new here looking for advice on a wheel grow

[johnny12r]

little more info in this pic can i put 3 plants in 2ft? i was thinking plants will be 2.5-3ft tall at end is that a ggod size and will they fit? thanks

 

[johnny12r]

i'm thinking the bottom of this needs to be higher then the water level in my res ?is there any other way to get the drain to work?

 

[johnny12r]

should i put spreader mat in this? the way i have it is this called nft?

 

[WheeloFortune]

yes yes yes.

yes that should work, yes that's called NFT, yes the bottom must terminate higher than your res. . 2-3' plants will be way to big in this kind of setup. . . with 50-60 plant you should be looking to flower clones as soon as they have roots, they'll probably finish about 16-20 inches hopefully, or they will start to block light getting to the plants above them.

you could fit 3 in 2', but i would refer to standard SOG numbers at about one per sq ft. so i would put two in 2'.

 

[johnny12r]

thanks so much this seems a lot easier.the water spay line is 1/2 inch and 40ft long what size res do i need? i just got a 258gph pump is that good? if i trim the bottom branches and top the plants (i think its called lolly popping) could i do more plants and get a bigger over all yield?i see something called a spreader mat ,do i need it? or will the roots do fine in the pvc? thanks again for all the help.

 

[johnny12r]

i just looked at heath robinson vertical its similar to what i'm doing but i see he put plants in the elbow so i guess i can do that to get better spacing

 

[WheeloFortune]

yeah, as far as spacing etc etc, i have never built a vert yet, so just follow the journals.

one thing i can help you with. . . get a bigger pump. thats a lot of hose you have to fill, and you are gonna have a lot of lift to get it up to the top. . . i would suggest something 750-1000gph, that should give you 8-9 feet of lift, to get it to the top and still have power to distribute the water evenly. gonna cost you 50-60 bucks.

i think 25-30 gal would be a good size res.

 

[johnny12r]

i just built a cloner to use and i hooked up the pump i bought to it and i need a lot more flow for the coliseum.i bet your right with the 1000gph .can i get a regular sump pump?like something i would use in a basement bilge? thanks