The Pros and Cons of Running Indoor Grow Beds

Would love to see some pics of the setup man!

Thanks for sharing 1337, I appreciate the insight as I will be starting an indoor bed soon. The lazy man's bed in a 150gal smart pot that is. I have an excess of soil i reuse so the soil purchase is already there, i just need to whip up a larger batch of amended soil and figure something out to keep the smart pot raised from the concrete floor so it doesn't lose heat to it in the winter, wood pallets maybe? I'll be starting with one bed under one light and the rest will stay my regular 5gal buckets, depending on how the bed performs I will continue to switch out one light at a time.

Originally Posted by blueJ

Thanks for sharing 1337, I appreciate the insight as I will be starting an indoor bed soon. The lazy man's bed in a 150gal smart pot that is. I have an excess of soil i reuse so the soil purchase is already there, i just need to whip up a larger batch of amended soil and figure something out to keep the smart pot raised from the concrete floor so it doesn't lose heat to it in the winter, wood pallets maybe? I'll be starting with one bed under one light and the rest will stay my regular 5gal buckets, depending on how the bed performs I will continue to switch out one light at a time.

Palettes sound like they would work to me and would help the air pots out too probably. . I've been interested in having more aeration , definitely keep me updated on how this goes.

Originally Posted by batf1nk

Would love to see some pics of the setup man!

I'll work on getting some good pics by tonight:

The beds are 12" deep, and 4'x5' each, so 20 CU Ft of soil per bed

I yielded close to 1.5 lbs running 12 new york sour D, and only 1 lb when I grew multi-strain .. excited to find a really good strain that has short veg time but puts up a good bush structure for a semi-sea of green approach

Excellent post hacker, I was very enthused when I first saw a soma bed set up but I knew it wouldn't work for me. I needed something much smaller than what would be practical to build. My version is a 25 gallon, 30 Inch diameter feed tub from the farm store. With my design I stuck with Soma's except for at the bottom end of the vertical pipes I installed T's and connected 1" tubing between each T. The tubing I perforated with a drill bit. I too follow a no till approach with an occasional top dress. I mulch with Alfalfa and apply an occasional tea as a root drench. In between feedings I water with fresh water through the uprights. Another thing that I am experimenting with is injecting air into the tubes to supply fresh oxygen to the roots. Right now it working way better than I thought it would. My first concern was that it would dry the root zone out to fast but I haven't found any evidence to support this yet. Plants are happy, green and grinnin with vigorous growth.

I like how you are thinking about the perpetual grow. One way this would work would be to have 4 flowering areas. Each area holds plants for two weeks after that they would be rolled, on casters into the next room. This would allow for extra time if needed for some strains. This way you always have room for the youngins in the first area. It looks much better in my head than I can explain...I assure you. At any rate where there's a will there's a way.

I am totally sold on the whole no-till, SIP, Planter and Bed set-ups. They just work better. But like you say they do have their drawbacks. I am shooting for huge yield this cycle but its gonna be a while yet. My largest yield from one plant was just over 6 oz from a run of DarkStar I did a while back. With Super-Cropping and a little branch training its entirely possible to get 10-16 Oz per. using this set up. Granted if one were using 1000K lights and had lots of vertical space that yield could be much higher. It's already being done.

This is what makes these forums great. Exchanging ideas and creating critical thinking. Have a great day.

StickEnugzz

Originally Posted by StickEnugzz

Excellent post hacker, I was very enthused when I first saw a soma bed set up but I knew it wouldn't work for me. I needed something much smaller than what would be practical to build. My version is a 25 gallon, 30 Inch diameter feed tub from the farm store. With my design I stuck with Soma's except for at the bottom end of the vertical pipes I installed T's and connected 1" tubing between each T. The tubing I perforated with a drill bit. I too follow a no till approach with an occasional top dress. I mulch with Alfalfa and apply an occasional tea as a root drench. In between feedings I water with fresh water through the uprights. Another thing that I am experimenting with is injecting air into the tubes to supply fresh oxygen to the roots. Right now it working way better than I thought it would. My first concern was that it would dry the root zone out to fast but I haven't found any evidence to support this yet. Plants are happy, green and grinnin with vigorous growth.

I like how you are thinking about the perpetual grow. One way this would work would be to have 4 flowering areas. Each area holds plants for two weeks after that they would be rolled, on casters into the next room. This would allow for extra time if needed for some strains. This way you always have room for the youngins in the first area. It looks much better in my head than I can explain...I assure you. At any rate where there's a will there's a way.

I am totally sold on the whole no-till, SIP, Planter and Bed set-ups. They just work better. But like you say they do have their drawbacks. I am shooting for huge yield this cycle but its gonna be a while yet. My largest yield from one plant was just over 6 oz from a run of DarkStar I did a while back. With Super-Cropping and a little branch training its entirely possible to get 10-16 Oz per. using this set up. Granted if one were using 1000K lights and had lots of vertical space that yield could be much higher. It's already being done.

This is what makes these forums great. Exchanging ideas and creating critical thinking. Have a great day.

StickEnugzz

Hey man.. the air should only help: I can't remember where I was reading the DIY Air pruning thread, but it seems like Soma was ahead of his time with the benefits of air to the root zone. Throughout the thread I kept on thinking of ways to somehow Somafy my bed... Someone recommended poking holes with a bamboo stick 30 minutes after watering into your root zone which I liked

I have seen people place computer fans on the top of the pvc pipes that run down into the Rootzone as well in the soma beds that worked very well.

In a bed set up you get those air pruned roots anyway since the top third of your soil regularly becomes dry and the lower part of your soil is significantly wetter (much like what happens in nature), which is cool because air pruning is a very effective way of getting the fibrous root mass growers desire.

I have seen another farmer from another forum pull 2.5ish lbs a light using the beds and all 1 strain:

I think if I focus on training in these next couple runs I can up my rate, as having an even full canopy on the bed might be the hardest thing to accomplish (I have a Jillybean that easily stretches to 4 feet for instance, as well as the RCLA which caps out at about 16 inches tall) I like your idea of doing the perpetual splitting the strains by bed, that would easily solve the problem. At this time I have about 12 strains though that I am having trouble parting with or finding a reliable donor for, so I'm going to have to make due with trying to train on the fly.

Originally Posted by 1337hacker

Hey man.. the air should only help: I can't remember where I was reading the DIY Air pruning thread, but it seems like Soma was ahead of his time with the benefits of air to the root zone. Throughout the thread I kept on thinking of ways to somehow Somafy my bed... Someone recommended poking holes with a bamboo stick 30 minutes after watering into your root zone which I liked

I have seen people place computer fans on the top of the pvc pipes that run down into the Rootzone as well in the soma beds that worked very well.

In a bed set up you get those air pruned roots anyway since the top third of your soil regularly becomes dry and the lower part of your soil is significantly wetter (much like what happens in nature), which is cool because air pruning is a very effective way of getting the fibrous root mass growers desire.

I have seen another farmer from another forum pull 2.5ish lbs a light using the beds and all 1 strain:

I think if I focus on training in these next couple runs I can up my rate, as having an even full canopy on the bed might be the hardest thing to accomplish (I have a Jillybean that easily stretches to 4 feet for instance, as well as the RCLA which caps out at about 16 inches tall) I like your idea of doing the perpetual splitting the strains by bed, that would easily solve the problem. At this time I have about 12 strains though that I am having trouble parting with or finding a reliable donor for, so I'm going to have to make due with trying to train on the fly.

My method for getting air in there is with a two port aquarium pump and tubing. In hind site I should have ran the tubing before I filled it up with lava rock, landscape fabric and soil but I just made sure that they went in the tubing a good ways. Pretty cool actually. After watering I can hear it in there bubbling. Got to be good for the roots.

Originally Posted by StickEnugzz

My method for getting air in there is with a two port aquarium pump and tubing. In hind site I should have ran the tubing before I filled it up with lava rock, landscape fabric and soil but I just made sure that they went in the tubing a good ways. Pretty cool actually. After watering I can hear it in there bubbling. Got to be good for the roots.

Sick!! I was thinking about this same exact method when reading through everything... sorta sounds like it would be similar to how the water table works in nature got any pics of how things are turning out?