So I'm thinking about doing an indoor hydro grow. This will not be my first roll in the hay indoors but it will be my first time in hydro. I have decided to do another tent set up and will be buying all brand new equipment. For my veg area i will be using a 2.5'x5'x5' chest. Inside i plan to use 2 cpu fans for ventilation and a couple of 100 watt cfl's for lighting. For the system i bought a microgarden ebb n flow and a air pump to help oxygenate the rez and a bubble bucket for the mom. I will be vegging in 6" cubes. For nutes i am using greendream by flairform. For the bud space i have my heart set on the 5'x5' supercloset gorilla grow tent kit. The tent looks better than my old hydrohut, it comes with just about everything i think will be needed and at 2 g's it's not over priced imo. The only things I'm looking at adding is a good combo meter, a r.o. system, and of course I'm using greendream nutes. My question for everyone here is about transferring from veg to bloom. I had a friend that was growing and he went from a drip to a ebb n flow with ease back in my hometown. Transplanting to bubble buckets i would imagine would be different. I'm questioning if i would have to hand water like twice a day in the bubbleflow system until roots hit water. Or if it's possible to control the water level in that system? Any input would be appreciated. Sent from my SCH-S738C using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Based on all my experience, I have recently remodeled my entire grow op. I've homogenized my hydro systems, so that they are identical in veg and grow. This nullifies transplant shock, and my growth rates are absurd. When you move a plant from one type of hydro unit to a different type, the roots have to adapt. All that energy they spent growing and forming to the first environment is now out the door, and they will have to spend more energy adapting those roots, by growing new roots to adapt to the new hydro system. I've found that by keeping my hydro systems identical (I'm using only flood/drain now) I've reduced this transplant stress, and my plants don't have to adapt to anything. They just keep on growing. All their growth energy is spent where it counts. If you're swapping to a new hydro system, then it's likely that you'll need a supplemental feed system in place during transition. Changing hydro systems mid-grow is like taking 4 steps forward, then 3 steps back, in my opinion. That said, I would only suggest doing the same thing. On to rockwool cubes. I don't like using bare rockwool because they tend to grow algae and attract little gnats. The best method, I've discovered for growing with these, though is top drip, rather than flooding them from the bottom. If you can get your hands on the top drip cube tops, even better. These help reduce the amount of algae that grows on the surface, and distributes the nutrient solution through the cube from the top down. You can easily convert your microgarden to a top drip system by hooking up a center tube down the middle of the top tray (it has a place for this, if you haven't noticed.) and then run spaghetti lines off that to the spikes in the cubes. I would highly suggest the use of Growstone media. This is recycled glass that is very pourus and is EXCELLENT for flood/drain systems. You can get away with only watering once a day, or you can flood once an hour with this stuff, and you shouldn't have any problems with root rot, and it's really easy to flush. Much nicer than using rockwool in flood/drain. In the end, I suggest getting another ebb/flow system in your main tent, so the transfer from your micorgarden is seamless.
Makes sense. The tent I'm getting is part of a kit and the kit comes with the bubbleflow bucket 6 site kit. I'm more interested in using the dwc method to be honest. Even if the bubbleflow doesn't work well i would probably start over in a homemade rdwc. The microgarden would be replaced with a homemade tote. I wanna keep a mom and do clones and i planned on doing 4-6 plants and supercropping taking advantage of the net trellis that comes with the kit. With 6 of them spread out in a scrog they won't need to veg for long before i throw them in. Maybe three weeks to four weeks at most. I feel u with the transplant shock, that's my concern. But i figure as long as i have to go from room to room having to disturb the roots anyway why not move it to a root intensive system. Like i said my folks back home uses ebb n flow and does very well but I like the rootballs I've seen with dwc. I'm not worried about not using the micro I'm sure I'll use it at some point. Sent from my SCH-S738C using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Keep in mind that no hydroponic method is necessarily superior to another. Each has its strengths and weaknesses under different environmental conditions. That's why so many methods exist, because some work better, depending on the environment they are installed in. DWCs biggest drawback is temperature. For DWC to be an effective method, you must control the nutrient temps. If you can't keep these temps under 70 degrees, you will have a nightmare of a time with your grow. The best way to do this is to use a water chiller. This works great, but is expensive. Flood/drain systems will work successfully even with warm nutrient temps. So if you live in an area that's warmer, flood and drain, or another method might be better for you than DWC. I'm not trying to discourage the use of DWC, I'm trying to make it clear that whichever method you choose should be based on what's best for your environment, and therefore what will work best for you. My point is, you shouldn't choose DWC because it's cool or you like it better than another method, you should choose it only if it's the best method for where you're growing at.
Yeah i thought of that. I made the decision to only grow during winter for multiple reasons but that's my main one. It gets really cold here during winter so i figured to black out a window, cardboard and plastic it up, and cut two holes in it to fit my vent ducting, leave the window slightly cracked and run that cold air over the light and right back outside. Thinking that will keep the 1000w hps cool and if i keep my heat at 70 it will keep my temps around 70 or lower. Now if i grew during summer or even spring where I'm at i would have a extremely hard time with that. But as of Sept around here you're good until march-April. Keeping moms all year that allows me 4 crops a year. I have seeds that i ordered and two freebee packs. Now this is where it gets tricky. I ordered American dream and white berry because they are both indi & buds in less than 50 days. I got freebee packs of sweet tooth and and white Russian. I can't complain but man it's making me second guess my plan which consisted of two short flowering indica strains. One thing i do believe in is doing one at a time unless you have hella space. I don't have that much space that i can contribute past that 5'x5' and my veg space. The bubble buckets have always appealed to me so i planned around using them. Plus like i said they come with the kit. My issue is like you said is the transplant shock on top of the stress from the supercrop a week or so after just getting acclimated to being in the buckets coming from the micro. Just thought that just may be too much for them. I think imma try it the way i planned and then try a big tote system to veg in if it causes too many issues. Sent from my SCH-S738C using Grasscity Forum mobile app
If you aren't planning on running perpetual, then yes, you can transfer between different types of systems if you'd like. It just means that your plants will take a bit of time to adapt, and won't be as efficient as keeping the hydro system the same throughout. If you aren't bothered by a week or two delay while roots adapt, then there's no big deal. The plants will adapt, and keep on growing, if that's what you want to do. =)
I do plan on running perpetual but not all year round. Basically running production from fall until early spring. I figured it wouldn't be a big issue as i have watched a few ppl do it on YouTube. My main question is how long after transplant should i wait to supercrop? I'm going to use a scrog and bend the plants over at 6" after vegging to 18". That way i can completely fill the canopy. But will that be too much stress after changing to bloom nutes, changing to dwc, going to 12-12 light cycle, then supercrop a week or so after all that. Imma try it though. Ill it post a grow journal after i try it. Wish me luck. Sent from my SCH-S738C using Grasscity Forum mobile app