FiddlersGreen
Member
Hello Everybody!!! So glad to finally be here and getting ready for my first run!
So I've done tons of research and feel pretty good about my setup, but as I said this is my first grow so it's all purely theoretical. What I'm hoping for is that this wonderful community will impart some practical knowledge to me and fill in a few blanks. As you can, hopefully, see from the questions I'm really looking for an explanation of an answer more than the answer itself. Also Id like this to be a resources for others so please be as specific in your replies as possible (i.e. assume I was born yesterday).
One other thing, my closet is what it is. It's not ideal, I know, but it's the only location I have, please, lets keep it constructive (No "you need a bigger room").
So, Here is the game plan:
THE SETUP
My reservoirs and flood tables are all Sterilite totes and storage containers.
The whole room will be wrapped in Mylar & IR blocker.
My closet is an actual closet. It measures 64" Wide x 22" Deep x 96" Tall. It will be separated into two floors, top (Flower) and bottom (Mother/Clone), when closed the door will seal and separate the floors.
The Mother/Daughter Room will use an ebb and flow system, under a 6 bulb - 4ft T5 HO florescent lamp and a cloning tray & dedicated lamp. Unfortunately due to height constraints the ebb and flow reservoir will sit above the flood table and use two pumps, one pumping into the table and one out of the table. The system will use 12 gallon reservoir (actually using 10 gallons, 40qt, of nutrients solution), and a 74qt flood table. So, since the table has a greater capacity then the reservoir so flooding the house should be impossible. The mother plants will be started in 1.5" Rockwool cubes and transferred to 6" net pots filled will Hydroton. I am thinking of covering the table with the lid it came with and growing though small holes in the lid, to retain more moisture and keep the exposed roots from drying out. But, i am concerned this will limit access to the plants by trapping them in the lid. I am also considering a thin layer of Hydroton on the bottom of the table, but i am concerned about taking up to much volume with Hydroton and making flooding an issue again.
The clone tray will sit on top on the Mother plant reservoir, with a heat mat and a 150w CFL @ 6400k.
The door to the room will provide a fresh air intake, as well as providing a light proof barrier between the top and bottom floors. It will have an 4" 80cfm inline duct fan and a HEPA filter.
I have designed what I call a canister vent, that will allow air flow from the bottom floor to the top floor without allowing light into the flower room. It will also have an 4" 80cfm inline duct fan.
The Flower Room will use a deep water culture system, under a 400w HPS lamp. The reservoir will be a 45 gallon tote, with maybe 35 gallons of nutrients solution. The reservoir measures 36 5/8" L x 21" W x 19 1/2" H.
(If I understand DWC correctly then very bottom of my net pots will sit in the nutrient solution an sponge/wick nutrients, so until I actually put everything together I won't know exactly how much volume its required to reach that level in reservoir w/o doing more math then I'm willing to do.)
I will be using a dual diaphragm air pump to run 2, 12" air stones.
On the wall to the left (when looking into the closet) will have a 16" osculating fan.
The 400w HPS Lamp will have a glass lens , will be ducted in to the exhaust system, and hung on a bicycle hoist for easy height adjustment. The exhaust fan is a 4" 170cfm inline duct fan attached to a 4" 'Tall Boy' carbon filter, venting into the attic.
My 16" and 6" fans are mainly there to simulate the wind and strengthen my plants, I plan on having then running 24/7.
THE PLANTS
Mother plants, 6 plants, 3 strains, 2 mothers per strain. DNA's Holy Grail Kush, TGA's Deep Purple, and I'm still unsure about the third strain. I was thinking about Reserva Privada's Sour Kush, because id like to get a dieselly strain, and who knows maybe i get a miracle and get a Headband phenotype out of it. hey, I'm about 3000 miles from a legit clone so please don't give me sh*t about hoping lightning will strike. Anyhoo, if you guys have any recommendations for a good diesel strain for SOG, I'm open to suggestions.
[Update: Due to seed stock issues and for simplicity I will only be running one strain for at least the first run. It will be Reserva Privada's Skywalker Kush.
The idea here with the mother plants is to LST, Crop, Super Crop, whatever i need to do to keep my moms stay short and bushy, producing 3 viable clones per plant, every 8 weeks or so. Production rate seems totally achievable to me, but i would greatly appreciate input on keeping my mothers at the 2ft mark.
As you can see from the diagrams, I have no room for vegetative growth, so this will be a true SOG, straight from rooted clone to flower, at approx. 6".
I am setting up a 100 GPD Reverse Osmosis system for my water for my nutrient solution. I plan on using General Hydroponics Flora Series nutrients. To be perfectly honest the nutrient solution is the part i understand the least and feel is my biggest weakness. I did however find a quite through write-up on growing cannabis with the GH Flora, I will find the link and post it below so you all can give your opinion on its accuracy.
In order to keep my water consumption down, It is my hope that I can get away with changing my Flower Room nutrient solution every 2 weeks, testing and adjusting in between as necessary, and changing the Mother/Clone Room nutrient solution every week, again adjusting in between. I know this is a point of contention between many growers so I understand I won't get a definitive answer on this one, but I'd like all the info you have.
Beyond this point don't have much of a specific plan as the actual grow process will all be new to me so any and all miscellaneous tips are welcome.
Below I have attached a rough diagram of my grow closet to assist.
Question 1.
I have read that maximum reasonable plant density in SOG is 4 per sq. ft., 6 sq. in. per plant. However, every DWC I have seen pics of that are in Sterilite totes, are either 2 rows of 3 or 2 rows of 4. Looking at a 2x4 setup, it looks like it would be in an 30 gallon tote, and that measures 32 3/8" L x 19 3/4" W x 17 1/8" H. So if 6" is an acceptable placement why am i not see more 3x4 setups? So, Is 6" per plant acceptable density for my setup?
Question 2.
Is approx 24" enough vertical room to keep mothers capable of producing 3-4 viable clones, every 8-10 weeks?
Question 3.
Timers...
This is a simple but, multipart question.
How many times per day should I flood my ebb & flow table and for how long?
How many times per day should I turn on the clone tray heating mat and for how long?
How many times per day should I turn on my intake/exhaust fans and for how long?
Question 4.
What did I miss? What issues, concerns, or factors, have I failed to mention or address?
So I've done tons of research and feel pretty good about my setup, but as I said this is my first grow so it's all purely theoretical. What I'm hoping for is that this wonderful community will impart some practical knowledge to me and fill in a few blanks. As you can, hopefully, see from the questions I'm really looking for an explanation of an answer more than the answer itself. Also Id like this to be a resources for others so please be as specific in your replies as possible (i.e. assume I was born yesterday).
One other thing, my closet is what it is. It's not ideal, I know, but it's the only location I have, please, lets keep it constructive (No "you need a bigger room").
So, Here is the game plan:
THE SETUP
My reservoirs and flood tables are all Sterilite totes and storage containers.
The whole room will be wrapped in Mylar & IR blocker.
My closet is an actual closet. It measures 64" Wide x 22" Deep x 96" Tall. It will be separated into two floors, top (Flower) and bottom (Mother/Clone), when closed the door will seal and separate the floors.
The Mother/Daughter Room will use an ebb and flow system, under a 6 bulb - 4ft T5 HO florescent lamp and a cloning tray & dedicated lamp. Unfortunately due to height constraints the ebb and flow reservoir will sit above the flood table and use two pumps, one pumping into the table and one out of the table. The system will use 12 gallon reservoir (actually using 10 gallons, 40qt, of nutrients solution), and a 74qt flood table. So, since the table has a greater capacity then the reservoir so flooding the house should be impossible. The mother plants will be started in 1.5" Rockwool cubes and transferred to 6" net pots filled will Hydroton. I am thinking of covering the table with the lid it came with and growing though small holes in the lid, to retain more moisture and keep the exposed roots from drying out. But, i am concerned this will limit access to the plants by trapping them in the lid. I am also considering a thin layer of Hydroton on the bottom of the table, but i am concerned about taking up to much volume with Hydroton and making flooding an issue again.
The clone tray will sit on top on the Mother plant reservoir, with a heat mat and a 150w CFL @ 6400k.
The door to the room will provide a fresh air intake, as well as providing a light proof barrier between the top and bottom floors. It will have an 4" 80cfm inline duct fan and a HEPA filter.
I have designed what I call a canister vent, that will allow air flow from the bottom floor to the top floor without allowing light into the flower room. It will also have an 4" 80cfm inline duct fan.
The Flower Room will use a deep water culture system, under a 400w HPS lamp. The reservoir will be a 45 gallon tote, with maybe 35 gallons of nutrients solution. The reservoir measures 36 5/8" L x 21" W x 19 1/2" H.
(If I understand DWC correctly then very bottom of my net pots will sit in the nutrient solution an sponge/wick nutrients, so until I actually put everything together I won't know exactly how much volume its required to reach that level in reservoir w/o doing more math then I'm willing to do.)
I will be using a dual diaphragm air pump to run 2, 12" air stones.
On the wall to the left (when looking into the closet) will have a 16" osculating fan.
The 400w HPS Lamp will have a glass lens , will be ducted in to the exhaust system, and hung on a bicycle hoist for easy height adjustment. The exhaust fan is a 4" 170cfm inline duct fan attached to a 4" 'Tall Boy' carbon filter, venting into the attic.
My 16" and 6" fans are mainly there to simulate the wind and strengthen my plants, I plan on having then running 24/7.
THE PLANTS
Mother plants, 6 plants, 3 strains, 2 mothers per strain. DNA's Holy Grail Kush, TGA's Deep Purple, and I'm still unsure about the third strain. I was thinking about Reserva Privada's Sour Kush, because id like to get a dieselly strain, and who knows maybe i get a miracle and get a Headband phenotype out of it. hey, I'm about 3000 miles from a legit clone so please don't give me sh*t about hoping lightning will strike. Anyhoo, if you guys have any recommendations for a good diesel strain for SOG, I'm open to suggestions.
[Update: Due to seed stock issues and for simplicity I will only be running one strain for at least the first run. It will be Reserva Privada's Skywalker Kush.
The idea here with the mother plants is to LST, Crop, Super Crop, whatever i need to do to keep my moms stay short and bushy, producing 3 viable clones per plant, every 8 weeks or so. Production rate seems totally achievable to me, but i would greatly appreciate input on keeping my mothers at the 2ft mark.
As you can see from the diagrams, I have no room for vegetative growth, so this will be a true SOG, straight from rooted clone to flower, at approx. 6".
I am setting up a 100 GPD Reverse Osmosis system for my water for my nutrient solution. I plan on using General Hydroponics Flora Series nutrients. To be perfectly honest the nutrient solution is the part i understand the least and feel is my biggest weakness. I did however find a quite through write-up on growing cannabis with the GH Flora, I will find the link and post it below so you all can give your opinion on its accuracy.
In order to keep my water consumption down, It is my hope that I can get away with changing my Flower Room nutrient solution every 2 weeks, testing and adjusting in between as necessary, and changing the Mother/Clone Room nutrient solution every week, again adjusting in between. I know this is a point of contention between many growers so I understand I won't get a definitive answer on this one, but I'd like all the info you have.
Beyond this point don't have much of a specific plan as the actual grow process will all be new to me so any and all miscellaneous tips are welcome.
Below I have attached a rough diagram of my grow closet to assist.
Question 1.
I have read that maximum reasonable plant density in SOG is 4 per sq. ft., 6 sq. in. per plant. However, every DWC I have seen pics of that are in Sterilite totes, are either 2 rows of 3 or 2 rows of 4. Looking at a 2x4 setup, it looks like it would be in an 30 gallon tote, and that measures 32 3/8" L x 19 3/4" W x 17 1/8" H. So if 6" is an acceptable placement why am i not see more 3x4 setups? So, Is 6" per plant acceptable density for my setup?
Question 2.
Is approx 24" enough vertical room to keep mothers capable of producing 3-4 viable clones, every 8-10 weeks?
Question 3.
Timers...
This is a simple but, multipart question.
How many times per day should I flood my ebb & flow table and for how long?
How many times per day should I turn on the clone tray heating mat and for how long?
How many times per day should I turn on my intake/exhaust fans and for how long?
Question 4.
What did I miss? What issues, concerns, or factors, have I failed to mention or address?
