This summer was a hard one, i thought i had big enough pots but apparently not. After a summer of being trapped and unable to go do anything durring the day, I never even made it on my boat. There was days that i had to water them 3 times a day. Even now when it is high 70s to low 80s i still water a few of them twice a day. Anyway it has convinced me to go to hydroponic. No more guessing, should i give water, fertalizer, or calmag. I still think i under fertalize now because im afraid to feed twice in one day. I started with just 3 to see if it was feasible in the heat of a greenhouse to keep the water cool. I am so happy with it i have decided that after this weekend when the new crop goes out i will be diving right in and setting up a 15 plant system. I will be doing cycles of 15 so durring the winter i will have 2 cycles in the heated bay and will leave the blackout curtain closed and just use the lights. In the summer i will have 4 cycles for a harvest every month. Anyway here is the starter 3 plant system, they were transplanted from dirt to hydro at about 8 in tall around 3 weeks ago.
I forgot to add in that i am also giving up the advanced nutrients and using current culture/ current solutions. It is a sterile system with an A a B, calmag, and a product to keep the roots clean. Durring flower there is 3 bud boosters that get used one at a time, an early, a mid, and a late. So glad i dont have to use 8 different parts anymore once ive cycled out all of the soil plants.
Thanks guys, i hope to gain quite a bit of time doing the hydro but they are going so good i bet i will gain yield and number of crops per year also. I plan on having a big standby generator before power goes out but if needed before then i can use a small one for heat and the air stones. They can go a bit without the water pump and depending on season the chiller.
That’s A pretty cool set up my friend I’m looking forward to watching you expand it. I never could get the advance nutrients to live up to their claim.
I would say i had healthier plants and got better quality product as soon as i switched to advanced but yield was never even close to satisfactory with it. I am glad the hydro store guy suggested the current solutions and running a sterile system.
Hydro in a green house of the size you have is going to be a mf. Not saying you cant do it but the scope and scale of what you are going to try...... good luck.
Keeping the water chilled is the biggest thing but so far the 1/2 hp on the 3 bucket hardly turns on and i dont even have all the piping insulated. I figure 1 1/2 hp will do for a fully insulated 15 plant system in 100° heat.
I love DWC, that set up you got is cool, So I read where you were trying out this on a small scale first, was this just for some winter bud? I think you are like me and trying new stuff all the time. Lol.
It was just to try it but after such a busy summer i decided to jump in. I just got a 18 plant system finnished and planted today. I lost all 3 test ones to root rot. I am pretty sure it was due to the fact that they came out of dirt. The roots in the water are all white and healthy, it only roted at the crown of roots where there was peat stuck in there from coming out of dirt. I bleached this system before use with 1/2 cup bleach per gal and sprayed down the floors and walls with the bleach water after running it through the system after a half a day so the surrounding area is sanitized for the moment.
you got my attention! I’m looking forward to further updates With pictures of the plants growing of course. LOL
