Can Air Pumps be Replaced and Other Cool Ideas to Supercharge Your Hydro Grow

[PhatNuggz]

Being frustrated, but not willing to throw in the towel, I took the lid off the tote yesterday. This morning the nutes are still 'cool', whereas with the lid on, and even HD foil over it to reflect the heat, I had to drain the nutes into a cooler with ice paks every couple hours because they got too warm

So yesterday morning I took the lid off (see pics) and the seedlings seemed to have responded positively. Of course this will mean algae, but I can deal with that until they develop a root system

Fingers crossed

 

[PhatNuggz]

Sad news here, self inflicted as usual. The 3 babies cotyledons were not opening and algae was building since the tote was not covered. I probably added too much chlorine, so I removed them from that water and put them outside where the heat and humidity cooked them, and the leafs on the one burned up totally dried out

So I dropped 3 more seeds yesterday

 

[PhatNuggz]

Looks like I finally turned the corner. All 3 seedlings are above the sure2grow (S2G) cubes. 2/3 have leafs, the third is a little behind, as 2 days ago I discovered that the tap root wasn't digging into the S2G, so I repositioned it

Thinking to start a new thread to put all the failures behind me. It will be titled something like Starting Over for the 6th Time

 

[PhatNuggz]

I may well try this as nursing the 3 babies is a RPITA

Ancient hydro combined with modern technique

 

[PhatNuggz]

Pics or it never happened, right?

I don't usually try to start a grow during the summer for the very reasons I am dealing with, but am running really low

The heat here, even with the AC running 24/7 is <40% which is not helping the young seedlings

2/3 are barely surviving, the third died due to the shell never coming off which prevented the cotyledons from opening. I did try to get it off but the cotyledons were stuck together. I tired to separate them, but it was too late

In an attempt to create a humid environment I put a clear lid over them and sprayed the inside of it almost hourly but they were not responding. Last night I got a brain fart...

The lid I was using is from a whole cooked chicken, but I could not find the bottom which would likely work better than what I did today (see pictures). Instead I am using a larger lid and a bigger base with water and an air stone, but will look for a cooked chicken just for the container

Fingers crossed

 

[PhatNuggz]

OOPS wrong photos above

 

[PhatNuggz]

Looks positive. The plant in the lower right is taller and 2nd node leafs beginning to establish

 

[PhatNuggz]

The plant in the lower right continues to grow. Alas, the other one has yet to respond

 

[PhatNuggz]

I am going to try starting another Hindu Kush, but this time I am back to the Rapid Rooter starter cubes, and going to put it, along with the dry HK seed in a shot glass

 

[PhatNuggz]

Since the white starter cubes have not worked as I expected, I decided to start one more Hindu Kush, in a moistened Rapid Rooter starter cube, without pre-soaking the seed, but inserting it, which was then inserted into a shot glass then covered in a plastic container to keep moisture in. I also added a moist napkin, all to keep the inside moisture up. It worked great, popping up in 2 days. Now can I get it past this stage? Fingers crossed

 

[Streetpro09]

Since the white starter cubes have not worked as I expected, I decided to start one more Hindu Kush, in a moistened Rapid Rooter starter cube, without pre-soaking the seed, but inserting it, which was then inserted into a shot glass then covered in a plastic container to keep moisture in. I also added a moist napkin, all to keep the inside moisture up. It worked great, popping up in 2 days. Now can I get it past this stage? Fingers crossed

View attachment 72434View attachment 72435View attachment 72436

Man I'm rooting for ya! Lol.

 

[PhatNuggz]

Yesterday I covered the tops of each seedling with a black plastic disc. This morning the old one started turning green again. Hmmmm

The new seedling's tap root is already exiting the bottom of the RR, so I moved it into a double 3" net pot. The bottom pot has 1/2" marbles to provide a barrier so that the RR doesn't get soaked when I move it to the SWB (shallow water bubbler)

I also added some Watt-Ahh, a high performance water that I bought for personal use, but trying in these, adding to both the nutes and the spray bottle. I also used this water in my morning coffee. I was told by the company to reduce the coffee grinds by 50%. I did and it tasted the same, so...

 

[PhatNuggz]

Great news is that my newest seed starter technique is working. The plant is getting taller, and importantly the leafs are getting bigger, so this morning, I decided to start one of my Blue Berry Cheesecake seeds. Good news aside, the old seedling is neither growing nor dieing, which motivated me to start another seed

 

[PhatNuggz]

Sadly, I killed another HK seed (2 left-gulp). How you ask? Well, due to all my past issues where I got root rot from overwetted starter cubes, I doubled the net pot, which put too much distance between the roots and the nutes. Horrible lesson learned, I popped one more HK 2 days ago. In the mean time I started one of my Blueberry Cheesecake seeds, and it's doing great. See pics

The 2 at the top in the pictures are unlikely to make it, one is the HK that dried out due to not getting wet. The healthy seedling on the lower left is BBCC, the one yet to emerge is HK

Also I significantly upgraded my SWC tub using the underside of a large cooler lid. I also replaced my small 2 head air pump with an adjustable 4 head, though only using 2 heads. First thing I noticed is the resultant bubbles are much smaller, which is a good thing. The pictures are with the 2 head pump

 

[Here4theparty]

For some unknown reason my PW was dropped and CP never responded to multiple attempts to get a new PW. I finally resorted to new registration. New UN is Here4the party

Update: plants were likely suffering from heat when I was using both the Amare P3 mono rings and the CoBs, so I switched off the CoBs, but it could also have been that hydro doe not like microbes. A tiny amount turned the solution dark brown and the resultant microbes coated the air stones and insides of the tote. I added digestive enzymes which went a long way to clearing the microbes, and the plants responded, but yesterday I made fresh nutes and bleached the stones and vessel.

Unfortunately 2/3 plants are male. Well, one might flip back, but to be safe I dropped 2 Triple Berry seeds yesterday.. The picture is BK whatever in hell that is. I made it up but don't recall what either B or K means.

 

[Here4theparty]

Unfortunately, 1/2 seeds was upside down and though I tried to flip it, it did not survive. Dropped another Tripleberry seed yesterday

 

[ZeroTolerance]

Make one gallon of nutrients to put on your seedlings, place a small amount of the nutrients which you have checked for proper PH and PPM and double check it. I use a straw to put the nutrients on the rapid rooter then put the humidity dome on it and Leave it in the rapid rooter tray. Don’t mess with it until it has grown several several inches and the roots are developed. Take it out of the rapid rooter tray, leave the coco intact and transplant in a solo cup with holes on the bottom. Water it in good until your nutrients start running out the bottom of the solo cup. Put it under your light water a small amount only when starting to dry and don’t mess with it!! You can also place the rapid rooter in a wide mouth mason jar with some perlite in the bottom, the perlite will allow the water to pass through the rapid rooter but won’t absorb the water back into the cube. Place a clear plastic cup on the top to keep humidity inside, like an individual greenhouse. You will have big vigorous plants in no time!

 

[Here4theparty]

Im sooooooo happy that Im finally seeing a plant growing like it should. And the new TB opened its cotyledons late yesterday

I do put a dome over the seed and seedling and I spray the inside of the dome many times a day

 

[Here4theparty]

Quick Update

I transferred both plants from the shallow starter (an upside down Igloo lid) to a 5g tote. Made fresh nutes @ ~ 420ppm and 3 @ 4"disc air stones

 

[Here4theparty]

I'm excited to report I finally made a break through that many small number of hydro plant growers will want to employ. It is based on my DIY cloner.I have 2 plants that did well until they got to roughly the 4th node, then faded. One will likely not survive, but the other has developed nice new roots in just 24 hours.

I will post pics in a few more days