DUMPED THE DIRT. 1200w perpetual starting

Hello Waterheads! I have officially went hydro. Here is a rundown of what im working with.

Grow Space is a 5x6 closet that Ive had setup for a bit and gets a max 80F.

- 720 cfm active air/hydrofarm fan filtering the exhaust with a can33 carbon filter.

-1 3x3 flood table with 27 gal. res. ( going to my local hydro store to grab the second table as soon as i get the kinks out with this one)

-2 600w dimmable Phantom Hydrofarm digital ballast

-2 magnum xxl sunsystem a/c hoods 6" (with those ir block shields)

-2 badass bulbs 600 (AN's Brand of bulb)

- 3x5 veg and clone tent with 2' 4 bulb t5 high output hydrofarm running mothers. (small booster fan exhausting keeps it a perfect 80)

- Advanced nutrients lineup. pretty much have all there synthetics except about 5 out of 20. Also have some GH micro bloom, along with some other random nutes.

OK, well My plan is running a rotating monthly perpetual. The 2 strains i have now are ppp, querkle, and a freebie of cotton candy im going to run just out of curiosity. I ran a 5 pack of the querkle kill off 2 males have 3 females wich i grew out in soil and cut 6 clones from each that are in rapid rooters now for about 3 days.

After i master this first flood table im going to add the second one but im tryng to allow as much room in my grow space now as to keep an eye out for any problems. once i put the other 3x3 in i wont have much room to work with.


My layout is going to be 2 moms 33 clones taken each month. 32 put in the first 3x3. for a month then moved to the second tray where hopefully ill be harvesting from that tray. Clones will be cut and the whole process begins again. Ill be running the Gh Lucas formula on my mothers, building a flood drain system for them soon as my clones strike. I will most likely switch my cloning over to a diy aero cloner i built a while back. seems to be an issue in flood drain using rapid rooters. ive had better succes with rapid rooters than anything else. I recommend them for anyone haveing an issue cloning.

Im using hydroton in 6 inch square pots. Im trying to veg clones i took earlier that have already rooted as to make my new mothers. Im running the tank at about 800ppm.

Pics will be coming soon as I refuse to take them on my phone.

My questoin is this. Ive had the clones vegging in the flood table with 800 ppm res and i havent seen any new growth in 3 days. How long does it usually take for clones put in the flood tables to begin growing? and how many times should i flood these newly rooted clones?

when running a perpetual keeping moms is redundant. just take cuttings from plants going into flower, move clones to veg and cuttings into cloner. i have had up to 14 strains at one time and never kept a mom plant.

Same with me, I would take a clone,flower the mother,veg the clone and before flower I'd take a clone of the clone and soforth. Never kept a mother. Thus I had a perpetual grow without haveng to baby a mother.

ive heard about others using the same method. Only I am not confident enough in hydro yet to get rid of my moms. Its very inviting as my space is very tight. how long does it usually take before the clones moved to the flood table really take off? just trying to get a guideline of what i should be expecting

also, how much is using rapid rooters in hydro frowned upon? i have more succes than anything using them. but now willing to venture out now that i have rapid rooters as an insurance policy. Also does cloning from your flowering plant slow down rooting time?

200 views and 2 replies. typical RIU. thanks guys for nothing

hxvoc said:

also, how much is using rapid rooters in hydro frowned upon? i have more succes than anything using them. but now willing to venture out now that i have rapid rooters as an insurance policy. Also does cloning from your flowering plant slow down rooting time?

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Using rapid rooters is 100% fine in hydro! I find root shooter to be much better, due to them having an bennys already
in them.

hxvoc said:

My questoin is this. Ive had the clones vegging in the flood table with 800 ppm res and i havent seen any new growth in 3 days. How long does it usually take for clones put in the flood tables to begin growing? and how many times should i flood these newly rooted clones?

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Generally three days is the magic number with hydroponics....after they have dropped roots. It is best to run them on low PPM, 200 - 300, until you see roots dropping out of the pots. Once you see roots, you can crank up the nutes. Otherwise, some of the clones will take off immediately, and some will take off in a week. Wait until they all show roots and they will all take off at the same time. You get even sized plants which makes it a lot easier down the road.

I would flood them two or three times a day.

I would hesitate to use the exotic supplements that you have, at least until you have a few crops under your belt. They can cause nutrient lockout and aren't really necessary. I learned using fertilizer only and I have seen no difference whatsoever in yield using exotic supplements, but I have seen plenty of other issues like locked out trace nutrients. Definately do NOT use supplements with Lucas formula. It has everything they need and adding to it can cause problems.

thanks for the reply greenthumb, I was reading your journal a little earlier. When refering to al b fuct he starts his ppm out at 1000 right from the start. Im going to run the lucas formula with my advanced micro and bloom only this run and see how it comes out. seems to be a fool proof method with nutes.

hxvoc said:

thanks for the reply greenthumb, I was reading your journal a little earlier. When refering to al b fuct he starts his ppm out at 1000 right from the start. Im going to run the lucas formula with my advanced micro and bloom only this run and see how it comes out. seems to be a fool proof method with nutes.

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Lucas is very forgiving for beginners. Good luck with it.

jesus it sure takes alot of nutes for hydro. took like 400 ml of bloom for my 25 gallon res. I wish i didnt need such a big res but ive got the minimum water in my res to keep the pump submerged.

Also i moved some of my freshly rooted clones to hydroton and to the table. none of the roots have reached the table yet and its been 5 days. I reduced my flooding to twice a day hoping the roots would search out the the water below. Im gonna be switching to my aero-cloner next round in hopes to ditch the rapid rooters and alow some vegging before the 30 day rotation.

you have to look at the cost of nutes like this. i run 50gal res's and from veg through harvest i spend less than $40 per harvest on nutes, netpots and collars. thats less than a dollar per ounce of top quality buds.

@super

what is your feeding regimen? very interested in how u keep your cost so low. I think its like 20bucks for a liter of GH micro and bloom at my local hydro store.

@greenthumb

Have u stop using the lucas feeding schedule these days? I know some say its outdated but as long as it still produces great results id like to use it as a control while im learning this flood and drain. I see you have some experience with the Lucas formula, just wondering are u still feeding the ol' 0-8-16

I have been making my own version of Lucas formula from raw chemicals for a couple years now. Still using it.

nice, Id like to advance my horticulture skills to the level of creating my own nutes. Sounds like it keeps a lower profile. will be starting a journal once i clean this mess up!

I'm running a similar setup. Here is my two pence.

1) Get herb.IQ. your going to have to track this.
2) With 27 gal rez, your going to be topping off every 2 or 3 days. It does work, but 40 would be better.
3) You will probably want to take at least 30% more clones than you will use. Even if you get 100% success on the clones, there will be runts and stragglers.
4) I would highly suggest that you try Dyna-Grow line. Homebrew has a couple of grow journals that outline it's use. As far as stability, ease of use, and ultimate outcome, this stuff is really hard to beat!
5) 33 clones a month from 2 moms is a big ask. I plan at 15 to 20 from a 3 ft mama. I find that about 8 mama plants is about right for your size setup. The problem I have is that the mom's want to be cut every 2 week not once a month, so there is some trimming and shaping that has to go on, at least in my situation.
6) I think that your clone/veg tent will be a little small. My mom/veg tent is 6X6 and that is very tight.

Thanks guys for the info. gonne see how it goes in a couple weeks. I will update as soon as i get a few things dialed in. +rep

hxvoc said:

Thanks guys for the info. gonne see how it goes in a couple weeks. I will update as soon as i get a few things dialed in. +rep

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Good luck hx....