Nirvana Bubblelicious Waterfarm Scrog in a Secret Jardin Tent 600 Watts

Looking great man, feels awfully familiar to reading over ScottyBalls thread. Though this may be more exciting as the outcome hasn't been revealed yet. Very informative as well, taking notes!
Sub'd. for sure.

Looking great dude! Can I ask how tall you expect it all to get? Including the waterfarm itself, which I understand is about 15inches high, how tall do you think it will all be by the time the big chop comes? I'm just trying to work out if I have enough room myself, I will only have about 5 feet or so..and that will have to include the light aswell, too small?

VooDude™;5261203 said:

Looking great dude! Can I ask how tall you expect it all to get? Including the waterfarm itself, which I understand is about 15inches high, how tall do you think it will all be by the time the big chop comes? I'm just trying to work out if I have enough room myself, I will only have about 5 feet or so..and that will have to include the light aswell, too small?

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I'm pushing it now as we speak. I have 14" clearance between my air cooled hood and my tops. I'm utilizing 7' of height. (almost).

You can easily grow in 5 feet of space height wise, just use lower rated lamps or CFLs. With HID and 5' in height, you have to allow 12" from ceiling to bottom of hood (minimum), 16" from floor to top of farm. There is nearly 2.5 feet used up right there. Consider you need at LEAST 12" between tops and lamp, there is another foot, bringing us to 3.5' approx.

That leaves you room to grow 18" tall plants. You could plan a vertical grow, or run a VERY tight scrog. That means having to add water to the reservoir through the screen, but it can be done. If you leave only 6" between top of farm and bottom of screen, that leaves you 12-18" roughly to allow your colas to grow. I'd do that, and go with Indica.

That sounds good man, I was planning on using CFL's and a scrog, and also growin Aurora Indica for my first grow, which I heard keeps pretty small anyway Cheers for the very useful info once again!

You are better off with an HID lamp with scrog, because you have to be able to cover the entire canopy in light. CFLs have to be so close to the plant to do any good, that they cover very little space.

Serapis said:

You are better off with an HID lamp with scrog, because you have to be able to cover the entire canopy in light. CFLs have to be so close to the plant to do any good, that they cover very little space.

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More great adice! You are invaluable man. At the risk of sounding absolutly stupid here...with the HID lamps, do they need a ballast like MH and HPS lamps? Or do they just sort of use a standard screw socket going to a mains socket on the wall?

VooDude™;5265964 said:

More great adice! You are invaluable man. At the risk of sounding absolutly stupid here...with the HID lamps, do they need a ballast like MH and HPS lamps? Or do they just sort of use a standard screw socket going to a mains socket on the wall?

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HID stands for High Intensity Discharge; there are two kinds, High Pressure Sodium, or HPS, and Metal Halide, which is MH. The acronym HID simply means both types. When someone references HID, they are referring to either or and or both types of lamps.

So to answer your question directly, yes, HID bulbs do need a ballast.

There are no stupid questions but the ones that go unasked.

Serapis said:

HID stands for High Intensity Discharge; there are two kinds, High Pressure Sodium, or HPS, and Metal Halide, which is MH. The acronym HID simply means both types. When someone references HID, they are referring to either or and or both types of lamps.

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Serapis said:

So to answer your question directly, yes, HID bulbs do need a ballast.

There are no stupid questions but the ones that go unasked.

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Some one referred to HID in a thread to me earlier in the week and I was not sure what it was. I looked it up and I learned the same things that you just answered for VooDoo. Sometimes a subject or question is asked that some think we should know. VooDoo is not the only one that will learn something from your answer. Thanks for being a good sport. I'll +rep when it lets me again

What will you transfer the clones to rockwool or just hydroton in pots?

Serapis said:

HID stands for High Intensity Discharge; there are two kinds, High Pressure Sodium, or HPS, and Metal Halide, which is MH. The acronym HID simply means both types. When someone references HID, they are referring to either or and or both types of lamps.

So to answer your question directly, yes, HID bulbs do need a ballast.

There are no stupid questions but the ones that go unasked.

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Thank you mate, for not ripping it out of me lol. Lights are the one thing I haven't researched properly yet, only knowing what the acronyms stand for but not what they actually are lol. So that's the next thing on the list the look into. Thanks for the help once again

ldachosenonel said:

What will you transfer the clones to rockwool or just hydroton in pots?

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I'm leaning towards hydroton at the moment. I can simply add another gallon of water to my aero cloner and it becomes a DWC tank. My thinking is to go from a 2" to a 3 3/4" net pot. those will easily transfer to a waterfarm should I need to later. I have the shop lights to run a separate hydro nursery..... I may just set it up tomorrow.

MsBBB said:

Some one referred to HID in a thread to me earlier in the week and I was not sure what it was. I looked it up and I learned the same things that you just answered for VooDoo. Sometimes a subject or question is asked that some think we should know. VooDoo is not the only one that will learn something from your answer. Thanks for being a good sport. I'll +rep when it lets me again

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Thanks so much for the kind words and the rep. I'll take all it will let ya give. lol

So once a root system is developed on in the bottom bucket, you are actually filling the rez where roots are? Dosent it hurt the roots just sitting in water? And are you using any H202 in your water? Sorry for all the questions

ldachosenonel said:

So once a root system is developed on in the bottom bucket, you are actually filling the rez where roots are? Dosent it hurt the roots just sitting in water? And are you using any H202 in your water? Sorry for all the questions

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Don't apologize for asking a question. Questions are very welcome.

Roots need oxygen to survive. They find it in water, which is part oxygen. Water can be oxygenated with an air pump and a stone. By doing so, you are keeping oxygen in the water for the plant to utilize.

The waterfarms being used in this grow are brilliant by design. They use pumped air to create bubbles to lift water up a tube and into a drip ring. The water is oxygenated at that step. Then, it is dripped over porous clay pellets where it picks up oxygen from the surface contact as it drips down the pellets.

I do utilize H2O2 and add it about once every 4-5 days. I use 17.5% and usually in the amount of 5 ml per gal. My purpose for doing so is a healthy water tank. H2O2 is great for cleaning the water of bacteria and such. You certainly want to be careful with the stuff as it is caustic and can damage roots.

Hi. Some great advice, concise & clear. I just wanted to mention that I had a Kandy Kush fem freebie also & it was a pig to get started, It did eventually take off once I'd adjusted the nutrient level to 0.7 EC (sorry, don't know what the equivalent PPM is) & put her in quite a cool room (70 C) under some 4000k CFL bulbs (3 x 24 Watt) all in a 6 inch pot filled with hydroton in a converted recycling bin (30 litre) using a 6 inch pancake airstone with about 10 litres of air per minute. She has recovered well, so it could be the strain, just don't give up on her yet.....If using 'Jiffy' pellets to germinate or cloning make sure they are Peat free as the acidity of Peat will not do your tender babies much good. Keep up the good work

I have another question for you serapis, say you just did a rez change and you add your nutes and ph'ed water and the plant drank a gallon of the water the day after, do you just top it off with water or do you add more ph'ed water and nutes?

ldachosenonel said:

I have another question for you serapis, say you just did a rez change and you add your nutes and ph'ed water and the plant drank a gallon of the water the day after, do you just top it off with water or do you add more ph'ed water and nutes?

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That depends on what the ppm readings were before and after I added the water. For example; let's suppose last night before I went to bed, I topped off the tank and had the ppms in the reservoir at 1600 ppm. When I wake up, I see that she drank a lot of fluids. The PPMs read 2150 the next day! What happened!? In order for the ppms to go up, the amount of water went down or nutrients were added. Since we know we didn't add nutrients, we know that the plant took in more water than it did nutrients. Our PPM setting from the night before was too high. If we don't reduce the PPMs, we risk harming the roots and our plants. So we dilute the mix by adding fresh water, nothing else. Let's suppose after adding the water that the PPMs dropped to 1300. At that point, I'll leave it alone and see what the plant does with that level. If the following day, the ppms are still 1300, even though water level went down, we know we are right on the money with nutrient levels.

I see I see thanks alot serapis

Any new pics? And how's the PE doing? I'm on day 17 from seed w/ her at the moment, and after about day 7 she exploded and has been growing nicely after I dialed a few things in. Thanks for the hypothetical PPM/water situation you gave above, helped clear up a little bit of the haziness I had left on the subject. Very informative, as always.

Raylan said:

Any new pics? And how's the PE doing? I'm on day 17 from seed w/ her at the moment, and after about day 7 she exploded and has been growing nicely after I dialed a few things in. Thanks for the hypothetical PPM/water situation you gave above, helped clear up a little bit of the haziness I had left on the subject. Very informative, as always.

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The PE is in the back up waterfarm, under 4 6500k t8 flouros 38w. She is looking OK. She kinda developed a little crook in her stem, just like Babylicious did when I put her in the waterfarm. I'll have to get a pic and show ya'll. It is only 8 days old, so it is root building. PH is a 6.4, but seed is in a peat pot, so that should even out.

The clones are doing great root wise on three of the cuttings. Two that I suspect were taken up higher on the plant are resisting rooting, while some have roots over an inch long!. The leaves are showing that they are about ready to be introduced to nutrients. I've begun foliar feeding. Water in fog bucket is at 300 ppm.

I've been thinking long and hard about it and I've decided what I'm going to do. The problem is, what to do with rooted clones in 2" net pots with bottoms cut out? I needed to be able to transition them for vegetation. I'm kind of limited on available wattage on my circuit and my nursery closet is hurting for space. I've decided to go with an ebb & Flow system from Hydro Farm called the Microgarden....

It is made from AB Plastic that is 1/4" thick. The top tray is 7" high and has an adjustable height on the flood level. This version has ( 5" pots for soiless medium. The bottom of the tray has raised grooves to keep pots out of draining water. The 10 gallon reservoir has a lid and a slide off port cover to gain access to the reservoir for testing or adding water and nutrient. The Drain bulkhead is reinforced for strength and recessed to prevent accidents.

The dimensions are 14"w x 31"L x 18"h

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And for light, HO T5 fixture with German reflective with 95% reflectivity and providing nearly 10,000 lumen for only 96 watts. I'll be using mixed spectrums, 6500k and 3000k. This light would be 5 stars IF it had dual on/off switches on alternate sockets, so you could turn off bulb 1 and 3 or 2 and 4 if you wished to reduce lumen or select a specific spectrum to turn on/off.

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I look at the cost as being an investment in not purchasing seeds in the future. This system should allow me to veg clones for just 2-3 weeks before they'll be ready for flowering in the tent.

Oh okay. How's the peat pot working for you? I started the PE directly in the hydroton after germination and her roots had already grown thru the cocotek liner and into the bottom reservoir after 13 days. I started a Skunk #1 at the same time (which ended up having to go), and when I removed it the roots had barely made it to the hydroton. I'll be germinating directly in hydroton from now on, even though I was very nervous when first attempting it.