im starting a new grow soon, first i gotta clean up from the last grow, started the end of december finished in april. im going to have 2 plants starting out in 16 oz beer pong cups for 2-3 weeks then switch to a big 25 gal storage bin with the lid underneath for the runoff. im going to start off with about 5 gallons of soil and just cut the branches, while they are small, and add more soil. I figure this to take away transplant shock. Ill be using sunshine advanced mix 4 soil with Dutch Master A & B synthetic nutes and i have a 90 watt LED to veg with and both the LED and 600 Watt EYE Hortilux Super HPS Bulb for flowering. im using the AC from my bedroom to keep it cool and i have a 340 cfm fan exhausting air from the room. i water by hand out of a 5 gallon water jug, all i do is stick a hose down there and siphon out the nutrient rich water. even tho there is a lot of time doing this, i think its worth watering by hand. but hey i just like being around them.

I think that you will find the adding soil thing to be counterproductive. If you are planning to grow in a bed start in your can then graduate to a coffee can then place them in the bed with all of the soil already added.
By the way, I am moving this thread as it was in the hydro forum and is not about hydro at all.

i was trying to avoid transplanting shock for less stress to bother the plant, and i use hydroponic nutrients, but it doesnt matter right now anymore... i have four fem seeds, i got for free with my power plants, and none have germinated. its been five days and one looked like it was popping then the next eight hours it just closed back up. does this sound like there was too much water present?

Do what Rebel is telling you and don't start them off in a bed. Allow them to get well established and a good amount of roots before you put them in the bed. Here's a link to some beds that cali budz did on here awhile back. Long ass thread but I found where it starts with an empty bed on 8-2, shows the plants lollipopped on 7-29 from the underside and he shows them planted on 8-3 but check it out when you can cuz he's a good grower


http://forums.cannabisculture.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1700821&page=4

Listen to the nice men Muncheese (still love that nick ), they are spot on.

In my humble opinion the whole 'transplant shock' thing is way over-hyped! I've been moving my stuff at least three times (from pot to pot to pot) with no problems at all. Some people trim excess roots between transfers!

The 'free' seeds are likely old stock.. you get what you pay for.

i wanna try using the big container from start. it cant be too harmful, since this is what mother nature does. if you think i will waste too much nutes, i dont think that will be a problem. as long as i water by hand just where its needed and use plain water around where it is needed, for moisture. i like a slow grow, im in no rush. and thanks mclovin that link was cool im still reading it. and thanks doobie i like the name too. also i have had problems transplanting from 3 gallon containers to 5 gallon containers. its difficult to get them out of the 3 gal container, and thats why i wanna try to avoid the whole thing. but it could just be my containers. its a pretty flimsy, black plastic container u would probably see on a plant at a plant store. my room looks nice i think i might take a few pics and show them in here tmrw. but its a no go on the grow, i need money to buy more seeds. i think if i do buy more i will get a mother plant going

you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink