first hydro, gonna need a walkthrough

so just setup a little hydro experimebnt. i just read a nice old hydroponics book, i'll find it and get the title later, but now i'm doing a one-time hydro cause i got a setup from a friend for the next 3 months. it's gonna be pretty ghetto like all i'll have are papers for pH and a cheapo PPM meter but this is really just to see if i want to transition, then i'll get more serious about it if i like it enough.

first question. this is a continuous flow hydro setup, correct?

You can make it into a continuous flow, but it's a flood and drain system. Not too long ago, an RIU member was asking about the same system.

its flood and drain and since your new i would leave it atflood and drain..you will have more rooms for mistake but you still using hydro so keep mistakes to a minimum

k so here's after i set it up. water is getting about a centimeter up on the rockwool, and since i made clones in 3" and needed 5" i tried to use some 4" and at least cut them so it was a larger area for the roots. i'm not sure how well that will work and if there is anything i can do about that at this point, but they've only been on for 2 days so i'm not even sure if they've rooted into the other rockwool yet, probably not but there were a lot of roots coming out of the bottom when i put em in

oh yea i'll post a pic of the roots too


seriously i kno i'm doing shit wrong, one of my babies wasn't looking so good before i put her in hydro and now she 's a little yellower even, hard to tell with the 250 MH i'm using on but maybe when it's dark i'll show ya guys

advice is appreciated

ok right flood and drain, makes sense. is it getting high enough on the rockwool?

ithink you should change those big cubes theycause problems by staying overwatered and you dont have it covered enough it can grow algae

change those big cubes to what? looks like the smaller ones i have would almost fall through the holes at the bottom. yea that pic was taken before i cut the white covers a little so it's centered now

Hey there, sb!!! Cool to see you starting that system up! I 've been over here in the hydro section learning myself(just got an AeroFlo20). I am in the process of building a 'table' that will flood/drain that I can do my vegging in..... I think it will work similar to what you've got going here(the table).

The problem I am having(learning) is what is choosing the easiest medium. I am all cloned up in rockwool and some in coco. As NYCdesiel said, I think there become problems with the rockwool---it holds too much water for too long of a time. Once your roots drop down in there a bit you shouldn't have to flood it to the point of choking out the oxygen and causing rot, etc.... and also, your table looks like it only will allow a bit of water to hit the center of the bottom of the rw cube, so it may very well work just right........did I just answer my own concern, or what??

I think that's a cool set-up you have there and you will do fine as your doing.....just be easy with the h2o on that cube......... I am going to have to clone into hydroton the way I got this shit here set-up........ I will have baskets that sit down in the table and flood pretty good, so rw wont work for me I dont think....

I 'll keep an eye on this and wish you the best! I am thinking hydro may very well be the way to go----it's just finding what works for you.

growinman

wow........the more I look at that set-up, the more questions I have........something doesn't look right? Where do the roots grow to: it looks like that top tray just almost sits on the middle one---like if you go to check on a plant's roots they'd get smashed when you put it back together-->they will grow through that hole. does the water flood on the very top at all? why the holes? I know you said the rw only gets in the water about 1cm.....
okay........sorry for hijacking your thread with questions for you sb, when I know you want answers yourself........
I 'll kick back and watch

haha glad you found me here Growinman, i'm kinda trippin myself, starting to think this was maybe a bad idea..i just shut off the pump cause i mean while its flowing those rockwool have been soaked. don't know how to let the bottom get wet without the entire cube retaining waay too much water

and yea, that top tray has maybe a cm above they flood tray ... maybe. it's pretty damn close, i don't know how that's supposed to work but doesn't really look right to me like what you said, i won't be able to lift the tray after the roots start to fill out because they're gonna spread horizontal and i'd rip em out? so i have to just only take the flood and the tray out? arg.

well i'll see wtf i can do about it haha, temps are gettin crazy too cause it's in my roommates closet cause he got the biggest closet and wanted to try it out, it's his hydro kit and light and i'm just the one that's been doin all the work in soil so naturally ...

either way it'll be a good learning experience, gotta say i'm feeling a lil overwhelmed right now, it was really hot today got into the mid 90s in there for a lil bit and its taking forever to cool down . i think i'm going to leave the motor off and let the water drain from the rockwool for a day/12 hours? bad idea? it is SoAked

nm about that dumb question. i'll put my pump on a timer. what d'ya think is the best for young clones?

"nm about that dumb question. i'll put my pump on a timer. what d'ya think is the best for young clones?"

........as far as??? Timer for clones?? I 'd just be worried about them getting too wet..they're rooted already, right?? I got out my DWC cloner last night and not going to use the clones I have in rw----going hydroton........

Is it cooling down down there yet?? It finally is here and hoping fall is finally here...

Give this thing a BUMP, maybe get some answers/help, eh??

thanks yea, they're already rooted although there's about one more inch of new rockwool they need to go through before they're directly hitting the water. i'm going to let the blocks dry out on the top a bit more (i plugged the pump in for maybe 15 minutes today) cause the rockwool is definitely too wet. cooling down a little but not nearly enough. they said in the weather report that monday was supposed to be the hottest and it's supposed to cool through the week but they've been dead wrong thus far soo we'll see. as long as i can keep it a little under 90 air temp and then like 75 water temp for the next few days i think i'll be ok as long as it actually DOES cool down. F This Weather.

cooling down here, babies are looking much better in the hydro. i've even put two of my tiny soil babies on top of the empty hydro spots to give em the added wattage of the 250 MH vs my 100w T5.

i'm letting the rockwool dry out and looking at the root systems and they've started to go into the bottom inch and extra rockwool i put them into, haha i took one out to see that so probably set it back a little bit, won't be able to do that again, i might even put rubber bands around em for now so it doesn''t happen accidentally killing much of their root system. i've turned the pump on for 30 min once in the past 2 days and rockwool is drying out but still quite wet, i'm leaving it off for another day or so, then i'll turn it on maybe twice a day for 30 minutes? still gotta research that.. cheers! i'm stoked it's Fall and cooling down! makes it so much easier for me!

great to hear it's cooling down for you there, sb! Here too.....raining heavily actually.....

That rock wool's finally drying out huh........that's what scares with me that stuff........ I think I'd just keep a real close eye on that when you do water again. 30mins sounds like a long time from what I 've read---just get it damp where you know the roots are getting it. Once they break through to the bottom your set......thinkin you can let that rw dry out for good......... This'll be interesting to say the least---and I know you want to keep in the good smoken, so it will work it's way out I am sure!

Is there a name on the system you've got??

er i kno it's a flood and drain..lemme go check if there's a manufacturer name on it...nothin.

thx for the info on the flooding time, i think i will wait another day and then flood it real quick so it gets high and drains..i think that'll only take 5 minutes so cool. just checked the temp its like 82 in there! i'm stoked!

yea i really wish the tops of the RW was dryer but it holds onto water WAY too well! Least i don't have any rot as of yet! i'm really excited i'm doing my first hydro i'm learning so much! hopefully i'll build my own later this year for a cost of waay less than i see they're going for! + i need a PPM meter cause right now all i can do is guess Yikes!

.........so how they lookin there, sb?? Good news? Just about got my 2x3 e/f set to do some veggin........

things are lookin up,

i'm veggin a couple of my soil babies in the tray cause i have the space in there and not really under my T5s, so it's working out. check it out.


haha noticing how unprofessional that closet is looking. cause it's in a roommates closet which he is also using for storage and such. by the time they get to flower i'm hoping to move em to my room so hopefully until then they're ok

Right on!! Lookin' like they taken hold! Are these your Blueberry? Looks like that your other room is keeping you busy--happily, I am sure
I just got my flood/drain set-up with everything; it's ready to go/grow...then I realized my cycle timer is shot and I need to go back to town, though not tonight. I need one that does 1 min on/off throughout the cycle---these digital Intermatics only do it up to 8 times...........wishin I 'd have done more in the rockwool and I could get away with it........

Keep it up!!

yea i'm staying happily busy for sure. right now i'm wondering what to do with my 3 biggest veggin ladies, they're getting too big for the top of my closet so i think i'm going to have to Top em. i already have 3 rockwool vegging so i'll do it in the next few days.

then to figure out what to do with my 6 fresh clones. i kept the last ones in their dome for like a month! this time i'm going to put them in plastic cups sooner so i can keep em a bit longer?! haha having a problem with knowing what to do with TOO MANY clones is a not a bad place to be! we'll see..