"aeroponics" NFT system with scrog?

Discussion in 'Aeroponics' started by Hortila, Mar 28, 2012.

  1. What up GC, I've been doing loads of research here for a few months and have been trying to figure out my method of grow. I'm set on a diy hydro system. After looking at rumpleforeskims stickies and grow I've been motivated to do a scrog grow. I was thinking of going dwc but realized it's gonna be $60/bucket as stated in his thread.

    Now I've never grown and was always told that "aeroponics" NFT can be a lot for a first timer to taken on. After doing some reading here it doesn't seem all that bad.

    Now on to my main question, has anybody done an "aeroponics" NFT scrog? And I mean a true scrog with the training of the branches under the screen. I notice most ppl put up screen or mesh with there NFT grow but use it only for support. I seen a video on here of a blue northern lights that got out of hand and toppled over on the poor guy. He was also growing violator kush and something else. That's when I thought of this idea.

    So does anybody think it's possible and has anybody done it? The main reason I like scrog is the even canopy and the plants seem to flourish with a good bit of stress.

    Thanks for reading!
     
  2. just do a bubble ponic / scrog . so easy you will lok like an expert first time round .L.C
     
  3. Thanks L.C. for reading, I was fully set in doing a dwc bubble bucket scrog after looking at rumpleforeskins grow but I'm thinking it will be pretty costly making 25 buckets. I'm really not all that concerned with the cash spent bc it's an investment, more worried about the space it will take up.

    I've been approved for 30 plants and want to keep 5 mothers so 5 diff strains equaling 25 in flower perpetually. I've been messing around in CAD trying to design the best set up for a room measuring 8'-2" x 11'-11" and still giving the girls 1sqr foot to grow.

    If anybody would like to give me suggestions on room set up I'd be more then grateful. I will upload a few pdfs of what I've been brain storming some time soon. Thnx!
     
  4. How do you figure $60/ bucket ? If diy you can get buckets for free if you search old shops or even off a painter but im sure you can find 5 gal buckets for under $5 . I paid approx $5 for my top quality buckets plus some 13mm hose and some 4mm hose plus water pumps for $15 and air pumps for $15 . It dose add up but more like $20 per bucket with pumps and hose and fittings included . The $60 your talking about must be from a hydro shop all complete yeah? Its important to do a diy with this set up so you dont over pay .L.C
     
  5. L.C. thanks again for the info, I definitely plan on diy for almost everything I can possibly do. I got that number from rumpleforeskins FAQ thread, someone sapposably added up all his quoted parts and materials after they set it up to be roughly $60. Did you follow a diy thread for your set up? I'm still very much in the air with what I'll use, either dwc bubbler, NFT or ebb and flow table. I just want to utilize the room best I can and get the highest yield/plant possible. I even saw a site that sells a bubble bucket for $30 complete but i'd prefer to build myself. http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-Bubble-Boy-Single-Shot-DWC.asp

    I've got to get on the laptop and have a look at your set up, room dims and total plants in flower. I've got some time til health Canada give me the go ahead.
     
  6. Ok so I've done some designing and configured the probable design of the room I will be building. Nothing in depth yet just basic layout. Only issue now that just dawned on me is that I've been designing the room with only giving the plants 1 sq foot of growth space. I'm really wanting to yield big and not sog. I will upload what I've come up with but I now have to go back to the drawing board. Of the 5 I like design 1 the best....for now.
     

    Attached Files:

  7. Check out my video of my Aero/Scrog grow....All of the plants haven't reached the net in this video but in a few more days I will have the screen damn near full of tops with a new video to look at. I've seen some smaller nets used for scrogs but I don't want popcorn bud colas so I went with a larger opening. Hope this helps!

    [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QHd-gbyDjs]Aero grow day 31 - YouTube[/ame]
     
  8. Dubshepp thanks for stopping by and posting I really appreciate the link, had a look and I'm liking your custom set up! It looks really good and I've got a few questions for you.

    First did you follow any how to diy plans for your nft set up? I like how clean it looks nice set up! Also how many plants you running in the system and how far apart are they from each other? What's the dimensions of the room and your nft system? Lastly how high up is your net, whats the watts and do you have a grow journal running on this grow? Lol thinks that's it, sorry for all the questions.

    Keep me posted, I'm interested on how you're grow turns out!
     
  9. I basically did as much research on aeroponics as I could and came up with a system that kept me in compliance with our state laws while trying to maximize yield out of grow space..

    This current aeroponics system I built holds 14-sites in a 4-3-4-3 pattern to create somewhat of a crop circle under the SCROG. They are all spaced 2FT apart in each column and 18inches across from each other...

    This room is a 11x10ft space and the system is an 8x8 setup which leaves us the room along the sides and so forth..

    Our net is 2ft high from its pvc T. So at 20 inches we started our flowering cycle and these girls have started filling the net already a week in..

    We are using 2-1000w HPS lights right now and the only type of grow journal you might find will be on my youtube channel for the rest of this grow.

    So ya anything else you need help with getting started if you are thinking aero route I'd be glad to help!!

    Or if you are just interested in watching me grow aero subscribe up and wait until you see my future setup...It's going to be quite the challenge!
     
  10. Nice nice! Thanks for the quick response, I'll deff subscribe to your channel one the tube. Had a quick look and noticed you're running the sprayers trough the black tubes. Looks real nice though, I've also been doing major research and was thinking of building stinkbuds' aero system. Did you follow any online plans I could look at?

    I'll draft your set up on the computer, I like the space your giving the girls. Have you yielded anything with this current set up our is this your first go around?

    As of now I'm approved for 20 girls and possibly 30 in the future. In the end I'd like to have 25 in flower and 5 moms so I'm still trying to figure out how to fit this all in a room 8.5'w X 12'. Thanks again Dubshepp!
     
  11. Ya no problem just around surfing the web this afternoon!

    I actually watched this video of an impersonation of Stinkbuds Aero system
    [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BzsgdyxboI]The Perfect Indoor Cannabis Aeroponic Stinkbuds DIY project. ( Harvests every 8 weeks) - YouTube[/ame]

    That is what got me interested and made me design my own with the SCROG and crop circle type spacing ...

    Also you noticed I ran funny tubing from 4-drippers to have a mister on each side of the pots....Stinkbuds used pvc inside and misters attached..This was just another example of me seeing someone's system and making improvements to it.

    This is my first attempt at aeroponics and this strain so everyday is brand new to me. All you can do is research as much as possible and just go from there...I noticed myself there isn't much information to dig up on Aeroponics as is Hydro/Soil...So I'm kind of doing my own thing here on out.
     
  12. Tight.....way to go so far with what you've got going! This will be my first grow ever and I'm still looking into everything. Ebb & grow, dwc and aero are all still on my list, diy and scrog of course. Any reason you went with the drip line sprayer instead of the stinkbud sprayer? Thanks!
     
  13. #14 theVirtuoso, Apr 14, 2012
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 14, 2012
    I'm that guy! :D

    It really was a shame - lost a lot of yield because of that, but the stuff I did save was some of the best smoke I've ever had :smoke: (you can see a few pics in my sig link)

    It was meant to be a SOG grow, however the plants revegged on me and I waited until they put out normal growth again to flower them out so they got much too large for their container... the reveg caused for endless branches - far too many for the setup I had.

    What I'm using now is a "fake aeroponic" NFT rig... really it's just an NFT setup, but has sprayers throughout the grow chamber like "fake aeroponics" setups have. A true aeroponic setup would be more difficult to get feeding down. Here's a thread on true aeroponics (http://forum.grasscity.com/aeroponics/480651-true-aeroponics.html).


    I built my setup around having little maintenance and as little veg time as possible, but obviously you can run less plants with veg times.

    They're awesome rigs! I've been really impressed with the growth in these things, although the make some noise from the water draining into the res, especially at first as the roots are still filling up the chambers. Also, they're not exactly cheaper than buckets. Any hydroponic system does have an initial investment when built properly, but it saves money over time.

    I've noticed the plants prefer lower ppms in these compared to the bubble buckets I had, and using a smaller reservoir, you do have to watch over ppms, so res changes during the grow are essential to keeping the plants healthy.

    What I'm running now is a SOG with 24 plants total (two 12 plant systems) under a 600w. I still need a better reflector, better lighting for my clones, and most importantly better strains for this setup, but the ease of yield potential is great and the plants have been incredibly easy to maintain. I'm still in a transitional period as I get used to the new system and running new strains, but I'm glad I've made the switch from bubble buckets. Even with all the kinks, from one system (so half the room), I pulled ~6.5-7oz from lower yielding stuff. Once I'm running the right strains for my setup I'll have no trouble pulling 1lb+ under the 600w (8oz+ every 6 weeks).

    My biggest problem I had with bubble buckets is the plants would get too large to maintain the reservoir, and I didn't like recirculating reservoirs as the water didn't exchange quickly enough so monitoring pH took longer than it needed to.

    With the setup I built the plants are easy to scrog. I just simply added supports that I could put a wire across, but you could easily put a screen across - and it's height is easily adjustable. You would have to stay on top of things, though, because the plants grow into monsters real quick in any hydro setup. I've noticed even quicker growth in these than I had in bubble buckets, which is pretty impressive.


    Here's a look at how my rig is built to give you an idea...
    Design -
    http://forum.grasscity.com/hydropon...-perpetual-bb-t5-600w-hps-5.html#post13285306

    Building -
    http://forum.grasscity.com/hydropon...-perpetual-bb-t5-600w-hps-6.html#post13401265
    http://forum.grasscity.com/hydropon...-perpetual-bb-t5-600w-hps-6.html#post13410191
    http://forum.grasscity.com/hydropon...-perpetual-bb-t5-600w-hps-6.html#post13417663
    http://forum.grasscity.com/hydropon...-perpetual-bb-t5-600w-hps-6.html#post13417721
     

  14. You must of been all like, ah....that sounds familiar! Must have been a bit of a trip while reading! LOL Your the reason for this thread dude! I was looking at your design and then issue with those big beautiful beasts that got out of hand and had to ask the question! Thanks!


    The salvaged buds do look tasty and mouth watering! :eek: Good thing you got something out of your hard work!


    I remember coming across your thread a while back and had a look at this link. Great read! The reason why I put "aeroponics" in quotations.....I know now its not lagit


    I plan on growing big.....allowing the girls to produce larger so I'm leaning towards Dubshepp's design giving the girls more space, making the unit larger but I may just be able to squeeze it in the planed future room.


    In regards to the noise your getting take a look at Dubshepp's rig.....I'm guessing the horizontal pvc pipe he has in front of his rig not only makes it easy for his addition of nutes but also silences the sounds of the water falling.


    I totally agree with you on this note.....I have no issues on making the investment if of course it gives back. I've seen time and time again on this site aero produces!


    Thats a great tip and thank you for that!


    That alone is impressive from what you had to deal with and I wish you luck on your goal, I'd say that's very possible!

    My biggest problem I had with bubble buckets is the plants would get too large to maintain the reservoir, and I didn't like recirculating reservoirs as the water didn't exchange quickly enough so monitoring pH took longer than it needed to.


    I like how that sounds and cant wait!


    Thanks for the link....I did have a look at it a while back and after seeing your setup it made me feel competent enough to build this type of system! Thanks for that!

    This is what I love about this site, being able to pick the brains of all home grows.....It truly is amazing!

    Cheers Vert!
     

  15. Thanks for the link, I'm almost positive I've come across that link before....I'm really liking your rig thou. Too bad you didn't document the build. I've got a question about what type of pump your using to feed all the tubing with the sprayers and how the water returns to the rez. Is it just gravity pushing the water back? I'll have to go back and take a look at your youtube vids!

    Thanks for posting thou!
     
  16. Well my pump is your typical pond pump ... I happen to be using a 2000GPH which goes into my 1 inch pvc, to a 4-headed dripper, and then funny tubing into the misters. The back legs of the frame were raised 2 inches higher than the front to create our constant flow back to the reservoir. On the newest video you can see where we made a cutout to add water to the system...Before we were having to turn the pump off and pull the tub out. So basically all 4 columns run off into the last column which has a cutout in the middle over our reservoir and starts its pumping process all over again..
     
  17. I'm glad I could help :)

    and I agree, I love the wealth of knowledge and chill people (depending on which forums ya go to haha) on here. :smoke:



    The posts used for the grow chamber have a very slight incline so that both the water and roots follow gravity towards the res.

    I'm not sure if you've seen it, but I figured I'd post up stinkbuddies' site for anyone who may read this thread: StinkBuddies.com

    They have pics and all the plans for building their system. That's where I originally got my design from, but I wanted all the roots and such contained within the system as well as easier access to monitoring the reservoir as their system has a bit of stuff in the way. I also decided I wouldn't need as much plant supports as they had.

    If you want to grow larger plants in the system, you just have to have more space between the net pots. I went with 12 because I like the idea of high-density sog's easy yield, but I could also run less plants if need be.
     
  18. [quote name='"dubshepp"']Well my pump is your typical pond pump ... I happen to be using a 2000GPH which goes into my 1 inch pvc, to a 4-headed dripper, and then funny tubing into the misters. The back legs of the frame were raised 2 inches higher than the front to create our constant flow back to the reservoir. On the newest video you can see where we made a cutout to add water to the system...Before we were having to turn the pump off and pull the tub out. So basically all 4 columns run off into the last column which has a cutout in the middle over our reservoir and starts its pumping process all over again..[/quote]

    Yeah I noticed the new vid with the slot. I actually posted above to have Virt take a look at it. I like the idea and will be doing that for sure! Thanks for that!
     

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