most efficient hydro

[Guest]

hi
sorry if a similar topic already exist but im new to this forum and its hard for me to fidn anything here cos its too much knowledge here
i wanted to ask what is the most efficient system to grow?
im consdering dwc and ebb&flood for from 2 to 4 plants

 

[trademanny]

hi
sorry if a similar topic already exist but im new to this forum and its hard for me to fidn anything here cos its too much knowledge here
i wanted to ask what is the most efficient system to grow?
im consdering dwc and ebb&flood for from 2 to 4 plants

IMHO, DWC if you can control temps of your res (wanna keep it at like 68) ... E&F otherwise...

 

[Guest]

im just curious cos now im growing soil and im thinking of a new setup for the next grow and wanna try out hydro. the temps in my box are around 25 celsius (im fom europe) so its a bit to much i think. i was thinking of e&f because its easy to make & maintain.

 

[Cannabean]

you could grow in your soil pots but use the rockwool growcubes as a medium. kind of a mix between hydro and pots.
http://www.gchydro.com/detail.asp?product_id=growcubes

 

[ItsGrowTime]

Not much point to run ebb&flow, aero or NFT for only 2 to 4 plants. For that small crop, a couple 10gal DWCs will do the job nicely. Like suggested above, keep water temps in check (Hydroguard helps a lot with high water temps) and you'll grow some very nice plants.

 

[PonicalChillin]

yea,

efficiency = lucas formula ..adding back nutrients as the plants consume and never changing the reservoir for the entire life of the crop.

simplicity = ebb & flow wins

I've grown with both and the one thing that pushed me towards ebb & flow was reservoir temps. In DWC (or any system where the roots are submerged constantly) reservoir temps can be a real problem to maintain.

In ebb&flow reservoirs temps are not an issue.

ebb&flo system for just a few plants however is a bit tricky if using a table/tray.

 

[trademanny]

yea,

efficiency = lucas formula ..adding back nutrients as the plants consume and never changing the reservoir for the entire life of the crop.

simplicity = ebb & flow wins

Lucas himself uses E&F -- with his formula and addbacks I believe..

 

[Guest]

im just doing it for fun im not trying to get the biggest crop ever i just wanna learn new things
could you tell me more about this lucas formula?
and what would happen if the temps in dwc would be a bit higher than 68 which is about 20 celsius (again im from europe say like 25 celsius? would it affect the plants alot and in what way?

 

[ItsGrowTime]

High water temps means less dissolved oxygen in the water and a good environment for root rot to take hold. Root rot can kill your plants. 68F is ideal. Anything higher than 75F is asking for trouble.

 

[trademanny]

Hydroguard is said to make the higher temps tolerable in DWC. It is an algaecide if I recall correctly.

 

[MrFista]

Efficiency depends on what you mean by efficient?

DWC grows faster but it really is, as everyone else who's used it knows, a PITA if you can't keep temps down. Save yourself the headaches and don't do it.

Ebb and flow is good for beginners, but think because I say beginners it's for lightweights, ebb and flow is tried and true, a really good system. Forgiving, highly productive, and cheap and easy to make.

Lucas formula sounds good too.

 

[FreezerBoy]

I admit I haven't dealt with root rot and that maintaining DWC temps manually can be a pain (doin' the ice bottle trick now due to heat wave.) I did E&F for years. Just finished my first DWC. I can't imagine going back to E&F. I'll either find a way to cool (been pondering an IceProbe) or shut down in the summer from now on.

I grew a single Sativa in an 18 gallon tub (12 gal water). With a 17 week flower period, it needed all the footprint I had. With Indicas, it could easily accommodate 2-4 plants.

If I had to manually adjust temps every day all year, I'd ditch DWC. I'm not THAT sold on it. E&F is a great place to start. If I had to hand water, my girls would never make it to harvest. But, once I saw root porn, I was doomed.

 

[Guest]

and if i put an air pump to oxidate (i hope its the right word) the water?
but i think it will be very hard for me to keep the temps down (i cant afford an ac
so im almost sure ill try e&f.
last question how much time i would save in dwc compared to e&f compared to soil? we talkin days? or weeks?

 

[SvenB]

Bida what servers do you play on?

 

[trademanny]

last question how much time i would save in dwc compared to e&f compared to soil? we talkin days? or weeks?

I dunno, this is kind of a 'holy war' type question in and of itself. There are guys on here that swear it is faster, and others who've grown for years with both and notice no difference.

Personally, in the event DWC is faster, I'd rather wait the extra week or three vs. fighting with the res to keep the temps down.

 

[Guest]

@SvenB - polish servers
@trademanny - thanks for ur help and cus i wanna try hydro for the first time i think i will stick to e&f cos of its simplicity

 

[happyinmendo]

Top fed bato buckets w/ perlite in them is going to be your best bet for most efficient and least amount of headache. You put them on a raised 2x10 and let it drain into a bucket w/ pump w/ a float valve and pump the drain off water anywhere you want it. It totaly runs itself and w/ a nutridose all you have to do is stock with concentrate tanks for the nutridose to draw from.

Seriously, this is a very simple system, bato buckets cost about 5.00 w/ fittings ready to plug into a pvc pipe which you can drill holes in every foot or 18'' depending on your preference.

You can put a 55 gallon barrel or one of those new 48 gallon resevoirs from sun systems piped in w/ funny pipe or poly pipe with standard drip line garden parts. You are talking a fully functional system for under 1000.00 including lighting and everything. Media, etc. That is really a hard feat. Especially when with the perlite you plants will outperform almost anything with the possible exception of maybe aeroponics when it is working, but it tends ot have so many maintanence issues to really stay on peak performance, where this is serioulsy the stoners system.

Pimp juice definitely wins the laziest gardener in the world award with best end result. Its quite amusing seeing him pull off crazy feats and hardly spend anytime dealing with it. he has the ideal system I'm talking about. it also works really well for larger plants, so don't fret on growing 'em big in perlite with just a 2 gallon pot... it works great!!!

 

[MoleMcHenry]

If simplicity and efficiency are goals, how about hempy buckets?

That's just a bucket filled with soilless medium and a hole cut about 2 inches from bottom. I tried DWC but the temps were too hard to control. Hempy buckets give results like DWC but without the temp problems that cause root rot. There's not much info on hempy buckets here, but if you google "hempy collective" you'll find lots of info on another site.

I'm using hempy buckets with perlite and coco right now and loving em.

 

[trademanny]

If simplicity and efficiency are goals, how about hempy buckets?

...

Hempy buckets give results like DWC but without the temp problems that cause root rot.

Yea?.. now you've got my attention... must look!

 

[gregor_mendel]

If you want to try DWC, but your temps are high, try bio buckets. They can easily tolerate an additional 10*F over other DWC methods.

All hydro, including coco will have growth rates that make a soil grower flip out.