Questions from a possible future grower.

the hydro method involved was deep water culture, thats what i use. basically i use fish tank air pumps to bubble the water so the roots can live totally submerged in a mild nutrient solution. if you dont have bubbles, the roots can only live at the top of the water zone, and your plant will die

heres the basics.

MILD nutrients! this is what i use and why

Fox Farms Grow Big, soil type (derp i got the wrong one... oh well, fuckit) set initially for my sprouted seedlings at 2 ml per liter, then eased up to 6 ml/liter now for mature plants ready to flower when i am ready. still well under half the recommended dose, for all the basics and micro nutrients

miracle grow patio used for a little bump in N P and K when growth gets slow between water changes. but only like 1 mg per liter, where the instructions say 10 mg / liter

Fox Farms Big Bloom hydroponics adds a little N and lots more P and K and additional micro nutrients still well under half the recommended dosage.

Superthrive the only magic potion i use, its a root and growth hormone that has a proven track record 1 ml / 4 liters. its a hormone not a nutrient, go easy on it!

i use 5 gallon buckets with plants living in the lid, and a 20 gallon ice chest with a home made cover full of cannabis.

heres a diagram of the 5 gallon bucket:

View attachment 2204724

you dont have to be this elaborate, i used buckets from a home improvement store and cut the right sized hole in the lid for my home made net pots. i used styrofoam drinks cups with holes punched through with a big nail, it worked but after i switched to proper net pots roots grew even faster. (cost $1.25 each and they are re-usable) fill the net pots halfway with perlite (i am currently using coco fiber and perlite mixed but i think the plain perlite was better) plop your rooted plants in rockool cubes on top, cover the rest of the way with perlite. as long as the bottom 3-5 millimeters of the net pot is under water, your plant will be happy.

things to note:

make sure the bucket, tote, or tank is light proof. or youll get algae stealing your nutrients and crusting your plant's roots.
keep the pump ABOVE the water level of the reservoir. otherwise youll have a real mess and a dead pump when you try to change the water
change the water every 2 weeks, and you wont have to worry about PH fluctuations.
remember to include the height of your reservoir when making your plans for your grow.
a long low reservoir is just as good as a tall deep one if you make sure to bubble it sufficiently.
your plants cannot become root bound. they can just swirl in the water till the bucket is all roots, dont sweat it, untill there is no room for water and nutrients. (never happen, dope doesnt live that long!)
if you plant more than one strain, keep them in separate reservoirs, or one might finish early, and you wont be able to remove it without damaging the roots of other plants who want another week or two of flowering.
keep the reservoir cool, but not cold. tropical fishtank temps will work well.

when you get more experience, try pumping the water from the fishtank to your plants and back in an aquaculture system. thats next on my to do list. when balanced right, the fish fertilize the plants, and the plants clean the water for the fish resulting in a true biosphere with no need to add nutrients regularly, or clean your fishtank as often. (NOT SALTWATER FISH TANKS!)

But will the nutrients or hormones do something to the fishes? Wont it hurt them or something?

MrSpyrydus said:

But will the nutrients or hormones do something to the fishes? Wont it hurt them or something?

Click to expand...

thats the idea, no or very few added nutrients, the fish feed the plants with everything they need, and the plants clean the water of the nitrogent potassium and phosphorus and whatnot that the fish crap out.

most fishtanks with problems are the result of high ammonia concentration, thats a nitrogen molecule that plants can use readily with some bacterial help. fish make shitloads of the stuff, which is why algae is such a problem if your plants take all the fishie's nutrient excetions, they clean out the water for the fishies, the fishies produce CO2, and need O2 the plants need CO2 and make O2. its the circle of life, on a small scale, that makes dope.

Checkem playboy:



except in your hypothetical growroom, the physical positions would be reversed. (some engineering required, offer not valid where prohibited by law, some assembly required, your results may vary, objects in mirror may be closer than they seem)

I guess that's what i get for skipping biology classes. Thank you very much for your posts, they are very very helpful and well explained. Im sorry i can't do more than clicking the "Like" button.

**Some more questions: Do i put the germinated seed right in the rocks or i grow it in some soil and then put it inthe hydro system? If so, do i have to remove all the soil from the roots? If not, won't it damage the pump? I hope this all "question and question" thing is not getting annoying.

well with out knowing much about autos scrOG and Hydro .. it would be my choise

if it was me who schould build a small stelth grow box under a fish tank ..

1.) you wont have much room in ther so autos would be good for hight (unless you want your fish tanks at the ceiling )
Im sure you could do just fine with normal seeds but then you have to flower early and keep em small .. dunno .. do some research and try out and see what you like/want ..

2.) Scrog will help you get more haverst in a small place .. specialy if you grow em under a T5 or CLF and you can better contrloe distance from the light aso. in a small box .. I dunno .. if it is autos it might not be usefull ? .. ask somebody who grow autos ..

3.) the hydro/DWG would be perfect .. fist of all you wont need to work with dirt and all the dirty work that comes with it .. watering often adding nuts and have big pots in a small room aso.

and also the fact that you allready have a fish tank and therfor allready have a air pump .. so you allready have 50% of what you need for DWG

and last but not lest .. DWG/hydro do give the best results .. and with a small room and few plants and mostlikely autos it would be nice to get most out of it .. agin talk to somebody who use it and get some expert advice ..

but this is the one thing Im sure I would follow up on .. autos maybe ...Scrog dont know if it is wort it with autos ? .. but DWG for sure .. that is if you ask me ..

about reflectiv materials .. as fare as I read you dont use Mirrors .. cant explaing you why ... but all the places I read about it ..they tell you they will build up a lot of heat and dont reflet as good as you would belive .. normal white paint is much better .. or maylor if you want to spend the money ? in a small box with T5/Clf I would just paint it all white inside as it is cheapest and maybe buy a littel maylor to use at the top around the light .. with in a foot or so wher it actualy works ..

Im sure ther are many ways to do this and all can give you nice yield .. so its up to you to choose based on what your needs are .. how much your ready to spend on it and how much time your willing to use ..

but agin .. if you ask me with my littel experiance ..
I would build a 1M x ½M box .. maybe 1,2M high or so that would fit my fish tank ..

make it open on the back and also fit all the stuff on the back (intake/outake and wires aso)
no problem to move it out once a day to take a look .. but nice that parents cant get acces to it with out moveing it .. maybe if possible ? fit some weels on it ..

I would just paint it white inside and seal it up realy good with white silicone or something allike ..
make a small intake in the bottom and a intake for my ventilator in the top (over the light) fit a T5HO fixture with 4 bulbs (2 feet long) and add 2 6500K and 2x 2700K bulbs .. I would mostlikely fit the light a inch under the carbon filter/ventilation with a inch or two room allong the side and just fix it ther and make some kind of lift for my plants so its them I move up .. not the light I move down ..

then I would make a shell I could move up and down for the plants ..

and I would just get one long pot (maybe 80x30 ccm or so) and make a DWG .. get a air pump for my fish tank that have 2 out takes and use one for the DWG pot .. that way I dont need dirt .. dont need to water it (do have to changes the water evry week or seccon week but could easily make some kind of tab so you dont need to remove the plants for this ..

and then just fit 2-4 autos in ther ..

maybe also a small clip on fan in ther to give some air circulation ..


agin .. do your research .. find out what suits you and your need and what kind of € your ready to spend ..

Im sure you could easily go with a small HPS and dirt and still make it work .. but agin . if I had to choose I would like to avoyd the heat from the HPS in a small box and I would like to grow it with out dirt and get better yield with DWG now that I have the air pump anyway ..

MrSpyrydus said:

I guess that's what i get for skipping biology classes. Thank you very much for your posts, they are very very helpful and well explained. Im sorry i can't do more than clicking the "Like" button.

**Some more questions: Do i put the germinated seed right in the rocks or i grow it in some soil and then put it inthe hydro system? If so, do i have to remove all the soil from the roots? If not, won't it damage the pump? I hope this all "question and question" thing is not getting annoying.

Click to expand...

sprout your seeds in the way you feel most comfortable. i used a clean cellulose sponge cut into tiny squares to germinate some seeds, the old school paper towel method for others and the cup of water for even more.

all things being equal, the paper towel method got me the best results.

youll need a plastic baggie, some paper towels, (or bog roll, several layers) a small bag of perlite, soe rockwool cubes, a bakery cake server with a tall plastic dome, and someplace warm and dark

dampen the paper towels or ass wipes (clean ones you dirty dirty boy) with plain tap water.
place your seeds artfully around half of the wet paper
fold over the unseeded half.
place in the baggie, but do not seal it.
put the baggie and it's contents someplace warm and dark (i used the top of my external hard drive and covered the baggie with a dark bandanna)
soak several rockwool cubes in a pan, pot or basin full of plain water.
check the seeds daily, within 1-7 days the first seeds will pop open and stick out their taproot.
select as many rockwool cubes as you have opened seeds, and rinse them thoroughly under running water (dont squeeze wring or squish) and pour 3-4 mm deep bed of perlite in pan or cake server.
with tweezers, carefully ,without touching the baby root, pick up the seed shell and place it in the rockwool cube's pre drilled hole, with the root pointing down and gently close the rockwool, hole around the seed with a light pinching motion
place the seeded rockwool cubes in the pan on top of the perlite. mist with water to keep damp and cover with dome.
place cake dome under CFL lights running 24/7
as more seeds pop open for the next week or so, repeat the seed/rockwool/cake server operation after 2 weeks in the paper towel all viable seeds will be sprouted.
within a week youll see little baby plants peeking up out of the cubes
at this point just keep misting and keep the lights on 24/7
once the first serratyed leaves appear youll be ready to transplant into your choosen growing medium, whether soil, soiless, hydroponic or aeroponic.
for the rest of it's life the rockwool cube will be her underwear, and all other growing medium will form around that foundation garment.

pertinent images:
clear cake dome: http://www.shopbakersnook.com/m5/6329--10-round-cake-dome.html $1.99 each.


baby plants in rockwool cubes:


baby plants ready to go to their final homes:

I visited a Home depot kind of shop but i couldn't find rockwool. any other obtions?

Hydro stores will for sure carry it. I doubt the big name stores like Home depot, lowes, wal-mart will carry something that specific. Usually they only have stuff that most people use for gardening. If you don't have a hydro store near you check online. Amazon probably sells it.

sounds like a box under a fish tank would prob work just fine. Don't use mirrors lol!! hahaha ok I'm done laughin at that.... get some mylar or just flat white paint and use that.

IndicaLuv said:

sounds like a box under a fish tank would prob work just fine. Don't use mirrors lol!! hahaha ok I'm done laughin at that.... get some mylar or just flat white paint and use that.

Click to expand...

Yea..i believe alot of people laughed at that but since i tought that if it reflects the light so good it would reflect the heat too...and since i haven't seen it discussed anywhere i tought about asking. I dont have a hydro shop in my town and amazon won't ship all the way here(romania) and even if it does the transport will be more expensive than the rockwool...i will continue my search or maybe i will look for something else to use.

*** i found an online shop from romania so problem solved. Now what about those red round rocks thank the clones and rockwool sit on?what is theyr name again?
******how much does a gram of weed costs in your area? here is about 22->30 eur or 30-35 dollars and the average salary is about 300 euros or 400 dollars. This is just to make an ideea of the prices abroad

I just pissed myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can i ask why? Too stupid question?

MrSpyrydus said:

******how much does a gram of weed costs in your area? here is about 22->30 eur or 30-35 dollars and the average salary is about 300 euros or 400 dollars. This is just to make an ideea of the prices abroad

Click to expand...

a normal good quality cost around 15€ can get some for 10€ but thats more like strong pot .. can also get some 20-25€ nice stuff .. diffrent tast .. but not stronger I belive ..

hash is like 7€ for good quality marrocan/kasmir can get top quality for like 10-12€ and a normal stand for maybe 5€

NOTE: them prices is per gram .. hash seems to be cheapest (guess thanks to HA/Banditos)
also price do depend if you buy 1 gram or 10 and if you know the guy you buy from ..

etc. if I go to my guy and pay him 100€ I would get 15 gram of best quality hash (soft .. sticky .. dark brow/green that sticks to your fingers/evrything)

if your on holyday and go ther with your turist shirt on and go to the fist guy and buy 1 gram .. I bet you will pay +10€ and get seccon quality .. if you understand ..

also .. prices here in Denmark is low since we allways (since early 60ish) had hash and a small town in our capital call christinia (like a hippi town) wher hash is "semi" legal ..



EDIT:



thats 70€ (500 Denish crowns)
10Grams of some pollen marroc ..

That would clear some things to me.thank you

MrSpyrydus , you could find out a lot more reliable answers by using your search engine instead of asking every question . Let your computer do the work for you.

Now i feel pretty bad. Even if the search engine isn't my best friend i will try to use it more...Sorry

don't get me wrong. asking questions is fine and you get to meet new people who love the same hobby. it's just that you can get faster , more reliable answers and videos that will be of more use.

yea and you also get your basic in place and then might be able to ask "better" questions and understand the answers ..

I must have read +10 guides and atlest 50 diffrent threads of diffrent topics before I made a account and begon to ask questions ..

also make you seems less nubish .. not that it is a bad thing .. but Ppl. might take you more serious and Ppl. also seeems more willing to help if you have done some work of yourself ..

IMO there is No Way In Hell, or what I call Earth you can keep a grow away from parents. Your parents even know about your dirty little collection of men magazines under your carpet.

well .. aslong as they dont mention that either