Gotcha. This is why I went with the recirculating top drip setup you don't need as big a res as you do for F&D.
Building insulation grade rockwool (under popular brand names like Roxsul) is treated with a fire retardant that will kill plants with quickness. Don't even think about it. Stick with tried and true Grodan brand horticulture grade. More to it than that as well. GRODAN has different grades (fiber orientation) for water retention/drainage qualities. I grow with a top feed run to waste drip setup and often switch between pots of coco coir and Grodan Unislabs with a 4" block on top. Often together side by side in the same rooms on the same drip manifold lines. The 2 medium substrates are very very similar. And if you do your part..the mediums will give damn near identical results.
I have 8 of those fixtures (the 6/750 Flex)...mostly for flower but if she's completely empty I might veg a little in the main room. Usually not. I like to run my 8 Gavitas at 12- 12 ($$$) and I can hit 25 to 28 ounces dried and cured flower per lamp every 60 to 70 days just on the 600 watt setting. I hardly ever use the 750 dial because of ceiling height limitations. Gavitas are hands down some of the best fixtures money can buy. Unless you live in a cool part of the planet everyday of the year...air conditioning (preferably of the mini split or commercial grade type - so you can use co2 gas correctly) is pretty much a must. Especially if you got more than one Gavita fixture. Traditional intake and exhaust fan ventilated grow rooms won't cut it.
I priced it out, with the amount of medium I use in a month, this would increase the cost of making a pound of bud a lot .. I’m really trying to go the other way, but I never stop spending , I just spent $100 on pvc n fitting for a moving perpetual crop trellis .
I would do this as I have 1k of pumps collecting dust, but I like to give each one 1.5 ltr then keep rotating till 5g is gone. This helps with the hydrophobic properties of the peat. If you hit them with to much to fast , I find you have more waste.
I got 4 on 1000 Watts , each on its own cycle , 2-3p every 2 weeks
It gets really expensive to get the right equipment to grow consistent high quality flower on a timely basis. I've been growing indoors for almost 30 years mostly non stop and you dont even wanna know the money Ive sent in equipment alone. Not to mention the monthlys (damn electric bill - our boss- we all have one - and the bane of my existence.)
I have found the same. I also find the "shower" setting on the nozzle to help saturate the media better than just full bore no nozzle etc........
Mix a little yucca saponin in in your feed tanks to counteract the hydrophobic qualities of a peat based soilless mix. Promix has a little already in it..but it's not enough and like the dolomite lime..quickly washes out in drain to waste setups .
I’m waiting for this product that is just like mammothP and is a wetting agent , and for pennies compared to MP.
This last time I got the Promix BX which has the Myko in it and I have been pleasantly surprised. Using much smaller pots than I did in soil and plants are just as big. I am only switching to hydro to cut down on workload if not I was going to figure out an automated feed for the Promix in the pots with drip rings or something..............
