SORRY FOR THE DOUBLE POST - AS I POSTED THIS IN "INDOOR GROWING" FIRST! MY B!!!! Anyways... 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?!
you need to pre-condition your rockwool as it has a high PH,, ALSO wash (plain water)the clay balls rinse them and wash them again, then leave them in a low ph (mine around 4.5) overnight then rinse them again in water around 5.5ph. when you put your plant into the net pot put it as low as possable but don't put the rockwool right at the bottom , an inch of clay balls under the rockwool is good , then fill the NET POTS TO THE TOP with clay balls. White buckets let in light!! NOT GOOD, tape them up with alli foil tape including the top, do this in strips downwards as it's a pain in the arse to go round & round. Also tape up your air line or get black air line. It looks to me as you air pump or stones are not putting out that much air, you need to make the water bubble with lots & lots of fine air. ph/ec meters are needed in a water culture grow much more than soil. .... And just follow the fox farms trio "feeding schedule" until harvest? i have never used FF but my sig below says alot how i feed.. hth middy
Thanks ffor the reply.... Rep SLAP! ONE more question! Do after transplanting the rockwool cube into the hydroton, do I leave I out the bucket? In like a catch pan or something - like "normal" soil growing? Or just an inch above that water? ....I'm also guna get the bucket covered and a more SOLID, better pump!
My rig is very similar. My buckets are square and black. I use a commercial grade air pump and a drip ring as well. both run 24/7.My top is split in half so i have a inspection port.very important. Both resv sit in a rack on wheels. The rack allows me to bend my plnts dwn and spread them out without a constricting scrog.I can roll the whole rig out of the cab to work on the plnts. Midlife is exactly correct about the proceedure to get your plnt developed and placed. When you get more advanced and have a bubble cloner you won't even need rkwl. I have done hydro and dirt side by side in this rack with no problem .If no bending rack it could be a little difficult as the hydro develops faster than dirt and developing the canopy can be tricky and you're going to have do a lot to keep pm and pests away....but it can be done. When i did it like that i got 4oz from hydro plnt 2.5 oz from dirt plnt dried.After that experiment i stick with hydro...less hassels
the net pot stays in the bucket 1/2 inch above the water so that when the bubbles reach the surface they pop and keep the bottom of the net pot wet (do NOT fill the bucket up so the net pot is under water) you can water from the top untill roots come through. if you let the roots grow through the rockwool by around 1 inch before you put it into the net pot it should only take 3 or 4 days tops to drop. middy
Thanks guys... I got her setup today and did some studying! Its guna be a side by side, DWC and Soil grow, same size buckets! ... I will post a link here to the thread once started! Oh and btw I have TWO PUMPS now, big ones... And I tapped in a clear "fill level hose" that works as a drainage system too! Winning. Lol!
if you use the same size buckets that will be a shit load of water when you flush the soil grow. also if you stick a strip of paper behind or at the side of the fill level pipe and mark it of with each half gallon of water when you first fill it you will know the correct amount of nutes to add & how much they are drinking. i'll keep an eye out for the link. middy
This reply rattles me. Washing clay balls once is enough. The beauty of hydroton is the fact that it doesn't have a PH. Soaking them in 4.5 PH water is a waste of time, and is unnecessary. The final rinse is just obsessive. I've used mine without washing plenty of times with no issues. Even if they are all nasty, they don't effect your plants. The material they are composed of is obviously 'inert' to the plants. Otherwise, you'd have problems with hydroton degrading because the plant is feeding off of it. A single rinse under tap water is fine. Don't worry about putting black tape on your air lines. Algae or any other growing organism can't survive in a constantly moving environment. I run a clear water hose, 10', and I haven't had any problems. Also, although your air pump seems like it's bubble output is dismal, it's acceptable. Making a lot of tiny bubbles doesn't necessarily put more dissolved oxygen into your water. It's kind of a misconception, but water that is simply turbulent has enough dissolved oxygen to grow plants. Under water currents use this principle to grow without air stones. You can use the feeding schedule on your nutrients. The ratios are the important part, not the dosage. Start with something low around 1/4 dose. From there, you can work up slowly. Just keep in mind that the dosings they suggest, are incredibly high. There's a good sticky in the Advanced Techniques forum by AugustWest called 'Fertilizing Wisely'. Go read through it, it's pretty cool.
Water is free bro! Haha... My tap water is a 6.6 straight out the faucet, you should look at my Shark Attack grow in my sig, that's two 4 gallon pots for trees! I flush with 3-5x's the soil in water/ice... 15 gallons please! (I ice during the "5 day dark period" that's recommended) Thanks for the helpful reply man! Check out my sharks in my sig as well, soil is my "forte" I just wanna take a stab at hydro! Oh yea.... (Rep is ALWAYS accepted for gorgeous plants! lol)
wtf does it ''rattle'' you? is it becuase every person in the world has a different expeirence than you or other growers in different parts of the world can not get the perfect hydroton like you. i live in cz and we must have the crapiest hydroton then, as i washed them 3 times and grit and shit was still coming out of them and IMO any unnessary shit in your res is not a good thing , also they had a ph of 7.3 and after soaking MINE in a low ph over night and rinsing them after they ended up at ph 6.0 , Obviosly i'm obsessive wanting to give MY plants the best start as possable . ''Don't worry about putting black tape on your air lines. Algae or any other growing organism can't survive in a constantly moving environment.'' ROTFLMFAO. middy
STILL WAITING FOR BEANS! I DO however have 2 Shark Attacks from Dinafem that are THRIVING into ABSOLUTE GORGEOUS PLANTS!!!!! Day 36 of Flower I believe? Check my sig!
subscribed. im looking to do this same thing DWC buckets and soil on my next grow want to see how yours works for you.