Equilibrate
New member
Hey guys,
Wasn't sure if this should be here or under grow questions, but decided to drop it here.
Long time reader, first time poster.
Knowing there is going to be a bunch of background questions asked before good solid answers can be given here is a quick rundown on my background.
First and foremost a chemist, specifically a biochemist. I have been growing some years now, and prefer DWC but have used top feed/drip, soil, and ebb n flow. I have only ever done small personal grows but have hit about every shortcoming possible as far as troubleshooting goes. Typically use T5 for veg and have used HID, T5, and LED in flower. I typically enjoy trying new strains and seeing different genetics so I typically switch strains around a lot and more times than not germinate from seeds all the way to harvest. I have experience with cloning but since I usually switch genetics up and with limited space, mothers and cloning has never been a big part of my grows. Most of my recent grows have been single site DWC with LST and/or scrogging.
SO, now lets get into the real question; for the first time I am able to do a big grow and am going to be producing for me and a few buddies as a personal grower. Now space is still somewhat limited but I am looking to have quick harvest turnovers to maximize the space I do have. I am probably going to try and stick to 2-4 strains for now as well to try and maximize yield and quality, so I can really tune in the grow perfectly for those strains instead of starting at ground zero every time. I plan on having the mothers under T5 in a 2-4 site rdwc, nothing crazy just 5 gallon sites with 2" bulkheads. I am going to go from clones in a propagator (I havent decided if I am going to go with an aero style setup or just a simple flood table with a humidity dome) in 1"-2" rockwool cubes under T5 until the roots start setting nicely. Then they will be transplanted into 4" rockwool cubes under T5 on a flood table and run on a low feeding schedule to really try and get those roots moving. I may top them once MAYBE twice during that period but it'll be played by ear depending on how I see fit during the grow. They will be vegged until the cubes are rooted nicely and they are roughly a foot in height, so I am assuming, depending on the strain no more than 2 weeks. From there they will be moved to a rdwc system. I am looking at trying to do two separate flower tents so I can run two different environments for two different strains, both will each be somewhere between 4'x8' and 5'x10'. I am looking at running fluence LEDS in the tents (haven't decided between Vyprx plus or Spydrx plus, waiting to hear back from a rep on a few specifications) 2 per tent since the main coverage for one is in the ball park of 4'x4'. I am wanting to roughly have a plant per sqft. So I am thinking about 16 plants per light or 32 per tent and possibly down to 9 per light or 18 per tent, depends on how the canopy coverage goes for the first cycle but leaning towards the 1 per sqft. Everything in the grow room will be CO2 injected, A/C, and dehued off multiple controllers, one for each tent and propagation/veg area. I have been using botanicare Kind series nutrients with a good bit of their supplements as well, and absolutely love them (chemist heaven imo) so I will be sticking with running those nutes. I might be running RO water but I am moving to a different county soon so no decision on that until I can check the conductivity of the tap water and get a mineral profile from the county. I don't think I am missing any variables... but I am a little foggy right now. Lol
So I am working on designing the site setup and bulk head design but this is where the bottle neck in my experience is.... I have some specific design needs for the system as far as making maintenance easier based on the flowering light schedules etc. So it's going to be a somewhat intricate and different build from the norm. So the only major issue I am having is root volume.... as it relates to designing the actual grow sites in the system. My original thought was all 3 gal buckets, and then I contemplated using wide 8 gallon buckets for two, using totes to house upwards of 6, etc. I have also considering hand building long channels like NTF systems use but deeper and leveled, all in all I have thrown around multiple ideas. But I come to a dead end everytime... ROOT VOLUME. I am so used to going from seed, vegging for a month or two while I train and grow them out the way I want before I flip them that I am just used to having these 5 to 10 gallon buckets slammed full of root mass. So considering I am almost not vegging at all (rooting just barely through a 4" cube and flipping them to flower) that I am not sure how much volume I should leave for them to grow into. I don't want to build a complicated custom system the first time around to find out it is too big or too small. SO after this novel of an explanation I am wondering from the expert SoG growers/cloners.... what root mass am I looking at for them all the way through flower if they start flower at roughly a foot (assuming 24-30 in. by the end of flower) and taking up a sqft of area each?
Thanks in advance for any information shared, and I am always willing to hear critiques and opinions on the rest of the build as well.
Wasn't sure if this should be here or under grow questions, but decided to drop it here.
Long time reader, first time poster.
Knowing there is going to be a bunch of background questions asked before good solid answers can be given here is a quick rundown on my background.
First and foremost a chemist, specifically a biochemist. I have been growing some years now, and prefer DWC but have used top feed/drip, soil, and ebb n flow. I have only ever done small personal grows but have hit about every shortcoming possible as far as troubleshooting goes. Typically use T5 for veg and have used HID, T5, and LED in flower. I typically enjoy trying new strains and seeing different genetics so I typically switch strains around a lot and more times than not germinate from seeds all the way to harvest. I have experience with cloning but since I usually switch genetics up and with limited space, mothers and cloning has never been a big part of my grows. Most of my recent grows have been single site DWC with LST and/or scrogging.
SO, now lets get into the real question; for the first time I am able to do a big grow and am going to be producing for me and a few buddies as a personal grower. Now space is still somewhat limited but I am looking to have quick harvest turnovers to maximize the space I do have. I am probably going to try and stick to 2-4 strains for now as well to try and maximize yield and quality, so I can really tune in the grow perfectly for those strains instead of starting at ground zero every time. I plan on having the mothers under T5 in a 2-4 site rdwc, nothing crazy just 5 gallon sites with 2" bulkheads. I am going to go from clones in a propagator (I havent decided if I am going to go with an aero style setup or just a simple flood table with a humidity dome) in 1"-2" rockwool cubes under T5 until the roots start setting nicely. Then they will be transplanted into 4" rockwool cubes under T5 on a flood table and run on a low feeding schedule to really try and get those roots moving. I may top them once MAYBE twice during that period but it'll be played by ear depending on how I see fit during the grow. They will be vegged until the cubes are rooted nicely and they are roughly a foot in height, so I am assuming, depending on the strain no more than 2 weeks. From there they will be moved to a rdwc system. I am looking at trying to do two separate flower tents so I can run two different environments for two different strains, both will each be somewhere between 4'x8' and 5'x10'. I am looking at running fluence LEDS in the tents (haven't decided between Vyprx plus or Spydrx plus, waiting to hear back from a rep on a few specifications) 2 per tent since the main coverage for one is in the ball park of 4'x4'. I am wanting to roughly have a plant per sqft. So I am thinking about 16 plants per light or 32 per tent and possibly down to 9 per light or 18 per tent, depends on how the canopy coverage goes for the first cycle but leaning towards the 1 per sqft. Everything in the grow room will be CO2 injected, A/C, and dehued off multiple controllers, one for each tent and propagation/veg area. I have been using botanicare Kind series nutrients with a good bit of their supplements as well, and absolutely love them (chemist heaven imo) so I will be sticking with running those nutes. I might be running RO water but I am moving to a different county soon so no decision on that until I can check the conductivity of the tap water and get a mineral profile from the county. I don't think I am missing any variables... but I am a little foggy right now. Lol
So I am working on designing the site setup and bulk head design but this is where the bottle neck in my experience is.... I have some specific design needs for the system as far as making maintenance easier based on the flowering light schedules etc. So it's going to be a somewhat intricate and different build from the norm. So the only major issue I am having is root volume.... as it relates to designing the actual grow sites in the system. My original thought was all 3 gal buckets, and then I contemplated using wide 8 gallon buckets for two, using totes to house upwards of 6, etc. I have also considering hand building long channels like NTF systems use but deeper and leveled, all in all I have thrown around multiple ideas. But I come to a dead end everytime... ROOT VOLUME. I am so used to going from seed, vegging for a month or two while I train and grow them out the way I want before I flip them that I am just used to having these 5 to 10 gallon buckets slammed full of root mass. So considering I am almost not vegging at all (rooting just barely through a 4" cube and flipping them to flower) that I am not sure how much volume I should leave for them to grow into. I don't want to build a complicated custom system the first time around to find out it is too big or too small. SO after this novel of an explanation I am wondering from the expert SoG growers/cloners.... what root mass am I looking at for them all the way through flower if they start flower at roughly a foot (assuming 24-30 in. by the end of flower) and taking up a sqft of area each?
Thanks in advance for any information shared, and I am always willing to hear critiques and opinions on the rest of the build as well.
