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Building growing beds

EuroToker

EuroToker

Member
i want to switch to a 4x8 foot bed in my 2000w grow.

plan is to line a frame made from 2x2s with pondliner.

I am wondering how shallow I can get away with, I'm in an apartment building, so hauling 4 bales of sunshine/promix in and out every 2 months is not ideal.

can somebody tell me how big their successful beds have been in the past?


thanks.
 
F

FireFly22

Member
Just a thought, try using coco coir, in the mix that way you can re-use it. Especially if you use Cannazime in the last 3 weeks. I grew in a small hole with 1600w and I used a 6" deep bed. I was using about 16 plant /m2 ThSeeds Heavy Duty Fruity, and it yielded very well.
 
F

FireFly22

Member
U need drainage. Won't work without it. I have used a layer of Hydrotron, or hydro pebbles with pipes in and around the bed to get some air in there. Soma style. But then your talking a deeper bed. Fully organic with tea is the way with this. Minimal flush needed.
 
EuroToker

EuroToker

Member
This bed right now wont have drainage, bc commercial style

I've modified my plans for this bed to 96x40x5 inches, which means i can fill it with 3 bales of promix giving me a total of 310 liters or 80 gallons to work with.

any dirt growers with bed experience think this is big enough?
 
reckon

reckon

Member
EuroToker said:
This bed right now wont have drainage, bc commercial style

I've modified my plans for this bed to 96x40x5 inches, which means i can fill it with 3 bales of promix giving me a total of 310 liters or 80 gallons to work with.

any dirt growers with bed experience think this is big enough?
Click to expand...


no drainage?

what will keep the roots aerated? you going to run a bubbler?
 
O

od123

I've grown with promix in a standard 4'x4' flood and drain pan that's about 6" in height and have had success. The roots seemed to spread across the bottom of the trays. It's been awhile but I think the soil height was around 5".

 
S

shuswap

ive run many 4x8 tables,2x6 on edge and lined with poly and 2 bales of sunshine 4,roots are so tight you can cut it out in blocks when finished,no run off,just need to watch how much u feed and feed feed water,always worked well for me and others i know
 
EuroToker

EuroToker

Member
sushwap, now you're talking, 2 bales was enough? were the yeilds okay? im aiming for 3lbs per 2000w with purple kush, 25 plants per light
 
S

shuswap

well depends on the strain and the caregiver,but yes 2 per 1k has been had before.the purple kush is a bit tricky to grow,dont feed alot and when watering dont drown them give them enough so you can water again in 2 days and keep the feed feed water routine and you should be good.2 bales works fine with 2x6 on edge...
 
O

od123

od123, did you have drainage? also were they rootbound/getting dry towards the end?

The trays had one fill fitting each for drainage. Trays were watered with standard Lucas formula to VERY slight runoff every 4-5 days. The two trays held a combined total of one bag promix mixed with 1 cubic foot of perlite and 2 cubic feet of miracle grow organic potting soil. Each tray yielded aprox 1.5 pounds. Each scrog screen measured 4'x6'. Strain was Nirvana 4-way and GHS Great White Shark, El Nino, Trainwreck, and Big Bang flowered for exactly 2 months. Each tray held 9 plants and used one 1k hps. The trays were fairly solid with roots when finished but plants seemed to not suffer much as photos showed. No CO2 was used.

I hope this helps. Good Luck!
 
K

kannubis

Euro, I would suggest using 2"x4" s instead of 2"x2" s. I built mine out of 2"x2" s and the stability is less than I would like. I needed to add braces for support.
Good luck on the planter.
 
O

od123

I would build the trays with a minimum 2"x6" studs (2x8's would be even better). My soil height was around 5" but a good 7" of soil would have probably been better.
 
EuroToker

EuroToker

Member
ohhh i thought you meant 2 bales for 2000w tables.

could I get away with 3 total?

i fucking hate hauling promix into my apartment and getting the old stuff out, gets heaty
 
beer batter

beer batter

Member
i have made beds from rectangular platic tubs from target (the longest, widest and deepest ones they had -their about 1.5ft by 2.5 ft but the concept is the same, i used a drill bit the size of an ebb and flow drain paice (drill bit i found was for wood but it worked so long as i stayed away from teh edges where the texur of the plastic or thiner and hardened -this could work on a larger scail just with a bunch of smaller tubs, i veged in 18oz plastic solo/dixy cups from clone and vegged too long but its a concept im working. theirs 1/2inch toobing runing from the bottom of the plasitc trays into a catch reziviour under the table i made from 2x4's -the table should be solid and well suported in the middle and ends cause mine was not and leans inward a bit -next run i will think about supporting the weight in the middle of the tables (ive only 4 legs on a 4ftx ft table a foot off the ground) 3 trays under a 6oow feed with a pumpcan/wand attachment i cut the tip off of fo easy manual irrigation
 
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od123

Hey Euro, Why not try using 18 gallon sterlite containers. They measure 1.5'x2' and are a good 16" deep. 5 containers fit well when using a 4'x8' footprint. The containers shown in the pics below used a special made scrog screen to maximize the growing area. The containers are less than $5 at walmart. 2 bags of promix and 2 cubic feet of perlite filled all 5 containers. All in all a pretty simple and labor free grow once containers and scrog screens were set... train the plants to fill the nets, water once a week,then sit back and wait for harvest day. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.

The stadium style scrog screens were made individually for each container for ease of servicing since space was very confined. Good Luck!


 
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