I started watching a lot of youtube videos on hydroponics and I've gotten rather interested in it.
I initially tried to start 2 seeds in rockwool cubes. You can see the 2 quart jars with the air hoses running into them.
Neither took. They both sprouted, but I wasn't doing something right, because they weren't forcing their way out of the rockwool. Maybe I unknowingly squeezed the rockwool when draining it and made it too dense, or something. I'm really not sure. But neither came up.
When I determined the first one was dead, I started a new bean, but in soil. About 4 days later I noticed it hadn't sprouted, so I very carefully tried to uncover a little soil from over top just to check in on it and make sure it had popped out of the seed casing. I looked and looked and I could not find that seed. I literally ended up sitting there for half an hour very carefully sifting through the top six inches of soil in that bucket and could not find it.
So, I set the bucket in the corner and moved on.
A few days later I just happen to notice that a seedling was sticking up out of the bucket! lol.
So, unless I somehow got my seeds mixed up, this is a Blackstrap cross that a friend sent me.
I very carefully removed it from the soil, rinsed the soil off the roots in the sink, and then I cut a piece of rockwool open, slid this into the middle, and here we are.
The other seed never made it, either. Something about the rockwool, I've never had this issue in soil. But I guess it ran out of energy, because the little tail broke off the seed and that was that.
Right now, it is happily living in a quart mason jar, because I'm cheap and don't want to spend any more on nutrients than I need to. I'll move it to the 5 gallon bucket when the roots are too big for the jar.
Since I unfortunately didn't keep track of when I planted it, because I thought it was dead there for a few days, I don't exactly know how old it is. So we're just going to say it sprouted on 2/5, because I put it in the DWC about 3 days later on 2/8. As of today, its been in the DWC for 4 days.
The really cool thing is getting to see the roots. They've been roughly doubling in size every day.
This is the calculator I am using for nutrients.
growdoctorguides.com
For nutrients I am using the General hydroponics Flora series, as well as cal-mag and General Hydroponics Silica nutrient.
I plan to change nutrients weekly.
For this week, I used the Mild Vegetative stage. And 1 liter = 1.05 quarts, so you can just use the liter setting on the calculator. This isn't exactly rocket appliances.
I undershot on the nutrients, instead of 1.3ml each, I went right at 1.0 ml, since this is still more of a seedling. But I already had lettuce growing in the same exact nutrient solution in a kratky setup and I knew it wasn't burning it, so I decided to go ahead with mixing closer to mild veg instead of seedling.
Add the silica first (1.0 ml), then the nutrients, then cal-mag, then I PH'd it to 6.0
Thats pretty much where I'm at right now. I'll update as frequently as anything interesting happens.
I initially tried to start 2 seeds in rockwool cubes. You can see the 2 quart jars with the air hoses running into them.
Neither took. They both sprouted, but I wasn't doing something right, because they weren't forcing their way out of the rockwool. Maybe I unknowingly squeezed the rockwool when draining it and made it too dense, or something. I'm really not sure. But neither came up.
When I determined the first one was dead, I started a new bean, but in soil. About 4 days later I noticed it hadn't sprouted, so I very carefully tried to uncover a little soil from over top just to check in on it and make sure it had popped out of the seed casing. I looked and looked and I could not find that seed. I literally ended up sitting there for half an hour very carefully sifting through the top six inches of soil in that bucket and could not find it.
So, I set the bucket in the corner and moved on.
A few days later I just happen to notice that a seedling was sticking up out of the bucket! lol.
So, unless I somehow got my seeds mixed up, this is a Blackstrap cross that a friend sent me.
I very carefully removed it from the soil, rinsed the soil off the roots in the sink, and then I cut a piece of rockwool open, slid this into the middle, and here we are.
The other seed never made it, either. Something about the rockwool, I've never had this issue in soil. But I guess it ran out of energy, because the little tail broke off the seed and that was that.
Right now, it is happily living in a quart mason jar, because I'm cheap and don't want to spend any more on nutrients than I need to. I'll move it to the 5 gallon bucket when the roots are too big for the jar.
Since I unfortunately didn't keep track of when I planted it, because I thought it was dead there for a few days, I don't exactly know how old it is. So we're just going to say it sprouted on 2/5, because I put it in the DWC about 3 days later on 2/8. As of today, its been in the DWC for 4 days.
The really cool thing is getting to see the roots. They've been roughly doubling in size every day.
This is the calculator I am using for nutrients.
General Hydroponics DWC Nutrient Calculator - GrowDoctor Guides
Handy DWC Nutrient Calculator for mixing large batches of GH nutrient solution. Formulated in 1976 General Hydroponics is a staple for DWC growing
growdoctorguides.com
For nutrients I am using the General hydroponics Flora series, as well as cal-mag and General Hydroponics Silica nutrient.
I plan to change nutrients weekly.
For this week, I used the Mild Vegetative stage. And 1 liter = 1.05 quarts, so you can just use the liter setting on the calculator. This isn't exactly rocket appliances.
I undershot on the nutrients, instead of 1.3ml each, I went right at 1.0 ml, since this is still more of a seedling. But I already had lettuce growing in the same exact nutrient solution in a kratky setup and I knew it wasn't burning it, so I decided to go ahead with mixing closer to mild veg instead of seedling.
Add the silica first (1.0 ml), then the nutrients, then cal-mag, then I PH'd it to 6.0
Thats pretty much where I'm at right now. I'll update as frequently as anything interesting happens.
