Hydroponics

DeweyKox said:

Does taking an hour to drain a table seem too long? It takes me 16 mintues to flood. Im new to this and was just wondering if its normal?

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No. there is a problem here, maybe more than one.
If it takes you 16 minutes to flood your tray to the right depth, then your pump does not have enough capacity. Mine take a maximum 4 minutes.
If it takes it an hour to drain you are filling it too high. There should not be a whole lot of difference between the time it takes to fill and the time it takes to drain. When we say flood, we don't really mean flood, we only mean enough to water the plants, not give them a bath to thier armpits.
You ,may aslo want to check for some obstuction in the line, maybe to many elbows or too small of lines.
You are not providing enough details to give you a good answer, you need a journal, I am not good at guessing the system, medium, etc. VV

The flood table is 7 inches in height. My pots I believe are 3/4 gallon and are about 7 inches in height as well. Will be transplanting clones in rock wool into the pots with chunky perlite. I am currently flooding the table to about 3 inches of depth and starts to flow out the over flow drain. Is this too high? I figure if I plant the cubes 1 1/2 inches below the 7 inch height, I need to food another inch below the cubes. So 7 inches minus say 3 inches, would mean I should flood up to 4 inches, but I am only flooding to the over flow which is 3 inches. I do not have plants in the setup yet, hence no journal.

I need to try and get the bend out of the line going I the pump I think. But I am new to all this, so if there is any advice I need, please give, I can use all the info I can get!

OK, got my flood and drain down. Flood now takes 2 minutes on 396GPH pump. Drain takes 6 minutes. Much better. Now I just need some freaking plants to test out.......

DeweyKox said:

OK, got my flood and drain down. Flood now takes 2 minutes on 396GPH pump. Drain takes 6 minutes. Much better. Now I just need some freaking plants to test out.......

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that makes sense now. I have a couple of the 396gph in use as well. VV

Yea, Its fast, might go back to the 270 cause its causing a whirlpool and getting air right before the over flow flows over. I wish I had a larger rez tank, but I can't go bigger unless I have one custom built to the size I need. I have very little height. I'm working with 4 1/2 feet top to bottom.

I have 33 inches from table to light. I will have to take clones at a very small statue and do a perpetual to get the amount of bud I want. But will have very little trimming to do when harvest time comes......

Hopefully the 600W wont make them grow into the light. I am thinking, if clones are 4-6 inches, they should only triple in height if any. So a 6 inch clone should harvest out at a max height of 18 inches. That will give them about 9 inches from light which is perfect even with slightly high temps. Which right now I'm getting 60 degrees at night. If it goes up 15 degrees, I am still fine, as all the ventilation is at its slowest speed using the fan controller. I kind of went over board on ventilation, but will need it in the summer months.

Hi Poroast!
Gotta question...

In a DWC set up, with net pots and hydroton around rockwool cubes, can I get away without a drip system before the roots touch the solution?

I was thinking of using deep pots and keeping the rockwool well above the water, but with the hydroton in the water...

Does that make sense?

Do you have any suggestions?

I am using a 25 gal rubbermaid tote for a res...

Thanks !!!

In any pot of rocks with a rockwool starter cube, I water the cube and wet the rocks by hand once or twice a day for the first week or so. And yes, flood to below the rockwool.

HTH

Thanks!!!

I recently decided that I am ready to start growing my own BUD. I will be growing out of one of my apartment closets. I have already designed and built my growing set up, but I was wondering the best temperature to grow in the closet? I blocked all the vents in the apartment and ran ducting into the closet so I can run the fan to get fresh air into the growing area. I purchased a 1000w HPS light, which I know think is a little excessive. I was told that it is best to grow between 70 - 75 degrees, but my light emits too much heat. I decided that I was going to run the AC and by turning it down to 70 degrees the closet fluctuates between 71 - 82 degrees. Is this ok? Does it matter that the temperature fluctuates? Does anyone have any suggestions?

Matty10 said:

Does anyone have any suggestions?

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Yeah.. a cool tube and proper ventilation... then you will have no temperature issues...

Cheers...

Yes, a Cool Tube or any air-cooled hood for your lamp, with the hot air exhausted from your closet. Air conditioning should be a last resort, after all other ventilation is taken care of. The larger your plants get, the more cool fresh air they will need. Yes, ideal air temps in the 70s.

HTH

Hi Everyone,

I want to grow 6 plants in a 3 gal container that i purchased from wal-mart. i will be using a 400w light. im using this size container because i would like to get 4 going for a perpetual harvest but i want to get it down to a science before i exert all that time and money. What would be the appropriate nute formula for each stage of the plants ? Im just not sure if i have to make it stronger due to more plants in the res. or mix use 1/3 - 1/2 strength of whats on the back of the label. Any input would be helpful...HAPPY GROWING !!

GoinHydro47 said:

I want to grow 6 plants in a 3 gal container that i purchased from wal-mart. i will be using a 400w light. im using this size container because i would like to get 4 going for a perpetual harvest but i want to get it down to a science before i exert all that time and money. What would be the appropriate nute formula for each stage of the plants ? Im just not sure if i have to make it stronger due to more plants in the res. or mix use 1/3 - 1/2 strength of whats on the back of the label. Any input would be helpful...HAPPY GROWING !!

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you want to grow 6 plants in a single 3 gallon pot? get 5 more pots. no, you don't make it stronger. you'll want to start off with a very low strength solution and slowly work up closer to full strength as weeks go by. the first 2 weeks you can use plain water. keep an eye out for nute burn or any kind of problems. flushing is your friend.

Thanks for the input...its not really a 3 gal pot, but more like a short rubbermaid container...the number of plants doesnt affect the strength of the nute formula ??

GoinHydro47 said:

Thanks for the input...its not really a 3 gal pot, but more like a short rubbermaid container...the number of plants doesnt affect the strength of the nute formula ??

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In my opinion, and I AM A NEWB... the best way to regulate your nutes is with a TDS/EC meter...

It will give the PPM (Parts Per Million) of your solution, allowing you to fine tune your solution to your plant's specific needs...

It removes the guess work and makes it more like a recipe you can follow time after time...

I use one of these... and this site is the cheapest I have ever seen it...

http://www.gchydro.com/HANNA+GroCheck+Combo+Meter+-+pH+&+TDS+Meter.html



Best of Luck...

Gypsy...

GoinHydro47 said:

Thanks for the input...its not really a 3 gal pot, but more like a short rubbermaid container...the number of plants doesnt affect the strength of the nute formula ??

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I was under the impression you were doing a soil grow. I forgot what the thread was titled. same answer either way, number of plants doesn't affect the nute strength. the plants will use the water and nutes faster with more plants, so you might need to add water and/or nutes more often, but I wouldn't make the strength any stronger then you would with a single plant. are you doing deep water culture? plan for the future. the roots tangle together when the plants are in the same pot. it wont be easy to move them once they're bigger. 2 or 3 plants in a 3 gallon bin might be better, or get a bigger bin.

Bigger res. also means less fluctuations... more stable environment for the roots will benefit the whole plant....

Hey Potroast...

Does flooding 15 min every 4 hours sound right for ebb/flow with hydroton and rapid rooters???

Thanks....

Every 4 hours is good, but the 15 minutes is not needed. It's best to flood to max level and drain. With a loose particle medium like growrocks you just need to wet and re-aerate.

HTH

hey guys Im new to growing weed and Im starting out hydrponically does anyone have any pointer they can give me b4 i start.