Ok... So here's the dealio! I've been trying to make a "simple" hydro system and this seems the easiest for ME and my setup! Just wondering what everyone thinks .... Its nothing but a 5 gallon bucket, a net pot "tapped" into the top of it, along with an air pump, attached to an air stone - directly underneath the actual netpot! After going to a buddy's house yesterday and checking out his ebb and flow system with LED's and all types of fancy shit lol... I decided to try this! He gave me the netpot and clay balls, explained what I have to do, just want to double check with everyone! So the way you do this is like this: (correct me if I'm wrong) 1. Germinate your seed as you would with a soil grow. (Shotglass/paper towel until seeds taproot is showing) 2. Plant seed into rockwool cube (never used rockwool either, always planted into a seed starting mix because I'm a soil grower) and keep "moist" until the plant sprouts and has its first couple sets of true leaves. (Here's kinda where I get lost!) 3. I plant the rockwool cube into the netpot, holding clay balls - NOT LETTING the net pot touch the water YET! 4. I water the plant from the top using the Fox Farms Hydroponics Trio, until roots are TOUCHING the water through the netpot. 5. Once the roots can reach the reservoir, I just feed through the water and let it do its thing with the air bubbles pumping air and nutes to the roots?! .... And just follow the fox farms trio "feeding schedule" until harvest? I would REALLY like to have THIS 5 gallon system AND my 4 gallon soil pot in my tent for the seeds I have coming. I have 2 Auto's coming, a "White Cheese Auto" and a "Northern Lights Blue". Is it possible to have the deep water culture and the soil grown together? Its a mixed spectrum of lights, plants seem to love it during veg AND flower, haven't tried an auto with them though! (250w MH and 200w's of HPS) I don't see why not, as they both will be inside of my tent (fits two MASSIVE plants in 4 gallon pots - or a bunch of smaller plants) I'd like to have a side by side grow like this, again, just for the sake of knowledge and to share with GRASSCITY!!! Thanks for ANY help!!! Much appreciated and +rep for RELEVANT REPLIES! .... HERE'S SOME PICS OF HOW IT LOOKS SO FAR! WITHOUT A PLANT IN IT LOL! Is this enough bubbles for ONE auto?!
once the roots show out of the rockwool you place the cube inside the hydroton, you have to be careful not to smash the roots or damage them at all. before the roots come through the net pot you want the water up to the netpot so the clay pebbles(hydroton) can get wet enough to keep the rockwool damp until the roots come out. once the roots come out and drop down into the water you want to leave a little air space between the netpot and the water level. change the res every week or 2...keep the ph between 5.5-6.3 5.8 is perfect for nutrient uptake.. youll want to check it every 12hrs or so because it will fluctuate a little. keep the water temp between 60F-70F anything above 70 and you will start to get root rot. mine stays at around 73F and is still ok but if it gets around 75F+ your ph will drop and roots will start to brown and yellow rather quickly. you may also want to paint the bucket black or do something so that no light hits the water, white buckets tend to get algae.
my res stays at a constant 82F, it got really bad an i got root rot, but i got a bigger pump some great white an hygrozyme. 1 week later it went away, i now feed the myco with molasses an my roots showed a big improvement.
Thanks for the info y'all.... Rep SLAP! And I will paint the bucket, no problemo! But should I just put the netpot out like a "normal soil pot" or keep it dangling above the reservoir until roots start showing??
keep the bottom of the pot submerged until roots stick out the bottom of the net pot then lower the water level
Ok.... See! Now I'm getting confused! So the pot stays SUBMERGED during the root development (if so, HOW MUCH submerged)!? I was under the impression to let the roots grow TO THE WATER! I NEED A STRAIGHT UP ANSWER ON HOW TO DO THIS! LOL!
first it looks like you should drill more holes in your pot, it should look almost like a net pot, an keep it submerged like 1/4 inch so the very bottom of the pot is touching the water and be sure to mist them with plain water until roots show thru the pot
Gotcha! I did alot of studying and building today with new equipment and painted my bucket! She's RIGHT now! I think I got it down now! Pretty basic stuff! Thanks tho!
Ok.... I just typed out a BUNCH OF SHIT and it got erased YET AGAIN! WE CAN'T GET AN AUTO SAVE FEATURE!? PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! PLEASE!!! SO ANYWAYS .... I'm just going to leave y'all with pics of the damn bucket and shit! I don't have a pic RIGHT NOW (cuz I'm in bed) of the clear "water level tube" that's on now! Ill capture it tomorrow! But for now, here's the new pumps with my homemade "big bubble wand"... that shoots out MASSIVE bubbles btw! Lol... And then there's the long store bought wand, that equals out the big bubbles with MILLIONS of smaller ones! Kind of the best of both worlds! Hopefully the Dinafem White Cheese Auto will think the same! As she will be competing with a SAME SIZE bucket, soil grow RIGHT NEXT to it! She'll be an auto as well, with the HEFTY name of Northern Lights Blue Auto!! Sounds like two killer strains with the White Widow AND Northern Lights tied into their genes in some scientific way that's fucking MIND BOGGLING! I'm stoned and rambling now..... Who will win? We'll just have to find out huh!? ENJOY! First she was painted to match my clay pots for soil grows! 5 coats! Then... I took a break and played with one of my Shark Attacks! (did I mention I love WW strains!?) New pump and wand.... Pump for "20-40 gallon tank".... 9 bucks! Thanks Wally World! Now MY BIG BUBBLE WAND! lol...it works like a CHARM! Using my old "small" pump! Didnt have a grommet that'd fit (yet) so a LOOSE hose clamp works for now! Submerge the DIY via a hole high on the bucket! Lie the OVERSIZED wand that I bought over top via hole tapped in the TOP of the bucket! Step back, hit a bowl and look at my accomplishments so far! Lol FUCK THAT! Lets plug these bitches n and see what they do! Finished product.... Just waiting on beans now! My forest, getting some sleep! I plan to make this a recirculating DWC system in the future! I just have to get my pump, piping and more grommets! I already have a BIG reservoir and a small one! So if I like the way the hydro goes, who knows, might be adios to those, organic hoes! (Ima rapper) lmfao!
muwahahahahahah goood good good work with the bubbles, the plant that goes in there will be happy, as far as RDWC im doing a grow with 2 waterfarms if you wanna check it out, questions an comments welcome
looks nice and clean and good amount of bubbbles.. i just started messing around with dwc and am fucking amazed at the difference in growth rates.. i have clones in both soil and dwc same strain/pheno all in 5 gallon buckets. the dwc plants have much much larger leafs and grows id say about twice as fast as the ones in soil. the main stem on a clone thats vegged 3-4 weeks in dwc is about 4x times larger than the last plant that i just harvested that was in a 3gallon smart pot and was vegged for 4 weeks also. cant wait to see what the yields are like from dwc but looks like its going to blow the soil plants away..by far!! the only problem with dwc is the water temps..if your air temps are in the low to mid 70s with lights on theres no worry.. but if they are around 80F that water heats up fast..
Yea... That sucks! Means I'm going to need more ventilation! Lol because its summer n that grow tent STAYS at 80 during the day and drops to upper 60's-lower 70's at night....
yeh thats what i was dealing with it was low 80s with lights on(room temp)..i had to crank up the ac and started throwing bottles of ice into the bucket. they say you will start running into problems with anything over 69F(water temp) which i didnt notice any problems until about 78F. the growth stayed the same but the roots were changing color fast and ph was dropping drastically every 12 hrs, i had to keep adding ph up.
be sure to presoak your rockwool cube(s) for 24 hours before use, in pure h2o adjusted to 5.5 - 5.8 ph seen lots of seedlings get ph lockout and then die from people forgetting that also, how are you going to be checking ph each day? if you don't have a separate res, you will probably have to slide the lid off to the side each day be sure not to have the lid slid off to the side for long because it exposes the roots to light, which will cause lots of problems are you going to use beneficial bacteria at all? also yeah...watch out with that metal in the res...i'm not sure what will happen if you get rust, but i'm sure it will not be good