Hello everyone, I'm planning on building a deep water culture, otherwise known as a bubbleponic, system for both vegetative and flowering plants. I'll be using Rubbermaid Roughneck plastic storage containers for the job. My question is, if I wanted to fit six flowering plants in one bin, what should be the appropriate gallon-size of the bin? I'm also concerned about the plant spacing. I don't want them to be too close that they're competing for light, but there's really nothing I can do about that even after the variables. I've heard it doesn't really matter much how close they are to each other, since they apparently just grow taller to reach more light. But I don't know if I really believe that too much, because I argue that strains of plants would attest to the stability of their genetics by consistently growing to a certain approximation of height when growing conditions are optimal and maintained. An 18 gallon's length is 24", so divide that by three, which, I figure, leaves about 8" between plants. But if I went with a bigger 25 gallon bin, that would give about 9.6" between the plants. There is also a 31 gallon sized version I could use if necessary, which would increase the plant spacing to 10.75". Here are the dimensions of the bins I'm considering: Roughneck Storage Box - 18 gal; 23.9" x 15.9" x 16.5" Roughneck Storage Box - 25 gal; 28.8" x 19.7" x 16.5" Roughneck Storage Box - 31 gal; 32.3" x 20.4" x 16.7" So is there a general rule for gallons per plant necessary for DWC plants to thrive? I'm planning to grow strains that require up to a three month flowering period, that offer generous yields, so I need to make sure I'm not bottlenecking their potential in any way. Although I'm still shooting for six plants per bin, for the aforementioned reasons, only growing four flowering plants per bin might be ideal; that way, an 18 gal bin would easily suffice. But I will have to buy a third extra of all the equipment if I went four plants instead of six; that's why I'd prefer six. Another question: which of those bins should I use for the vegetative system and how many plants would be appropriate to fit into them? I'm presuming that using a lower-gallon bin would be sufficient. By the way, the lights I plan to use are one 400w MH for vegging and one 600w HPS for budding. I will have up to three, 6-plant flowing bins (or four, 4-plant bins), but I'll probably only start out with one or two. Thanks ya!
just a heads up.... 6 per tote with anything over 1 month veg will not work. They will be fighting for space ontop of the tote and underneath. On a 18gal tote you should only do 2 per tote if your vegging 2-3 month, then flowering will put them over the top. Putting 2 per tote will demand them on the furthest corner from each other or you will be bottlenecking the light for the lower half of your bush. Underneath you will have a tangle of roots unless you train your roots to honeycomb. you can have a few lids with 8 netpot sites untill your roots get long enough to save on light space, then move the entire plant to the 2 per tote set up. Tote growing is a pain when you have to change water if your just using a tote and not modyfing it with a drain or seprate rez. Dont forget youll need an extra tote for each tote holding plants for water changes so your not messing with the lids and potentially exposing the roots to too much light or damage. in mho the more you add per tote the less fimming, topping, and other techniques your able to use since youll want them growing vert and not horizontally. just my 2p. good luck
Ah, so you're saying not to have more than two flowering plants per tote? And for the vegges/mothers, you're saying to place no more than eight netpot sites?
excellent question! Was going to ask same queston my self. I have almost the same set up with lights and space, etc. I check out a commercial tote system (fogbox, also great vids) The using a two tote system 6 site in a 18 gal tote for vegging and 6 site 35 or 45 gal for flowering. It appears they get acceptable yeilds with this system taking light and nuts into consideration. I wnt to do a multi site system with one res but that sounds leaky and scary. I Like the suggestion to have a second set of totes to change water. Wish me well, Im taking the plunge, starting my first my first grow today. Using bubbler, top feed and wick. Wanted to use fog but too expensive for the good units and I understand the cheap ebay ones are unrealiable with a poor life time, and I decided against the areoponic sprayer type systems because to leaky, messy and requires a lot of maintance (too many moving parts)
an easier method of changing out tote waters is to use a submersible water pump (~10 dollars at wally world/petco), stick it in one of your empty holes (i have 6 holes and am using 5 plants) and suck it out, pump it back in. a lot easier than any other method I can think of (of course unless you have a drain installed)
there are sooooo many step by step tutorials on youtube that YOU can actually WATCH and see...are you really tring to figure this out or just making forum chit-chat?
Considering he wrote ~7 paragraphs, I would consider it more than forum chit-chat. btw OP, you wont be able to pull off high yields/quality with 3 flowering bins with a single 600 watt HPS, just an FYI. You should be good with one tote with that light. Two only if you do some serious LST/scrogging etc
Considering he wrote ~7 paragraphs, I would consider it more than forum chit-chat. you'd be amazed...im just saying...how is this more informative then a visual tutorial to get a better "idea" of what he's tring to do? key word idea...he's still in the "i'm gonna" phase...to actually see an example of what he wants provides tons of info...im just saying...7 wasted paragraphs...when all he needs is 7words and a youtube search engine...lol..but whatever...keep playing info cat and mouse on here....
i wouldve thought..1150 views and 7 responces wouldve been a sure indicator that this is the wrong spot for that info....lol...silly me!!!