Advice Needed For Growroom Design

M

Montag

Member
Greetings and salutations!

A little background first. I am converting an 8'X11' area with a low 7' ceiling into a hydro garden. I intend to go grow tomatoes, tabasco peppers, peas/beans, and weed. Crops will rotate in three or four separate growing systems, this way I can grow three or four different plants at the same time; i.e. tomatoes, peppers and two different strains of weed. All under three or four 400W or 600W lights. In this space I will build a 24"X18" floor to ceiling enclosure for seedlings/clones. The area will be completely enclosed with insulated walls, with air conditioning and heat. I live in Florida so A/C is mandatory.

So here is where I humbly request your advice. My goal here is to maximize yield of what ever I am growing. There are two ways to do this, grow a lot of small plants or grow fewer big plants. Since I have never grown hydroponically before, I really do not know which system will deliver the high yield I am looking for.

I have researched and know about NFT, DWC, SWC, E&F, Aero and some hybrids of NFT/Aero. Looking at videos on YouTube, it seems to me that the biggest producers were plants grown in some form of bucket system, like the Water Farm by General Hydro or the Ebb & Grow system. I have not seen any big plants growing in an NFT system, or any of the Aero systems that is made from a couple of plastic totes.

Since I am going to be building the room in stages, starting with getting one hydro system up and running before building the following three, I can evaluate the efficiency of the each system before duplicating it.

Which would you recommend for this small space? What will give me the highest yield; a bucket system, NFT, Aero or and NFT/Aero hybrid? I want to do this right the first time and avoid as many mistakes as possible. I am not averse to building a complicated system. I am not worried about the steeper learning curve for aeroponics. What I want is baskets full of vine ripened tomatoes, and tasty buds that AREN'T packed full of seeds on stems that you could saw into lumber.

At this point I can build or purchase any system. What say you? Your advice and input and constructive criticism is very greatly appreciated.

Best regards,
Montag
 
H

hitman40

Well-Known Member
I would go with a few ebb and flow tables and 1 gallon pots of hydrotron you can clone into a bubble cloner or rockwool then into the 1 gallon pots then right to the table. I have tried the buckets in ebb and grow and they worked out fine at twice the price. Keep it simple works for me a res a flood tray a water pump and a timer maybe throw in an air pump for the res get some gh flora series nutes and go.Hitman40
 
smokingrubber

smokingrubber

Well-Known Member
Having 3 or 4 different systems requires 3 or 4 totally different setups. As in 3 or 4 reserviors, 3 or 4 nutrient packages, cleaning schedules, and all of their related equipment x4.

A single Ebb & Flow bucket system will accomodate a 8'x11' area easily. But you only have 1 reservior, 1 nutrient recipe, 1 feed and flush schedule, basically 1 crop at a time.

Plus, your height restriction is an issue you should consider heavily. Any flood table (sitting above a reservior) is going to limit your grow height to about 24-36 inches maximum. You COULD use a flood table sitting on the floor, and place a EBB controller next to it like the bucket system has. That would work the same as a traditional flood on a table but you'd have an extra 2 or 3ft height clearance.

You should really do a little floorplan of your layout. Take into consideration the quantity and size of your required reserviors for all of these setups. Plus, remember you'll have to empty clean and refill all of these fukrs about every 2 weeks.
 
M

Montag

Member
Thanks for the replies! ;-)

My 7' ceiling hieght IS a big factor to take into consideration.As much as I find the E&F tables appealing for their simplicity, I would like to avoid having to bend my plants and otherwise manage verticle growth. Also, take into account the light reflector/houseing is 10" or 12", so then my distance from the floor to the light in only 6'. I am also wondering if my plan to build a 2'X3' seedling/cloning/mother cabinet will provide sufficient space, even though it will be divided into seperate spaces, each 3 1/2" tall, one above the other.

The layout of the grow area is 8' wide and 11' deep. I can't post a scetch of the area right now because Photobucket is down and my scanner isn't speaking to my PC right now. And I can't figure out how to link to a photo on Flickr. Dang!
 
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