Dystopia's PPP 250w VScrOG

[Dystopia]

Things are getting tight around the bottom of the light tower. I've used up all of the wiggle-room that I built into the system; I planned for this (but not really well), and it’s time to raise the light:

But first, I need to vape up with some AK-48 from my last grow and turn on the Vikings-Ravens game. The AK always gets me raring to do something – for about an hour, after which I’m locked. Hopefully, I’ll be done in time to zone out watching the second half:

The light tower is held to the top of the pcv frame with four screws. Unscrew those and the whole unit comes out. I forget what the black thing is called (something like a “Punch-Out&#8221, I found it in the same place as the couplings at Lowes. Just look around and try fitting things together; the 4” pcv coupling slides snuggly into this:

This is what it looks like with the unit out:

 

[Dystopia]

This is what the light tower looks like out of the unit:

The light just hangs inside the tube by its cord. The electrical cord goes through a hole I drilled near the top of the tower. Suspending the light like this allows me to move it up and down within the tube about 4”, giving me more wiggle-room. This wiggle-room allowed me to keep the tube in the same place for the initial part of the grow.

The Bake-Around tube is being held by two 4” pcv couplings. The tube is a little too small to fit in the couplings, so I wrapped 3/8” weather stripping around the ends. This allows the tube to have a secure air-tight seal while remaining easily disassembled. This is what the cool tube looks like disassembled:

I want to raise the light about 6”. Unfortunately, I glued the top part together for some reason. It wasn’t necessary, everything fits snug and secure without glue. So I’m going to have to cut the 4” corrugated drain pipe (for draining yards, the kind without holes, about $7 for 10’ length) that connects the light couplings:

The hood fits around the corrugated pipe. I found this at OSH, it was part of a shop light kit I found in the light section for about $17. The hood was just a bit too small to fit around the pipe, so I reamed it out with a Dremel. The hood is just tight enough that it stays in place, but it can also be raise/lowered along the pipe:

It’s time to put everything back together. First the hood, then the coupling, then screw it back onto the unit, and install the light, cool tube, and bottom coupling:

And we’re back in business. Took me about an hour to do this:

 

[Dystopia]

The pH stayed at 6.26, exactly what it was yesterday. I figure this means the plants are taking up the nutes fairly evenly, so I just did a water top-off today. I’m waiting for the pH to start dropping before I hit it with the Hammerhead; hopefully, this stabilization is a signal that the plant is FINALLY done stretching. I don’t have much more room to raise the lights - though I can modify the pcv frame with spacers to get about another foot. I really don’t want to do this, though. I probably should have started 12/12 a week earlier than I did.

As you can tell from the light post, things are getting dense in there:

This density can cause the humidity to get high, especially with the panels up. You may have noticed that I’m venting the light through the bottom screen; I did this to help suck the humidity from directly underneath the plants. Of course, I have a couple of oscillating fans blowing up into the canopy during the day; I also take the panels off about a half-hour before lights-out and leave an oscillating fan blowing gently up through the canopy while they’re sleeping. I’m thinking I’ll probably have to run a dehumidifier in there soon.

 

[Lt Shiny Sides]

Awesome walkthrough! Really explained everything perfectly. I'm gonna follow your instructions in this thread and probably try a VScrOG for my next grow.

 

[horribleherk]

i'm highly impressed with your inventive nature throughout the set up very well done

 

[loolagigi]

dystopia, you inspire me.

 

[Dystopia]

Dystopia ~ like many others have said, "Most excellent grow & knowledge!"

Your knowledge & experience really helped me in understanding how to maintain the rez, w/o doing weekly changes. Plus how you handle your nutes & ph has been very beneficial too.

I'm building a DIY multi-Flow E&G that I'll be using as a recirculating DWC. I'm growing 4 plants in 3.5 gallon buckets(all with airstones) and was wondering if you could share your thoughts on the following?

How often should I drain and how long do I keep it drained until it's time to reflood?
How long should I keep them flooded between drains?

Look forward to your input!

Again, most excellent!

Thank you sir!

I really know very little about Ebb & Grow. Based on what I know, I could easily retrofit my system for this. I would simply take the output hose from the water pump in my lower reservoir, which is currently connected to the lid on the top reservoir, and connect it to the drain located on the bottom of the upper reservoir. Everything else would stay the same; the pump would fill up the reservoir from the bottom and overflow would exit through the overflow tubes. When the pump is off the upper reservoir would drain back into the lower reservoir through the pump hose.

Again, I don't know much about E&G but I reckon the advantage is that the roots sit in air for a period of time between floodings, which is different from E&F where the roots are in a medium that remains wet between floodings. Therefore, in my opinion you need to flood more often with E&G then E&F. Since the water is being aerated, I don't think you can flood too often, it's basically DWC when it's flooded. Therefore, if it was me I would flood so that the roots were sitting in water for 15 - 30 minutes out of every hour.

I would also use bigger hoses, at least 3/4" inner diameter on the pump and 1" ID on the overflows, so you could fill the upper reservoir faster.

Again, I don't know much about this so I could be totally wrong. But that's where I would start and adjust as necessary...

 

[thedude121212]

great thread so far man, beyond informative. +rep

 

[blueybong]

"Therefore, if it was me I would flood so that the roots were sitting in water for 15 - 30 minutes out of every hour."

Thanks for your input!

 

[Dystopia]

i'm highly impressed with your inventive nature throughout the set up very well done

great thread so far man, beyond informative. +rep

Awesome walkthrough! Really explained everything perfectly. I'm gonna follow your instructions in this thread and probably try a VScrOG for my next grow.

Thank you! I would warn anyone who wants to try a VScrOG in DWC about the following things:

1. It's A LOT of work, especially during the 3 weeks or so that you are training the plants in the screen. You'll spend 1-2 hours a day JUST training the plants; if you slack off things can get out of hand quickly with the fast DWC growth rate.

2. You really need to know how your MJ plants will react through the various stages of growth. There's not much room for error; timing when to flip to 12/12 is critical, and if I had it to do over I would have flipped a week sooner then I did.

3. EVERY GROW OP IS DIFFERENT. Water being used, temperature, humidity, strain, etc. I would recommend keeping it simple until you've mastered growing plants in your particular environment.

That being said, this has been fun so far!

 

[MostlyCrazy]

Yes, it seems you took the advanced class but are somehow pulling it off! It's still in my list of things to do in the future but the tech is scaring me a little. I'm mechanically declined! LOL!

 

[Roseman]

Yes, it seems you took the advanced class but are somehow pulling it off! It's still in my list of things to do in the future but the tech is scaring me a little. I'm mechanically declined! LOL!

I hear you, On my first grow, I could not figure out how to put the clamp on the Clamp Reflector and had to phone Customer Service to find out how to do it.

Dystopia, you sure got it going good, man, this is a great thread.

 

[vertise]

really good job...

 

[Dystopia]

Yes, it seems you took the advanced class but are somehow pulling it off! It's still in my list of things to do in the future but the tech is scaring me a little. I'm mechanically declined! LOL!

MC, has your wife been sprinkling salt on your balls while you sleep and now they're all shriveled up? I may have over-complicated things to grow a weed, but we're men here, and we don't think small.

That common-sense you hear in your head is your wife speaking. If we let a female's common-sense and intuition rule things we'd still be living in caves wondering if rocks were edible. Truly, though, for a woman the only thing that's not too big or too hard is our dicks; we need to compensate somehow to prove our manhood. Was the Empire State Building too hard to build? Is a 10-story Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile tipped with a 100-megaton nuclear payload too big?

As Woody Harrelson would say, "It's time to nut-up or shut-up!"

Just joking!!!!

 

[loolagigi]

roflmao..................

 

[vertise]

I really enjoy seeing the results people get from setups like this. I saw a setup that was somewhat similar but utilized many more plants at a smaller stature. The result of one 600 watt bulb was 46 ounces. This thread is more intriguing cause i really enjoy how the light hangs and is able to basically get much closer then i would expect without burning the leaves. Lovely setup.

 

[MostlyCrazy]

Well Dys, I've been married for 36 years. I've gone through the "Me Tarzan" thing so many times it's not funny! I found out about 10 years in that it was just better and possibly less painful to do it her way and do what I call work the edges. I just allocate days when it's time to nut up or shut up. She then nurses my wounds, pats me on the head and say I told you so! I gratefully have all my fingers and toes! For while there we had a little test. I would go do some manly thing and she would right on a notepad what she thought the outcome of my endeavor would bring. I found out that she was right over 90% of the time! She seems to have figured out that I have a hard head because I have a soft brain! I use this as a cautionary tale to men everywhere! LOL!

I did show her how to nut up when I had my quintple bypass about 2 1/2 years ago and was playing hard pitch baseball as a catcher in the gear in the heat a year after. I ain't going out that easy! That's how a man does it! LOL!

Ever stop to think and forget to start again? I have! LOL!

 

[Dystopia]

I really enjoy seeing the results people get from setups like this. I saw a setup that was somewhat similar but utilized many more plants at a smaller stature. The result of one 600 watt bulb was 46 ounces. This thread is more intriguing cause i really enjoy how the light hangs and is able to basically get much closer then i would expect without burning the leaves. Lovely setup.

Thank you! I believe you're talking about Heath Robinson's grows, he's a God when it comes to vertical growing in DWC and was the inspiration for this.

Yes, you can achieve the same effect growing SOG-style with many plants like Heath, or VScrOG-style with a few plants like this. The main difference between the two (besides the setup) is how long you veg for. A SOG would certainly be easier to manage, but I'm growing in basically a 2'X2' cubbyhole in my walk-in closet so size is an issue and I like to keep my MMJ grows legal, so a large number of plants is out of the question.

I knew from previous horizontal grows that the plants could get quite close to the 250 watt bulb in the cool tube, but I'm also amazed how close the leaves can get to the bulb; they were literally wrapping themselves around it, and a couple of shoots had actually worked their way into the tube from beneath unbeknownst to me. I had planned on trimming anything that got too close, but the plants aren't showing any negative effects from being so close so I'm letting them be for now.

 

[vertise]

is there any way if you have time to mention the dimensions of the setup. 2by2 is a tiny space. Dimensions As in the top apparatus etc. Yup the heath robinson setup is what i was relating yours too. Nice.

 

[Dystopia]

Well Dys, I've been married for 36 years. I've gone through the "Me Tarzan" thing so many times it's not funny! I found out about 10 years in that it was just better and possibly less painful to do it her way and do what I call work the edges. I just allocate days when it's time to nut up or shut up. She then nurses my wounds, pats me on the head and say I told you so! I gratefully have all my fingers and toes! For while there we had a little test. I would go do some manly thing and she would right on a notepad what she thought the outcome of my endeavor would bring. I found out that she was right over 90% of the time! She seems to have figured out that I have a hard head because I have a soft brain! I use this as a cautionary tale to men everywhere! LOL!

I did show her how to nut up when I had my quintple bypass about 2 1/2 years ago and was playing hard pitch baseball as a catcher in the gear in the heat a year after. I ain't going out that easy! That's how a man does it! LOL!

Ever stop to think and forget to start again? I have! LOL!

LOL, I was just giving you a hard time. It sounds like your wife is the perfect compliment for you, you're a lucky guy!