Help me choose a different growing method...

since1991 said:

I found with "hydro" the maintenance is way less

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And THERE'S the rub! We each feel that what we choose is simpler then what we left! That's just fine too! I mix my own water only soils and do it in 2 stages as I up-pot. A veg and a bloom soil. I don't find mixing soils as work! I don't mind watering everyday! I love spending time with my "babies".

I don't see how the "maintenance" part is less.....All that checking pH and ppm's,,,,adjusting that, mixing chem's and pHing those.....I spent far more time in my grows with hydro then with my soils......And here WE are right back at perception!

The bottom line is that we all do what works for us - on a personal level and for our own reasons.

The point I went for with this post:

Dr. Who said:

Kinda sounds like you want them to grow them selves so all you have to do is smoke them!

If you don't have a passion for growing...Why do it? I think a dispensary is your solution!
By the time you pay for all the run to waste nutrients. It'll cost more then buying it!

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was that when you go so all out to do as little as possible and let them go so you can be free to "whatever". Your giving up something! You might as well go buy from someone who really pays attention to what he's doing and loves it too......His shit will be, in the long and short run....BETTER!

Grow the way YOU want! Just BE passionate about it! Once you loose the "passion" to do it. Your quality WILL suffer!

Motorbuds said:

Yes! You're right

In a perfect world I could just go guy any different strains of like to try out and as much as I wanted, but I think we all know that's not very affordable for most people with the way the dispensaries gouge people.

Nothing wrong with working smarter and making thing easier on yourself when at all possible

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I take some offence to the "Gouge" comment......I own 2 disp. (currently on hold) and I never gouged.....Growers got as much as 50% of what I did for profits. You guys forget all sorts of overhead costs! Building payments, insurance, lighting, water, everything IN the shop cost money, From light bulbs to computers to the damn counters you have to constantly keep clean to the big ass safe to keep product and money in! Not mention bank's won't take your money and you have to pay to keep that safe! And of course pay and bennies for employee's ( I paid in "shares" of the profit. Not an hourly "wage" - last I figured it was like 22.00 per hr......I ALWAYS felt that people NEED a living wage and I have the BEST employee's for it!) Lets not forget tax's! If I don't pay then I would end up like Harborside and get hit with tax evasion charges!

Too many of you don't understand what it takes to do it and do it RIGHT! I'm not saying there are those who are simple profit mongers! Some of us DO care about patients and employee's FIRST!

It ain't a cake walk kiddies! Don't forget that it's STILL ILLEGAL on the federal level! There's NO reason they can't come in at their own will and slam you in a FEDERAL prison! I take the risk and you walk home and smoke!

GOUGE MY ASS!

kmog33 said:

Currently running no veg for seeds to 3 days after signs of roots for clones lol. Bigger plants would definitely be an issue. As I said, maybe need to tweak your setup a bit rather than change completely. I still have yet to find a system that is less maintenance than dwc. My plants still end up 2.5-3'.

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Nah, after 5-6 years of DWC I think I just need to change. I was only doing it for the yield, now that I don't really need that much I'm looking for ease rather than working harder to get a better yield.

Motorbuds said:

Nah, after 5-6 years of DWC I think I just need to change. I was only doing it for the yield, now that I don't really need that much I'm looking for ease rather than working harder to get a better yield.

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Wanting a change makes sense, I try new shit all the time. Hence, my aero setup right now. But still haven't found an easier/easier to maintain system than dwc. All there is is water, air, Nutes, light and your plants. With any other system you have to use more variables than dwc. Hence my opinion that if you want a system that is the least maintenance and easiest to get to run itself, dwc is it. But if you just want to change your system you should go for it. Changing systems is fun.

since1991 said:

Thats a given..depending on yer size. U gotta remember...handwatsring only goes so far

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I gotcha. Luckily costco has extendable 6' wands

kmog33 said:

Wanting a change makes sense, I try new shit all the time. Hence, my aero setup right now. But still haven't found an easier/easier to maintain system than dwc. All there is is water, air, Nutes, light and your plants. With any other system you have to use more variables than dwc. Hence my opinion that if you want a system that is the least maintenance and easiest to get to run itself, dwc is it. But if you just want to change your system you should go for it. Changing systems is fun.

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I don't think DWC is the easiest system at all. Just watering a plant is the easiest system to me. Hell, even rdwc is easier than DWC lifting the lids to water with tress flopping over is a pain in the ass. Especially when there's string everywhere or a trellis which I usually use both.

Motorbuds said:

I don't think DWC is the easiest system at all. Just watering a plant is the easiest system to me. Hell, even rdwc is easier than DWC lifting the lids to water with tress flopping over is a pain in the ass. Especially when there's string everywhere or a trellis which I usually use both.

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I fill my buckets with a siphon lol. But rdwc is dwc. Again I'm going to state, if you have a dwc system(rdwc included) tweaked correctly to your needs, there is no easier system with less maintenance. Watering by hand once or more times a week is more work than being able to leave your system for several weeks at a time. When we move into the new house im planning on building a self sustaining system via dwc/rdwc. I think it could be done with a water cutoff valve a big res(setup like a bathtub so it could be drained and replaced automatically easily) and micro dosers. I've done something similar with dtw as if you can flood tables or top feed on a timer with an automatically refilling res. And as long as you have somewhere for the waste water to go you're good.

You can either spend a lot on auto dosers. Or you can do like a 100gallon res and once every month or so go check and balance your nute levels that will be more diluted than you started.

I best start checking PH more, I feel like I'm missing something, mine seems to stay the same

Budley Doright said:

I best start checking PH more, I feel like I'm missing something, mine seems to stay the same

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If it stays the same, you're golden

I know , it did take a bit to dial my setup in and now it kinda does just run it self, the doc's making me feel a little guilty re no work lol. But he can come help with the swamp grow if he wants to spend some quality time with the girls . Get to have intimate relations with giant horse flies and mosquitoes lol.

If possible, you want to calibrate your pens on a "curve". You can do this by using 2 different calibration buffers (pH 7 and pH 4 for example) If you're only using a single calibration buffer (lets say 7.0), be careful. Cheap pens can read like everything is fine when it really isnt.

Not all pens offer this feature. If it's there, surely use it.

Actually I answered a thread recently where I had mentioned buying one of the cheapest PH pens I could find on eBay ($32) and it's been one of the better, or comparable pens that I've owned, those being Hanna, Bluelab, and Oakton. And yup dual calibration

Motorbuds said:

Nah, after 5-6 years of DWC I think I just need to change. I was only doing it for the yield, now that I don't really need that much I'm looking for ease rather than working harder to get a better yield.

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I kind of look at the same thing as you but for other reasons. Don't mind putting in all the leg work at the start but after that easy sailing.

Easy to me sounds like less plants but much bigger containers (40+L etc). Organic soil+ microbes and basic organic liquids to cut out all the ph bs. Then uncle bens topping (nothing more) with a simple stake down the middle if is needed later. Low maintenance unlike lst/scrog and so on. Big water container being manually but easily refilled by a hose and left to hit room temp. Then another manual or electric hose pump from the container to hand water the plants with an aeration tube or sprayer.

Maybe a few hard hours work spread over first 3 weeks to get it all going then a few month of easy.

Well, I picked up an ebb and gro system pretty cheap the other day so I'm gonna try that for a while.

Should give me a decent yield still and I only really have to deal with a res. Wasn't exactly what I was looking for but for the price I couldn't beat it.

Also picked up some stuff to make a DTW system so I might try an experiment

I.G.Rowdit said:

If you are the do-it-yourself type you might consider a home brew ebb and flow system.

I'm currently working on this and I think it will result in an easy to manage and easy to scale system. The real attraction for me is the project. I like the engineering challenge but simplifying things would also be a big payoff.

Some resources you might be interested in.

Controllers, float switches, pumps and assorted hardware for hydro systems: https://www.filltronics.com/products

Solenoid valves:
http://www.electricsolenoidvalves.com

Mapito growth medium.
http://a/

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Have you used the website to buy mapito? I get browser warnings when i go there.