Help me set up my grow house!

DESCRIPTION:
Okay, so I have a very small independent 2-story house that I am converting to a grow house. Perhaps 750-800 square feet. It is 18ish feet wide and 22ish feet long. The downstairs is where all the living area. It has an eating nook, galley kitchen, full bathroom, and a tiny place to put a couch and TV. Lastly, there is a narrow straight run staircase going up only.

The upstairs has a tiny walk in closet and the rest is loft/open. Its walls go to 7-8 feet and then vaults at a 10:12 pitch. Its very tall (I would devote all the major growing here).

MY INITIAL THOUGHTS:
I thought I would use an ebb and flow hydroponic setup. I would use the downstairs bath to keep my reservoir for immediate water access. Id pump the nutes up to the second floor trays. Upstairs I will have (4) 4'x8" trays with (6) 1K watt lights. I would keep 1.5-2' between the trays to have access to every plant. The trays would sit 12" off the ground to allow the ebb and flow tubing and fittings to run under them.

In addition to the downstairs I would grow my clones in the eating nook using the ez cloner 120 and florescent lights. I can keep the kitchen and tv area the same for clipping and hanging out.

MY QUESTIONS:
(for max yield of course)

1. Should I grow several smaller plants or fewer bigger plants?
2. Should I let my plants grow freely or use scrog or sog or another method?
3. Since Im going ebb and flow hydro should I use cocoa matts or loose media or netted pots? I need to have convenience more than anything here.

Please help me here...the options seem limitless...and Id like some of your experienced input please! Thanks.

Chaz

bump this to the top

lets see... if you're doing hydro on flood tables it makes more since to grow several smaller plants (esp if you're not medical). if you are limited to smaller plant numbers, you'd grow bigger plants (like 2-3 months veg) to make up for this.

as for how to train em, tie em, bind em, or stake em you would want to make sure they're straight up and not falling over. they can be staked with bamboo, or stretch a nylon trellis horizontally a foot or two (depending on veg time) above the flood table and train the canopy to grow through. this way when bud weight sets in they're supported well.

lastly on what type of media to use i would ask you what kind of nutes you'll be using and how often you'll be flooding. expanded clay pellets are the hydro standard but if you're inoculating with beneficials they'll have nothing to grab onto. this is where you you can ad coco mats under net pots filled with clay pellets or coco husk chunk. also have seen people use clay pellets in trays instead of coco mat.

hope this helps

garlictrain said:

lets see... if you're doing hydro on flood tables it makes more since to grow several smaller plants (esp if you're not medical). if you are limited to smaller plant numbers, you'd grow bigger plants (like 2-3 months veg) to make up for this.

as for how to train em, tie em, bind em, or stake em you would want to make sure they're straight up and not falling over. they can be staked with bamboo, or stretch a nylon trellis horizontally a foot or two (depending on veg time) above the flood table and train the canopy to grow through. this way when bud weight sets in they're supported well.

lastly on what type of media to use i would ask you what kind of nutes you'll be using and how often you'll be flooding. expanded clay pellets are the hydro standard but if you're inoculating with beneficials they'll have nothing to grab onto. this is where you you can ad coco mats under net pots filled with clay pellets or coco husk chunk. also have seen people use clay pellets in trays instead of coco mat.

hope this helps

Click to expand...

Fantastic advice, thank you.

I am growing medical. I am playing by the rules...right now thats under 100 plants. I was thinking perhaps 18-20 plants per tray. Veg for 4-6 weeks and flower.

I am using EJ nutes. Ive used them in the past and I like them.

I was thinking that your idea about the nets or trellis ideas as well. I think I'll go for that for sure.

My biggest consideration right now is the grow medium and how to best allow the plant's root to thrive without too much labor cleaning in the end after harvest.

I would love something very simple like large net pots sitting inside the tray....but I worry about their growing roots. Will they die if they expand beyond the pots? Will this hurt the plant's yield? Ive considered just puting the plants into 4" cubes and placing them into a sea of clay pellets but man that is like 400L Id have to sterilize and clean. Yikes.

Thoughts?

i think earth juice is great, an i really like the catalyst, good choice.

i understand about washing an sanitizing being a pain. many hydro growers are committed to their expanded clay so it comes with the territory. that's why i switched from clay balls to coco husk chunks (croutons by some companies) while doing dwc. at the end i could take my root mass and compost it instead of worrying about cleaning it.
also rockwool enables one to throw away vs. clean and reuse. rockwool might get funky with ej nutes though.

i'm a big advocate for coco coir, coco husk chunks etc. take into consideration that not providing a substrate in the tables (hydroton or coco mat) for the roots will diminish root growth as a whole. doesn't mean the roots won't be happy there just won't be as much. coco mats seem like a good alternative to expanded clay if you want something in your tables. or you could just fill net pots with a 60/40 coir chc blend with nothing in tables.

as far as biggest yield on tables it will come from rock wool in clay pellets. that's why the growers who use it are dedicated or they move on to something less time consuming.

garlictrain said:

i think earth juice is great, an i really like the catalyst, good choice.

i understand about washing an sanitizing being a pain. many hydro growers are committed to their expanded clay so it comes with the territory. that's why i switched from clay balls to coco husk chunks (croutons by some companies) while doing dwc. at the end i could take my root mass and compost it instead of worrying about cleaning it.
also rockwool enables one to throw away vs. clean and reuse. rockwool might get funky with ej nutes though.

i'm a big advocate for coco coir, coco husk chunks etc. take into consideration that not providing a substrate in the tables (hydroton or coco mat) for the roots will diminish root growth as a whole. doesn't mean the roots won't be happy there just won't be as much. coco mats seem like a good alternative to expanded clay if you want something in your tables. or you could just fill net pots with a 60/40 coir chc blend with nothing in tables.

as far as biggest yield on tables it will come from rock wool in clay pellets. that's why the growers who use it are dedicated or they move on to something less time consuming.

Click to expand...

Yes, I think your right about everything. I will look into the cocoa chunks and stuff. It does seem that most ebb and flow dudes like netted pots with a little medium in the tray like clay pellets. I really appreciate your time to help me out. I gave you a rep. Thanks again.