Hoosierdaddy's SWC Toob (Smart Valve controlled)

Yeah I have seen that one. Isn't it like a cfl barrel grow?
At present I am running 20 fem SSH seeds 5 at a time looking for something nice. After that I plan on taking advantage of being able to run perpetual with multiple strains, which this system is perfect for.

Running a screen is way cool and all w/great photo ops and yields, but it pretty much commits you.
Although, I do have plans on running a 4 plant horizontal scrog next spring/summer.

Looking fine. Pardon me while I play Captain Broken Record. How's them roots doin'?

The roots are just now starting to come out the bottom of the pots.
This pot was 25% coco/75% perlite. It was the slowest for roots to fill the bottom. The pots with the most coco showed roots at the bottom the fastest, but they are still not coming out the holes much. Seems like they don't even want to venture out until the res gets low.


The very first week I had the seedlings in the tube, I encountered a very nasty snot goo. The problem was the res outside of the cab. I will need to chill the res solution. The tube solution stays at about 68degF lights on and 65degF lights off, so that part is fine. I am simply filling the tube manually when it is out.
I flushed everything well, and supercleaned the system. All was well, but two of the SSH saw what looks like nitrogen tox. The other two SSH show no signs of distress, and the two Carns are super vigorous and happy. I also have one Mandala cut that is doing very well.
Having plants that show different needs is tough when they are all in a common nutrient source.

Thats a great system u built there hoosierdaddy.

Looks awesome man

Thanks InPotiTrust, and Cozy!

hoosierdaddy said:

Seems like they don't even want to venture out until the res gets low.

Click to expand...

Now that's what we want to see. Woo Hoo!

This is an Angel Dust seedling that will hit the toob next.
I needed to leave for a couple days or so, and experimented with a sort of hempy cup thingy. Short cup of coco inside of larger beer cup that has perlite and a hole in the side. Works great keeping starts alive...kinda sucks for replant.
Healthy lil bugger though....
Te roots really shot right through the coco and headed for the perlite and water. This will not be in my future. Seedlings just aint made for coco, IMO.
Imma stick with good ol ffof.

Update on the Groove Toob...

The 3" cylinder pots work out fine for growing small plants with not much veg. However, they do not provide enough room for a good root mass for a larger plant. They roots try to find a way out, but pretty much just fill the pots.

I have decided to increase the size of the pots without having to change too much. The 3" pot now serves more as an aqua duct, wicking solution from the tube to the tubs. The tubs are filled with FFOF.


I drilled 3" holes in the bottom of coffee containers and epoxied in the pots.


Then fill the pot only to the top of the pot on the inside with FFOF.
After the repot gets set, fill in with FFOF.


The tubs fit nicely within the constraints of my cab with out changing anything.


My vegged plants get a root butchering then plugged into the tub.

Why did you choose FFOF and not coco?

Also, you said that seedlings don't do so well in coco...I don't know about that. I germinated my plants in 100% coco which they've been in all their lives and are loving it. Right now they are in 1.7 gallon contains and you can check pics in my gallery to see how big they are - about 40 inches tall but lst'ed well with ~8 top colas each.

I actually said that seedlings weren't made for coco, IMO. Not that they don't do too well. If you look at the shot of the seedling roots, and my comments, you see that the roots of the seedling shot straight through the coco and went for the perlite below in the catch cup. You can clearly see that the seedling itself is healthy, and sports a nice mass of roots to be only days old.

For me, the problem is that the coco is benign. It has ziltcho potential for nutrition, and as a result the roots seem to bypass it looking for something better (people feed their seedlings...but it's a mistake IMO). When I cast a seedling in the very same situation using a soil-less mix, such as FFOF, the cup will be completely filled with roots with only a few of them peeking out the drain holes. Makes for a nice easy transplant. You can see from the photo that the transplant of that seedling was not a smooth transition for the seedling. I managed to coax most of the roots back out of the drain holes, but it was not easy and many of them were lost. My old method was next to no stress at all, as the roots were never out of the cups like that.

Another reason I am using FFOF in the tub, is that I have been running some hybrids and they require flushed much sooner than other plants in the tube such as haze. If I am flushing the tube with low ppm water, the other plants are being robbed of nutrition. By having them in FFOF there are beneficial nutrients present for the others to feed from. And I can always flush them from the top if needed. If the plants were all the same, I would consider using straight coco. In fact, I just got a brick of coco-tek a couple days ago, and I was planning on trying one pot with coco to compare to another same clone in FFOF.

I just harvested the first plant from the Groove Toob.
I grew two Man/SM plants, one in the tube, and another in a pot with FFOF.
The tube plant finished a bit later than the soil plant. The buds from the soil potted plant are very heavy dank and dark, while the tubed plants buds seem to be a bit "lighter", although that is simply a look perception. The tube plant seems to be much greasier than the potted plant. You cannot even touch any part of the tube plant without getting your fingers and hands covered in thick resin.
My scissors were sticking to my hands like glue cleaning up both of these jewels. The tube plant yielded ~30% more than what the plant in dirt did, and they were almost identical clones. (tube plant was in a 3" pot w/100% coco w/no perlite)

This is one of the ManSM buds. Ever see any Mandala do this?
You can see the stem is very dark purple...and if my camera didn't gargle balls, you could see the light green lines on both sides of the dark purple stem. The other side of the stem is bright green. I kept these plants oriented the same way all the time, never turning them. The lights darkened the whole side of both the potted plant and the tubed plant.
I have grown this plant out both indoors with HPS only, and outdoors as well, and none have ever even came close to taking on any purple coloring. I have to attribute this radical color change to the cool temps and the CMH.
My MOC Carnivals do the same thing in this light setup, and the breeder said they had not seen them color as much as mine did before.
Maybe they hadn't seen any grown under CMH before? (shrug)

My new ToobTubs are working out as planned.
The roots have found their way to the tube below...



I am hand feeding the plants from the top side right into their individual tubs.
I am adding nothing to the tube but h2o treated with h2o2 @30ml/gal.
This allows me to run strains with different nutrient needs simultaneously. It also allows me to flush some plants, while continuing to feed others.

I really didn't like my original method of the small cups. But, the small size of the cups sure didn't seem to hinder the growth of a very powerful plant that I have.
This is a shot of the toob at it's inception. The plants are at ~25 days of flower at this point.


The hazes are at ~78days of flower in this shot.
You can see that SSH (e) turned out to be a mammoth. I was certain that this plant was one of the lesser haze phenos, as it's growth was much more squat, and had fatter leaves than it's sisters (just look at the shot above and judge for yourself), but I was mistaken. At about 30 days of flower, this plant decided to take off like nothing I have seen so late in flower. It reached a final height of ~5ft. I had to seriously work with her to keep her in line with the others.
I did no training or topping of the hazes at all, so I could see how they grew naturally.
They are still in flower today, and it looks like most will be done at about 100+ days.

I have seeded some of the hazes and hopefully I will end up with some very interesting crosses. I plan on using the big momma in the future as well with some other great stuff I have found.

HoosierDaddy, when people say stoners are stupid or unmotivated, the haven't been to this site or the numerous others that blow that theory out of the water. Man what a great set up and results! I'm fairly new and just found your threads, i wana do what your doing, just a few questions (I did search but couldn't find the answer).

cool tube- where do you get the straight sided glass tubes
CMH- are these bulbs available in HD, or lowes
and just so I'm sure you can use a 400 watt ballast that has HPS bulbs with no mod for the CMH?

Thanks and happy growing and designing

Thanks for the kind words, Richard.

The cool tubes that I am using come from here:
http://www.save-on-crafts.com/glcycash10in.html
They ship them safe and comfy.

The CMH is not a readily available bulb. The best place to get them is at the links provided in the CMH thread that Simba is hosting. You can find the replacement HPS at Lowes, etc though.
And yes, the 400CMH is ran using a 400HPS ballast with no changes. Switch them out at will. I don't think that digital ballasts will work, unless they specifically state it will.
The lower wattage models require a pulse start metal halide ballast of comparable wattage.
You can also acquire the ballast kit from the bulb supplier, but I got my ballast kit at HTG and used a box I had.

Awesome HD Leonidas

HD, thanks for the info keep an eye out for micro vert that I am going to attempt. I hope I can do the community proud. I truly am inspired by this site and the folks like you that are always eager to help. Have a great holiday

Very nice to see you, Leo!! You know you are loved here, my friend.

Richard, man I will keep an eye out for your work. If you need any help, just holler. If I aint around, I am sure that there will be plenty here that can help you with anything you run into.
I am honored that some of my stuff could inspire you. It makes the work all the more rewarding. But please do keep in mind that above all else, security is NUMBER ONE!
It is very easy to get lax when there is a like minded community that is so large.
Always try to keep thing as simple as possible, and when disaster strikes, it makes it easier to recover.
Don't go too big. And don't set too high of goals...let things happen, and you will gain more and more control of things as time passes.
You will want to show off your work...do NOT do it anywhere but here! Never tell ANYONE. That is a hard one...but you MUST adhere to it to be safe.
To be safe, you MUST keep the grow hidden from eyes and noses.
And never sell weed. Unless you are destitute and need medicine or groceries...just don't do it. Dealing sacks and growing do NOT mix.

Best of luck you you!

HD, great advice all around. This is just a PS for me and wife, we have medical rec in CA and I am tired of dealing with people that think 80.00 1/8's are fair. Plus after my first grow, i realized that I got almost as much joy from the growing as the smoking. Probably just a gettin back to the basics that feels good. I missed out on alot of good times with MJ due to my work from my 20-late 30's so really just having a great time. And I have to say that this site has probably been the best that I have found on WWW. Bunch of good people on here that are very creative and doing it there way. And I here you about selling, i have a job that pays the bills so really would never get involved in that part. I do like sharing though, but that has its own set of issues as well. I grew some headband that turned out real nice and everyone wanted to know where i got it. Boy was it hard not to tell, but it was nice to get some compliments.

Thanks for the advice though and have a nice holiday

Happy Holidays Hoosier.
Its been awhile since I last passed through. I must say this rig turned ultra-sweet!! Excellent clean work. Well designed and executed!!
Your experiments definitely keep my mind working on working on my own grow.

BTW what does FFOF stand for? FoxFarm...

good growing bro

Never mind I figured it out. But I did have a few questions.

How low was the liquid in the tube before the smart valve opened up?
How high does the valve fil to in the tube?
Is there any level control as to how high the valve allows the tube to fill?

I saw that you mentioned that you where somewhat bored with this setup because theres really not much to maintain. lol Sounds perfect for my current lifestyle.

good growing