Ebb & Flow Journal

This is going to be my first grow, so bear with me. I'll be posting as much as I can, with pictures, and I'd like for you experienced growers to drop knowledge.

My grow room is a 3x3x6.5 Hydrohut, which is basically a pre-made room that can be zipped up -- very clean but limited space. In it I have a 40 gallon resevoir, which sits under a wooden frame I made of 2x4's to support the 3x3 tray that holds the goods. In the tray I have 3 rows of 4 coconut cubes and hydroton everywhere in between.

The first row is Snow Cap. The second and third rows are C-4. I bought them as clones and put them in the coconut cubes.

They are under a 1000w MH light and have been vegging for exactly a week since I got them. In my hut I also have two 50 cfm fans blowing air in through ducts and two 50 cfm fans at the top of the hut sucking air out, 4 total.


Picture 1: Setup, Picture 2: Lighting, Picture 3-5: Rows 1 2 and 3, respectively.

Very nice setup man. Looks like you have a lot of time in it.

I'll use numbers to identify each plant. Plants 1-4 are the first row, starting with 1 in the front. 5-8 are row two, and 9-12 row three, same pattern.

Here's what row 1 (Snow Cap) looks like one week after planting the clones in the cubes:

I don't know too much about hydroponics but are you useing nutes yet?

Row 2 (C-4):

Row 3 (C-4):

Thanks ablazed, I tried to plan it out as best as I could, it's cost me quite some time and money, but now that everything's set up it should be fairly simple.

Yes, I have been using nutes. At the hydro store, I got a print-out from the guy with suggested nutes for vegging and flowering stages, specific for my 40 gal res. A week into it, I can see that I should have cut back on the nutes, so I'm flushing the tray and refilling the resevoir, this time with less nutes than recommended, I'm thinking half--maybe less.

Tonight is the start of week two. I flushed the tray and refilled the res. I also took some pics of the plants that seemed to be having problems. Hopefully they like the water better this time.

The pics are of plants 2 3 4 and 11, respectively.

Most people start nutes at 1/4 strenth and then move up.

A few things

1 you need ph and ec testing kit so that the nutrient fluid you give them is perfect

2 need to cover the tops of those rockwool cubes, its likely it will cause problems if you don't

3 looks like your doing a good job apart from that

I put in 1/4 strength nutes.

I have a pH testing kit, what's an ec kit? What should I cover the rockwool with?
Thanks for the advice.

I never known what percentage wise i put in as i just pour the bottle give the solution a stir and then put the meter in to check the ec, if its too high add more water if its too low and more nutes. I never go off the bottle instructions.

An ec meter is a meter that measure the Electrical Conductivity of the water, because you are adding minerals into the water this raises the ec, so when its at the right level you definately got enough nutes in there.

Dont confuse this with another scale though which measure in ppm, from what i know ppm is reached by multiplying the ec level by 500 or 700, because of this variable this makes the ppm scale less accurate as people use the different figures.

some ec meters
eBay - ec meter, Gardening Plants, Pet Supplies items on eBay.com
i got a nutra wand which gives multiple scales so you can see it in all the different ways.

the reason for covering the rockwool is if the rockwool is wet with nutrient fluid and recieves light this will create algae which will suck the available air from the rockwool.

I got some of those black bin liners and coated the top of my rockwool cubes

Thanks, great stuff nongreenthumb. Would tin foil be ok to cover the cubes in?

you could use tin foil, but if it creases it will reflect the light back unevenly on the plant plus also wouldnt it be effectively like cooking the roots slowly, just as long as light doesnt hit the rockwool you will be ok you could even do it just by covering them with the hydroton

yeah good job mate!

but he meant that in a nice way man!!

I'm always curious. This 2x4 frame that holds the 40 gallon resevoir. Does that frame sit on the floor of the tent?

Sorry brain fart. Just getting caught up. Welcome to the forum. I just looked at one of those setups yesterday and wondered if anyone would adjust them for hydro or aero. Your are using flood and drain? I'm just trying to get an idea af how tall this is getting? 12 plants, 40 gallon res? The water your are using, tap water? And non is right on you need an EC meter. You have invested some time and money in this setup. It would be a shame if you didn't get maximum information to achieve maximum results. If I am picturing this set up right, and right now thats a big if, you will want to do an EC on your water before adding nutes, and adjust for it i.e. E.C= .3, target Ec 1.8, Ec with nutes= 2.0. I apoligize for the rambling. Part of our job is to test the harvest. Stoned again.

The 40 gallon res. sits on the ground, under the 2x4 frame supporting the tray. All this is inside the tent which is basically a skin hung on a steel frame.

Yes, I'm using flood and drain. The bottom of the tray is about 1.5 - 2 feet off the ground. There is about 14 inches of slack on the light (hanging from the roof), and the entire tent is only 6.5 feet tall. This means I'm only going to be able to have the plants get about 3 - 3.5 feet tall.

I'm using tap water, but pHing it and then adding the nutes. I'll have to get an EC meter.

How often should I water? I've been watering every four hours for the first week, but then I read that's too much so I've only watered them twice in the past 24 hours -- with just pHed tap water because I wanted to flush out all the nutes.

Ok, so I had to move my grow spot to a different location, too many people were finding out. But now, it's too cold in the new spot. I have the lights on at night so as not use peak hours and the fans are always running to supply the plants with new air. I checked the thermometer this morning, last night's max temp. was 71.6 degrees, min was 61.3 degrees. I have them under a 1000w MH lamp, about 18" above the plants. How can I get more heat without sacrificing ventilation?