New Grower pre diary NFT reasurance

[EvilScotsman]

hi troops before i start my first nft grow and diary with dp auto ultimate x 2 id like some reasurance about the basics as i didnt even know what nft was a few weeks ago lol. got a nice result from my first grow in coco/hps with apparently impossibe to kill plants. (church-bb/ww- Barneys blue)
my understanding of the nft process so far is:

pop in paper towel/baggie method-(12 for 12 so far

root riot till roots poke out-

4" cube soaked in ph5.5 water with around 0.1ml p/l root boost untill a good amount of roots pop out at around the 2 week mark-( what is "air pruning? google let me down for that one)

water with root boost as neccesary-

add to nft tray with ph 5.5 water for a few days then start nutes slowly at around 20% manufacturers reccomendations and build up at around 20% a week keeping the e/c around 0.5 to start with and build up at around 0.2 per week with plateaux at 2.5 around the 9 week mark and hold steady.

is this roughly correct before i start asking people stupid questions? i managed to control chemical burns etc without all my fancy gadgets the last time so im ok-ish at diagnosing what im feeding wrong etc but i do realise ill need to closely monitor/ control the e/c + ph for this one. been a hell of a lot to get my head round tbh. maybe shouldve done a bit more research before spending a fortnights wages on equipment i didnt know how to use haha. always been one for a challenge tho. any feed back would be greatly appreciated folks. thanks in advance

 

[EvilScotsman]

@KushNFT you seem to be the man with the plan for this method. i know your a busy guy but if you get a minuit any input would be awesome and greatly appreciated

 

[KushNFT]

Sounds like a good plan bud

As soon as I can I get the 4" blocks straight in NFT and top feed to stop it drying out if required. I don't wait for roots out the 4" blocks.

If you get fed up messing with pH you might want to look into buffered nutes.

 

[KushNFT]

@joke might be able to offer advice too.

 

[EvilScotsman]

cheers man, youve no idea how happy i am that all made sense lol. couldnt find anything that just told me that so its been a very confusing few time trying to learn about everything. just double checked my due orders aswell and itll be popping time on wednesday. oh by the way. before joining this site i was doing some serious google time on the subject and its pretty much just 4 names that pop up every time. yourself, atrain, beast and one other. gonna really make my day and tell me tangs on here too???

 

[EvilScotsman]

Sounds like a good plan bud

As soon as I can I get the 4" blocks straight in NFT and top feed to stop it drying out if required. I don't wait for roots out the 4" blocks.

If you get fed up messing with pH you might want to look into buffered nutes.

aww man how come i didnt come across anything about buffered on my travels.a devestating blow that was mate lol they sound awesome

 

[joke]

Hi !EvilScotsman , nice to see another nft grower on the boat !
first of all ide like to point you in the right direction in you want to soak the rockwool in ph 6.0 and not 5.5 ( your best ph in nft is between 5.9 -6.2 ) nutrient lockouts can occur outside of them levels ! in my nft i feed .5 ec ( around 300ppm to 450ppm ) all the way through nft grows ! my plant approx eat 30ppm of feed a day ! depending on your light they may eat abit differently !
will be nice to see how you get on !

 

[EvilScotsman]

Hi !EvilScotsman , nice to see another nft grower on the boat !
first of all ide like to point you in the right direction in you want to soak the rockwool in ph 6.0 and not 5.5 ( your best ph in nft is between 5.9 -6.2 ) nutrient lockouts can occur outside of them levels ! in my nft i feed .5 ec ( around 300ppm to 450ppm ) all the way through nft grows ! my plant approx eat 30ppm of feed a day ! depending on your light they may eat abit differently !
will be nice to see how you get on !

right, ive just fallen back into confused mode now. bare with me though im just learning lol. from my understanding, the ec amongst other things tells us the chemical concentration of the water. as the plants are growing they need more nutes and therefor a higher ec level. or have i got that a bit wrong? is the idea here not to give them as much nutes as they can handle?
oh also, ive got 2 x 250 true watt LEDS. was planning on using one for the first 3-4 weeks then one each once theyre a bit more sturdy. would i get a better result just blasting them from day one? doesnt sound safe to me but ive got spare seeds

 

[KushNFT]

What do the nute instructions say @EvilScotsman? I follow what they say but Jok has more experience and makes up his own concoctions.

And yes @TaNg is on here too but I have no idea if he has hydro experience. Seems to like similar beers to me though lol

 

[joke]

hello es! this is for sure one of the easyest hydro methods there is ! ( and yes an ec or ppm pen are the same thing they just measure in different number like cm and inches would on a tape measure ) when i started nft i done alot of research about the method and probably follow 40% of what ive learned initually ! its a robotic kind of method , if you keep things the same every week like feed doses you cant go wrong ! i think its more of a light source thing more so than force fed to get the yeilds!

As i mention i keep them my ec or ppm levels low and dont have knowhere near as many problems when i used to feed much higher concentrations ! the light part i think kushnft or others would know more about hps see what a safe height from the seedlings ! i using led with much less heat put out .