catusphile
Active Member
This thread is experimental, highly dangerous, and full of complete nonsense. Hopefully throughout the life of this thread, some learning will occur, some fun will be had, and in the end, there might be something worth savoring; we'll see. Now, on with the show...
I'm fairly new to this board. I was a member of OG when it was in its prime. I have grown in soil, I have grown use a DWC hydro setup (GH nutrients). I have grown in small cabinets, I have grown in decent sized closets. This will be my first grow of this magnitude; it will also be my first hydro-organic grow. There isn't much information about hydro-organics available; it seems only a small portion of the gardening/growing population pursue this method. And I think I know why. More to be said about this topic later.
This grow is situated in an attic. A 4 ft x 4.5 ft room has been built in the attic; the walls are made of particle board and have been insulated. Due to a truss and attic height, I have roughly 4 ft of height from the floor to the glass shield on the reflector. I am currently using one 600w digital MH/HPS ballast with a 6" EasyCool reflector. Another 600w setup will be on its way soon. The room cooled by a ~250cfs 6" inline fan which connects to the air-cooled reflector. Depending on weather conditions and stage of growth, I have a 6" duct running from the outside of the house into the room; this ducting can be connected to the air-cooled hood to create a sealed room (if I choose to use CO2) or left disconnected to bring fresh air into the room. The fan is connected to a DuctStat line voltage thermostat, which is set to come on at roughly 76F; the differential is set at 3F. 1mm Mylar covers all 3 walls; the 4th 'wall' is actually the access doors, which is covered with panda film. A note about Mylar thickness... some say that 1mm is too thin; I disagree. I have rubbed chicken wire against it, put staples through it, spilled chemicals on it, and while it may scuff, it doesn't tear easily!
And the heart of the room. There are (6) 5-gallon DWC buckets connected to a control bucket and reservoir. I will not go over specifics on how to build this system, as it is already covered in the GrowFAQ. I learned the hard way and tried using underground sprinkler components for building the bucket network; this was a bad idea as I couldn't keep the system from leaking. I'm now going through and removing these components, swapping out the proper equipment from the local gardening supply shop. Also, use a good, high quality container for your reservoir. I tried a 31-gallon Roughneck from Rubbermaid; when it was filled with water, it would expand significantly, bowing the walls; I couldn't trust it to hold more than 15 gallons of water. I found a great 27 gallon container from Lowes that is extra tough; it will hold up to 400 pounds; 27 gallons of water weights 225 pounds, so we're safe. I went a little overboard with the on/off valves, but it is nice to be able to isolate a couple buckets from the rest of the system. Each bucket has a 5" round airstone and its own 20-gallon air pump. The control bucket and reservoir share a pump but each have an airstone to keep the water moving. Backflow valves have been connected to each air pump since they are sitting on the floor. Black tubing was used everywhere; black buckets and black 6" net lids have been used. They are inexpensive and prevent algae - completely worth it in my book! Expanded clay is being used as my growing medium. One of my favor additions I made to this system is the hose hookup on the control bucket. I can screw a standard garden hose into the control bucket and drain the entire system. I can also hook the hose up to a faucet and fill the buckets with fresh water, cleaning them out, which I feel is important when using a chunky, slimy organic nutrient.
Feeding was a difficult decision; I had used DWC before and had explosive growth compared to my soil grows. I much prefer an organic smoke though. And then there was Earth Juice. I've used EJ in soil before with good results. And heck, it even has hydro-organic instructions on the back! That's enough encouragement to make me try Earth Juice in a DWC. My plants aren't fortunate enough to have soil to provide micronutrients and other minerals, so I use the complete line of Earth Juice: Grow, Bloom, Catalyst, Microblast, and Meta-K. Earth Juice is cheap relative to other, similar products, but that doesn't mean we're off the hook. This setup has about 30 gallons of water in the buckets at any given time (not including the reservoir); that equates to lots of nutrients and lots of money spent! I will provide financial data as I see how quickly I burn through nutrients, but I can already tell you that using the General Hydroponics 3-part nutrients is a MUCH less expensive way to go.
When mixing my nutrient solution, I add about 20 gallons of water to my reservoir. I get the airstone going and add in all the needed nutrients. This soup sits and aerates for at least 24 hours, sometimes more. After 24 hours, I adjust the pH to about 5.4 (anywhere between 5.2 and 5.8 is fine). Earth Juice does crazy things to pH... when mixed in a soft tap water, the pH usually comes out to about 3.1. The pH becomes very stubborn to adjust and needs a concentrated solution to get the pH moving up or down the scale. I like to use Advanced Nutrients pH-Up and pH-Down; it is VERY concentrated and only needs about 1/4 - 1/2 tsp per bucket to adjust the pH by about 1 on the scale. And despite being Advanced Nutrients, their pH adjusting solutions are relatively inexpensive. I have tried using General Hydroponic's pH-Up and it requires absurd amounts of solution to adjust the pH; avoid it when using Earth Juice. While you'll find exact EC readings later on, I've found that a half-strength nutrient solution (mixture can be found on bottle) have an EC reading of about 700 PPM. pH rises quickly when using Earth Juice, so plan on adjusting pH daily. From the few days I've monitored my setup so far, it is not uncommon to see a .5 to 1 point increase in 24 hours. The nutrient solution will be flushed every 1 to 2 weeks, depending on EC readings and plant health.
As I mentioned earlier, I only have about 4 feet total of grow height. That's not much space. I've dealt with this predicament before by tying back the plants; this worked well and gave me huge bushy plants. I was initially planning on going with the SCRoG method, but after having chicken wire in my grow room for a few days, I realized I simply couldn't manage this many plants without having access to the screen on all 4 sides. I might build a custom screen that allows better access to the plants; I'm not sure yet. I'm open to suggestions on how to manage plant height.
The plants were obtained from a very generous medical club. The three plants on the right are Durban Poison. The plant in the middle on the left is AK-47. The other two plants are either AK-47 or Mango, I'm not sure. The clones were rooted in rockwool, using Clonex rooting solution and placed under a humidity dome and 4 foot florescent lamp. Roots started to show after about 8 days; the plants were moved to their DWC site after 11 days. A weak, 1/4 strength nutrient solution was used for the first week in the DWC. I'm currently on week two and am using a 1/2 strength solution.
That covers all the basics of this grow. I will try to update the thread at least once a week with photos and comments. I also have some more learning experiences regarding the construction of the DWC; I will add those in the coming days. I hope the attached photos satisfy everyone's hunger; please, provide comments and questions!
I'm fairly new to this board. I was a member of OG when it was in its prime. I have grown in soil, I have grown use a DWC hydro setup (GH nutrients). I have grown in small cabinets, I have grown in decent sized closets. This will be my first grow of this magnitude; it will also be my first hydro-organic grow. There isn't much information about hydro-organics available; it seems only a small portion of the gardening/growing population pursue this method. And I think I know why. More to be said about this topic later.
This grow is situated in an attic. A 4 ft x 4.5 ft room has been built in the attic; the walls are made of particle board and have been insulated. Due to a truss and attic height, I have roughly 4 ft of height from the floor to the glass shield on the reflector. I am currently using one 600w digital MH/HPS ballast with a 6" EasyCool reflector. Another 600w setup will be on its way soon. The room cooled by a ~250cfs 6" inline fan which connects to the air-cooled reflector. Depending on weather conditions and stage of growth, I have a 6" duct running from the outside of the house into the room; this ducting can be connected to the air-cooled hood to create a sealed room (if I choose to use CO2) or left disconnected to bring fresh air into the room. The fan is connected to a DuctStat line voltage thermostat, which is set to come on at roughly 76F; the differential is set at 3F. 1mm Mylar covers all 3 walls; the 4th 'wall' is actually the access doors, which is covered with panda film. A note about Mylar thickness... some say that 1mm is too thin; I disagree. I have rubbed chicken wire against it, put staples through it, spilled chemicals on it, and while it may scuff, it doesn't tear easily!
And the heart of the room. There are (6) 5-gallon DWC buckets connected to a control bucket and reservoir. I will not go over specifics on how to build this system, as it is already covered in the GrowFAQ. I learned the hard way and tried using underground sprinkler components for building the bucket network; this was a bad idea as I couldn't keep the system from leaking. I'm now going through and removing these components, swapping out the proper equipment from the local gardening supply shop. Also, use a good, high quality container for your reservoir. I tried a 31-gallon Roughneck from Rubbermaid; when it was filled with water, it would expand significantly, bowing the walls; I couldn't trust it to hold more than 15 gallons of water. I found a great 27 gallon container from Lowes that is extra tough; it will hold up to 400 pounds; 27 gallons of water weights 225 pounds, so we're safe. I went a little overboard with the on/off valves, but it is nice to be able to isolate a couple buckets from the rest of the system. Each bucket has a 5" round airstone and its own 20-gallon air pump. The control bucket and reservoir share a pump but each have an airstone to keep the water moving. Backflow valves have been connected to each air pump since they are sitting on the floor. Black tubing was used everywhere; black buckets and black 6" net lids have been used. They are inexpensive and prevent algae - completely worth it in my book! Expanded clay is being used as my growing medium. One of my favor additions I made to this system is the hose hookup on the control bucket. I can screw a standard garden hose into the control bucket and drain the entire system. I can also hook the hose up to a faucet and fill the buckets with fresh water, cleaning them out, which I feel is important when using a chunky, slimy organic nutrient.
Feeding was a difficult decision; I had used DWC before and had explosive growth compared to my soil grows. I much prefer an organic smoke though. And then there was Earth Juice. I've used EJ in soil before with good results. And heck, it even has hydro-organic instructions on the back! That's enough encouragement to make me try Earth Juice in a DWC. My plants aren't fortunate enough to have soil to provide micronutrients and other minerals, so I use the complete line of Earth Juice: Grow, Bloom, Catalyst, Microblast, and Meta-K. Earth Juice is cheap relative to other, similar products, but that doesn't mean we're off the hook. This setup has about 30 gallons of water in the buckets at any given time (not including the reservoir); that equates to lots of nutrients and lots of money spent! I will provide financial data as I see how quickly I burn through nutrients, but I can already tell you that using the General Hydroponics 3-part nutrients is a MUCH less expensive way to go.
When mixing my nutrient solution, I add about 20 gallons of water to my reservoir. I get the airstone going and add in all the needed nutrients. This soup sits and aerates for at least 24 hours, sometimes more. After 24 hours, I adjust the pH to about 5.4 (anywhere between 5.2 and 5.8 is fine). Earth Juice does crazy things to pH... when mixed in a soft tap water, the pH usually comes out to about 3.1. The pH becomes very stubborn to adjust and needs a concentrated solution to get the pH moving up or down the scale. I like to use Advanced Nutrients pH-Up and pH-Down; it is VERY concentrated and only needs about 1/4 - 1/2 tsp per bucket to adjust the pH by about 1 on the scale. And despite being Advanced Nutrients, their pH adjusting solutions are relatively inexpensive. I have tried using General Hydroponic's pH-Up and it requires absurd amounts of solution to adjust the pH; avoid it when using Earth Juice. While you'll find exact EC readings later on, I've found that a half-strength nutrient solution (mixture can be found on bottle) have an EC reading of about 700 PPM. pH rises quickly when using Earth Juice, so plan on adjusting pH daily. From the few days I've monitored my setup so far, it is not uncommon to see a .5 to 1 point increase in 24 hours. The nutrient solution will be flushed every 1 to 2 weeks, depending on EC readings and plant health.
As I mentioned earlier, I only have about 4 feet total of grow height. That's not much space. I've dealt with this predicament before by tying back the plants; this worked well and gave me huge bushy plants. I was initially planning on going with the SCRoG method, but after having chicken wire in my grow room for a few days, I realized I simply couldn't manage this many plants without having access to the screen on all 4 sides. I might build a custom screen that allows better access to the plants; I'm not sure yet. I'm open to suggestions on how to manage plant height.
The plants were obtained from a very generous medical club. The three plants on the right are Durban Poison. The plant in the middle on the left is AK-47. The other two plants are either AK-47 or Mango, I'm not sure. The clones were rooted in rockwool, using Clonex rooting solution and placed under a humidity dome and 4 foot florescent lamp. Roots started to show after about 8 days; the plants were moved to their DWC site after 11 days. A weak, 1/4 strength nutrient solution was used for the first week in the DWC. I'm currently on week two and am using a 1/2 strength solution.
That covers all the basics of this grow. I will try to update the thread at least once a week with photos and comments. I also have some more learning experiences regarding the construction of the DWC; I will add those in the coming days. I hope the attached photos satisfy everyone's hunger; please, provide comments and questions!
