Starting seedlings in hydroponics

This is my 2nd grow. First one was ok but trying to improve of course.
Got seeds in rapid rooter and just saw root coming out and put in hydroton and under light at lowest setting 28in away .
I don’t have nutes going yet. Do these seedlings look appropriate under the light at this time? I’m just manually spraying/watering and will get system running tomorrow. Nutes in a week or so…
Any suggestions or corrections please! Want to avoid the stretching this time.

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@Myfriendis410 @kellydans @merlin44

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I am a soil grower so can’t help much…Here are few folks that are hydro growers (I think LOL).
@Covertgrower @Holmes @BobbyDigital

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@merlin44 thanks man!

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Thanks for the tag ! I’m also a soil grower and would not be the guy to advise.

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I use coco so probably not a lot of help, @peachfuzz @Bogleg can you spread some wisdom over here!

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No nutes for first couple of weeks until taproot is established. Start low: 250 ppm or so and ramp up. Dome over seedlings is good to keep RH high. Lights can be turned up or lowered as plants are stretching some.

What nutrient line are you running?

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Does it look like I placed them in light at appropriate time? Ive been using advanced nutrients micro grow bloom but was just considering switching to general hydroponics Flora trio. Thoughts?

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I have grown some gucci weed with GH nutes. Easy to work with and all you need is base 3 plus Armor and Silica.

A couple of things about hydro (forgive me if you know this already):

No organic materials like molasses etc as this will gum up the works.
Try to set up for RDWC instead of DWC as the larger reservoir size will help to maintain PH and TDS. This is critical in mid flower when plants can drink a gallon a day.
Maintain water temps below 70F.
LOTS of air flow in to working rez to add O to nutrient solution.
Liquid level no closer than 1 1/2 to 2" below net pot. (Once you’re out of the ebb and flow tray)
Moderate TDS levels throughout. I don’t run higher than 900 ppm in veg and no more than 1,050 ppm or so in flower.
Unless your tap water is high purity it would be good to invest in an R/O system to eliminate any variables in muni water supply.
Buy GOOD monitoring instruments! Bluelab is the top of the line. Don’t forget to get calibration and care solutions too.

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I do ebb flow setup and have been using distilled water. I change out the water weekly and add new nutrients. Been considering a different system like aeroponics. I need something a bit easier to work with! how can I switch setup at this point? Our first grow went well but low amount and mugs were not dense at all. Probably had to do with lights and early harvest but learning :slight_smile:

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I’m running autopot XL’s which is a gravity feed ‘aeroponic’ style hydro method.

If you are interested let me tag you into my journal as I’m using these for the first time. I don’t believe there is anything easier to use unless RDWC with a big rez.

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Where did you get your setup from? And how often do you change the water? Is weekly really neccesary or can I add nutes/water as needed.

@Myfriendis410 just ordered some of the nutrients. When would u add the silica?

I did a diy setup with a 210 GPH pump and a couple of totes. If you do a search for ‘ebb and flow fittings’ you’ll find a variety. Hydroton is all I used to root the clones as I don’t really have a good track record with rooters.

You won’t need it for the first few weeks: I started silica around week 6 of veg.

@Myfriendis410 What about this? I’m over DIY for a minute… And…how do you know if plants are stretching or is it normal growth? I just lowered light day 2 adjustment

Already look tto be stretching but I didn’t think I should put too much light too close
@Myfriendis410 @peachfuzz @Bogleg

The system that you posted above is ok , but I’m not a big fan , do to clogging and I feel that some plants get neglected being down line…
These are the flowering systems that I run , all diy and since I took these pics , I have changed a couple of things , just to make things super simple…

One 27 gallon tote and two 5 gallon reservoirs , one for frozen 2 liter bottles and the other for testing and maintenance…
Pic of inside…


I use the gh line of nutrients…
:v::sunglasses:

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Node spacing should be reasonably tight and can be controlled to an extent by light intensity and spectrum. You are really looking for fairly tight node spacing.

I’ve never done one of the commercially available RDWC setups but let me tag a really good hydro grower to hopefully weigh in @peachfuzz.

You can grow that many full size plants in that tote? I just want something already made that I dont need to figure out at this point.

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Yep…
I use double scrogg tables to control the plant’s…


Bottom table is 3x4 , top table is 4x5 and theres 8 inches in between tables…
Bottom table has 8 inch squares and top table has 4 inch squares…

Super simple system…
Each table has a 8 inch air cooled xxxl hood with a 600 watt hps bulb with a magnetic ballist…
:v::sunglasses: