Planning ahead First Indoor Grow.

My experience has been that you need to be on site every day when growing indoors. There's always something that needs tending to and too many things can go wrong.

 

I have two homes 450 miles apart and am often an absentee grower for as much as 3-4 weeks at a time. Over the past three years, I've "perfected" a system that works well for me. I've taken the KISS approach to growing and will never produce a trophy plant but have successfully harvested some really good weed in my last four grows.

My last grow was eleven plants under a 600w hps lamp in a six foot diameter grow box. This was my most problematic grow to date because they're were nine different strains that didn't grow symmetrically, of course. Lesson learned and I'll not try that again.

My 600w lamp was minimalistic for my 11 plants but I was ok with the output. It was a dimmable ballast with an hps and metal halide bulb for less than $150 from Amazon.

I'm building a new box for this fall and taking a new approach to lighting. I'm downsizing to 2'X4' and going to use 24 cheap 2700k 60w led bulbs (at a cost of only $30). This will better disperse the light more evenly.

My secret to a self maintained garden has been the use of coco/perlite medium in smart pots with a cheap drip irrigation system on a timer. For my new grow, however, I'm changing up a bit to a swick system with an automatically replenishing watering supply via a self regulating float system and reservoir. Unproven thus far and wouldn't recommend it as of yet.

If interested in more details, let me know.

BCDD

 

I grow in coco/perlite as well in drain to waste. I’ve made a 20 site drip manifold connected to a 55 gallon res. This lasts about 2 weeks with two feed per day on a timer. I remove runoff from a slanted table with corrugated roofing and a gutter connected to some tubing and a shop vac. About 2.5 gallons of waste per day.

Check out my journal for pics of how it’s setup.

Soil2Coco’s Indoor Multi Strain Journal

 

If you set up a top drip system set on timers it would work. As far as insulation goes it's going to get pricey. I live in ontario and just finished a my first winter grow.
So it is possible.

Your Friendly neighborhood 187

Current 187's second indoor DWC grow LSD & OG Kush & "Master Berry Kush"

First
400w hid 5G DWC coco Berry Bomb first indoor grow

 

The swick is largely unproven with coco thus far. On another forum, it was generally looked upon as not feasible but this was simply opinions of individuals that had no first hand experience. Eventually one member did give it a go and said it was initially functioning properly but didn't follow up with how it turned out.

I've done some experimentation (dry runs) to make sure coco/perlite will absorb moisture ok. I ran this experiment for about three weeks and feel pretty good about it's wicking capabilities. The top 1-2" seem slightly dry but below this level it feels like a really good moisture content. The sides of the bag remains just slightly damp all the way to the top, however.

Not sure how it would work outdoors. I remember someone running an outdoor swick successfully with soil and would probably perform well with coco , also.

My last grow box was actually round, 6' in diameter. My thinking was it would avoid dark corners and keep everything more or less even distance from the light source. The eleven plants overwhelmed the space; much too small. The 600w light was adequate for my purposes but my goal is more for variety rather than quantity. For someone looking for max yield, a little more light may be advantageous. I'm pretty miserly and my power bill was running about $45/month just for the grow box so I wouldn't consider doubling that up.

I'm definitely an experimenter and every project hasn't been successful. I'm a firm believer that failure can be just as important to the learning process as successes so I'm seldom dissapointed! If I were to resurrect my 6' round grow box again, I'd definitely go with the 24 cheap leds just for the sake of giving it a try.

I'm a few months away from starting my next garden with this new system but I'll post up some info when I get started.

Good luck
BCDD

 

There are probably many absentee growing methods, but if you want your product to be respectable, you need to be there at least once every other day.

 

I have a 55 gallon res and a homemade 20 site manifold with 1/4” valves. There’s a pump in the res that runs for 1 minute twice a day. I control the flow with the valves

 

And I have a very similar setup as well. Occasionally I increase the the regimen to three one minute intervals depending on the plants needs. Once you get the emitters dialed in and balanced, it's all easy-peasy!

 

During the infancy period, it is imperative to keep a close eye on the garden but after they have become well established an autonomous grow can be very rewarding with a proper setup. I love to be close to my garden on a daily basis and enjoy watching them grow. Unfortunately, all of us aren't afforded that luxury. I'm in a situation of being resolved to an absentee grow or no grow at all.

I suppose "respectable" is a relative word. I'm sure a more hands on method would reap benefits but I'm really satisfied with my results thus far. Again, I'm not chasing maximum yields but thus far have reaped far more weed than I can possibly use so color me happy! I had one freak blue dream that harvested in excess of a dry pound using my absentee methods!

 

Well sure, all I meant by "respectable" was things like, decent yield with training etc, using the most out of your space. I'm sure it can still produce some decent stuff. Just wouldn't be my go-to method under any circumstances