Foothold on Reality...Barely

[FoothillsFarmer]

THAT being said... for the record...Man... I hate doing intros... The bottom line is, I'm tired of hi-jackin mofo's threads to talk about stuff going on. So here are my plants, rants and witty comments all rolled into one big fuckfest. This thread is not for minors, I have a foul mouth and a strange sense of humor... Please don't take anything I say too seriously, unless I say "seriously man" then you might take like 37% of it serious... and then wonder about like 14% of it while knowing that 49% of it is complete tomfoolery and trickery.

I've grown in soil a few times and I'm about to head into the world of hydro... This should be fun... everyone gets to laugh at me and now I get to be one of the cool kids with a thread

I'm gonna start this thing out with the tubs I built, kind of a DIY recap for some of the newer members who have yet to learn how to use the search button (the number of said users I find is still surprisingly high). For the record, this is not my design. I don't advertise for other sites here (I think it's fucking rude) so the individual will just have to lose a little sleep knowing that he wasn't properly credited.

So I went to Walmart and bought:




3 tubs for about $8 each.




3 of these pumps at $20 each.




and 3 packs of the bubblestones. (around $1 each).

Then I went to Lowes... now some Lowes have the fittings outside with the gardening stuff, others have it inside, near the PVC and copper pipe, but I bought:



a pack of T's like this one.(think this was a pack of 10... more than I needed at any rate) ($4)




and a 20ft length of this hose they have right there with it. ($6)




For each tub, I cut 4 pieces about 7-8 inches long and put them on T's. (for you mathematicians out there... that's 12 lengths total for the 3 tubs.)



Then I attached the bubble stones to the end of 1 T.




and the pump to the other one.




Then I took a pocket knife (I don't own a drill...sad huh.) and I made a hole towards the top of the tub that was slightly smaller than the hose.




Ideally, a drill bit would be better, but I'm very pleased with how mine turned out, very tight fit once the hose was fed through.

My last stop while shopping was to Petco where I got these suction cups:



They came in a pack of 6 for around $5




I stuck the suction cup to the bottom and put my bubblestones T on the end of the line.




I stuck 3 gallons of water into the tub and fired the pump up... the pump is quiet as can be.

So there ya go kiddies, I'm waiting for my net pots to come in to cut spots in the lids... I'll be using 3" net pots.

 

[FoothillsFarmer]

I haven't decided how many pots to put per tub yet... I was thinking 2, that would allow for adequate root space as well as grow space.... of which I am very limited. my closet is 6'x2'x5' and I'm running a 600w Agromax HPS in a Solar Six reflector. I have portable A/C in the room now so it's climate controlled, but it does get warm in there and I don't think I could run a tent without spending some serious money on ventilation and that just can't happen right now.

 

[FoothillsFarmer]

Right now I have 5 running in soil, 2 BlueberryXStrawberry Cough and 3 mystery plants ranging from 1 wk to about 2 1/2 wks into veg.

I'm feeding them a very basic diet of local store bought nutes and they've been quite happy with them... I'm running Shultz 10-15-10, Superthrive and some Alaska fish emulsion in a 60/40 Jungle Growth soil/ perilite mix at just a tad over recommended dosage. Foolishly, the plants started out in a window planter, mainly because this was going to be a "small grow" but as usual, once things get going my eyes get bigger and bigger. So a few days ago I transplanted the 3 bigger to ventilated 2 liters, filling the bottles about 3/4 of the way with my soil mix. I slightly over watered the plants a day before transplant so I didn't wet down the new pots at all. Let them go a day without any water then I watered as normal... 10% runoff. 2 days later...



in the last one you can see the root coming out of the bottom

 

[SlowCalaToker]

Tagged. Wanna watch this one develop. I might just learn a thing or two...

 

[cellardweller]

I dont know a damn thing about growin in the water, but I wanna watch and see iffen I can learn sumptin..
tagged and bagged..
:friends:

 

[purpledomgoddes]

long ago, transplanted root ball in soil into net pot, surrounded by silica stone; dwc bucket.

@ harvest, was huge worm in root mass (~2cmx20cm?). was largest root mass of various soil-to-dwc transplants.

would now thoroughly rinse roots w/ h202 prior to soil/soiless to hydro. may be living creatures in media that could survive.

enjoy your garden!

 

[cellardweller]

^^ho-ly avatar!

 

[purpledomgoddes]

^^ho-ly avatar!

enjoy your garden!

 

[FoothillsFarmer]

Slow: I hope you enjoy your stay

CD: What's good my friend, thanks for finding your way round these parts... Hopefully we both learn something... and I'm gonna have to go with you on that Avie... that's a down south booty fa sho

Purpledom: Hey!! thanks for stopping by
At first I thought about transitioning everything over to water while it's still in veg, but I think I'm just gonna finish them out in soil and start some more seeds in rockwool some time next week, I already suffered some root damage after the initial transplant from that stupid planter... I knew better but I did it anyway... Irish anyone?

I can post pics, but I think everyone's seen a vegging plant before, I'll update pics as I see things pic-worthy happening. I guess I should have waited till these started flowering so I could at least shock and awe with some bud pr0n, but I'm way too hyper for that, so idle chat and vegging pics will have to do for now. Now... Let's

 

[cellardweller]

It's all good bro!
whatcha gonna pop?

 

[FoothillsFarmer]

It's all good bro!
whatcha gonna pop?

and therein lies the question... I've been saving those seeds for this but as I get closer to the countdown to start it the more I get worried about fucking it up... lol. I guess my main concern is gonna be rez temps at this point... I don't know what to expect from water in this space and that's a real concern for me, everything else is simple. I'm blessed with tap at 90 ppm out of the faucet which is well within acceptable range... I haven't pHed it yet because I'm waiting on the meter to come in but pH is easily adjusted. Once I see what my water temps are on a dry run, then I'll decide whether the Biddy Early and the BerkelyXBlueBubble come out to play or not

 

[FoothillsFarmer]

so today I received the new pH pen, pH up and down, and the test pack of base nutes I ordered , I'll be trying out Supernatural products from Canada:

 

[Classyathome]

Unfolding lawn chair - and pinching my freakin' finger in it (OUCH!!!)

Lookin' good - I love dwc...

 

[FoothillsFarmer]

Classy: oh man... I'm sure I have a few scars from those things... it's always nice when they collapse on you when you shift your weight forward too fast...lol *BAM* "W...T...F!" *lawn chair into the river*... at any rate, it should be fun indeed.

 

[copperheadroad]

Looks like your ready to roll, hope ya dont mind if i copy the idea you copied lol. just was thinking you could put 2 net pots per square and have a nice lil 6 girl show plus a few in soil where space was available, and looks like that s your basic MO so gonna see how it goes for you and hopefully wiht the encouragment of your success and monster colas I ll be making me a few dwc bins like yours. Nice pics and I appreciate the very simple walk through of how you constructed them too, be using yours for a model soon. Thanks

 

[swampy_nz]

looking good so far bro.
locked in for a crazy ride.

 

[nnnnghhhhgnnngh]

Subscribed. I have been considering hydroponics for my next move. So good luck to you, may your setup work very well so I can copy it

 

[FoothillsFarmer]

Copperhead: That's why I put it up there brother... knowledge is power and if I can help at least one person here in some way possible, then it's all worthwhile.
I was thinking 2 per tub myself...maybe caddycornered to allow for as much grow space as possible.


Swampy: How's it goin man... I hope I give you your money's worth


nnnn: Right on man, I honestly think it's going to be better for me because I'm a bit of a perfectionist... I'm always fussing over or messing with my plants in some form or fashion. As long as you maintain your levels, I believe the fruits will far outweigh the little bit of extra love that might go into keeping up a soil-less grow... not to mention no more dirty fingernails!


BS#2

BS#2

BS#1 and 2 are obviously from the same mother, they both have a very short stout structure and I can't stress how dense these things are growing... I'm thinking they'll just be some buds in dirt by the time it's done

BS#1


BBxSC


I wasn't gonna show these, mainly because they were taken under the hps and this is directly after transplanting, so they look rather sickly (except for the seedling, it's root mass was undisturbed in the transplant)... they all look much better now as you'll see in the pics coming up

 

[XIII]

Who needs a drill when you have a Gerber folder anyways?

Nice grow, I'll be tagging along

 

[FoothillsFarmer]

XIII: No doubt man... and if you cut yourself, there's always some duct tape handy... I can think of a few times duct tape has taken the place of a hospital visit and stitches...hehe. So here's some pics of the undergrowth, I'm just gonna let it go because these things aren't hurting for light by any means, but I will keep it from bushing out too far if necessary



as you can see... the main stem isn't really visible in there...lol (I used the CFLs so I could get some decent detail)