Hey guys! I thought I would give you a preview of the new "How to Harvest a Pound Every Month" thread. I thought is was about time to upgrade the thread with my latest designs and changes.
I've been trying to develop my new systems to fit within State plant number limits. Most States have a limit of six mature plants. That's why I came out with the StinkBud Jr. unit. The SB Jr. is great but I wanted something even better. A lot of guys stick to soil or DWC because they can grow huge plants. This let's you maximize your harvest to plant ratio. All it takes to grow big plant is space and more veg time. Sounds easy but it's harder than you think.
The New Design
The new design is a totally new way of growing. I call it the "Hybrid Approach". From now on when ever you see the word
HYBRID in the growing world, this is where you heard if first.
What is the Hybrid approach?
Basically it's growing with a combination of aeroponics and DWC. Why both? Everyone knows how fast everything grows with aeroponics. There is no debate that it's the fastest way to grow. The problem is safety. There is not much time for the plants to live if they loose their water source. There are many ways for this to happen. Power, pump and timer failures are common. I've also forgot to plug in my pump (duh). UPS's work great for power failures but they don't help much if your timer goes bad.
So for many people, the risk of loosing everything is not worth the reward. They would rather run a system that is safe. Something that you can feel comfortable with leaving a week or two without maintenance. There are a few systems that you can do that with. I've seen a lot of DWC and ebb & flow systems lately. Some guys are using drain to waste with coco or other mediums. Of course soil will always be popular with a core group of people.
Many of us will never feel comfortable running straight aeroponics. If you travel or you're on the road much you understand what I'm talking about. That's where DWC (deep water culture) has us beat. Even if you loose your power source your plants will be fine for days. Even ebb & flow can't do that. Most guys run air stones in their DWC to increase the oxygen level and decrease the chance of getting the funk. DWC systems works great but can't compare with the growth rate of Aeroponics. Don't forget, you need enough light and CO2 to see a difference using aeroponics. The more light the better!
The Hybrid Concept
While developing the StinkBud Single I discovered that if I filled the reservoir enough, half the roots would hang in the water. The top half of the roots were still being sprayed with water. At first everything looked pretty normal. Then within a week everything just took off like crazy! The roots shot out from everywhere and the plant growth was unreal! The cool thing is that even if the plants loose the water supply there's still half the root ball hanging in the water. There was no way to loose the plants now.
This was groundbreaking! The first Hybrid Aero/DWC system! The best of both worlds. The growth rates of aeroponics, with the safety of DWC. I knew I was on to to something. I hadn't been this excited since my first design! After the first harvest everything in my gut told me this was the future of growing!
I started working on my new designs. I had gone through many variations before I ended up having anything to show (SB Single). I still wasn't happy with the reservoir or the sprayer design. I tried a bunch of stuff but soon started getting out of my league. I could come up with the designs but I couldn't pull it off to the tolerances needed to make them work. The old jig saw just wasn't cutting it anymore (pun intended). I started asking around trying to find someone with the skills and tools needed to pull off the dream system. That's when I met these great guys from Southern California that already had an interest in my systems. They had the facility and the skills. It was a perfect match.
So now I'm working with these guys as a consultant. They are a manufacturing company and have all the cool tools to make everything perfect. I've been working on and testing this growing concept (Hybrid) for over a year now. You may have seen some of my prototypes (SB Single). This new Hybrid System is in a whole new league. I could never achieve this level of quality by myself. There is a huge difference between a $400K Waterjet and a $15 jigsaw! So what is different about the new system?
I was trying to achieve a number of objectives with the new design:
1) Large plants. No, I mean
HUGE plants!
2) Large harvests with less plants
3) 0% chance of leaking
4) 0% chance of screwing up - leave the valve open without worry
5) Easy maintenance - Drain valve and pump access
6) Modular (easy to move)
7) Plant Support (SCROG training) YoYo's are for kids not plants
Redundancy (no power = no problem)
The new Hybrid growing concept requires more veg time. The longer you veg, the bigger your plants will be. If you veg long enough you could easily harvest 8-10oz. per plant. Check out the photos of my plant in flower. She's at 7 weeks and still has a couple of weeks to go. Notice the size of the root ball. This plant was only vegged a couple of weeks. Imagine how big it would be if I vegged it a month! I've also included some illustrations that I will be including in the new article/thread. You guys are the first to see them. Eventually I'll post them over at Rollitup but for now only you core StinkBuddies will get the info.
All I ask is that you do me a favor and support the guys over at
http://www.socalaero.com/ When you buy from them, you help me and all the StinkBuddies. Be sure and tell them that StinkBud sent you! These are the only guys that I recommend buying your systems from.
I know that some of you will still want to build your own systems. That's why I posted the StinkBud Single plans.
http://www.stinkbuddies.com/downloads.htm That way anyone with a drill and a jigsaw can pull off a Hybrid system. But for you that demand the best, these are the systems for you. They aren't cheap but nothing of quality is. They will pay for themselves many times over with just your first harvest. Over time, you will spend a hundred times more money on your power bill and nutrients than you could ever spend on one of these systems.
After you get your new system be sure and post a grow thread. I want people to know how great these new systems are. Now is your chance to support future design and development in the StinkBud community. Buying these systems allow people like SoCalAero (and me) to continue to come out with better technology that benefits everyone.
So stay tuned for the new "How to Harvest a Pound" thread. I will be including the new Strong Box Cloner and veg unit plans. The instructions will also be updated with the latest formulas and techniques. I'm stoked that you guys are the first to read about the new design. I hope you guys support
http://www.socalaero.com/ and don't forget to
Spread the Love!
Your StinkBuddy,
StinkBud