HYDRO Water level in DWC: first roots

[YYCannabis]

DWC 5gal pails; pH 6; Kelp Mii added to h2o; Aglex 1200w led lights ( @ 30” above pails)

first roots from seed are emerging from the basket. Until this point, I’ve had my water level just touching the bottom of the basket and have read mixed info about how soon air space should be created for the roots and how much air space is needed.
What do you think is best practice?

Also...at what point should I introduce nutes? Is it based on the roots, or number of nodes?


cheers
YYC

[gbauto]

Main thing I'm trying to avoid is keeping the media saturated(especially rockwool).
You're going to be looking for a balance of keeping the most solution volume and not soaking the stalk.
I start feeding as soon as it throws the first real leaf set. Once I have roots emerging from the basket, it gets full strength.

[alltatup]

Hi YY, I lower the water after roots start descending. I start feeding around 25-30% nutes when they are an inch tall, and that's even more diluted by extra water. I gave my seedlings their first feeding yesterday, with extra water in the reservoir to "entice" the roots down. I also hand-spray the bottoms of the net pots with a syringe.

[DW2]

Howdy YYCannabis, I keep the water level approximately 1 1/2 to 2 inches below the bottom of the net pots. I use a bottom (of the rockwool cube) water feed line. The bottom line can be turned off after the roots reach the water level, but, I usually allow it to run during the complete grow since I keep the water well aerated. The air gap below the net pot insures that the roots are exposed to the air. I start the seedlings off with 1/2 teaspoon per gallon of the MaxiGrow with 5 ml of DiamondNector per gallon (just what GH's feeding schedule recommends!) and I have had great results using the GH feeding schedule.
Good luck with Your grow.

[HappyDaze]

Got any pics yet?

The varied opinions are probably the result of varied techniques, I'd guess. When I start seeds or clones, they go in an aero cloner in 2" pots then get transferred to 3 1/2", and only my seeds are in any media, the clones are bare stems.
So if I'm growing from clones, it's easy to position them in the baskets with the stem well above the water line, however long the roots are, and the stem is just poking up through the hyrdroton, which is part of my air gap.
Seedling in RW are a different strategy. They start in the cloner too, but the pump in only spraying intermittently, so the RW drains and the stems don't rot. I grow them in there until the roots are well out of the RW, because I don't want my starter media sitting anywhere near the water line or the spray zone where the bubbles are popping in my main tubs.

You want your RW or starter cubes DRY when you're past the seedling stage, or you risk stem rot. If you've got bare stem clones in hydroton, it matters less where the waterline is IMO. I've never had a stem rot issue with a bare stem clone in hydroton...RW and Rapid Rooters, different story.

[YYCannabis]

Finally took some pics. The 3 strongest have pale leaves. The smallest and weakest one is quite green, but still no roots (seeds popped July 23).
-The 3 pale ones are on 1/4 strength nutes (MegaMass Grow and Blend).
- Lights are Aglex 1200w LED @ 24” high (mfg recommended height)

i cant tell if they are needing nutes or light. Sorry for bad pics ...was using my green glasses as a filter.

[YYCannabis]

Side note: my pH had jumped up to 6.8 from the 5.8 I had on Monday 🤔 I’ve adjusted my pH back down to approx 5.8 for all of them.

[alltatup]

YYCannabis Unfortunately, I can't really see the color of the seedlings, so I can't comment. You're doing the right thing keeping the pH in check!!!

[YYCannabis]

Is it normal for pH to bounce around after only 2 days? Does water temp play a role in that?

[YYCannabis]

I just checked my pH again. It is once again up to 6.3-6.7 across the 4 individual pails. Where I live, the water is hard and a pH of 7.4-7.8.
I’m lucky that I’m at a point in my life that I can easily dedicate time every evening to checking on my garden. When I decided to try hydro I was under the impression that it was less maintenance that dirt pots. At least I only have 4 pails to deal with, so not a lot of time required.

[alltatup]

For me, the time I "have" to spend in the grow room is always therapeutic; I love taking care of the girls.

When you mix your nutes and water, what does your pH read? If mine reads close to the max and min pHs we want, I will always adjust. For ex., if it reads 6.3 or higher when I'm done mixing in new nutes, I'll lower it to 5.7 or .8.

[YYCannabis]

For pH, years ago I use to keep expensive Discus fish that needed slightly acidic water. The pH was tough to control, but that was a full living breathing ecosystem. I thought it was just due to so many variables that the pH dipped and climbed. Now I’m thinking it’s just the type of water we have here.