DWC - ILGM - Fire OG

Introduction - Week 08 Summary - One of the cubes finally sprouted! Was starting to feel a bit down again, but to my surprise, the middle cube sprouted about two days into the week (5 days from planting). I was both glad and relieved that one of the cubes actually popped! She's definitely the smallest of the seedlings I've germinated, but couldn't be more happier! Even though she's tiny, by the next day, her tap root was already poking out the bottom of the cube. So I transplanted her into the DWC bucket that same night! As per AN's instructions, I'm not feeding her any grow nutes quite yet. So for now it's a combination of beneficial bacteria and CalMag. Afterwards, I ended up adding a bit of silica (Rhino Skin) and increased the CalMag (CaliMagic) concentration a bit. By the end of the week, her first set of leaves have started to grow! But she's a bit droopy. At least her tap root has already grown through the net basket! To (hopefully) fix the wilting, I lowered the water level and am going to increase the PPMs for next week's res change. I also added a humidity dome to increase the RH a bit. Also looking into foliar feeding for next week. I'm just happy she's growing. Once pre-veg is complete and she has her second set of leaves, I'll begin feeding the week 1 grow nutrients using AN's recommend feeding ratios. Just have to keep on growing! [START OF WEEK 08] Day 01 - Monday - 11/23/20 - Total Days: 052 ----------------------------------- - [0930]: Checked on the cubes. --- Still no visible change. --- Tent temps were holding steady at 72°F --- Dome temps were at 76°F at 99% RH --- I re-sprayed the dome with more Voodoo water. - [2215]: Checked on the cubes again. --- They still look the same. --- Tent temps were holding steady at 72°F --- Dome temps were at 74°F at 99% RH --- I sprayed the dome again with more Voodoo water. --- Not sure why none of the cubes are sprouting.. --- For the last seed, I may try to germinate in a cup of distilled water and Voodoo Juice. --- Then if the seed cracks open, I'll transplant her into the rockwool cube. --- I'll wait another day or two before trying this method. Day 02 - Tuesday - 11/24/20 - Total Days: 053 ----------------------------------- - [0830]: Ho damn! --- One of the cubes finally popped! --- Woo hoo!! --- During the night (or since the lights were on, I guess for the cubes, it was day), cube 2 sprouted and is just starting to uncurl her cotyledon leaves. Nice! --- To be honest, I was starting to feel a bit depressed again. --- But seeing her, just brings joy and hope back! I can't believe how happy this is making me! --- A bit surprised though, because she was the second seed of the three and was planted five days ago. --- Still no activity from cube 1 or 3. --- Going to leave them in for now. I doubt cube 1 will ever sprout, but cube 3 may sprouting soon. --- Again, I plan on using the first who's roots poke out the bottom first so there's still hope for cube 3. Also, if cube 3 sprouts soon, and looks healthier, then I may transplant her instead. But for now, I am just happy and relieved that at least one of them sprouted! --- Tent temps were at 70°F --- Dome temps were at 75°F at 99% RH --- I re-sprayed the dome with more Voodoo water. --- Once her leaves fully uncurl, I'll remove the dome. --- What a great way to start the day! --- I'll check on them again later tonight! - [2030]: Wow! she seems to have fully sprouted! --- But her leaves look a bit yellow. --- Hopefully they green up a bit after a full day under the light. --- Tent temps were at 72°F --- Dome temps were at 74°F at 91% RH --- Since I'm not going to feed her any grow nutes until she sprouts 2 sets of true leaves, I mixed up some fresh Voodoo water. --- Filled a measuring cup with a cup of water. --- Added 1mL of Voodoo Juice --- PH'd the water down to 4.9 --- Poured the solution into a spray bottle and lightly sprayed the cubes. --- Now that both cotyledon leaves are fully sprouted, I also removed the dome. --- Still going to leaving the un-sprouted cubes in the tray. Still hopeful that cube 3 will sprout, but I'm perfectly fine with cube 2. --- Tray temps dropped to 72°F at 75% RH --- Going to check in the morning to see what everything stabilizes at. Day 03 - Wednesday - 11/25/20 - Total Days: 054 ----------------------------------- - [0930]: Good morning little one! --- Tent temps were at 70°F --- Tray temps were at 71°F at 52% RH --- She's looking a lot greener! Great! --- Oh nice! --- Checked the bottom of the cube and she already has a tap root shooting out the bottom! --- I also noticed that the seed was just barely visible at the base. So using a pair of tweezers, I carefully removed it. --- Anyways, transplanting her tonight! --- I did not expect her root to develop that quickly! - [0940]: To prep for tonight's transplant, going to sterilize everything with UC roots. --- I re-attached the air stones and placed them into the bucket. --- Filled the bucket with 4gal of distilled water. --- Added 120mL of UC Roots - [0945]: Plugged in the air pump. --- I decided to block off the top two row of holes in the net basket. To do this, I used a few strips of aluminum tape. I hope this will eliminate the need to cover the top with foil. --- Then I place the net basket into the bucket to sterilize in the UC Roots solution. --- Since the hydroton was previously boiled and dried, I opted to not boil them again and just soak everything in UC Roots. --- To do this, I filled another bucket with the hydroton clay pebbles. --- I filled a gallon jug with distilled water and poured in about half. This was just enough to fully soak the pebbles. --- Added 30mL of UC Roots --- Then poured in the rest of the gallon of distilled water. - [0955]: Going to let everything soak for the day and will begin the transplant tonight! --- Being about 5 days since she was planted, she's taken the longest to sprout out of all of my previous seedlings. But that is perfectly okay with me! My little runt! --- But because she was such a late bloomer, I'm a bit concern for her health. --- So I think during pre-veg (after transplanting), I'm going to be feeding her a bit of CaliMagic and Voodoo Juice. --- My logic is that since I'm using distilled water with very low PPMs (10-15 PPMs), I'll add just enough CalMag to reach about the same consistency of ideal tap water. According to ILGM, the best water is soft water and has a PPM of 100-150. So going to shoot for these readings with a PH of around 5.5-5.8 for optimal nutrient uptake. During my last attempt, I had the PPMs at around 300 so I'll use that as an absolute maximum. --- I'll begin with AN's recommended feeding as soon as she sprouts her first two sets of true leaves, --- Extremely stoked for tonight! --- Keep on growing girl! - [2020]: Okay time to prep for the transplant! --- Filled a measuring cup with 2 cups of distilled water. --- Added 2mL of Voodoo Juice --- Added 1mL of Hydroguard --- PH'd the solution down to 5.2 -[2030]: Time to inoculate the hydroton! --- Poured the hydroton into a strainer but did not rinse. --- I poured about half the Voodoo solution over the freshly drained hydroton. Going to re-inoculate with the rest of the solution right before transplant. --- I unplugged the heat mat and removed the table and tray from the tent. --- Unfortunately had to toss out the un-sprouted cubes. RIP. --- I unplugged the air pump and disconnected the air lines from the bucket. I did not remove the air stones. --- I removed the net basket and drained the bucket. Again, I did not rinse. - [2045]: I filled the bucket with 3 gallons of distilled water, reconnected the air lines, and turned the pump on. --- Starting PH was at 5.9 --- Starting PPMs were at 10 --- Added 15mL of Voodoo Juice (11 PPMs) --- Added 8mL of Hydroguard (11 PPMs) --- Added 5mL of CaliMagic (164 PPMs) --- PH'd down to 4.9 (a bit low right now, but will go up as it stabilizes) --- PPMs stabilized at 163 - [2100]: TRANSPLANT TIME! --- Covered the bucket with the net pot and checked the water level. --- The water was at least 2-3" from the bottom of the net basket. --- I re-inoculated the hydroton with the rest of the Voodoo solution from earlier. --- Then added just enough hydroton to fill up the bottom two rows of the net pot. --- I removed her from the tray and removed the plastic wrapper from the cube. Wow! Her root nearly doubled since I last checked. Nice! --- I carefully placed her in the center of the net basket. --- Then very carefully, I added more hydroton to fill around the cube. --- After that, I continued to add more hydroton to cover the top of the cube. -[2115]: Transplant done! --- Did not top feed this time. I'll top feed her tomorrow night. --- Since she's in the bucket and on the floor, her distance from the light is about 55" --- Temps were holding steady at 72°F with 58% RH. --- The light is also still set to an 18/6 cycle (lights off between 10am-4pm). - [2130]: Checked the net basket for light leaks. Everything looked pretty good! --- Blocking off the top two rows with tape seemed to have fixed the issue I was having with light leaking through the basket. So no need to cover with foil this time! --- I did not recheck PPMs. --- But I did recheck the PH and as expected, it stabilized at a perfect 5.5 --- As far as seedlings, she is definitely the smallest one I've transplanted, but based on her root growth over the past day, I'm hopeful that she'll grow up nice and strong! --- Going to check on her again in the morning. --- Please grow well girl! Day 04 - Thursday - 11/26/20 - Total Days: 055 ----------------------------------- - [0915]: Good morning! --- Did a quick visual check. --- Temps were at 70°F at 74% RH --- I'll check the solution later tonight. - [1700]: Checked up on the little runt! --- Nice! Everything is looking pretty good! --- Temps were at 71°F at 78% RH --- Placed her in a separate bucket before checking the bucket solution. --- PH was still at 5.5 --- PPMs were also unchanged at 163 --- Top fed 10mL before returning her back to the bucket. --- She looks really tiny in the basket. But just going to let her keep growing and will check again tomorrow morning. - [2000]: Decided to add a bit of Rhino Skin to the bucket. --- Placed her in a separate bucket before checking the bucket solution. --- PH was at 5.2 (Not sure why it dropped, but still okay) --- PPMs were still at 163 --- Added 15mL of Rhino Skin --- PH went up to 5.4 --- PPMs went up to 180 --- Going to leave the PH alone for now. But if the PH does not rise above 5.5 by tomorrow night, I'll adjust it closer to 5.7 to ensure its at an optimal level. --- As for Monday's res change, I think I'll continue to add Rhino Skin for silica uptake. Because she so small, this should help strengthen and bulk up her stems. Also should make her more resistant to diseases. --- But still no grow nutes until her second set of leaves fully form. Day 05 - Friday - 11/27/20 - Total Days: 056 ----------------------------------- - [0930]: Did a quick visual check. --- Looking good! --- Temps were at 68°F at 72% RH --- Will check the PH and PPMs tonight. - [2130]: Looking a bit bigger and taller! --- Temps were at 70°F at 65% RH --- Placed her in a separate bucket before checking the bucket solution. --- PH was at 5.5 --- PPMs were at 165 --- Added bit of PH up --- PH was at a perfect 5.8 --- PPMs went up to 175 --- Top fed 10mL before returning her back to the bucket. --- Usually the PH drifts up so I'm really happy that things seem a lot more stable. --- The sterilization and presoak using UC Roots seemed to have fixed any drifts I was experiencing in the past. Great! --- I think I may use UC Roots to clean the bucket in between res changes. --- Anyways, keep on growing girl! Day 06 - Saturday - 11/28/20 - Total Days: 057 ----------------------------------- - [0745]: It's getting a bit colder. --- Did a quick visual check! --- Temps were at 67°F at 65% RH --- A bit cold, but still okay. --- If temps continue to drop, then I may have to raise the bucket closer to the light. - [2000]: Checked up on the little one! --- Temps were at 71°F at 61% RH --- Placed her in a separate bucket before checking the bucket solution. --- PH was at 5.8 --- PPMs were at 175 --- Top fed 10mL before returning her back to the bucket. --- She's looking a bit droopy. - [2100]: Placed her in a separate bucket before adjusting the bucket solution. --- Added 2mL of CaliMagic --- Added PH down/up (added bit too much PH down. Oops.) --- PH was at 5.7 --- PPMs were at 285 --- I also decided to lower the water level a bit. --- I removed about 8-9 cups of water (~2 liters). --- Hopefully she perks up a bit by morning. If not, I'll remove another 4 cups and recheck the solution. Day 07 - Sunday - 11/29/20 - Total Days: 058 ----------------------------------- - [0915]: Good morning! --- Still looking a bit wilted, but looking better than last night. --- Temps were at 68°F at 58% RH --- Okay going to lower the water level even more and check the runoff. --- Drain the bucket solution to just above the 2gal mark and checked the readings. --- PH was at 5.9 --- PPMs were at 296 --- Going to do one more check tonight. - [1930]: Okay! Checking up on the little one. --- Temps were at 72°F at 57% RH --- Looking really wilted. --- Oh damn! I see a tiny root! --- Placed her in a separate bucket before checking the bucket solution. --- PH was at 6.0 --- PPMs were at 282 --- Added a bit of PH down --- PH went down to 5.6 --- PPMs went up to 295 --- Did not top feed. --- Going to do a fresh res change tomorrow night, so I'll leave the PPMs alone for now. --- Since she only has her first set of true leaves, going to wait another week before feeding her grow nutes. But I do plan to increase the PPMs of CalMag. --- So for 2gal of water I plan to use: --- 16mL of Rhino Skin --- 16mL of Voodoo Juice --- 6mL of Hydroguard --- 6-8mL of CaliMagic --- Going for around 300-400 PPMs. --- Hoping that she can make it past pre-veg (her 2nd set of true leaves). According to AN, the seed should have enough food within itself to make it. But I'm not sure. --- Seeing the root already poking out does make things promising, But she is still really wilted. --- With the lowered water level (at the 2 gallon mark), the net basket should have enough of an air gap to prevent any over watering. --- Perhaps it's a lack of nutrients? --- So going to increase the PPMs of CaliMagic. --- Next week I'll contact AN for help if the wilting continues a day or two after the res change. - [2015]: Decided to increase the relative humidity (RH) a bit. --- Since I don't have a humidifier, I decided to use a makeshift humidity dome again. Basically I covered her with a clear glass bowl. The humid air being pushed through the hydroton from the air stones should increase the RH by quite a bit. --- So I did not fully cover the net basket (left about 3/4 opened). --- Going for an RH of around 75-90% --- I'll check the meters in the morning to see the difference in RH. Then I'll adjust the air gap accordingly. [END OF WEEK 08]