this is an awesome thread.
Lazymans idea of a perfect growroom, come beat me up! ;)
- Thread starter Lazyman
- Start date
hand-watering no difficulties...
5 gal of solution is enough to hand-water 10 trees, @ 1/2 gal per feeding/watering. takes 10 minutes. 30 trees, 30 minutes. 1 min per plant. dip/pour into 2l pitcher. pour into 5 gal plant bucket. move on.
takes all of 30 min for 30 trees. - w/ examination of each plant.
basically, mix 5 gals of solution, use 2l pitcher. 1/2 pitcher per plant.
repeat every 3-5 days. this is w/out wicks. 10-20 coco%/70% perlite, bark, pumice, hydroton, etc...
up to 7 days w/ wicks included.
water when external basin is dry...
can leave room.
can run multiple gardens.
these factors really based on desires & preferences...
plants require less water than is normally given them. 2" of solution in bottom of bucket + wick extended into external basin provides enough water & nutes for @ least 1 week.
watering increases during mid-later flower, up to 1+ gal per day.
just means more water drawn up thru wicks into media. watering more only decreases oxygen content. bottom-feeding is good. this way, will get those huge air roots just beneath surface of top-dressing.
never tried blu mat.
lady-power works well...
just presenting diff pov.
8x8-10x10 room = 2-6 plants, max.
2-5k + 8-12 btu ac per room, max.
24/0-20/4 veg - same lights. 2-8 weeks. depends on cultivar...
min 2 full baskets of fruit per plant.
enjoy your garden!
hand-watering no difficulties...
I understand, but mixing 6 batches to water is a bit of a pain, in my current garden it would take 48 batches to hand water that way. I currently hand water with a hose on a 450gph pump in a 115 gallon res, and can't imagine going the other way.
With unadulterated FFOF, my 4' plants in 4 gallon pots needed watering every 24-36 hours, and that mix holds lots of water. With just 10-20% coco in your very fast-draining mix above, I would need to water that every 12 hours or so with a 4' tall bush, making handwatering even harder.
What would you use for reservoirs with say, 100-200 plants? I have always liked your wick ideas, I sorta look at the blumats as a dripper connected to a wick. Have always preferred top feeding, seems to have better results, but there is always sooo much more plumbing and hoses to maintain. Bottom feed buckets/trays have traditionally been the easiest means to water large amounts of plants, but I am hoping I can scale up the Blumats to higher levels.
I think for up to 4KW grows this is probably a great system, I just think it might be too time consuming as it scales up.
!never tried blu mat.
lady-power works well...
just presenting diff pov.
8x8-10x10 room = 2-6 plants, max.
2-5k + 8-12 btu ac per room, max.
24/0-20/4 veg - same lights. 2-8 weeks. depends on cultivar...
min 2 full baskets of fruit per plant.
enjoy your garden
Well, ideally a separate veg room should be used so you don't have to ever stop flowering something. With a regular veg room and 60 day strains, you should strive to hit 6 harvests per year. With two flowering rooms (or a perpetual monthly/bimonthly staggering) you can double that number, so your veg room and flowering rooms are always full.
I got 4.5oz average per plant off some Chem Dawg I did last year, vegged 3 weeks, about .72gpw which was good for a soil grow and no Co2.
Make the best use of your equipment investment, time, and power. I suppose ideal should also involve the maximum yield per watt, so things like vertical gardens should be in here, which have hit yields of 3 grams per watt with fairly simple systems and no reflectors.
Anything that reduces your number of annual harvests should be suspect, and negated to the extent of your abilities.
Having steady supplies of premium product available keeps patients happy and they come to you more often for it. It also makes it easier to transition into career growing if you're always busy doing it (and doing so professionally.)
I'm having a ball with this thread, thanks for contributing guys (and *Mistress*!)
Hmm, what else is a super efficient system?
Ok, how about water cooling? I know there are threads on this and I've looked at chillers and heat exchangers, but what about geothermal cooling? Maybe for water-cooled lights? Cool any wattage grow with nothing more than a water pump and a timer, and some hose buried in the earth.
Is there a better or more energy efficient way to do anything else?
Chime in if anyone has a solar panel setup, on a large scale it may be more economical than a big diesel genny, but even on a small scale I think you could make a big dent in your monthly kwh usage. Lots of sunny days help too.
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10-4, I'll let you know when I get one running, will be a new thread. Could it be the 120V valve sticking open for some reason? If it was shut water couldn't pass through the hydrogen, can it?
Love the idea of a natural gas genny for outages, but I think I'd rather use solar for the evironment (I know making panels is a toxic process) than natural gas, but with a good automatic transfer switch, you'd never have more than a 30 second power outage, would have to be something really gnarly to take out a utility NG supply. What environments do you see guys using them in?
They can be very difficult to silence and exhaust in cities, but I'd love to rig some plumbing to a LP/NG genny exhaust to use it for CO2 supply someday.
