Whoo-hoo we have just built ourselves a hydro box. I'm so excited, it's like a little science experiment. Should see us out in the shed trying to use our brains and put this thing together, shockin' stuff....lol We were just talking about what solution to put in the water. When is it best to put in the first does. What solution is recommmended etc I'm planning to put my seedling in pebbles down bottom and rockwool around the top of the pot. We are using a simple drip system and a lamp type light. So I'm bound to be asking lots of silly questions in the next couple of weeks!
Have had my first hdro for approx. two weeks now. Used the normal mix from the fert bag. Added a little water to dilute it though. Didn't want to kill them, had to add more fert again now they are at their 5th node and growin like weeds. It's truly amazing how fast they grow in hydro m.m. ,you will be very happy with the speed of growth. Good luck in science class. I'm not sure about my method but it seems to be working. I'm sure I will have to deal with some sort of nute deficiency later but for now everything is weedy.
I totally loused up my first hydro grow from using too much fert in the earlier veg stages. Like zig said it is really important to dilute the solution or use none at all for the initial stages. My new batch has been regulated properly and it is really astounding what a difference the hydro setup makes as far as growth rate, especially if used with HID lights.
You can fert it right away but make sure its a very very low dose. The biggest hang-ups on a newbie hydro is over fert and wrong lights. If its a project you want to keep going, invest in some hydro ferts. Call us back with questions anytime. BPP!
My light is probably not the best to have, but it's a start. Something to play with!! It's a MV 400w. Extremley bright, I can't even look at it. How far away do you think it should be away from the seedlings? I was thinking 16 - 18 inches. I'm not sure.... I've got 6 seedlings and only room for one, so I figured I'd use the 'trial and error' system!! I'm bound to have problems as it's my first time hydroing! Kill one, Oh well.....try again! Thanks for your help everyone. BBP I think I'll take you up on that offer, I'll call on ya when I hit trouble!!! I'm going shopping tomorrow for solution! Will give them their first dose middle of next week.
Super....Hope your trial goes with few errors.... Hopefully thats not a mercury vapor 400w,,you will have trouble growing(wrong spectrum..high radiation) especially with hydro..... I believe BPP has a link for low cost hid ...good luck
Thank you for the lol girlie I was having a punny day, Alot of quips and puns seem to go unnoticed. it's nice once in a while when someone lol for you
That sucks! I moved my mercury vapor light to my vegging plants, which happen to also be hydro. It's been in there for about 2 days, not enough time to show light deficiency problem i guess. The reason this sucks is i just built a new cabinet to house the hydro grow and mounted the MV fixture on that. Now I'm gonna have to change it again. Oh well just have to do some bong hits and redo the length to fit my flouros in there, since the HPS is in the flowering cabinet. The MV didn't seem to hurt the plants as in burning but now that i think about it the growth rate might have suffered a bit. I would imagine that the complications from the MV would be more long trm, things that you don't notice right away because the plants still grow.
Ohhh Nooo, I wanted to use my MV too! I have a fluro at my mum's house but it's 300km away. Can I use the MV until I get something else?? Oh well.....guess I'm gonna have to invest in a proper one. No point going into it ill equiped! Hmmm...
A good rule of thumb for distance of plant to HID light is 1 cm per every 10 watts of power. for example, a 400 watts hps light you will need 40 cm spacing to prevent burning. Not exact but an easy formula to remember.
Hey Big Poppa, I had a rookie hydro question. I've got hydro ferts, that are broken up into base,grow,bloom. Your supposed to use the base+grow,or base+bloom depending uon if plant is still vegging or not. That's all I need right? I don't have to supplement the hydro nutes with any outeside ferts do I? Also, is 7-10 days recommended for changing your nute solution.
What's the brand name of your hydro nutes and I'll look it up. I use micro, grow, bloom. Its starts out heavy with micro and gro and a little bloom and then morphs into heavy bloom, slight micro and a little gro. But you always mix the ferts in order of M,G, B 7-10 is fine, depends on amount of fluid, less water (like a gallon or 2) 7-10 days fine. If your reservoir is bigger (4 to 5 gallons) you can stretch it out longer, like 10 to 14 days. Just keep an eye on the EC and when it starts to peak and you have to start adding plain tap, no nutes every day. Time to change. Here's a spare hint: Expect to see pH rise early on on the cycle, veg through early flower. You almost always grab for pH down every time. Then later on when she is really flowering, the water almost always goes acidic and you have to add pH up to get the reservoir back to the standard range.
If the MV bulb you are using is phosphor coated(white)it will still grow(slow and inefficient)but it will grow..until you can provide an alternate....but hurry..keep a good distance from the bulb...(high radiation output) Also,, depending on ballast type,wattage....there may be an alternative to buying a new ballast ,,, by replacing bulb with a Multivapor,or Metalarc bulb..which are halide type bulbs..
The bulb has got a white coating. It's a lamp looking thing, it was orginally from an industrial site. They must been doin' a bit of work at night. Anyway I got the MV 400w info from a sticker on the ballast. I have no idea what globe is in the actual lamp, there is no writing on it at all. So I assumed from the info on the sticker that it was that type of light!! I do have another ballast....somewhere. Actually I'll go and suss it out.....hang on....I'll be back...
OK, found the other ballast. The sticker on this one reads; 400w HPS lamp, output 240v, hmmm.....sounds promising!! The other ballast reads; MV 400w, 240v. They look the same!! So what do ya think? Any hope for me...
This is the ballast you could use....is there a tap for 120v or is it only 240v? If you can... use this ballast with a son-t or son-agro bulb(preferred). If you can't afford it,, a standard 400w hps will cost about $14-24 bucks,,and will get you going well..
This so cool, you have been extremely helpful Ndica! I've unscrewed my globe from the MV ballast, it was hard to see inside with the white coating, but looking into it from the top, it's definately the same as your 1st picture. Same shape too. So, all I have to do is get a halide globe like in the second picture, then hook it into the 400w HPS ballast...right? Ummm....not sure what a 'tap' is. Why would I need one? What's it's purpose??