SOG DWC Pre-planning

Al B. Fuct says fail to plan, plan to fail. So here I am, slowly making my way to setting up a grow cab in my garage.
I'm invested about $100 which includes my

• 400 watt ballast
• reflector
• HL lamp, used (Seller said should still be good, we'll see, might buy new one).
• high tech DWC system (consists of some rubbermaid containers with holes on the top for the plants, and drilled into the sides).
• Bubblers for oxygen to the roots
• Finally I have clay pellets.

I have a plan of where to go from here, but I want to test it on you guys so please any feedback is greatly appreciated!
Plan
Build a cabbie like this with dimensions 4" (width), 3" (length), 5-6" (height). The Cab would have a partition cutting the width in half, so two 2x3x5-6 sections. On the left partition I would have the mother on HPS(yet to be purchased), and on the right I will have 5-6 clones on the 400 watt HL. It won't be as continues as AL B. Fuct's 2 week plan but the mother will allow me to save 50-60$ on clones every harvest, which probably pays for the electricity and nutes.
So basically, snip clones from momma, slice and dice them all pretty with root hormones, then put them into clay pellets in rubbermaid container. BTW The mother will be in her own rubbermaid container / 5 gallon bucket if I can find one. Run SOG on the clones and by the time they harvest momma should be all fixed up.

Questions

1. Will this even work at all?
2. When I transfer clones to right partition should I immediately put on 12/12 or give them some vegetative 24 hour light?
3. What wattage do I need for the mother? Is it possible to save money and use CFL on her, since I don't care about yield or will this negatively affect clones?
4. What nutes should I have in mother tank, and in clone tank?
5. Can I put the clones directly into clay pellets, or do I need to put them in rockwool?
6. And finally do I need the 6th foot? The rubbermaid plus ballast = ~21 inches, plus a foot b/t light and plant = ~3feet of dead space. Which leaves 2 feet of growth if cab is 5" and 3 if it is 6". Obviously I'd rather go shorter if possible.

I know this is long, but I wanted to give all the info. You don't have to answer all the questions, any advice will help greatly. Thank you so much for whoever reads this and helps out.

-Teekdasneek

welcome to the site.....

teekdasneek said:

Questions

1. Will this even work at all?
2. When I transfer clones to right partition should I immediately put on 12/12 or give them some vegetative 24 hour light?
3. What wattage do I need for the mother? Is it possible to save money and use CFL on her, since I don't care about yield or will this negatively affect clones?
4. What nutes should I have in mother tank, and in clone tank?
5. Can I put the clones directly into clay pellets, or do I need to put them in rockwool?
6. And finally do I need the 6th foot? The rubbermaid plus ballast = ~21 inches, plus a foot b/t light and plant = ~3feet of dead space. Which leaves 2 feet of growth if cab is 5" and 3 if it is 6". Obviously I'd rather go shorter if possible.

Click to expand...

1. Yes, it will. DWC systems are really great, and easy to set up. Your plants will grow very fast and vigorously. Good choice.
2. Give them enough time in 24 hours for the roots to grow. Once you can see them start to grow vertically again, you can switch them to 12/12. You want a fairly established root system to produce good flowers.
3. The more light, the healthier and more stable your clones will be. CFLs aren't bad and you will still be able to grow a decent plant. But I would invest in a good MH, probably 270 watts. She'll grow like crazy.
4. I use Foxfarm nutes. They sell different nutes for vegging and flowering.
5. Rockwool.
6. Obviously that depends on how much you want to yield. 3 feet of growth space versus 2 will make a big difference.


Hope this can be of some help.

Thank you kdrush, that was a lot of help. I'll probably leave her under CFL, its cheaper, plus takes less space.
Thanks for the help, I plan on posting pics once everything is installed.

sure thing teek. good luck