Thundercat
Well-Known Member
I grew a SOG in a flood and drain for over 10 years. It was simple and produced huge. I had a 4x4 flood tray for flower, a 2x2 tray for veg, and a small 2x2 spot for clones.
Thinking about switching to Hydro
- Thread starter First grow 77710
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Milky Weed
Well-Known Member
How many plants would you do per tray? If you packed em in I assume turnover rate would be wild fast.
Thundercat
Well-Known Member
45ish in 6inch square pots, I think 48 would fit but I didn’t usually pack it tight. They got about 2 weeks of veg to establish roots, and then into flower about 7-8 inches tall. I’d remove the bottom set of nodes or 2, to encourage single cola growth. Yielded 20-30 dried grams per plant on average depending on genetics being ran.
yummy fur
Well-Known Member
Offmymeds
Well-Known Member
After several DWC I started a DTW in coco with a bucket system from The Bucket Company. Easy to setup but worth a tiny bit more to use PVC instead of the flex pipe it comes with. What a relief. No more root rot problems but I did start out with a fungus gnat problem but know how to prevent that now. Also switched from liquid ferts to dry (Jacks).
I'd also consider flood & drain.
I'd also consider flood & drain.
Bucsfan80
Well-Known Member
You have a plethora of options to choose from. You need to decide which fits your style best, like how many plants you grow at a time and height restrictions. A 5gal bucket(black) with a net pot lid with air stone/pump is a real simple but you can really only have 3 gallons of nutes. If your a diy person you will literally save hundreds building yourself. My setup is (2) 12 gallon Rubbermaid totes connected together with 2" pvc. I have ¾" pvc connected to my pump in control rez running to plant rez with a spray bar that acts as supply line and the spray adds air so no need for air pump. Simple cheap and effective.
Redlig
Well-Known Member
Soil is GREAT! The reason people do it is because you can essientally put it in a pot and water it. I just finished my scrog hydro and while I am happy with the results, there's nothing like literally getting your hands dirty. I just started 5 in 7 gal fabric pots just because I wanted to run some soil for fun. Then again I also grew veggies fruits and succulents in dirt before I ever grew cannibis so I'm biased
DirtyJerzey
Well-Known Member
I'm with you. Ive done a few outside soil grows. But mainly have always done DWC buckets. When I made my DWC's I made them in a way that I could expand to an RDWC. I finally set that up at the end of last year.
You really cant compete with 20-30% faster grows...
yummy fur
Well-Known Member
Hydro is EVEN BETTER! The reason people do it is because you can essientially put it in a pot and not have to water it, you can't over water it, you can't under water it, you know what the pH is at any given time and you can make adjustments easily. You can also look at the roots directly, if you do it right it's pretty well set and forget. All the work you do on the plant is the same, all you need to do is change the nutes every now and again. Also it's completely repeatable, so that if you get two different phenotypes you know it's a phenotype and not something strange. You don't really have to worry much about RH or VPD, or temperature if you don't want to. At the moment I have a very high VPD, the leaves are showing stress, but the buds are perfect nevertheless.
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rollyouron
Well-Known Member
I think I've tried everything. I've been running Autopot for 6 years. They are the easiest system I've ever ran. I just order a new system from the bucket company. I like their setup. DTW
amneziaHaze
Well-Known Member
hydro is lots of controling. dirt is water every 5 days or 2 weeks. but a lot of people simply fear hydro or think its vodo magic.
dizzygirlio
Well-Known Member
You should try it! I did once and it was fun. Just be sure to read a lot about the set up and do some planning ahead of time. I tried both a hempy grow and a DWC grow awhile back. They can both be fun and rewarding because they grow fast. From what little experience I have with it it seemed to require more maintenance and water than I realized. I also kept messing up the ph and they were pretty sensitive to changes I made. This is because I did very little reading and wasn't prepared for the amount of planning that should have been involved in my set up which would've prevented a lot of the problems I ran into.
I stick to dirt now because I've found that it's easier for me to plan around and I'm honestly a little lazy. It seems to grow a little slower in dirt, but it is also seems more forgiving for a noob like me.
I stick to dirt now because I've found that it's easier for me to plan around and I'm honestly a little lazy. It seems to grow a little slower in dirt, but it is also seems more forgiving for a noob like me.
This might seem superficial, but I can't stand bugs/pests in my house. My girlfriend kept a potted peace lily in the house and it was a cesspool for drain flies. When I bred convict cichlids and emerald corys, I got hit pretty bad with detritus worms that hitchhiked into my tanks. Instantly creeped out by that and got rid of the shit. Growing outside is a different story, but it's still illegal here.
I know you can still get pests in hydro, but I've taken many precautions to avoid this. Contams and shit don't bother me - I also do some mycology stuff and deal with that all the time.
I want to say the presumed cost is the biggest deterrent for most people with hydro. I've probably spent in the ballpark of $2000 for my current setup, but I am really pushing things to the max - high PPM, intense lighting, RH as low as possible, etc etc. Hyper controlled environment. It took me time to get to this point, and I'm still learning - I don't understand why most people don't just make the jump and gradually build up their setup as they learn. You can't take full advantage until you have the skills and knowledge - the technique certainly isn't a simple shortcut to better yields and quality.
Hydro doesn't have to be hyper controlled, though. You can stick with the suggested guidelines and skate by with minimal maintenance. I have gone longer than 2 weeks with hydro maintenance before. Just scale up your water volume size.
That said, how could you possibly go 2 weeks without watering plants in a soil grow? I'm actually considering putting a mother clone in soil, but I can't imagine keeping water maintenance the same as hydro. I'm also considering coir - but I've not yet used it for growing plants. That's my bulk sub for mushroom grows
