Get a harvest every 2 weeks

[Al B. Fuct]

I've been thrashing the same 130 or so 175mm pots in my system for about 7-8 years now. Many are cracked or otherwise damaged. Bought them so long ago that the place I last got them from has gone out of biz.

Could not find plain old black 175mm plastic pots to save my life at Bunnies, dollar shops, Kmart, not even at my local, usually-way-too-expensive-so-last-resort-only Flower Power shop.

Hit the web, found these guys:

http://www.gardencityplastics.com/

Whoomp, there it is. Every possible size and colour.

2 stacks of 70 black 175mm pots cost $63 cash money off their whse dock, $0.45 a pot, about 1/3 the price for near sized pots elsewhere. Bargain.

[VeoDigital]

Here I am again, pickin your brain....lol
One simple inquiry, how close is your 1000w light to the top colas of the plants in trays 3 & 4 now that the cooltubes are installed? Im getting mixed reviews on how close to keep a 1000w from the tops without causing any bleaching/harm to the plants. I was guessing by the pics 12"???? Hard to tell

[Al B. Fuct]

yes, about 350-400mm will do for 1000s in cooltubes.

[haggis123]

Hi Al....hope all is sweet.
Another "Q" if you don't mind about your Uvonair.
I have read that with the UV ozonators you are supposed to clean the bulb approximately once a month as all the dust and particles stick to the bulb....have you ever cleaned yours ?? If so...how do you get the bulb out ??

Best Wishes

Haggis

[Al B. Fuct]

Removing the lamp tube is a piece of cake. Remove the perforated black disc on the output end. The UV tube has 4 pins on one end rather than two on each end like typical fluoro lamp tubes. Pull gently on the white plastic cap on the output end of the UV fluoro tube. The tube will pop out of the socket.

However, getting the UV tube back IN the socket can be a pain. You may wind up disassembling the other end of the unit to plug the lamp back in the socket.

Blasting the thing out with compressed air, or, after removing the output end cap, working a very small bottle brush between the UV tube and the black plastic PVC tubular housing will allow you to get it clean enough.

I have an air compressor and dust them that way. One must use care not to overspeed the fan in the ozonator if blowing it out with compressed air. A few short bursts will do.

[haggis123]

Many thanks Al...very informative...

[VeoDigital]

Yea Al is the man for sure.

[dichev]

Can this sog work?
One mother plant, taking two clones every two weeks and then they are send in the 4 tray flowering room. And how much yeld should I get from one plant. Thanks in advance

[Al B. Fuct]

Originally Posted by dichev

Can this sog work?

Of course not, this is an elaborate hoax.

One mother plant, taking two clones every two weeks and then they are send in the 4 tray flowering room. And how much yeld should I get from one plant. Thanks in advance

You seem to have the basic idea. Please read the thread and all will be revealed.

[Merfolk]

You are truly a Inspiration im sure you have heard it all, but i will be trying your Style ( learning how to grow atm ) as soon as i get the basics down! and i can see if i want to manicure and trim a pound every 2 weeks, haaha!

I want to try ebb and flow, in fact i will be doing it, i just dont want to pay those hydro shops that kind of money -


2 Questions AL - And if there answered in this thread kindly ignore my questions =)
1. Off hand, do you know any DIY Ebb and flow for a nice size crop ?

2. The trays are going to be what cost the most in this system correct? Any leads on a cheap site that carrys trays?


Thanks fuct and smoke on@

[Al B. Fuct]

Originally Posted by Merfolk

You are truly a Inspiration im sure you have heard it all, but i will be trying your Style ( learning how to grow atm ) as soon as i get the basics down! and i can see if i want to manicure and trim a pound every 2 weeks, haaha!

I want to try ebb and flow, in fact i will be doing it, i just dont want to pay those hydro shops that kind of money -


2 Questions AL - And if there answered in this thread kindly ignore my questions =) (its alot to read! stopped at page 15! )

1. Off hand, do you know any DIY Ebb and flow for a nice size crop ?

2. The trays are going to be what cost the most in this system correct? Any leads on a cheap site that carrys trays?


Thanks fuct and smoke on@

The most expensive items will not be the trays, but rather the lighting and ventilation bits.

Moulded plastic flood trays are far superior to anything you can cook up at home.

I can't really offer you any assistance with finding a seller of the things, unless you're in Australia. I can get 3'x3' trays for about $AUD56.

Flood trays do OK shipped in bulk on pallets but do not ship well one at a time by courier- they tend to get cracked- mail ordering them is thus not recommended. Check your local hydro shops' prices and go pick them up yourself.

[turborunner]

I was thinking of doing a grow like this except using soil. I would also add a 400watter to have the clones veg under for 2 more weeks. what do you think the yield would look like under these circumstances?

[Al B. Fuct]

Originally Posted by turborunner

I was thinking of doing a grow like this except using soil. I would also add a 400watter to have the clones veg under for 2 more weeks. what do you think the yield would look like under these circumstances?

Probably less than if you didn't veg. Vegging clones on their way to the flowering area defeats one of the main purposes of SoG, which is to keep plants short. Veg 'em and they'll be up in the lights by end of wk 8.

I don't recommend soil at all. Heavy, messy, less productive than even flood hydro.

[lush1]

Al, what do you reckon to these lights instead of standard cooltubes:

http://www.wormsway.com/detail.asp?sku=UCX108

The situation would be to cool 2x600w lights in a small room.

The theory being that they have an 8" flange which could then be used in conjunction with an 8" fan to avoid having to use reducers etc.

They are also enormous (28"x24"). I'm thinking however that their size may be a disadvantage in that it would disrupt airflow considerably. This could be a problem if your only extraction for the room was sucking out through the lights. Am thinking that maybe any advantage gained by not having to use reducers would be countered by the fact that air has to suck through two of these beast-like hoods.

What do you think would be better,

A) daisysychain two of the above together,
B) daisychain two cooltubes with homemade reflectors (as you have done),
C) Use two of these with a central spigot (see below):



Cheers.

[Al B. Fuct]

Originally Posted by lush1

What do you think would be better,

A) daisysychain two of the above together,
B) daisychain two cooltubes with homemade reflectors (as you have done),
C) Use two of these with a central spigot (see below):

I'm not a fan of Euro hoods, which is basically what these hoods from Worm's Way are. They do not have an efficient reflector shape- much of the light is reflected straight back to the tube. A double parabola aka batwing is a much more efficient shape. All light reflected from a batwing is going to the plants, not back to the lamp's tube.

Further to that, the pictured hoods don't have both inlet and outlet flanges so you can run a closed air circuit. These will take their inlet air from the room's airmass. This will make temps less stable than cooltubes on a closed air circuit and you will have to treat the exhaust air for scent, while you would not have to do so if they were getting their cool air supply from outside the room's airmass.

Also, without both inlet and outlet flanges, you won't be able to daisy-chain or 'series' them. They will have to be run in parallel with a Y-pipe to the blower.

My last complaint is that warm air has to be drawn out of the hoods and run through the blower instead of the blower pushing cool air though them. This will unnecessarily expose the blower motor to heat from the lighting, potentially shortening its life significantly.

My reflectors are not homemade; they are Adjust-A-Wings, but the socket and movable lamp mount has been removed and replaced with cooltubes. I had the AAWs for several years before I put in the cooltubes, though. If I was going to start from scratch, I would have made my own reflectors. AAWs are not cheap and I'd have a hard time justifying buying a pair just to throw away half of the parts. It's very easy and much cheaper to make up a set of batwing reflectors on your own.

I was a bit iffy on how well 2x 1000W would work in seriesed cooltubes, so I did some testing in mockup on the garage floor before installing the cooltubes. I found the air temp output from 1x 1000 in a cooltube was about 6-7C higher than the intake air. With intake at 21C, the output from cooltube #1 was 27-28C. I didn't feel too bad about feeding 28C air into the second tube. Now that they are installed, with a couple of 90 deg bends in the ductwork, the output air from both cooltubes inline is about 34C.

So, my choice from your list is B.