The klx Way!
- Thread starter klx
- Start date
klx
Well-Known Member
Cool, I get my dirt / organics / permaculture fix from my outdoor gardens so indoors its strictly sterile.
ganjamystic
Well-Known Member
klx
Well-Known Member
It is just a DIY aero cloner but instead of using a tote I used an 40L esky (cooler). The totes tend to leak but the esky doesnt leak and its also insulated.
Here is a link to very detailed plans for a cloner. Mine ismuch simpler than this, and I use mini sprinklers instead of sprayers.
Harvest a Pound Every Three Weeks!
I use the same pump as in my trays in my cloner. The high volume gets a good spray out of the sprinklers.
Keesje
Well-Known Member
Didn't know Esky was a brand. I thought it was a nickname of a member here 
A) No need for topping off at all.
B) Not risking that you'll have really disproportionate nutrients i.e. way too many of one element and not enough of another?
And then a total dumping of everything after 2 weeks and filling the reservoir up again with fresh tapwater and nutrients,
Now you have a 100 liter reservoir for your 3 x 3 tray, so I wonder what size would be needed to do no work for 2 weeks and not jeopardizing your plants/roots.
What size do you think your reservoir should be if you want...
A) No need for topping off at all.
B) Not risking that you'll have really disproportionate nutrients i.e. way too many of one element and not enough of another?
And then a total dumping of everything after 2 weeks and filling the reservoir up again with fresh tapwater and nutrients,
Now you have a 100 liter reservoir for your 3 x 3 tray, so I wonder what size would be needed to do no work for 2 weeks and not jeopardizing your plants/roots.
Last edited:
klx
Well-Known Member
This is the best way to do it if you can keep up the discipline needed for it. For a 3x3, I would say a 150L tank would be big enough that the water would not drop below the pump before the 2 weeks is up.
There will be some experimenting with EC/PPM levels to find the correct dose so that, as your water level drops the PPMs remain steady, and it will vary from strain to strain.
klx
Well-Known Member
haha good idea but in my situation, topping off is less work than dumping and refilling. My plumbing goes up before it goes down, so I need to use a bigger pump to get the leftover res onto my outdoor vege gardens. I find myself thinking, that res can go one more week lol.You wrote somewhere that you searched for the systeem with the least amount of work
So I was wondering where to gain a little more lazyness in your already great system.
klx
Well-Known Member
In theory, I do res changes every 2 weeks. In reality, its more like 4 weeks with weekly top offs. Sterile makes this sort of laziness less problematic. Plus, I dont like to waste water.
This tray is at Day 26 and has not had a full res dump yet. It will in a couple of days as the leaf tips and fringes are just starting to show signs with the PK boost in this week.
skoomd
Well-Known Member
Very nice. Ill have to keep that in mind. I dont wanna give up my humic acids/kelp/microbes quite yet, but if I have a vacation planned ahead ill maybe give sterile a try as I am thinking of swapping to coco my next grow. Used to do coco with drip system a couple of years ago and its how I first started, then I tried DWC and hated the shit out of it. Then swapped to soil that's packed with perlite or growstones in fabric pots to try and replicate the oxygen levels in coco. I can get close to the same veg speeds as hydro with it but I like coco because you can change the nutrients or flush the medium several times a day if you wanted/needed to. I like having full control.
One thing I noticed last time I did DWC was that when I did top offs of the res throughout the week, certain nutrients were uptaken faster than others. So by the end, the NPK was all different. i could tell this because of nutrient signs on the plants. I was adding back 2 gallons a day and 200-300ppm though. Those plants were thirsty/hungry fuckers.
klx
Well-Known Member
Yep thats the issue. The longer you go between res changes the more out of whack the ratios are. Everything is a trade off and my least favourite chores usually lose out.
klx
Well-Known Member
Dry weights for the test tray. Light was set at 500W for this run. I think I am just about reaching the point of diminishing returns for a 3x3 tray. Almost exactly 1gpw.
Green Crack - 97
Critical Cheese - 32
Granddaddy Purple - 82
Girl Scout Cookies - 68
Sweet Black Angel - 31
Purple Trainwreck - 56
Glueberry OG - 63
Amherst Sour Diesel - 76
Doesn't mean much really cos for example I have already killed the Green Crack even though it yielded the most. Always the way.
Green Crack - 97
Critical Cheese - 32
Granddaddy Purple - 82
Girl Scout Cookies - 68
Sweet Black Angel - 31
Purple Trainwreck - 56
Glueberry OG - 63
Amherst Sour Diesel - 76
Doesn't mean much really cos for example I have already killed the Green Crack even though it yielded the most. Always the way.
