12x16 foot 8k dirt to hydro conversion.

[Observer Tom]

Hi guys, I'm primarily a dirt grower with too many starts and not enough big dirt plants, so I'm going to convert my 12'x16' room for one hydro run to see what all the fuss is about. I'll have my dirt starts as a backup plan.

About 6 months ago I tried some RDWC plants but the whole thing went bad. It was the middle of summer in a small room with too much heat and no chiller. Now I'm much more prepared and hope to see this one through. I have a 1/3rd HP chiller and a mountain of buckets, now all I need to do is decide the method and put it together.

Ok so the setup:

- The room is 12 feet by 24 feet with about 16-18 feet covered by 8, 1k lights in batwings with lifters.
- Concrete floor, panda plastic is up. Ceiling is 16 feet plus.
- I have 36, 5 gallon buckets, many with 1/2" holes drilled about 1/2 off the bottom. I have a 300 gallon res and some sump pumps and air pumps.
- 1/3rd HP drop-in chiller and a EC/TDS/PH meter.

So I guess the first question is, E&F or drip in my situation? I don't want to go the RDWC route or some dirt/water hybrid.

Remember I have only 1 hydro run under my belt and it never went to flower, so simplicity but more importantly reliability is a factor.

I pictured a drip system but I think when I add the res height + slope for drainage + bucket it will be too high for me to get above the plants for maintenance.

I have pictures but they won't help much at this stage, it's a concrete floor, a pile of buckets and some hanging lights. You can imagine all that.

 

[morrisgreenberg]

i know your not looking at RDWC but it may be the most simplest to assemble, check out Blazeoneup's sticky tutorial, i use Cap's ebb and grow...all you would need is a controller to set your buckets up, this is about $275 and thats that, but the cheaper route would be that thread and i am sure you can put it together very fast

 

[GOONie]

I love my RDWC setup but I think for a grow of your scale it would be easier to do an e&f. Pick whatever comes easiest to you is my opinion.

 

[Observer Tom]

Thanks for the tips. Last summer I did a 16 bucket RDWC (that's where I got these buckets) and lost them all to root rot/slime. I know what went wrong but it's scary to try that same method again because it happened so quickly.

Yesterday I assembled stands for the buckets, put some clones in hydroton netpots and hand watered them from the top. I'm using very gentle light today and plan to set up some top drips until I figure out what's next.

I guess the problem with top drips is you risk stem rot if you're wetting too close to the stem, and if the bucket shifts you risk not wetting all of the roots.

I know it's kinda goofy to start out with so many buckets and such a large area but my dirt clones are too small to go in here now so I may as well try hydro because the alternative is keeping the lights off for a month. I'd rather pay the power bill and learn something even if it goes terribly wrong. =)

And if it goes RIGHT, well, not dealing with so much dirt would be a major plus.

 

[Observer Tom]

Thanks for the tips. Last summer I did a 16 bucket RDWC (that's where I got these buckets) and lost them all to root rot/slime. I know what went wrong but it's scary to try that same method again because it happened so quickly.

Yesterday I assembled stands for the buckets, put some clones in hydroton netpots and hand watered them from the top. I'm using very gentle light today and plan to set up some top drips until I figure out what's next.

I guess the problem with top drips is you risk stem rot if you're wetting too close to the stem, and if the bucket shifts you risk not wetting all of the roots.

I know it's kinda goofy to start out with so many buckets and such a large area but my dirt clones are too small to go in here now so I may as well try hydro because the alternative is keeping the lights off for a month. I'd rather pay the power bill and learn something even if it goes terribly wrong. =)

And if it goes RIGHT, well, not dealing with so much dirt would be a major plus.

 

[morrisgreenberg]

if you have a decent chiller you should be good to go, cardinal rule with hydroponics, never above 72F water temps...root rot has the ability to dishearten many