First Ever Grow Looking for a little guidence....

Hello,
So I am preparing for my first attempt at growing. I have two white widow seeds that I germinated in a paper towel and planted in small pots in a sterile soil and peat mix. Both plants have sprouted and look very heathy and so I want to make sure I do everything right from here. I Built this Ebb and Flow system How to Build the 11 Plant Hydroponic Garden - 11 Plant Start and have it up and functioning. Did a few runs with a bleach solution to clean everything well and have flushed with water since. My main question is what grow media would best suit this system? I have read many good things regarding rockwool but I am concerned about using it since I have started the plants in soil? I dont know if I would be able to get the roots in the properly. I have been leaning towards a perlite/hydroton or straight hydroton media. But them I am concerned with how often I would need to have to pump kick on since it would have the water reataing properties of the rockwool. Any guidence on getting this system running would be awsome! I am using 6 4' twin tube fluro fixtures with ecolux bulbs if that matters and I hope to be able to upgrade to a HPS soon. Thanks for the help.

that reservoir is tiny man, u cant grow 11 plants unless you have 1000w HPS either so, you should go small and click on my signature and read how to make my grow setup. Order Aerogarden sponges or try to get a sponge material to suspend your roots if your using hydroton, rockwool will work but u have to be more careful when waterin them. But honestly this setup looks horrible, where the hell are the roots going to grow into, each fully mature plant needs at least 2 gallons of water in its reservoir and can go up to needing 5 galls. Start the seeds here to veg, when you find out sexing move the females to a reservoir like mine

Yeah the resovior is little in the pic, the one I built I used alot larger tub it a 30 gal. I dont plant on using all 11 sites, only 4 or 6 at the most. You dont think that its a large enough space for the roots though? If I use a sponge and hydroton how often do you think I would need to flood and for how long? Thanks alot for the advice.

Hey Jn .... you really need to hit the faq section .. loads of info ... depending on the type of grow you want to do is what guides you .. take a look at Al b Fucts harvest every 2 weeks... you can scale it to your own likeing .. i have.... read his threads on cloning etc.... good luck

jneely said:

I have read many good things regarding rockwool but I am concerned about using it since I have started the plants in soil?

Click to expand...

Once you have started your seedlings in soil, thats probably where you want to keep them.. Transplanting from soil to soiless media sounds like a bad idea.

Why not grow these in soil , take clones once proper veg growth starts.

Once you have the female clones rooted in 40mm RW cubes , (see this: Photoessay: A batch of clones in rockwool ) flip the lights to 12/12 in order to determine sex.
Pop 11 of the female clones in hydroton or something similar and let 'er rip.

What keeps the media in the containers in this rig you built?
Seems it would flood perlite right out of the container!

Good Luck!!

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