Easiest hydro system?

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skunkstarxxx

Active Member
I am thinking of switching to hydro and im wondering what the easiest and most effective system is to use... ebb and flow, aeroponics ?

also, how hard is it to start the germed seeds and put them in the medium ?
 
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NoDrama

Well-Known Member
Yeah ebb and flow (Flood and Drain) is real easy, DWC isn't too bad either. And by real easy I mean as far as hydro growing goes, its still more work than soil. When i start new strains I just push a seed into some presoaked rockwool and put the cubes in a tupperware container sitting on top of my PC tower and check after 2 days. Once its going I take the cube and put it inside a RW block.
 
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RewTheJew

Active Member
hempy buckets FTW! google hempy bucket collective, and you will find all the information you could ever want about them!
 
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skunkstarxxx

Active Member
thanks for the info, im thinking ebb and flow will be the way i go...

now more questions, some say that using rockwool is best, others say clay pellets or perlite, what do you think ?

also, when i germ the seed, should i hand water instead of using the rev and pump for the start, i dont want to drown my friends...
 
Al B. Fuct

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
skunkstarxxx said:
thanks for the info, im thinking ebb and flow will be the way i go...

now more questions, some say that using rockwool is best, others say clay pellets or perlite, what do you think ?
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All have different advantages and disadvantages. Depends on how you care to work in your op. Highly absorbent media like rockwool holds a lot of water, great in case of a pump failure. You can skip looking in on the op for a day or so even if a water pump or timer has failed.

Less absorbent media like pellets and to some degree, perlite (holds a bit of water compared to pellets), can be flooded much more frequently than stuff like pots of rockwool, which can only be flooded about 1x/day. Pellets can be flooded 5x/day (or more) depending on the size of plants. Being able to flood more often allows more oxygen to the roots than media with higher water-storage capacity. However, pellets can't provide much backup water in case of a pump failure. Plants newly introduced to pellets should be hand watered from the top for the first few days until the roots knit down to the pellets dampened by flooding. If your clone is in a rockwool cube, be sure to nest it in the pellets so it is about 1/2" ABOVE the flood level. The cube should not be permitted to be saturated by flooding.

also, when i germ the seed, should i hand water instead of using the rev and pump for the start, i dont want to drown my friends...
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Handwater seedlings and clones, particularly if in rockwool cubes. Cubes should not be allowed to saturate. Water by dipping a corner in a bucket of watering solution.

skunkstarxxx said:
also, is there any recommended brand i should look at ?
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Pellets are pellets. Buy the cheapest sort.
 
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krumpdancer101

Active Member
look man if you want easy hydro that will support a big plant that will yeild more bud i didnt belive it till i saw my buddy do it he got 8 black 5 gallon buckets and the growing tops clones in coir starters. filled each bucket to were the starter was a quater under water an used air stones to put o2 in the water. vegged for 4 weeks than flowered 8 weeks. he wouldnt let me know what nutes he used though. i think he spent like 80 bux on the whole set up. worked so good i made me a set up to try also.
 
Al B. Fuct

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
pimpnitjc said:
Check out this system, it is 3x3 foot. I am getting ready to buy it. I have searched all of the hydroponic sites, For this particular system, this site is the cheapest I have found.
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wow, they get a packet for that!

I pay about $56 for a 900mm x 900mm tray, about $40 for a stand made from 25mm square aluminium tubing & plastic Qubelok connectors, $15 for a storage tub (tank), $11 for a 450L/hr water pump, maybe another $20 for tray fittings and some old garden hose, $133 total.

Kits of stuff are often overpriced; you're paying for the convenience of buying it all at once in one place. Compare online suppliers to local shops- I bet you save some dough.
 
Al B. Fuct

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
krumpdancer101 said:
look man if you want easy hydro that will support a big plant that will yeild more bud .
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Big plants are not the indoor grower's friend. Artificial lighting, even the mighty 1000HPS, has limited foliar penetration capacity, so the lower portions of very tall plants receive very little light. Short plants, around 1m tall, are better matched to the light you get from indoor lighting. This makes the entire plant productive.

You get short plants by flowering cuttings shortly after they have set root- no veg time is given between rooting and flowering.



The SoG pruning method (remove all branching on the lower 1/3 of the plant) also eliminates small branches which produce poorly and don't really do more than limit air circ around the plants. The per plant yield in SoG is of course smaller, but a SoG op can grow 4-6 plants in the space of a single tall, bushy plant. SoG ops make higher avg bud size and density and most make at least double or triple the per sq ft yield of bushy plant grows.

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your ordinary average SoG plant at harvest, about an oz on the hoof here
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krumpdancer101

Active Member
i was just giving him an idea incase he didnt want to grow a bunch of plants. my buddy gets an average of a 1/4 pound per plant growing the way i said. if it is just some smoke for you than i would grow a big plant. plus a couple plants is eaiser to take care of and is cheaper than a bunch.
 
Al B. Fuct

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
krumpdancer101 said:
hey Al B i tried to send you a message. would like to talk to you alittle more.
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Sorry, but I just can't turn on PMs (well, for anyone but potroast- and he's most certainly not my PA, so don't ask him questions intended for me, he will not pass them on). If I leave PMs on, I get way too many messages and I simply can't keep up with numerous concurrent threads.

I have set up a thread over here where you can ask questions. You might browse the thread from the beginning before asking your question; it may already have been answered. If I respond publicly to publicly asked questions, we all benefit, as opposed to me talking to one person at a time.
 
Al B. Fuct

Al B. Fuct

once had a dog named
krumpdancer101 said:
i was just giving him an idea incase he didnt want to grow a bunch of plants. my buddy gets an average of a 1/4 pound per plant growing the way i said. if it is just some smoke for you than i would grow a big plant. plus a couple plants is eaiser to take care of and is cheaper than a bunch.
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Sure, you can get more weight per plant from larger plants, but plants which are allowed to have lower branches will produce small, fluffy buds which are hard to manicure on those lowers. SoG only produces top colas and the golfballs on the mainstem just below it, so average bud density goes way up. Each bud cluster has about the same number of bud leaves, top to bottom, but the clusters on the top of the plant have much more bud mass, meaning you spend less time per gram manicuring and get better avg quality buds to boot.


The result of SoG style pruning; about an oz on the hoof in this average budstalk

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SoG further wins the per sq ft yield competition with bushy plants hands-down because you can fit 4-6 SoG pruned plants in the same floorspace, easily doubling the yield for amt of lighted flowering space. Those poorly producing lower branches take up a lot of space and interfere with airflow, meaning they are effectively more trouble than they're worth. In SoG, we just don't grow any small lower branches.



If you MUST keep a very low plant count, SoG is not for you. In that case, you should grow a small number of 'mainstem lopped' style plants.


The result of mainstem-lopped style growing
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This style has the mainstem lopped soon after the clone has set root. This will force the plant to branch. It then needs about 2 weeks of vegging to increase the size of those branches before flowering.
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Perpetual harvest isn't possible with this method unless you have a separate area where you can veg the mainstem-lopped plants (can be shared with mother plants, tho) until they are ready to go into a dedicated flowering area, which has 12/12 light at all times. SoG normally eliminates this need for an additional lighted area for vegging as clones are given no veg time post setting root.
 
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