OK, I found one of his threads on 420mag. http://www.420magazine.com/forums/hydroponic-gardening/193337-thecapn-s-ultimate-flowering-machine.html You may have to log in to see the pictures. Hopefully that link is ok.Is this the series: http://dudegrows.com/lets-captain-style-baby-part-1/
Pretty cool indeed!
Glad you like it. It works way better than ebb and flow (for me). I had three totes under each light, so I think with a 600 watt bulb set vertically, you could have four or five totes in a ring around the bulb and get good yields. You might want to set them out in the store to figure out how big a circle you want so they are close enough to the light. The only other thing I would say, is with hydroton,grow stones, and probably the perlite too, you will need to run the pumps more often than in those instructions to keep them from drying out compared to using rockwool.Pretty cool indeed!
For sure. I figure anywhere between 4 and 24 times a day for the watering. Growstone arrived today and wow...it looks really cool.Glad you like it. It works way better than ebb and flow (for me). I had three totes under each light, so I think with a 600 watt bulb set vertically, you could have four or five totes in a ring around the bulb and get good yields. You might want to set them out in the store to figure out how big a circle you want so they are close enough to the light. The only other thing I would say, is with hydroton,grow stones, and probably the perlite too, you will need to run the pumps more often than in those instructions to keep them from drying out compared to using rockwool.
Yeah...I'll take some pictures that illustrate why. Basically, if I put a net pot into the tube...even if it has a ton of roots sticking out...if they don't actually touch the water, it's a 50/50 proposition. They might make it, they might not. Had I to start over, they would be in the net pots and surrounded with hydroton and left that way for prolly 2 weeks or until there were a lot of roots and at least 2 inches long.Great update bro. Kinda surprised a few of them haven't touched the water yet. You would think by now all of them would be but that could be contributed to the rockwool holding access moisture. They're dry now so your not top feeding anymore right? I don't really see any plants that look horrible. They all look green and healthy.
I see what you mean tho about the 4th row and not enough light. Maybe if there was some type of reflective material above the light would help reflect it back down on top of them. I think you have enough light but with this basically being in the open you may be losing lots of light to the plants. I think this would be great in a all white room. Maybe surround it with white poly with a zipper added to it to close it up. I'm just throwing stuff out there but they look great bro. I cant wait to see them flower bro gonna be very nice
Yea I see what your saying. I think I saw someone mention it earlier your system would be best for established clones that way you out them in and they're already touching. yea next run for sure with it do it that way with the net pots and establishing roots. Shouldn't have that problem no more. Still looking great tho broYeah...I'll take some pictures that illustrate why. Basically, if I put a net pot into the tube...even if it has a ton of roots sticking out...if they don't actually touch the water, it's a 50/50 proposition. They might make it, they might not. Had I to start over, they would be in the net pots and surrounded with hydroton and left that way for prolly 2 weeks or until there were a lot of roots and at least 2 inches long.
Well, considering they are rockwool cubes, you could cut the bottom out of the net pots and push the cube closer to the water for the ones that are struggling. As soon as roots hit that flowing water they will get longer fast. The plants look good, I think the whole group will take off soon.Yeah...I'll take some pictures that illustrate why. Basically, if I put a net pot into the tube...even if it has a ton of roots sticking out...if they don't actually touch the water, it's a 50/50 proposition. They might make it, they might not. Had I to start over, they would be in the net pots and surrounded with hydroton and left that way for prolly 2 weeks or until there were a lot of roots and at least 2 inches long.
Great info right there bro. That's why I love this site cus if you live where cannabis is frowned upon your gonna have a hard time finding someone who you can trust to give you great tips and info. I used to only use this site for info purposes only until couple years ago when I got back to growing. I'm hooked now lolNice, they are starting to look vigorous indeed.
The issue of the roots not being able to reach the water yet is sort of inherent to NFT in a tube. The water concentrates in a narrow stream at the bottom. Hence flooded tubes. I used the same adapter pvc end cap piece (end cap with a hole offset from center) Heath used in his system to raise the water level i.e. as a dam. The tubes aren't actually completely flooded, less than half actually. Raising the water level just half an inch already widens it a lot in a pipe. In your case that would require a dam at every level. There's another way to achieve that, rotating an elbow at the end of each row slightly upwards.
As they start to take off it will be interesting to see how the roots impact the tubes. One of the big motivations was as you said...minimal disposal at the end. As you scale up, disposing of medium becomes a serious issue.I had to 'experience' the effect of not having dams in my tubes too before adding them. I didn't actually buy those endcaps for damns, just to easily connect 40mm pvc drain to rez. Even had my tubes slightly tilted to keep it low. All I had to do was rotate the end cap (which fortunately was not glued) cause the hole was offset. My issue was slightly different, I started mine with roots submerged in dwc, then they barely reached the flow in the tubes after transplanting. This thread was from slightly before that, contains a pic of the dam piece too.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/drooping-after-transplant-from-dwc-to-nft.636245/
You're doing great though, it's just the dialing in part a system like that requires. Once you got it full tuned in...
Only reason I don't grow in my tubes is because it's not handy for breeding, but to produce high quality and quantity mj in as little time as possible it's imo the best way to grow. Noticeably fast in veg and I do get the impression that carries on in flowering.
https://www.rollitup.org/t/flooded-tubes-is-the-best.706564/ didn't even mention the highly efficient nutrient usage there, and the reduced waste at the end, just roots and plants. The roots dry out fast and can then be compacted to a fraction of their size. I don't want to sound lazy but it's nice not having to drag with bags of soil/coco/perlite in and out the house especially with 4-5 runs a year.
Anyway, like we determined earlier, the roots will fill up the bottom of the tubes too which should raise the level a bit, nice and gradually too.
i hear ya.Sativied is putting it on us today. You make me feel so bad thatbinhave to get all this soil over and over and over and mixing it up hand watering shit gets very tiring but there's no better taste than soil grown. Plus I just reuse my soil so I don't have to dispose of much except for plant material but this is def a great way to grow tho and I would prolly do more hydro if I didn't like to grow so much variety. Still gonna always do a hydro plant or two to cus the growth is amazing and end products is very close to soil. Keep coming with the info bro and you might turn me into a NFT man lol
The hand watering of more than a handful of pots gets tiring indeed. Makes the blumat tropf so appealing and good chance I'll buy them some day sooner or later. I think cannabis can reach its max genetic potential taste-wise on both soil and hydro and any other difference is a matter of taste Taste is a phenotype, as in genetic+environment. Hydro or soil is a pretty big difference in the environment so differences are possible, up to missing terpenes. But that works both ways. Some strains work out better on hydro (or whatever environment the breeder selected in).You make me feel so bad that I have to get all this soil over and over and over and mixing it up hand watering shit gets very tiring but there's no better taste than soil grown.
That was a major concern for me too, even with 6 plants I wanted to grow 2 or 3 strains to have some variety. First few runs I noticed there was always one plant that could use some more nutes and one that could use less (too dark or burned tips). The solution turned out to be lowering the ppm by topping off more often. So instead of dumping all the nutrients for one week in the rez at the start of the week, I added a bit every two or 3 days to prevent the ppm from dropping too far and to prevent starting out higher than necessary.S would prolly do more hydro if I didn't like to grow so much variety
i agree with ya on behalf of missing some terpens or not. i grew hawkeye from redeyedgenetics 1 in promix 1 perlite verm hempy , with no variation in taste between them.. its all in the pheno.The hand watering of more than a handful of pots gets tiring indeed. Makes the blumat tropf so appealing and good chance I'll buy them some day sooner or later. I think cannabis can reach its max genetic potential taste-wise on both soil and hydro and any other difference is a matter of taste Taste is a phenotype, as in genetic+environment. Hydro or soil is a pretty big difference in the environment so differences are possible, up to missing terpenes. But that works both ways. Some strains work out better on hydro (or whatever environment the breeder selected in).
That was a major concern for me too, even with 6 plants I wanted to grow 2 or 3 strains to have some variety. First few runs I noticed there was always one plant that could use some more nutes and one that could use less (too dark or burned tips). The solution turned out to be lowering the ppm by topping off more often. So instead of dumping all the nutrients for one week in the rez at the start of the week, I added a bit every two or 3 days to prevent the ppm from dropping too far and to prevent starting out higher than necessary.