Why no Hydro?

I could teach you hempy in about 5 minutes.
One of the reasons some start slow is until the roots creep down to the bottom for the nutes they are slow but once they build a root zone they take off. The nutes and ph are simple. Its not as hard as you think.


Teamster6

 

no line all brands


I'm a believer in big buds from advanced. I've used against all types of bloom booster and guano tea's. I.feet they got it down on the L-Amino acids. And I plan on using it with the Useless formula and I plan on using some floranectar from the general and roots excelerater and Pro-tec( Pro-tec Foliar ).


I'm qualifying the nutrient if someone asks about ionic grow bloom and boost I say yes good veg bloom food but I would add big buds instead of boost and maybe some bud blaster and super boost from supernatural the last two weeks before flush with it

 

I hope not, cuz I'm getting ready to try hydro-buckets/DWC. I already got materials n such.

 

Hey Mt. King, I once got beat by a pinto in the 1/4. I had a 70 Ford, built Boss 302, 425 rwHP pulled high 11's around 140 mph all day. Fucking 4 banger pinto wasted me with an 11.28. Fucking guy lol. I hit him up after the race, he uses so much NOS he has what he called "disposable bottom ends". After 3 races he'd ditch the block and put in a new one. :roffl:


Hydro is easy. As Scotty said, it can be "intimidating" to a lot of folks.


SirStink - How is it more work to plug in a pump to drain a ressy, than carrying around buckets of water to feed your soil plants? If you planned on using a bucket to bail out the ressy like a boat, I suggest you think about it for a sec. Work smarter, not harder! I have to put way more physical energy into a dirt grow than a hydro one. You dirt chuckers can carry bails of sunshine mix or promix that weigh 90lbs. Or even FFOF bags that weigh 30 lbs. My water pump plug in cord weighs about 1 oz. LOL


If you dirt chuckers are mixing nutes and adding them to the plants throughout the grow, instead of having a fully amended soil, are doing the same thing I do when I change a ressy.


PH is easily adjusted. Also, when using a good solid feed schedule with minerals in proper ratio's, then PH balancing is almost not needed.


TDS is just a tool to measure how strong the solution is. Not really rocket science here folks.


In 12 years growing indoor hydro, I lost 2 crops. 1 was because I used crappy lava stone (there is good quality and bad, I just used the crappy stuff) which degraded with every flood. It left a layer of sand/silt in the tables. Well, sand + rock + water = cement. The other was from lack a=of testing a new clone, and the thing hermied pollinating the entire crop at week 5. I have never had a pump fail.


How is buying dirt and nutrients cheaper than water and nutrients?


If you design a hydro system properly, there is virtually no chance of flood.


Also, depending on set up, plants can be moved just as easily as dirt plants, but without the weight of the dirt. Easier.


Mt. King, I will try the AN Big Bud against the MOAB in my tables. I can get a free sample, and I'm just starting week 5, so it's good timing for it. What dosage and how often do you use it for? I know the MOAB well, and have it dialed in, seems you gtot the same going to the AN BB. So, let's see how it compares to the MOAB. I am of course using my GH feed schedule.

 

So what about all these factors?


the whole problem with managing the nutes and the water levels and root rot and drifting Ph and everything like that.

 

Invest in a good meter. I have one that keeps a constant monitor on pH, TDS and temp in my res. Keep everything clean every week, and hopefully no root rot. If the unfortunate happens, you've got some real experienced guys and gals here to answer your questions and fix your problems asap!


As for draining/ filling. On my RDWC system, I disconnect the feed line from the rez to a 25' piece of tubing. Put the tube in the sink, turn on pump and almost all the water is flushed in 15 min. I use a aquraium "gravel vacuum" that hooks up to the sink to get the last little bit out. I then have a 5 gallon bucket I fill in the bathtub and fill the rez back up. Add my nutes the next day and all set for another week. All in all, I spend MAYBE an hour a week on the room. Hell I probably spent that long filling gallon jugs and mixing nutes for my hempy buckets, let alone the time spent rooting around 12 monsters watering them

 

Nice chatter upon my return.


I'm not touching the nutes portion other than to say if you have an exact measurement of how much water you have in your system total the USELESS 3 part will put you within a point of where you need to be.


This is Cab1's November calendar. I have 2 tubs with 7 plants each they hold about 18gal each and the controller about 3 gal so i measure using the Useless schedule for 40gal. I use GH Ph down. My tap water is usually 7.3ph





Here is a look inside:











That's a 1kw the space is about 4.5x4. That's White Rhino coming to the end of week 4 monday starts week 5. I do not record the EC. I find it trivial at this point. Does it matter to me if i'm at 1500ppm vs 1700ppm not really, the plants are super green and very happy. If i was experimenting or starting a new setup and trying to dial in my gal input to the formula maybe.


GTWT you asked the question of how expensive? T6 hit it on the head he has a manual Drain and Fill setup. I run a 6 bucket RDWC which cost about $200 that's minus the essentials like fans lights nutes etc. I have 45 gal rubbermaid tubs that run as 11 site aeroponic setup with selfcontained reservoir that run about 70 bucks for one and you can link 2 together with a 5 gal bucket as an external controller and just check the ph at it instead of even bothering the plants for about $175 for both with controller. Just remember there is never too much air in the water. You could build a dwc out of a bucket with an airstone or 2. Change the water weekly when you fill add some peroxide it will kill a lot of stuff in the water. The next day add nutes the next day check the ph add down as needed. Then until Drain and Fill day just check the ph.


As to more work with hydro I just don't see it. I do like someone else said with switching my supply line to a long hose that runs to a floordrain. I have a hose from my RO filter that i just unroll put it in the controller turn it on for about 8-10 mins then roll it back up. DONE.


In soil i had to go in and check the plants to see if they felt light or looked droopy or whatever. Now I know shit is lush and intense. I just check ph. Besides Hydroton is way easier to clean up at harvest. Well good thread so far and Scott if you really wanna know about hydro you gotta read till you have it memorize so when it's GO time you got it on lock...Steelcity

 

For, me, the reason is FEAR! Im not sure exactly how to do it. It would help if I could see one, not just a picture....


Is there some directions on starting up using a five gal bucket or one of those plastic storage bins? Im willing and very interested in trying hydro. Just dont know quite where/how to start without buing a fancy set-up.


Dixie

 

Well since I am sporting one of their tee shirts I guess I need to try that


MOAB!!!!!!!!! I usually use the gh dry stuff for bloom. Hey Steel city whats that medium you are useing is it hydroton or something else?? How do you like that vertical bulb??


Teamster6

 

Nice shirt! Where the hell did ya get that? I need to order some more, just used up almost all I had left

 

Gifted to me at the 2010 meet and greet my man by no other than USELESS!!!!!!!!!!


Teamster6

 

Thats what Rez looked like at the Meet and Greet!!


Teamster6

 

big buds weeks 1-6

Use it in 1-6 then depends on strain I'll use gravity. The six week la and golden queens get flushed at week six and the BB gets cut at 5.


I dont use the bushmaster much anymore only on the stretchers.


We dont carry MOB but if I get some ill try it I'm down with testing thing


And advanced don't give samples the feds seized all there trimming machines at the Canadian border and they lost a$400,000.oo shipment this year right before harvest season:321fu:


PS I think they're kinda short on funds :roffl:

 

Wow....these customs these days.


At my hydro place, the customs are holding all the Advanced Nutrients shipment, and still have for 2 months now. They are waiting on a thousands dollars worth of AN bottles. The customs are real assholes....


We are currently in wk 9........ and still in use of Advance Nutrients Big Bud

 

Water is heavy


I'm getting too old to haul water buckets in and out of the grow room so I use Hempy style and 1gallon jugs for water. If I had a water source and drain in the garden I'd probably be using ebb/flow because it simplifies feeding and can be left alone while you are away on holiday in the Caribbean.

 

I personally went hempy because I couldn't get soil under control. I can control problems far easier in hydro because I know about the issues right away - I think I simply found it easier to deal with an inert medium over soil. When following Useless' Groovy Hydroponics (thanks GTWT, love that. :roffl formula in a hydro setup I just felt like there was far less that could go wrong.


Another big thing with hydro for me is the cleanliness of it. Dirt is messy, and me dealing with dirt is even messier.


Aquaponics systems aren't too good in my climate. Our summers get way too hot and our winters get just a little bit too cold. To do something like DWC I'd need to purchase both a water heater AND chiller.


I'd really like to go with a more traditional hydro setup like a flood table or something. The only thing I dislike with hempy at the moment is the individual maintainence of each bucket. That said, at least when any issues arise with hempy they're localised and don't affect the entire crop.

 

I personally like the fact that I am not only growing a plant, but supporting a micro-environment as well when I grow in soil. Not only that, but it forces me to compost, helping the earth a bit, and eventually providing me with enough soil where I barely need nutes and I have little to buy each grow.


The only problem with soil I've ever had that I couldn't fix was with heat on my first real grow, which was in an attic, and they made it half way through flower before they fried (if I still lived there, or had lived there longer, an AC would have been used of course....crazy how we took a floored room in the attic and made it crazy with frames and fans. I should have KISS and used a damn closet).


Nothing against hydro, I just limit my aquatic environments to fish tanks, and gold fish/moors give out great poop.


I don't see one as better or worse, more complicated or not, than another. Seems like you either learn and succeed at one method or don't. But, if hydro was so efficient, why don't we grow all our produce that way for general consumption?

 

how do you control ph drift and mold and root rot? How do I know how high or low to keep the water level in the bucket? what happens when the roots get long enough that they become submerged in the water?


these are all questions that I simply can not find consistent answers to.

 

pH doesn't tend to drift if I've left the solution sit for ~24 hours, and hempy appears to be very friendly in terms of root rot. While hempy relies heavily on moisture, I use pure perlite in my hempy buckets and make sure I water/feed them every 2-3 days and have yet to have any issues with root rot.


The water level itself is determined by the height of the hole in the bucket. I believe ~2 inches is standard for a 3-5 gallon container. Give or take a tiny bit depending on how quickly water tends to evaporate in your growing climate.


As for the roots, having them submerged in the water is the whole idea! The more roots in the reservoir itself, the faster the uptake of nutrients I imagine. :thumbs-up:


If you've got the time and space, I'd set up a single hempy bucket among your soil grows to see how you like it.