Hydroponics

[Mr Smith]

High my name is Mr Smith, thank you for stopping by. This journal will be a mixture of 4 different hydroponic machines and possibly one or 2 diy test machines. The machines are a mega garden, a ebb n grow, a bontanical 45site powercloner, a aero flo 36, a diy multibucket controller, and a diy 4in pvc tube thingy. Each machine will be used for different reasons and phases of the grow. This might get confusing but its gonna be fun lol.

 

[PitViper]

im 1st in line bro, I have 2 of the 4 hehe

 

[Mr Smith]

I read your journal Pit Viper. I like your grow operation.
This is my megagarden. I am using it for seedling to veg phase. Its great for vegging plants because of its size 24in by 24 in and it sits on its own 7 gallon resevoir but when I first got this machine it was from seed to bud. This pic was taken 10/26 and the plants are about 2 in a half weeks old under a 250w metal halide bulb.
The nutes are general hydroponics flora series 43ml grow, 26ml micro and 8ml bloom. The water is straight from tap. (One day I will have water quality control lol) Flooding cycle is set to twice a day for 15 minutes a cyle.
9 nirvana cali orange bud and 8 afganica plants also raised from nirvana seed stock.

This pic was taken on 11/1. I forgot to mention that I am using 4 inch square containers instead of the 6/7 inch standard containers the mega garden comes with. I can do up 23 plants with the 4 inch containers, With the standard containers I can only grow up to 15 plants. The seedlings on the plate are bubbaliscious from nirvana seed stock and are about 2 to 3 days old.

 

[Mr Smith]

This pic is from 11/01. I just reopened this room and set the the floor with pond liner. The room will be set up with a light mover and a 1000w hid and will be for the ebb n gro machine to flower the plants from seed. The floor is not even so the controller will be set at the lowest flor point and the resevoir will be placed outside of the room. The ballast is also outside of the room but well away from the resevoir. The thing on the left is one of my diy test creations that we will go over at a later date.

Ventilation and odor control is a vortec 6 in fan on a can 75 intake is passive and can recieve air from a boxed window or a larger room outside of this room.

The controller has been modified with hose repair fittings I got at Lowes to make cleaning maintenence, adding a line or remove a line easier.

 

[Mr Smith]

Later that night on 11/01 I transplanted into the buckets. Lighting is set at 18hrs on 6 hrs off with a 1000w metal halide. Flooding is set at 3 times during the lights on period for 15 minutes. I prefer prestaking my plants.

This pic was taken 11/4. The bubblegum seedlings are now in the megagarden sharing the light. Flooding is set at 1 time for 15 minutes per light period.

Orange bud plant

Afganica

 

[Mr Smith]

This pic was taken 11/5. Nirvana Bubbelicious

11/7

Floating walls are installed to help capture and reflect light. The material is a reflective insulation I picked up at lowes.

 

[Mr Smith]

Here's a pic from 11/13. I am waiting for both strains to show sex with preflowers before I start the flower cycle. I wish to pull a female plant from each strain to keep as mother plants. Some of the orange bud is showing female preflowers but the afganica is still too young to show sex. Orange bud is toward the back, the afganica are the ones with broad fat leaves in the front.

 

[Mr Smith]

On 11/16 I think I found my female afganica and pulled that one plus a orange bud plant to be used as mothers. 11/17 is the first day of flower.

This is my veg room. For now on all vegging will be done here. I got 15 clippings from the new orange bud mom and 6 from the afganica. They are in the cloner with 7 gallons of water 7 drops of superthrive and 120ml of clonex clonig solution.
The mothers are connected to a diy controller.

 

[Mr Smith]

Today I switched the metal halide to a 1000w hps. The search for males starts tomorrow until I have nothing but confirmed females. All male are removed and killed then the medium is recycled and the buckets washed for the next plant.
Thats the beginning of this grow operation and puts us to a current so this is the end of this update, Any Qs?

 

[ezmoney]

ok i liked the last one you had going but this one tops it im in

 

[PitViper]

Today I switched the metal halide to a 1000w hps. The search for males starts tomorrow until I have nothing but confirmed females. All male are removed and killed then the medium is recycled and the buckets washed for the next plant.
Thats the beginning of this grow operation and puts us to a current so this is the end of this update, Any Qs?

fantastic...one question...on the Megagardens...how often are you flooding per day? I did see some stretch on the seedlings but it might be the angle Im looking at. Your setup is PIMP brother, I have the same stuff and am very familiar with it...I love the quick connects!! Ill be keeping an eye on this...really nice brother

 

[Flurple]

its clean... its big... its nice!!! great setup and i cant wait to see some more pics

 

[gorilla5]

Sorry did I miss it how long did you veg these also size of the grow area? I am starting my grow soon I hope and tring to figure out how much light thinking 2 1000s for 24 plants in a 5x8 plant area room is 8x11

 

[slosmokin]

I'm in! I am week 2 of first hydro, and it looks like I can learn a thing or two from you. I love the quick connects, I am for sure gonna do that one.

 

[Mr Smith]

ok i liked the last one you had going but this one tops it im in

The 96 project is almost over then the 2 machines will be split, my partner will have control of the areo 60 and I will be playing with the 36 in a seperate room.

fantastic...one question...on the Megagardens...how often are you flooding per day? I did see some stretch on the seedlings but it might be the angle Im looking at. Your setup is PIMP brother, I have the same stuff and am very familiar with it...I love the quick connects!! Ill be keeping an eye on this...really nice brother

The seedlings were germed in 1 inch rockwool cubes under a florecent light then were put in the megagarden after the second node/branching point appeared cycling the flooding for one 15 minute cycle daily until the 4th node grows out then its 2 cycles per light period until I have a 6 to 10 inch plant then its 3 cycles a day. The stretching came before the seedling were installed in the megagarden.
Its easy to tell when you overwater at this stage because the plants will droop and some will try to lay down on top over the medium. Overwatering makes the plants lazy and causes weak stalks but as far as I know does not cause stretching.

its clean... its big... its nice!!! great setup and i cant wait to see some more pics

Thankyou. I will try to stay on top of this journal and keep it up to date with many more pics.

Sorry did I miss it how long did you veg these also size of the grow area? I am starting my grow soon I hope and tring to figure out how much light thinking 2 1000s for 24 plants in a 5x8 plant area room is 8x11

I gave some dates but I never gave the actual age of the plants because I did not record when I germed them. They were amost a month in a half old before I started to flower them because I was waiting for preflowers so I can remove a female plant of each strain to be used as mothers. The average height when I started to flower was about 20 to 22 inches tall.
My ebb n grow machine's primary function is to grow seed stock into fruitation and mothers are taken to fill the aero flo machines with clones plus I want to play with a few diy desighns I have created/threw together/copied from over internet people.
The room the ebb n grow is set up has a floor space set for 30 plus medium size plants 7ft by 10ft (the room size is over 10 by 10). The ceiling height is low 6ft 6inches. I have extra rails for more light movers and add a lamp packages and electrical has 2 15amp cicuits dedicated for light. I will only be using one light and will not be maxing out this room for this grow operation because I will be using another room with a 1000w light for the areoflo 36.

I used to have a room your size doing tray style ebb n flows using 2 1000w lights, your going to need at least a 10k btu a/c during the summer months and your gonna need at least aircooled lights but I was averaging 1.5 to 2.2pnd grows with that old room.(was hoping for more lol)



Thanks for the props.

 

[DEAN420]

So this journal once when it was first posted and did not see it again, can not wait to see your end results Mr Smith.

When will these be posted?

 

[Mr Smith]

Later tonight then hopefully at least weekly. Congrats on potm.

 

[DEAN420]

can't wait to see.

Thanx for the congrats but your a year and some late, lol i received this title on the very first p.o.t.m nomination but thanx all the same

 

[Mr Smith]

Pics were from 11/22. In this pic 3 males were already removed. The next day I found a 4th. I have 2 plants left that are not confirmed females.

Everythink is doing nicely in the veg station.

Cali Orangebud mother

Afganica mom

Bublegum plants

The clippings/clones. The top is 15 orangebud and bottom is afganica. Some of the clones have roots showing.

 

[DEAN420]

Nice and clean growing brother, you got another flowering area for those new clones?