Researched Myself into Confusion

this is 4x4 under a 400w

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Looking good stumps! I'm currently vegging fluoro and flowering 12 under a 600w. The plan is to eventually mother/clone fluoro, veg 400w MH, first 4 weeks under 600w HPS and 4 weeks under 1000w HPS. Hoping for 1+ lb/month.

everything I have going is clones. everything under the 400 is acting as moms. I have others under the cfl's and more in the cloner. hope to have 15 ready to go out side next month or when I get the greenhouse up.
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i like the pics stumps those look real good.hope to have a few of my own in a few months...i figured i could grow 10-12 or so in that area since i'm growing nothing but autos right and as far as i've read most of them don't get very big or branch very much so i think it would be possible to grow more in that area.

AFter hearing from you guys today i've got a new idea on the set up........5x5ft. space, lined top bottom and 3 sides with mylar. using 3 gallon pots that are 10.5" across. gonna place them 1 ft. apart center to center which will give each plant space to grow one foot wide in every direction. I'll germinate the auto seeds and place in peat blocks to start. Then place in the pots filled with the soil and nutes that budlover reccomended. Take my oscillating fan and point it at the box and let her rip. I'll then drop my light down about 1 foot above them and put it on a 20/4 schedule and raise it as the plants grow.

also wondering how much and often should i water, and i know i don't run full strength nutes with sutos, but what did yall start with and how did you finish it.

I saw that it sometimes takes a little longer in soil for autos to reach prime pickin. Should i just use 70 days from germination or how can i tell when its time to harvest my babies.

also what can i do to minimize the smell. i run a central a/c and as much as i love the smell of good herb its just not practical for my entire house to smell like snoops caddy

Good luck on that you can knock it down, but to go odour free takes some doing.

My experience has been that you are MUCH better off masking the smell rather than trying to eliminate it. My wife has what she calls "pod warmers" from the Gold Canyon candle company and they work better than ona gel imho.

thanks budlover i'll pick some up....and i know its on here somewhere but could someone give me an idea of about how much water to add to a plant in 3 gallon pots

water about half of of the pot size. lol can't find the right words. 3 gal soil 1.5 gal water. water very slow so the soil will up take the water better. you should get about a 10% run off. and it should take awhile for the run off to start. if you water and it runs out the bottom within a few minutes your going to fast. Then wait till the soil is very dry before watering again. about 3-4 day but that verry's with heat and air movement and how the plant is growing.

Jim Stevens said:

i dont mind doing a little extra work if the plant yields will be that much higher. i wanted to used hydro with the autos cuz it seemed all i had to do was change the water and nutes in the reservoir at certain times and keep them under enough light.

but if soil is easier than hydro what type of soil set up and lights would be preferred to maximize yields

Click to expand...

Hydro or soil are both hard if you make it hard
Both are time consumming maybe one more than the other here and then
Same thing different concept

Guys don't be scare of hydro.

Hydro offers one less element for bugs, molds, etc. but there is hydro and then there is aero... there is low pressure aero and high pressure aero. If you are going to do hydro you need a ppm/ec meter and a pH meter. And since you need the same tools, consider going high pressure aero for maximum yield in the shortest time.

HPA combined with low flow high pressure mist heads atomizes the nutes, making them much easier to absorb; as a result, you use very low nutrient concentrations (and amounts), like 600 in full bloom. Plus if you D2W you eliminate the hassles caused by the imbalances that occur from recycling spent nutes. Used correctly, you will not need (or want) expensive bloom boosters. Using D2W, I go through ~ 1/3-1/2G of nutes in 24 hours growing 4 plants. All aero requires using clean (non-clogging) non-organic nutrients. A good place to start is DM ONE.

hth
.

stumps said:

You might want to start in soil. lots more to do with hydro type set ups. in soil you just need to water,add nutes as needed. Anything with a rez takes alot of work. hydro does not run it's self.

Click to expand...

It depends what type of system you have, how many plants are growing. My routine maintenance takes very little time each day. I stick in the EC Meter, check the ph and top off my res if necessary. Every 10 days (1 a week for autos) I drain my res, flush with plain water, and refill with fresh water and nutes. That takes half an hour, but on a daily basis, not at all. Of course, I have the simplest hydro system ever made. The draw back is that you can really only grow 3-4 plants per system because it's small. I have one in my veg area, which could hold plants in all six sites, and one in my Flower Area, but in Flower, I wouldn't do more than 4 at a time. It's perfect for me, but most growers on RIU would find it pretty lame. But, you can't get any easier! It is IMPOSSIBLE to over water and you can only under water if you don't top off your res.

Hydroponics really isn't that bad for a new grower unless you try to overcomplicate it.

Yes, aeroponics can deliver exemplary results. However, any leak, any clog, any power outage and you're flirting with imminent crop failure. For newbies that can be a lot more stress on top of just learning the ropes. IMHO, that's not a smart way to go.

For the first trip into hydroponics I always recommend DWC. It can mean a much larger total volume of water than other systems, but that works in your favor as a newbie. First, the larger volume of solution acts as a natural buffer to sudden changes of any kind. 20 gallons of solution is hard to quickly heat or cool. 60 gallons is damn near impossible without the proper equipment. So if you get a temperature swing in the environment it will take hours (if not days) before the nutrient solution's temp changes much. Same goes for pH and ppm. The more solution involved the less any individual change can impact the total.

Additionally, it's about as fail-safe as any hydroponic system can be. The electricity that drives the air pump is definitely vital, but if the power fails your plants do have access to a constant source of food and water (although before long the dissolved O2 in the solution will drop off and things will eventually go bad.)

Basically, plants in DWC will survive any failure of the system longer than they will in any other system (not counting leaks but if you do all your plumbing above the water line leaks are exceedingly unlikely.)

So it's that much less to worry about in the middle of the night second-guessing whether you checked this or that before you left the grow room.

I'd also recommend getting one of the better nutrients available (I like Advanced Nutrients) because they're also better balanced and less likely to cause problems. The first time out of the gate the main goal is to get to the finish line with as many healthy plants as possible. Learning from mistakes is much more pleasant when they don't wipe out an entire grow, trust me.

hugetom80s said:

Hydroponics really isn't that bad for a new grower unless you try to overcomplicate it.

Yes, aeroponics can deliver exemplary results. However, any leak, any clog, any power outage and you're flirting with imminent crop failure. For newbies that can be a lot more stress on top of just learning the ropes. IMHO, that's not a smart way to go.

For the first trip into hydroponics I always recommend DWC. It can mean a much larger total volume of water than other systems, but that works in your favor as a newbie. First, the larger volume of solution acts as a natural buffer to sudden changes of any kind. 20 gallons of solution is hard to quickly heat or cool. 60 gallons is damn near impossible without the proper equipment. So if you get a temperature swing in the environment it will take hours (if not days) before the nutrient solution's temp changes much. Same goes for pH and ppm. The more solution involved the less any individual change can impact the total.

Additionally, it's about as fail-safe as any hydroponic system can be. The electricity that drives the air pump is definitely vital, but if the power fails your plants do have access to a constant source of food and water (although before long the dissolved O2 in the solution will drop off and things will eventually go bad.)

Basically, plants in DWC will survive any failure of the system longer than they will in any other system (not counting leaks but if you do all your plumbing above the water line leaks are exceedingly unlikely.)

So it's that much less to worry about in the middle of the night second-guessing whether you checked this or that before you left the grow room.

I'd also recommend getting one of the better nutrients available (I like Advanced Nutrients) because they're also better balanced and less likely to cause problems. The first time out of the gate the main goal is to get to the finish line with as many healthy plants as possible. Learning from mistakes is much more pleasant when they don't wipe out an entire grow, trust me.

Click to expand...

That just made my day. I'm getting ready to hook up with a fellow collective member in a week or so and he is going to teach me the basics and theory.
Then he's going to the store with me and then he's going to build my system so I can learn and do it myself when I want to expand or re-build. I told him I was a little afraid of hydro and he basically told me the same thing you just did. I believed him, but it sure is nice to hear it from a second source. My anxiety level just plummeted. THANK YOU!

""Hydro offers one less element for bugs, molds, etc. but there is hydro and then there is aero... there is low pressure aero and high pressure aero. If you are going to do hydro you need a ppm/ec meter and a pH meter. And since you need the same tools, consider going high pressure aero for maximum yield in the shortest time. ""

You should have a ph meter and ppm/ec meter (or combo meter) for your nute solution in soil also, just helps dial everything in.


DWC is very simple with amazing results, just check in every day if you can (i check every time I think about it) or every few days at most and check your ph and ppm's if ppms are low, add tiny bits of nutrient or leave it and do a water change every week or two, whatever floats your boat

budlover13 said:

That just made my day. I'm getting ready to hook up with a fellow collective member in a week or so and he is going to teach me the basics and theory.
Then he's going to the store with me and then he's going to build my system so I can learn and do it myself when I want to expand or re-build. I told him I was a little afraid of hydro and he basically told me the same thing you just did. I believed him, but it sure is nice to hear it from a second source. My anxiety level just plummeted. THANK YOU!

Click to expand...

No problem, glad to help.

Just remember two things:

1. No matter how much you learn there's more to learn. Read everything you can.
2. Growing is addictive. Hydroponics is addictive. Both together are downright habit-forming.