8 Plants x 8 Lights. Farmer's New Toys

[farmari]

They don't call it death without cause for no reason. DWC can be tricky if water gets warm or nasties take over. Unless you've got the ability to lose a whole crop I'd experiment before doing a whole room of something. Ebb and Flow is much more forgiving in my opinion. Might want to checkout Ebb buckets such as the multiflow or CAP ebb n'gro. Less likely for warm water to cause much harm.

Hey FlowerFarmer, (or anyone else) dumb question but do you know if filling the bucket with a medium is important with ebb and flow? I've done large plants in 6" net pots of hydroton in 5 gallon buckets, DWC, but don't know if I could do the same except flood and drain instead of DWC. In examples like you mention, and most significantly in DHF's past tree setup, it seems the buckets are filled with a medium instead of just an anchoring net pot.

Death without cause... yea, I had two years of .5-2.5lb plants, until the last few runs involving some plants randomly dying, others yielding poorly, mixed with a few that would be perfectly healthy. No clue. In haste I have been able to switch to coco thanks to the info posted by yourself and others here.

too much on my plate..things never getting done when needed, etc..pair that with a bit of laziness/procrastination (and lack of RO water reserves for when needing to flush) and you've got a recipe subpar gardens..

It's a slight comfort to hear other growers also have gardens affected by being too busy and sometimes lazy, but seeing your "subpar" results in terms of pounds per month and gpw makes me feel rather pathetic in comparison, lol. I only spent 4 hours in my small growroom today but feel totally exhausted.

 

[silver hawaiian]

I'm itchin for something more then coco and blumats right now although I have aquired all of the fixins' for a water only amended soil run. Might have me singin a different tune if I can just blumat water into dirt and have success.

Water-only is essentially all I do (I supplement with teas here'n there, usually only when it crosses my brain).

I think part of my ACK HYDRO NO resistance is to familiarizing myself with pH, EC, swings, what's up mean, what's down mean,
ppm, etc..

And like I said, there is a large element of "It's hard to fuck this up" with dirt that I find quite... ..accommodating

 

[GrowTechLB]

looking forward to this but I don't want to get too excited just incase there is failure.. The Ebb system sounds right for me.. The buckets I have settled on using are regular 5Gal.. have them with a 4x4 Grow Block in a net pot and have the buckets filled with hydroton (obviously black w/ a lid).. I'll run 9 buckets on a 50Gal resi and probably go to a - 3 Nute - 1 RO or Tap - feeding schedule. The question I have is should I just run Ebb & Flow or run it with a top feed system attached to it as well either extend lines from the flood pipes, use blumats, or run a totally separate system?

What are your thoughts?

Another question I have (and I promise this will be one of the last) is I want to do a sealed room with Co2 but I don't really want to exhaust it, would rather re-cycle the enriched Co2 air.. Will I be able to keep my temps down in the day time or will I need and AC unit? If so would it just be better to run an exhaust relying on my fan to take care of the high temp issues? Should I run a heater at night or will the room stay warm enough on a 12/12 flip? It is in my house so it should stay at about 20 degrees Celsius.

My last flood bucket grow was remote.. visiting every 3-4 days.

A DIY if you've got the skill set is always the way to go. Float switches are available online, but you've gotta do some research. Someone once had a flood bucket setup on here that operated using pumps/timers/gravity float valve.. it did not employ electronic float switches and seemed pretty simple. Anyone remember it or got a link?

Flower, just want to say thanks so much again for all the help and insight you've given me, probably have saved me lots of money & headaches.

What I quoted up there is typically what I want to run. something easy, maybe elevate my res, let gravity to it's thing when it's time to feed and empty them into another smaller res with a pump set up in it to cart it back to my main 50Gal res.. so maybe almost like a buffer bucket (solely used for pumping the run-off solution back into my res) at the end of the system?

Any idea's there too Flower?

Thanks again everyone
Happy Grows.. GrowtechLB

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Hey FlowerFarmer, (or anyone else) dumb question but do you know if filling the bucket with a medium is important with ebb and flow? I've done large plants in 6" net pots of hydroton in 5 gallon buckets, DWC, but don't know if I could do the same except flood and drain instead of DWC. In examples like you mention, and most significantly in DHF's past tree setup, it seems the buckets are filled with a medium instead of just an anchoring net pot.

Having the whole bucket filled with media is the norm, but I've been experimenting with mediumless hydroponics and really like it. I havnt done so in buckets yet, but I believe there was a guy around here (Haps was his name maybe) that does just what you are describing. Basket lid filled with media, but lots of root growth happening below it.

Just gotta flood more often. Not sure about buckets but when running flood trays with no media (just neoprenes and net pots for anchoring) I'd flood for 30min every 90 min. I was using a 3x3 tray.

It works great, but doesnt give you the fail-safe of media holding onto some moisture. Pump fails or something.. you're dead in no time.

 

[FlowerFarmer]

looking forward to this but I don't want to get too excited just incase there is failure.. The Ebb system sounds right for me.. The buckets I have settled on using are regular 5Gal.. have them with a 4x4 Grow Block in a net pot and have the buckets filled with hydroton (obviously black w/ a lid).. I'll run 9 buckets on a 50Gal resi and probably go to a - 3 Nute - 1 RO or Tap - feeding schedule. The question I have is should I just run Ebb & Flow or run it with a top feed system attached to it as well either extend lines from the flood pipes, use blumats, or run a totally separate system?

What are your thoughts?

Another question I have (and I promise this will be one of the last) is I want to do a sealed room with Co2 but I don't really want to exhaust it, would rather re-cycle the enriched Co2 air.. Will I be able to keep my temps down in the day time or will I need and AC unit? If so would it just be better to run an exhaust relying on my fan to take care of the high temp issues? Should I run a heater at night or will the room stay warm enough on a 12/12 flip? It is in my house so it should stay at about 20 degrees Celsius.



Flower, just want to say thanks so much again for all the help and insight you've given me, probably have saved me lots of money & headaches.

What I quoted up there is typically what I want to run. something easy, maybe elevate my res, let gravity to it's thing when it's time to feed and empty them into another smaller res with a pump set up in it to cart it back to my main 50Gal res.. so maybe almost like a buffer bucket (solely used for pumping the run-off solution back into my res) at the end of the system?

Any idea's there too Flower?

Thanks again everyone
Happy Grows.. GrowtechLB

5 gal buckets are large for a flood bucket res, typically needing a very big res to accomodate, but since you're doing 9 sites you might be OK. The Ebb units are typically 2-3 gal and can run 12-24 no problem. Get above that and you're topping off a lot.

When running flood buckets we found it best to top feed (or flood if you will) 4x4 RW blocks on a table under a T5. Then we'd simply snuggle that block down to about water level in a pot full of hydroton to begin our ebb bucket flower cycle. Worked great with little issues through the transition.

No blumats unless your doing coco/dirt, etc.. wouldnt work in this application. Top feed isnt necessary with flood buckets so long as you're flooding high enough for a full saturation.

Co2.. I wouldn't bother unless you can do it right. Sealed room is awesome but you've got to have AC capable of cooling everything without the need to vent (around 4500 BTU per every 1000w of light), and need a nice sized dehumidifer for dark cycle. Room stays sealed and controlled with those devices..can filter/scrubber just re-circulates within the room for odor control.


If going flood buckets I wouldn't re-invent the wheel here. Look into how the multi flow and ebb n' gro operate and duplicate. What you're describing might work with a gravity solenoid and proper evacuation setup on the tail end, but not sure what they all entails.

Top feed into hydroton is also pretty easy (SoQuick style).. slightly elevated bucket (all hydroton) with drain at the bottom to allow flow back to a floor reservoir. Fed 30 sec every 30 min is what he did with open 1/4 lines.


Hope that helps.

 

[GrowTechLB]

So If I do the flood ebb n grow in 2-3 gal buckets, what size does my res need to be? (I'm sure a kit I buy would have that figured out) but I might build one.. The fan should take care of my temp then with no Co2, what will I use to keep the humidity up?? or down for that matter? after I figure out my humidity problem i'll be all set..

Thanks FF, great help as usual.. this guy is turning into a grow guru!

Happy Grows.. GrowtechLB

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Well, I never really get too focused on raising humidity. Might deal with a bit of low humidity off bat, but the plants quickly grow and create lots of humidity on their own.

Others have used whole house humidifiers (like the one on the side of newer furnaces) hooked up to their rooms, but I've got no experience there. I do run a dehumidifer non-stop last 3 weeks of bloom to prevent bud rot within the big tops.

If not running sealed w/co2 and all those bells and whistles I'd just turn the air over as fast as you can. 2x per minute is where it's at. Once every 3 minutes would be what I'd consider bare minimum if you're not dealing with excessive heat.


As far as the flood buckets.. The more reservoir the merrier in my opinion. The EBB-12 runs a 50gal barrel for 12 buckets..more can be added, but once you do too many you need to top off too frequently to step away for any amount of time.

Bigger is better. If you're keeping to clean base nutes the cost of mixing up more juice is negligible. Larger water volume = more stable reservoir.. less drastic swings as the plants consume. For instance if you're running a small reservoir and are mixed a bit strong it is possible that between your interactions with the res the plants may have consumed more water then nutes.. leaving behind a higher EC and low pH. Not normally a huge deal as you'd just top up with a bit of RO to weaken juice/raise pH. Its when running an undersized res can these swings get out of range on you quick if you're mix is too weak/too strong.

Other then that running hydro is easy. You kind of want to find that equilibrium where reservoir level is dropping.. EC is staying relatively the same as volume drops.. and pH on the slight uptick. When I ran Ebb buckets I'd never have to change the res nor adjust pH. Either adding nutes or RO water only as required would keep me where I'd need to be.

 

[GrowTechLB]

beauty

 

[FlowerFarmer]

Aight,


Well.. once again, I cant say I'm thrilled with this grow, but I've damn near made it and shit is lookin' heavy and dank. I've got lots of trimming ahead of me and it doesnt look like its going to be the smoothest sailing with all these yellowing leaves reaching into the buds.

Battled issues with my usual Coco regime again. Going to step away from coco for a second and experiment with some other methods. I visited a remote thing going with some handwatered coco. Not surprisingly the Rhinos are the worst off even with 1.0 feedings.. must not be able to take the juice like the other strains.

PPK next in this room.. see my new thread. Will also be running a water only soil mix in a few 4x8 tents elsewhere (horizontal w/ blumats) to see if I can get my friend some consistent easy results.

Here are some shots..

Not exactly sure where I'm at here, but around 60ish. Flushing now and will take down next week... or at least start to.

Lots of dead shit up these ladies skirts, but buds look good none the less.

I'll post final weights, but then considering this thread done and moving over to the new PPK show.

 

[OKD]

Wow ya those are lookin' dank!

 

[DHF]

Respect............

Peace.....Freds................

 

[DaveTheNewbie]

Well.. once again, I cant say I'm thrilled with this grow, but I've damn near made it

yeah ... terrible looking plants ... i wouldnt be thrilled either ....





yes that is sarcasm for the sarcasm impared readers out there

 

[Femora]

Those pics are as impressing as they are inspireing!!
Lol, I was just checking out a place i could do something similar, and I would love to do it, but right now its just... Not even close to possible.. So I look again at those pics and keep drooling in the sofa.
Keep it up! Ill gladly follow your new show!
<R>!
Fem~