First Grow with 300W Advanced Platinum LED Grow Light

[daveroller]

For what it's worth, I built a sprayer system just like yours for my first grow and for some reason it was a failure. Not sure if it had anything to do with the system or not, but then I discovered DWC/Bubbleponics. It's a lot easier, because you don't need to set any timer for the sprayers. The roots just hang down in the water with some airstones making bubbles in it. Some people put in a water pump to swirl the water around, but I don't like to put too much stuff in the water.

You could use the sprayers until your roots get long enough and then take the sprayers out and fill your tub with water with your net pots above sitting in that lid with the holes in it. You should cover the unused holes to keep light from getting into the res. Then just put a couple airstones in the water connected to an aquarium air pump outside the tub, preferably up higher than the water level in case of an accidental backup.

 

[Edge7]

For bubbleponics/DWC, wouldn't it be cumbersome to run 36 feeding tubes?

 

[dude9000]

Looks good. However I wouldn't grow all of those strains together. Its better to keep different strains in their own water. Some strains finish faster than others and you want to get at least a 5 day flush with just water or water/molasses (I flush with a little molasses mixed in)or your buds will taste like harsh chemical soup.

Personally, I'd switch to 2, 5 gallon buckets and just do 2 plants. Dwc gives explosive growth compared to the soil grows you see, that space will be maxed out with just 2 plants.
It'll just be a huge pain to try and change your water every week with those monsters in there.
Good luck!

 

[daveroller]

For bubbleponics/DWC, wouldn't it be cumbersome to run 36 feeding tubes?

There aren't any feeding tubes with DWC = Deep Water Culture. The roots get fed from hanging down in the water. Like I said, keep using the sprayers until the roots are long enough to hang down in the water, maybe just 4-5 inches below the bottom of the pots. Let me know if you have any other questions, bud.

 

[dude9000]

This^
Those aeroponic misters make roots grow crazy fast. The biggest pain with them is that over time the misters get clogged up. Its going to suck to try and clean them when your room is filled with swinging sticky colas..
So just use them until your roots touch the water. Then just use an air pump from the pet store with a couple air stones.
I'd seriously look into the flower times for the strains you are using. You'll be kinda stuck if you have 50-60 day strains in the same solution as something that doesn't ripen for 10-12 weeks

 

[Edge7]

Sounds like a good plan. Good point on the different strains, i didn't think of that. Learning a lot here, thanks, all.

 

[daveroller]

I forgot about something. When I did DWC I also used something to keep the upper roots that are above the water fed. As your plants drink in water & nutes, the res water will level will drop, so there can be times when a lot of the roots are just exposed to air, not taking in any nutrient. So you actually might want to keep the sprayers in for that. If you do, you only need to run them for about 5 min every hour tops to feed those upper roots. (I used an ultrasonic fogger floating in my res instead of sprayers. The downside to them is that they warm up the water a little and they also kill beneficial bacteria if you happen to use any. But they're pretty cheap and they keep those roots constantly wet with microscopic droplets of res water. They don't clog either.)

 

[dude9000]

I've done the same thing Dave with great success. I just personally always had problems with little pieces of roots clogging up the misters. Trying to lift the plant off the tote to clean the misters when its deep into flower sucks, especially when your tree farming. The growth above and below the water level almost makes it worth it. I had the pump for the misters in my rez of my DIY undercurrent and the misters right below the top of the net pots.

I'll have to take a look into an ultrasonic fogger or some sort of filter to put on the pump.

 

[daveroller]

I've done the same thing Dave with great success. I just personally always had problems with little pieces of roots clogging up the misters. Trying to lift the plant off the tote to clean the misters when its deep into flower sucks, especially when your tree farming. The growth above and below the water level almost makes it worth it. I had the pump for the misters in my rez of my DIY undercurrent and the misters right below the top of the net pots.

I'll have to take a look into an ultrasonic fogger or some sort of filter to put on the pump.

Dude, I'm not sure what you mean by "misters". They sound like they have tiny pinholes if they really make a fine mist. I was using little sprayers that are used for making an outdoor sprinkling system for plants. Mine had really big holes in them with spinners to disperse the water. Those things never clogged. And if one does get clogged, you can replace it simply by reaching into your res and unscrewing it and screwing another one back in.

I got those sprinkler nozzles at either Lowe's or Home Depot, I can't remember which.

 

[daveroller]

Hey Edge, do you have a plan for changing your water after your plants get big? Like dude mentioned, it gets really hard to move a plant off the res when it's really big, and impossible if it's growing through a SCROG screen (unless the screen is attached to your res lid). So you might need to plan ahead how you're going to change the res water.

I use a cheap water pump that I attach to a power drill. You can get one at Menard's (or other hardware store like Home Depot, etc) for $3. If you get one, you need to find some hoses to attach to it. The guys at the store can find some for you that will fit. I use the kind of hoses that attach to the back of a washing machine.

I've heard of other people using a small shop vac to suck the res water out.

 

[dude9000]

They looked just like the nozzles edge is using in his setup. They didnt really "mist", more like little squirt guns.
Its definitely a pain to swap them once the lady's are pretty big. It seemed like every other day I had to swap them. If it was once in a while I wouldn't have cared.


You definitely want to figure out an easy way to change your water before its to late. I'd go with what Dave suggested or you could use a pump just like the one feeding your nozzles.

You could always macgyver a ball valve at the bottom of your tote and use an inline pump to suck the water out. Something similar to one of these https://www.google.com/shopping/product/431211369399271575?espv=1&sboxchip=Shopping&q=2+pvc+ball+valve&oq=+pvc+ball+valve&ei=BV-hUtqmMJa-sQSUm4KwAw&ved=0CKQBEKYrMAI

I can't find the ball valve I'm thinking of but you want to get one that will mount flush against your tote. Use something like JB water weld to make a seal.

Jb waterweld is my go to for putting random things together on the fly. It might look a little ghetto but it works! If it doesn't work you need to put more on until it does! It dries wet which is a big plus.

 

[daveroller]

I can't find the ball valve I'm thinking of but you want to get one that will mount flush against your tote. Use something like JB water weld to make a seal.

Jb waterweld is my go to for putting random things together on the fly. It might look a little ghetto but it works! If it doesn't work you need to put more on until it does! It dries wet which is a big plus.

You just need to buy a bulkhead to attach a ball valve to the wall of your tub. It comes with a rubber gasket, so you don't need to seal it in place. It simply screws together with the tub wall in between 2 pieces. Then screw the ball valve into the bulkhead opening. Home Depot has all the parts in its PVC pipe section.

Edit: That will drain most of the water out, but a lot of sediment is on the bottom. You still need a pump or vacuum to suck that stuff out. When I'm still able to move the plant, I wash my res with soap and water to remove all that sediment.

That JB Waterweld is a great tip. I'm going to buy some today to keep around for little repairs.

 

[dude9000]

Very true. There will still be a little puddle at the bottom that you need to flush out. Scrubbing your totes regularly is also a must.

I'm thinking of my setup. There are 3 totes connected by 2" PVC, one is the rez and one lady in each of the other two. I just pump the feed water out while pumping fresh water in and do this until everything is flushed out of rootzone/totes. I just keep my ppm meter in the rez to monitor.. Once PH is 7 and ppm is 180ish(or whatever my taps average is at the time)I know its clean. Its pretty effective. My ladies are in cages and surrounded by cables, lights and other nonsense in a tiny space. So its almost impossible to move them late into flower.

 

[dude9000]

The ball valve might be over complicating it, unless your planing on doing some sort of recirculating system..

 

[Edge7]

Well I have been going through some growing pains as I learn as I grow with the kindness of you folks. First off, after germinating the seeds in water and placing the seedlings in Rapid Rooter:

Day 6 with only the vegging switch on:


Day 8 - vegging switched on:


I wanted to get the neoprene covers on them but the Rapid Rooters were too large so I had to cut the lower half of the rooters and woefully extract some roots nearly sacrificing 3 plants to get them in their 2" pods. Then I knocked over my mini tote when I was messing with my sprinklers and mixed up the 3 strains I was growing so I'll have to identify them when they get older. I then germinated 3 more seeds (white widow, aurora, northern lights).

Day 14 - Now I have them all in the 2" net pots and nursing 3 of them back to health after mishaps. After messing with my sprinkler manifold i realize the most important thing- the EZ Clone micro sprayers SUCK! They trickle out water, the spraying pattern is worthless and nearly killed 3 of my plants starving them of water. I replaced them with sprayers I got from Lowes and it made all the difference in the world:


Using the full spectrum with both vegging and flowering switches on now:


My roots are starting to get healthy, starting nutes are at 230 ppm 6.8 ph:

 

[daveroller]

Well I have been going through some growing pains as I learn as I grow with the kindness of you folks. First off, after germinating the seeds in water and placing the seedlings in Rapid Rooter:

Day 6 with only the vegging switch on:


Day 8 - vegging swutched on:


I wanted to get the neoprene covers on them but the Rapid Rooters were too large so I had to cut the lower half of the rooters and woefully extract some roots nearly sacrificing 3 plants to get them in their 2" pods. Then I knocked over my mini tote when I was messing with my sprinklers and mixed up the 3 strains I was growing so I'll have to identify them when they get older. I then germinated 3 more seeds (white widow, aurora, northern lights).

Day 14 - Now I have them all in the 2" net pots and nursing 3 of them back to health after mishaps. After messing with my sprinkler manifold i realize the most important thing- the EZ Clone micro sprayers SUCK! They trickle out water, the spraying pattern is worthless and nearly killed 3 of my plants starving them of water. I replaced them with sprayers I got from Lowes and it made all the difference in the world:


Using the full spectrum with both vegging and flowering switches on now:


My roots are starting to get healthy:

Looking really good, Edge. Those new sprayer nozzles look exactly like the ones I screwed into my sprayer manifold years ago. I don't think they'll clog too easily. Sorry to hear about the problems. That always happens when you're starting out. You just have to deal with them as best you can. Those roots look great!

 

[Edge7]

Thanks, dave. I have my nutes up to 300 ppm, ph is 6.7. Should I worry about the ph being a bit high for aeroponics? I'm looking to clone these plants in 2-3 weeks to fill the net pots. I am also germinating cucumber, tomatos and squash to add to the mix.

 

[daveroller]

Thanks, dave. I have my nutes up to 300 ppm, ph is 6.7. Should I worry about the ph being a bit high for aeroponics? I'm looking to clone these plants in 2-3 weeks to fill the net pots. I am also germinating cucumber, tomatos and squash to add to the mix.

Yeah, 6.7 is a bit high. I'd try to get it closer to 5.8. That's the sweet spot. 5.5 - 6.1 is the range you want to be within for hydro. Are you sure you want to grow vegetables in there? They'll have a different growing cycle altogether. And just one or two pot plants will easily fill up your tent.

 

[Edge7]

Yeah, 6.7 is a bit high. I'd try to get it closer to 5.8. That's the sweet spot. 5.5 - 6.1 is the range you want to be within for hydro. Are you sure you want to grow vegetables in there? They'll have a different growing cycle altogether. And just one or two pot plants will easily fill up your tent.

Should I get some pH down or use lemon or apple cider vinegar? I didn't even think about the vegetable grow cycles. Veg seeds are so cheap, I'm experimenting to keep the wife happy, haha.

 

[daveroller]

Should I get some pH down or use lemon or apple cider vinegar? I didn't even think about the vegetable grow cycles. Veg seeds are so cheap, I'm experimenting to keep the wife happy, haha.

Better get some pH Up and pH Down. You'll need to tinker with pH at times. I wouldn't recommend those home remedies if you have a big res, but I don't know really if they'd work or not. I would guess that they aren't strong enough to affect the pH in a big res.

I understand what a married guy needs to do sometimes, all too well. I'm just not sure I'd want cucumber plants sucking my expensive nutrients away from my pot plants. Good luck explaining that to her, though. Sometimes you have to make compromises against your better judgment.