What a day!! Had a follow up doc appointment for the shoulder in the AM then straight home to work on getting the tray stand built, holes in the tray, and the entire hydro setup going with the plants from the cloner transferred over. Also had to water the cuts in coco, and the sunflower and the tester auto seeds.
I want to thank brother
@OneHitDone for all of his "consultation" help for this new setup. In the end it might now look like much to others, but there was a lot of thought put into this specifically for me and my garden. I needed to find a way to cut down on my workload especially with watering as I do have physical limitations even when my shoulder's not broken lol. So what I settled on to try out was a Flora Flex kit that runs 8 plants. I chose this because it will be for my veg plants. This will then feed the 4 plants on each side of the 4x8. I intend to set the 4x8 up the same way and will just have to manage my canopy properly as I will lose some height from this change. In the end this will mean just topping off three reservoirs when needed and topping off nutes as well vs hand watering every plant in the garden. I also am a huge fan of hydro and been wanting to get back to it for some time. It wouldn't work for me at the last grow spot for environmental reasons (too hot). I'm using hydroton in the pots and not the coco FloraFlex sends. These plants will later go to #3's of hydroton for flower. I was told I can just wash the hydroton off after harvest from the roots then re use it that's a big plus to me. Cutting down costs never hurts. I'm very happy with how this all turned out and I don't see why it won't work and look forward to setting it up in the 4x8 in the very near future and automating my garden.
So the end goal is a 3x3 veg tent with the 400w Blue MH, and then the 4x8 with the (2) 600w HPS in raptor hoods. Both tents setup as three different hydro setups like the one I just did today. The other 3x3 will be tuned off and used as a drying tent. I have needed a good dedicated drying area for some time now. I still have that tent for use with lights if need be but don't see it. Also can use the closet for the cloner going forward if needed and just hang one COB in there or whatever I need to. The cloner worked great and the roots were white and beautiful and healthy and there was a lot of them. The cuts that just went to veg will be split evenly under the HPS and LED's for the next run. This will give us a better picture of the two light sources and how they grow weed in "my garden". After that run I will make a decision on where to end up but my mind is pretty set one way as is. I'm just doing this for more data and to see how each light does with hydro as well. As I fully expect to have the hydro setup after harvesting the current run and before moving the veg tent over.
So for starters I decided to drop the Canna Coco line in the res and see how it goes since it went so well for me in the cloner and it's what these plants are use to. I will be moving to something simpler and cheaper in the future. I have ZERO complaints about the Canna except the cost. I even got those yellow cuts back into shape in the coco using it and nothing else no cal-mag etc. So the first res in the veg tent was 1.2 EC and 6.0 PH just as I have been running in the cloner and the coco.
I think that covers everything, now for some pics...........
Here's the stand my brother and I built using 2x4's and 3" wood screws, solid as heck and a lot cheaper than the res stands sold in the hydro stores:
The flood tray after drilling holes in it and installing the bulkhead fittings (yes we cleaned the tray before use again and the tent floor was cleaned up as well):
This was how I setup the Flora Flex Bubbler (manifold), a garden hose adapter on a piece of PVC and a Flora Flex QD hookup to make getting the bubbler on and off easier for me, not included in the kit:
Here's everything setup initially running plain water to check for function, leaks, etc:
And here's the setup after getting plants moved over and adjusting the COB's up to 30" away from the cuts in the hydro pots. There's (4) Satori X GG#4, (2) Dark Plasma, and (2) Jawa Pie in the hydro system. In the three nursery pots is the cuts I was gifted of Suzy Q, Peach Puree, and Blood Diamond. There's also a tester Sour Hound auto and a tomato plant getting started in really tiny pots.
Here's a shot of the Sunflower in the other 3x3 and the (6) Auto Fem tester seeds I started of the Auto Gorilla, and the Coleus is in the back hiding somewhere. Soon as the Sunflower goes outside (weather permitting very soon hopefully) this tent will be shut down until I harvest and need to dry.
And here's a few shots of the flower tent 4x8. I have defoliated the three Dark Plasma's if you can't tell lol, and need to do some thinning not as extreme on a couple of the other girls tomorrow. I will be watering in here tomorrow.
I think I covered everything I wanted to. I will probably at some point trim the feed lines on the hydro setup shorter, just have to dedicated some time to that one day as the lines need to all be the same length for the water to distribute evenly when the system is running. For now I have a timer running the pump for 15 minutes every two hours. I will see how the plants react and go from there.
Thanks for checking in