Materials needed 1. Black Plastic tub. $8.99 at target. I don't know how many gallons but it's measurements are 18" x 14" and 11" tall. You can use a 5 gallon bucket. I have kind of a height restriction in my cabinet so I needed to keep the rez as low as possible. Also, after you modify a 5 gallon bucket to DWC, it really only holds 3.5 - 4 gallons of your solution. This holds 6 gallons. It doesn't seem like that much of a diffrence now but when the plant gets big it will drink a ton. This just makes maintaining the rez easier.IMO. 2. Aquarium air pump. double outlet. $10 at wal-mart. 3. 4' Standard aquarium air line, 2 airstones, 2 .Plastic T-valves, 1 airline suction cup. $5 total also at wal-mart. 4. Net cup. 10 for $5. 5. Exacto knife & lighter ( I'm sure you have one of these) 6. Power drill & 17/64 drill bit. The first thing that you want to do is trace a circle, in the center of the lid, Using the bottom of the net cup as a guide. Next heat the tip of the exacto knife for a minute or two. Very carefully cut the hole in the lid. You might have to heat the knife a few times. Remember you can always come back make the hole bigger, but if you make it too big, your fucked. So take your time and make sure you stay within the lines. Put the netcup in the hole . It should be a tight fit. Drill 1 hole in the side of the tub about an inch from the top. This is for the airline. Do not drill the hole in the lid because you will be taking the lid off to maintain the proper nutrient level & it will be a pain in the ass each time. Cut 2 pieces of the airline about 4" long each and connect them from the airpump outlets to the t-valve. Cut another 2 pieces of airline, these about 2-3' long and connect the airstones to the t-valve. Then connect a 2' long piece of airline to the t-valve. Stick the airstones to the bottom of the tup with the suction cup. Run the line through the hole you drilled and connect it to the airpump. The last thing to do is fill the net cup about a third of the way up with grow rocks, lava rocks or any similar medium. Place a cutting of your favorite stain on the rocks, then fill the rest of the cup with your medium. The nutrient level in your tub should be at the bottom of the net cup. You might have to pour some of the solution through the top for the first few days until the roots grow out. Once they do let, them grow into the water. The airstones will provide enough oxygen. when the plant takes off she will drink a lot of water, so make sure you top the rez daily if you have to. If the level goes down too low you will have ph and overfert issues. Make sure you change the rez out every 2 weeks or when you have added the same amount of water back that the rez holds. Airstones are cheap so replace them every rez change for better results. I made this for one plant. If you use a bigger rez, you can add more net pots. Just cut more holes and add another or a bigger air pump. I wouldn't put more than six plants per tub. The growth rate is amazing! These pics are of a 5 week old mother plant. The last is of the stem after I took over 40 clones.
I always love to see sucsess with DIY's, im always looking to do things myself, if we are honest with ourselves, half the shit in our industry is just a nicer mold of what we can do with supplies from any hardware store!! I dig + rep
Growing process is DWC or Deep Water Culture meaning roots hang in solution. This is a really simple feeding regiment that many people use, GH is n't too costly and its pretty easy to come by and you only need 2 bottles for the whole grow. Check General Hydroponics Flora Series Feeding Strategy - Lucas Formula G-M-B (Grow-Micro-Bloom) 0-5-10 - For Vegetative cycle (18/6) 0-8-16 - For Flowering cycle (12/12) The numbers above indicate the number of milliliters (ml) of Flora Grow, Micro or Bloom formulas that I use in one gallon (US Liquid) of nutrients. You will notice I dont use any of the Flora “Grow†formula, do not need to, the Flora "Micro" provides plenty of Nitrogen. There are two ways to work with this formula: 1.\tTop off the reservoir daily using a pH corrected water solution as required to maintain full reservoir level. After adding back an amount of water equal to the amount of your reservoir capacity you should change the reservoir and put in fresh solution. 2.\tTop off the reservoir daily using a pH corrected 100% strength nutrient solution as required to maintain full reservoir level. Continue to use this nutrient solution without dumping the tank unless the PPM rises above acceptable levels. Between vegetative and flowering cycles you should dump your nutrients, then flush (possibly with Clearex) to remove salt buildups, then change to the other feeding program. Always shake your GH nutrient bottles before using them! For young plants, just transplanted into the hydro setup, give them 50% strength nutrient mix to prevent overfeeding them while their young. Gradually bring up the mix to full strength as they grow over the next few weeks or so. The lucas formula is normally intended for use with RO or near 0 PPM water. NOTE: The Lucas formula eliminates the need for Epsom salts to correct (Magnesium) Mg deficiencies in most normal feeding programs recommended by manufacturers. Cannabis needs a lot of Magnesium to thrive. The Flora Micro is providing the Nitrogen and the Magnesium in the proper balance, thus there is no need for the Grow formula and little or no room under the maximum acceptable ppm limit of 1600 @ 0.7 conversion. Calculated EC/TDS levels: EC microsiemen: 0-4-8: 946 µS 0-5-10: 1184 µS 0-8-16: 1894 µS TDS @ 0.5 conversion: 0-4-8 = 473 ppm 0-5-10 = 592 ppm 0-8-16 = 947 ppm TDS @ 0.7 conversion: 0-4-8 = 663 ppm 0-5-10 = 829 ppm 0-8-16 = 1326 ppm Addback Calculator - (For Advanced Users) Say you were running the 0-8-16 formula, at 0.7 conversion with a 22 gallon res. When you first fill it up, your ppm will be around 1330. Now you have been growing for a week, and some of the water has been taken up by the plants, some has evaporated, and now your res is at 947 ppm. You need to get your ppm from 947 to 1330. Here is the equation: ((target - current) / target) * 8 ml per gallon * res gallons = Flora Micro (ml) double this figure to get Flora Bloom (ml) Example: ((1330 - 947) / 1330) * 8 * 22 (383 / 1330) * 8 * 22 0.3 * 8 * 22 = 53 ml Flora Micro 53 ml Flora Micro, double that and you get 106 ml Flora Bloom. So 53 ml Flora Micro and 106 ml Flora Bloom to add back to your 22 gallon res to get you from 947 to 1330. Using Hard Water GH Micro I had been experimenting with using the Hard water Micro as a substitute for the normal Flora Micro, this to account for my hard 350 PPM water and the lack of a large enough RO filter at the time. It has worked well for me. I just kept my reservoir below 1150 PPM @ .5 conversion and its all good. One tip - do not pH down this stuff, the hard water micro will drop pH gradually over the next 24 hours, for example I mix up a batch, it is at like 6.2, the next day, its at 5.6-5.8 after running in the system for a while. If I pH downed that to 5.7 before putting it in the system, it ended up as low as 4.8-5.2 by the next day. My conclusion, the hard water micro was buffering the alkaline crud in my water, it just doesnot do it ASAP fast like the phosphoric acid
wow, what a great wealth of knowledge. thanks! im doing a ff soil grow, my first actually, but everyone tells me how easy hydro is. most of the hydro terminology and theories are still still foregin to me, but im sure if i stay up on GC ill be a pro in no time. for testing ppm, would one use a meter like this one? --> Amazon.com: HM Digital TDS-EZ Meter Tester Water/ppm/Purity/Filter: Patio, Lawn & Garden
Yeah some kind of digital PH, EC / TDS, PPM tool. PH Pen is most important since you can always calculate PPM since your starting point should always be between 0-100 ppm to start depending on the water you use. But PH could start 5.8 6.5 5.5 etc. I would say if you are stoner oriented (IE you are forgetful, don't want a ton of work or math, and don't want to water everyday, and want a good base do Soil or Hempy style. Get 1-2 Medium grows maybe 1 Soil, then do 1 hempy which is a really good transition from soil to hydro because its basically passive hydro. That should full prepare you to be a kickass hydro / aero grower!
You could do it with smaller pots, I don't see why it wouldn't work, But I would just do 1 plant per sqft or 1.5sqft in a 3 gallonish Hempy.
is there a thread similar to all the soil grows for hydro grow? Just alittle tutorial that shows the small things you do inbetween changing the res etc. Just something that goes into detail so i can make sure i have a hang of it? thanks
Would this be suitable for a 2 plant setup? Or is the height a problem? Length (Inches) \t24.22 Width (Inches) \t16.2 Depth (Inches) \t8.83 Color \tBlue
Also have this 14 gallon at lowes, 7.66 local pick up from a lowes store Length (Inches) \t24.22 Width (Inches) \t16.2 Depth (Inches) \t12.58 Color \tBronze Does this one look like it would work better for me? ALso, you use a 14 gallon container, how much of your solution does yours hold? Also what size baskets are you using? An lastly, if i do a 2 plant set up in this 14 gal will the one pump be good enough? Should i run 2 seperate line with 4 stones total>? thanks
I use the 14 gal for Aero veg units. I put about 5-6 gal of water in them using 2" netpot with neoprene.
i just picked up a 30 gal from walmart do you guys think it would be able to sustain six LST'd plants http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-30-Gallon-Storage-Bins-Set-of-6/8282894?findingMethod=rr#ProductDetail
multiple plants in hydro isnt exactly the best...unless you somehow have a way of keeping the roots separated....but if you dont care then 5 gallons of nutrients per plants is plenty.
I wouldnt want the roots getting entangled with eachother...what you could prob do is get a peice of plexiglass and cut it to seperate the tub 3 ways vertically and one horizontal and youll have different chambers. that way your roots can stay seperate from eachother incase you need to move one or anything.
im not sure how worried i am about gettin the roots entangled, my friend has the emily garden which only has a 2 gal res and the roots arent touching what im more worried about is will it need too much nutes to get to the plants