Trying to grow with Prepara hydro/aero units

[Exzootic]

Hey guys,
Newb to the site; just joined today. Been awhile (15 years) and it's nice to see there are still innovations going on in OUR field (pun intended).

Basically I received two Prepara "Power Plant Mini" hydroponic units prepara | products | power plant and was hoping someone may have had some experience with these. I'm a bubbler guy from way back and since this unit exhibits bubbler tech (I'm going to add an air stone inside each) I wanted to give it a go. The unit seems small but I've gotten some short strains and when harvest there wasn't a huge rootball mass (roots don't have to travel far to feed) and I figured with the right strain the units should be pretty good.

I['d appreciate it if any experienced hydro growers (especially DWC guys) would check out the unit at the link posted above and offer their opinions. Thanx in advance.

Exzootic

 

[Ms.Fox]

Wow... that is a very small unit... You could easily make your own dwc cheaper and bigger than that. You "might" be able to grow a very small plant from it, but I wouldn't recommend it. It's a nice idea though. ;-)

 

[Exzootic]

That is the general idea as my people are limited in the space that they can dedicate to the cause. Very small, less than 30" is the goal with strains such as Caramelicious and NYC Deisel Sour (both coming in at 25"-28" under optimal conditions according to the seed vendor) AK47 (45-55cm/21") and maybe an Afghani.

I just wanted to know if anyone had put these to use cause I really don't want to see them gathering dust when they could be pressed into service. I'm sure that by the end of the show, the root mass might take up the majority of the space in the root chamber (You can stop laughing now Ms. Fox, lol) but if I can pull it off while the root mass is still healthy...

Thanks for the reply!

Exzootic

 

[LonghornFan]

I say go for it...Those things will produce. Not alot, but will produce a good size plant in each one. Res changes are going to be plentiful, other than that, run with it I say!!

 

[Exzootic]

OK I'm gonna give it a go. I'm going to start out with two trainwreck clones. The medium is a foam or sponge and I have no experience with that medium whatsoever. Any advice on watering frequency?

Hopefully I'll be able to post pix along w/a progress report. Thanks again in advance.

 

[WarBux79]

its a neat idea but I think its made for small herbs and stuff. I would love to check out a grow using them so post up some pics.

 

[LED-Freak]

You can grow a one plant in one of those no problem. Yor harvest will be 1-1.5oz easy.

I have used 16oz figi water bottles as smell hempy containers and pulled a little more then a OZ off a pineapple express.

Just know when you dealing with little space you get little in return. But an OZ is just that, an OZ of beautiful fresh home grown.

 

[Exzootic]

Ok, gonna do it and post pix as soon as I've rooted the cuttings. Picking up some Ionic Grow, Ionic Bloom and OregonismXL by Roots Organics. Right now I'm having problems with temp in the area where my gro-sho takes place (never use it in the summer, especially as I'm using a 400W HPS AND a 400W MH!) so I'm just waiting for the temps to drop another 10-15 degrees and I'm in. The two clones in question are alleged "Train Wreck" and I'm interested to see how it performs in such a small unit. If this works well enough, I'll try out a few other short-statured strains (though I'll be avoiding any that take longer than 8-10 weeks flowering).

Does anybody know what the watering frequency would be for a foam/sponge medium? I'm going to treat it as a typical ebb&flow otherwise.

 

[Exzootic]

Got the clones last week! Will post pix as soon as they're in the units. Came off w/more clones than I bargained for but the owner of the space isn't complaining. Gonna run concurrent experiments in Coco, soil and the Prepara units; Ionic Bloom vs Shultz' Bloom Plus. Will also pick up some CalMag somewhere.

I'm flowering everything as soon as it gets to the fourth internode so I won't have to worry about space so much.

No answers vis-a-vis the frequency of fertigating a foam/sponge medium? Well maybe this will help: The unit can hold a maximum of 32oz of water/nutrient solution, however I'll probably only be at that capacity for a week or so before I start lowering the water level. I'm sure that I'll use about 16oz average throughout the grow. The foam/sponge medium measures 1.5"x1"x8". Any help with the medium question will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Exzootic]

Got the clones transplanted and the journal up and running in my blog:
Prepara "Power Plant Mini" Gro. The first entry has no pix but will rectify that as soon as the lights resume.