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First time grow DIY hydro - 2 litre bottle & container bed.

J

jvt

New member
Hi Guys

first time trying to grow. Posting this to get the experts help and also for anyone else to learn.

I got a rectangle container and then on the cover, cout 2 holes do that i could fit 2 , soda bottles neck down inside, which i presume will act like the hydroponic cup. The grow media I am planning to use id coco peat.

I guess it might be a cross between a regular hydro and DWC method.

Here is the first set of photos, I will upload the rest as time progresses.
 
J

jvt

New member
Here you can see that I have fixed 2 coke bottles upside down on a rectangular container. and sealed it using metal page, now its all 1 piece.
 
J

jvt

New member
picture.php
picture.php
picture.php
 
O

oc_grower

Member
I haven't seen this type of system but I can see there are some things you will probably want to address. The container is clear. Now, I don't know if it is true or not but , from everything folks have said, translucent containers are problematic for a few reasons. 1. bacteria/algae grows in it due to the light penetration. 2. roots do not like to be in the light. You can fix this by spraying the container with spray primer black/white/black/white. Multiple coats with white being on the outside creates a light tight film but the white on the outside reflects light and heat outward.

It seems like it would be easier for you to create a flood and drain system with a couple of net pots and an air stone coupled with what ever you are using for the flood and drain pump.

It will be interesting to see where this goes and how well it works for you. Keep us posted.
 
PetFlora

PetFlora

Well-known member
ICMag Donor
Veteran
Good luck with that

Hope you're not using premium seeds

See my DIY Mini-Me F & D
 
J

jvt

New member
Hi
So Very nice to see feedback's.
yes yes i am addressing all these points. i'm building slowly. I am into aqua scaping also, just growing my knowledge into real plants now.

Its a first time grow for me. So my objective is to use a bit of hydro phonics along with the benefits of vermi potting soil and coco peat mix. so that the system may be a lil forgiving..considering the mistakes I may make..

Translucent containers are problematic
yes it will be all opaque by the time im finished. I know algae cos i know aquarium n underwater plants.

It seems like it would be easier for you to create a flood and drain system with a couple of net pots and an air stone coupled with what ever you are using for the flood and drain pump.


What I am thinking of doing, is" consider the soda bottle as a net pot, so many holes drilled into that. There will be an air stone at the bottom,middle of these to pots. see below images. Then there will be a wicking system using choir threads, and the substrate is also cocopeat / choir mixed with a lil bit of potting soil and vermi compost".

I'm not going to give a top feed system, but instead i'm thinking it would be a wicking system, and the pot (2 liter bottles) would be immersed in about 1/3rd of the water within the container bed. you can see the hole I made for the outlet, so that height basically would be immersed in the nutrient solution.

Technicalities:

Ive made 3 holes on the bed container, which will house the nutrients.

one
Hole for the air bubbler.
at the same
Same height another hole for draining the container.
and one ov
Overflow hole. ( This is the water level) which i would connect to a gravity based watering system, so that if the level goes down, it will automatically pull water from the 2 liter soda bottle reservoir that I have kept aside.

pls check the pics in the below post.
 
J

jvt

New member
In this scene, you can see that i have provided 4 wicks made of choir, and inserted it into the bottles, grow area. After that I have kind of netted the pot, using coco coir ( the real one) these are long strands that i separated and placed it like a mesh so that the powdered coco peat and soil mix don't leak out.

 
J

jvt

New member
one impatient one is already bursting out while the rest are still germinating, (photo above) , i had forgotten about it and left it outside.
 
J

jvt

New member
Ok, now you can see here that i have filled the substrate, a mix of coco peat and vermi compost mix into it.

S o, I guess now its self sustaining, plus along with the hydroponic advantage i guess. do let me know if this is too much for the plants..
 
J

jvt

New member
Tommorrow is the Planting day. for my germinated seeds.

Do let me know anything else that i can fix before planting guys..

Please raise questions, suggestions and comments.

The more negative the better;) tell me that I cant do it.!;)
 
J

jvt

New member
Questions please..:

Can i
plant more than one seed into each pot? if not, how do i choose the best one?

would i still have to provide all the hydro nutrients, as this is part soil and part hydro, so what suggestions please?

Would i still need
to clean the water reservoir once in a while? or leave it as it is.

What do you think, will the air blubber be of use in this kind of setup?

Will the roots come out of the bottle into the reservoir? compared to a bubble phonic system?
 
ChasingGreen

ChasingGreen

Member
I don't understand, are you going to finish the plants in this system? There's no where enough rooms for the roots. Honestly if I were you, and you wanted to do a tiny little system, I'd look into SpaceBuckets. There's a subforum on Reddit about them.

You also are asking the most very basic questions of growing like "should I put 1 seed in each pot". Yes is your answer, but you really should read a book on growing cannabis first man, it will answer almost all of these types of questions.
 
J

jvt

New member
I'm not sure if you have understood my concept fully. what i am trying to achieve here.. I have some reasons from what all i have read. yes some intensive reading on cannabis.

N pls dont mock me by asking me to go read a book, cmon man, debate with me, i'm here looking for encouragement and support. Isnt this forum or any of the other popular cannabis forums better that a book? are you telling me to forget the forum (practical info) and go read a book (theory)?

For that stupid question. Ya i know that, in every plant should technically be grown alone. Im just putting a what if question here, just to get you guys talking..

Same way this setup is also based on a WHAT IF? SITUATION. Pls keep an open mind and discuss with me, as in WHY NOT?

I am a DIY kind of person, so i can anytime modify on the fly. And this is an experiment.

I will explain to you with links and the thoughts in the following posts that led me into this experiment which i consider better growth in a 2 L bottle.

Now i have my reasons for it, small place, rectangular space, n micro grow is what im looking for.



ChasingGreen said:
I don't understand, are you going to finish the plants in this system? There's no where enough rooms for the roots. Honestly if I were you, and you wanted to do a tiny little system, I'd look into SpaceBuckets. There's a subforum on Reddit about them.

You also are asking the most very basic questions of growing like "should I put 1 seed in each pot". Yes is your answer, but you really should read a book on growing cannabis first man, it will answer almost all of these types of questions.
Click to expand...
 
J

jvt

New member
A few links.

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/c...-come-sog-me-112-plant-2-liter-hempy-sog.html

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=69713
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc1mUbfAxpM


The above setups, also has a reservoir, but mainly for drainage cos its top watering system, but too crowded with many 2 Ltr bottles in there, so there is even more lesser space for roots and also there is no air stone provided compared to my setup.

Someone tells me that there is no root space in my setup. my question is was he talking about the actual grow area 2 liter bottle riddled with holes or also keeping in mind the below reservoir.

Dont you think in that case, i can just remove the top with the 2 pots and immerse it into a bigger container, say for example a bucket if the need arises.

Why i think so is because the actual hydroponic pot is similar size to a 2 liter bottle, only difference is the reservoir container size.

Hell, People grow plants in pure water and hydro-ton but in here im also giving it the benefit of coco and vermi soil.

I don't think that the cock peat soil would give much resistance to the roots breaking out of the grow pot and into the reservoir.

What say guys? that was my initial question, will the roots break out into the reservoir? cos if the reservoir gets filled with roots, i can always move it to a bigger one. (though not preferred with this setup) as I am looking at max yield with the lowest footprint.

I looking at micro grow, say more smaller than the space bucket someone mentioned. My current setup has more space than a bucket, (will post pics soon) but still I wanna see how small i can grow it. i am currently limited by max 1..5 to 2 ft height. So I want it short n bushy. And scrog or sog is also something i always intend to do.

An eeny weeny tiny mo, culture is what I am looking at, (self watering pots) the tinier the better. ;) just for myself, so that i don't waste money on laced stuff.

I just realized what they been saying all along. - "you get a kick by growing it too" ;)
 
F

funnymath

Member
The general idea that you're thinking will work, how you're doing it though it's doubtful to work well. You're trying to combine a few different grow methods without understanding why they actually work on their own.

Two liters of root space is fine for cannabis, you won't be vegging long but that's fine since sog's yield very well. The problem you'll have is that you have much less than 2L of root space (you cut your bottles almost in the middle it looks like), which you could still grow with less than 2L, but not with it constantly wicking water from the bottom. There's a perched water table where the first few inches of the medium that's above the water will be too saturated for optimum plant growth, so that less than 2L you're working with will be even less than that. So the hempy seems similar since they have a 1-2" res at the bottom, but you don't constantly maintain that, so right after you water there's a res at the bottom, but over time it gets smaller and it dries out. So the plant gets water from when you fed but it gets air when it dries out. With your system there's no dry out so the plant has to get the air from the res, which the root will grow down into the res. But if you allow that and just get a bigger res, why don't you just do dwc? What's the point of adding the coco? People have the hydroton in the net pots just to stabilize the plant and hang the roots into the solution. No point in having something surrounding the roots if they'll just drink from the res.

It seems like you're starting a thought process that delta9 was on when he started making his ppk system, but you're limited by height a lot.

Honestly it seems like you're trying to reinvent the wheel here. If you have a 1.5 to 2 foot height limit then you really should just do a normal pot with your choice of medium or a simple dwc. I'd go with hempy pots if I were you and experiment with all sorts of shapes and sizes of containers to find something that fits perfect in a small grow.
 
MrBungle

MrBungle

Well-known member
I'm with funnymath... just starting out, its better to keep it simple, let the mad scientist out when theres a couple yields under yer belt :)
 
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