Freskshow Hydro Grow (First Hydro Run)

Here we go again! 👍 Another Freakshow run, but this time it's going to be a little different. My goal here is to try my luck at hydroponics. My partner, who is the man who got me into this, does mainly organic mediums and I thought it would be nice for me to take a little corner out of the bedroom to run a small hydro set up. This set up is going to be very make-shift. Something anyone could do on a budget. I am using a small trash can from the Dollarama that I have cut a hole into the lid to fit my hydro basket, 1 regular fish air pump, and 1 three arm LED 75W light bulb purchased from Amazon. Nutrients are going to be mainly Root Farms Base Part 1 (1-5-7) & Root Farms Veggie Part 2 (4-0-1), along with additives of soluable seaweed, silica, thrive alive b-1 green, and plant-prod MJ Boost (15-30-15) I really wasn't happy with the way my other Freakshow diary panned out, and I am still in a "not-so-ideal" situation to be growing at my full potential, but I will make due with what I have, and I hope all of you who join along can enjoy it too! 💚 ***Jan 21 Picked 4 seeds that stood out the most for me, and let them sit overnight in a water solution with solvable seaweed (just a crumb worth). All seeds got engorged, but only 3 of them sank to the bottom of the jar by morning. ***Jan 22 Seeds now go in papertowel with the liquid they were soaking in. I will check back in on them tonight, but if I see no changes then I will update tomorrow! ***Jan 23 One seed has cracked! Going to the plant store later today to pick up a TDS/PPM meter to prepare my hydro bucket for when the tap root is ready. Also need to grab a rock wool cube and whatever else I'm missing for this grow. Only one seed cracked yet, but 2 others look hopeful, and 1 just looks the same. I am only looking for the fastest/strongest seed out of the bunch, so whichever decides to give me their tap root sooner, gets to be plugged in. I'll do another check later tonight and see if there are any more changes~ *Update Another seed cracked, and one looks like it has a crack line, the last one is dark and not showing any signs of opening. I managed to get the set up prepared, and rockwool soaking. Here is my hydro mix; 1 gallon of water (well water) 1tsp Root Farms Part 1 (4-0-1) 1tsp Riot Farms Veggie (1-5-7) 1tsp Plant Prod MJ Boost ( 15-30-15) 1tsp Technaflora MagiCal (2-0-0) PPM of well water read 400-500, total solution read at 2223ppm, added 2 more cups of water, PPM now reads as 2000, take the 500ppm away from the water, and I'm left with *about* 1500ppm. Water PH read 5.7 after adding everything, so no need for adjustment. I also soaked the rock wool cube with 2 cups water mixed with 1tsp soluable seaweed (it was very concentrated so I threw another 2 cups of clear water over it after) and now leaving it rest to absorb and drain any access water out. *Update 2 Darker seed that didn't look like anything was happening was actually the 3rd one to crack! ***Jan 24 Comparing the 2 seeds with the longest roots at the moment, and the one of the left seems a tad longer but thinner than the one on the right. I'll leave them go for now to see if one takes off more than the other. I added just a few drops of water to the paper towel, and will check in on them again tomorrow. 1 seed still no signs of anything, so I'm not worried about that one unless it explodes out of no where. ***Jan 25 Big difference since last night, they must have liked the water. Clear winner here, the one with the thicker root came out with fuzz on it, so I picked that one to put in the plug. The last seed also cracked, so 100% germination rate on these! Not sure what to do with the other 3 now, I hate throwing away good plants... maybe I will throw them all in a pot and give them to my partner to play with lol. Rockwool cube didn't drain as much as I wanted it too, so the bottom is literally soaked with seaweed water, the plant will just have to get past it I guess, I don't want to squeeze and ruin my cube, I will definitely not just dump water through the cube next time!! Now is the great wait, so I will check in with ya'll once I see some changes~ EXTRA UPDATES ***Jan 27 I took a little peek on how they're doing, and the shell casing as been removed, so I uncovered the rockwool a little bit so the leaves can see the light, it has been sitting under there for at least 24 hours with no help, but I don't want it to suffocate the leaves and rott on me, so I am just going to say that I opened the path for it to shoot up into the "sun". Looks great so far, I mean, it doesn't seem like my overly wet, overly seaweeded cube is making it upset in any way so far! 😂 ***Jan 30 Looking super good! Lifted the light up about an inch (it's reading at 195 ppfd) because it just looked like it wanted a little less light (I don't know how to explain thus, but a lot of my rhyme and reason while gardening is purely gut feeling, but it seems to work) Here's what happened: the leaves were opening up, then out of nowhere it looked like it reverted back closed a tad, I raised the lights, and now it's growing at a fantastic rate.