First Grow - 1000w - Ebb & Gro - MMJ

I was looking at buying an Ebb & Gro system, and that's how I stumbled upon SugarDaddie's excellent 5000w journals on this site. They were inspiring.

I thought if it works, why not go with it? And so I set about buying pieces and setting up my room using his system as a guideline.

- 12 pot Ebb & gro System
- Quantum 1000w digital dimmable ballast
- 1000w Hortilux bulb
- Parabolic Reflector
- Light rail 3.5 light movers
- Phresh Filter 950
- Active Air 8" Fan
- 10,000btu Window AC


I thought these few items would all be easy enough to set up.

I was wrong. I didn't even have grounded outlets in this room.

The major hurdle to getting this started was installing all new electrical in this room. I ran a 15 amp circuit that goes down low to supply the Ebb & Gro and all small accessories, and then ran some heavy guage wire to some new outlets up high for the lights and AC. The lights are on 240v outlets, the AC is 120. Not being an electrician by trade, that made for for an interesting project to say the least. Everything is mounted in concrete.

While I was taking my sweet time setting up the electric, I got some cuttings from a friend and put them in my homemade clone machine that I had never used before. Thankfully in under two weeks, I had massive roots.

Last night, finally, I set up the Ebb & Gro, the light mover, and the lights. Planted the clones into the hydroton, and turned the whole thing on.

To my amazement, it worked. The light came on, the light rails work, the ebb & gro floods and drains.

I cracked two buckets in the process of setting everything up and so there are only 10 buckets running, but I will replace the broken ones this weekend.

Everything is running fine still, temps are at 75 degrees, humidity at 50%. I have the dimmable ballast set at 50% for now.

Aside from the buckets that I cracked, I have had two other issues come up already. A tube came off my controller bucket, and put about 10+ gallons on the floor one day. And the first Ebb & Gro I bought was totally defective and had to be replaced under warranty. Which I should add was very easy, and the people at C.A.P. were very helpful.

I am totally new to this, so I am learning as I go. Or that's the idea anyway.

This is my first post, but I have been reading here & elsewhere for awhile. I appreciate all of the info that is out there, it's been very helpful.

I will try to keep this up to date. I appreciate any input anyone has.

Here are some pics. They were taken with my phone, with the light on. I will try to take the rest with my canon, under normal light.

Thanks for looking.

 

Here are the two strains I am doing. One is a Bubba Kush from a very good mother, and the other is a super secret mystery strain that I cannot identify.

I'm guessing I could probably either lower the lights or turn up the power at this point. It is still on 50% power, and the bulb is 23" from the tops of the plants. The edge of the reflector is 17" from the top of the plants. I didn't want to nuke the plants after being cloned under CFLs. And also, I paid for the dimmable feature, so I figured I should get some use out of it.

Some leaves look a little wrinkly, which I'm not sure the cause of, otherwise everything seems to be going OK.

 

I took these pictures just now. This is what I mean by wrinkly leaves.

I am watering every 4 hours, for 15 minutes.

 

The only nutrients at this point have been 1/3 cup of Flora Nova Grow into 35 gallons of water, and 1/3 cup of Silica Blast.

1/3 cup of Flora Nova Grow in 35 gallons of water comes out to like 2.2ml per gallon. I've read some people saying they do 8ml of Flora Nova Grow per gallon. I wonder if I should increase that amount.

 

I was able to find 2 ebb & gro buckets locally, sold individually, and so I am now running all 12 buckets. I stuck 2 nice clones in them, and they're off.

My ppm meter is reading 500, and I am using plain tap water which reads 100ppm before anything was added.

I figure I will wait another week to let these fresh clones settle in to their new surroundings, and then turn up the nutes and the lights.

Everything is going smoothly. When I first set up the system I didn't have all of the hoses on really good since they were so hard to put on, but I have since gone around and tightened everything up.

Temps are holding at 75, humidity holding around 50%. I could raise that fairly easily if need be.

Here is a picture of all 12 buckets running. I organized them a little nicer too.

 

Thanks for stopping in! Everything is still going good.

I'm going to get some timers tonight or tomorrow and put the AC and light on a timer. The AC has been running 24/7 and I think it's gotten frozen inside, and so has been blowing warm air.

It's surprisingly dusty on the floor and bottom of the buckets. I say surprisingly just because I think that filter is oversized for this room, and I was hoping it would keep the dust and dirt down. It doesn't seem to do much to control dust, but it does a great job of controlling odor. When the filter is off for an hour you can really smell it when you walk in the house.

 

Well, I may need to get a new AC, or cut a vent and set up an intake/exhaust. This one doesn't seem to blow cold any more. That's what you get for $40 on Craigslist though I suppose.

Temperatures go up to about 85 with the lights on. Doesn't seem to be hurting anything, but I would like to get them back down to 75.

Finally got a timer for the light. It's on in the night time.

Added 2/3 cups more Floranova Grow to bring the PPM up to about 1200. Added about 5 gallons of water. That's about all I've done.

Aside from the plant in the front that was a late addition to the party, you can see everything is going very well.

The Ebb & Gro system has been working out very well. The only changes I would like to make to the room would be to get the temps stable at 75, and add a CO2 system.

 

Got the AC working right, and everything is running great.

I will probably go buy some tomato cages soon and get those on in a week or so.

 

The plants are using more water now. I added about 8 gallons the other day, and also about 2/3 cups more nutrients to bring the ppm up to 1400. I keep the reservoir as close to 35 gallons as I can, if I hadn't mentioned that before. Just a number I picked from the beginning.

The plants are getting taller and so the fan was starting to push them around. I had some leftover 2' fence from an outdoor garden and so I wrapped it around 3 of the plants nearest the fan and created cages for them. I might just go ahead and buy another roll of fence and do this for the rest of the plants. Rather than buy actual tomato cages. This is easy, and cheap.

There are already roots sticking through the holes on the bottom of the buckets. Even though the buckets are small, I am impressed that they're growing well.

It has been unusually hot here, in the 90s, but the AC is still performing good. It gets about 80 in the room, 83 at most. Humidity is always about 50%. If I am going to add another 1000w like I was planning, I might need to figure out a different cooling solution...

I put the oscillating fan on a 12/12 timer to give the plants a rest for half the day. It seemed to be beating them up pretty hard.

All in all things are going well. I don't know much about topping plants, but a friend is coming by Friday to show me. Assuming everything continues to go well, I was thinking of flipping to a 12/12 light cycle on the 20th. One month after putting the clones in the pots.

 

Does anyone have an opinion on if the holes in that fencing will be OK for the plants, or whether the fencing will serve as an adequate support for the plants in general? It seems like it would work well to me, and that the plant will just stick out the holes, but I really don't know.

I'm trying to get a veg room going in another area using another 12 pot Ebb & Gro system coupled with a Quantum 12 light T5 Bad Boy light system, but we'll see if that's feasible within the 1.5 month time frame I am shooting for. I doubt it, but that sure would be nice...

 

I need to either buy or make a muffler for the scrubber by tomorrow. Cable people are going to be in the house, and that thing is too loud to go unnoticed. I might also set up an Ona Breeze somewhere. The scrubber works very well, and you can't smell weed, but you can sometimes smell a musty organic type of smell when it is more humid. Maybe just me being paranoid, but I would like this room to be totally invisible to anyone that might be over.

I am also going to order an external thermostat for my AC. The one that's built in sucks.

Reservoir is topped off at about 35 gallons, and my ppms are at 1400 with just FloraNova Grow.

I already have an additional light mover, and when this run is over, if everything goes well, I will be adding another 1000w light and 12 more buckets. I will probably stop there, and not add anything more. I hope to have 24 buckets in this room, and then a separate 24 bucket veg room, with the same setup just using 24 hour T5 lighting instead of HID.

Right now though, just taking it easy and trying to do this as simply and uncomplicated as possible.

 

Thanks for stopping by and for the compliment!

I didn't mention the strains too much because they were from a friend that is very private and they are sort of unique strains. Two of them are anyway. One is a Bubba Kush of awesome genetics, and then there is another, similar indica, and a sativa. It might be a pain to try and keep 3 strains all the same height, but we'll see.

Next time I am just going to do all Bubba Kush from this mother. It's awesome looking. Big, thick, fat leaves.

I hope everything keeps going well, and I pull off this first grow with few hitches. Having a blast so far though!

Stay tuned...

 

Trying to post from my phone for the first time. See if it works.

Just got done topping the plants, and then sprayed with neem oil.

 

So, I have 2 plants from one strain that are about 5" taller than the rest, and I want to get them down with the others so that they can all be close to the light.

What is the best way to accomplish that? Can I trim them somehow?

The ones in the cages on the left are the ones that are getting too tall.

 

And here is a random picture of the Bubba Kush that I like so much. Next grow is going to be all Bubba Kush.