Flo: Nice set-up. Hope you don't mind if I steal the idea for my next round. I'm currently using Northern Farmers Stadium set-up and was wanting to get back to hydroton next round. Your irrigation design looks very efficient, particularly with the added benefit of aeration of the fluids on the return path. Care to elaborate on timing, cycles, etc?
You also said you were using two lights, for 10 out of 12 hours. I'm assuming in a cross pattern, i.e., bottom left-top right and vis-a-versa? If so, your power consumption should be equal to using approximately 14-1500 watts a day instead of 2400?
This would make it easy to do two of these in a 4 bedroom house,no?
Again: Excellent idea!
Thanks for the compliments guys I appreciate it. I would love to take credit for the idea but it is a spin off of a guy named Heath Ledger, a famous uk grower.. it was in a uk magazine and saw some pics online and decided I had to build one!!
In response to your question the lighting schedule is not quite that complicated... during the first four weeks, I used a flip flop schedule having set one (which consists of 2 vertically stacked 600w hortilux) on for 8 hours. at hour six the second set would come on so that all four lights would be on for 2 full hours. after two hours set one would go off and set two would complete the remaining part of the cycle. I did this in order to save electricity while the kiddos were just stretching out.
at week four I started to do a similar flip flop only this time set one would come on, then two hours later set two would come on, giving the plants 8 full hours of light, then the last two hours only set two would run.
at week 6 I started the full 12/12 with both sets.. this did raise the temps a few degrees but I figure the extra light will really help push the babies along (which it has)
as far as feeding cycles I only feed 2x daily, once when the lights come on and once mid-day.during the last two weeks I raise it to three feedings a day in order to maintain ph stability within the rockwool cubes while the kiddos are really suckin down the juice. I have had a few nutrient issues so I am thinking about uppping it a couple of feedings just to see if it stabilizes it a little more.
there is a lot of aeration from the return and I also have a couple of air stones in the res so that nutrient hotspots do not occur since there are only two feedings per day.
I would love to see more people go vertical I think it is the wave of the future and makes for a much more efficient use of light. be sure to take lots of pics!!
The one thing I have had trouble with is the gutters, there is a little bit of splash from the drainage but nothing noticable, still if i could go back i would raise them up a tad. also you have to be sure that the draining side is the lowest point so that there is no standing water in the gutters. all of my gutters drain well except for one side, which i had to shim up and duct tape so that it would drain correctly. also be sure to use a very large water pump because pumping to height takes a lot of work and i may need to upgrade the pump when i add the extra sites.
my last word of advice and def. the best thing i did was added the 4mm inline valves to control the flow to each individual feed tube. the ones at the top get much more pressure than the gravity fed tubes so being able to adjust the flow to each one individually makes tuning the system an absolute breeze!
any other questions I am happy to answer
i could talk about mary and setups alll day long!!
FLo