Newbie here saying hello

[GpsFrontier]

Hello newhydro16,
Don't worry about it, it's very easy. Most people do so much research they over think everything, but it's not complicated at all. First don't worry about PPM/EC/TDS or buying a meter to measure it. You don't even need a meter to measure pH. You do need to measure pH, but all you need is pH drops. In fact not only are the pH drops much cheaper, but more accurate as well. Electric meters can give false readings, but pH drops never will.

As for measuring PPM/EC/TDS, you don't need to. It's very easy to know what your nutrient strength is by fallowing the nutrient manufactures mixing directions. Nutrient manufactures will give directions on how much to use per gallon of water. That amount is for full strength nutrients. From their you can use it full strength or easily dilute as needed. Seedlings don't need nutrients at all until they develop their first set of true leaves. Once they do the nutrients should only be mixed to between 10% and 25% strength. Then when they get a little bigger increase it to 25% to 50% strength. Then once thy start to really start growing increase it to 50% to 80%-100% strength. No measuring of PPM/EC/TDS needed.

Most lettuce plants are a light feeder, so I wouldn't give them more than 75%-80% strength. Even though you don't need to measure PPM/EC/TDS, the PPM/EC/TDS charts can come in handy to determine if the plants you want to grow are heavy or light feeders, or somewhere in between. By comparing the PPM/EC/TDS values of plants that like higher nutrient strength, and those that like it on the lower end, you can easily determine if your plants are heavy or light feeders, or somewhere in between. Thus decide whether you should mix your nutrients full strength for heaver feeders, or on the light side for light feeders.

Now with that said and at the risk of making it more complicated for you, the water volume of your reservoir is important too. The bigger the plants get the more water volume they need as well. Mainly because bigger plants consume more nutrients, thus will deplete the nutrients in that water faster. The more water volume there is, the slower the plants deplete the nutrient levels in that water. That will affect how often you would need to change the nutrient solution to maintain a complete balanced nutrient. I wrote this article to help explain these factors. What size reservoir do I need

P.S.
While you may get varying opinions, don't worry about asking to many questions, that's what forums are for.

[newhydro16]

Thanks for all the advice.
Hope I didn't goof up, as my lettuce that are started in the tank are not seedlings but 2- 3 inches tall, and Ive started then in 100% solution.
Do you think they will be ok?
Its 10 gal. tank, with 8 plants.
They look ok so far, but its only day four.
Also, after I test ph, Ive been pouring the little vial with test solution back in tank, is that ok, or should I toss it?

[newhydro16]

Also, Should there be a lot of bubbles from air pump under each plant, or does a few suffice?
Have Eco Air2 pump (126) minute, and three small air stones. About half the plants seem to be getting more bubbles then the others. I started with two stones and it seemed like there were more bubbles all around. Should I go back to just two?
Thank you, much appreciated.

[newhydro16]

And while I'm pestering you. I didn't reailize I was supposed to rinse clay balls that are in pots. Wii it be ok, only the bottom few are wet. Thank you.

[GpsFrontier]

Hello newhydro16,

Hope I didn't goof up, as my lettuce that are started in the tank are not seedlings but 2- 3 inches tall, and Ive started then in 100% solution.
Do you think they will be ok?

I probably wouldn't want it to be more than 50% strength at that point, but if you don't see any negative effects like the leaves yellowing, burning tips, or burning roots etc. they should be OK.

Its 10 gal. tank, with 8 plants.

That's a good water volume for 8 lettuce plants, even 1 gallon per plant would be good.

They look ok so far, but its only day four.

I would start seedlings in a prorogation system before transplanting them into the main system. It's a waste of nutrients, water, and space to start them in the main system. As an example, eight 2-3 inch seedlings don't need 10 gallons of water/nutrient solution. 1/2 gallon is more than enough for 8 seedlings that size. A prorogation system doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. It can be very simple. In fact I made one out of nothing but a used margarine container. I attached pictures of it. I just cut holes in the lid to stick the rockwool cubes in, put a little nutrient solution in it. Then just shook it a couple times a day to slosh the water around to wet the cubes. I also often just use a similar container but with holes in the bottom and using coco fiber as the growing media and just hand water it once or twice a day.

Also, after I test ph, Ive been pouring the little vial with test solution back in tank, is that ok, or should I toss it?

I would toss it. It doesn't serve any benefit to put it back in. That tiny amount of water volume won't make a bit of difference. I have never put it back in, and I haven't heard of anyone else doing that either. Honestly I don't know if doing so would eventually cause problems or not. I know it won't affect pH, but don't know if it would have any effect on the nutrients or not. But even if not, those few drops of water won't affect your water volume one bit to toss it out.

Also, Should there be a lot of bubbles from air pump under each plant, or does a few suffice? Have Eco Air2 pump (126) minute, and three small air stones. About half the plants seem to be getting more bubbles then the others. I started with two stones and it seemed like there were more bubbles all around. Should I go back to just two?

The general rule of thumb is the more air bubbles the better. It should look like boiling water at a heavy roiling boil. It's best if the air bubbles rise up right underneath the plants so the air bubbles make contact with the plants submerged roots. With that said, I have been able to grow good plants with far less air bubbles when my air pump wasn't working well and only put out half the that that it should. While the lettuce plants did well they would have done much better with more air bubbles. Here is a link to the system I was talking about Forth System. Here's a link to some pictures of how the air bubbles should look.

Water Culture system air bubbles
Water Culture system air bubbles
Water Culture system air bubbles

I didn't reailize I was supposed to rinse clay balls that are in pots. Wii it be ok, only the bottom few are wet.

Rinsing the clay balls gets the clay dust off of them. The clay dust won't hurt anything, but may result in residue at the bottom of the reservoir. You can still rinse them if you want to. Just take the baskets out and dunk them in a bucket of plain water a few times. That should be enough to get the dust off. Just make sure you cover the top of the baskets with your hand to keep the clay balls from floating as you dunk the baskets.

[newhydro16]

GPS, Thanks for the great info. From what I can see you seem to be the go to guy here.
The plants look ok, and most of the roots seem to be growing.
The seeds were actually started in soil, and roots rinsed before putting in pots.
Ive since bought Rapid Rooter plant starter kit for my next batch. do you think that this product works well?
I will toss the ph liquid from now on. Great pics of everything, thank you.

[GpsFrontier]

Hello newhydro16,
I've been using this forum since back in 2009 when I first started growing plants hydroponically myself. There are some other members that help answer questions, but I don't think they check the forum regularly. I try and check it at least once a day for new posts, so I wind up feeding most of the questions. I try and help people as much as I can.

Ive since bought Rapid Rooter plant starter kit for my next batch. do you think that this product works well?

I haven't used the rapid rooter plugs myself, but their similar to the jiffy pot plugs. The rapid rooter plugs claim to provide better aeration to the roots, but their still very easy to water log. Many people have issues with them becoming to waterlogged. So if you use them make sure you don't over saturate them. You only need them damp, not dripping wet. If they drip out water when you pick them up or slightly squeeze them, their to wet.


I personally prefer to use coco fiber to start seeds in. I just take two short used plastic whip cream (or butter) containers I cleaned out. Make a bunch of small holes in one of them. Put some damp coco fiber in it, and pack it down like potting soil, put my seeds in and cover them with another 1/4 to 1/2 inches more of coco fiber. Fill the other one with water and gently sit the one with the coco fiber and seeds in it. This gently waters/soakes it from the bottom. I let it completely saturate for a few minutes, then take it out and drain.

Once it's drained, I place it right back into the container I used to water it. This time it's empty, this keeps it from dripping on the floor in the house or anywhere I set it down. I'll hand water it like this once or twice a day. When the seedlings sprout and start growing their first true leaves, I'll use a very diluted nutrient solution. I'll mix up one gallon of full strength nutrient solution and keep it in a water bottle. Then just pour in a small amount in the container and dilute it with plain water when I water the plants. I don't even measure it I just eye ball it (10%-25% dilution rate etc.).

I don't even check pH because it's to small of an amount of water at this point. I'll check and adjust pH for the gallon of nutrient solution, but when you you dilute it by adding 75% to 90% more water in the container when you water the plants, that can change the pH depending on the pH of the water source. That's to small of an amount of water to check and adjust, especially to much work to do it every time so I don't bother. If you really wanted to you could get another gallon container for just plain water and pH adjust that water to use to dilute it with. But I rarely ever bother doing that.

[newhydro16]

GPS,
Thank you, and for the pictures. Ill keep the coco fiber in mind after Ive tried the rapid rooter plugs.Ill see how I make out with them. How high should my lights be from the lettuce? I'm using the square colored leds. Currently have them about 10 inches from them.
PH has been around 6, but while I'm only on day six, I'm not seeing the growth that people claim they have in such a short time.
Plants look ok, I'm wondering if I'm getting enough air bubbles, some of the plants aren't getting a lot. Would I be better with my pump which has two outlets, run the lines into one and just have one stone, currently have one line teed off in the tank, so there are three stones, but I'm wondering if these stones I got,(cheap, ebay) are not the best.
Really appreciate you getting back to me. Thanks again