Alright it's time for a quick update...
Last Sunday (Sept 27th) the beans were directly sowed in 1.5'' x 1.5'' rockwool cubes. After three days there were 3/4 that surfaced, one of the Ethos Glue RBX2 was growing back into the rockwool so I gently guided the radical to the surface with a toothpick. After one week and seeing very little growth on the runt, another was sowed this past Sunday and she should be popping through the surface any day now.
Both Slurricane's have shown rapid root development and were transplanted into 6'' x 6'' delta blocks last night. The non-runt EG RBX2 hasn't shown any roots through the rockwool so until she does she'll remain in the 1.5'' x 1.5'' cube.
So last week I was also dealing with some nutrient / reservoir issues. Two days after filling the reservoir I noticed a bunch of lightweight, dark colored material floating around and coating the reservoir. I was puzzled about why this occurred and couldn't put my finger on what was causing it. My guess was the 2ML/Gal calimagic I was adding. So I drained the reservoir, cleaned it, cleaned all the tubing and lines, and filled it back up. I mixed a fresh batch of nutrients and two days later, same exact thing. So I drained the reservoir one more time, cleaned everything again, and filled it back up with water and mixed in nutrients again. This time no Calimagic was added. It's now been 5 days and the reservoir has remained crystal clear. Moving forward the Calimagic will be something I'll probably put in a foliar spray and mix up fresh each time.
Current reservoir settings: 25 gallons water | 45G Jacks 5-12-26 | 30G Cal-Nit | 15G Epsom | PH 5.8 | PPM 580 | Running Jacks 321 at 1/2 strength for the first 3-4 weeks.
Since this is my first run using rockwool only I've done a fair amount of research on prepping the rockwool for plants. Three days ago I filled a bucket with nutrient water and soaked the delta blocks thoroughly. Afterwards I placed the empty (wet) blocks on the table in the tent until the seedlings were ready for transplant. As mentioned above, the two Slurricanes were transplanted last night, but one rockwool cube still remains empty. I have a feeling the EG RBX2 will be ready today or tomorrow.
With the Slurricanes being transplanted into delta blocks last night, I'm waiting until later this week to do any watering. I read that it's recommended to wait several days after transplanting into a wet delta block to allow the roots to navigate and get their footing. I don't want to deprive the roots of oxygen by overwatering and the blocks seem to hold a ton of water, they get pretty heavy.
Last thing... the automated drain pump is legit. In the past when I've emptied a full res (20-30 gal) I've used a water pump to pump the water into 5 gallon buckets and hand pour them out into the laundry room sink. Last week when I had to empty/refill the reservoir twice (25 gallons each time), I testing out running the water pump directly to the drain reservoir that sits below the table instead of 5 gallon buckets. The result was flawless. The automated pump handled all the inbound water because the GPH is higher than the pump I was using to drain the reservoir into it. Long story short is this makes my life easier and saves my back too.
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