My official 2013 grow started on September 26, 2012. My seeds arrived from B&T seed company here in France. I usually get all my seeds from them since they are dialled into a world-wide network of seed banks.
I planted 110 seeds in rockwool. I wasn't sure what I was gonna do with them, but hatched a plan to do a combination of soil grow and NFT under lighting. I've been successful with NFT for some time, and a friend recommended that I make sure to put some in soil. I choose Cellmax soil. It's from Holland. It's pH stable at 5.5-6.5 and has basic nutrients.
After only 6 days, the majority of seeds germinated. Another 4 days and I was at 80% germination rate. An interesting phenomenon occured when the seeds germinated. Just before each seed germinated, a thin green 'growth' appeared around the hole where the seed was planted. When this green growth appeared, it was an indicator that the seed would indeed germinate. This was the case 100% of the time. The seeds that did not germinate also did not show the green growth around the hole.
So, After discarding the seeds that didn't germinate, I started to water the rockwool daily with a spray bottle.
This got to be a hassle, since some of the rockwool cubes were wetter than others. The light used at this time was a typical 55watt x 2 CFL that I picked up from the local hydroponic store. It was really cheap, and the ballast and one bulb failed after using last time. I doug it out, replaced the balast and added a new bulb, and viola, we were back in business, with higher quality components. The seedlings were doing well, but the watering was becoming a chore. I decided that I'd place the tray of rockwool cubes on the NFT table, and see if they would do well with bottom watering. The plastic rockwool pallet fit nicely into the NFT tray, and the water flow was set to the absolute minimum that the pump would flow. I let it run constantly. There was a spot or two that didn't really get watered on the side of the tray, but with a little spray bottle help, the cubes become wet enough to form a link with the water flowing under the tray, and stayed watered. This NFT/rockwool tray for germination worked really well. I let the roots develop well into the water mat that was laid down under the NFT tray, and that caused some problems when it was time to transplant them out of the tray and into their new home, but it was not too difficult to cut them out with scissors, and the tiny little plants didn't suffer any shock from the roots being twisted, turned and cut up a bit. I will try something different next time to stop that from happening, but the whole tray of rockwool cubes in their pallet laid on the NFT tray worked extremely well for low maintenance watering.
A funky orange slime developed on the top of the rockwool cubes. I left it alone, because it did not harm the new seedlings at all. When I removed the cubes for replanting, I scraped off the slime and put the cubes into their new home. Some went into cellmax soil, in small pots, and 12 individual plants went into larger rockwool cubes, and went back into the NFT system. I soaked the large rockwool cubes in a solution of water and Formulex for about an hour before transplanting the smaller cubes into the larger cubes. To hide the roots from light, I used yellow 3M -471 tape. This stuff is the majic tape. It sticks hard, but not too hard, and leaves no residue. I found it at work, and it's miracle stuff. It's used in the cleanroom since it sticks well to teflon tubing but doesn't leave a sticky mess when you remove it. Very good stuff, but a bit expensive.
The NFT system was good, but I had much better results when I added an airline into the reservior. The added oxygen accelerated the growth by about 65%, and I recommend that any NFT system be equipped with added air. No air stone was necessary, just fix the tube so that it bubbles into the tank.
After a few weeks, I moved the NFT tray under a 430 watt HPS light system. I use a digital ballast, and so I dimmed it down to 200Watts. The plants loved it, but it was too cold in the grow tent, so I had to add a bit of heat. After getting the water temperature above 22C, the plants exploded and were quickly too tall, and touched the light. I kept moving the light higher, and then finally had to reorganize the tent with the NFT system at the bottom, and the grow light set on 430Watts with some heat still, since it was -8C outside for a few nights.
With this set up, every plant did well. I had to cull the litter, and pulled out the smallest plants to make room for the bigger plants. This was a sad day, but the results were great.
Currently, the Cayanne peppers are flowering and giving great peppers. Hot and tasty although green. The Chocolate habanero peppers have lots of flowers, as well as the Naga Jolokia's, but there is alot of flower bud fall-off. Leaves look good, and all the parameters seem to be great, but the flower fall-off is worrisome. I am experimenting with the nutrients, and it seems to be working. Less Nitrogen, more bloom gave the leaves a better and flatter appearance. In the end, I switched to flora micro/flora Mato from GHE and this combination seems to work very well. It's hard to tell, since the whole opertation is indoor, in a small space with only 1 HPS light. Other plants are growing under CFL and the difference is quite large, but they are also in soil. The plants in soil with CFL lighting are healthy, but do not show the enourmous grow rates that the NFT/HPS do, but that is to be expected. All in all, the results so far are fantastic, and cloning operations will start soon, and then in April there will be the great migration to the outdoor field. Some in the ground, some in big pots, and the NFT giants will go into waterfarm pots.
So far so good. Looking at all of you guys, and the beautiful grows on this site, I can only hope for such fantastic results. I'm glad that I found this site, and got involved. Super great site
I planted 110 seeds in rockwool. I wasn't sure what I was gonna do with them, but hatched a plan to do a combination of soil grow and NFT under lighting. I've been successful with NFT for some time, and a friend recommended that I make sure to put some in soil. I choose Cellmax soil. It's from Holland. It's pH stable at 5.5-6.5 and has basic nutrients.
After only 6 days, the majority of seeds germinated. Another 4 days and I was at 80% germination rate. An interesting phenomenon occured when the seeds germinated. Just before each seed germinated, a thin green 'growth' appeared around the hole where the seed was planted. When this green growth appeared, it was an indicator that the seed would indeed germinate. This was the case 100% of the time. The seeds that did not germinate also did not show the green growth around the hole.
So, After discarding the seeds that didn't germinate, I started to water the rockwool daily with a spray bottle.
This got to be a hassle, since some of the rockwool cubes were wetter than others. The light used at this time was a typical 55watt x 2 CFL that I picked up from the local hydroponic store. It was really cheap, and the ballast and one bulb failed after using last time. I doug it out, replaced the balast and added a new bulb, and viola, we were back in business, with higher quality components. The seedlings were doing well, but the watering was becoming a chore. I decided that I'd place the tray of rockwool cubes on the NFT table, and see if they would do well with bottom watering. The plastic rockwool pallet fit nicely into the NFT tray, and the water flow was set to the absolute minimum that the pump would flow. I let it run constantly. There was a spot or two that didn't really get watered on the side of the tray, but with a little spray bottle help, the cubes become wet enough to form a link with the water flowing under the tray, and stayed watered. This NFT/rockwool tray for germination worked really well. I let the roots develop well into the water mat that was laid down under the NFT tray, and that caused some problems when it was time to transplant them out of the tray and into their new home, but it was not too difficult to cut them out with scissors, and the tiny little plants didn't suffer any shock from the roots being twisted, turned and cut up a bit. I will try something different next time to stop that from happening, but the whole tray of rockwool cubes in their pallet laid on the NFT tray worked extremely well for low maintenance watering.
A funky orange slime developed on the top of the rockwool cubes. I left it alone, because it did not harm the new seedlings at all. When I removed the cubes for replanting, I scraped off the slime and put the cubes into their new home. Some went into cellmax soil, in small pots, and 12 individual plants went into larger rockwool cubes, and went back into the NFT system. I soaked the large rockwool cubes in a solution of water and Formulex for about an hour before transplanting the smaller cubes into the larger cubes. To hide the roots from light, I used yellow 3M -471 tape. This stuff is the majic tape. It sticks hard, but not too hard, and leaves no residue. I found it at work, and it's miracle stuff. It's used in the cleanroom since it sticks well to teflon tubing but doesn't leave a sticky mess when you remove it. Very good stuff, but a bit expensive.
The NFT system was good, but I had much better results when I added an airline into the reservior. The added oxygen accelerated the growth by about 65%, and I recommend that any NFT system be equipped with added air. No air stone was necessary, just fix the tube so that it bubbles into the tank.
After a few weeks, I moved the NFT tray under a 430 watt HPS light system. I use a digital ballast, and so I dimmed it down to 200Watts. The plants loved it, but it was too cold in the grow tent, so I had to add a bit of heat. After getting the water temperature above 22C, the plants exploded and were quickly too tall, and touched the light. I kept moving the light higher, and then finally had to reorganize the tent with the NFT system at the bottom, and the grow light set on 430Watts with some heat still, since it was -8C outside for a few nights.
With this set up, every plant did well. I had to cull the litter, and pulled out the smallest plants to make room for the bigger plants. This was a sad day, but the results were great.
Currently, the Cayanne peppers are flowering and giving great peppers. Hot and tasty although green. The Chocolate habanero peppers have lots of flowers, as well as the Naga Jolokia's, but there is alot of flower bud fall-off. Leaves look good, and all the parameters seem to be great, but the flower fall-off is worrisome. I am experimenting with the nutrients, and it seems to be working. Less Nitrogen, more bloom gave the leaves a better and flatter appearance. In the end, I switched to flora micro/flora Mato from GHE and this combination seems to work very well. It's hard to tell, since the whole opertation is indoor, in a small space with only 1 HPS light. Other plants are growing under CFL and the difference is quite large, but they are also in soil. The plants in soil with CFL lighting are healthy, but do not show the enourmous grow rates that the NFT/HPS do, but that is to be expected. All in all, the results so far are fantastic, and cloning operations will start soon, and then in April there will be the great migration to the outdoor field. Some in the ground, some in big pots, and the NFT giants will go into waterfarm pots.
So far so good. Looking at all of you guys, and the beautiful grows on this site, I can only hope for such fantastic results. I'm glad that I found this site, and got involved. Super great site
