Hi all! I am wondering what is a good hydro system for a beginner grower. I will be growing 12 plants in a room about 11ft by 10 ft. I was contemplating splitting the room and making a flower room and veg room and going for a perpetual grow. I was thinking RDWC but it looked like it was going to be out of my price range with getting a chiller and all. With the system I am hoping to have a decent size reservoir so I can go without changing my res for 1-2 weeks if need be. Open to all suggestions!! Thanks all!
Beginner! What type of hydro system?!?
- Thread starter Blunts.
- Start date
K
krest
Like you already said, if your restricted with funds then the system you choose is price dependent.
But, if you want to jump right in, building your own RDWC system is a good way to go, and you can control your costs if you plan correctly. Just make damn sure you understand the mechanics of RDWC before you start building... Also, I'm sure you could get through one grow without a chiller then add it to your second grow. Just use Botanicare's Aquashield or Dutchmaster's Zone throughout the entire first grow to keep the nasties away.
I would not recommend the bio-buckets. I grew in them for a few years, it was expensive and they flooded all the time.
But, if you want to jump right in, building your own RDWC system is a good way to go, and you can control your costs if you plan correctly. Just make damn sure you understand the mechanics of RDWC before you start building... Also, I'm sure you could get through one grow without a chiller then add it to your second grow. Just use Botanicare's Aquashield or Dutchmaster's Zone throughout the entire first grow to keep the nasties away.
I would not recommend the bio-buckets. I grew in them for a few years, it was expensive and they flooded all the time.
Ebb&Flood for least maintenance & ease of set -up ...u can do pots with perlite & promix/sunshine mix , r/w (cubes n slabs or just cubes ) & even seen peeps do rocks in one gals .
just add water n ferts & flood & drain .
just add water n ferts & flood & drain .
John LOQUE
Member
I don't think that growing in soil is easier than doing hydro. It's more simple but it's less forgiving. In hydro you don't have to ask yourself : do i need to give them food today ? Or Do i need to water them today ?
Hempy bucket seems to be the way you should go with chelated nutes
Hempy bucket seems to be the way you should go with chelated nutes
While I gave up E&F for DWC, I'm only doing a 1 plant, 1 tub scrog grow. For beginners, E&F is a great simple intro.
Not familiar with Hempy's but, those that are seem to love it. It's certainly worth reading up on.
Not familiar with Hempy's but, those that are seem to love it. It's certainly worth reading up on.
if ya never grew a plant soil is def the way to go u can run a dwc bucket with it to get used to hydro it takes some playin with to dial it in... i wouldnt want to learn on a 12 plant 6k opp...
soil is more forgivin by far u cant kill a plant in soil overnite... if somthin goes wrong in dwc or rdwc u can open the room to a horrible sight.... i wouldnt reccomend jumpin ballz deep into a rdwc for ur 1rst grow... i would grow a few plants seperate 1rst to learn... but thats just me... a 12 site rdwc is the system ya want though.
soil is more forgivin by far u cant kill a plant in soil overnite... if somthin goes wrong in dwc or rdwc u can open the room to a horrible sight.... i wouldnt reccomend jumpin ballz deep into a rdwc for ur 1rst grow... i would grow a few plants seperate 1rst to learn... but thats just me... a 12 site rdwc is the system ya want though.
CannabisDog
Member
I would start with Hempy Buckets, very easy to get the hang of. Not much different then soil and very cheap to get started. Check out the Hempy Bucket thread on IC.
hazydreams
Active member
if you do not know how to "read" a plant. i would not recommend hydro as your first go.
the problem with hydroponics is they react very well to good decisions, and very very badly to bad decisions.
12 bucket RDWC will work and if you model your nutrient schedule after one of the better growers on here doing large scale RDWC, rolling without a chiller in any type of DWC is Russian roulette unless your room temps with the lights on are 68*. if you want to ensure a harvest you'll defiantly want to run the chiller, trust in that much.
with out a chiller i would suggest reading up on hempy buckets or a Shallow Water Culture to ensure that your water temps have less of an impact on plant health.
the problem with hydroponics is they react very well to good decisions, and very very badly to bad decisions.
12 bucket RDWC will work and if you model your nutrient schedule after one of the better growers on here doing large scale RDWC, rolling without a chiller in any type of DWC is Russian roulette unless your room temps with the lights on are 68*. if you want to ensure a harvest you'll defiantly want to run the chiller, trust in that much.
with out a chiller i would suggest reading up on hempy buckets or a Shallow Water Culture to ensure that your water temps have less of an impact on plant health.
What this guy said. Plus check out Rezdog's "The Recipe". Save you a lot time.
Hovz
Active member
I would say a ebb and flow table, i have two 2'x4' tables im thinking about trying it with. The cool part is you can run two tables off one reservoir. Just add nutes and adjust ph. At my hydro store they even have ph buffered nutes so just add with your tap water and your ready togo. I've done dwc before with good results and if you have multipe individual buckets and something goes wrong with them its isolated to just the one plant.
Shady Smoka
Active member
Hempys for the win
While sub 70's temps are far better, 75º-80º alone do not mean trouble. Avoiding organics and all things "zyme" you can run warmer water without trouble. Below are pics of near 90º DWC roots, clean as a bleached bone.
DWC will stay cooler, longer than an SWC simply because of it's greater volume.
That said, now that Blunts has chosen Hempy style, I say great choice! Break a stem dude.
hazydreams
Active member
While sub 70's temps are far better, 75º-80º alone do not mean trouble. Avoiding organics and all things "zyme" you can run warmer water without trouble. Below are pics of near 90º DWC roots, clean as a bleached bone.
DWC will stay cooler, longer than an SWC simply because of it's greater volume.
That said, now that Blunts has chosen Hempy style, I say great choice! Break a stem dude.
FREEZER,
I also have pulled off high temp dwc runs and I can't reccomend it in good faith to other growers. While nothing is impossible running dwc at those temps will require at least a dead res and balls of steel in my experience.
The problem is not if it can be done but rather stability and repeatability over time, I just don't think that the high res temps help either of these. I reccomended Swc because of the use of an air gap to help the roots receive oxygen in high temps. I agree that dwc will stay cooler loonger but once the water heat soaks in a dwc good luck bringing the temp down.
The hempy buckets are a great choice for starting from what I read there's very little to screw up, versus the rdwc and dwc where we are constantly battling the heat we create.
IME rdwc is great at limiting the amount of day to day work so long as you set it up with the right equipment, other wise I feel that its just a hassle trying to pull crops from a dwc system the doesn't have have the necessary hardware.
Blunts good choice in the hempys read up on what the guys are using on this boar for nutrients and you shouldd bee set to grow
DrRav
Member
I use an NFT system and supposedly there good for noobies. I have never used anything else so I cant compare.
Im new here but so far I haven't seen anyone else use these in their grow journals. Is there a specific reason for this? Like are they really bad or something?
It seems to work pretty well for me so I have no plans on changing anytime soon. (Unless the experts here tell me otherwise)
Im new here but so far I haven't seen anyone else use these in their grow journals. Is there a specific reason for this? Like are they really bad or something?
It seems to work pretty well for me so I have no plans on changing anytime soon. (Unless the experts here tell me otherwise)
nft
nft
NFT is great. No timers you dont really need an airstone either. it's also quiet...
I often see the fuzzy roots up top and "water roots" down below. Then roots grow down into the rez too. Pump failure is the only drawback but is not usually likely cause the pump is on 24/7
nft
NFT is great. No timers you dont really need an airstone either. it's also quiet...
I often see the fuzzy roots up top and "water roots" down below. Then roots grow down into the rez too. Pump failure is the only drawback but is not usually likely cause the pump is on 24/7
Quite right. The point of DWC or SWC is O2 to the roots and cold water holds more than warm water. Warm water, to a degree, defeats the purpose of water culture grows. Just wanted to point out that high temps alone are not a guaranteed death warrant as some would have us believe.
Go Hempy, go.
