25 site SOG in 4x4 tent w/ hybrid NFT irrigation drip hydro system feasible?

Randomestguy said:

First hydro run, built RDWC (recirculating for the seedling stage) and noticed it's best with a scrog because the base lacks a large surface area and depth of reservoir. The air pumps is the bane of it IMO hopefully will find a way to silence em.

Started thinking up this hybrid NFT style because multiple strains in hydro is difficult because of different flowering times and potential nutrient needs, at least in recirculating systems. Felt a wider surface area would simplify things if popping clones and SOGing over training a scrog.

The main issues seem to be root clogging from size constraint and nutrient distribution, a water pump will feed all the sites with drip irrigation so nutrients will be distributed equally. Seen something about root rot from water levels too high for saplings but it's top fed so taken care of. Thinking maybe a wide drainage end piece with a horizontal U bend to prevent clogging.

So my question is if 25 sites in 5 pipes in 4x4 tent is feasible/reasonable for a SOG? or if 16 sites w 4 pipes would be better, no solid draft up yet so site size and pipe size yet to be determined. Would the water need to be oxygenated or would being top fed in like hydroton net pots be fine with no air pump for reservoir?

They would be done with clones so could be kept there for whole life, using a 1000w wide hood air cooled mh/hps lamp turned down to 600w for flowering, may upgrade to an LED light eventually but will be using hydroguard the beneficial bacteria thing if heat becomes problematic.

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coreywebster said:

Have a look through hot diggity sog's post history, he has a few threads. Im sure one of which is a vertical sog with nft that he explains .
Might be wrong though.

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coreywebster said:

Have a look through hot diggity sog's post history, he has a few threads. Im sure one of which is a vertical sog with nft that he explains .
Might be wrong though.

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Randomestguy said:

Thanks again, for streamlining some of this stuff, I'm currently getting stuff ready so moderately busy.

I will take the time to properly respond after learning more about tables, waterfalls and looking through the threads, if it was vertical hydro, like damn I can only imagine.

But I might actually follow through with some variation of this because I think the DWC air pump constantly running is going to be the end of me, thinking of an aero cloner down the road to keep with some mom's if SOG turns out to be the deal.

Thank you so much everyone! I'll look through the journal/builds and hopefully have something to respond with before looking deeper into tables and waterfall style.

I do have a question, ive never grown hydro first run about to. For the nft style, it's actually going to be top-fed to each individual plant site with irritation tubing, so because the roots are ultimately suspended in air in the net pots aside from drainage (unless pipe too shallow) how necessary is it to oxygenate the reservoir? Does it help fight the bacteria that cause root rot? (Plus more oxy the better)

I'll read up on it get get back, thanks!

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Thundercat said:

This thread is really long but is all about nft hybrid tubes. Lots of suggestions and info.

Unless you are gonna have a separate reservoir hooked to each tube to control nutrients to specific plants, I don’t really see the point in doing nft in your 4x4 space when you can get the same type of growth from a flood and drain table.

I spent the last 10 years growing 45ish clones at a time in a 4x4 flood tray in 6 inch pots of grow rocks all under a single 1k how light.

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Randomestguy said:

@Airwalker16 the nft pipes would be like to drain the runoff of the drip irrigation.

For some reason flood and drain just never really caught my eye, suppose I liked other systems over it, but I am in the midst of researching flood tables because my previous understanding of flood and drain was like coco pots connected to a timed reservoir and pump.

@Thundercat I suppose I likely will end up settling on a flood table, however I liked the fact that pipes would be a convenient way to house SOG almost like making a pipe table that manifolds to the res. Like 5 pipes with 5 sites each for 25 sites (maybe less and modular to reach/change reservoir easier) but convenient because net pots dropped into the top of a pipe seemed simple and desirable to me. I'm currently looking into flood tables I currently barely know

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andymex said:

I would love to do a flood and drain in my 4x4 tent, the problem I have Is that the 4x4 tray does no fit and the 3x3 tray would be ineffeicent, could you recommend a solution for building a flood table that fits exactly into my tent ?

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Thundercat said:

I’m not trying to be a dick, but there wouldn’t be any thing “convenient” about pipes. From building it to cleaning it using a tray with pots will be waaaaaay simpler.

And you know the old saying, K.I.S.S!

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