YYC Grows yellow plants :-(

pain4life said:

Thanks for the kind words gals /guys. I will certainly bleach or H2O2 my entire grow area and pots before I start my next grow. Either new soil or hydro, not sure which. The thing that scare me with hydroponics is that I shouldn't lift much more than 25lbs. Is the maintenance on a waterfarm /hydroponics hard on a person's back?

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If you run a single waterfarm unit (considering your tent size, you won't have room for more than one..), the heaviest lifting would be how ever much a 4 gallon pail of water weighs..no sure about that amt. According to google, 1 US gallon of water weighs about 8.35 pounds... so you could divide your buckets into 2 gallons at a time and be fine I think.... or just use a 2 gallon water bucket and make a few trips from your tap to the tent. Once the waterfarm is dialed in, the plant can use up to 2 gallons of water per day during certain points of the grow. The reservoir is 2 gallons, and the top bucket (darker brown one - net-pot bucket) is another 2 gallons and holds the hydroton.



I think you'll find that water is just as heavy as soil, but not near as messy - and you don't have to worry as much about bugs from the soil drying out, etc. You do however have to be a bit more vigilant with hydro though, since your plant can die within a day if it runs out of water or has badly balanced pH or high ppms of nutrient. You can find a pH and ppm measuring meter on online for about $30 for the pair - see this example link for the pH meter I recently purchased on Amazon.ca : https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B071XFRLSN/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
You can also find cheap ppm meters to check the amt of elements in your water, including your added nutrient - this one's only $8 and it does the trick:

https://www.amazon.ca/Realgoal-TDS-3Blue-Resolution-Hydroponics-Gardening/dp/B01FXRB6KM/ref=pd_bxgy_79_img_2/147-0871543-1225619?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01FXRB6KM&pd_rd_r=29e9a1f5-4902-11e9-969f-a1ee2b4b46aa&pd_rd_w=5StGj&pd_rd_wg=K22SR&pf_rd_p=a62e2918-d998-4bbb-8337-35aac776e851&pf_rd_r=FXQ0WFDT4QJVB5FBJZH8&psc=1&refRID=FXQ0WFDT4QJVB5FBJZH8

..again let me know if you plan to try the waterfarm and I can assist you with whatever questions you have. I started out exactly like you, and have already gone through the trials and tribulations of hydroponics to a certain degree.

Hi Dayzt. I might take you up on helping get a hydroponic system setup this fall. I already have a bunch of the stuff I would need. Ph/ec meter I only bought a couple of months ago. I'm surprised that a 1 meter square tent can only handle one waterfarm, I would have thought 4 buckets would be good. I guess it depends on strain and length of veg no? Hauling water is easy if I can rig up hoses and a pump for changing the reservoir. I was worried about having to lift a full grown plant from a bucket to scrub the inside of that bucket.
I was also under the impression that the reservoir would heat up to much and require a chiller which I can't afford. I suppose some frozen water bottles chucked into the rez would help keep the temps down?

pain4life said:

Hi Dayzt. I might take you up on helping get a hydroponic system setup this fall. I already have a bunch of the stuff I would need. Ph/ec meter I only bought a couple of months ago. I'm surprised that a 1 meter square tent can only handle one waterfarm, I would have thought 4 buckets would be good. I guess it depends on strain and length of veg no? Hauling water is easy if I can rig up hoses and a pump for changing the reservoir. I was worried about having to lift a full grown plant from a bucket to scrub the inside of that bucket.
I was also under the impression that the reservoir would heat up to much and require a chiller which I can't afford. I suppose some frozen water bottles chucked into the rez would help keep the temps down?

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...hmmm, not sure how I missed this reply - sorry about that!!

1. In a 1x1 (meters squared) tent, you will definitely only have room for 1 plant in a waterfarm...you can def fit 4 waterfarms in there, but once the plants approach full size it would be way too full in there (in my opinion)..lol. You'll want to veg for at least 4 weeks, depending on when you consider 'day 1' of veg from seedling start... Every strain I've tried so far in hydro has taken up at least that amt of space with LST training and the plant spreading out to fill it...

2. You probably won't ever need to lift the plant up like I did...it was just a faster way to do the res change with 2 people...lol. All of your ideas for starting the tent up on crates, etc for the ease of res flushes should work fine. You can give it a 'dry run' before even starting your grow to ensure it works for you.

3. My res temps have been good while growing during the winter and even starting late fall... that's partially because of the cement floor in my basement I think. With the waterfarms sitting directly on the floor, they are cooled down sufficiently....however you can definitely use frozen water bottles - but then you'd have to get them into your res somehow..? I've actually kept some pH'd ice-cubes in the fridge and just added them to my refill bucket before using it...that helps too. I've also often wondered if one of those 'cool-gel' pet-beds would work, placed under the waterfarms to cool them from below...haven't tried that tho.

4. We should def get together sometime soon though - you can come on over and see my setup and vice/versa...I'd be keen to help-out and learn together..

The more I read the more I realize that my tiny tent could be bursting at the seams with one waterfarm. I'd love to have the tent too crowded, nice problem to have.

Before I took the tent down a couple of weeks ago I did have it up on blocks with the drain inside it. At one point I even had RO water supply inside the tent. Once I get the plumbing sorted in my grow room/furnace room I'm going to set everything up again. Last year I used the tent to start my tomato plant and holy crop it took off. I guess what I need to do is a "wet" run and see how high the res temps would get. I can see the concrete floor being a great heatsink but I suspect during the dead of winter you might need to heat it up a bit. I never would have thought of ph'ed ice cubes, cool idea (no pun intended). I'll pm you later about getting together, gotta check with my better half first.