A question from a fellow grower:
Hi, I need some help. I can’t find anything resembling this in the forum.
I received
the White Widow fem. and soaked them in water for 24 hours (Jun.13th.).
I then dropped them in a seed pod (from Dealzer) and put them in the
net holders, applied water and nutrients (Jun.16).
On Jun.24
I went to change the water. It was slimy with brown particles from the
material used in the net pots and the bubble stone was covered also. I
cleaned the box and bubble stone thoroughly. I also took apart the
material and removed the seeds (only 1 was in sprout -no leaves yet). I
then put the seeds in cheesecloth and back in the seed pots (adding
water but omitting nutrients). Two days later I removed the lid from the
box and the bubble stone was covered in mold as was the area on the
corner and lid where the stone was.
I now have
transplanted the seeds and 1 sprout in a mixture of shredded tree and
coconut mix. As they are in pots I am unable to tell whether or not the
one sprout is still alive.
I also
ordered a bag of CO2 however there were no instructions. I am not sure
if I need to take apart sections and place them around the plants or,
put the whole bag into the grow box.
Please advise.
The air pump that supplies the bubble stone should not be near the CO2, you want extra oxygen in the water, not CO2 in the water. The leaves love light and CO2, and the roots love dark and oxygen.
What type of bubble stone, what type of air pump, and for how much volume in the reservoir?
What are the temps in the reservoir? If it is too hot, the water won’t be able to hold enough oxygen and you will get slime in the reservoir and on roots, and this can eventually lead to root rot and worse. It will usually kill a seed or seedling.
Hope this helps,
MacG
OK, I know we have links to these grow boxes from Dealzer, but other than that I don’t know anything about them, I think you should contact their tech support. To me it sounds like you don’t have enough air for the amount of water, but you didn’t give any specs about the air pump or air stone, so I don’t know.
I’m sorry, but there is almost no way the air in that little box is only 20-21C with the light that is in there, even if the temp in the room is that low. We need to know an actual temp of the water in the reservoir, and the actual temp in the box might help as well.
-
the lights were not on as seeds need darkness.
-
Dealzer description of pumps, etc:
Airline and stone
Hydroponics system with air pump and bubbler
Dual 80mm, powerful fans with carbon filter protected outake & intake area
I cannot give you the temperature in the box because I did not use the lights,
I will call Dealzer. Eleanor
This is very strange, sounds like the water was cold enough to hold plenty of oxygen, which would normally inhibit bad bacteria or molds from developing. The light mix of hydrogen peroxide might help, or shouldn’t hurt as well.
Yeah, the dealzer description isn’t very helpful, sounds like maybe their tech support might be able to help with that info.
What type of water did you use in the reservoir? I don’t think this would necessarily be part of any problem so soon, but tap water and certain bottled water might not help the plants in the long run, possibly too alkali and to many minerals, aka hard water. But again, none of this will usually affect things so early on, I’m not sure why you got so much mold so soon, maybe like you said, something on or in the seed pod things that left all the debris?
I used ordinary tap water.
The grow pods were intact when I removed them however the bottom part that was in the water was somewhat shrunk.
I forwarded our conversation to Dealzer and will let you know their response. Eleanor
Further to our previous conservation of July 3rd. Dealzer did not respond and their phone is always busy.
To Continue:
On July 6th. I put the 11 remaining White Widow seeds using the paper towel/plastic bag method. Today, July 24th. I could only find 2 seeds that look like that are sprouting - The root? is just starting to show a tiny bit of white root. I have planted these in peat pots and wrapped the other 9 seeds again in the plastic. I cannot understand how everything I’ve read tells me all their seeds sprout in 2 days (7 at the most). It is now three weeks. The 2 seeds I planted were not successful.
Would you please replace my order for 10 + 10 of White Widow fem.
Eleanor
Hi, Eleanor,
I’m definitely a new grower but still wanted to share my experience with you.
The first 2 plants I ever started were put in seed starter potting soil and 16 oz. styro cups placed on the sill of an eastward facing window. I soaked the seeds for 2 hours in 3% hydrogen peroxide then opened a shallow hole about 3/16ths deep in the potting soil, set the seed very carefully and covered it with soil just enough to be sure that ambient light couldn’t reach the seeds. Both sprouted within 3 - 4 days. I later killed these plant through good intentions and rank stupidity but both were skunky as hell and pre-flowering at 5 weeks. After that, and a long wait for more seeds to arrive, I ventured out and tried starting seeds in paper towels, in peat plugs in netty pots and hydroton clay pellets, and in rock moss and coca coir plugs. All these methods met with very limited success.
So I whipped out the styro cups again. I set 4 seeds (2 Jamican Pearl, 1 White Widow/Big Bud Cross and 1 Sweet Skunk) all 4 germinated sucessfully within 3 days this time. I left the plants in the starter cups for 12 days misting them daily with 5.5 pH water and 10% strength ILGM Grow nutrient. By then they had a strong tap root and a few sturdy hair roots. The plants were then transplanted gently into netty pots with a light layer of hydrogroton in the bottom and very gently filled with more clay pellets. (The hydroton had been soaked overnight in 5.8 pH water to fully saturate them.) Next into the hydroponic bucket they went where I continued misting daily until the roots started picking up from the solution in the bucket.
Hope some of this will help you it has worked well for me so far.
Here’s to big buds and happy toking.
Mark