cropduster044
New Member
I designed and built a drip system for about $100 and after bringing in a nice 5 plant sativa hybrid harvest over the last couple of weeks that took 5 months to finish flowering, (whew!) I'm looking at a few of the commercial systems out there and wonder if they're worth the money. Even more important, do they work as well and as easy as advertised?
Specifically, I was looking at the Fastgardens 6 plant indoor hydroponics Bucket farm system. For about $150, all the engineering has been done and it seems to be a very sturdy system from the pictures I've seen.
My system, which is basically two of the big (18 gal) plastic tubs available at most K-Mart type stores draining in to, and being supplied from a 10 gal res. about 3" below the grow tubs and filled about 1/3 to 1/2 full with 50/50 mix of Vermiculite/Pearlite with a smattering of Sphagnum peat to help buffer and keep the pH down (our well water is very alkaline) worked so well that I am a little reluctant to change, however I am very open to the idea that my 1st try system just maybe, could be, has a distinct possibility, of not being the very dankest way of doing things.
I tend to over-engineer things like water and air pressure with the philosophy that it is much simpler and cheaper to reduce flow with a valve if needed than to increase it by making Amazon a little richer supplying me with the right gear that I should have gotten to begin with. My background is in electronics (VERY old-school) and designing for 200% schooch room is a common practice with heat producing components. Same idea works for pressure systems, load bearing systems, cooling....well, you get the idea.
All that being said, I'd hate to pay for a well engineered system just to find that I have to fork over even more ducats because the manufacturer decided that it was more competitive to use crappy, marginal, equipment. Even worse would to have a critical component fail about an hour after I take off for a long weekend trip (everything except the air pump is on a timer in my system) and come home to 5 or 6 dead or very sick (as in ill) plants.
Now, with all THAT being said, I'm pretty sure that everyone has their favorite method of growing, but I really would especially appreciate hearing from you if you've used the specific system I mentioned above. Those 6 buckets and the res. will fit nicely in my 4x4x7 Grow Lab and represents the least amount of setup time to get growing.
Oh, and I learned my lesson about growing sativa dominant plants from seed - DON'T...unless ya have lots and lots of time. I probably cudda grown 2 crops and been working on #3 in the same time if I had grown some great kush clones instead.
One other lesson I learned that most of ya'll probably already know but bears repeating, and that is to buy feminized seeds if ya prefer those little buggers. I began with 10 randomly sexed commercial seeds for $40 but I wasted a lot of time, space, and moola raising 5 males until I was able to sex them. I've heard of higher proportions of males in these 'bargain' seed packs and it ain't worth it in the long run.
Let's face it, 3 months from now, I'll have 6 female Afghans (or whatever, as long as it's indica dom) hanging upside down waiting for daddy to apply the Fiskars to them with 6 more clones in the pots instead of waiting for my Silver Jack to finish flowering.
Oh, BTW...the Silver Jack turned out to be kick-ass dank...but just not worth the wait. Next time, I'll get my sativas from the co-op in one of those neat little baggies and leave the growing to the big boys who have the time to harvest 'em.
Specifically, I was looking at the Fastgardens 6 plant indoor hydroponics Bucket farm system. For about $150, all the engineering has been done and it seems to be a very sturdy system from the pictures I've seen.
My system, which is basically two of the big (18 gal) plastic tubs available at most K-Mart type stores draining in to, and being supplied from a 10 gal res. about 3" below the grow tubs and filled about 1/3 to 1/2 full with 50/50 mix of Vermiculite/Pearlite with a smattering of Sphagnum peat to help buffer and keep the pH down (our well water is very alkaline) worked so well that I am a little reluctant to change, however I am very open to the idea that my 1st try system just maybe, could be, has a distinct possibility, of not being the very dankest way of doing things.
I tend to over-engineer things like water and air pressure with the philosophy that it is much simpler and cheaper to reduce flow with a valve if needed than to increase it by making Amazon a little richer supplying me with the right gear that I should have gotten to begin with. My background is in electronics (VERY old-school) and designing for 200% schooch room is a common practice with heat producing components. Same idea works for pressure systems, load bearing systems, cooling....well, you get the idea.
All that being said, I'd hate to pay for a well engineered system just to find that I have to fork over even more ducats because the manufacturer decided that it was more competitive to use crappy, marginal, equipment. Even worse would to have a critical component fail about an hour after I take off for a long weekend trip (everything except the air pump is on a timer in my system) and come home to 5 or 6 dead or very sick (as in ill) plants.
Now, with all THAT being said, I'm pretty sure that everyone has their favorite method of growing, but I really would especially appreciate hearing from you if you've used the specific system I mentioned above. Those 6 buckets and the res. will fit nicely in my 4x4x7 Grow Lab and represents the least amount of setup time to get growing.
Oh, and I learned my lesson about growing sativa dominant plants from seed - DON'T...unless ya have lots and lots of time. I probably cudda grown 2 crops and been working on #3 in the same time if I had grown some great kush clones instead.
One other lesson I learned that most of ya'll probably already know but bears repeating, and that is to buy feminized seeds if ya prefer those little buggers. I began with 10 randomly sexed commercial seeds for $40 but I wasted a lot of time, space, and moola raising 5 males until I was able to sex them. I've heard of higher proportions of males in these 'bargain' seed packs and it ain't worth it in the long run.
Let's face it, 3 months from now, I'll have 6 female Afghans (or whatever, as long as it's indica dom) hanging upside down waiting for daddy to apply the Fiskars to them with 6 more clones in the pots instead of waiting for my Silver Jack to finish flowering.
Oh, BTW...the Silver Jack turned out to be kick-ass dank...but just not worth the wait. Next time, I'll get my sativas from the co-op in one of those neat little baggies and leave the growing to the big boys who have the time to harvest 'em.