Recommended store bought hydro systems?

Please can anyone recommend any pre-made systems that can be bought and assembled without great DIY skills? If so, which system would you recommend for any of: Ebb and Flow / Deep Water Culture / Aeroponics?

I feel that soil is not an option for me. I may even start out using two hydro techniques if I have the space, just to learn as much as I can and decide which I want to move forward with, not to mention, if one goes bad, I might still get some crop from the other.

There must already be some threads on this topic, but my searches here have been fruitless.

they all have their own high and lows. i think its up to you of how much work you want to do, and how much time can you give them everyday. i have a few turbo gardens and they can be modded for any of the above methods as long as you get them with the lid. they are far from cheap, you spend the money else where but i don`t think there is much out there this versatile. i`ve got waterfarms going now which has a drip to go with the dwc, they are easy to use and you can grow some trees or some use the for scog.
how much space do you have for the system?

Thanks for replying! I'm about to relocate so I don't yet know exactly how much space there will be for the garden.. I guess I'll be looking at a minimum 4x8ft Gorilla grow tent. I'd like something a bit larger so I can portion off a space for propagation and/or veg'. I will make sure there is a spare room in my new home for it.

Gonna be working and studying, so probably no more than an hour or two a day for "gardening", but as a beginner I'm guessing there'll be a lot of teething problems and a lot of learning on the job, especially the first year or so.

Budget is more of a concern to me than space per say right now, although I do feel I have adequate cash for the project set aside if it's just a 4x8 or even a 5x9. If going any larger than this, I'm probably gonna have to leave some empty space and add-on to the infrastructure later. Exactly how much there is for grow systems/lighting etc. will depend a lot on the space of course. I'll almost certainly be using LED lighting, but I'm also keenly following all of the LEC grows right now as the Sun Systems fixtures are affordable and might be interesting too.

I'm researching a lot now to try and give myself the best chance of success later. Hoping to order everything in early 2015 and to be growing by Easter.

I've already spent quite a lot of time looking into tents and lighting. I know it'll be hydro so I've also been researching systems and nutes a little lately, but as it's all so new to me, I'd love any guidance/insight from those of you with experience.

look around at some of the threads here and you can see the difference, maybe how they work. don`t be afraid to ask a grower about their system, i`am sure they would be happy to talk about it. if you don`t have much time to give your plants i would let the aero go till later, things can happen so fast and need to be corrected quicker than the rest. if you have plant count worries like i do sog and aero are out for me. it doesn`t matter which you go with once you run for a little bit you`ll see there's no voodoo to it. the cheap way in is dwc a 5gal bucket a net pot lid some media and a pump, or hemp style a pot some perlite and a pan for run off. both of course would need nutes. nutes well everybody has their on loves and hates on this one, but stability is what you would want just starting. look at like general hydro or bonticare. those brands have been around for a long time and are good stable platform to start out on. you also need some meter/s, ph and tds. they have some cheap($20) ones out there, there are some real high dollars as well. i would stay to the cheap side till you make sure you like running hydro.

No....

CC Dobbs said:

No....

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I know there is pride involved in building one's own system from scratch and I realize many members here may frown upon buying rather than building one's setup..... I want the pleasure of cultivating my own herb, while at the same time acknowledging my pathetic DIY skills. I'm quite happy piggybacking someone else's efforts (not to mention paying for the privilege) in order to get straight down to the business of growing. And no doubt they'll have done a much better job of building a system than I could! But with soooo many products out there, surely something must be worth using.....?

Get an Ebb and Flow flood tray and reservoir, pump, fittings hose. Drill two holes and assemble.

Stick with one hydro technique at a time at first.

Probably the cheapest (or close) bunch of sizes and ways to go about that, and the easiest.

If anything it gets your feet wet in hydroponics.

- Jiji

Heavy Consumer said:

I know there is pride involved in building one's own system from scratch and I realize many members here may frown upon buying rather than building one's setup..... I want the pleasure of cultivating my own herb, while at the same time acknowledging my pathetic DIY skills. I'm quite happy piggybacking someone else's efforts (not to mention paying for the privilege) in order to get straight down to the business of growing. And no doubt they'll have done a much better job of building a system than I could! But with soooo many products out there, surely something must be worth using.....?

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A man that knows his weaknesses and isn't ashamed to ask for help walks the right path.

Live from the Garden on the G3

mike45214 said:

A man that knows his weaknesses and isn't ashamed to ask for help walks the right path.

Live from the Garden on the G3

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Thanks for the moral support Mike!

jijiandfarmgang said:

Get an Ebb and Flow flood tray and reservoir, pump, fittings hose. Drill two holes and assemble.

Stick with one hydro technique at a time at first.

Probably the cheapest (or close) bunch of sizes and ways to go about that, and the easiest.

If anything it gets your feet wet in hydroponics.

- Jiji

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Thanks (again) Jiji! That make s a lot of sense.

Ebb and flow is probably the cheapest but if really don't want to have to deal with to much I would suggest a waterfarm. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B001ID8CMG/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/185-1921145-9671924 once the roots hit the water remove the drip ring and you're good to go.

Live from the Garden on the G3

I have a trinity 3.0 led set up from supercloset. There are a few issues like heat build up from the lights and the air stones in the supercloner just don't cut it. But if ur a new grower supercloset sells a decent easy to use system that can get you some nice results. Just expect to shell out a little more bread for little touch ups to the system.

Simple bubble buckets are the most noob proof in my exp

no chance for leaks

low start up cost

bout the only thing that can go wrong is res temps and if you got bad growing ethics root rot

dont let aero fool you anyone with a highschool education can run them

some people are just slower then others but most can have good results with DWC

unless they "try to make the plant grow faster"

Wrap Your buckets with an insulator so the light doenst heat them up as bad

also plumb your air stone air from a cool spot outside the room

hope this helps

bubble buckets are a pita

First of all the bucket is filled with around 4 gallons of water. A large plant can drink over a gallon a day.
This messes with nutrient solution and ph.

Second they are a pita to do nutrient change outs (if you have big plants)

Third running multiple plants, means you are running multiple reservoirs that all need balancing.

You can solve these issues by making it recirculate with other buckets but then you no longer have a simple system.

- Jiji

Cold$moke said:

Wrap Your buckets with an insulator so the light doenst heat them up as bad

also plumb your air stone air from a cool spot outside the room

hope this helps

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Thanks for your advice. Aero really doesn't seem very complex to me, but a lot of forumites seem to concur that it's less suitable for noob's than other options, such as DWC, EnF or NFT (and they ALL know a lot more than I do!!!). I like the concept of aero, but (again, perhaps just my impression) I fancy having a go at growing some largish plants, which I haven't tended to see occur much in aero, as opposed to having seen some monsters coming from DWC setups. Looking around, I'm having some issues understanding what the challenges of various systems might be seeing as I've never tried any of them. The consensus from reading the forums seems to be that in ANY hydro system, water temp management is key and water oxygenation also plays an important roll, as do PH and PPM management, as per your own post. From a setup (and even maintenance) point of view, my first instinct was bubble buckets, but from a grow management point of view, I get the feeling that there may be slightly fewer root-health issues associated with E+F. What type of practices were you referring to with the term "bad growing ethics"?

Aero isnt really large plant compliant, fast vigorous veg grown tho... great hydro system, not so much for flowering cannabis...

Want big? Wanna grow trees? RDWC.

jijiandfarmgang said:

bubble buckets are a pita

First of all the bucket is filled with around 4 gallons of water. A large plant can drink over a gallon a day.
This messes with nutrient solution and ph.

Second they are a pita to do nutrient change outs (if you have big plants)

Third running multiple plants, means you are running multiple reservoirs that all need balancing.

You can solve these issues by making it recirculate with other buckets but then you no longer have a simple system.

- Jiji

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WOW! I had no idea this could be the case!

(So, I'd seen you use the term "pita" a few times, but only just realized what it means - what an IDIOT fucking stoner!!!)

justin Y said:

I have a trinity 3.0 led set up from supercloset. There are a few issues like heat build up from the lights and the air stones in the supercloner just don't cut it. But if ur a new grower supercloset sells a decent easy to use system that can get you some nice results. Just expect to shell out a little more bread for little touch ups to the system.

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Yep, I've looked into their grow systems and to be honest, they look good to my inexperienced eye. They certainly do an amazing job of marketing! In fact, their excellent marketing, combined with the conspicuous lack of online independent reviews (i.e. not from their own people or others who sell their products), has become a bit of a turn-off for me in that I find it a bit suspicious. Having said that, I have certainly not ruled out their hydro systems as decent options for me, whether right at the outset, or perhaps when the time comes to branch out and try some different setups and I haven't come across negative info either. They appear fool proof in terms of assembly and quite low maintenance (marketing???). The only downside I can really come up with for their bubble bucket system is, with the water recycling all the time, if I fuck up even a little bit, it will effect all the plants immediately- just a general DWC issue I guess unless each plant is isolated in its own system. But as I said, not ruled that system out yet and if I eventually get into aeroponics at some stage, the flexibility of their "Superflow" system config' also looks good to me. What are YOU vegging and flowering in? Their "Superponics8/16" systems? How's that working out for you? If heat's an issue, have you tried LED yet? As I say, I think their hydro systems look like nice products, I was hoping for a bit more feedback on them, perhaps along with some of the GH products and others out there. I'm grateful for your input. Any further comments you make will also be noted.