Want to delve into Hydro

Discussion in 'Hydroponic Growing' started by dman~da420man, Jun 6, 2010.

  1. Some advice would be appreciated here. I'm new to the working water thing. here is what I propose. I have a Meter2 closet and would like to scrog it. for the time I have a 400w Hps light in it. I would like to use 6 plants to scrog.
    Seeing as i want to go hydro I think I would be better off with a reservoir system, seeing the plants will be difficult to move to change the water out of the reservoir. If i use an ebb and flow system, i was thinking to keep the main reservoir out of the tent, and making it easier to change and keep out of the light.
    The system I was looking into has (6) 3 Gallon Buckets (6) 6" Mesh Pots (6) Grommets (6) Fittings (6) Dripper Stakes, Tubing, & Hydroton and they suggest buying an 18 gallon res. I want to use Roots Organics for Nutes. Am I thinking correctly?
     
  2. 3 feet by 3 feet w/ 6 plants?
     
  3. IMO

    I would go with the simplest and most effective which is DWC 5 gallon buckets setup like bubble buckets and waterfarm if you want it.

    The whole reservoir thing takes some practice, if you have them in 5 gallon bucks they stand alone, that way you save on the pumps and stuff too.

    It takes a little longer to change water, but I can do 4 in an hour fairly comfortably.

    That said, I have a thread here somewhere where I express my own interest in ebb and flow. So I would not discourage you against that as imo per research it might be the easiest and most effective.

    Good luck. You will never go back to soil.
     

  4. It sounds a little too ambitious to me. Six plants in nine square feet would hardly give enough room for light let alone air circulation. I would think that this would be very hard to manage. Let us know how you make out.
     
  5. I grow 4 in 20"x36", rather easily. :wave:

    But if you're going to do 6, put a 600w in there.
     
  6. Ok thanks for the input everything, I have read in a srcog I would be looking at a plant per square foot, but they do suggest to cut it down and I figured 2/3 was a good number. Mind you this is really stretching myself, not only new to hydro but scrog as well.
    As for the light there again from the things I have read, seems like a 3'x3' is about the perfect size for a scrog with a 400w. Yes I understand for my needs a 600 nearly doubles lumen's, but at this point the cost of a new light is prohibitive. Another source says 50 watts per sq ft, and that is can be stretched a bit but not too far, there again the 400 will fit. Another source of info says minimum of 3000 lumen's per sq feet, and again if my math was correct i have surpassed that mark. I will eventally go to a 600, but I have been looking at the 430 watt with the added extra blue spectrum. I have new 400w bulbs so at the start it will have an intense bulb, not a used up has been.
    Circulation in the room has a 4" inline fan system moving about 160 cfm 3x3x6 is about 108 cu feet, so my transfer rate is less than every minute I can exchange the air? not sure if the math there is correct but i still beat the every 5 minute exchange rule. I have a fan moving the air in the tent circularly. it is vented out my top and intake will be from below the canopy.
    The reason I was thinking about a reservoir system is I have been told you should trade out your nutrient solution every 2 weeks, that may be wrong but yet there is a change at change in growth cycles. It seems from what I read that once under the Screen and trained you shouldn't move the plants until you harvest them. It would be hard to change the individual buckets in the limited space under the canopy.
    Now that brings up a question, I have seen everything from 6" to 12 " as a screen level above. I was thinking 8" to 10 " to give plenty of room to work with the plant under the canopy.
     
  7. a friend of mine who grows says a good rule of thumb is 150 watts for the first plant, and 100 watts for each additional plant.

    I've been doing my research and plan on starting a grow in a month. My plan is 1 plant per m2. Serious seeds shows harvest per m2, so i figured that would be a good way to do it.

    I've also seen a guy on these forums get some very large plants. He said in his grow area he started with 8 plants, and he is getting better harvests with just 2 plants in there. So don't stuff your plants in there.
     
  8. Well Just as things are I'm going to do 4 In the tent in soil. I still am looking into the hydro systems. A few other things have changed and may be moving to a new growing site. However these are set here I'm setting the screen at 12 " above as i hear that bubba kush takes a bit of veg time. i'll try to get some pics up soon.
     
  9. [quote name='Kinetic420']600w switchable HPS or MH Ballast $147.00 @ amazon.com, sold by LEDWholesalers

     

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