Alright blades I have been pondering an idea for awhile now. Its a simple concept that I think would greatly benefit your plants while they grow. Before I start I should say that only someone growing in single pots for their plants would be able to do this. Lets start from the beginning. I have only grown once last year. I was growing with two other family members and some wanted to rush to start. We started before we had enough supplies and before our grow area was ready. On top of that we started with way to many plants and our area was overgrown and not well ventilated and we had spider mites. Needless to say it did not end well and we did not start a new grow after for various reasons. Since then I have been thinking of how I want to go about it the next time I have the money and time to put into it. I remember coming across something called the Hydroplex Spinners. For those of you who have never heard of them you can check them out here. The Spinner - Hydroponic growth chamber with 360 degree plant exposure from Hydroplex Theres a lot of mixed info about these. They run for $2000 which is steep for a system especially since its so small. But the people that have them say they get huge grows from them. Some saying one pound others saying as much as two pounds all from one of these with a 600 watt bulb. Weather thats true or not the thought of the system got me to thinking and this is what I had originally came up with (sorry for the shitty picture I made it real quick) So the light in this diagram would be a 1000 watt hps that will be hanging vertically in the center and it will be even with the tops of the plants. Surrounded by the light is eight plants. But the plants wont be stationary. I want them to constantly be spinning. So when I thought of this I went on a long web search trying to figure out how I would move eight plants that are in full flower slowly and constantly. I was thinking some gear mechanism but it would be a lot of gears and complicated and I had no way of knowing what motor to get. Eventually I found this video. DIY motorized turntable. - YouTube I was able to find that motor on amazon for $30 Amazon.com: GrillPro 60013 Replacement Rotisserie Motor: Patio, Lawn & Garden And the lazy susan hardware is $4.49 at home depot 6 in. Lazy-Susan Turntable-9548 at The Home Depot So that comes out to $35 each plus the price of wood. 8x35=way to much money aka 280. And this does not even include everything else that I will need to buy in order to start up. I will have to wait until I am in a much better financial situation before I can have a go at that. But I might be able to grow soon. Its just going to be 4 plants and they are going to be sitting under a 600 watt light so I came up with this In this its a 600 watt light in a regular rectangular hood and the four plants and sitting under it as close as possible without touching. I probably wont be able to start with four turntables but maybe one to see how it goes. I just wanted to post this here for a couple of reasons. 1. To put it all down in one place 2. To see what all you blades think 3. To see if there is a better way that im not thinking of 4. And maybe to inspire someone on here to do this cause i would really like to see it pulled off and the results
Neat idea. I wonder if you could make circular screens for each container. Possibly have the motor/gearbox grab the screens to turn the tables. Depending on container size the required torque after a decent watering could be a limiting factor. BBR
I think it's a really cool idea, but I'm not convinced the yield would be that much better. If the plant is constantly rotating, then no single photosynthetic cell would get constant sunlight, so even though you may increase the surface exposure by say 4x, you would reduce the total light intake at any single site to 1/4. I think what you would get is very even growth all the way around the plant. However, my Spidey senses tell me that when you do things the way nature does them, there are likely benefits that may not be immediately apparent. And since the sun does naturally travel across the sky, perhaps if you had them on a very slow, 24 hour spin it would be a little less stressful because the plant would be focusing its energy to a different set of nodes throughout the day. Just some food for thought.
[quote name='"DT4"']I think it's a really cool idea, but I'm not convinced the yield would be that much better. If the plant is constantly rotating, then no single photosynthetic cell would get constant sunlight, so even though you may increase the surface exposure by say 4x, you would reduce the total light intake at any single site to 1/4. I think what you would get is very even growth all the way around the plant. However, my Spidey senses tell me that when you do things the way nature does them, there are likely benefits that may not be immediately apparent. And since the sun does naturally travel across the sky, perhaps if you had them on a very slow, 24 hour spin it would be a little less stressful because the plant would be focusing its energy to a different set of nodes throughout the day. Just some food for thought.[/quote] Ideally I would want it to rotate once every 30 min to an hour but so far have yet to find a motor that will work. Also take into consideration that there will be all white or Mylar walls pretty close to the plants.
I looked over their website, but I'm still not convinced. They make a bunch of claims but don't back anything up with science or evidence, and some of them seem vague and contradictory (6x the yield is one claim, then 2x the dried product with 600W vs 1000W is another claim - that's not six times, what's going on? Wait, they are comparing their results to "traditional methods", what is that, soil? Using hydroponics alone will give you better results than soil, so why the complicated rotating system??). Honestly, if you just like to build neat stuff, do it. It looks like fun. But I don't believe the yield claims. I'll bet you could leave the motors off for an entire cycle and get comparable results, your plants would just all grow toward the center.
^^^i look at it this way. When you have stationary plants and a stationary light the same spots are going to get light and some spots will always get shade(for the most part) But if the plants are slowly and constantly rotating and there's a couple of fans blowing on the plants then the plants will get and even distribution of light. Also think about the different training methods like LST and SCROG. The whole premise is to move and manipulate the plants so that the hormones get distributed to different parts of the plant. Causing the plant to react and grow towards the light. So my theory(and I'm pretty sure the theory of the hydroplex) is that the plants will be constantly trying to reach for the light causing better growth. If I had 3 grand I would just buy one of these cause atleast I know it's proven to work. This is kinda like my idea only better http://www.omegagarden.com/
It just seems like it would be more efficient to rotate the lights, not the plants. And like I said, I agree that the light would hit more sites, but since the plant is rotating, each site will only get full light about 1/4 of the time, 1/2 strength about 1/2 the time, and no light 1/4 of the time. With a VERY slow rotation, like 24 hours, I would buy the concept of the plant growing toward the light, but I don't think they would react fast enough in a 30 minute rotation. That seems very fast and unnatural but who knows. LST does manipulate hormones, and SCROG allows you to shape the plant manually to get more light to the nodes of your choice, and those have been proven to increase yield time and time again. The OmegaGarden gets major cool points, but again, why not just rotate the light?
[quote name='"DT4"'] It just seems like it would be more efficient to rotate the lights, not the plants. And like I said, I agree that the light would hit more sites, but since the plant is rotating, each site will only get full light about 1/4 of the time, 1/2 strength about 1/2 the time, and no light 1/4 of the time. With a VERY slow rotation, like 24 hours, I would buy the concept of the plant growing toward the light, but I don't think they would react fast enough in a 30 minute rotation. That seems very fast and unnatural but who knows. LST does manipulate hormones, and SCROG allows you to shape the plant manually to get more light to the nodes of your choice, and those have been proven to increase yield time and time again. The OmegaGarden gets major cool points, but again, why not just rotate the light?[/quote] Well I remember watching a different video. It was a large scale omega garden looking thing. I believe that they were growing lettuce or something but the point is that when the plants are upside down it is easier for the plant to grow ie fluids and hormones and nutrients all being pulled to the tips of the plants which not only gives a consistent crop but the plants grew faster than the traditional method. The part about the plants only getting a 1/4 of the light stuff is true but that's already happening constantly. Some of the plant will get shaped. A light mover would definately help but if I have a 5x5 grow tent there's not much room. But rotating the plants would be easier. Also I'm not saying my method would make them grow faster. Shit it might even take longer the get them the size I want but if it means that I end up with 4 plants that have huge colas everywhere and not just on the top that are all super dense then I would be a happy camper. I want to grow for myself so I'm looking more for quality and less of quantity.
Now that's an interesting theory. The plant really wouldn't have any idea where the top is because of the upside down rotation which might cause it to spread the hormones more evenly throughout the plant. My only point is, this is a very complex setup, mechanically, for something that could be achieved much easier through something like SCROG or even just by maximizing your root ball and growing space. And you want to do this in a 5x5?? There are so many ways to increase yield, this just seems a little over the top and inefficient. But it's still neat, like I said, if you like the idea, go for it and post some results!
Still not sure what you mean by this. In a SCROG, the tops all get 100% full light the entire day. In a rotating scenario, no single site will ever get full light for more than 25% of the day. If the screen is full, every single budding site will receive full daylight all day long, and you can place your stationary light so that the intensity is evenly distributed to every one of those buds. all day long. It's more work throughout the grow because you have to train, but I can almost guarantee if it's done correctly will give you far better results than rotating.
[quote name='"DT4"']Still not sure what you mean by this. In a SCROG, the tops all get 100% full light the entire day. In a rotating scenario, no single site will ever get full light for more than 25% of the day. If the screen is full, every single budding site will receive full daylight all day long, and you can place your stationary light so that the intensity is evenly distributed to every one of those buds. all day long. It's more work throughout the grow because you have to train, but I can almost guarantee if it's done correctly will give you far better results than rotating.[/quote] Sorry I was talking about regular plants not scrog cause your spot on.
[quote name='"DT4"'] Now that's an interesting theory. The plant really wouldn't have any idea where the top is because of the upside down rotation which might cause it to spread the hormones more evenly throughout the plant. My only point is, this is a very complex setup, mechanically, for something that could be achieved much easier through something like SCROG or even just by maximizing your root ball and growing space. And you want to do this in a 5x5?? There are so many ways to increase yield, this just seems a little over the top and inefficient. But it's still neat, like I said, if you like the idea, go for it and post some results![/quote] The reason I'm thinking a 5x5 is cause I already have a 5x5 tent. My last and first run I had alot of ventilation/circulation problems. Next time I go I only want to do 4 plants. I could scrog but honestly because of where and how my tent is set up it would it would make it harder to maintain. There's no way I could put a light mover in there. If I don't do this I will probably LST them. And I don't think it would be that complicated. It's only some wood, lazy Susan hardware, and motor. If I do this it will do a couple of things. It will allow the light to be evenly distributed. Even if it's not as much. It will also allow my fans to blown on the entire plant without any dead spots. I want to start right now but it's a waiting game for me right now just strategizing.
That's what I would do. Get a couple of successful grows down before getting too fancy. I'm doing LST with a couple of nodes as an expirement, but if I were you, and only doing 4 plants, I would probably do that and/or SCROG. You'll be in there every day learning new stuff and tweaking with your plants. If you're really handy with tools it might not be complicated - but I do a lot of do-it-yourself stuff and have learned for me, simpler is always better. I have no moving parts to break, no motors to replace and maintain, no additional electricity consumption, etc...
[quote name='"DT4"']That's what I would do. Get a couple of successful grows down before getting too fancy. I'm doing LST with a couple of nodes as an expirement, but if I were you, and only doing 4 plants, I would probably do that and/or SCROG. You'll be in there every day learning new stuff and tweaking with your plants. If you're really handy with tools it might not be complicated - but I do a lot of do-it-yourself stuff and have learned for me, simpler is always better. I have no moving parts to break, no motors to replace and maintain, no additional electricity consumption, etc...[/quote] Well honestly I want to spend as little time with my plants as possible cause I am always very busy so doing some LST or scrog doesn't sound good. This idea is simple once the build is done there's no extra work just put them on and grow. Of coarse you still have to maintain them as usual. Oh an other reason why I don't want to do scrog and prefer my new method is if I need to take my plants out it will be alot easier to do if they are just on a turntable compared to being tied up in a screen.
I can appreciate that. I'm going to go for as little maintenance as possible on my next grow as well, I'm only doing SCROG this time because I have the time and want the learning experience. I didn't do any topping, but I did LST a few tops through the screen. I intend to try to get a similarly large yield with no LST or SCROG next time, but I'm just gonna give them lots of light, space, and grow big roots, and MAY do some topping. If that grow goes as well as my current grow is, I don't suspect low yield will be a problem AT ALL.
On my last grow I topped half of them. Definatly a good choice if you plan on giving them lots of light and space and it's so easy and keeps them from getting to tall during the beginning of your flowering. I miss growing I want to start now.
I'm not too sure this isn't just overkill my friend. I turn my plants a 1/4 turn every day when I visit them.I swear that this improves my equalateral growth. I do also tie my top branches down to cause the lower growth to be stimulated. I couldn't see where this would hurt the plant but that's a lot of extra time money work moving parts and extra fire hazard for the benefit IMO. Not trying to discourage you in any way, but a mechanical approach seems a bit more realistical. Lots of moving parts equals lots of drama especially in DIY. Good luck hope this helps you and doesn't piss you off