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First Time Grow - 7Pod, Scotch Bonnet, Serrano

Hey all!,

Note: I'll start transplanting previous posts into this thread as times goes by.

"First Time Setup" Thread

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Jumpstart T5 Fluorescent 2' kit (No Stand) For Seedlings[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]LED Comet Magenta 150LED Lamp ([/background]HID Hut[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]) (for veg and pre transplant outdoors to pots).[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Seed Cell Dome[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Rapid rooter plugs (General Hydro)[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Plastic Seed Cells[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]CloneX Solution (For seedling foiler)[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Super Sprouter Heat Mat[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Super Sprouter Thermostat[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Salvation Army - Old CRT/TV Dresser ($25)[/background]


[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]4L Jug (Great for Kool-aid [/background] ;)[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)] )[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Oakton EcoTester pH1[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]General Hydro pH-Up[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]General Hydro pH-Down[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]A couple of pipets - One for nutrients, one for pH balancing.[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]FoxFarm - Grow Big[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Plant Success - Granular Root Nutrients[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]General Hydro Pro Bloom[/background]
[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]General Hydro Cal Mag (For reverse osmosis or filtered water)[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Panda Film - White & Black Poly 6mil (10x10)[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]Pump Sprayer[/background]

[background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]
img1595pm.jpg
[/background]
 
Click to expand...
Nice set up and good looking seedlings!

For light I would go with 18 hrs, once you see roots you can start to feed from the bottom and don't have to worry about keeping the rapid rooter wet. You can keep them in the tray for a while, but it is tough to stop root rot once the roots get a decent size. Try to keep the temp down and it should help a little.

Sorry I'm no help on that timer, I use the cheap ones from lowes don't even carry them in my store.

Keep up the good work.
 
18 hours sounds a about right. I was asking around and heard that 12-16 was the sweet spot. 18 sounds like it is less of a flowing/bloom cycle, and more like a veg cycle, which is what I want.
 
Yeah i use 18 on my t5 for veg and I have my hps at 15 for flower. I was at 12 but flowers were dropping so I went to 15 and it seemed to help. It might depend on how strong the light is since mine is only 400watts a 1000watt might be able to do 12.
 
I use a timed power strip with two day and two night settings and your instructions look almost identical to mine. I had a problem setting it up and it worked properly after o messed with the "on, off, auto" setting. Dont remember what I did but once it went through one cycle it worked properly.
 
Yeah I kinda had a feeling the on/off/auto button was wonky. The instructions say to turn the light to "off" if its supposed to be in the "off" schedule and it will turn back on at the start of the "on schedule. When I woke up it wasn't on. I'll try the auto function on a 15min schedule tonight and see how that goes. Make sure it's working.

This is the hemp filler/litter a friend of mine gave me.

http://www.tropical420.com/shop/hemp-cat-litter/

She said it tested pH neutral in lab tests which is good news, but theres only one way to find out.
When you guys test the pH of your soil, are you testing using a pH soil probe or are you testing the run off? I've tested the runoff before and always had a decent 6.5-7.2pH while feeding nutes. Never had it go much higher or lower. Those are the highest and lowest recorded. The Avg was about 6.8pH, but again, that was testing the soil RUNOFF, not the actual soil, as the meter I have always said 7pH. I have one of those light, moisture, pH probes.... Lemme find it...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006KY5OUG/ref=oh_details_o04_s00_i00


Uhhh.. I dont recall only paying $0.41 for that.. LMAO... Probably why it sucks. It's great for light and moisture, but the pH i think it not that accurate. I used my EcoTester and tested various pH levels in water and used the pH probe and it was close, but not as accurate obviously.

I picked up some Dry Kool Bloom from GreenLeaf, and I've read some posts on other sites regarding it's use. I figured i could use a 1/2 or 1/4 strength when the plants start to bloom, as not to stress the plants more than they need to be. I know that weed has only a single harvest, so I get why they would bump the P & K way up, it forces the plants to bloom stronger and bigger flowers, but with pepper plants, you dont want to kill them because they continue to grow after you harvest, so what is a good recipe for this Kool Bloom? I'm not sure, I'm definitely going to on my mad scientist lab coat and report back. I'll make a list of what I'm planning on experimenting with and start reporting on those projects as soon as I can.
 
UH OH!

Checkout these pics... It looks like a mold is forming near one of the Serrano pods... and some of the Serrano seedlings dont look so hot.

I fixed the timer and I'm now on an 18hr cycle.
On @ 9:30am
Off @ 3:30am

Anyways...

Check this out...

Scotch Bonnets - Looking good...
img1718th.jpg


Serrano's looking kinda blah... Notice how the leaves are drooping? Ugh... I wonder if it's because they are getting to big for the pods, or they need some fracking SOIL. :shocked:
img1719d.jpg


Heres a close up of the pod closes to the camera in the above picture... Notice the light green section on the pod, North, North East (1 O'clock) of the stalk....

img1720gq.jpg



Any one know what that is, or have any suggestions? I think it's time for soil to be honest...
 
Timer is working and added a temporary fan to the mix. The fan I'm using is a floor fan that has a breeze and oscillate function.
The trick to the timer is to put it on AUTO after setting your program/schedule.

On = 100% on
Off = 100% off
AUTO = follow schedule.

Program your timer, then depending upon the schedule... If it's supposed to be off, turn the power form the timer off... and then set it to auto. If your in the middle of a schedule... set it to auto, when it hits the end it will turn off. Make sure you exit the program mode by clicking the 'CLOCK' button.
 
So i just made a run to the hydro shop before they close, and before I leave town for NOLA (tomorrow). I showed the guy there some pics and he said the leaves look like are being over watered. I I've been watering them, but I think because I didn't have a fan going the water as just sitting there... Laying stagnant and the little guys where absorbing whatever water was left from the previous watering. I picked up several Smart Pots, and 11gal of FoxFarm: Happy Frog Soil. I've treated the seedlings with a little SubCulture-M, and the added mycorrhizae in the Happy Frog should help keep them happy, as well as not cause any problems when mixing different microbial additives. Because I chose SubCulture-M, I wont be able to use the Plant Success, so I'll have to report back on that another time.

Now I'm looking into getting a better T5 setup. I'm running a single T5 Veg bulb, and would love to be running a 4 bulb setup with 2 veg, and 2 bloom. I'll most likely use the Veg bulb i have now for seedlings.


This should be fun.. LOL
 
Moved some of the larger seedlings into 1 Gallon Smart Pots.
I also picked up some rain polished stones from a garden supply store. I soaked them in a large stew pot half full of water, with 1.5 caps of bleach.
I rinsed 3 or 4 times after letting them sit for 30-40mins, and let them dry before adding soil.
Before sowing the seedlings in their neat little pods, I sprinkled some SubCulture-M in the transplant location.
I placed the pods in the pots, and added a little more soil.
I'm using FoxFarm: Happy Frog.

I bottom fed them using FoxFarm: Grow Big balanced to 7.0ph-7.1pH.
I also gave each new pot a little sprinkle, about 10ml at the base of the seedling to help with the transplanting.

I added a small clip on fan, which I noticed is drying out the pods much faster than I would have expected. I gave all of them a little sprinkle (5ml) this morning, and showed my roommate which pods to keep damp and which ones to water in a day or two.

Should be good to go while I'm out of town.
 
Sooo.. :/ I got an email from my roommate yesterday. I've been out of town since Thursday, and it appears all my seedlings have suffered damping off of some sort. I'll have to post a couple pictures when I get to a computer. :/ kinda sucks. He said the ones I moved into pots look fine which is weird. Next time around ill try using Solo cups with soil, I think the RapidRoot pods are great if you can germ and plant quickly. Unfortunately I did run out of room. I'll have to try again when I get back. All this happened AFTER I added a little fan. Which from the looks of it, dried the pods out quickly:/
 
img1978i.jpg


:/

img1979ie.jpg


img1980n.jpg


I'm going to stop using the RapidRoot pods. I have a feeling that because they retain so much water, they are causing seeds to rot, or drown. I moved some of these T.Scorpions into Solo Cups and soil. Hopefully that helps, if not, I'll go back to 10-15min soak in warm water, and into damp paper towels, maybe that will work.

I have received all my SASBE's back, thank you to everyone who was generous enough to send me some seeds.

ajijoe, KingDenniz, cmpman1974, and griff87 --- YOU GUYS ROCK ---

I tossed my 7-Pods(Pepper Joe) because none of them germinated, and they started to rot. It appears the ONLY plants that survived are the ones I moved into pots prior to leaving for NOLA.

Here's a couple of updated pics...

img1993ua.jpg


img1992bi.jpg


img1991o.jpg


The above pics are of the surviving plants, and some new SoloCup's I started. I domed them as you can see.

I used some washed and sanitized rain polished pebbles from a local hardware store to help with the drainage in the the SmartPots. I'm using FoxFarm: Happy Frog for now, as a starter medium, when I move to larger pots I will be using FoxFarm: Ocean Floor. I hope to keep them in the small 1gal pots through the winter, and hopefully get some more seedlings going in the next few weeks.

I'm planning on ignoring DST, as these will be indoors for the winter.

I'm also planning on jumping on a grow tent deal. I've outgrown the space that I have and I'm not happy with my options. I need more height, as the space is beginning to get cramped, better storage capacity for seedlings and veging plants.
 
Just bottom fed with 1Gal of 6.5pH w/ 7ml of FFGrowBig and 3.5ml CalMag

I let the three pots sit for about 30-45 minutes in 2in deep water.

I also FIM topped the three in the pots. Trimmed a couple of the small growths in an effort to create bushier plants. Hopefully that helps :) I would rather these grow bushier for the time being rather than taller, due to limited space at the moment. Also it's so early in the season that I cant have them grow more than 8-9in.
 
Bottom Fed again today.. I dont recall if I fed them on Friday, or Saturday... I posted "Just fed them" but I think that was the next day. I'm going to wait until Thursday to water them again. Let em get thirsty.

From there I'll start the following
Water every 2-3 days - Bottom fed from 2in water - let sit for 30-45mins
  • 10ml FFGB Per Gallon 'ON' DAYS - 2ml 'OFF' DAYS (Every other feeding cycle basically)
  • 5ml CalMag Per Gallon 'ON' DAYS - 1.5ml 'OFF' DAYS (Every other feeding cycle basically)
I treated the transplanted roots with SubCulture-M which should really help them with healthy root production. Well see. I'll move them into larger pots some time around late Feb, early March.
 
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