Which hydro system?? Too many choices, arrghhh!!!

There are wayyyyyy too many choices out there, how am I supposed to pick just ONE?!? lol..

Here's what I'm thinking about:
Room: 20x14 = 280q ft, 12ft ceiling.

I can do tents and go with two 9x9's and one 4x8
.....or frame something similar. I want to do a perpetual grow, one room for indica, one for sativa/hybrid, alternate with nice CBD strains as well.

I also already have a 4x4 tent to put my first mother in.

If I want do 24 buckets in each 9x9, what is the best choice if running 1 res for all 24? Root spa? Supercloset bubble buckets I know come in 24s, but are kinda pricey. UnderCurrents too expensive right now (definitely later!), Oxygen Pots, Titan?? Not sure which to pick. Considering soil, but I do soil in the outdoor season. Also I like the idea of pumping O2 into the res.

What say you?


Another concern... Should I veg in the same system they're going to flower in/would this would be ideal? Planning on a 4-5 week veg max, maybe something more basic will do?? Going to Youtube the ish out of this setup once it's up. Still deciding on lights- leaning toward five AC/DE hoods with Ushio bulbs (5,000W per 9x9).
 

clayawesome

Well-Known Member
Don't directly cool DE bulbs. If they cool the output goes to crap. Their are a few hoods that cool the fixture but not the bulb, but ive never used them. if u just use the open refector that comes with the DEs u save money and time not ducting.
I like Ebb and Flow systems. pretty pain free.
All of my systems are CAP Ebb and Gros. but i think CAP was bought out and is now Active Aquas Grow Flow.
 

HappyMan420

Well-Known Member
I would go 9 circulating DWC buckets and ScrOG them bitches out. Veg and flower right there and get the max out of your grow by training to your area.
 
Tents or framing?
As for lights- might cough up the extra $ and save electricity with LEDs, but those DEs look really good in the AC/DEs.
Lots more research to do, but I save time and money in the long wrong with some good quality LEDs.
 

fandango

Well-Known Member
On a side note here.I had an extra space in the shop for a grow tray,so I set up a 5x5 tray with a 2x2 wooden surround covered in panda film for 12x12 light cycle.had the fan in there and a 600hps light.
Than put a 35 gallon res on the floor,only filling it up to the 20 gallon mark..to save nutes.
Put a 20 dollar fountain pump in there set on a timer with an inlet low and the return 3" up.
Filled the tray with 49 6" rockwool cubes wall to wall(keeps the light from hitting the roots(roots were over a foot long in 30 days)
Took my rooted cuts and filled the big cubes,went 12/12 with no veg time....did 1 topping before they went to flower.
The tray was set @ 5.8ph and the nute bath was around 250,wait refill,400 for the next 30 days.
Never seen plants so perfect and dang if they were almost 2 feet tall already.
 
On a side note here.I had an extra space in the shop for a grow tray,so I set up a 5x5 tray with a 2x2 wooden surround covered in panda film for 12x12 light cycle.had the fan in there and a 600hps light.
Than put a 35 gallon res on the floor,only filling it up to the 20 gallon mark..to save nutes.
Put a 20 dollar fountain pump in there set on a timer with an inlet low and the return 3" up.
Filled the tray with 49 6" rockwool cubes wall to wall(keeps the light from hitting the roots(roots were over a foot long in 30 days)
Took my rooted cuts and filled the big cubes,went 12/12 with no veg time....did 1 topping before they went to flower.
The tray was set @ 5.8ph and the nute bath was around 250,wait refill,400 for the next 30 days.
Never seen plants so perfect and dang if they were almost 2 feet tall already.
Nice! What kind out yield? Did you use trellis? When roots are so long, do you clip them? How long did you veg, two weeks? I like and can certainly appreciate simplicity. I don't want to blow 20 grand if I don't have to, but if it is the difference between significant quantity and quality,which will both probably come with time and practice no matter which system I go with. in your opinion, would DWC have grown them faster because of the increased oxygen?
 

fandango

Well-Known Member
The set up I tried was simple and cheap too.Growth rate as good as it gets.
Yes buy the 6x6 net and put it over the plants(better than 1 stick per plant to hold the weight of the buds from breaking the main stem).
As far as yield goes(also no veg time)I had to move this tray after the 30 days under 12/12.
That was on May 15th,the best 12 of the 49 were re planted into 7 gallon smart pots and I put em in soil(roots you can trim or not)the smart pot does it all day anyway.
Harvest...july 1st topped the buds 10oz dry.The rest of the plant are revegging(sp)right now...they live in a 5x9 green house.
It is getting dark here after 8;30pm,so to speed things up we started covering the GH at 6pm with panda film and I remove the cover around 7am.The reveg. made the plants very bushy and I expect we will see a large harvest coming in the next 70 or so days.
 
Top