Yeah it's not just you man. It's a lesson I figured I'd learn eventually. Here I am learning it. Always label everything.
hush did a gardening
- Thread starter hush
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Yeah it's not just you man. It's a lesson I figured I'd learn eventually. Here I am learning it. Always label everything.
I started off with soil, as many do. As I got older I'd experimented with various top-feed soil-less setups and realized how much faster and bigger and better everything was, in general, in those. I also enjoy tinkering, and gadgets, and science, and I have been into aquariums for practically my entire life so I already knew how to be precise with measurements and pH and stuff. So I went for it and began using active hydroponics.
I tried all the methods, all of them. I like most of them. They all have their pluses and their minuses. DWC grows the monsterest plants of all, for instance, but is relatively a lot more work and cleanup than other methods. There is a fit for every gardener.
The two issues that I have working against me as a gardener are that I'm lazy and I'm a klutz.
There's not much I can do about my two left feet, and so I spill shit and make messes. Hydroponics helps to keep those messes clean, and easier to clean up, compared to soil and organics, so that takes care of that. But it can be a lot of work, so over the decades I've whittled my preferred methods down to compensate for, and even celebrate, my laziness. I still use a variety of different methods, often times in simultaneous gardens, for several reasons, but this is my go-to.. my default.. my home base... And that's simply flood and drain with rockwool.
It's so easy, and relatively cheap, and very productive. You can DIY it all in many cases. But I prefer to to at least use an actual flood table built for the task. They're cheap enough. For this garden, the one for the Golden Tigers, this is my setup...
It starts with one of these:
You can get them on Amazon, or even cheaper at Home Depot if you have one around. They're called HDX 27 Gal. Storage Tote in Black. The one with the yellow lid. This is the reservoir. The beauty of it is it makes for a great storage tub (imagine that) for gardening equipment when it's not being used as a reservoir. So I keep the lids of these things. Don't throw 'em away.
Then you add one of these on top of it:
2' x 2' flood table, made to hold water and not bend out of shape. That's important. It's like $35 on Amazon. This will sit either on top of, or slightly nested into, the storage tub. It's almost a perfect fit. Secure it how desired, using any number of ways, but I just nest mine. Don't forget to buy some flood and drain fittings!
All that's left is to get a pump and tubing, which can be gotten just about anywhere these days. The pump can be the smallest model you find, probably, but I go for the one the next size up, because they're cheap enough.
Set it all up, which is a one time thing that will last many, many years, so grab some beer and pizza and just do it.
Rockwool is clean and easy. I immediately wet it upon opening the bag, by dumping it into a bucket filled with water of pH 5-ish. Wait a half hour or so... It's ready. But that pH soak is necessary. It can't be skipped or sloppy.
The reservoir gets filled with about 20 gallons of water. It gets filled with about 100 grams of Maxibloom, weighed on a cheap kitchen scale. A small fountain pump is placed in the reservoir (separate from the flood pump) specifically to stir the water and mix things up. pH is adjusted down to about 5.6, checked with a cheap ass digital meter that generally only ever gets calibrated once, right after purchasing. They all work well enough in my experience.
From that point on, it's all a matter of setting a digital timer to come on for about ten minutes at a time several times a day, depending on stage of growth. It couldn't be easier. You put starter cubes in bigger cubes when rooted, and if necessary (for longer grows) you put bigger cubes in containers of coco or whatever when rooted. I'll be putting mine in smart pots filled with coco/perlite mix. There are so many ways to do this...
So that's how this tent works. It's just an example of my primary grow style and method. I stray from it a lot, but flood and drain is my jam, and I always come back to it. Rockwool is just perfect for personal grows if you want to be clean and not leave messes behind that require actual clean up.
I love living in the 21st century.
dugzy
Active member
Hello hush i appreciate your post on the hydro technique, thank you.
Years ago i was working with rockwool slabs on benches in a glasshouse that grew ornamentals, it was easy really because i just carried on with the tech that was already in place to run things, never did have to set up from new or adjust things.
In some ways it is harder making things work on a small space indoors so your run thro for your set up preference is very useful!
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Yes i agree, the best of the past is there for us to draw from and modern technology can help adjust and improve things. The best of both worlds is on offer in alot of ways.
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Years ago i was working with rockwool slabs on benches in a glasshouse that grew ornamentals, it was easy really because i just carried on with the tech that was already in place to run things, never did have to set up from new or adjust things.
In some ways it is harder making things work on a small space indoors so your run thro for your set up preference is very useful!
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[/FONT]I love living in the 21st century.
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[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Yes i agree, the best of the past is there for us to draw from and modern technology can help adjust and improve things. The best of both worlds is on offer in alot of ways.
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The Golden Tigers are in their permanent home now. Still have to install the new bulb, but for now they're adjusting to the HPS light with an old bulb on the 400 watt setting. I'll take care of all that and bump it up to 600 watts by the end of the weekend.
Here's the leaner:
Here's the tall one (which isn't much taller anymore):
Here are the two identical ones (which are slowly looking less identical as they grow):
Two things I'm noticing right off the bat... These plants are thirsty as fuck, and they are showing early stage N deficiency. I need to add another flood cycle or two on the timer. And apparently I need to increase the dosage of the Maxibloom. Since I only just filled the reservoir not even 12 hours ago, I'm just going to add more to it right now rather than change out the entire volume. So, since I had dosed at 5 grams per gallon before, I'm going to go up to 7 grams per, which means I'll be adding 2 grams per gallon of water in the res (~19 gallons). So, all I'm doing is adding 38 grams of Maxibloom to the res, topping it back off with water to my fill line, and re-adjusting the pH back down to 5.6.
Here's the leaner:
Here's the tall one (which isn't much taller anymore):
Here are the two identical ones (which are slowly looking less identical as they grow):
Two things I'm noticing right off the bat... These plants are thirsty as fuck, and they are showing early stage N deficiency. I need to add another flood cycle or two on the timer. And apparently I need to increase the dosage of the Maxibloom. Since I only just filled the reservoir not even 12 hours ago, I'm just going to add more to it right now rather than change out the entire volume. So, since I had dosed at 5 grams per gallon before, I'm going to go up to 7 grams per, which means I'll be adding 2 grams per gallon of water in the res (~19 gallons). So, all I'm doing is adding 38 grams of Maxibloom to the res, topping it back off with water to my fill line, and re-adjusting the pH back down to 5.6.
Always nice to see how you do your grows Hush. 
Quick photo update on my mystery plants... They are very uniform. I only removed 4 plants that had a different phenotype, and based on that alone I'm starting to convince myself that these are K x NL F3s. I would have selected this pheno out of the F2s, and crossed only that. It's possible that since there was such a low concentration of the other pheno that this could be a selection I pollinated where I decided another mother plant gave me what I was looking for. Other than that, it *could* still be a Northern Skunk F2 selfy. I can't rule that out yet.
YukonKronic
Active member
May I ask about your res temp? GT hates cold feet. I think it slows Ca uptake limiting the N cycle. I'm still purt new to all this tho just my two cents. On summer runs when roots stay at about 24C I have less problems with yellowing.. when it's colder my veg cabinet located above fresh (cold) air intake suffers. My solo cup clones start looking a lot like your baby's is why I thought of it..
YukonKronic
Active member
Whoooaaa!? 5.6 ph? I'm really out of my element giving hydro advice/opinions lol! Not doubting you one iota bro just haven't looked at hydro much and was surprised by such a low ph, shouldn't be I guess; root exudates get to a pretty low ph too I think.
Ummmmm Deepwater dude grows GT hydro he might be able to help if your worried? Lol I tried. Like I say I think I'm out of my depth.
Ummmmm Deepwater dude grows GT hydro he might be able to help if your worried? Lol I tried. Like I say I think I'm out of my depth.
That's actually not a bad thing to check. I don't think the res temp is too low, but there's nothing with with shoving a thermometer in there to check.
I'm not actually worried. But thanks for the suggestion. I'll try to find his journals though just for the info.
Yeah, I let the pH swing throughout the growth of my gardens, and so I want the range to be from 5.6 to 6.3. If I were staying with a fixed pH, I would keep it in between 5.8 and 6.2.
Science!
YukonKronic
Active member
Kewl man.. I've seen similar charts and found them useful in understanding soil nutrition I just don't work with Ph other than adjusting my water res to 6.7 ish or foliars to 5.8. Pretty neat to me actually how much lower the ph values tend to be kept in hydro.. illustrates the range of growing conditions and techniques that cannabis (and other plants) can thrive in.
Lol ever seen "Nacho Libre" with jack black? "I believe in science." I love science and all the wonderful and weird things it teaches us.
Hope DeeDubya is informative I kinda just like his style too, reminds me of me a little.
Looking forward to watching your babies explode in the next little while!
Lol ever seen "Nacho Libre" with jack black? "I believe in science." I love science and all the wonderful and weird things it teaches us.
Hope DeeDubya is informative I kinda just like his style too, reminds me of me a little.
Looking forward to watching your babies explode in the next little while!
YukonKronic
Active member
Lol F*ck yea bro. Been a while I gotta watch that series again. Gus Frings Rain suit was one of my favourite scenes so was the "who am I!?" bit... good times
YukonKronic
Active member
Sweet totally gonna watch breaking bad with the wife again, tnx for reminder!
The Panama is looking pretty good, considering it, too, is getting early stage N deficiency. Also Panama doesn't like cold night temps so much. In that tent I'll probably turn the exhaust fan off during the dark cycle.
I just changed the reservoir and bumped everything up to 7 grams per gallon. I also increased the flood frequency by once more per day on both tents.
I just changed the reservoir and bumped everything up to 7 grams per gallon. I also increased the flood frequency by once more per day on both tents.
YukonKronic
Active member
Man they sure do like your attention... sturdy little beasty looking things. I'm definitely noticing how well developed stems and general structure are even at such early age.
I want a panama or a cross with it. Been looking at MalawixPanama cause it's monster strong and I dig pollen chucking so having headbanger sativas around is great for "improving" other more common strains or even trying to build my own interdimensional mind portal by crossing some super sativas.
I crossed Zam to The Purps and I'm smoking it now... Zam makes everything trippier and crazy vigorous. Neat flavour too, Purps made it Hazy smelling and spicy cedar muskier (I made a word up for you...."muskier" is a thing now) flavoured.
I want a panama or a cross with it. Been looking at MalawixPanama cause it's monster strong and I dig pollen chucking so having headbanger sativas around is great for "improving" other more common strains or even trying to build my own interdimensional mind portal by crossing some super sativas.
I crossed Zam to The Purps and I'm smoking it now... Zam makes everything trippier and crazy vigorous. Neat flavour too, Purps made it Hazy smelling and spicy cedar muskier (I made a word up for you...."muskier" is a thing now) flavoured.
YukonKronic
Active member
Roflmfao 
Me too!
Me too!
