Hey everyone, this is my first time around using hydro. I like to think I learned all the basics,but am looking for to further my knowledge. I was vegging a single plant in a 5 gal bucket for a little over a month but it turned out to be a male. So I started over with 3 clones off a mother I have in soil, and this time I know it's a female. With 2 more in the works of being healthy moms. This time instead of one big plant I decided to have 3 smaller plants in a 5 gal bucket. And have a set up were I can harvest 3 every month. I plan on using scrog method. I made my tent from a wardrobe closet from Walmart. I lined the inside with black/white plastic. For veg I just use two 42watt cfls. For flowering I'm going to use a 400 watt hps. I also installed a scrubber with adjustable air flow. I also have a veg room I made in a crawl space were I keep the mom and a hydro cloner.
Lookin good bro, but be prepared to have hell on your hands if you plan on keeping 3 plants in a single 5 gal bucket. BUT it can be done. Live and learn. Good luck, keep us posted. Peeeeeeeace Sent from my SPH-L720 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Dude...I'm a noob and have yet to grow indoors since it is illegal where I live (CO...here I come) But. I see a problem right off the bat. You are wasting a lot of light. CFL's light comes off the sides...not the end. You need to come up with something different to use more of that light. Some trick little Mylar reflector walls or something. Maybe make your own light frame. But that setup looks good. I'll let the pros take over now.
Thanks man, like I said I'm no pro either so any comments or suggestions are more then welcome. And I was actually thinking about making my own hood because for vegging these cfls work pretty well.
What size are they? They are friggin huge! I saw a guy that built a pvc frame and used some emergency blanket mylar to make reflectors. Worked pretty good from the looks of it. I can't wait to move to CO so I can finally get my grow on!
Most people say to veg for 8 weeks. I see yellow leaves....so I looked back and found this thread...has a lot of good links in it. http://forum.grasscity.com/sick-plants-problems/1274698-yellow-leaves-need-some-guidance.html?hl=yellow+leaves
Hey bro, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but IMO you're wasting your time with 3 girls in a single 5 gal.. I would almost guarantee that one will thrive and the others will tank, or they ALL will (hopefully not, but just being realistic). Reason being: My average rootball will fill a 5 gallon bucket (ONE plant). With that being said, how much more room do you think there is for two more plants? See where I'm going with this? Not only will they all tangle and fight for space, but the plants themselves are too close together on that lid as well. Unless you're an EXPERT at training and pruning, I don't see this ending well at all. Do yourself a favor and pull the other two out man. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying it CAN'T be done(i'm sure it HAS been), just most likely not by someone with a "2nd grow" skill level. You're going to be fighting PH, and have little to NO stability with so many plants and such little water volume. I upped my single girls to 10 gals just for the stability, and ease of maintenance (add backs etc). If you're interested in multiple plants per res just use a 20+ gal rubbermaid tote or something similar. An old standard was always one gal of pot per 1 ft of growth. Good luck
It's a 42 watt cfl (100watt replacement) and they are a little yellow from cloning but all the new growth looks good again. Thanks for the input, I figured in stead of topping or fiming one I'd get away with 3 individual plants. But like I said I don't have much experiance with hydro, I used soil for the last 3 years and decided it was time to switch over. I think I am just going to go back to one main plant. Because I have had trouble finding a decent bin to fit over 5 gal to fit.
Of course if you like dirt....This guy has some damn nice organic tips and swears he tripled his yield. http://forum.grasscity.com/user/326446-jerry111165/ He knows his shit and has a couple a threads on Organics and water only soil mixes.
Thanks man, but I'm determined to get least one or two harvests using hydro before switching back to soil. I agree, I'm pretty surprised by the improvement.
Ok, not to bring up the obvious but,..... Think of the size of a 5 gal. bucket (14" diameter give or take) Even growing in soil you would NEVER plant 3 plants in that close proximity. Don't blame hydro as a grow method for your stupidity.
HA! 8 weeks.... if you plan on flowering under cfls and keeping those girls in a single 5gal container, I would start flowering....oh...about 5 days ago.
I'm not blaming anything on anything. I was trying something different, and I made it clear I was inexperienced with hydro and was unaware of the limitations, so you can take your know it all attitude and gtfo out my post. You too, I clearly state that once it's time to flower they will be under a 400watt, I think it's over kill to veg under 400watts. I got this last month only using the 2 pictured cfls. I added the small hps when I switched to 12/12 just to find out what it was before putting the 400watt.
I don't think he was blaming hydroponics bro, and even though your point was right - there's no need to be a dick about it. Help the dude out and give him a recommendation at least. The point is to spread the (*correct) information around to as many as possible; that the community may grow. It's not to come off as arrogant people who think they're better than those who are still learning.. All that's gonna do is push'em away dude ..
Today I went back to one plant per bucket. I chose the healthiest out of the the three and put it by itself. Also added another cfl to my home made hood and added a PC on the top so nothing over heats.
I like the homemade hood. what'd you make that thing out of? EDIT: reread first post But FWIW, you could definitely veg under a 400w. wouldn't be even slight overkill especially looking at pix of your plant-she's big enough now. When I was tight on cash I even started seeds under 600w....in fact, that's my current grow.