Questions on potential grow tent setup - looking at RDWC

[Alaric]

Thanks all for the replies. It all helps more than you know. @Alaric and @GrowJahsGift yeah.. I'm actually thinking of bailing on the grow tent package now that I know what I need, and I think I can get it all for a lot less, and with enough digging, in a near-new state, from glorious sites such as Craigslist. My design has been reduced from 18 to 6, per darn near everyone's suggestion here.

I am mocking up a design to make sure it fits in the space I have... the "room" it's in is 9'x11', and there's to be a 4x4 and 4x8 tent in there, so it's a bit tricky. I have attached my design... please note that some of the models are just pulled in... the rez pours into some shit that won't be there, and I couldn't find a legit carbon filter model to throw in, so it's just for show at this point. Also, there is no piping or the intake/exhaust gear... not sure I'll go into that much detail on the diagram, it was more for me to mock up the spacing of everything and make sure I can cram it all in.

Just so you know what you're looking at, in the 4x4 veg tent those are 4" net pots in the DWC tote, 8 of em... the 6 that rise victorious shall be moved via their net pot into their happy new 4x8 RDWC home when it's time to become real women.

As for 6 instead of 18, if my real goal is highest yield per plant, then long term this will be the best route. This allows for more growth, in more ways than one.

Nice drawing-----what application is that done with?

Do you have useable space beyond the door? When the girls take off in flowering they become thirsty gluttons-----my goal has been a minimum of 25 gallons of nutes per 1K of lighting.

I'm a big fan of light movers---especially in the flower room----any plans for that?

As far as CO2 goes----I suggest waiting until you're pulling close to 2 lbs per 1K.

In the veg tent tote you'll need to pay attention to the roots getting too tangled-----makes it tough to move to flower tent if you don't.

rock on,

A~~~

 

[GrowJahsGift]

Sounds like it'll be a good setup when it's all together. IMO your going to get the highest yield per plant with DWC. You end up with a bucket filled with roots by chopday lol. Had to do some surgery to find my air stones more than a few times. I try and have a set of clones ready to veg as soon as the veg plants are ready to move into flower when those girls are done. That way if you know your strain(s) well enough, you can judge how long you'll get for a veg time. You get really fast growth in DWC. So I usually end up with a really thick canopy in a short amount of time even with 4 sites under my 1Ks and same amount of veg time I am pulling more than I did running 9 in Pro-Mix HP. With way less work, less plants to worry about going for a shit, and way less cleaning. That being said I'm just firing back up so I'm just running a soil run to find some keepers if any lol. I keep my moms in soil just for ease of maintenance. Didn't want to wait to get going so I'm just gonna grab clones for my next RDWC run and for mommas and flower these bitches out. Sorry to hijack or rant man long night shift and some after work bongs got me chatty lol.

 

[GrowJahsGift]

Failed to mention I run 5gal buckets in my veg room and just use the tote setup as an air cloner with 1" neoprene pucks. Definitely to avoid root tangling. Thks Alaric very good point. I wait for nice 8" long root system and then drop them right in the 5gal till flower then just take the bucket lid and net pot, pull the root mass out of the bucket carefully and just walk it into my flowering room and drop her in its new home repeat a few times and I'm off and running in literally a couple mins lol. With some pre work and organization you can chop (minus trimming) and transition everything with a clean and sterilization in a couple hours per light.

 

[Bluntsmith]

To @Alaric I used this program called SketchUp. Free for 30 days... I learned it all within the same day or two that I did my design -- my own version of geeking out. For the air conditioner and totes and 5 gallon buckets, you have to find "Models" in their marketplace. I found an almost comical amount of hydro/grow gear in the Models (net pots, aeration systems, grow n ebb systems, etc). I see I wasn't the only one with the idea to mock up their grow space haha.

There is one foot of space between the tent and the wall with the door, which is where I plan to have all the pipes n tubes running. There is no space outside of that door as it is the great outdoors. Why do you ask? There is more room in the foreground, for storage and other such things. Spoiler alert: it's in my garage.

I don't have plans to move the lighting around, but I do wish I could either move the lighting or the plants, but given the RDWC bucket lockdown mode, that won't be happening for the plants. Do you have a suggestion or method for moving 1000W lights around?

And yeah, the veg tent totes and the space between the net pots isn't quite to scale, I want to do everything I can to prevent root tangle.

 

[Bluntsmith]

Failed to mention I run 5gal buckets in my veg room and just use the tote setup as an air cloner with 1" neoprene pucks. Definitely to avoid root tangling. Thks Alaric very good point. I wait for nice 8" long root system and then drop them right in the 5gal till flower then just take the bucket lid and net pot, pull the root mass out of the bucket carefully and just walk it into my flowering room and drop her in its new home repeat a few times and I'm off and running in literally a couple mins lol. With some pre work and organization you can chop (minus trimming) and transition everything with a clean and sterilization in a couple hours per light.

5 gals in veg too? I considered it. I just want to have only two places to have to change nutes - the flower rez, and the dwc tote - and I don't want two RDWC systems just yet for simplicity's sake. Out of curiosity, how much do you yield per light with 4 buckets under em?

 

[Bluntsmith]

As far as CO2 goes----I suggest waiting until you're pulling close to 2 lbs per 1K.

I meant to say - thanks for this tip too. It did seem like I may be inventing a problem before there is one. The day I'm pulling close to 2 lb's per 1k is the day I take you all out for pizza. I look forward to honoring that statement.

 

[redi jedi]

5 gals in veg too? I considered it. I just want to have only two places to have to change nutes - the flower rez, and the dwc tote - and I don't want two RDWC systems just yet for simplicity's sake. Out of curiosity, how much do you yield per light with 4 buckets under em?

Yes, build a second RDWC system for veg. Just bring the buckets closer together..say 12" center to center. Having the same lid/netpot on your veg system makes it real easy to move it to flower.

 

[Bluntsmith]

Yes, build a second RDWC system for veg. Just bring the buckets closer together..say 12" center to center. Having the same lid/netpot on your veg system makes it real easy to move it to flower.

In an ideal world I maybe would but I'm not sure I have the room for it... but to compensate the plan is to keep them in the same lid/net pot from the DWC tote and transport into their own 5 gals for flowering.

 

[GrowJahsGift]

5 gals in veg too? I considered it. I just want to have only two places to have to change nutes - the flower rez, and the dwc tote - and I don't want two RDWC systems just yet for simplicity's sake. Out of curiosity, how much do you yield per light with 4 buckets under em?

Last pull was 10, 8, 7,7 oz per plant 10 week veg.

 

[GIJonas]

My rdwc veg room is 2 gal buckets with 5 gal netpot lids. When ready they transfer to the 5gal flower room and root ball expands. Works the shit.