What's new
  • Please note members who been with us for more than 10 years have been upgraded to "Veteran" status and will receive exclusive benefits. If you wish to find out more about this or support IcMag and get same benefits, check this thread here.
  • Important notice: ICMag's T.O.U. has been updated. Please review it here. For your convenience, it is also available in the main forum menu, under 'Quick Links"!

Jiffy Cube Germ. (Peat Moss) x DWC Veg Questions

Boyd Crowder

Teem MiCr0B35
Hi ICMag!

First post here or on any MMJ site; this forum was recommended by a friend/member as THE place for growers to congregate.
So yeah, here I am , all brand new an shit. Never grown anything indoors in my life so dont assume I know jack from shit.

Lets get to it.

Ive been watching hundreds of hours of YT vids and lurking on many forums researching my plans and putting them into action.

Shout out to Snype , your newbie tuts are quite the primers, all of them, not to mention the rest of the tuts Ive found here on icmag.

Ok so this is where Im at: I have sprouted some (free/gifted) Herijuana IBL and Star Kush F2 (Mota Rebel strains) seeds in some Jiffy Pellets (Peat) using aerated tap water in a moisture dome. These seeds were 8 years old and 3 heris and all 5 SK's sprouted (wo0t!) within 3 days. the rest of my jiffy tray has 7 unsprouted pellets. Unfortunately, there was some mystery meat bagseeds & there was also 4 unsprouted heris.

Ill number the questions so you can pick the ones relevant to you to answer easier. Hope Im not coming across as a pretentious fucktard here.

1 Can I just dry those unsprouted pellets out and reuse em later?

2 Should I look at the seeds inside to see if the seeds rotted or just toss the things out ?

Moving on...
So the sprouts are currently under 4 bulbs of badboy 4' t5 and looking good . They've been under there for a day. Also , Ive opened the vents on the top to let them breath since the root tips are coming through the bottom of the jiffy pellets already.

3 Should I go ahead and 18/6 these sprouts now?

I am going to go against advice Ive seen on so many forums and start out using DWC/RDWC on my first ever grow. I figure if this is what I intend to use going forward , fuck it , learn the way I want to learn , I can learn soil, and the other grow mediums when I get the DWC/RDWC method dialed in. That said, I have two strains and dont need to build my RDWC rig until the sprouts are sexed and fully mature. That means Im going to toss these 8 babies in two Tote style containers and DWC them till they are showing sex.

Based on my research , I wont be using anything but ph'd water the first two weeks dwc. My water is ~50ppm and ph~7ish out of the tap. Ill just PH to 5.8-6.2

4 Is this kosher or should I modify this nute plan ?

After two weeks , I will start on 1/4 strength GH flora series nutes. Im leaning towards Snypes formula of using just two of the three (I have to look it up again to remember which ones) but Im gonna keep it as simple as possible. I am gonna pick up some cal mag and a GH flora pack so Ill have other stuff , but wont use them till I understand what they will be for. I would appreciate any links you may know of concerning the flora series in rwdc, but believe you me, I do know how to use the search button here on iicmag, so save the flamezorz, please.

5 Could someone tell me why and when to use calmag? I see the stuff used in a WIDE variety of rwdc/dwc rigs on youtube , but just havent quite figured out how,why or if I should use it .

Now , Im on the fence on when to throw these jiffy pellets in a net pot with the hydroton and crank up the dwc.

6 Since the root tip is already poking through the litlle membrane on the outside of the pellet, can I just pop these kids in a net pot now?
How long should I wait to start the dwc?

Let me clarify - My plan is 2 x 25-35 Gal totes 4 sites each 4-6" netpots under an 8x4' t5 badboy in DWC for vegetation. I picked up a new MarsII 900W for flowering, but Im getting ahead of myself.

7 Are the jiffys going to shit peat moss all into my system once they go to rwdc? Is this even worth worrying about if I use a 4 or 6" netpot in hydroton for the dwc/veg cycle ?

I will be going with 8" Net pots in 5 gal lowes buckets for my bloom rwdc. I will get to work building it sometime in the next 3 weeks, using plans from Snype , HHT , and a few others I like.

8 What size net pot should I use to veg in dwc , if I plan on plopping the veg netpot into the 8" with hydroton medium rwdc for the flowering? I have 2" and 4" pots laying around but would go for 6" if you felt it was better for my pot-in-pot(-in pot lol) idea. To clarify, I was thinking Id veg in a 4-6" net pot , them move that smaller pot into the bigger one for flowering so there would be 2 net pots involved in each plant. I imagine this to be "just" for this first grow , not something to incorporate again.

9 Should I even try this or do you have a better idea? Im just concerned with the peat a. fouling an rwdc system and b. root rot similar to rockwool.

Once in bloom Ill decide to supercrop and/or reveg the standouts. Hopefully Ill have 2-3 mothers and a modest harvest by the spring, with the help of icmag of course. Im 100% certain Ill have some serious issues on this first try. Sooooo.... last question....

10 Does anyone want to see a journal on this grow/build?

To recap , its a RookieRun Journal/Buildout using (hopefully) Heirjuana IBL + Star Kush F2. Ill detail my whole bit, from budgeting & sourcing to procuring to building and running - the whole shitstorm.
Anyone wanna see yet another noobie journal?
 

vostok

Active member
Veteran
1 Can I just dry those unsprouted pellets out and reuse em later?
Yes, just remove the seed and store in a dry place
2 Should I look at the seeds inside to see if the seeds rotted or just toss the things out ? Always check what went wrong, but 8 years and no freezer is asking to much

Moving on...
So the sprouts are currently under 4 bulbs of badboy 4' t5 and looking good . They've been under there for a day. Also , Ive opened the vents on the top to let them breath since the root tips are coming through the bottom of the jiffy pellets already.Keep a Temp Gauge in there, hold it at 25C/77F

3 Should I go ahead and 18/6 these sprouts now? Yes

I am going to go against advice Ive seen on so many forums and start out using DWC/RDWC on my first ever grow. I figure if this is what I intend to use going forward , fuck it , learn the way I want to learn , I can learn soil, and the other grow mediums when I get the DWC/RDWC method dialed in. That said, I have two strains and dont need to build my RDWC rig until the sprouts are sexed and fully mature. That means Im going to toss these 8 babies in two Tote style containers and DWC them till they are showing sex.
Doom is this, but its your grow, stick the jiffys in 3 gallon soil pots ...learn to run later, walking is good for now

Based on my research , I wont be using anything but ph'd water the first two weeks dwc. My water is ~50ppm and ph~7ish out of the tap. Ill just PH to 5.8-6.2 and the is DWC?

4 Is this kosher or should I modify this nute plan ?

After two weeks , I will start on 1/4 strength GH flora series nutes. Im leaning towards Snypes formula of using just two of the three (I have to look it up again to remember which ones) but Im gonna keep it as simple as possible. I am gonna pick up some cal mag and a GH flora pack so Ill have other stuff , but wont use them till I understand what they will be for. I would appreciate any links you may know of concerning the flora series in rwdc, but believe you me, I do know how to use the search button here on iicmag, so save the flamezorz, please.

5 Could someone tell me why and when to use calmag? I see the stuff used in a WIDE variety of rwdc/dwc rigs on youtube , but just havent quite figured out how,why or if I should use it .
is used to prevent (Mg) def. best applied as a foilar 3 times a day, on yellowing leaves

Now , Im on the fence on when to throw these jiffy pellets in a net pot with the hydroton and crank up the dwc. Why use jiffys for a DWC grow...? just leave the seeds in a net pot?

6 Since the root tip is already poking through the litlle membrane on the outside of the pellet, can I just pop these kids in a net pot now?
How long should I wait to start the dwc? as above!

Let me clarify - My plan is 2 x 25-35 Gal totes 4 sites each 4-6" netpots under an 8x4' t5 badboy in DWC for vegetation. I picked up a new MarsII 900W for flowering, but Im getting ahead of myself.
...avoid 'learning' of any website, go get a proper DWC book, and follow the book.

7 Are the jiffys going to shit peat moss all into my system once they go to rwdc? Is this even worth worrying about if I use a 4 or 6" netpot in hydroton for the dwc/veg cycle ? YES. and the shit will block up your tubes etc, best to remove all Jiffy shit b4 placing in the DWC

I will be going with 8" Net pots in 5 gal lowes buckets for my bloom rwdc. I will get to work building it sometime in the next 3 weeks, using plans from Snype , HHT , and a few others I like. PM Snype for support

8 What size net pot should I use to veg in dwc , if I plan on plopping the veg netpot into the 8" with hydroton medium rwdc for the flowering? I have 2" and 4" pots laying around but would go for 6" if you felt it was better for my pot-in-pot(-in pot lol) idea. To clarify, I was thinking Id veg in a 4-6" net pot , them move that smaller pot into the bigger one for flowering so there would be 2 net pots involved in each plant. I imagine this to be "just" for this first grow , not something to incorporate again. Proper planning and research required here, think the plan out

9 Should I even try this or do you have a better idea? Im just concerned with the peat a. fouling an rwdc system and b. root rot similar to rockwool. TRUE: see above re: planning

Once in bloom Ill decide to supercrop and/or reveg the standouts. Hopefully Ill have 2-3 mothers and a modest harvest by the spring, with the help of icmag of course. Im 100% certain Ill have some serious issues on this first try. Sooooo.... last question....

10 Does anyone want to see a journal on this grow/build?
There are many here, not really for shearing with other members but really for you and to monitor your progress over the grows

For a Noob, avoid at all costs on relying on the membership to help you, as you will get 50 answers to one question that will only confuse you more
 

vostok

Active member
Veteran
My honest advice is to do ONE soil grow then advance to the DWC,
you will be a better grower SOIL or DWC for it

above all buy in some easy basic and FRESH seeds to set you off,
often growers blame themselves but in fact its the 15yo bagseed that was at fault,
use your 8yo seed later once you have some notches on your belt
 

Boyd Crowder

Teem MiCr0B35
wow, cool. I didnt anticipate such a quick response. Very helpful, vostock. I dont relish the thought of rinsing the jiffy shit off of freshly sprouted 8 yo seeds just to run some dwc. I have some soil mix ready to go, guess I should get it prepped, since i dont have the experience or werewithal to perform surgery on a newborn.

I dont expect the members to help much , but its a nice resource to have.
I will hunt a good dwc book today.
As for the seeds , fuck it , theyre sprouted , Im a run what I brung.
I dont anticipate much more than painful lessons for the first year.

Soo... I suppose I need to brush up on my organic soil research the next week or two.
 

Boyd Crowder

Teem MiCr0B35
Switched to 18/6 and built shelving for my space.
had an accident with one of the heris , looks like my puppy thought it looked yummy and had a go at her.
she lost one of the two first leaves but stll has the sprout leaf and looked intact at the root and stem. decided to plop her in a 8" netpot dwc and see if she survives the trauma. Also put a star kush in the jiffy pellet into another 8" dwc. She had grown so leggy she was falling on herself. turned on 2 more lamps as well. removed the germ lid for good and added a fan on low across the room.
Hung my lights on hooks and ratchets too.
74-82F 48-52rh
 

vostok

Active member
Veteran
now 32 views ...so is worth a pic ?
now you gotta make that journal ...lol
congrats on getting the 8yo seeds to germ, thats the hard part ..lol
 

HarvestMoon303

Active member
First thing that I would say is that you're not going to want/be able to move your plants once they are going in netpots. You can grow big plants in small netpots, and 8 inch is pretty huge in my book. I would just keep them in 4 inch, or whatever you have, and build your setup for later/bloom around that same sized pot as well.

Once my seeds/clones are big enough to live under the big light, they move there (from a T5) and get a little fertilizer in the hydro for the first week (10-14 days from seed/clone), then it goes up quite a bit the second week.
 

Boyd Crowder

Teem MiCr0B35
now 32 views ...so is worth a pic ?
now you gotta make that journal ...lol
congrats on getting the 8yo seeds to germ, thats the hard part ..lol
Yeah , I suppose Ill do some pics now, just need to use my new camera instead of my phone (dont want these pics on an iphone).
I dunno if this thread is journal ready , maybe? new thread , this one; you tell me, Im new here.
 

Boyd Crowder

Teem MiCr0B35
First thing that I would say is that you're not going to want/be able to move your plants once they are going in netpots. You can grow big plants in small netpots, and 8 inch is pretty huge in my book. I would just keep them in 4 inch, or whatever you have, and build your setup for later/bloom around that same sized pot as well.

Thing is 8" is what I have handy. Im making lots of mistakes already so Im learning as I go . Like last night, 50L hydroton bag got a 8 inch gash in the side and started spewing painful (for barefeet) little nuggets all over the room. So what did your intrepid noobie do? Dumped em all into a tote and filled the tub with water! lol, dumbass move.
Now I need to dry 45 liters of the shit somehow, before bad nasties decide its a great place to shack up. WWICD? I would drill the bottom out of the thing if I thought it would work but i just dont see that happening. Guess Ill just sterilize in h202 as I need more.
 

HarvestMoon303

Active member
Like last night, 50L hydroton bag got a 8 inch gash in the side and started spewing painful (for barefeet) little nuggets all over the room. So what did your intrepid noobie do? Dumped em all into a tote and filled the tub with water! lol, dumbass move.
Now I need to dry 45 liters of the shit somehow, before bad nasties decide its a great place to shack up. WWICD? I would drill the bottom out of the thing if I thought it would work but i just dont see that happening. Guess Ill just sterilize in h202 as I need more.

Since I'm ebb/flow, and my water/nutes get exposed to the tray, pots, plants, hydroton, algae, etc I don't worry that much about trying to keep things "sterile". Plants aren't sterile, so I dump the hyrdroton into the bathtub, rinse it down, rinse with some H2O2, and I'm done. Don't spend too much time on keeping things too clean, they get dirty. I would just add H2O2 to the tote, let it soak a bit and rinse. Done. :)
 

Boyd Crowder

Teem MiCr0B35
Since I'm ebb/flow, and my water/nutes get exposed to the tray, pots, plants, hydroton, algae, etc I don't worry that much about trying to keep things "sterile". Plants aren't sterile, so I dump the hyrdroton into the bathtub, rinse it down, rinse with some H2O2, and I'm done. Don't spend too much time on keeping things too clean, they get dirty. I would just add H2O2 to the tote, let it soak a bit and rinse. Done. :)
Sounds Good to me - Easy Peezy
 

Boyd Crowder

Teem MiCr0B35
Heres the Pics

317k1uq.jpg

vfin4j.jpg

op0e94.jpg
 

Boyd Crowder

Teem MiCr0B35
Its day 7 of germination, time for some decisions.
Ive decided to plop these jiffys in 8" 5 gal dwcs to veg and determine the sex.
I need to do it today because the taproots shooting from the bottoms have dried out on some and the roots on others are about to breach the sides ( see pics)
I also got an idea from another post to line the germ tray with hydroton and a layer of water after seeing the taproots dry up.
Will prolly pop some bagseeds in the leftover jiffys and test this method further.
IM going with the 8" netpots cause thats what i have laying around, and I need to pick up more buckets and netpots today.
Im guessing that out of the 8 beans sprouted, Ill get 3-5 ladies and hopefully 4 will make it into the rdwc stage. My plan is a 4 bucket system to start but would do six if Im so blessed. My lights are now 2" from the tops because the seedlings got real leggy.
The room temp with a fan is 81f and about 41RH and somewhat steady.
The reason Im going ahead with the jiffys in dwc is because the one thats already in there is exploding and the little runt in the back is still very much alive , despite its damage. The next reason is the guy at the hydro store...... nah just kidding the reason is because Im not seeng any jiffy shit in the water of the buckets at the moment and I plan on having a nice y filter to catch the stuff when going to rdwc. I dont mind cleaning a filter daily if thats what it takes.
I might just sprout right in the netpots next round.

MOAR PIX
this one is strong with the force
IMG_5023.jpg

this ones barely hanging in there
IMG_5024.jpg

this is the tray lined with hydroton and water
IMG_5025.jpg

temps n stuff
IMG_5026.jpg

Roots about to breach sides
IMG_5027.jpg
 

Boyd Crowder

Teem MiCr0B35
went ahead and transplantes all the babes to dwc buckets. jiffy and all. experimenting with low dose nutes. and water levels. pulled the weakling . managing ph and water levels to see what the jiffys like.
 

Boyd Crowder

Teem MiCr0B35
Well its almost two weeks (day 13 veg) since the sprouts came up , thought Id update the thread. Since this is the jiffy cube/hydroton thread experimisadventure, Ill just say that things seem to be going ok for now. Ive transplanted all the sprouts to dwc buckets, starting out with ph'd tap water.

Ive learned that hydroton needs to be phd BEFORE using it. Ive found I need to ph the water down 2-3 times a day to keep it in range and this is a lesson hard learned. Hydroton is a BASE medium.

As for the buckets , they have 1-2 airstones in them and I need to order more to have at least 2 per bucket. I also need to upgrade to a 110 gph air pump to properly feed O2 to all seven . My current pumps are getting the job done but arent quite enough for my tastes. I realize the main pump will be fine for a 4 bucket rdwc system , but I prefer headroom in my builds.

Yesterday I added nutes to the buckets . Im using GH Flora pack and just followed the directions for seedlings in recirculating style systems. Ive found that the nutes in this concentration bring the ph down to 5.7 in the 3.5 gallons of water in each bucket. Ive also found the nutes buffer the water quite a bit and when Im adjusting for ph drift (remember the hydroton wasnt properly adjusted) I need more (~double) ph down than with straight water.

Im keeping a notebook of this grow to help on the next rounds but at this stage , nothing too fancy, just ppms, ph, room temp and humidity, whatever I can think of but nothing like snypes template just yet. I do plan to go into more details as I grow along. My biggest plant is at the fourth node already, just 2 weeks in and this week saw an explosive amount of growth for the star kush, but the herijuana is getting left behind.

The first two transplants I did are already showing visible roots out of the 8" netpot, they've been in the pots for about a week, and I expect to see roots from the rest of the brood by the middle of next week.

Im taking care that the water levels arent keeping the jiffy cubes soaking wet, meaning the levels are about an inch or more from the bottoms of the cubes so they are damp but not soaked. Im also taking care to cover the tops of the cubes with hydroton to avoid direct light and avoid algae growth. Im hoping by next week the kids will be large enough to enable me to completely cover the cubes so that no light enters period. Im thinking I will have enough time to wait but if not , Ill make temporary light blockers to cover the pots completely.

Im concerned my temps may be too high, Im in the mid 80s all day and the RH is between 28 and 50%. Ive added a fan with a water filled bowl in front of it using a washrag to wick out the moisture and its working to add 15-20% moisture to the room already. not to mention the plants love the cool breeze too.

Ive been keeping the badboy about 8-10 inches above the plants , and this has resulted in the first few nodes being very close together. My biggest kid has 4 nodes and its less than 6" tall. the rest are very similar . They really like the badboy.

All in all the grow seems to be going ok for a beginner like myself and outside of the ph adjustments, hassle free. Im on the fence whether to flush the hydroton or just let it ride.I dont want to fuck up the jiffy cubes and Im unsure if it will stress the plants or if it would do any good. My instincts tell me eventually , the hydroton will just level out but if it continues for more than a week or two , I will need to make a decision, since these things will have a decent root system by then.

Once they are mature enough to show their sex, Ill build the rdwc system and decide whether to monoculture or slap boih strains in and hope for the best. It will depend on how many of these seven are girls and which ones. It would be nice to have 4 female SK's for rdwc but who knows.

I saw a chart showing how to sex a seed , and before I germinated these kids, I looked closely to see the calderas , and damn if nearly all of them looked to be females, but you know , Im clueless really , I havent paid attention to seeds except to throw em out when rolling a blunt for o I dunno 30 years now?

So I guess Ill be preparing for flowering and had a question. How do I transition from the badboy to the MarsII 900w led I just bought?

O , I almost forgot , Ill just leave these here...
The Brood
https://www.icmag.com/ic/photo_popup.php?e=vB_Editor_001#
Herijuana
https://www.icmag.com/ic/photo_popup.php?e=vB_Editor_001#
Star Kush
https://www.icmag.com/ic/photo_popup.php?e=vB_Editor_001#
 

Boyd Crowder

Teem MiCr0B35
Day 15 - After Seeing some minor tip burn I changed the rez of 3 plants.
All but one have visible roots now. Im at 4 nodes on the Star kush at 4" tall , Hopefully by day 21 I can start sexing them.
 

Boyd Crowder

Teem MiCr0B35
with room temps in the low 80's , my res temps are 74-80F, I had to do something and quick.
My bathroom is tiled and I dont want to destroy any of it to get fresh air into the space. I decided the best thing I could do is open a window and close off the heat vents to the bedroom. Being wintertime , I hope to keep the dwcs cool till I get the rdwc built and figure out a res cooler system for this space.

Im kinda strapped for cash atm, with two vehicles needing repairs, and first of the month bills rolling in so , Im ganna need to be creative to keep my little kids alive into flowering. I do not relish the thought of flowering in a dwc, just seems like it will be much more difficult as the plants put on more weight.
 
Top