DIY DWC system question

dbkick said:

yeah in my first post to you , here, just click on this------- https://www.rollitup.org/grow-journals/346967-my-first-grow.html#post4373353

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I think I missed it somehow.. thanks.
Geeze, that's a huge root system and an equally huge plant.
To be honest, I'm really torn on what to do. I am on a really tight budget due to the economy in spain at the moment and I'd hoped to be able to save money by putting 2 or 3 per tote, but I see why you said 1 per tote now. Perhaps I'll have to find a cheaper system to make for multiple plants.

I use a 1kw light in veg and flower , people will tell you about light and water temperature being important which I'm sure it is. I did my first grow under horrible conditions, you open the door to the room and it was like a heat wave, a nasty sticky wet heatwave. so anyway, res temps were crazy and also I used home depot buckets which aren't really opaque, neither are any plastic totes that even appear opaque, my point is I got thru a grow with light in my roots and res temps of 85 or better . My current grow I bought black buckets and painted my totes with one coat of black paint and a coat of white on top of that.

I think you should probably go with a bucket or two and put one plant in each, I dunno what you're using for lighting . I do think you said you were growing in a 1 square meter area which would be 3 foot square, I'm assuming its about 7 foot high . But, buckets and a nice pump and stones, you got an idea on the draining and stuff, I didn't put valves in mine and ended up just sliding the lids (with 5 foot plants) over and dropping a spare water pump I have in and pumping into an empty bucket.

Well, my lights about to come on and I gotta see what it is I need to do to lst a lanky sativa plant, I think I should probably just wait but wheres the fun in that, oh yeah its res change day too! Good luck and lemme know (or the many others here) if you got anymore questions.

Yeah, I'm pretty worried about the temperature the room I'm using will be. I found free electricity in my private storage room in the community garage. Since i live in the desert, it's pretty effin hot in there already so I can only imagine what it will be once I have things running in there. Off topic from the water system but I haven't decided on whether to get a 400w cooltube or a 600w cooltube light yet due to the heat. Do you think the the wattage will make a noticeable difference in heat? I've thought about also hooking up a small portable airco in the room but there's only one outlet and I'm wondering if the light and the airco together will trip the breaker for the garage. I'm not really sure what outlets here are rated for and whether i can run that amount of stuff on it.

I Have a paper about a unit that was built onto a 20 gallon container. It had pvc pipes over it and had 11 grow sites. That would have been about 1 square meter. I wanted to post it here but it's in pdf format and I can't copy or paste it or even upload the picture. If anybody knows how to copy and past it, I'll put in a picture and instructions.

dbkick said:

I think you should probably go with a bucket or two and put one plant in each, I dunno what you're using for lighting . I do think you said you were growing in a 1 square meter area which would be 3 foot square, I'm assuming its about 7 foot high . But, buckets and a nice pump and stones, you got an idea on the draining and stuff, I didn't put valves in mine and ended up just sliding the lids (with 5 foot plants) over and dropping a spare water pump I have in and pumping into an empty bucket.

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If I do separate buckets for plants, don't I need a pump and aerator for each one? Seems like it would get a bit spendy when spread over 15 or 20 plants.

Magnificient said:

I Have a paper about a unit that was built onto a 20 gallon container. It had pvc pipes over it and had 11 grow sites. That would have been about 1 square meter. I wanted to post it here but it's in pdf format and I can't copy or paste it or even upload the picture. If anybody knows how to copy and past it, I'll put in a picture and instructions.

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Oh cool You have to upload photos to a photo hoster I'm guessing. Try localhostr.com and use the image post button on the reply. (at least, I think that's how it works )
It would be interesting to check out.

PixieMeat said:

If I do separate buckets for plants, don't I need a pump and aerator for each one? Seems like it would get a bit spendy when spread over 15 or 20 plants.

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You're growing 15 plants in a square meter???

dbkick said:

You're growing 15 plants in a square meter???

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I was hoping to do small plants. I was told I could do a sog with lowryder and get about that many into 1sqm...

Magnificient said:

I Have a paper about a unit that was built onto a 20 gallon container. It had pvc pipes over it and had 11 grow sites. That would have been about 1 square meter. I wanted to post it here but it's in pdf format and I can't copy or paste it or even upload the picture. If anybody knows how to copy and past it, I'll put in a picture and instructions.

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yes please.
I can see that happening maybe in sog but not with any amount of veg.

PixieMeat said:

I was hoping to do small plants. I was told I could do a sog with lowryder and get about that many into 1sqm...

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oh, right on then. I like big plants myself and really believe instead of a lot of small ones I'd rather deal with a few big ones. plus here clones cost like 20 bux a pop.

actually I've probably already seen that pdf, it may be the one that lead me to build the totes I did.

dbkick said:

You're growing 15 plants in a square meter???

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Keep in mind, I don't know much about growing since this is my first grow. I'd like to grow an auto flowering strain that develops fast because here in Spain I can't just go to a coffeeshop like I could in Holland. So I've been without weed and living on low grade hash from morocco for about 3 months already now. I just don't want to wait another 4 months on my first grow to be ready for harvest (I'm not sure my lungs could survive another 4 either), but I wouldn't mind growing larger plants the second go around. So naturally, I want to get as much out of my space as possible the first grow. Maybe I'm going about things wrong....

PixieMeat said:

Keep in mind, I don't know much about growing since this is my first grow. I'd like to grow an auto flowering strain that develops fast because here in Spain I can't just go to a coffeeshop like I could in Holland. So I've been without weed and living on low grade hash from morocco for about 3 months already now. I just don't want to wait another 4 months on my first grow to be ready for harvest (I'm not sure my lungs could survive another 4 either), but I wouldn't mind growing larger plants the second go around. So naturally, I want to get as much out of my space as possible the first grow. Maybe I'm going about things wrong....

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That's understandable, I spent I dunno how much at dispensaries while I waited for my first harvest to finally be ready. Almost went 11 weeks in flower, I went for a couchlock type high and amber triches. But that time period seemed like for-fucking-ever and dispensaries here charge like 20 bux a gram.

a lot of its gonna be trial and error I think, I've got six plants in my room right now and I don't think I'm gonna yield anywhere near like the first one that was 4 plants. Its strange, first grow I had terrible conditions, it was hot and wet in my grow room, condensation dripping off everything and it still goes well, now this time I've gone to great lengths to make it better and as the plants are doing ok I'm not seeing that its better. of course I'm growing completely different strains from someone I've never bought clones from before(dunno their reputation). I'm actually using better nutrients and additives plus I got my temperatures more than under control and still, I think that my first grow was better but then again this one isn't over, far from over unfortunately

dbkick said:

That's understandable, I spent I dunno how much at dispensaries while I waited for my first harvest to finally be ready. Almost went 11 weeks in flower, I went for a couchlock type high and amber triches. But that time period seemed like for-fucking-ever and dispensaries here charge like 20 bux a gram.

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Geeze, I'm used to getting weed for 5-10 a gram for real nice stuff grown by the university students studying marijuana, here in Spain if you can even find it its about 20 a gram for outdoor seedy crap that looks like it's been through a war or two before it got to you (seriously some of the worst shit I've ever had the displeasure of seeing). And this hash has got to be a max of like 3-5% and hurts my lungs a lot. :/ So I certainly don't want to be waiting months on end for something to come out of it.

dbkick said:

a lot of its gonna be trial and error I think, I've got six plants in my room right now and I don't think I'm gonna yield anywhere near like the first one that was 4 plants. Its strange, first grow I had terrible conditions, it was hot and wet in my grow room, condensation dripping off everything and it still goes well, now this time I've gone to great lengths to make it better and as the plants are doing ok I'm not seeing that its better. of course I'm growing completely different strains from someone I've never bought clones from before(dunno their reputation). I'm actually using better nutrients and additives plus I got my temperatures more than under control and still, I think that my first grow was better but then again this one isn't over, far from over unfortunately

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Maybe a dumb question but why don't you clone your own instead of buying someone elses? 20 bucks a clone seems a bit inflated... even for around here where everything marijuana related has an inflated price, they're still about 10 bucks. Seems like since I left America, weed priced have inflated... maybe it's the installation of the dispensary... now the home grower thinks he can get dispensary prices out of everyone. :/ When I left Seattle, I could buy an eighth of good quality stuff for 40 bucks, now I hear it's nearing 80... ridiculous.

weak hash, no wonder you wanna grow. well I'm having a yellowing in my leaves and dunno why, I've been told several different things by several different people. I think its a nitrogen deficiency but some have said its ph, I keep ph in check most of the time ,runs from about 5.6 to 6.whatever. but anyway.....i suppose I should go take care of that even though I have no clue as to what it really is, I think I'm just being cheap and holding back the expensive nutrients, gonna go bump the ppm up a little. I know I said I was gonna do that earlier but I went to get some lunch before I got my hands dirty, good luck and lemme know how it goes!

dbkick said:

weak hash, no wonder you wanna grow. well I'm having a yellowing in my leaves and dunno why, I've been told several different things by several different people. I think its a nitrogen deficiency but some have said its ph, I keep ph in check most of the time ,runs from about 5.6 to 6.whatever. but anyway.....i suppose I should go take care of that even though I have no clue as to what it really is, I think I'm just being cheap and holding back the expensive nutrients, gonna go bump the ppm up a little. I know I said I was gonna do that earlier but I went to get some lunch before I got my hands dirty, good luck and lemme know how it goes!

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haha yeah, well I guess you can't bitch when it's like 3 bucks a gram off the boat ;P But I certainly don't want to stick with it. Think I'm going to try doing a few plants per container and see how that goes. I'll let you know. thanks for the advice and good luck with your plants... and quit being cheap