Returning newbie

The last time I had a grow room, I used a flood and drain system.... 24 years ago!

I had plenty of access to water and lots of room for large tables.

Now I'm looking at 2 smaller spaces, each one 4' by 8'.

I'm thinking one for veg and one for flowering.

Do you think i should go back to a hydroponic system, or is using a growing medium gonna be better?

Thanks

MrPaxo said:

Do you think i should go back to a hydroponic system, or is using a growing medium gonna be better?

Click to expand...

In terms of space restriction 4x8 is fine for soiless flood tables / DWC / or flood and drain, how many plants do you plan to run in these spaces ?
I personally grow in a 4x8 at the moment in organic soil and love it for many reasons, but in terms of grow medium choice, it really depends what you want to do / have time to do. have you ever done any other medium besides flood and drain ?

MrPaxo said:

The last time I had a grow room, I used a flood and drain system.... 24 years ago!

I had plenty of access to water and lots of room for large tables.

Now I'm looking at 2 smaller spaces, each one 4' by 8'.

I'm thinking one for veg and one for flowering.

Do you think i should go back to a hydroponic system, or is using a growing medium gonna be better?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Welcome back, hippie! We got to stick together. There are a lot of whipper snappers here who think they know what fer' And TBH, a lot of them do. Lots of great info here...when it comes to cultivation, wisdom has no age.

But, does not sound like you are 'old school' in your preferred grow method. I have and probably always grow in soil. I just feel it is as close to mimicking nature as I can do indoors, and pleases Mother Ganja.

Good Luck and Great Growz

i grow in Coco medium and can say that you will not be disappointed in your yields if you chose to do the same.
Ofcourse as with everything youll have to put some effort into training but its pretty straight forward and even from the get-go i NEVER struggled with over-watering or had any nutrient lock-outs.
That being said i have seen the likes of nebulahaze grow some absolute beast plants using DWC i just dont understand enough about dwc to explain the difference.
Just my 2 sense, welcome back!

breakdancer0003 said:

In terms of space restriction 4x8 is fine for soiless flood tables / DWC / or flood and drain, how many plants do you plan to run in these spaces ?
I personally grow in a 4x8 at the moment in organic soil and love it for many reasons, but in terms of grow medium choice, it really depends what you want to do / have time to do. have you ever done any other medium besides flood and drain ?

Click to expand...

No I have not..my old setup was 12 X 1000W HPS, each one over a 4'X8"table, all of which were fed by one huge reservoir of nutrient on a flood and drain system. Each table had about 30 plants on it, in mesh cups with a soiless rock type medium to hold them and provide a structure for their root systems.

Today I would not do that, but rather use some of the methods i have learned from UTube, like topping, and lollypopping.

I'm not sure what would be the optimum number of plants for a 4X8 foot space...but I'm leaning towards using a coco medium. The question I have is, can such a system be set up with automatic watering, with drainage to dispose of run off, (much like a flood and drain system) or must my watering be carefully monitored to give the plants just the right amount of nutrients?

Thanks

$bkbbudz$ said:

Welcome back, hippie! We got to stick together. There are a lot of whipper snappers here who think they know what fer' And TBH, a lot of them do. Lots of great info here...when it comes to cultivation, wisdom has no age.

But, does not sound like you are 'old school' in your preferred grow method. I have and probably always grow in soil. I just feel it is as close to mimicking nature as I can do indoors, and pleases Mother Ganja.

Good Luck and Great Growz

Click to expand...

Thanks for your good wishes...I look forward to learning from the young ones.

dopeleader said:

i grow in Coco medium and can say that you will not be disappointed in your yields if you chose to do the same.
Ofcourse as with everything youll have to put some effort into training but its pretty straight forward and even from the get-go i NEVER struggled with over-watering or had any nutrient lock-outs.
That being said i have seen the likes of nebulahaze grow some absolute beast plants using DWC i just dont understand enough about dwc to explain the difference.
Just my 2 sense, welcome back!

Click to expand...

Thanks DL... I've been reading about DWC and I'm really not enthusiastic about it... not sure why. I think in my old age i want to keep things really simple and a coco medium seems to be like that.

I have the advantage of being able to take my time and carefully build my grow rooms. I've got an ideal location which is a "blank canvas" and i'll be able to set up almost anything i want.

I used to like coco until i tried Pro-Mix. Pro-Mix doesn't hold onto your cal like coco does, you don't have to ph your nutrients, and you still enjoy a similar growth rate. I prefer the pro-mix BX w/ Myco and I add some perlite and vermiculite.

I've been wanting to try "Tropf Blumats" for automatic watering, but i have much less space than you and less time (i'm assuming) to play.

Either a 3x3 or 3x6 flood tray with recirculating coco chip setup. It's my choice and suggestion.

I visited a local store and the woman there told me that normally growers don't recycle coco atfer use. Is she right, or is she just hoping to sell me lots of coco?

She also suggested that for a 4X8 ft table I'd need TWO 1000W HPS. She said LED just doesn't do the job as well, despite the reduced hydro costs. She said that the extra I'd pay for LED would offset any hydro savings for a while.

Your comments?

Thanks

researching said:

Either a 3x3 or 3x6 flood tray with recirculating coco chip setup. It's my choice and suggestion.

Click to expand...

Just so I understand, you are suggesting a flood and drain setup, with the plants rooted into coco... in cups/buckets?

Thanks

MrPaxo said:

Just so I understand, you are suggesting a flood and drain setup, with the plants rooted into coco... in cups/buckets?

Thanks

Click to expand...

I do drip recirculating. Either would work, but I use smaller reservoirs so drip works better for me.

MrPaxo said:

Just so I understand, you are suggesting a flood and drain setup, with the plants rooted into coco... in cups/buckets?

Thanks

Click to expand...

I use 3 gal air pots. I used to use 2 gal geopots.

researching said:

I do drip recirculating. Either would work, but I use smaller reservoirs so drip works better for me.

Click to expand...

Drip uses emitters, right? If so, i assume you need more than one emitter per plant to ensure enough nutrients get to all the roots. is that right?

If you are using a recirculating system, why not remove the emitters and let the nutrients flow, full force from the tube?

Please understand, i'm not criticizing, just asking question to learn.

Thanks

researching said:

I use 3 gal air pots. I used to use 2 gal geopots.

Click to expand...

I looked up air pots and they seem great. certainly better than the mesh pots i used 24 years ago.

Thanks

MrPaxo said:

I visited a local store and the woman there told me that normally growers don't recycle coco atfer use. Is she right, or is she just hoping to sell me lots of coco?

She also suggested that for a 4X8 ft table I'd need TWO 1000W HPS. She said LED just doesn't do the job as well, despite the reduced hydro costs. She said that the extra I'd pay for LED would offset any hydro savings for a while.

Your comments?

Thanks

Click to expand...

I reuse my coco, after harvest I just shake as much as I can off the root ball, screen out any roots(sift) re add it to my coco pearlite mix tub, then fill my pots I give it a good rinse with low dose grow nutes to get rid of any flower remnants and replant

MrPaxo said:

Drip uses emitters, right? If so, i assume you need more than one emitter per plant to ensure enough nutrients get to all the roots. is that right?

If you are using a recirculating system, why not remove the emitters and let the nutrients flow, full force from the tube?

Please understand, i'm not criticizing, just asking question to learn.

Thanks

Click to expand...

I make my own drip rings. I feed twice a day for 15mins each. They have no problem getting enough moisture and there is plenty of run off. The rings give me even feeding around the perimeter. I want all the roots to get fed evenly and I believe it also helps the roots spread better "reaching for the water". This setup works extremely well for me and cut my nutrient costs tremendously. I used to be able to reuse my coco, but with this setup the roots grow so crazy that I can't reuse my coco, I am fine with that because yield vs increased cost of coco easily makes up for it. Plus, coco chips aren't expensive. That is another thing I love about coco. The compressed kind that is. I don't feel like paying for the moisture for all the stuff that is already expanded.

Bbcchance said:

I reuse my coco, after harvest I just shake as much as I can off the root ball, screen out any roots(sift) re add it to my coco pearlite mix tub, then fill my pots I give it a good rinse with low dose grow nutes to get rid of any flower remnants and replant

Click to expand...

I used all my reg coco coir in my veg garden. I have reused some of it 4 times or more.

MrPaxo said:

The last time I had a grow room, I used a flood and drain system.... 24 years ago!

I had plenty of access to water and lots of room for large tables.

Now I'm looking at 2 smaller spaces, each one 4' by 8'.

I'm thinking one for veg and one for flowering.

Do you think i should go back to a hydroponic system, or is using a growing medium gonna be better?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Always stick with what you know,

sure many new systems are about,

few will cut it

F&D is still popular in many places

you will note there have been a few improvements with tech

but its really the same plant and pull syndrome ...lol

the real improvements have been with strains and selection (imo)

good luck

Can anyone tell me what this means pls. My new growth is turning light green and clawing on the tips and dark on tips ? Any help appreciated