PLEASE ONLY IF YOU SERIOUSLY KNOW WHAT YOUR TALKING ABOUT SHOULD YOU RESPOND... I HAVE A LOT OF TIME AND MONEY INVESTED AND AM ASKING VERY SPECIFIC QUESTIONS. THANKS FOR TAKING TIME TO READ...
Here are a series of questions I have that I am finding vague information regarding when searching for answers in the sources I have here at home. I really appreciate anything information wise you can throw my way. I know some questions you may not be able to find answers to or may be strand specific, but any information I can get will help a lot!
We bought our seeds online (un-feminized); 10 White Widow (Sativa/Indica blend) and 10 Northern Light (Indica). We germinated 6 of each strand in 12 rockwool plugs until they were mature enough to place inside bigger cubes.
The system we are using is the “Flood and Drain” simple hydroponic setup that holds 14 plants with a 600w HPS bulb. As stated earlier, the soiless medium we are using is “rockwool”.
The plants sat under the light for a 24/0 cycle during their vegetative state. At about 3 weeks of growth we realized that we had made a mistake in growing two different strands at once. The White Widow being a Sativa blend is growing to be an overall taller plant than the Northern Light is. Due to the space we had, we were required to induce the plants into flowering.
- What is the normal amount of time that a plant should stay in vegetative state (24/0 Cycle) with a hydroponic setup going from rooted clone to becoming being ready to flower (12/12 Cycle)?
- If the previous question is strand specific for the appropriate amount of time you should veg a crop, what signs should you look for that would tell you that the crop is ready to be sent into flowering?
My roommate has only ever grown in soil before and me learning everything for the first time I am just now starting to see if what we did was a good idea or not. The plants have already started to show whether they are male and female and it has only been 5 days. We’ve already pulled 4 males out of the 12 plants we’re growing. The 8 remaining plants haven’t quite shown enough to determine the sex, except for 2 which we think are female but could be hermaphrodites.
- Did we induce flowering too soon? Could that cause some of the plants to become hermaphroditic?
- What is the normal amount of time a plant should stay in flowering (12/12 Cycle)?
- If the previous question depends on the strand I am growing, how do you know through observing the plant when it is ready for harvest?
In the other room we have set up a T5 (6 Bulb) fluorescent light using the same flood and drain setup just a little bigger tray (3ft. x 3ft.), but the tray that the plants sit on is quite a bit shallower than the tray in the other room. Initially I was planning on using this room to veg the crop using the 24/0 cycle using clones cut from mother plants. The tray we have in the veg room under the T5 doesn’t fill up as much as the one that is under the HID light. It is a much shallower tray with the same size reservoir.
- If the clones (once rooted) are transferred to bigger rockwool cubes can they still sit in the shallower tray where the water reaches about halfway? (Compared to when they are in the flowering room where the water can reach ¾ of the way before it hits the drain). Should I get rid of the tray I bought for the veg room and get one that is consistent with the flowering system or does it not matter?
My roommate had a plant that he was growing in soil that we had sitting next to the plants we sent into flowering 5 days ago. We had to move the plant because we wanted it as a mother so we put it under the T5 fluorescent lights next to the tray like we had it sitting when it was under the HPS light. Our idea was that we would cut clones from it and use those when mature enough to send into flowering to the other room under the HPS light. The day the plant made the transition from the HID light to the T5 fluorescent lights we cut 6 clones from the plant, dipped them in water (the water had been set out for 3 days and we adjusted the pH to be around 6 & 6.5), then we dipped the plants in a powder rooting hormone and put them in the same type of rockwool inserts we germinated the seeds in.
Now we have 6 clones sitting in the tray under the 24/0 cycle fluorescent lighting with the main plant in the soil to the side under the same light. We aren’t flooding the tray to feed the clones; rather we mixed a diluted solution of food for the plant and let the rockwool soak up food/water mix when we see they are getting dry. The T5 light is sitting approximately 1 foot above clones while they try to take root and 2 inches above the mother. I was told that once the clones take root, to drop the light 2 inches above them like I already am doing with the mother.
Now the shitty part, both the clones sitting in the tray and the mother that is sitting to the side do not look good at all. The clones don’t seem to be taking root at all and the leaves are droopy and on some of the clones turning yellow. The mother plant is very droopy and has many yellow leaves as well. When the mother plant sitting in soil needed water for the first time we poured the same diluted plant food/water mix to feed her and have been feeding her regular regulated pH water there after.
- Should I have waited for the mother plant to adjust to the change in light going from HID to Fluorescent before taking a clone from it? Do you think maybe the plant is suffering from shock?
- What is the proper technique in transferring a plant from one light spectrum to another without causing shock damage?
- When taking clones should I put them in the cylindrical inserts with the slit in the side or should I just cut small blocks out of a slab of rockwool for my clones?
- Should I be using powder rooting hormone for hydroponics or should I us the gel rooting hormone when trying to root my clones?
- What growing conditions should clones be in while they are attempting to take root? How should I be feeding clones?
- Can I immediately start flooding once all of the clones have taken root?
Here is the dilemma I am facing right now… I wanted to take one plant from each strand (White Widow & Northern Light) that are currently in flowering (12/12 Cycle) once the sex is determined to be female and place it in the veg room (24/0 Cycle) and use them as mother plants. The problem we are facing is that I don’t know what kind of problems I could be facing by taking mature plants that are rooted in rockwool sitting under an HID light source and moving them under the T5 light.
- Will my plants revert back to vegging within a few days? What kind of problems am I up against?
- Should I continue to keep the plants in the rockwool cubes and put them in the T5’s tray letting them veg with the clones? The problem I see with that is my lighting situation… I don’t see how I would keep the light 2 inches from the clones with a 2-3 foot mature plant in the tray.
- Would it be smarter for me to take the two selected females I will be using as mothers and drop the rockwool into soil and let them grow through the rockwool into the soil or will that cause more problems with shocking the plant?
Instead of transferring two mothers to the vegging room, I have also thought that maybe I could just take clones off the plants that are flowering once I identify that they are female. I would only feel safe doing this if I actually know how to clone a plant and get it to take root. I could cut as many clones as I need putting most in the tray and a few in soil to grow mother plants from the clones.
- Is it smart for me to want to have my mother plants in soil or should I be keeping them consistent with hydroponics like the rest of my crop?
- Is it ok for me to take clones from a flowering plant and put them under a completely different spectrum of light while they take root and veg? Will they grow correctly when put under the T5 light with a 24/0 cycle even though they have for all their life been under the HID light source?
I have a veg room and a flowering room as stated earlier and I’m trying to figure out how to properly grow my plants through a smooth transition from rooting the clones, vegging the plant, then moving to flowering. I want to make sure I have a proper setup to ensure that once one thing is done, I can make the transition with the next set of plants with ease.
- Should I have a completely different setup for rooting my clones, vegging, and flowering? Or is a veg room and flowering room adequate enough for my intended purpose?
The setup I have is only temporary, I’m taking the next 4-5 months to learn and become acclimated to understanding hydroponics and growing. The system I’m using now I intend on changing dramatically when I am able to move to a house where I can dedicate an entire room to growing. Instead of T5 fluorescent lights for vegging and HPS lights for flowering, I hope to be using T5 fluorescent for rooting clones, metal halide for vegging crops, and high pressure sodium for flowering. I would love to hear any takes or suggestions on setups I could use when I have a full room to use as space. Like I said ideally I would be using a completely different setup, but while I learn I’m using what I have to work with. Thanks for taking the time to read this, any information at all will be helpful to helping me understand.
AS STATED WHEN I FIRST STARTED ON THIS... ONLY PEOPLE WHO GENUINELY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT SHOULD RESPOND. IF YOU ARE UNSURE AND STILL POST SOMETHING IN RESPONSE TO MY QUESTIONS LET ME KNOW THAT YOU ARE UNSURE SO I CAN DO SOME RESEARCH. AGAIN THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO READS THIS AND IS ABLE TO HELP. TAKE CARE!
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