New to hydro...roots in the water??

Hey queen, sorry to see the issues you are having with your tote. If I may give you a suggestion before you scrap the tote idea. Go to futuregarden.com and look the aerosprings they have. That's what I use, it's dwc with jets so your roots always get sprayed. They are pretty cheap I think maybe 150, they only hold about 15 gallons and they say only run it with about 12 gal in it. You can aleviate your lugging 5 gal jugs tonthe bathtub by just hooking a hose to the drain spout and run the other end to the tub and just run your pump and it will drain out for you. Don't want you to give up on the tote idea altogether cause I have had tremendous results with it. It might just take you getting a pre made one like I did where all the hole are precut and all you have to do is put it together. Hope this helps and best of luck I'll be watching.

Hey mrider..Thx for the reply..
The totes were never gonna be a permanent thing to begin with. They were just a cheap easy option to get me going quickly. Maybe if I found sturdier totes or just bought one premade like you said. But if I'm going to spend that kind of money I'm gonna go with a pvc system. I think I'm going to really like having complete control of each plant as it will be in it's own container. I'm also at a point where I can't afford to spend any more on getting this thing up and runnin. I gotta grow some $ so I can upgrade. My 1st borns are only 2 weeks old and I do have another set of leaves making 8 now. Well almost 8, they're not quite out yet but they're comin. New growth is green, good sign. The original 1st set of leaves, not the thumbnail leaves, on the 2nd one are uncurled now and they are quite big compared to the rest of the upper leaves. I've also decided to grow a few in soil. I want to grow the same strain both ways side by side so I can research and experiment. I have mostly 5 gallon buckets. I also have a 4 and a 3.5 gallon kitty litter bucket. I'm going to transfer my nebula babies into the 4 gallon bucket. Actually I think only the 2nd one will make it to the bucket. I may just yank the 1st, I have a pretty good feeling it's a male. I don't think he's gonna make it. He's leanin and doesn't seem to be growing. I may donate him to someone at the club. I have 3 week old seedlings coming friday. I also have the option of taking one that is a week away from flowering. So I may just hold on to the one I sprouted that has the highest chance of being female so I can see what comes of it. I will be workin with some plants by the weekend so I will post pics soon..

Ok, change of plans. I gotta call last night from someone needing to get rid of some plants. So I went and picked up 8 different plants ranging in sizes and ages, the oldest being about 6 weeks, b/w 5 and 6. He grows in buckets of soil. So I have prepotted plants now in my veg room. I added the 2nd ufo light so I could layer them until I move the bigger ones to flower. I also transplanted my babies into soil. I have 2 spots left so I'm gonna take somes clipping off the bigger ones and grow em in a dwc bucket. So I kept my word on having plants by the weekend, it's only thursday and I have 10 Here's what I got:
1. White Widow-about 6 wks old is 15" tall
2. OG Kush-2" clone
3. Afghani- 2" clone
4. Couch Lock-about 4 wks- 10" tall
5. Perma Frost- 3 wks- 5.5" tall
6. Strawberry Cough -unsure of age, estimated 4 weeks- 11" tall
7. Mazar-unsure of age, estimated 3 weeks-7" tall
8. The mystery lady-unsure of the strain- 3" cutting





Whew!! Wish me luck!

roots are fine in the water as long as you have BUBBLES

Hell yeah queenbee- you must have done some really nice over the last couple of weeks, karma is smiling on you. I know you don't want to hurt the plants, but the LEDs can be lowered- since they don't produce a lot of heat that means you can get it closer to the plant without burning the tops; just a couple of inches above the tops and they will be fine. I don't have alot of experience growing in soil, but I feed my outdoor plants my hydro nutes at half-strength and they love it. Congrats on the little ones by the way- they will be as big as the others in no time.

Getting 8 plants from the weed fairy = coolest thing I have heard all day

Good luck!

Hey queenB, Im jealous of all the strain you have to grow i wish i had a few of those over here at my place..lol I just started my grow journal for the plants i have in flower right now heres the link check em out if you want, id like you to see what can be done all in a tote. https://www.rollitup.org/hydroponics-aeroponics/363939-600w-hps-aerospring-grow-4-a.html

new pics..new probs...
The big plants are around 5-7 weeks in age. They will be going into flower as soon as I set up the 1000watt hps. The lower leaves on these ones are yellow some with brownish red spots. I tried 2 take the best pics I could but these are vegged under led's so the lighting is a lil off.. They are currently in fox farm happy frog soil, fed with gh's 3 part system at 1/2 strength of the lowest dosage.. I do not check ph bcuz the last grower didn't.. The small plants leaves are orange....

If the lower leaves are yellow that is an indication of N def- instead of going 1/2 strength of the lowest dosage, go ahead and do 1/2 strength of the Vegetative Growth stage and that should start to clear up. I noticed you are going with a 1000W light- that is gonna give them a lot more to grow with, only concern will be the heat generated by the light, but if it is air-cooled that will make it a lot easier for you. Hope all goes well- let us know how it turns out!

Well someone said that they were bein fed 2 much, that I should only feed once every 2nd-3rd watering. I got these plants on 9-1. The 1st time I even watered them was 9-4 at which time I started using 1/2 tsp of each bottle of nutes/gallon of water. The next day my original seedling doubled in size! I was stoked!!! So then I started to mist them with nute water. The plants loved it!! My seedling continues to have noticeable growth and is looking very good...Only 1 survived by the way I watered n fed them all again on 9-12. Not all of them needed to be watered and drained rather quickly. Then I noticed the yellowing leaves.. Someone suggested that my ph was off or they were being overfed. I was advised to begin flushing them with plain water which I did. I just ran regular tap water straight outta the faucet with no sit time. I ph'ed them after watering and they were at about 7..so ph is ok... so do I have a too much nute problem or not enuff? I am confused at this point. I have decided to hold off on switching them to flower until I figure this out. I don't wanna flower stressed ladies.. So I figured on watering once a week and feeding them on the 3rd or 4th week.. with nute misting in between feedings.. What do I do??? I have had significant growth but the bottom leaves are yellowing.. I measured them all on 9-17 and these are the results:
1) White widow was 15" tall on 9-1..on 9-17 it measured 22" tall
2) Couchlock was 10" tall on 9-1...on 9-17 it measured 21" tall
3) PermaFrost was 5.5" tall on 9-1..on 9-17 it measured 15" tall
4) Strawberry Cough was 11" tall on 9-1..on 9-17 it measured 20" tall
These are the ones that had significant growth, the others are a bit slower at 4-8" growth in that time frame..



View attachment 1167428
The girls 9-4-10
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The girls 9-6-10

My Nebula 9-11-10
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My nebula 9-20-10 (5" leaf growth across in 9 days!!)
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All the girls 9-20-10

This is my flower room, well it will be. It is still under construction. I have also included a pic of the 1000 watt hps I will be using to flower. I have a ceiling fan in this room which I will be using to help cool the lights until I can afford a different ballast. I also have an oscillating fan and air conditioner if I need it. I plan to replace the original bulb in the ceiling fan with a green one so I can enter the flower room if I need to when the lights are off..

This is my veg room. The closet of my flower room.. I have 2 90 watt LED ufo's, supposed to be equal to 1200 watts of hid or mh lights, each ufo being 600 watts. I had to raise the lights today as my plants have outgrown the space between them n the light. I have a layered effect goin on in there so the lights are where the plants need them. The smaller ones are in front and the older ones in back..

The 3 1/2 plants showing in the top are looking great, and I'm sorry to hear about the seedling, but some will be lost along the way. As far as feeding goes, I was assuming that you were feeding quarter strength nutes every 2-3 waterings, which would cause a def, but feeding quarter strength every time can cause a salt buildup and lead to nute burn. After you get finished flushing, just resume feeding it 1/2 strength nutes every 2-3 waterings; just keep an eye on the smaller plants to make sure they don't get burnt. All in all, they are looking pretty good- I'm really impressed with the growth of the nebula in just 9 days. Keep up the good work!

Thx homegrown!
I was just sittin with the girls, takin pics n what not. I discovered that I have spider mites!! Lil red bugs and webs on top of my plant.. I only found them on 1 plant so far. What do I do????? I've been spraying with a light mix of water n dawn dish soap as per someones recommendations for the other bugs. I was aware that I had some winged pests in there, that's why I have yellow strips. I can handle those but these mites gotta go!!
HELP!! any suggestions are welcome.. I'd like to stay away from chemicals if at all possible..

No problem QB- I use Organocide on my plants- it takes care of a good number of pests and it is organic. The label say to stop using it 10 days before harvest, but I won't put it on any closer than 14 days away from harvest. Since it is organic it won't burn the leaves, so feel free to drench them, and reapply after 2 weeks so you can get the next generation of mites too.

Hey all!! Been awhile since I posted any updates. All is going well and the girls are growing at a decent pace. I recently added a 1000 watt HPS light to my veg room to increase their growth a lil during the last couple weeks. I have been feeding them at 1/2 strength for aggressive veg growth. I'm gonna run them under veg for another 2 weeks. Then the white widow, strawberry cough, couch lock and permafrost will begin the flower stage. I am currently still battling the mites but hope to have em all cleared by the time I move em to flower. My nebula (the one I started from seed) is doing phenominal!! I measured it on 10/05 and it had a height of about 15 inches with a leaf span of about 8 inches. I measured it again today 10/10 and it is now 20" tall and leaf span of near 12". I have enclosed pics.. I'm not expecting a high yield from these plants as they aren't very big or bushy but something is better than nothing. And I have to make room for 12 more plants as I have acquired my 1st patient..YAY!!! I will keep posting as I go..

Looking really good. especially for a first time grower. One thing tho along with some questions. Very glad you added the HPS instead of those pretty christmas lights(no disrespect intended).

How far aways is your light from the top of the plants? the temps in the room as well as the humidity? Will you be cloning?
To answer some of your questions though; Neem oil can help with your bug problem. Your 3 pic is what made me ask about how far away your precious new 1,000watter is due to longer inter-node spacing. As well as 1/2 may be a little too much atm as some of your leaf tips are curling under(which means overfeeding).

I say lay off a little bit until the new growth shows no signs of the tip curling.

Good luck on your current grow and future ones. Michigan is great for growing my mom and little bro live there. the coldness helps with temp problems .
Make a grow journal with more specifics so we dont have to flip through all the pages

Thanks Mane..
The HPS is about 13" from the top of the tallest plant. I am still using a LED for the blue spectrum which is set about 7 inches from the top of the smallest plant. When I started out I have 2 seeds which I successfully sprouted. On sept 1st I acquired all the rest. Only 1 of my sprouts survived..that is the nebula in the above pics. I have good suspicion that it is a male. Temp has been high since adding the HPS. At 1st they were upper 90's..I've managed to maintain it to below 80 but above 70. I need a better hood. I went with the budget version when I bought the hps system so it only has the reflector hood so I have to cool the room myself. The led has built in fans which help a lil. It has been unusually warm here lately too which isn't helping. When budget allows I will replace the hood with a self cooling unit but until then the ghetto ventilaion system I have is working until I can afford something better.

it's ok, they don't show signs if heat stress, so it must be ok.
I believe HTG supply sells the cheapest cooltube reflectors, or bghydro. A cool-tube will surely allow you to move the light alot closer for deeper canopy penetrations for denser lower branch buds.

Are you using an osculating fan for air circulation and good branch and stem durability? i couldnt find out if so or no in the previous post.
Can't wait to see those dense ass nugs in a couple weeks

Well I was told as long as they're 10-20 inches above depending... I have 2 oscillating fans..I sucking the heat out the window and 1 bringing in cooler air aimed at the plants. HTG is where I got the LEDs from. My next grow will be better documented and I'll provide better entries.

Hey all!! It's been awile since I last posted. I have flowered out everything I had in the garden. Currently I have 10 in flower with about 30 days to go before harvest. The nebula did turn out to be a male but it wasn't a total loss. He will be ground up and added to edibles or oil. All my girls have nice buds beginning. I am VERY excited!!

Hey there everyone.. Been awhile and almost a month since I flowered out and the girls are looking and smelling yumalicious!! I have to use gojo when I clean up after working in the garden. I did master the mite prob I had in an earlier post however there is threat of reinfestation due to a newcomer.. Nasty webbing and numerous bugs but it has been only seen on 1 plant..a hydro by the way 1 of 2..out of 14 total rooted plants and about 12 clones in dirt..dr doom bombed the room & sprayed them all down with azamax tonite and isolated her a lil bit in a colder portion of the total growing space.. I moved the garden down to the basement, formerly my son's room. It's a much larger space and it allows me to have all my rooms and all my supplies in one really big room, at least twice the size of the original room. I also have acquired 3 patients so I need the space. I had a couple frames built to square off the room so I could hang lights and seperate the room a lil bit. It is also moveable which is awesome cuz once these ones are done it's getting moved. I built walls of black plastic and lined the them level with the lights with aluminum foil. I ran into financial crisis and lost my job in sept so I have not been able to afford the materials to build walls so I improvised. I did upgrade to another 1000 w hps..and use the led for veg and cloning only. Metal halides are on the after harvest list.. It is definetly gettin closer to harvest time...it's literally in the air and I'm lovin it! Here are some pics I took of me and the girls today after a lil pruning and pampering.. The rest are random pics of various tops taken the 17th and the new temporary flower room. Ol girl in the one pic is so top heavy she fell right over.. That one is the mystery lady..it was unclear what it was when it sprouted, was unexpected. So she is now Kane's Kactus..she has sustained a beating and a couple near death dry spells & is still kicking..she has a grapefruity, beachy, sandy smell and larger leaves than the rest. She is one of the stinkiest and stickiest of the bunch. The lil miss is my mini me..her official name is Mazar. She was flowered early to remain with her older sisters. She's cute and petite and so are her fluffy snow white popcorn tops!!
On an off note..I recently tried Simpson Oil...one word..OMG!! LOVE IT!!