Hey Guys! So this is my second time in the chute with hydro... I was looking for a modular and repeatable hydro growing system so I've turned to a home made PVC/NFT system. This is my Build: - 1 10ft sections of PVC pipe 3" in diameter.......$10.00 - 3 90 degree elbows 3" in diameter PVC...........$12.00 - 550 gl/hr water pump..................................$55.00 - 2 3/4 in flexible hose 3ft long........................$5.00 - 18 gallon reservoir .....................................$25.00 - PVC cleaner / glue combo............................$8.00 - 1000w HPS light combo...............................$300.00 - 8in inline fan.............................................$50.00 - 8in ducting 25ft.........................................$45.00 - 16 2in net baskets.....................................$5.00 I'm using the Advance Nutrients line with SensiBloom for my base nuts. My last line i used Ionic and it worked well, no complaints here, but i wanted to try upping the bar a little bit and I've heard nothing but good things about A.N. line. I will post picks of my set-up in the morning when the lights kick back on. Then write up a diagram of the assembly to go with it. I am running a few different strains but right now its just Blueberry Kush. I will be running this on a 12/12 from clones. I haven't put in the screen yet for the SGROG but i will be doing it in about a week. When I do set it my plants will have been going for 2 weeks in 12/12. Then i will position the screen height at the top of the tallest plant. Then start scrogging away! This is my first journal so let me know if you guys have any questions! More too come......
These are the two photos that i promised! I also did some measuring and counting: Height - between 7 and 9cm Diameter - 15 to 20cm Now as for watering these babies I dont know much about NFT systems so im starting out with 2 hours of watering with 15mins of downtime between watering sessions. Since i have no basis for this watering cycle so I will be adjusting as i go..... If anyone has any watering suggestions please LET ME KNOW! lol
Sooo.... I need to go get myself a fancy new PPM tester like today! So i figured I'd inquire as to everyone's individual preferences are and how long you've been using it, handheld and constant testers alike I'm not sure if I want to pop the extra cash yet for the constant testers or not....
Ok... so my boiler pump went out tonight so i had to fix that. FUN! After that i went out and bought a ppm meter and found out i am running at 650 ppm which is where i wanted to be at right now. I'm going to up the dosage slowly over the course of the vegg period to full strength by bloom. Get Excited! Side Note: About 12/12 from clone and Nutrients I have heard all sorts of ways to mix and match nut. but the way I'm doing this one is 4 wks of SensiGrow A&B or until first sign of budding then run SensiBloom A&B PH Perfect until its glorious end!
So this morning i measured and each plant grew .5 cm overnight! so that's cool... ppms were 680 which is up from last night. Thats fine to because remember i am stepping up the Nut dose gradually over time. PH is at and around 6 the PH Perfect seems to be working so far.... Yesterday i pinched off the dead ends of the leaves and everything is looking up. It got a little cold in there last night due to the heating issues but it only got down to 65 F so its all good. The air is around 72 and the water is around 70. and neither one swing more than 5 deg...
Your ppms are rising because your plants are drinking water. You should replenish what was lost to keep the nutes in the right percentages
Yeah I know why they are going up. It's kind of what I'm looking for seeing as I'm raising the ppm slowly over time.
...and if you notice i keep my res under the light with it uncovered. This is to promote humidity and allow water to evaporate to increase the concentration of the solution slowly between res changes so i can keep upping the Nut concentration until the flowering phase.
So... just put some ph down in my res i dont know how well the ph perfect is working in my tank because the ph was steady at 6.1 - 6.2 and that seems a little high to me so i brought it down to 5.8 and it seems to be holding there for now. also set up a panda film box around them with light cardboard so i can move pieces around really easy.
Ok so i added water to bring the ppms down to 450. after some research thats what i'm comfortable with. I've also switched up my watering im watering for 2hrs with 15m breaks in between with an hour to dry out at night.
ON for 1 minute and OFF for 4 minutes.... And this why they make these................ CAP NFT-1e Non Adjustable Fixed Cycle Timer
So this morning i checked my ppm's and they are at 480 / PH is at 5.7 Just got a new NFT timer 1-4 mins thanks JJ!