Ebb n Flow/NFT hyprid, 3x600 W, large selection of highly produktive strains

Hey Guys!

Chuck from Germany here, i just registered today to this forum to share with you my recent grow from seed to harvest.
Feel free to discuss this grow, even better suggest improvements, or just to talk about chess and pool billiards here:

My goal is to be as efficient as possible in terms of yield per watts per time (you know, it's a typical German stereotype )

So therefore, i just finished my first self-built hydroponic system, which is a kind of ebb n flow and nft hyprid, maybe more on the nft side, but not a classical nft system with tubes.
I started growing weed 7 y ago, in- and outdoors in soil, used a smaller, pre-built, ebb n flow system for the Last 3 years (besides a small 1m² grow in soil in a tent) and now i want to grow full hydro in a larger (1,5m×3m) tent.

So i invested in better equipment, and in a large variety of high productive strains.
Also, thanks to the guys from my favourite grow shop "Pro-Grow" in Bochum, Germany
I borrowed an apogee light meter and made A LOT of measurements to find the perfect configuration for my lamps.
From my first onfiguration, which was about 1400 ppfd max, about 450/500 ppfd on the sides and just about 350 ppfd in the corners, i made a huge improvement to about 1000-1100 ppfd under the hps bulb, about 700 ppfd on the sides and still over 500 ppfd in the corners.

There is a German saying "pictures are saying more than a thousand words", so here are some pics and a short video to introduce you to my setup:


This is my final lamp configuration, which give me the most even light coverage. The stipes on the LED have a larger gap in the middle, a smaller gap on the sides. The HPS lamps are hanging more towards the tent wall than in the center.


My small mother/cloning tent.
I will make a list of all the strains in the next post.

Intruduction to the setup:

Tomorrow...

The plants were moved to both tables yesterday, here is a introduction vid to the hole system:


Also here is a list of all the strains I'm growing:

Industrial Plant (Dinafem) x6
Critical+ (Dinafem) x6
Quick Caramel XL (Zamnesia) x5
AK kush Express (Kalashnikov Seeds) x6
Cream Caramel Fast Version (Sweet Seeds) x5
Gelato (Zamnesia - Bonus Seeds) x3
Green Gelato (Royal Queen Seeds - Cuttings) x2
Critical (Royal Queen Seeds - Cutting) x1
Wonder Pie (Greenhouse Seeds - Cutting) x1

Hi Chuck,
Can you explain more about the process & the grow system build?
I know nothing anything this growing method, I'll be happy to learn.
Thanks.

Sure! First of all this is some kind of a "unique" growing method, i haven't seen exactly this setup anywhere else yet.
But It's very similar to common ebb n flow and nft growing methods.

So let me explain it in detail:
First there are some styrofoam blocks for isolation. On this there is the water reservoir, about 150l for the large and 100l for the small table.
There are some support blocks for the table, to make sure, that the water flows in direction to the hole where it goes back to the water reservoir.
So the side where the water gets pump in is a bit higher than the side where the water goes back to the reservoir.
On the table there is a root mat (you see it in the vid) and a special black foil (with many small holes in it for better air support for the roots.)
The plant are standing on the green mat in small rockwool cubes.

When i switch the pump on, the water goes through a garden hose to 6 small pipeline, and from the 6 pipelines to the green mat.
After 4 to 6 minutes the green mat is nicely wet and all the plant are getting the nutrient solution.
But also the roots are getting a lot of oxygen and there should be no danger in over watering, because there is no standing water on the table.
Also i should have a bit more room for errors than in a classical nft, because the root mat holds the water for some time, so if the pump is broken or any other accident happens, the plants will not die in a day or two (hopefully).

Sound simple enough, are you flowering the plants on the same table with top/side support?

Yes, the table is for well rooted seedlings/clones to harvest.

Thanks, I'll be following your grow journal.

Small update: most plants are looking healthy. Just 2 Cream Caramel in the middle of the big table might got overwatered.
Maybe because there was not enough root development in the rockwool cube, and the cube got too wet.
On the other hand, the clones (who had better root development at the start) are looking super healthy: