# Am I set up for failure already?



## Ebbandslow619 (Apr 26, 2019)

Before I get into a ton of details this is what I'm working with. Using a seed I found rather than the ones I paid for because I'm a beginner. Germinated in rockwool, planted in hydroton, flood eight times a day for 5 min periods, and using FF nutes. It's growing really good right now (start of week 3) besides I adjusted the pH last night and it apparently didn't like it so I just put it back hopefully it'll perk back up after the next cycle or two. But I don't think the roots should be doing this THAT much, it was a few at first, so i suspended it from the lid while also making it dark down there hoping the gap of air would make it prune and the roots look back in the pot for water but it had other plans. Is this a set up for failure? I'm still going to try it as long as it'll make it, but wonder what I should be expecting.


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## novitius (Apr 26, 2019)

Im having trouble telling if that is nutrient stain or root rot. Is it slimy at all?


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## Ebbandslow619 (Apr 26, 2019)

If you're talking about the overflow, it's press&seal lol. The extension was too much so I improvised. Usually I clean the res and tray every week when I remix nutes. The cords and tubes below the tray in the res are slimy when I clean though.


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## Ebbandslow619 (Apr 26, 2019)

Ebbandslow619 said:


> If you're talking about the overflow, it's press&seal lol. The extension was too much so I improvised. Usually I clean the res and tray every week when I remix nutes. The cords and tubes below the tray in the res are slimy when I clean though.


The walls are just powdery nute stain I believe


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## novitius (Apr 26, 2019)

You'll want to keep light out. Top off the hydroton, maybe add some H2O2 to the res. PH shock is a thing. 
I'm not quite sure I understand what your question is. IF you mean growing quickly? Yes, you want that.You want those roots to keep stretching. You also want as medium of some sort for them to grab or get nutes from. I feel like just suspending them in the air isn't great. I'd rinse a bunch of hydroton really well and fill the res with it. You'll still get your flood and drain.  You don't want to see a lot of brown, there will be some where the roots harden off and get a stain from the solution. 
 Someone else will probably stop by and help you out.


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## Ebbandslow619 (Apr 26, 2019)

I was just really thinking the roots weren't supposed to travel out of the pot that much I guess that was my main concern. Peroxide was my next step. And add some hydroton to the top for the roots? I have it all rinsed and ready to go, it would be okay to leave the tray without being cleaned the whole time and just redo the res?


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## novitius (Apr 26, 2019)

one other thing you said was powdery mildew. I don't see that in the pics. That's not good tho. But, I think Peroxide kills it. You need the stronger stuff from a pharmacy, iirc, it's like 91%. 
For the roots, they grow as big as the plant you see... as above, so below, that kinda thing. The more room the roots have the bigger it'll get. 
Personally, I'd do what I said above and top off the pot with hydroton and then fill the res with some form of medium, maybe 2/3rds of the way(?) . You're doing E&F, I've only done DWC, but I think you need more cycles, like double. I don't want to give you bad info but I think you need to fill and drain a couple times an hour. 
This site is a great resource. There's a search function that's handy and I'm sure someone more knowledgeable will stop in and help you!


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## novitius (Apr 26, 2019)

no, you said powdery stain, sorry! lol


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## zigggy (Apr 26, 2019)

wish I could help ,,,,but I'm a dirty girl,,,,,,good luck to ya


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## Keef (Apr 26, 2019)

EB -I don't think our paths have crossed ? - Welcome to MP - U might want to think about getting a cheap reverse osmosis filter system - produce almost distilled water (mine is about 6 ppms )-- U don't know what's in your water unless U use distilled --RO water or distilled is the only time U would add Cal/Mag- ( try 5 mils per gallon )-
I'm  a root sprayer - I run my filtered pump up thru a pvc spray manifold -- pumps 15 minutes on 15 off - with an aquarium pump and bubbler stone in the res. - I use these 35 gallon totes about 12 gallons of nute water - Sprays straight up and falls back down for another trip -- The roots are soon floating around in the nute water - Put a bubbler stone in your res - roots need O2 - Leaves  CO2 - U have to decide if U gonna run a live res or a chemical res. - I add a beneficial microbe tea to my res - - U can use that nute water for 2 -3 weeks -- PH - 5.4---5.8 - Keep your nu5e water temp helow 80 or U get white slim - (it's actually flear )--When I set up a new box I run the system for 24 hours then adjust pH - It will drift some and needs to - some nutes are obsorbed at different pH - Plant looks fine !- Stay on the pH and check the temp of your nute water !-
Hope it helps !-- I'd sex that thing but others would probably wait !


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## Keef (Apr 26, 2019)

That pump system goes inside the box - 34 spot aerocloner --add nutes and that's how I roll - for now !


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## QBCrocket (Apr 26, 2019)

roots look fine , I am interested in that system looks more like a NFT system than a flood and drain   , I cant see how having a basket without t a pot, could work as a flood and drain , without the pot there  would be no flooding the water would be running straight through,  a flood system normally has 1 or 2 small outlets so water floods quickly and drains out slowly , the system I use looks simular but I have a nute mat on the tray with rockwool sitting on it roots follow the mat and fill entire tray I actually cut roots off that find their  way to tank , by having water running all the time it adds it own oxygen to the tank


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## The Hemp Goddess (Apr 27, 2019)

I would think for a plant that size you should be seeing a whole lot more roots growing out the bottom.  Also, flood and drains usually are more like flooding 4-6 times a day for longer periods of time.


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## Ebbandslow619 (Apr 27, 2019)

Keef said:


> EB -I don't think our paths have crossed ? - Welcome to MP - U might want to think about getting a cheap reverse osmosis filter system - produce almost distilled water (mine is about 6 ppms )-- U don't know what's in your water unless U use distilled --RO water or distilled is the only time U would add Cal/Mag- ( try 5 mils per gallon )-
> I'm  a root sprayer - I run my filtered pump up thru a pvc spray manifold -- pumps 15 minutes on 15 off - with an aquarium pump and bubbler stone in the res. - I use these 35 gallon totes about 12 gallons of nute water - Sprays straight up and falls back down for another trip -- The roots are soon floating around in the nute water - Put a bubbler stone in your res - roots need O2 - Leaves  CO2 - U have to decide if U gonna run a live res or a chemical res. - I add a beneficial microbe tea to my res - - U can use that nute water for 2 -3 weeks -- PH - 5.4---5.8 - Keep your nu5e water temp helow 80 or U get white slim - (it's actually flear )--When I set up a new box I run the system for 24 hours then adjust pH - It will drift some and needs to - some nutes are obsorbed at different pH - Plant looks fine !- Stay on the pH and check the temp of your nute water !-
> Hope it helps !-- I'd sex that thing but others would probably wait !


Thanks for the reply, I have been using RO water that I get from a self fill kiosk at a local store. They clean and change the filters monthly so it runs anywhere between 10-25 ppm. I'll take more pics of my setup tomorrow. But I have two water pumps and an air stone in the res, one pump to circulate since the first week the nutes settled. I'm thinking about just trying a different method as this doesn't seem to be an ebb & flow but whatever it is it's working.? Lol. And I wasn't sure how to sex before it grows pistils so that's what I was gonna wait for. I'll look into what a NFT system is, but yeah I'm doing something wrong.


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## Ebbandslow619 (Apr 27, 2019)

The second pic is inside the res, sorry I have such a shitty camera


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## Ebbandslow619 (Apr 27, 2019)

So I looked into the NFT and I think that is the way I will go after this one runs it's course. I have the exact same totes except bigger, and I'll go ahead and do several. Since the plan this time will be for the roots to fill the tray, I'll add an inch or two of hydroton to the tray and can just use small net pots to suspend the rockwool cubes? I would go aero Keef, but I'm worried about nozzles getting clogged &or the pump going out and losing everything. You can actually cultivate 34 in that small of an area??


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## Keef (Apr 27, 2019)

When I ran the boxes in bloom I would put about 5-6 plants in a box- 2 inch base is too small so they fall over in bloom  when they get top heavy with bud - - I ran a continuous garden -Mostly just learning the ropes - I had 8 of those boxes in bloom- divided into 2 box groups-- Running 60 day or less finishers - I would move a group of small plants from a box in veg to a box in bloom every 2 weeks - after 60 days they start coming out of bloom for harvest every 2 weeks -- As long as veg can keep up U can crank it out - Running small plants U can produce lots of variety in a harvest too - Time for me to move on up to a larger grow  - but at one time I could manage a couple dozen varieties- in a square meter - Like a file cabinet- Pull out the girl or girls I want to run - Grow them out some - chop them into clones and when they big enough - Leave  one in veg and bloom the rest !--
I ran a white widow for 4 1/2 years or so - cloning from clones - bugs finally took her !- They killed my last cutting !
I'm not real concerned about how a system is classified- I call my system aero but don't take long and the roots floating around like it was DWC - I lost power last year during the hurricane for a week - When I came back I had lost a few fresh cuts but most plants were doing OK -
At one time there were lots of genetics passing thru my hands so I kept a share of some !- I have lined up about a dozen little girls from different varieties and turned a male loose on them - Some I'm several generations deep into now !-- I been breeding me some stuff to grow for Texas !- I'm a little Snow Lotus heavy -- I got some blueberry with a chocolate dad burning a hole in my pocket !- I'll be back up and running soon !- Looking forward to setting up a new grow !


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## Ebbandslow619 (Apr 27, 2019)

It's almost like you're speaking a foreign language with all that. I'm kinda having a hard time wrapping my head around what you're saying though, I think I kinda got a mental picture of what you had going though. I only have the one tent but I do plan on getting a second to flower in one veg in the other. Might be a stupid question but how do you control their size? Is it the strain or you just veg for a short amount of time then take to flower? And you're saying I should use larger than 2" net pots if I plan to have larger plants,Or would a trellis work? Sorry I'm not following too well, I'm not very bright anymore. Lol


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## Keef (Apr 27, 2019)

U doing fine Cuz - U thinking too much - I was flipping a bunch  little plants to bloom  just on a routine schedule - U control everything when U the farmer - U want to keep them short and still get nice harvest - get RE to teach U how he does a SCROG !- except for autos U shape a plant as it grows - pinch the top out and it makes 2 branches from the next grow point ! I like clones from about 3 weeks into bloom they make lots of limbs and bush nicely-


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## 2RedEyes (Apr 27, 2019)

If your doing regular seeds, you can control the size somewhat by flipping to flower when they are about half the sized you expect them to get to...after flower lighting is on, they will begin to stretch and will approximately double in size...if your growing in dirt, you can control the size by using a smaller pot and also flipping when they are about half size...


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## 2RedEyes (Apr 27, 2019)

If your growing auto flowers then you can just use a smaller grow pot or bag...


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## Ebbandslow619 (Apr 27, 2019)

Gonna be using those. For this plant now, would I be better off to lower the water level and run it constantly turning what I have into a NFT with incorrect drainage? Or just keep flooding the eight times? I already added some hydroton to the tray


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