Today, FDP say:

[FlyingDutchPaddy]

Today, FDP say: they getting along nicely, but i'm speculating they a deficiency here and there..

I think, I need to up the CalMag... Calcium/Magnesium if I look at the lower leaves.

Found my foliar spray mix....
Per L of water, addding:
10ml Fulvic acid
4ml Seaweed, (Fulvic:Seaweed 5:2)
1ml CalMag
2.5ml Micro
2.5ml Gro
2ml Bloom.

Feeding per bucket:
25L water,
25ml Silicon,
50ml Fulvic acid
20ml seaweed,
8ml CalMag,
14ml Micro, 23ml Gro and 33ml Bloom.

In the last week they all developed roots that reach down into the water now.
Netpots are out of the water...

Plants as of Week 2 Day 17:





FDP

[FlyingDutchPaddy]

Today, FDP say... seedlings have graduated to young plants... 2nd set of leaves are developing....

Day 11 after planting, yesterday i gave them fresh water.
each bucket got:

25L water,
25ml Silicon,
50ml Fulvic acid
20ml seaweed,
3ml CalMag,
13ml Micro, 13ml Gro and 26ml Bloom.

Distance from bulb to leaves: 85cm.

i'm thinking of mixing up a foliar spray to apply one of these days... will see how they go...

Anyways, the plants are looking like so:






Good evening!

FDP

[golfnrl]

Looking good FDP...

[FlyingDutchPaddy]

Today, FDP say: they really getting on....

4 days since planting, 3 days after last post.






Good evening,

FDP

[FlyingDutchPaddy]

Today, FDP say.... the young ones are starting to stand up

Bit over 24 hrs later, they're looking like so:






lets see how they'll progress...

FDP

[FlyingDutchPaddy]

Today FDP say.... some seedlings have been dropped into netpots to start out their adventure!

Each bucket is filled with 35L water, pH'ed to 6.3,
Each bucket has 2 air stones, all 8 stones connected to a single 8-outlet variable speed air pump (see the overview pic, top center)
After planting, 315W ceramic light was placed around 76cm above the netpots (30 inch or so).

So that you have an idea of what the setup look like, a few pictures...

The 4 buckets all together:




Single bucket with 2 air stones, air pump lowest setting:


View with the lid on top, air pump off:


Let there be bubbles!!!
Water level is upto the lower part of the netpot.


4 seeds germinated after about 4 days in the paper towel:



And after they've been planted directly into the clay pebbles:




And the overview of it all:




Next few days i'll be dropping the germination water over the little ones until that finishes...
They should hopefully take off in a few days....

Good evening!

FDP

[FlyingDutchPaddy]

44 hrs later, update...

yesterday replaced pebble water, pH at 5.2.

today, for the next 24 hr clay pebble soak, I add in nutrients as well...

6L water, added 3ml Micro, 6ml Gro, 6ml Bloom to pH'ed water - final pH before adding clay pebbles again: 5.3
Also sprayed the buckets lids white...
Thought I might as well do it this time round...

seeds looking well after 44 hrs... they're starting to get a real tail on them....



Planting tomorrow !

Good evening,

FDP

[FlyingDutchPaddy]

Today's preparation update not too involved...

- replaced the water of the clay pebbles... had them drip off in a net while doing so (10 mins). New soak water pH'ed to 5.2.
- placed seeds in paper towel between 2 saucers in a warm place (23C).

2 of them have a small root showing already...

paper towel dripped from the germinating water (65ml water + 2.5ml fulvic + 1ml seaweed)



Good evening!

FDP

[golfnrl]

FDP...yes, at the moment the Strawberry Cough is all that I am growing...and using the autopot system. Just the one tent. Maybe one day we'll expand

[FlyingDutchPaddy]

Hey Golf,

Happy to have you along! Sure thing, ask questions if you have them!

are you using the auto-pot system at the moment? if so, whats growing ? the strawberry cough?

yes.... found your 3rd grow log...

[golfnrl]

Hello FDP...I'm in my third grow and have only grown in soil so far. I'm interested in both the DWC and auto's. Thanks for sharing. OK to ask questions along the way?

[FlyingDutchPaddy]

Today FDP say there's going to be life !!!

4 plants have been given the right conditons to germinate and grow into wonderfully big plants.
With a bit of TLC, foliar spray here, bit of 'bondage' there, some nutrients and let's see what we'll get.

This is a DWC grow, no soil involved.
Everyone is welcome to tag along.

Started soaking 4 auto seeds.



My expectation is that I'll be updating this thread weekly or so.
This being the beginning though, probably more frequently as the next few days go.

Think of this as a journal of sorts, updates on what i did, when, if i can with pictures.

For those wanting details , a couple of bits of info:

Environment
- These 4 will be sharing a 315W ceramic light spec'ed for blooming
- please see my signature for tent details.

As said above, this is a DWC grow.
Buckets
- Each seedling will have its own bucket. (Total bucket volume=42L - 11Gal, volume with seedlings=37L - 9.8Gal, volume from week 2 onwards=25L - 6.6Gal)
- Each bucket has 2x 10cm (6") airstones, and all 4 buckets share a single 8-outlet air pump with 960L/Hr (roughly 34 CF/hr) max capacity.
- Net pots are 6", using clay pebbles as medium.

Nutrients
I use the GH trio. Initially I only used those 3, and calmag, with guidance from GWE here.
As time progressed, and I started reading more into hydroponic growing, more additives came into the mix.

My complete list of nutrients and additives used currently.
Base:
- GH flora trio. Micro (hardwater) 5-0-1, Gro 3-1-6, Bloom 0-5-4
(the US version of Gro is slightly different)

Additional:
- CalMag (4-0-0),
- Fulvic Acid,
- Seaweed
- Silicon
- Monster Bloom (0-50-30)

Mixing order
- Silicon
- Fulvic Acid
- Seaweed
- CalMag
- Micro
- Gro
- Bloom
- Monster Bloom

Silicon bring up pH a lot.
After adding Si to the water I have to pH down back down to 5.8.
Fulvic Acid and seaweed are beneficial for nutrient transport and have beneficial enzymes for germination, root growth, bud site development.
Best used in 5:2 ratio. (5ml Fulvic + 2ml seaweed as a basic example)

Growing method
I've been influenced by video's presented by Harley Smith (HS) from NPK industries (no, not advertising but sharing the source of knowledge).
Also found an Australian website with Grow Info in the menu, medteknutrients, which has a lot of info on it.

So, on top of baseline nutrients I add Silicon,
Fulvic acid as it helps transport the nutrients into the cells
Seaweed (others call it kelp), which helps in all stages of plant growth
Recently I've been using Monster Bloom as an experiment.. liking the results so far and it plays nice with current feed schedule.

HS advises to have a nutrient NPK ratio where N:K at the start and in veg is 1:1.5.
In bloom he recommends N:K to be 1:2
Also to add extra P at germination to provide energy, and extra P during transistion where you might see that 'growth stunt' to provide for the extra energy.

I've got my custom feed schedule in spreadsheet format so i can make adjustments to Micro, Gro, Bloom and CalMag to get to a preferred NPK ratio, per week, for a specified volume of water and nutrient strenth.
Week 1 I start with N:K of 1:1.5 and transition that to 1:2 between week 3 to 5 in early bloom. I'm adding in the Monster Bloom around the transition period week 4 for the extra PK boost.

First up, germination.
As seen above, I have a shot glass I put 65ml of water in.
Then I mix in 2.5ml of Fulvic acid, and 1ml of seaweed.
"Stir it up...", drop in seeds and "Stir it up"....

Some other preparation today:
- cleaning netpots, cleaning clay pebbles,
- soak air stones, air hoses and netpots in water with H2O2.
- soak clay pebbles in seperate bucket with water + H2O2.
- cleaning of lids of the buckets

more to do tomorrow.


Good Evening,
FDP.