Im a soil guy... always have been. but i locked in with the missus... got married and moved to a place where things have to happen a little differently.. i know hydro is the way to go... I have the room set up just right so no worries there.. proper heating / cooling / humidity / co2 content.. air filters ect ad nauseam.. so i want to to start simple.. small enough.. 4 - 6 plants... 350 dollars budget... Crazy low? Enough for a starters way into hydro? Any comments appreciated!
Since your used to soil, you might appreciate how we do things. We use ebb&flow trays and reservoirs, with 3 gallon buckets that wick up the water from the bottom up. You get the best of both worlds. Soil keeps things manageable, the hydro automates the process.
That's not technically Hydro, that's just soil grown with a watering system, you WILL NOT get the benefits of growing in an actual hydro setup. Hydro means that your roots are in the solution or are in an inert medium; giving the plant more direct access to the nutrients and more air to the roots, resulting in the massive, healthy growth hydro is famous for. With a budget of 300 and since this is your fist hydro grow... I'd suggest you but a kit, I recommend the kits at www.ezhydrokit.com, I've only bought one kit from them(2 gallon NTF bucket)... But it was great and their other stuff looks good........ But DO NOT use EZ Hydro's nutrients, they are horrible, for hydro I recommend Advanced Nutrients... They're the only brand I use Anyways hope this will help set you back on the path to true hydro enlightenment
you are doing the right thing by moving over to hydro, in my opinion only, of course if budget is a priority then I would make a DIY "linked" bubble bucket set up - a six bucket set up would only cost $75 - $100, leaving you $200 for a pump and hydro nutes, ph down/up and a ph meter and nute meter - and you can easily customise it for your grow space or add more buckets at a later date ;O) if I had one piece of advice for you it would be that 02 is critical in a bubble bucket set up - the more 02 you can blast those roots with the more productive your grow will be and there will be less chance of "root rot" so buy the biggest air pump you can afford - in fact i'd blow a good proportion of your budget on a decent POND air pump because 6 buckets, lids and the piping wont cost you much at all if you have everything else already only drawback of a decent pump is that the noise of the bubbling can be a factor - you can eliminate bubbling noise with air stones but these clog up and reduce the amount of 02 going into the water which will put more pressure on the pump which in turn will make that noisier too - I never use air stones out of experience of having to clean them every couple of weeks but the major advantages of hydro well outweigh this drawback - if you set up properly and have a control bucket you'll love: - only having to water one bucket (which doesnt even have to be in the grow area) being able to measure the amount of nutes and ph levels easily not having to physically get to all your plants huge yields knowing exactly when you need to water being able to make lids with different pot sizes and numbers for different stages of the grow those are just some of the advantages if I can help more then just let me know ;O) S&M
wow... extremely helpful already. ive gone ahead and begun the legwork on purchasing something from the hydro kit place... and i have rumpleforskins guide on hydro buckets and his amazing grows... im working on combining a series of these things. luckily i have enough MH and HPS lights hanging around to choke a horse... not to mention about 30 of those home depot buckets. Im ready to make the leap.
no, no - ebb and flow is great if you like water on the floor of your grow room and messing about with timers glad your linking your buckets - the benefits in the long run far outweigh having to spend a little more time, money and effort on setting up you'll have a great result i'm sure just dont forget that the 02 is the most important part of the set up ;O)
Ebb and flow Hydro sytems are great, what you're talking about is when they aren't used or built right. In a well built/used ebb and flow system, there will never be any water on the floor because there's a drain for when the water gets to a certain level in the tray(which should be checked regularly so it doesn't clog). And your argument about timers is completely wrong and stupid, you need a timer for your lights anyways, so just use the same timer model, that way it won't confuse you. Some of the best weed I've smoked has come from an ebb and flow system. P.S. I think he was talking about the automated watering system that other guy tried to pass off as hydro.
every system works well if set up properly my point was that if you look through the threads on growing you will always find a dis-proportionate amount of ebb and flow questions and they are normally about timing problems buckets are much simpler in my opinion to set up and less prone to major leaks - not a dribble but where the table has flooded plus they are more versatile and you can always easily add to a bucket system each to their own though pax
ebb and flow CRAP! I dont think so.... Each system when set up correctly works good. My area is to short to go with buckets but a ebb and flow system has been the ticket for me. I grow in less then 2 foot high and have had great results with a ebb and flow.. never has it overflowed. I would say read around find what system fits your needs and area and go from there, we all have to work with the area we have and generally the biggest newbe mistake is to forget about YOUR area when setting up. the area is master. heat control,circulation and such all play a factor in your yeild. For instance my original light was a 250 hps square fixture.. yeah i bought it before i was set up a few years ago. i ran cooling vents and grew with it for two years, worked fine... My initial thought was anything bigger would overheat my area. recently my 250 went down bad ballast, and of course it was on a sunday hydro shop just about to close, i replaced that light with a 400 watt cool tube. I was nervous about heat issues only to realize the 400 ran cooler and fit my area much better. point being study your area.. good luck buddy... Keeping it green........Budslinger