NFT, 20 ltr res, 4 cuttings, grow diray

[recon]

Just thought i'd share this, just a spreed spreadsheet of the reading on a grow I did.

the setup was a 20ltr NFT kit, 250 watt to start and 600 watt to bud, both full spectrum lights. using 3 part floragro nuts, Growing 4 cuttings of a The Church plant.

went well enough but had some issues along the way. one was when my fan stopped working for a day, caused high temps and heat damage, also had some large ph swings towards the end which I did not fix immediately. i harvested a little early as a lot of the leaves on the plants had gone a rust/purple color and got worried. got a reasonable harvest, good quality but yield was not great at about 200g . the reading are not comprehensive as i missed days.

anyway, someone here might find it interesting. sorry about the formatting but can't upload a spreadsheet.

 

[Mr Eckted]

Hey man, thanks. That's interesting. I know it can be hard to even get a view if you're new here, but some of us appreciate it for sure.

 

[grow101]

Did you use a Gro-Tank 205?

 

[recon]

yep, was a 205 grow tank , should really have two for the 1msq area i have, i put a screen over the one i had to spread the plants out over more area. i also topped the plants early in life to encourage more stems to develop.
not really sure what started to PH to swing so much every so often, think something might have started growing in the tank, I did see some yellowy white grains in the tank towards the end, settleling out of the water on the bottom of the tank in a little sand bar. no idea what it might have been though.

 

[meltybubble]

Salts from the nutes can bind in the rez,I clicked the sheet but coulnt see pic's.

 

[Z-Beeblebrox]

I just started 2 x GT205 up in a homebuild cabinet. It would nice to see some pics and hear more about your experience with it.

 

[grow101]

I use the Gro Tank 205 since a couple of years, limitations of my grow-space make it a good fit.

The small reservoir is a compromise between size and buffer capacity against EC, pH and temperature swings. From my experiences you have to change water at the lower bound of suggestions made by the fertilizer company (e.g., if they suggest tank changes every 7-14 days, use 7) and keep readings of EC and pH at least every other day, to make sure you are still in your desired parameters. Those both might be of less concern if you use fewer plants, I once streched it to eight (4 different strains, two plants of each to render out the odd mutant), while Nutriculture suggests three.

Following the advice about the roots beeing well developed before transplanting to a NFT is essential. Jiffys held too much water, the roots didn't want to reach out. 5cm Netpots with hydro-clay worked very well.

@ Z-B: you've got a VERY nice looking thing build there. I don't understand a single word you guys say, so couldn't be of any help if there are questions, but the pictures tell a good story.

 

[Z-Beeblebrox]

So can you plant seeds directly in 1" rockwool on the GT205?

 

[recon]

hydro101 ; thx, could well have been crystals, I'll make sure and check it out better if i see it again, as it was i just flushed the tank.

z-bee; not sure what advice i can give, was my first nft. can only suggest you check the res daily. don't let you ph/nut get to far off. try keep the res at 10ltr or above as that helps buffer changes. and i'll probably flush the res monthly this time, or if i see big changes in ph. overall had few problems, biggest was my fan crapping out for a day, other was being careless and letting the ph get down to 4.5, plants did not like that. keep a diary so you don't forget your dates. good luck with you grow btw. I'd just like to suggest you place the tanks a bit higher to make tank siphoning easer and see what type of funnel you can get for filling the tank.

picture is cuttings at 31 days, been in the nft in 3inch rockwool for 10 days under 250w duel spec. bonzi mum in pot.

 

[rocket high]

ive used my 205 for 10 years ...soild and reliable. but i agree with grow101 -the res is so small the ph and EC-ppm can be very unstable and a right bitch to keep on top of without using to much PH down or up.

i wouldn't start seeds in the nft i would do that in a veg area with a heated mat or propagator with the lid off ..till the roots are protruding out of the 1inch block ,then put them in the 3 inch till the same happens, you want quite a lot of white roots sticking out before you put them in the NFT .From then on the roots should take off and create a nice white-ish rootmat.

this is mine from a few years back

21c-23c (69.9f-73.4f) are the best temps for the water to keep the oxygen at a optimum level for your plants.

good luck

 

[grow101]

Last time I used 4X4cm Grodan-Delta blocks from cutting to NFT, but it took ages to root, cuttings in hydro-clay or easy-plugs took only around 10 days to show roots and another week or so to be able to be placed on the NFT. I know, if you use the right procedures for rock-wool it should work perfectly, but not for me. I use an aquarium pump and air-stone (20cm, makes less noise than the small ones) to keep the water oxygenated.

 

[rocket high]

Saturation of the rockwool is the biggest hindrance when it comes to rooting clones or raising seed.

If you keep the block moist (no dripping when squeezed) then that is the best way to go for fast rooting cuttings or seedlings and a nice rootzone temp will help you no end .

 

[recon]

just like to thank everyone for their feed back. there are a couple of thing that i will definitely do different in future.

think i'll take a bit more care with my next diary and add some pictures so i can post it here later.

regards

 

[Z-Beeblebrox]

Just a quick update to comment on the discussion about seedlings in grodans on the gt205. I've sprouted the seeds in toiletpaper. The grodans were soaked in the reservoir: pH 5.8 EC 800µS/cm.
When the seeds were sprouted I planted them in the grodans and placed them on the Gt205 under 250W CFL (6000K):
1 day after planting:

1 week after planting there were roots coming out of the small grodans and I transferred them to the big grodans:

13 days after planting:

The roots: