Quote:
Originally Posted by GpsFrontier
Hello ryeookin,
OK, That's a lot to read and try to figure out, so let me start with a few points, then ask some questions. First point is that bulb looks awfully close to the seedlings. Second if the rockwool is touching the water, it's likely waterlogged. Third, seedlings that small don't need much nutrients at all, and I don't understand how your mixing the nutrients. Can you give volume measurements? How many mL per gallon of water of each (gro-micro-bloom). You don't need a syringe, regular teaspoon's and tablespoons are fine. One teaspoon is 5mL, and one tablespoon is 15mL. Lastly, as I remember the so called "Kratky method" is nothing more than a water culture system without the air pump.
1. Is the rockwool cubes sitting in water?
2. How are you mixing the nutrients?
3. What is the water temperature (day and night)?
4. What is the air temperature at the plants leaves (day and night)?
5. What is the humidity near the plants leaves?
6. Is the top of the rockwool cubes more wet than just barley damp?
7. Without the cfl, how much light does the seedlings get?
8. Do you have something against using an air pump?
9. Have the roots begun growing out the bottom of the cubes /baskets yet?
10. What is the pH, and does it fluctuate a lot?
11. What is the chemical and mineral composition of the tap water your using? |
Firstly thanks for your reply GpsFrontier!
I'm sorry it's so long, I just wanted to make sure I added everything so it would be easier to diagnose. Looks like I missed some things though so again sorry as this is about to get even longer.
I'll answer your questions below in order:
1) They aren't sitting in the water. Their is a gap of a little less then an inch between the bottom of the netcups and the water surface. In the container that has a bubbler the top of the rockwool is wet to the touch though as the bubbles that hit the surface of the water splash water on the bottom of the netcup/rockwool. The other container (with no air pump) has more roots and they go down into the water and the part of their roots out of the water (between the water and netcup) grew small hairs on them which from what I've read are to absorb oxygen.
2) With the first 3 tests using the flora gro micro and bloom I would put a gallon of tap water in my container first (tap is around 6PH in my tests). Then I'd measure the nutrients I'd need from the gro and add it to a clean glass. I'd then fill the glass mostly with water (so its not so concentrated) and then pour it in to the container. Rinse and repeat for the other two, bloom and micro
nutrient solutions for each old protein container. I was doing it this way as I hear that mixing all the concentrated nutrients together in their concentrated form can cause some 'nutrient lockout' or some such. After that I'd top it off with tap water and then stir it with a plastic spatula.
For reference:
Gro label:
http://generalhydroponics.com/site/g...s/floragro.pdf
Bloom label:
http://generalhydroponics.com/site/g...florabloom.pdf
Micro label:
http://generalhydroponics.com/site/g...floramicro.pdf
As for the amount I added in test 1(per gallon):
gro 20ml
micro 10ml
bloom 15ml
The amount I added in test 2(per gallon):
gro 15ml
micro 10ml
bloom 5ml
The amount I added in test 3 (per gallon):
gro 15ml
micro 10ml
bloom 5ml
One of the containers in test 3 had no nutrient solution added, just tap water. This also died in roughly 2 weeks.
The amount I added in test 4 (per gallon):
Pureblend pro gro 15ml
Hmmm.... after looking things over, test 4 numbers above are a little high. That is the instructions say I should have used just 10ml and I used 15ml per gallon. Would the nutrient numbers I have listed in test 4 be enough to kill the plants in 2 weeks?
Pureblend progro nutrient reference:
http://www.botanicare.com/Assets/PDF...dSheet2014.pdf
Also this is the syringe I've been using:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...L._SL1500_.jpg
3/4) I looked and I don't have a thermometer that works at the moment (I have one but it apparently only works for taking peoples temperatures). The room they are in has an ambient temp that fluctuates between 72-74 degrees F.
5) I'm not sure I have something to measure this with at home. It's certainly less then it is outside. I've been keeping my AC on for the past 3 months so its not very humid compared to outside at least. Do you need a more specific unit of measure for this?
6) Yeah, the one with the air pump is soaked and the one with no air pump is dry.
7) Mostly only indirect sunlight. I have them placed in the sunniest spot of my windows but my condo windows don't get direct sunlight due to building positioning and outside trees.
8) No not really. I'm willing to try anything to get this to work right now. If it means air pumps, I'm cool with that (especially since I own one now). I just like the idea that the Kratky method was simpler tis all.
9) Yep, the roots they did most of their growing the first week into the second week then stalled. The one with the airstone seemed to get its root pushed back up to cling against the bottom of the net cup due to the surfacing bubbles which kept it wet (read not much root growth in this one). The one with no airstone had much more root growth with 3 roots growing down into the liquid about 3 inches deep.
10) The container with the airpump has a PH of 6.99(starting ph was 6.96). The container with no airpump has a PH of 7.15 (starting ph was 6.58). I'm not sure why the no airpump container has such a high ph. Maybe I didn't let it settle long enough or I needed to mix it longer after adding the phdown. As for how often it fluctuates, well I checked them the day I put them in and today (two weeks later). Do I need to measure it more often?
11) I haven't tested this personally but I found this from my water company:
http://www.amwater.com/ccr/delaware.pdf
http://www.amwater.com/twq/delaware_twq.pdf
Is that what you needed?
PS - Thank you for your time!