600 watt Hydro verse soil SOG

Good morning guys, I have set up my new grow closet with a digital 600 watt HPS. I have turned my old grow closet into a cloning chamber keeping my mothers in the top with new clones in the bottom. Currently I can keep two mothers in the top (more for newer moms) and room for 20 clones in the bottom. I have been growing a small SOG in hydro, but the thought crossed my mind as I set my new closet that I may want to try the same process in soil just to see how they shape up. In the end once I have decided on my grow medium, I will have four stages of growth each with 12 plants in a SOG. This will provide a perpetual SOG with a new crop every other week. I had this setup delay as moms where not big enough yet to give off the clones. Currently under the large light I have 12 Big Bang in hydro that have just started the seventh week now. Right next to them are 12 Big Bang that are in soil and have just started week two. Three weeks from now I will have my rotation of clones set up and ready to toss 20 new clones out every other week only taking the best 12. MY plan is to rotate for now between Big Bang and Dinafem Cheese. Well enough of my typing, have a look and let me know what you think. BTW, the room has its own A/C keeping the whole setup at 75 degrees.

that is one nice setup you have there

Good job. I ran a perpetual last run with three phases of growth much how you are thinking. I even wrote a Perl application to print out what days things needed to be done. Mine was three phases of every 21 days, harvesting on day 63. I ran 8 plants per cycle. You might be interested in skimming over my 12/12 sig thread.

Good luck!

Subbed.

-spek

spek9 said:

Good job. I ran a perpetual last run with three phases of growth much how you are thinking. I even wrote a Perl application to print out what days things needed to be done. Mine was three phases of every 21 days, harvesting on day 63. I ran 8 plants per cycle. You might be interested in skimming over my 12/12 sig thread.

Good luck!

Subbed.

-spek

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Thanks guys, I have put a lot of thought and money into setting this up. My main goal is to simply get all the smoke I want for me and a few close friends for free and to have the rest pay the bills for making the smoke. I like to smoke a lot..haha..has anyone ever did a hydro soil comparison for a SOG? It would be pretty cool if the soil method workded just as well.

Admortis said:

Thanks guys, I have put a lot of thought and money into setting this up. My main goal is to simply get all the smoke I want for me and a few close friends for free and to have the rest pay the bills for making the smoke. I like to smoke a lot..haha..has anyone ever did a hydro soil comparison for a SOG? It would be pretty cool if the soil method workded just as well.

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I did comparisons last run. Some were hempy (verm/perlite, hydroton, and pure perlite) and others were soil in the same size containers. In all cases, the soil grew a bit larger. Although not typical hydro, hempy is close enough. This run I'm going to test in purely automated hydro vs. soil.

My test was all from clone straight to flower, and each batch was run side-by-side from clone to harvest. My setup was 8 new plants in the flower tent every 21 days, in three cycles, totalling 24 plants at a time in three mini SOGs side-by-side. Once one 8-plant set was ready for harvest, the next batch of 8 went in that day.

-spek

spek9 said:

I did comparisons last run. Some were hempy (verm/perlite, hydroton, and pure perlite) and others were soil in the same size containers. In all cases, the soil grew a bit larger. Although not typical hydro, hempy is close enough. This run I'm going to test in purely automated hydro vs. soil.

My test was all from clone straight to flower, and each batch was run side-by-side from clone to harvest. My setup was 8 new plants in the flower tent every 21 days, in three cycles, totalling 24 plants at a time in three mini SOGs side-by-side. Once one 8-plant set was ready for harvest, the next batch of 8 went in that day.

-spek

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The setup I showed you above on the right is fox farm soil and the left is a flood table setup with both sides having the same size pots. The hydro is using clay pellets with the solution pumping up every three hours with a gravity drain setup letting it flow back to the bottom reservoir. The hydro works very well but is a lot of work. You would not be able to go on a vacation for a week and leave them unattended. The PH must be tested every day with the timing and amount of adjustment varying based and many unknown factors. I had my mothers in soil and noticed they really required not much of anything. I could feed them every other day with plain tap water and feed them nuts once a week. So the test is really to decide if the hydro is really worth all the extra work. I will know in 7 weeks for sure, but will have a good idea in about two weeks from now. In the end it will be all about the yield.

lol look at the difference between hydro and soil just wow

great looking plants I can't wait to see the final product

Admortis said:

The setup I showed you above on the right is fox farm soil and the left is a flood table setup with both sides having the same size pots. The hydro is using clay pellets with the solution pumping up every three hours with a gravity drain setup letting it flow back to the bottom reservoir. The hydro works very well but is a lot of work. You would not be able to go on a vacation for a week and leave them unattended. The PH must be tested every day with the timing and amount of adjustment varying based and many unknown factors. I had my mothers in soil and noticed they really required not much of anything. I could feed them every other day with plain tap water and feed them nuts once a week. So the test is really to decide if the hydro is really worth all the extra work. I will know in 7 weeks for sure, but will have a good idea in about two weeks from now. In the end it will be all about the yield.

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In my hempy buckets and soil buckets alike, I used two Claber Oasis auto drip systems feeding the 24 plants. I frequently travel for 7-12 days on business and it worked flawlessly. A little water every day automatically, and when I arrived home, the pH was not too far off at all.

Those Claber systems are awesome

-spek

That is a huge difference so far though!

-spek

spek9 said:

That is a huge difference so far though!

-spek

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You can not tell the difference yet. The hydro is in week 7 and the soil is just starting week 2. By the end of week two the soil will have to have had the same physical response to the 12/12 change and should be around 14 to 18 inches tall. From the end of week two on they will not show much upward growth and will focus only on producing the nice buds you see in the left tub, which is why it is important to know if the soil can provide what the plants require.

Admortis said:

You can not tell the difference yet. The hydro is in week 7 and the soil is just starting week 2. By the end of week two the soil will have to have had the same physical response to the 12/12 change and should be around 14 to 18 inches tall. From the end of week two on they will not show much upward growth and will focus only on producing the nice buds you see in the left tub, which is why it is important to know if the soil can provide what the plants require.

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Ahhh, I totally missed the part where difference in age was stated

-spek

PatchKid said:

lol look at the difference between hydro and soil just wow

great looking plants I can't wait to see the final product

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Thanks, but please note the plants on the left are in week 7 while the ones in soil on the right are just starting week two. Will not see the true difference until the end when they hit the scales. It is all about the yield but ease of use would come to play if we are just talking a few grams off.

spek9 said:

Ahhh, I totally missed the part where difference in age was stated

-spek

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I thought you might have missed that part...doing the test was an after thought, I was all set to just start another batch in hydro. I am used to doing it in water only but it is rather time consuming...the rapid growth really sucks the life out of the water..lol

Update to hydro verse soil. At the end of week two it is apparent that the soil is not performing as well as hydro. While I did see pretty good growth on the soil only 3 plants achieved the required height. The bulk of the plants made it to 10/12 inches well short of the 18 inches on average in hydro. I will continue to allow the soil plants to grow for a final weight at harvest but my new plants will be grown in hydro. In the pictures I am about to show, please note that the soil plants at base are about 4 inches higher than those in hydro so looks can be deceiving. I thought you guys may want to see my entire grow room, which is something I am proud of. Note that their are still two empty spots for more plants in the big closet and I have just taken new clones that are in the bottom of the smaller closet; they will be ready in about two weeks. Anyway, hope you enjoy the pictures.