We have liftoff!!!..and here we go.
I feel like a proud daddy! Like I should be passing out cigars or something (so we can make blunts?)…
Here they are in their soda-bottle-tent home for the next few days…AK’s already sprouting her second set of leaves.
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I’m tuned to watching and gonna hitch a ride and come along for your adventure, that is, if you don’t mind 
@neo96789 I hope you would have to pass out pink cigars.
I always feel the same way when they break the surface. I enjoyed that same feeling last week.
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Thanks for tagging along everyone!
4 days now since they popped up out of the rockwool…
They both look pretty much the same, so here’s a couple picks of the White Widow:
I’m worried they’re looking a little tall, but they seem sturdy. I’ll attribute any stretch to just being under the room lights for a day. They’re now 24" under my blurple 300w (actually 120W measured at the plug). I’m putting the tent up tomorrow and will get them moved over to the QB 280W V1 at that time. I’m thinking 12" at 50% for that one. Thoughts?
They’ll be going into my grow buckets in the next few days as well…I’m just starting to see a root popping out of the bottom of the rockwool one this one. Nothing on the AK just yet.
I broke the root off one time now I just do this
I’d go 24" on the light. I’m growing a full size plant with one 2x288qb @24" in a 4x4, ill dbl it when I flower
Update:
Put the tent up today. Doing something a bit unusual (at least I’ve not seen anyone else do this.
I’m doing DWC in buckets as I mentioned. I’ve upsized the buckets to 6.5 gallon (went to the brew store and got some ale-pails). My grow space for now is an unused bathroom in the basement. I’ve put the grow tent over the bathtub, and put holes in the bottom of it for the buckets…so each bucket only take approx 3" of the bottom of the tent, giving me a much taller grow space than if I put those 18" tall buckets in the tent. We’ll see how this all works. Hopefully it helps keep the water in the buckets cooler as well.
Anyway, put the girls into the buckets today. Not much growth in the past few days (can just barely see the second set of leaves), but I’m assuming they’re just working on roots right now. Nothing new appearing below the rockwool, but it’s got to be close by now.
Here they are:
First the AK
and now the WhiteWidow
Per the guide on the bottles of General Hydroponics solution, I added nutrients. I started with tap water at 100ppm, and after adding nutes I’m at 250ppm. I think that should be about right per the label.
oddly enough, the label on my bottles shows concentrations about 1/2 what the chart on the website says. I’ve seen some here say no nutes, or 1/2 nutes…so I’m hoping I’m ok with using the label for this.
Lights are approx 18" and running the QB 280 at ~50% (115W at the plug) and running 18/6.
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Start at 1/2 of the General hydroponics feed chart and normally go down from there. Aim for the lower PPM number on feed chart and if you’re lower than that its ok.
You can start them off in a 3 gal bucket and move up
Thanks Sticking with the lower ppm number–actually I think I’m a bit below that even right now. I know I’m wasting water/nutes with the 6 gallon buckets, but I don’t want to move them along the way.
Anyway, here’s pics of 4 days in…They both look good, but the AK is showing a bit of yellowing at the tips of her first leaves…Is this just because she’s eating the nutrients from there to produce new growth (roots?), or do I have a potential issue with nutrients and/or lighting? I’m sure I’m being paranoid even bringing this up, but figured it’s a good idea to check/ask…
Thoughts?
Here’s the AK…very slight yellowing:
The White Widow looks great:
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Week 2 update:
Looking good! Second node making its appearance on both girls.
Some white “stuff” appearing on the hydrotron, but I think that’s evaporated/dried salts. The water in the bucket was covering the bottom inch of the basket, and my humidity is very low (25%). Unless someone tells me I should be worried about that white stuff I’m just going to keep an eye on it for now.
Also, the white widow has a nice long root dropped into the water already (about 6” long). No roots are visible in the ak out of the basket yet (perhaps because the water was too high)
I’ve dropped the water levels a bit just to the bottom level of the basket…I’ll drop them more and replace the water For the first time next week.
I also just added a heater for dark times. I’ve noticed that tent temp is about 77 when the lights are on, but drops down to 61 when they go out. I saw elsewhere here that 61 is not ideal… so I have the heater keeping things at 71 in the dark. Water is definitely still nice and chilled. Seems to be paying off having the buckets hang below the tent.
I’m debating about adding some rapid start to get those roots going, thoughts?
Also, I’m seeing what others have reported about ph being a pain with General Hydroponics nutes. The ph keeps creeping up. Every day I’m adding 2ml of ph down to keep it below 6. Nothing else is changing—I’m not adding nutes. I bought a digital ph meter otherwise I’m going to run out of test drops…
@neo96789…you need to get your r/h up big time. It needs to feel like the Amazon jungle in there. They also don’t like big swings in temp from lights on to lights off. Your r/h should be close to 60%. That’s where I ran mine. Also I let my ph drift from 6.0 to 6.5 in veg. @peachfuzz can give you solid advice. Let’s see what he says. Looking good otherwise
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Your advice was perfect… @Grundo
Might want to get ppm’s up to 100 for the next few weeks… 
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Thanks!
I wasn’t sure about the RH. Any suggestions on a good way to do that in a 2x4 tent? I’ll up the PPM as well.
The heater (I grabbed a small honeywell 360) should keep the temp squared away. I’ll bring it up a smidge so it stays closer to 77 overnight.
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I would pick one up on Amazon if you don’t have a humidifier.
Rez level should be 1 1/2 to 2" below net pot to avoid damping off the roots and stem.
Just keep a dome over them until a bit larger. Once you develop a canopy it will regulate at a higher RH. You are gonna wish for 25% RH in late flower lol.
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Thanks. I dropped the water level further…I’m 1" below now, I’ll drop it again tomorrow to 2" below.
I put domes over them, and the RH is now 75%, and light-time temps are now 84F.
Lastly, I brought the PPM up to 450 and added some GH rapid start. The WW now has two long roots hanging into the bucket, still no sign of roots out of the basket on the AK…I’m hoping that dropping the water level will encourage her to stretch her legs.
Lots of growth today…it’s amazing how fast these plants grow.
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Normally you would top feed until the roots hit the rez.
I would strongly suggest you not go any higher until the plants get older.
Another update. Lots of growth in 3 days. Still no roots showing on the ak! Obviously getting enough from the bubbles slashing up to the basket (now 2” below baskets for water levels)
Roots on the ww seem to look good to me:
Here she is from above:
And lastly the white widow:
Ph seems to have stabilized at about 5.8.
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Ok question time…
They seem to be doing well. The white widow is doing significantly better…
I’m wondering about nutrient levels now…I’m at approx 450 ppm now… some of her leaves are looking less green than others and she’s put down a goodly amount of roots…am I still at a good level?
Now the ak. She’s not as dark green as her ww sister. Being new I don’t know if this is nutrients or just differences in variety. She’s also growing more slowly… both roots and leaves…those white spots on the leaves are water drops from the dome she’s under.
Thoughts?
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I use general hydroponics Flora trio and would be using 1half tsp. Of each per gallon and 1 tsp per gallon of the cal-mag at this point . I don’t remember what tds/ppm it would be I have not used my meter for years . Keep it at those measurements until switch to flower