Smile And Orange Bud in Waterfarm ! 600w 4x4 (1st grow)

Hey,
this is my first grow, I've been reading a lot and I finaly set my mind on 2 nice waterfarm under a 600w in a 4x4. As for the strains I thought Orange bud and Smile would do great for a beginner like me. My grow is inspire by :

Scottyballs
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/344359-pineapple-express-g13-labs-seed.html

Dayzt
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/418227-barneys-farm-tangerine-dream-waterfarm.html

I never exchanged messages with those two but their grow journals were like a bible to me ! THANK YOU BOTH

So here are the specs of my grow aera :

-grow tent (LED wholesale (amazon)) : 4x4x6 (it was 6,5 but I cut a piece off on each pole to make it shorter and fit the aera)

-Hydrofarm air cooled reflector 6"

-Hortilux 600w Hps

-600w dimmable lumatek ballast

-a vortex 453 cfm inline fan

-a wonderful carbon filter (don't know the name of the brand but a very good friend gave it to me)

-2 waterfarm

-HANNA PPM/PH pen

As for nuts I'll be using general hydroponic FloraNova Grow and Bloom but I'm still wondering if I should use only the Bloom like Scottyballs.

Basicly my Vortex fan sucks air from the air cooled reflector and spit it back in the carbon filter at the end(when the time for a carbon filter will come). I have a passive intake, a 4" tubing.

As for the waterfarm I've made a few more 1/4" holes in it, change the pump for a better one and use the one that comes with it for a air stone in each as Scottyballs and Dayzt suggest.

For the moment I have put two seeds, one of orange bud and the other smile, in a playstation gameboxe with slightly wet paper towel and stored it on top of my playstation which I'm going to run for 24h before checking. This is supposed to have the same effect as a heat map would. When the seed germinate I'll put them in general hydroponic rapid rooter and grow them under two 60w gro-bulb. I plan to put them in the waterfarm in a week from now and start the nuts. Anyway I need to run my two bran new waterfarm for one week to prepare the hydroton.

Pictures of my installation are coming soon !!!!

Please excuse my english it is not my mothertongue.

Still working on some pics and on germinating those seed. I think the playstation actually cooked them or something. After the 24h hours in the playstation box I put the two seeds in two rgeneral hydroponic rapid rooter under 24h 300w lamp. They still didn't germinate I'm thinking it might be that they need a night to germinate so I'm about to try that if it doesnt work I'll put two more seeds to germinate but this time directly in the rapid rooter no playstation thing.

So as I thought I killed my two first seeds. They actually germinated then I moved them to the rapid rooter and under a 600w dimmed to 300w... completely fried them... So I made two other seeds germinate and put them into the rapid rooter in the water farm with two 60w bulbs over them. I'm trying to get pictures from my phone to my computer but it seems I have a problem. Anyway I'll be updating soon and start the vegetative soon.

Finally I'm on the good road ! Germinated two seeds succesfully under two 60w lamps and put them into my waterfarms ! They grew long and leafs weren't coming so I ended up putting them under the 600w lamp dimmed at 300. In the end there was a ph problem too. Anyway here are some pics

Ph : 6.0
PPM : 150
only tap water as you can imagine, I'll update some pictues tomorow to see if the lowering of the ph and the hps lamp gave the seeds a second life !

Good luck! Hope to see the babies perk up

So here we are, 6 days after the seeds were germinated ! the ph is currently still not stable, I had to down it this morning to 5.7 and it climb back up to 6.1. I guess its all the acid that are in the hydroton... I've realised there was a ph problem yesterday and since then I had to calibrate the water 4 times ! but it seems to be changing less and less and stabilizing so I think I'm almost done with that problem. So I was still wondering if my plants looked that way because of the recently corrected ph problem or is it a lack of sun ? Do you think my 600w dimmed at 300 at 4foot over the plant is too much ? So here are the ladys ! The loves of my life!

day from seed : 6
Ph : 6.1
PPm : 160
light : 600w dimmed at 300 for 18/6

your seedlings stretched while under the 60w. u can bury them right up to the little round leaves it wont hurt them as long as you are carefull not to damage the stem while your playing with it. your ph will keep climbing like that for ages just put your water in a t like 4.5 it wont hurt them because within hrs it will be above 5 then let it ride till its about 7.5 then readjust. it wont hurt at this stage. you cant lock out nutes that your not even feeding it. your doing fine. and yeah i reckon if you wanted you could drop your light down to about 2 foot

oh and subbed

thanks ! So you think I should wrap all this in a circular way to form a kind of 0 and make the leafs pop out in the middle ? I'll always get the ph problem ? how come ?
Thanks for helping me out its really appreciated !

look i have never had that problem personally so im not sure about the best way to go about it but maybe u should post a seperate thread in the plant problems forum and ask the brains trust. somoeone there will know for sure.

as far as the ph goes its totally normal with the hydroton it just rises like that in the beginning every other waterfarm i have seen deals with the same problem it never seems to cause too much trouble.

hey,
So here is a little update on my two girlfriends. They're doing a lot better thanks to some of you who helped me out. I actually posted a thread about my plants in the plant problem section

https://www.rollitup.org/marijuana-plant-problems/496503-my-seedling-stretched-lot-barely.html

So they are now doing fine here are a few pics.

But should I bring the lamp closer ? ( its now 2 feet over the plants) Should I dimm the light at 400 instead of 300 ? Should I start the nuts ? something like 300-400ppm ? Should I use the floranova grow or the floranova bloom like scottyballz does ?

thanks for all your help !

cool i like your solution to the stretch problem. as for nutes. do not feed them yet and when you do start to feed them start on about 100 or 150. they can go without nutes right up until they have there second set of serated leaves. and the light is really up to you. everyone has a different opinion on this. personally my seeds were started under 600w and it didnt hurt them at all and i would probably just start creeping it a little closer each day watching the plant to see how it reacts

So we are presently at day 15 from seeds. With christmas and all I couldn't take the time to put some news on my two babies. So I started nuts, first at 350 ppm and they kind of didn't like it so I lowered it to 250 and they love it ! They grew a lot ! the only thing is that they are still not holding up by themselves... I don't know what to do. Both plants already have roots directly in the water so I'm afraid to burry them although I think this might be the best solution. I'll put some picks tomorow but does anyone has a idea what I should do ?

cant wait to see your pics mate

so here is the update as promised. They are presently hanging at 250 ppm and 6 of ph. They are under the 600w dimmed at 400. I put the thin foild again cause they seem to be doing better with it and scottyballz did it so I`ll stick to that.

Roots have started being lower then the first compartiment. And otherwise they are doing great I`m just wondering if I should burry them or not cause they cant hold themselves up.

they are looking great man. im no expert on the stretch thing as i said so i dont really know but i would think that as the stem gets thicker it will harden up and they should be fine. think your doing a top job looks like you got yourr ppm just right they look healthy as anything. the foil is very important. if you dont have it you will get algae growing on your hydroton and it will end up all through your res and you could end up wth root rot so your doing the right thing leave it there.

how high is your light now? u could safely run it a 600w if u wanted to. its really personal choice though. it comes down to if you want to spend that extra money on electricity for a little bit faster growth and honestly i would say at this stage it probably wouldnt make a huge difference anyway

Almost three weeks old !
So at this stage they are growing really fast. My smile as a lot of roots in the water as you will see in the picture and the orange bud only has one little tiny one. But they seem to be growing at almost the same speed. I finally decided to put my 600w at full power and everything okay. Today was a big day for them. I changed their rez and gave them FlorNovagrow instead. We shall soon see if they actually like it.
So we are presently hanging at

5.6 ph
300ppm

The weak little thing that was supposed to be their body (the seedlings strech) has now tripled in thickness and can almost hold them up by themselves.
Am I doing good ?

your doing just fine buddy. aside from the early stretch they are looking healthy as anything there really going to start going crazy soon. they will love that nova grow. and its such a simple nutrient to use. cant go wrong

thanks forgetiwashere ! your advices and opinions are of high value to me ! always there to check on the newbies thank god for people like you