from germ to hydroton

[tokinherper]

what is YOUR method? im still a little confused here. do i start in soil? if so how much? and do i put the soil the plant rooted in my hydrotone aswell? how soon can i put them on my table under the hps's? i'll be useing a 8'x4' flood table and 2 1000w hps's, ebb & flow. help me out here. what would YOU do?

 

[SensiStarFan]

If you are using a flood table and you germinate them in soil be sure to get all of the dirt off of them before putting them into the hydroton. I had a friend that got dirt in his res and it was sucked into the water pump, clogged it, and the plants died because he didn't notice the pump was not working for two days.
Are the seeds feminized? And if not is your flood table set up in a way that you will be able to pull males as they show?
Good luck with your grow!

EDIT: If it was me I would just germiante the seeds in rockwool under a humidity dome and then when roots showed at the bottom of the rockwool I would transfer them into the hydroton. JMO
-SSF-

 

[tokinherper]

If you are using a flood table and you germinate them in soil be sure to get all of the dirt off of them before putting them into the hydroton. I had a friend that got dirt in his res and it was sucked into the water pump, clogged it, and the plants died because he didn't notice the pump was not working for two days.
Are the seeds feminized? And if not is your flood table set up in a way that you will be able to pull males as they show?
Good luck with your grow!

EDIT: If it was me I would just germiante the seeds in rockwool under a humidity dome and then when roots showed at the bottom of the rockwool I would transfer them into the hydroton. JMO
-SSF-

what size rock wool cubes? any suggestions as to where/who to order from. i cant find them locally

 

[SensiStarFan]

what size rock wool cubes? any suggestions as to where/who to order from. i cant find them locally

I get them off of ebay. Some people like the 2 inch cubes, particular brands, etc. I'm not picky and find rockwool to all be pretty much the same. I buy the sheets of 100 1" cubes. They are pretty cheap.

-SSF-

 

[tokinherper]

great! thanks allot. you've been very helpful

 

[tokinherper]

If you are using a flood table and you germinate them in soil be sure to get all of the dirt off of them before putting them into the hydroton. I had a friend that got dirt in his res and it was sucked into the water pump, clogged it, and the plants died because he didn't notice the pump was not working for two days.
Are the seeds feminized? And if not is your flood table set up in a way that you will be able to pull males as they show?
Good luck with your grow!

EDIT: If it was me I would just germiante the seeds in rockwool under a humidity dome and then when roots showed at the bottom of the rockwool I would transfer them into the hydroton. JMO
-SSF-

im also confused here. i bought 6 strains. 3 of which i got 10 feminized and 10 not. the other 3 nonfeminized. i was (and still want to) going to cross all strains. i plan to keep a male from each none feminized strain in a closet up-stairs. i would like to know what im putting in the table before i do so that i definatly have a girl in every pot. should i get larger rockwool cubes and let them veg in them longer? i keep finding info on sexing plants but cant find out how old or how many weeks before they are sexable.

 

[SensiStarFan]

im also confused here. i bought 6 strains. 3 of which i got 10 feminized and 10 not. the other 3 nonfeminized. i was (and still want to) going to cross all strains. i plan to keep a male from each none feminized strain in a closet up-stairs. i would like to know what im putting in the table before i do so that i definatly have a girl in every pot. should i get larger rockwool cubes and let them veg in them longer? i keep finding info on sexing plants but cant find out how old or how many weeks before they are sexable.

Hi tokin,
I hope someone else drops by soon, it's always better to get advice from multiple sources than just one random guy you don't know . Here is what I would do, and this is just my opinion. You have 30 feminized seeds, how many spots does your 8x4 flood table have? I would germ the feminized beans and put the ones that survived in the flood table. I have never grown in a flood table but I assume you would have at most 32 plant spots in an 8x4 flood table. Your feminized beans would just about fill the flood table. When you are happy with your veg growth switch the lights and flower them. WHILE DOING ALL OF THIS, I would be germinating and vegging the regular non-feminized seeds. By the time your first crop of feminized seeds is done flowering your non-feminized beans will have been growing long enough to be sexually mature. You can take clones of the best females, save the best male of each strain like you want, and flower all of the girls as your second crop. While they are flowering you can take clones of the best females that you found and use them to cross with your males in your third cycle. Again, just my opinion.

-SSF-

 

[trillions of atoms]

Use rapid rooters, then when roots pop drop directly into hydroton.

 

[smokingjoe]

I use 4" rockwool cubes because they don't tend to fall over when the table floods and hold a little more moisture between flood cycles. Be sure to remove the plastic or paper coating from the outside prior to whacking it in the grow wool and ensure it is completely covered in hydroton.

 

[woodydude]

First of all, I would not suggest dropping all your beans at once, the chances are you will make mistakes somewhere on your first grow and my thoughts are that making mistakes with half of something you paid money for is better than all of it! But I am known as a tight bassa!
I would probably pick 5 of 3 feminised strains to crack.
I would soak them in water for 24 hours, then place them directly in 1" rockwook cubes. (Soak the cubes for 12 hours in water ph'd to 5.5).
The ones that sprout, place into 4" cubes (soaking again)
While this is going on, research as much as you can, familiarise yourself with the terms involved in growing and read through the forums here as well as the grow journals (a great source of info) Also, start your own GJ as this will be a very beneficial source of knowledge for you in future grows.
Green mojo. W

 

[SensiStarFan]

First of all, I would not suggest dropping all your beans at once, the chances are you will make mistakes somewhere on your first grow and my thoughts are that making mistakes with half of something you paid money for is better than all of it! But I am known as a tight bassa!
I would probably pick 5 of 3 feminised strains to crack.
I would soak them in water for 24 hours, then place them directly in 1" rockwook cubes. (Soak the cubes for 12 hours in water ph'd to 5.5).
The ones that sprout, place into 4" cubes (soaking again)
While this is going on, research as much as you can, familiarise yourself with the terms involved in growing and read through the forums here as well as the grow journals (a great source of info) Also, start your own GJ as this will be a very beneficial source of knowledge for you in future grows.
Green mojo. W

Good advice Woody. The only reason I recomended doing all of the feminized beans first is because he is growing on a pretty big floodtable under two 1,000 HPS so if he germinated all 30 of the feminized beans they would fill the table nicely. Then since he wants to do crossing and breeding of his strains I would use the non-feminized seeds for that. The 4 inch cubes would probably be better for a flood table than the tiny cubes I use and then put in soil, good point.

-SSF-

 

[woodydude]

Dont get me wrong SSF, I wasnt trying to contradict your advice and totally understand why you were giving the advice you gave.
I was trying to come from a different angle and being very new to this myself, kremember some of the pitfalls all too clearly!

I think looking at breeding is trying to run before you can walk but ambition is good! Without ambition we would all still be cavemen lol.

I suggested the 1" to start as they are cheaper if they need to be thrown away. The 4" cubes for that table is the best way to fill it and as you said, they wont fall over!

Tokin, you will soon find there are lots of thoughts, methods and opinions of different ways of doing things when it comes to growing mj, each has its benefits and downfalls, thats part of the fun, working out what works best for you. Ultimately we will all try to help you here and you will rarely get "bad" advice, your job is to find out whichadvice works best for you.

Fun aint it
W

 

[SensiStarFan]

I think looking at breeding is trying to run before you can walk W

:yeahthat: :goodposting:

-SSF-

 

[tokinherper]

wont i be burying the cubes in the hydroton?

 

[smokingjoe]

Sure will, however when the table floods the hydroton will float and a 1" rock-wool cube will likely fall over, especially once the seedling gets a little larger.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

I think looking at breeding is trying to run before you can walk but ambition is good! Without ambition we would all still be cavemen lol.

I would recommend getting several grows under your belt before you think of breeding. I don't think of this as ambition...you really do need to learn to walk before you can run. If all it took to breed seeds was putting a male and a female together, everyone would be selling seeds...

 

[tokinherper]

"you really do need to learn to walk before you can run"

lol. i heard this countless times in my life. i've found(so far) that i run pretty well. i wont be selling any seeds, im just a BIG fan of selective breeding and a scientist at heart. i love experimenting with different genetics and creating new combo's. anything i create will stay here. so i couldn't be hurting anyone but myself. im not good with baby steps. i've never learned that way. never really tried though.lol. i can do it. hopefully it does turn out to be challenging. failure is a great way to learn if it comes to that.

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

You have missed my point. Unless you have a good grow environment that is dialed in, your breeding attempts are not really going to tell you much about the strain. You want late flowering robust males for pollen and an equally healthy and robust female for breeding. It's like wanting to build a racing engine, but having no idea how an internal combustion engine works...

 

[tokinherper]

im learning more every day. thanks to forums and forum members.

 

[Hushpuppy]

Yu sound like me and my brother (who is my grow partner). We both know enough to be dangerous. However, the more we learn, the more we discover that we don't know. But the learning is the funnest part (and the partaking of the yeild). If there's one thing that I have learned, its that trying to jump in and do everything at once will quickly become a lesson in $costly$ frustration. There are many variables that can and will get off and will have yu chasing yer tail and spending cash. Trust me, it already happened to us. We nearly lost a whole crop, supplies, and growroom. The best advise for anyone is to not put a single bean in the soil for at least a month while yu read until yer eyes feel like they r gonna bleed. I highly recommend yu get 2 books from George Cervantez; Marijuana Horticulture and Marijuana Grow Basics. Truely solid books that go into every part of growing. Yu can order them from Amazon or from High times online shop. But also continue to read here, lots of really good, real time info that covers all the variables. good grow mojo to ya.