[Heaths mate]

Oh and also, how do you gentlemen train your plants soo well??! Delta's plants are like nothing I've ever seen before. Should I be topping when growing vertically? I always seem to get a lot of stretch and not the beautiful bushes you gentlemen are getting. I'm growing indica dominant strains as well :/

[Desert Hydro]

Originally Posted by Heaths mate

I'm a little confused wondering if anyone could help me :/

I'm in the process of starting my first ppk finally, been battling spidermite the past couple months so I've ripped the whole thing apart and started again.

The room I'm working with is 8.5x11x8 and I am planning to do 4 plants with 5 vertical bulbs in a x pattern which most of you will be familiar with. I know the width is a little tight but unfortunately we have to work with what we have.

I intend on having 4 Ppk sites with an active res in the middle. The ppks will be 20-25 litre buckets. I have searched high and low for the oil draining pans like Delta uses but to no avail. Because of this I will be using usual hydro buckets one on top of the other. The medium will be canna coco with Seramis in the tailpiece which will be 2" in diameter.

Should I be using a bigger container in the centre as the active res? As 5 25 litre buckets with an air gap of 4-5" will only hold maybe 90 litres of solution at any given time and I feel I may get ph or ec swings with such small amounts of fluid in the system.

Furthermore, the active res in the middle will have a float valve in to control the air gap. However it will also have the pump in to pump water to the drip rings on each ppk site. I am guessing the float valve will let in water as the pump starts to water the plants resulting in the system being too full after waterings. How can I prevent this from happening? Have I completely missed something? I have tried time and time again to understand how Delta has plumbed his rooms but as simple as he makes it I just can't seem to grasp the concept.

I would very much appreciate any replies. God bless you all.

im no expert as i am having some issues of my own but the float valve only lets in a small amount by the time the system has equalized. it definitely wont overfill with one float valve if you are running the thin diameter line.

run a big plastic bin in the middle as your res but make sure its sturdy enough to hold water. a lot of them arent but it wont be all that full. worst case you can double the containers up to brace it.

someone else mentioned a bigger air gap with coco(closer to 5" i think) because it wicks so readily.

as far as the structure goes i like to FIM, pinch, supercrop, bend, train and last but not least scrog and or netting.

[Heaths mate]

Desert - thank you for the reply, very kind of you. I've seen the trees you have on the go, sorry to hear about the hiccups but they are looking good regardless. Hope you managed to sort the overwatering issue out.

I did think it would be a good idea to use a bigger bin as the active res simply to hold more water in the system at a time, if I can find something relatively short but wide with a lot of area it would help me get my solution amount up. Interesting idea about doubling up. I was intending on having one return line from each site going back into the active res in the centre. If I was to double up, any ideas how my plumbing would work? Could I have 2 sites going into each active res? Or would all sites go into one active res, which has another res coming off with a pump in it to feed each site.

In terms of the float valve, I imagine not a lot of water would get through, however how little are we talking? Obviously this would have a lesser effect when dealing with more water but I imagine this problem may be amplified when dealing with the small amounts of solution which I will be working with. I don't want to have any fluctuations with my air gap as I know this can lead to overwatering issues. I did note the 5" air gap in coco, many thanks for correcting me.

So you still top your trees when growing vertically? I have ran vertical for a long time without topping but got a cut recently which somehow topped itself and it yielded better than most I've done before... same strain same enviro... makes me think I've been in the wrong not topping my trees all this time...

[Thirdtime]

If you could through another bin in front of your main res and have the float valve in that it would help with stabilizing the level a good bit.

[Desert Hydro]

OR you could do what ive done in the past and its cheap and easy and wont get in the way of your plumbing. get a big roll of duct tape and do several layers over the width of one strip of tape on the middle of the container to help brace it. basically youre just putting a belt around the middle of the container to keep it sturdy. i do this on my cheaper trash cans i use for reservoirs since they tend to bow out when full.

[bloyd]

hm you should house your float valve in cereal container with a small 3/32 hole which meters flow. D9 explains this in post 166 in this thread and pics in old threads.

D9 currently runs 7 totes in line, pump from one side with floats in opposite side. The pumps draw down the early totes. By having the 7 totes in line he is limiting draw down and preventing the floats from overfilling the system before gravity equalizes everything.

Cereal container replaces all of that on smaller set ups.

[fliptopbox]

Originally Posted by Heaths mate

I'm a little confused wondering if anyone could help me :/

I have searched high and low for the oil draining pans like Delta uses but to no avail.

He uses 7 gallon feed tubs (or 3 gallon tubs for smaller plants), not oil change tubs.

Should I be using a bigger container in the centre as the active res? As 5 25 litre buckets with an air gap of 4-5" will only hold maybe 90 litres of solution at any given time and I feel I may get ph or ec swings with such small amounts of fluid in the system.

I've been pretty stable just using 3.5 gallon and 5 gallon buckets. I use 1 3.5g bucket for the plant and 1 for the pump, and a 5 gallon bucket for the float and another for the res.

Furthermore, the active res in the middle will have a float valve in to control the air gap. However it will also have the pump in to pump water to the drip rings on each ppk site. I am guessing the float valve will let in water as the pump starts to water the plants resulting in the system being too full after waterings. How can I prevent this from happening? Have I completely missed something?

If you are using garden hose to connect all of your buckets then you don't need to worry about it. The water rise will be negligible by the time the larger diameter garden house can equalize the buckets. The water level will rise a tad, but not enough to make a difference or bother correcting.

[fliptopbox]

End of week 3 of flower in the PPK. This strain takes a long time to start flowering and won't be making it to the next round.

[down2grow]

Originally Posted by Snook

silly question but.. are all the buckets level with each other?

Yes all buckets and sites are on an even floor. I'm starting to think that the lines are clogged, but I can't do anything to fix it until I'm done harvesting(2-3 weeks).

[down2grow]

Originally Posted by Speed of green

if the lines are clear and its all plumbed correct, this is the next thing i would check.

raise your control bucket on 2x4's or something and see if your water level in the sites rise.

If I did that and it did raise the water levels in the buckets that would cause problems in my plant site buckets because the air gap is around 4" currently. I'm still only having issues in my feeding buckets(the ones with the pump) and those only have about 2" of nutes all of the time and they can't finish a 15-30 pulse feed without running dry. I responded to snook earlier that I think my lines are clogged. I've used a 500gph pump to blow out the lines from inside the control reservoir multiple times and the water levels won't raise. I'm thinking of replacing all of the good year hoses leading into the feeding buckets unless there's an easy way to check/fix clogged lines.