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First Time Hydro Grow - Trinidad Butch-T

This is my first time growing indoor anything. I want to track my progress with pics here.

I started the Butch-T seeds I ordered through http://pepperlover.com/ and wow what a nice surprise when my seeds came in. My order was very timely and bonus seeds out the wazoo! I just want to grow one plant this go-round, I'm growing in a spare closet in a spare room. I used Sure-To-Grow for my germination media, for the ease of transplant later into a DWC 5 gal bucket hydro system. I used a small tupperware container I had and placed the cubes in that with the pre-soaked seeds, then placed that into a 7" x 20" humidity dome tray. I really wanted a clean transfer to my DWC from propagation, no messy washing off jiffy cubes off for me. I kept that tupperware with plenty of water in it throughout germination.

I'm growing hydroponic lettuce and cucumbers alongside this butch-t. I use a T-5 florescent fixture for the lettuce and cucs and a 400w MH for the pepper plant. I'm using MaxiGrow and Bloom for the nutes. So far everything seems to be going smoothly. I'll try and update weekly with pics. Thanks for reading!

Prepping seeds:
SeedGerminationtwo11-16-11.jpg



Germination:
SeedGermination11-16-11.jpg



Just placed the sprouted seeding into the hydro unit. No nutes at this point, just PH 5.5 distilled water.
Trinidad-12-02-11.jpg



Three days later, I have 4 leaves and added half strength nutes (~350 PPM) to the hydro unit.
Trinidad-12-5-11.jpg



One week later very good growth. Still on the original nutes at half strength.
Trinidad-12-11-11.jpg



One week later and great growth! Leaves look a little sad and droopy, but I think it was because I added some ph down about an hour prior to this being taken.
Trinidad-12-19-11.jpg
 
very nice. I like that sure-to-grow material.. I used for mine rapid rooters.. but I think I waited to long on a few got some brown roots on them.
Ditching those and planting only the ones with nice white roots.
 
Looking beautiful, what lights are you using at what distance??

It's a 400w metal halide light fixture I picked up from a friend who works on large construction projects. They use these lights to temporarily light the site. I need to fashion a reflector still, but it seems to be working great so far. I read that bringing the light down on the top of the plant, until the bare hand starts to feel warm is best, so I have this one about 10" from the top of the plant.

Light.jpg
 
I have one, butch T, that I have in a pot with the same light you have. I just bought a 400 watt HS light to put it under but what I need to know is how long should the light be on. Right now I have it on 14 hrs. Too much? too little?

I started this plant this summer outside but brought it in when it started getting cold. It had several blooms but they fell off after I brought it in and put it under the Metal Halide. This is why I got the HS light to promote blooms. I am a newbe so, any help appreciated.
 
What I've seen is in between 12-16 , 16 hrs a day mean u will be using 6.4 kilowatt-hour (kWh) a day. Depends on how much your electric company charges per kilowatt, it will be close to a dollar a day to run.
 
how long should you give your plants light?

you can give them light for 24/7 for the first 6-7 weeks after germination with no harmful effects, but after that the optimum time is 20/4...that will get you the fastest growing you can get...however, you have to be careful with how long you give them light because of "running out of room"...I am giving my oiverwinter plants 12/12 (of 3K lumens/ft[sup]2[/sup] right now and will do this until spring plantout comes...
 
how long should you give your plants light?

you can give them light for 24/7 for the first 6-7 weeks after germination with no harmful effects, but after that the optimum time is 20/4...that will get you the fastest growing you can get...however, you have to be careful with how long you give them light because of "running out of room"...I am giving my oiverwinter plants 12/12 (of 3K lumens/ft[sup]2[/sup] right now and will do this until spring plantout comes...

So true AJ - sometimes you have to slow them down just to conserve space. It's amazing how fast they take off one they get outside in April-May.
 
Update: 12/27/11

Greetings everyone, I hope your holiday was spectacular!

It's been a week sense my last update, well, a week and a day, but who's counting :D

I've had really good growth with my Butch-T experiment this week, although I have a small concern about the malformation of the leaves. They seem droopy and oddly shaped. this might be normal, I don't know. I do believe they are healthy and the growth is super fast, so I will just let things be for now...unless you guys see anything going on with the plant. I drained the hydro unit and went with full strength on my nutes, currently at 780ppm with a ph of 5.7. I also added Calmag to this @ 5ml per gal.


Good strong stem, but you can see the leaves seem a little weird.
Trinidad-12-27-11.jpg



Another shot but further out. You can see my hydro lettuce is doing awesomely good in the back ground.
Trinidad-12-27-11-b.jpg



Getting some roots popping out of the netpot. This should get the growth to sky rocket.
Trinidad-12-27-11-d.jpg


Another
Trinidad-12-27-11-c.jpg



Please let me know if you guys see anything I can do better. I've never done this before and just read here :D
 
Update: 01/03/2012

Greeting everyone, I trust you had happy and safe New Year. It has been a week since my last update and I'm happy to report that the hydro grow experiment is doing marvelous! The Butch-T is happy and is growing like crazy. I've had no real issues with the DWC and the nutrients are better than I expected. I was having some anxiety about the low humidity in the closet due to it being winter. My air stays dry even with my heat pump having a humidifier built in. I will most likely be adding a portable humidifier from a box store this week to get it up to 80%, right now its sitting at 30% but seems to be doing fine with that.

I've changed the nutrient water this update. I've also upped the PPM to 1100, the CalMag increases the mix a large amount. Just the base light feeding of CalMag adds between 300-400 PPM. I'm content with the 1100 PPM for now, but will watch things closely.


The growth is much more lush than before and the stem and branch leaves seem much more robust and stronger than a week ago. The foliage is dark green and healthy looking.
Trinidad-01-03-2012-a.jpg



Trinidad-01-03-2012-c.jpg



Trinidad-01-03-2012-b.jpg


The root system is much longer, although not very dense. I was expecting a tad more denser root. The root hairs are fine and healthy looking.
Trinidad-01-03-2012-d.jpg



Trinidad-01-03-2012-e.jpg



Until next week my friends.
ps: my hydro lettuce is delicious! I've harvested it three times now and each harvest yields me four full salads worth of lettuce. So yummy!!
 
Awesome growth! Don't be concerned about the crinkled leaves. I've read that it happens when the light is too close. Personally, I think it's because the plant is drinking straight from the nutrients....like a straw. I've grown deep water tomatoes, seranos and lettuce. All the plant leaves were much thicker "jucier" than the soil grown plants. Plan on putting four of my mother plants in deep water this year as well. Keep up the great work. Look forward to your success.
 
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