Hydro Rockwool Grow

[TastyBuds]

Hello, I am growing from seed one Feminized Photoperiod (Mac-1) and Feminized Photo. (Watermelon Skittlez) and one Feminized Auto (Biscotti) and Auto Fem.(Frozay) strains for the first time in awhile and trying something new for me a hydroponic medium of Rockwool Cubes. Started seeds in the 1 in. Cubes then Transplanted into bigger 4 in. Cubes of Rockwool. I have a S.F. Setup and 480 watt Led Spider F. 23 in. away from plants and a humidifier in the tent keeping a 55% humidity level with also spraying the leaves with a mist of R.O. Water a couple times a day in a 5’x5’ S.F. Grow Tent. They started off great only soaked small Rockwool cubes in Reverse Osmosis Water and thrived then Soaked 4 in. Cubes in a Premium Mycorrhizae powder mixed in the R.O. Water. Transplanted cubes seedling and we’re doing great and started giving Grow nutrients soluble in the R.O. Water and they did great feeding a few droppers full of water injected into the Rockwool cubes once a day or every other day for a couple weeks. I also included a few droppers full of water solution mixed R.O. Water with the Mycorrhizae powder also. I had these 4 in. Rockwool cubes sitting in a bed on Cleaned Hydroton clay pebble growing medium.I have three issues though now. (1) * I noticed after a week there was great new growth and looked nice then. Now last few days I started to notice that one of Plants are still growing the new growth but the leaves and growth underneath looks like it turns brittle and dry brownish and have pinched it off but now it seems to still do this cycle of new growth but the other leaves underneath turn brittle and dry. (2) * Upon inspection of the other 2 plants the white roots were exploding out the bottom and looked great from the Mycorrhizae and squirted the bottom with a bit of Nutrient water mix and next day the roots now were dried up and rookie mistake so I quickly got 2 more soaked 4 in. Rockwool cubes soaked in R.O water with Mycorrhizae and stacked them together so the roots could grow into that and hopefully rebound better with moisture, but the growth seems stunted at this point, any suggestions Please ! (3) * I also have a late seedling (Gelato 41 Fem. Photo) in a 1 in. Starter Rockwool cube and was shooting up good from seed decided to put it with others in front of the oscillating fan to strengthen the stem growth but after a couple days I went to check on it and noticed it was bent over stem still intact but kinked some and propped it up with toothpicks to see if the seedling stem would strengthen but growth seems stunted after a couple days still any suggestions on this please would help! I numbered them if you want to number your answers to correspond would be helpful to me and perhaps others with the same issues ! Thank You very much but This may be a rookie question but I’ve tried a few things and still no change, Please help with any suggestions you can to get these off to a better growth! Thanks !

[TastyBuds]

[StickyNugsAZ]

Do you know the ph of whatever you are squirting them with?

[TastyBuds]

Yes, I tested the PH of the Mycorrhizae R.O. Water mix and it is around 5-6 and the Nutrient mix dissolved in R.O. Water (Green Rush, Leafy Green Grow for Veg. stage) is more like 7.5 after nutrients added to the Reverse Osmosis Neutral water.

[Bluey]

Your light needs to be dimmed right down at that height in early veg and you need much higher RH, closer to 75% but best to use VPD around 0.8 from memory at that stage.

[TastyBuds]

I have the light Spider Farmer 480 watt LED set at 30% power (as suggested in its instructions for Veg. stage) but had it higher at 40% and plants seemed fine for weeks. It’s the start of winter and even in the house it is very dry and hard to maintain the 50-60% humidity I have. I may have mixed the nutrients too strong for amount of water and didn’t PH adjust it down from the 7.5 Ph because I thought the neutral Reverse Osmosis water with Mycorrhizae at a ph of 5.5 would just balance it out.

[TastyBuds]

Vpd ? .8 ?

[StickyNugsAZ]

vapor pressure displacement. Its relative to humidity and temp

[Rootsruler]

Download a light meter app to test how much light you are exposing your plants to. I have an android and use Tent Buddy.

I've never used mychorizzae powder in rockwool so I'm not sure but I think you only need to apply once, not every feeding. The hydroton is for your roots to grow into. Their benefit is in allowing more oxygen around your rootzone. There should be no reason you had to do that unless you didn't nestle the 4 inch cube deep enough into the hydroton to block out light. If the roots see light they will self prune.

Also, you mentioned feeding from a dropper. Drench the entire cube so that you don't have to water as frequently and your roots have extra water to draw from.

Looks like you may have damaged the tap root or some of the other roots when you transplanted. They should come back but it'll take a second.

Purchase a pH pen and an EC/PPM pen so that you can properly measure out what you are giving them and if it is at the correct pH for maximum uptake.

[Bluey]

You must pH correctly every mix.

You cannot grow decent plants hydro style without doing this. It is the number one most important thing you must do.

I recommend, and so does every other decent grower, an Apera PH60.

[Rootsruler]

Aptera makes nice measuring gear. I also like BlueLab.

[TastyBuds]

Thanks, I saw great root system growth with the Mycorrhizae out the bottom of the Rockwool but made the mistake and sprayed them with nutrients and that burned the roots to brown which I’m not sure why I did that but then decided instead of leaving them sit in the moist hydroton pebbles (which I should of left the roots grow into) I stacked it on more Rockwool grow blocks a week ago thinking it would help. After reading your comment I took the extra Rockwool blocks out I stacked them on and noticed the roots were coming back to life on the others and decided to just put the single block into the bed of hydroton clay pebbles for the roots to grow into and thrive like they were before before I made my rookie mistake and try to rush more growth and hopefully it will be easier to feed those roots growing into the hydroton pebbles and cleanse the roots of nutrient salts when getting close to harvest etc. I hope these plants rebound quick. I am worried about the one plant in the picture though that has small wilted leaves that is slower to rebound than the others so far.

[TastyBuds]

I need a humidifier with automatic humidity control. Any suggestions? I have a humidifier in my 5’x5’ tent but it’s dry here in winter and it doesn’t have humidity control just settings for how many hours and usually it gets too humid 80-90% and turns off after a couple hours and the humidity dips down to 30% until I go manually turn it back on. I need a good humidifier that I can set humidity level and it automatically turns on when falls below my desired humidity and shuts off once it reaches the set humidity level.. Anybody have any good suggestions for this and humidity is crucial in the beginning stages and most importantly I need a humidifier in my drying and curing room to maintain trichome potency and health of dried buds when drying and curing before the jarring process.

[Bluey]

I use domes during seedling & early veg. That works much better for me than messing with a humidifier on automation.

Humidity is not easy to control here when also running an AC in a sealed grow room.

Get one with a big tank. Typically they are terribly inaccurate when it comes to measuring RH so I use a number of independent sensors that control the power to the humidifier...even then I don't always get it spot on.

[TastyBuds]

I use domes also for seedlings etc. but it’s winter here and if I don’t have a humidifier it’s only 30% humidity in the room. In order to properly dry and cure cannabis you need 50-60% humidity otherwise the trichomes will deteriorate before jarring and the buds will be too dry and lose potency and taste also, Curing and drying are most important otherwise all the hard work of growing will be wasted on a mediocre product instead of potent and flavorful buds with good humidity control.