Outdoor DWC Grow - Garbage Bins - Experiment

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Gday folks

I am carrying on a bit of an experiment I did last season under the great HID in the sky.

Heres a couple pics





This season I plan on trying to take a plant from early veg to harvest just in the 75litre bin. Well actually about 10 plants all up. I found this grow style worked for small plants and they looked very healthy. However I know once a big root ball is formed I will run into probs with available oxygen...

I havent done any kind of pure hydro before except a bit of a diy bubbling cloner. I have done plenty passive hydro but this is a whole new ball game for me.

Credit to member delta9nxs for his Passive Plant Killer thread which contains this link http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/oc/freepubs/pdf/HG-44.pdf

That was the inspiration for this grow.

With the Hawaian cucumber method only one lot of water and nutes are added and the plant/roots look very healthy. I am not sure our favourite plant will get by in the same way... I am anticipating at least one refill for flower. But at the moment it is pure speculation.

My plants last season sucked up a very tiny amount of water. Couldnt see any change in the level. Once these puppies get big (and i am planning on some big plants) they are going to get thirsty. Especially once those hot summer days kick in.

They were given General Hydroponics Maxigrow veg nutes, NPK 10-5-14, powdered trace elements and some hydrogen peroxide.

I did manage to get a very small amount of sticky buds but left it way to late in season for good growth.

This run will be one plant per bin. Going to be tying down to decrease their profile.

I am planning on about 8 bins stepped up a slope. Thinking they will need some kind of water flow between each bin to bring in extra oxygen. I have a small solar power setup, a dc pump and a solar timer that needs a gravity feed. So... heres a really rough pic of what I have in mind



The idea is to fill up each bin and have the water/nutes filter through each bin. The water flows from top res down through each bin and is pumped back up to the top res once or twice a day... now i havent fully thought this through yet and was hoping for some ideas... as i said i have no experience with this kind of plumbing and have only just got my solar gear... it is a decent pump though.

I will have to get hands on to figure this out...thinking i will need a bg enough res to handle the full amount of water??

I will also have a couple seperate bins without any plumbing just to see if this is possible as a stand alone grow. The hydrogen peroxide will add some oxygen as it dissipates. I also have some Dutch Master Zone and Penetrator to trial.

Well thats it for now folks. Any advice on the hydro/plumbing part be very welcome!

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

OK so i have thought this through a wee bit more and have come up with this.



I reckon this might just work. I have a good pump but perhaps will need more solar juice. It will need to pump roughly 500 litres back up hill around 10-15 meters. The only thing I am not sure about is will the bins reach an equilibrium in their water level and not overspill...

Only one way to find out!

 

[shroomyshroom]

Hi mate I have the same idea for my my plants next year as well

 

[Billy DeLions]

SS

Looks good in theory... I think though you may have a problem with gravity. FWIW- I was never the best student when it came to physics, but I would be inclined to think that the lowest bucket would overflow.

Interesting experiment. Good luck!

 

[shroomyshroom]

SS

Looks good in theory... I think though you may have a problem with gravity. FWIW- I was never the best student when it came to physics, but I would be inclined to think that the lowest bucket would overflow.

Interesting experiment. Good luck!

you are correct that is why i would make the last bucket an over flow bucket with the pipes leading to the river or stream

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Thanks for your input.

Do you think i could just have it overflow back into my res? That way i can re-use all the nutrients.

If i keep the res at just the right level then the buckets will all be full and then the res is empty... maybe

I will be setting this up next week sometime so we shall see!

 

[shroomyshroom]

that will deff work SS

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Gday icmag

Well i have got around to putting some plants out. Think i will size it down due to space and stealth concerns. Also make it easier to pump the water around.

For now just a few ladies in bins. Plumbing will be added later. They will be fine until a decent root mass gets going i reckon.

 

[firefox]

interesting.tagged for sure.

 

[shroomyshroom]

sweeeeeeeeeeeet was waiting for this to get started...

 

[warthog]

thats really cool man. cant wait to see your results

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Yeah thanks guys.

Going to have five plants in this system all up. Which is good cos thats just enough with the nutes i bought last year. Into each bucket is about 80grams of the dry nutes, a spoonful of trace elements and a couple capfulls of the Zone.

Still looking for a decent res. I had my eye on a kiddies green plastic sand pit but they were all out just before xmas... No bother. Its only got to be around 400 litres now.

Weekly updates to follow

 

[shroomyshroom]

Yeah thanks guys.

Going to have five plants in this system all up. Which is good cos thats just enough with the nutes i bought last year. Into each bucket is about 80grams of the dry nutes, a spoonful of trace elements and a couple capfulls of the Zone.

Still looking for a decent res. I had my eye on a kiddies green plastic sand pit but they were all out just before xmas... No bother. Its only got to be around 400 litres now.

Weekly updates to follow

I will be using one of my house bins next year think it is about 400 ltrs the only pro is getting it into the dam plot.... walking one of them into the dam bush looks a little dodgy at the best of times LOL

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

You mean a wheely bin? Hadnt thought of that. I did buy a kiddies paddling pool with 'rigid' sides as per advice in BrownDirtWarriors dvd... only thing is the one i got is very thin and i reckon bottom will puncture with all the stones and rampant blackberries. Also its way too big for my needs now and very brightly coloured. O well it was only about $20. The little man will enjoy some time...

I would like to point out that i am a fully signed up Organic Fanatic and this is just a bit of fun. I have much more plants in the ground with coco, organic dry nutes, manure and biochar. I wouldnt usually use "chem" nutes as such. But i believe these ones are high quality and hopefully not tainted with heavy metals or any other such nonsense...

If i can prove the concept i would look to doing this with some kind of fermented plant extracts such as comfrey and nettle...

 

[still]

mate have a look on ebay i got a 800litre pvc tank for about $120 delivered it is pretty much a big pvc tarp bag with legs that u put together out there and a lid if i remember right they had a few sizes under that aswell

 

[seekinggreen]

This grow is interesting. Following this one.

 

[OG Father Time]

very intresting, i have a mate who grows in exactually the same mannor!
Kind Regards, FT...

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

very intresting, i have a mate who grows in exactually the same mannor!
Kind Regards, FT...

You do? Cool. Any pics or advice?

Cheers!

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Gday folks. My bins have had to take a back seat for a while as i focus on more important issues. Had my first test run of my 12v pump and battery setup with all the plumbing in place. Works when directly hooked to battery but going through the solar regulator there is a big loss of voltage. I dont have the solar panel wired in yet so maybe thats it.

Couple plants had to be chucked after 1 didnt grow roots and got root rot and another dried out too much after i managed to lose some grow juice when plumbing it in... found out its easier to drill all the plumbings before adding water

In between getting my drill wet and arsing around drying it out by taking it to bits and resoldering some dodgy wiring its all good!

My pump is strong enough to push plenty water pressure up to the top bin and the water speed should bring in plenty oxygen. Same with drainage speed in between bins. I added a stop valve in between each bin to control each drain seperately and havnt bothered with a seperate res yet. It will just recirculate when pump is on and then i will shut each valve to stop any overflow. Not the most sophisticated setup but should be functional. Not sure how long my battery will last for and lots of tinkering to be done to get her right...

Plants healthy enough and ater initial root browing and dieoff i have fresh healthy roots growing down into the water on 3 out of 5 bins. 2 are new additions. Only thing added has been a small dose of H202, food grade.

Hoping to have er fully functional in a few days

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]