Hydro setup advice

[Kadinsky]

Had made search now for a quite a wile and can get clear which setup is the easiest to build and use. All sets would be preferred only for flowering. Any advice from you would be useful.

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[Roseman]

Nice thread, nice pics too.

I'd suggest a plain DIY 5 gallon bucket DWC for the first grow or that last pic. I'd suggest you keep it very simple, to learn about pH (not that complicated) nutes, water temps, etc.

Check out my Tutorial How To here:
https://www.420magazine.com/communi...eep Water Culture-tutorial-sh-kit-diy.111069/

And look here :
https://www.420magazine.com/community/threads/guide-hempy-just-put-hole-damn-bucket.121141/ <Very Simple Design

 

[Kadinsky]

This looks simple, one reservoir for all water, simple to maintain pH and all nutrients. Why this one? After growth it is easy to transfer plants without taking them from trays.

But I like the first one, becouse it can be placed on ground directly. Second version need to be placed higher becouse of the water reservoir, or I'm mistaking?

-------, will check your tread.

 

[Closet Farmer]

Kadinski, It looks like you have really done your research!! Great pics also!! I agree with Roseman. Believe me. I am on my first grow. I work out of the home so I can give my plants plenty of attention. I am glad I started with a simple DWC system. Believe me. I follow Pit Vipers nute recomendations and have great results. I have been blind sided several times with different challenges. However, after learning on my simple system I am learning what to upgrade to.

 

[Kadinsky]

Hey Acer, thanks for advice. Living few months in NL made dissension to grow by myself, so this will be my first time with hydro. But I'm thinking something around 12 plants. Growth stage hydro set is very simple and you can maintain similar root conditions for 6 plants at the same time.

This setup planing to use for growth

But with flowering, can't get my mind straight.

DWC is very simple to make and operate, but if you have 12 plants, it can get quite tricky and you need to do every action the same for all buckets, quite a lot of work, if you ask.

One more chance is to take growth kit and use it only for 2 plants, but 6 large tanks could take a lot of grow space.

Will make few searches about it, but still all advices, about hydro grow for around 12 plants in flower stage, is welcomed.

P.S.

Sorry, bad example with that fancy looking DWC set, it doesn't have drip feed on top. This one looks good, only make it from bigger tank and for 2, or maybe 3 plants.

 

[Closet Farmer]

This is what I have. It is one tub with 14 grow areas.

 

[Kadinsky]

For growth it's perfect, but for flowering it's too less space.

Can't find any info, but how much space (in gallons) full grown plant roots fill?

 

[Closet Farmer]

Kadinsky, I might have different priorities than you. I have to be very stealth. I am just looking to grow my own stash. This unit only holds 8 gals of water. I have 9 healthy budding plants. I am very pleased .

 

[PitViper]

take the TOP pic...its a big versatile sytem...you can do alot with it.
you said you only want to flower?
No problem.. start with a flood table with clones..its easy..flexible and cheap...you can ALWAYS use a flood table........veg them til desired height and transplant right into the buckets.
I have some of the Waterfarms....very limited...when the plant is big it will empty the resovoir in 1 day. you have to tie them into a resovoir...which will BTW tie right into the top system.
Aero is cool...I have nothing negative to say about it at all. I can explain theory but I havent used it.
DWC tubs are good but limited...they have their merits. but if your looking at big plants and want to yield 3-4 lbs then go with that.

 

[Closet Farmer]

If I wasn't concerned about being stealth I would go with the Ebb and Grow system like your very top pic. I think my system is easier to use for a beginner like myself. Pit Viper uses it and his advise has always been good for me.

 

[Kadinsky]

Thanks for your the help again. Now I'm planing everything, don't want to make a wrong dissension about the kit. Now it's EBB vs DWC. I found that EBB is good for multiple plants at flower stage, becouse the of the one reservoir, but it's hard to build DIY. DWC is good for growth stage, when you can put multiple plants in one tank, easy to build but when you want to flower with DWC, you have to check each bucket. For resume, EBB can be good for flower and DWC for growth, if I'm not mistaking, both give superb result and let plants grow fast.

 

[Kadinsky]

Sorry for double post, but still I have few questions, did research for EBB & Flow system and will choose it. Simple to build and simple to run as well. Will use only for flower.

For the main buckets, how many of them I need for one full build bucket? I found that one is for water and the second is for clay pebbles and roots, saw picture that some grows have 3 buckets. But if I use one bucket and on top hydro pot, like this, will it be ok?

Or I need larger bucket so the roots have more moisture after water gets pumped out?

How large buckets (in gallons) is normal for growing?

How often do I need to change the water in the main reservoir? After every grow?

EBB & Flow need any top dripping?

 

[Searcher]

Kadinsky,

I am a newbie myself. On my 2nd grow now. 2 weeks into flowering. Obviously, I have nowhere near the knowledge of Pit Viper, Roseman and the other exerienced growers on this site.

My personal experience is that for my first grow, I used an NFT system with a 50 liter reservoir. I normally filled it with a 30 liters of solution. The single reservoir definitely made it easy to monitor PH, change nutes, etc. But, a single reservoir, will also spread any nasties one plant has to all the other plants as well. My first grow almost got wiped by stem-rot. More on that later. Also, a single reservoir does not allow you to tailor feeding to each strain.

For my second grow, I went DWC (your last photo) as Roseman has recommended for you. Monitoring a DWC pot for each plant is more maintenance intensive, but it does provide greater control over each plant's environment.

This time when one plant started to get stem rot, it did not spread to the other plants. A huge plus in my book. On the subject of stem rot and other nasties, I am a believer in adding H2O2 (3ml of 3% H2O2 per liter of nute solution). Without H2O2, I would of lost my first grow and one plant in my 2nd grow.

I am using 3 gal buckets. I put the girls out to flower when the were about 15 inches high. So far so good. Hopefully, the roots will not outgrow the buckets before harvest. If they do, I will buy bigger buckets and "transplant" the too big plants to 5 gal. buckets. By rigging the existing 3-gal. lid (with plant attached) to fit on a larger bucket - "transplanting" with DWC should be easy and shock free.

On the question of how often to change your resevoir solution: regardless of hydro system chosen, conventional wisdom is that reservoir solution should be changed out no less than every 7 days IMHO. Don't forget to add H2O2 at every nute change.

At this point, I am very happy with choosing DWC for my 2nd grow. It is simple and cheap to do. I am also trying out "Hempy" this grow. So far, I like hempy alot. Growing simply does not get any easier and the plants I put into hempy (2 clones and 1 seeded) seem to like it as well. I am also starting to experiment with bubblebonics which is a modified DWC. I believe Bubblebonics is Roseman's favorite grow method. Looking forward to seeing how well it works for me.

Good luck with whatever approach you use. This hobby becomes very addictive quickly.


Searcher

 

[Roseman]

here is one to consider: