i use 158 gph pumps in the bucket under the plant.when i move from the veg room i lift the pump and lid and plant tub and set in an empty 5 gal bucket.carry it to flower room and set it all right in the connected 5 gallon bucket.then plug the pump into a power strip run off of my short cycle timer.easy.just have to make sure the feed hose from the pump is secured so it doesnt spray water all over after the move!
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a ppk for a 6 plant limit
- Thread starter delta9nxs
- Start date
Sounds like the exact kind of thing I am after. I want to veg in a tent for 6-8 weeks and then transfer to flower room.What are the pumps you are using? Would you recommend them?
the pump is in each bottom bucket and i run a hose straight up to the plant container.they dont recirculate,just get fresh as it is used.have not had a problem yet but only have finished 1 plant so far.the ppm were a little high in that bottom bucket after it was done but since i run at 600 to 650 ppm,i am not worried about 900 ppm.as my perpetual grow goes on i will keep checking each plants container as they finish.when i ran the feed from the main res i still had the bottom containers get higher ppm also so not too worried.
my veg cabinet has the feed line hard plumbed from the main res and i have to clean the salt build up out of the feed holes and off the outside of the pvc feed lines.the small pump in the bottom makes cleaning everything after the cycle alot easier.
the picture is from my new veg room set up like the flower room.1 small pump per bottom bucket feeding the plant container.as the plant is bigger and drinking a half gallon to a gallon a day you are always getting fresh in there.maybe av or d9 can give there opinion.i just started this way a few months ago.
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I too am using a pump in each bucket under a plant, and the grow I am finishing now, I have 5 gallon reservoirs, and none drain to a central res. I am flood feeding, using 900L per hour pumps, one per plant and I too love the flexibility of not having everything plumbed to a central res for feeding.
I the isolated reservoir thing for my next grow, the only change will be that each plants bucket will drain into a central res. What I have now works plenty well, no problems at all except I was pretty busy filing site reservoirs... the plants got huge, and were drinking as much as 1.5- to 2 gallons a day. next grow I will be only managing a central Rea, not 8 individual reservoirs.
I would have set it up with a central res during the last grow if I could have found Goodyear-like rubber hose here in argentina for less than 10 dollars a foot. I had some recently shipped to me from the USA so now I am good to go.
I just did my first test of the Av80r style Goodyear hose and bucket hole with no bulkhead fitting or anything else to seal the connection.
I am amazed at how simple and effective a solution this is! perfect for here in Argentina America, where hydro got such a bad rap that nobody imports hydro fittings.
hydro got a bad Rap here because of our flakey electrical grid.... they were doing NFT and DWC, and shops here were pushing it hard several years back.... and many lost crops during our frequent power outages. the locals are SO prejudiced against it that they don't even listen when I tell them that this system is fault tolerant in a way that is PERFECT for South America..... . they seem to think I think im a crazy gringo who will learn his lessons the hard way.
I the isolated reservoir thing for my next grow, the only change will be that each plants bucket will drain into a central res. What I have now works plenty well, no problems at all except I was pretty busy filing site reservoirs... the plants got huge, and were drinking as much as 1.5- to 2 gallons a day. next grow I will be only managing a central Rea, not 8 individual reservoirs.
I would have set it up with a central res during the last grow if I could have found Goodyear-like rubber hose here in argentina for less than 10 dollars a foot. I had some recently shipped to me from the USA so now I am good to go.
I just did my first test of the Av80r style Goodyear hose and bucket hole with no bulkhead fitting or anything else to seal the connection.
I am amazed at how simple and effective a solution this is! perfect for here in Argentina America, where hydro got such a bad rap that nobody imports hydro fittings.
hydro got a bad Rap here because of our flakey electrical grid.... they were doing NFT and DWC, and shops here were pushing it hard several years back.... and many lost crops during our frequent power outages. the locals are SO prejudiced against it that they don't even listen when I tell them that this system is fault tolerant in a way that is PERFECT for South America..... . they seem to think I think im a crazy gringo who will learn his lessons the hard way.
"they seem to think I think im a crazy gringo who will learn his lessons the hard way."
but soon they will have cola envy!
they couple of guys who looked at my photos recently were blown away, for sure, but nobody has any interest in switching.... so far. They DO grow some great weed down here (with smuggled seeds usually from known Spainish seed banks) But IMO the yields here are on the low side.
I can't believe the results from this last grow.
I have harvested 5 of 6, with an average of 7 ounces (dry) per plant. the largest so far is 11 ounces, the smallest 4. it looks like this last plant will top 11. I don't side light, canopy only, these plants were heavily LSTd shorter bushes
I know a plant of 11 ounces isn't anything so great for the typical PPK, but I am at understandably elated, for my first PPK grow, especially considering the fact that temps have often been in the 90's during lights on for entire period of flowering . (I don't air condition, I just move a ton of air)
this being my first active hydro grow, I am very happy.... I used Jacks in hempies before this, and the PPK yield is amazing.... double my hemp yield and average, at the low end, and triple at the high point.
I can't wait to try this in the winter, when temps won't be an issue. I am starting another grow now, will plant in PPKs a LOT earlier than last time, and though it will be a struggle to get thru our January and February, at least some of the hot part of our year is behind me. they should be entering flower stage just about the time it starts getting more reasonable down here. ( mid February is usually a lot cooler than January)
so I am sold. (need to post some photos on my idle thread)
Just keep at it and tweak a bit each time to improve wherever you can... each run will get even better as you learn your system. Temps and RH control are important but do what you can... i made do with diy ac mod for years.. not perfect but i got by. Im only now matching lighting with air treatment in turnover using a lung room. So about 4 (maybe 5 total including research year) years to go from zero experience to some pretty reliably big plants. My 5x5.5 FR is just about done. Running for a few years and then may look at CO2 but dont want to run hotter temps for comfort in the LR. Thats it tho, not making anymore changes which is why im not posting anymore on my thread.
Best of luck RB and Happy New Year to all the ic ppkrs!
fliptopbox
Member
What size are you getting your plants to before flipping?
today I'm chopping the ;last one from the last grow. I flipped at 12 inches and three went to 4 feet, and three to about 30" (all were HEAVILY trained - topped once and LST'D like crazy to get 20-30 top at 8 weeks, all even at 12" or so.
mine were in only 9 liters or coco perlite, 1.5" tailpieces. 6 plants - 32 ounces, and I have one more that I al still trimming today that looks like 9 to 11 oz.
they. went into the PPKs at 6 weeks because I was busy getting it all ready... I have 13 photos going now, at about 10 days, and I am going to get them in the PPKs in a week, figuring that that wlll haps for a shorter veg time...
and I increased m vertical for this grow, and I am not going to LST so much, and this will also decrease the veg time. I hope to flip at 6 weeks or less on this next grow... still 3 plants per tent ( 2 tents) when I hit end of stretch...
this run is all about the end date, I am headed to the USA early may (our fall) and want to be finished by April 20
and I'm not doing anything that is renowned for being super fast this time (had to go with the seeds I had... afghani and bomb cheese, the last of my stash of photo seeds, thank goodness)
today I started redoing things to have a central res! pumped about that.
my RH is always at the proper VPD given the temp in the tent. wrote an Arduino sketch to do just that. the misters DO go thru a TON of water each day, but the haps;e of refilling their reservoirs is worth it.
I've grown a long time, and in many different climates, from sea level in Houston to 9000' above in the mountains above taos NM, , and I always have found running in the mid 80s with appropriate VPD humidity give me the best overall results. but one of the secrets is that you gotta move a TON of air at those tempos/humidities or you might see some bud rot. and to move THAT much air means good piezo-misters... thats my experience, and I am sticking with what works for me.
and I have abundant experience with jacks at the same concentration though hand watered.
so dialied in, I am most of the time. I don't run AC untll the ambient is approaching 95 for more than a day or so, and then only to bring it down to 85 ( its a hassle, I have to suck the air from another part pf the apartment where the AC is, and doing that requires BIG exhaust fans for the grow-bedroom)
and am perfectly happy with the product. some strains get a little less dense in the buds when running at 90 degrees, and always run the tents with half of the plants being strains I know like that kind of environment and stay dense. the other half represents me LOOKING for more strains that can take it
I only have this heat issue for two months a year, I used to avoid it by not growing in January and February... but lately I've powered right on thru it, not that I am keeping the humidity so high.
other then adding a central res, increasing my vertical space, and shortening my veg time by not being so arduous with the LST, Im not changing anything! I'm plenty happy with the yield given my tent sizes and lighting
I am very happy to have met all of you, all of you have been so helpful, so THANKS.... and really happy with this first PPK run. so special thanks to d9
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you're welcome! congrats on the yield! all you guys may not realize it but you help me tremendously every time you post your results.
experienced growers validating the concept is priceless!
the ppk becomes more accepted and the doors keep opening for me and mrs d9!
thank you very much!
experienced growers validating the concept is priceless!
the ppk becomes more accepted and the doors keep opening for me and mrs d9!
thank you very much!
M
mugenbao
I'm in the middle of completely tearing down everything and fully restarting from scratch, but decided on a whim to chuck my last seedling into a single module "ppk-like" setup quickly cobbled together from parts on hand for a couple of weeks while I took everything else apart. I've been following all of the main ppk threads for years (many hundreds of pages, lol) and have always wanted to give it a try, and now seemed like a good time to try it out.
Since it was only for an experiment and I never actually intended to grow that seedling out (and I needed to get on with the tear-down), I chopped that plant yesterday after it having been in the ppk for a little less than two weeks, and took a good look at the root ball.
To say I'm impressed would be an understatement. The roots had exploded during that short period of time, and the plant had formed a thick mass of very white roots at the bottom and lower half of the pot. I'm used to fairly quick growth with DTW in my coco/hull mix, but this was noticeably faster than what I normally see. Above-media growth was very impressive as well, but the roots are what absolutely convinced me.
I'm making a six-site small ppk system now that's slightly less ghetto (still restricted to parts on hand) so that when this reboot is complete I can give the system a more honest full-cycle trial run.
I'm looking forward to it!
Thanks to d9 and all the others who've helped develop, evolve, and evangelize this system
Since it was only for an experiment and I never actually intended to grow that seedling out (and I needed to get on with the tear-down), I chopped that plant yesterday after it having been in the ppk for a little less than two weeks, and took a good look at the root ball.
To say I'm impressed would be an understatement. The roots had exploded during that short period of time, and the plant had formed a thick mass of very white roots at the bottom and lower half of the pot. I'm used to fairly quick growth with DTW in my coco/hull mix, but this was noticeably faster than what I normally see. Above-media growth was very impressive as well, but the roots are what absolutely convinced me.
I'm making a six-site small ppk system now that's slightly less ghetto (still restricted to parts on hand) so that when this reboot is complete I can give the system a more honest full-cycle trial run.
I'm looking forward to it!
Thanks to d9 and all the others who've helped develop, evolve, and evangelize this system
Globule
Member
Great stuff Ravenboy!!
And good luck with your PPK run too Mugenbao - I reckon you will find it much easier to run than DWC!
Being a relatively new grower, I think I was fortunate to find the PPK thread at a time I was looking for an easier to maintain and more tolerant hydro system to grow with than I had with dwc/blumats, etc.
I reckon I found it with the PPK but still love hearing about all the successes that other experienced growers are having when trying it out.
Not that I need reassurance that it is a great way to grow, just that I like hearing good news
And good luck with your PPK run too Mugenbao - I reckon you will find it much easier to run than DWC!
Being a relatively new grower, I think I was fortunate to find the PPK thread at a time I was looking for an easier to maintain and more tolerant hydro system to grow with than I had with dwc/blumats, etc.
I reckon I found it with the PPK but still love hearing about all the successes that other experienced growers are having when trying it out.
Not that I need reassurance that it is a great way to grow, just that I like hearing good news
GOOF OFF TIME
for my current grow (plants now 4 days in 12-12) I got my central res and mix res installed
the holdup had been not being able to find the rubbery kind of Goodyear- (continental?) type hose here in South America without having to pay ten dollars a yard. without that kind of hose your need bulkheads, also not available in Argentina
so ordered the hose from the USA - along with proper hydro float valves ( also not available in Argentina) and such, so now have a proper PPK system (meaning with a drain line and central res, float valve, and above that the mixing res)
the ONLY PPK system in Buenos Aires , so far as I have been able to discover.
wow. nothing to do but mix nutes every 6 days and watch them grow.
I've got time to take up bowling again!!!
for my current grow (plants now 4 days in 12-12) I got my central res and mix res installed
the holdup had been not being able to find the rubbery kind of Goodyear- (continental?) type hose here in South America without having to pay ten dollars a yard. without that kind of hose your need bulkheads, also not available in Argentina
so ordered the hose from the USA - along with proper hydro float valves ( also not available in Argentina) and such, so now have a proper PPK system (meaning with a drain line and central res, float valve, and above that the mixing res)
the ONLY PPK system in Buenos Aires , so far as I have been able to discover.
wow. nothing to do but mix nutes every 6 days and watch them grow.
I've got time to take up bowling again!!!
newguy41410
Member
i just discovered PPK!! Sorry, im new. Since I am building my rooms, lights (DIY COB LED), and irrigation system, from scratch, I am open to the idea of running a PPK system. I will definitely be doing SCROG and I will be running Coco. Not sure if i should run a DIY automated watering system that will essentially be draining to waste. Or if this PPK system is hands-down better? Any reason NOT to go PPK over DTW??
