

If you're going the pool noodle route, grow them for a week or so in perlite to let the roots get a bit hairy and just be very gentle removing the plants from the perlite. i usually just dig around the plant lightly with my finger and then wiggle it out slowly, moving around more perlite as i feel roots are being pulled. i wrote a tutorial-ish thing a bit agao (under 'irishsoco') about cloning/starting in perlite. search 'perlite wick cloner' . that should outline some basic steps for ya.

anyway, the pool noodles are cheap and hold up pretty well. just change out after every grow. its very important that after you move the plants to the pool noodle/dwc setup, you keep the roots submerged in the water/nutrient mix. Start off very light (1/4 strength) and gradually increase feedings, as seed plants in dwc are very sensitive to early nute changes as there is no medium to buffer them.

i'll see if i can find my perlite wick cloner link...it has pics, and i might be able to upload a few old pics of my 2 foot tall plants vegging nice and big in an 18 gallon pool noodle dwc.

 

[trademanny]

i'll see if i can find my perlite wick cloner link...it has pics, and i might be able to upload a few old pics of my 2 foot tall plants vegging nice and big in an 18 gallon pool noodle dwc.

Would love to see!

 

[FirstTracks]

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=67550&page=7&pp=15

page 7, the one i linked you to, has the stuff on the perlite wick cloner. you can do the same thing without the wick and just keeping the water about 1/2" below the seeds until roots start growing down, then gradually lower the water level. I used 150-250ppm tap water, sat out for 24 hours or so to let the chlorine evaportate.

The rest of the grow is in the beginning of the thread. Unfortunately i never flowered out the plants in the system but you can read the rundown in the thread as its too off topic here.

as before, get back with questions if any of what i wrote in the thread i linked yo uto doesn't make sense or if you need further explanation.

 

[trademanny]

Thx FirstTracks -- I have my own well and it comes out at 120-150ppm (.5) so hopefully that should be ok, and no chlorine to worry about

I will check it out and let you know how I make out.

 

[FreezerBoy]

will the pool noodle support the weight of the plant?

I wouldn't trust it. Consider an double extra tiny "ScROG." Forget the screen, just enough framework to grow the main stalk through and then secure to that. I don't think a pool noodle is enough to support something like this ...

 

[BudLove]

I'm kinda with freezer boy on this one...the main reason, although I hate cleaning them out, for using net pots is the support they offer.

If ya used a pool noodle, you would have to eventually pull it out of the noodle and place it in something that would support more weight. Not to mention the stem would continue to increase in size, most likely forcing the noodle to 'pop' out of place.

Personally, I just use those jiffy pellets (obtained at any hardware store) and the dome... germ in those then when roots show up out of the bottom, throw em in hydroton and water from the top until roots grow into DWC solution.

Granted, that's my own personal method. If you do use the noodles, I'd love to see some picks after that bitch got around 30 days of flowering... can't even imagine how that would work out.

 

[jtk707]

if youv got the time and you are carefull you can go straight to hydroton from germing in a towel

 

[Don Cotyle]

I use a diferent method after germing I transplant into a peat-pellet, cost is 10 cents each. I then cut out sections of a 4" round plastic pot, cost is also about 10 cents.
I then fill with lava rocks ( you can prety much use any medium you want). Then into my DWC setup, I leave the water level about 1" below the base of the pot, If you have plenty of airstones the breaking bubbles will keep the pellet moist enough. If it looks a little dry just pour a little water right onto the pellet. Once the roots show thru no need to directly water the pellet!
It's simple and very cost effective!

Here's some shots to show what I meen.









After males were cut,Works great!!!



Hope this helps, Don

 

[trademanny]

if youv got the time and you are carefull you can go straight to hydroton from germing in a towel

Thats what a friend of mine was suggesting too. I've also read about pool noodle cross-section jammed in a net-pot with the bottom cut off. I do have some 3" netpots.. (but then I've heard horror stories about net pots falling through)

 

[Guest]

What's the point of using a net pot if you're going to cut the bottom off?

I don't understand what you have against rockwool, Jiffy, or any othere rooting medium; they are excellent at what they do.

 

[trademanny]

What's the point of using a net pot if you're going to cut the bottom off?

I don't understand what you have against rockwool, Jiffy, or any othere rooting medium; they are excellent at what they do.

Oh, nothing against it. Being an engineer though I try and make everything I do as clean as possible with as few parts as possible. If I can do it without buying hydroton, rockwool, peat pellets, etc, then that's great, if not, that's ok too. Thats why I'm asking questions

The point of cutting the bottom off is that, from my understanding, you're only using the rigid netpot structure so it doesn't fall through into the water which I think the pool noodle may do once the plant gets heavy enough.

 

[FirstTracks]

I think the key here is that, in hydro, unless growing small plants SOG style/no veg, the plant needs to be supported somewhere, either with trellising/netting above bearing the weight of the branches or with a netpot and some media at the base supporting the stem and roots.

 

[trademanny]

I think the key here is that, in hydro, unless growing small plants SOG style/no veg, the plant needs to be supported somewhere, either with trellising/netting above bearing the weight of the branches or with a netpot and some media at the base supporting the stem and roots.

I gotta tell u, my plan was initially to use scrog, but a friend of mine said to 'not even bother with it' and just 'bend them over' -- guess a combo of pinching and LST?

 

[FreezerBoy]

Personally, I find ScROG easier. Let the screen do the work.

An inverted net pot with a hole in the (now) "top" might work as a support frame. Every once in a while, I cut my cloning cubes too small and support then with tooth picks (note the white toothpick stuck through the cube.) Whether it would work with foam and larger sticks, I don't know.

 

[trademanny]

Well folks, after searching and reading, ScrOG with pool noodles it is..

I've got a 20" x 48" closetmaid cabinet with a 400w HPS.. Was thinking 2 plants, maybe 3?

Will germ and then sprout in perlite, then xfer to DWC and away we go.. Planning on using Lucas formula with Floranova Bloom.

 

[Wonderon]

What kind of nute solution should new baby plants get, is it just very weak or do they need nothing more then water during the perlite stage. Also is it best to use distilled or Ro water for germination or will tap that has sat out do just fine? Planning to run them on tap water for veg and flowering unless I see the need for an alternative. I'm new to DWC, just trying to understand how best to get them big enough to go into the buckets.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Germing or cloning, I use tap water and GH FGloraMiro and FloraBloom at 1/4 tsp per gallon, each. I gradually increase the dose until, by the time the rootball clears the airgap I'm at "full strength". The quotes are for the fact that I let the plant determine the amount, not GH