SCROG or LST with DWC bubble pots -- how to do it?

[kryptoniteglo]

Hey Folks,

Looking for some ideas here. I'm on my second indoor hydro grow, using two 3.5 gallon bubble pots in a tent. I'm growing sativa-dom Jillybean, and on my last grow they were going to outgrow my space easily. They were both males, so I never got that far. But I can see I'm going to have a problem if I let my new attempt veg for 8 weeks, which I want to. Last time I topped for 4 colas as per Uncle Ben, and the plants looked great. It looked like four big bushy plants were growing in each bucket!

I definitely need to scrog or lst, or something similar. But most of the examples I'm seeing are for soil where 1) lids aren't being removed twice a day to check ph/ppm levels and 2) there's lots of stuff to anchor to, so both scrog screens and lst tying/pinning work great.

But what should I do? I would need to build two scrog screens for my tent, one for each bucket. And affix them pretty securely to the lids. Then twice a day I'd have to gingerly pull each bucket from the tent being careful not to hit the other screen in order to tend to the water. Now I just pop the lid up and push it to the side.

Is this what people do? Or do they lst in a particular way...if so, what do they anchor to? Which technique would be best for my circumstances?

Thanks for your help!
KG

 

[legallyflying]

You can attach a screen to the lid; or attach a rez to your bucket and fill and drain them from there.

Honestly though, in a grow that small, just tie the hell out of it with bamboo sticks and what not. Your buckets are WAY to small for a big plant anyways. I only veg for 3 weeks and my 5 gallon buckets are packed...like solid round root mass when I am all done
Cheers

 

[kryptoniteglo]

You can attach a screen to the lid; or attach a rez to your bucket and fill and drain them from there.

Honestly though, in a grow that small, just tie the hell out of it with bamboo sticks and what not. Your buckets are WAY to small for a big plant anyways. I only veg for 3 weeks and my 5 gallon buckets are packed...like solid round root mass when I am all done
Cheers

Thanks for the advice. Because I had males before I've never gotten to the end to see what happens root-wise. I think this time rather than scrog I will find creative ways to lst that don't affect my ability to move the bucket lids the way I have been. I'm loathe to change more than one major variable at a time just because my lack of experience will surely get me into trouble at some point.

 

[legallyflying]

https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/478010-flowering-undercurrentdwc-32.html

There are some bucket top scrog pictures. The larger your bucket the more nutrient solution, the more stable
It's going to be and the less you will have to top off. My plants in a 5 gallon drink more than a gallon per day in peak flower. Not a big deal as I have a central res, but ugghh if I didn't.
Cheers

 

[kryptoniteglo]

https://www.rollitup.org/dwc-bubbleponics/478010-flowering-undercurrentdwc-32.html

There are some bucket top scrog pictures. The larger your bucket the more nutrient solution, the more stable
It's going to be and the less you will have to top off. My plants in a 5 gallon drink more than a gallon per day in peak flower. Not a big deal as I have a central res, but ugghh if I didn't.
Cheers

Awesome! Thanks for the link!

 

[legallyflying]

you bet. Happy growing. If your looking for help I would always take the advice of woodsmen and helllraizer. Two guys that know what the hell they are talking about. (and that is half the battle here).

 

[kryptoniteglo]

you bet. Happy growing. If your looking for help I would always take the advice of woodsmen and helllraizer. Two guys that know what the hell they are talking about. (and that is half the battle here).

Now THAT's worth it's weight in gold. I've had really good luck in selectively taking advice or not. There is a lot of bad advice floating around! I do have a couple of "go-to" names that if I see them I pay extra attention. I'll add those two -- and yourself! -- to that list. Cheers!

 

[legallyflying]

Bad advice on rollitup? Never. Lmao

 

[herbalife]

Get a wire rack from something like this and cut some bits out from the middle large enough for your netpot, set it on top of your DWC bucket/tub and tie the plant down to it. Might need to tie the rack down to the bucket or put weights on it if the plant is too strong.

 

[kryptoniteglo]

Get a wire rack from something like this and cut some bits out from the middle large enough for your netpot, set it on top of your DWC bucket/tub and tie the plant down to it. Might need to tie the rack down to the bucket or put weights on it if the plant is too strong.

View attachment 2393035View attachment 2393036

Thanks! Modifying something that already exists is a good idea. I'm thinking now if I can find something flat and clip out a large circle and affix that to the lid, I won't be scrogging but I'll have plenty of additional sites for an lst tie-down. Nice!!!

 

[legallyflying]

oh christ. holes are too smalll on that thing.

Dude, jsut post a picture of your grow set up and I we will give you specific advice on what will work best. I've scrogged with allot of shit.. Safety fence, pountry cloth, 2x3" hole wire fencing (by FAR the best), suppported from the floor, hung from the ceiling (also best), attached to the lids, not attached to the lids, etc etc ad nausea.

given some info on your lights, strain, and res size we can hook you up. But again, the issue here isn't the fact that you need to figure out a scrog set up, the issue is that your going to try and grow a monster plant with a 3.5 gallon container. When it starts filling with roots, its going to be llike 2 galllons. I'm here to tell you.... VERY high maintenance times ahead with so little nutrients. Don't listen to me though, da fuck I know anyways?

 

[kryptoniteglo]

oh christ. holes are too smalll on that thing.

Dude, jsut post a picture of your grow set up and I we will give you specific advice on what will work best. I've scrogged with allot of shit.. Safety fence, pountry cloth, 2x3" hole wire fencing (by FAR the best), suppported from the floor, hung from the ceiling (also best), attached to the lids, not attached to the lids, etc etc ad nausea.

given some info on your lights, strain, and res size we can hook you up. But again, the issue here isn't the fact that you need to figure out a scrog set up, the issue is that your going to try and grow a monster plant with a 3.5 gallon container. When it starts filling with roots, its going to be llike 2 galllons. I'm here to tell you.... VERY high maintenance times ahead with so little nutrients. Don't listen to me though, da fuck I know anyways?

I'm listening! LOL

First of all, I've figured out the lst approach. Got these long bamboo skewers and made a light-weight grid where the holes are 2.5 inches apart. Taped it to my bucket lid. Instead of scrogging, I will lst a little. That's fine...I have been trying to fit a lot of plant in a small space, and I will be less ambitious there.

But let me ask you about roots...on my last grow I got only up to flowering, as I ended up two males. The roots had grown, of course, but they weren't that extensive. I have no experience beyond that.

If I'm to expect the plant doubles in size in flowering, do the roots double in size, too? And if so, is there a rule-of-tumb ratio for root-to-water in terms of the health of the plant? Because you're now talking about the plant having enough nutes around it to flourish in flowering...right? Obviously it makes sense that if the root itself is displacing nuted water, there's less to draw from. But being fairly new to this, that wasn't something I had thought about. I have the 3.5 gallons because that's what came with my grow tent.

Sounds like I need bigger buckets. What size do you think the minimum would be? Would 5 gallon buckets do it?

And thanks a lot for your help. I'm good at looking at my current situation and maybe one step ahead. But it's hard for me to see more steps ahead than that without actual experience. I'm a terrible chess player.

 

[legallyflying]

Ok, well first things first. You need to learn to identify a female plant. After there are about 6-7 growing nodes (branches) a female plant will be easily identifiable. VERY easy actually, google around for images, you will see two small white stamens growing out of the upper nodes. Its very obvious, they look like two little white hairs, NOT the little green pre-leaves that tend to grow at the nodes. If you get 10 nodes and you can't see the stamens... you have a male.. they will have these tiny tight little ball looking things at the nodes. They are much harder to identify, even with a hand lense.

The nutrient volume to plant size is not soo much a "getting nutrients to the roots" issue as it is a stability of the nutrients thing. 5 gallons seems like a good size. As plants uptake water and nutrients from solution, the chemistry of the water changes, typically the PH rises and some nutrients are left behind so to speak. The problem is that if you only have a small volume of water, your going to have to be adding fresh water and PHing all the time..at least once a day. That kind of rapid change (both through you adding and changing and the plant absorbing, tends to be hard on a plant). Plants don't like the chemistry in their root zone to change that rapidly. The larger the volume of the container, the more you can buffer those changes. If you had the room, I would almost say go with a 10 gallon tote from walmart or something. Then you can cut a flap in the lid and stick your meters in there and test the solution and adjust as needed, without lifting the whole damn lid off. I love DWC but I really don't understand how some people can stand lifting the whole plant out in order to test the water and change nutes, etc. I run a central rez, but its not really that practical in an operation your size.

In terms of root size.. I dunno, there is not some rule of thumb out there, it really depends on the strain and the growing method and how long you veg for. In general, I would say that the root mass will double through flowering.

 

[kryptoniteglo]

Ok, well first things first. You need to learn to identify a female plant. After there are about 6-7 growing nodes (branches) a female plant will be easily identifiable. VERY easy actually, google around for images, you will see two small white stamens growing out of the upper nodes. Its very obvious, they look like two little white hairs, NOT the little green pre-leaves that tend to grow at the nodes. If you get 10 nodes and you can't see the stamens... you have a male.. they will have these tiny tight little ball looking things at the nodes. They are much harder to identify, even with a hand lense.

The nutrient volume to plant size is not soo much a "getting nutrients to the roots" issue as it is a stability of the nutrients thing. 5 gallons seems like a good size. As plants uptake water and nutrients from solution, the chemistry of the water changes, typically the PH rises and some nutrients are left behind so to speak. The problem is that if you only have a small volume of water, your going to have to be adding fresh water and PHing all the time..at least once a day. That kind of rapid change (both through you adding and changing and the plant absorbing, tends to be hard on a plant). Plants don't like the chemistry in their root zone to change that rapidly. The larger the volume of the container, the more you can buffer those changes. If you had the room, I would almost say go with a 10 gallon tote from walmart or something. Then you can cut a flap in the lid and stick your meters in there and test the solution and adjust as needed, without lifting the whole damn lid off. I love DWC but I really don't understand how some people can stand lifting the whole plant out in order to test the water and change nutes, etc. I run a central rez, but its not really that practical in an operation your size.

In terms of root size.. I dunno, there is not some rule of thumb out there, it really depends on the strain and the growing method and how long you veg for. In general, I would say that the root mass will double through flowering.

Thanks very much for the detailed discussion. Much appreciated! +rep! I will up my bucket size to make life easier on the plant (and me). Again, I've had bad grow luck and have ended up with males. Definitely males. Due for a female or two now, though!

 

[MikeLife500]

I'm listening! LOL

First of all, I've figured out the lst approach. Got these long bamboo skewers and made a light-weight grid where the holes are 2.5 inches apart. Taped it to my bucket lid. Instead of scrogging, I will lst a little. That's fine...I have been trying to fit a lot of plant in a small space, and I will be less ambitious there.

But let me ask you about roots...on my last grow I got only up to flowering, as I ended up two males. The roots had grown, of course, but they weren't that extensive. I have no experience beyond that.

If I'm to expect the plant doubles in size in flowering, do the roots double in size, too? And if so, is there a rule-of-tumb ratio for root-to-water in terms of the health of the plant? Because you're now talking about the plant having enough nutes around it to flourish in flowering...right? Obviously it makes sense that if the root itself is displacing nuted water, there's less to draw from. But being fairly new to this, that wasn't something I had thought about. I have the 3.5 gallons because that's what came with my grow tent.

Sounds like I need bigger buckets. What size do you think the minimum would be? Would 5 gallon buckets do it?

And thanks a lot for your help. I'm good at looking at my current situation and maybe one step ahead. But it's hard for me to see more steps ahead than that without actual experience. I'm a terrible chess player.

How did that turn out with the bamboo skewers? Might have to try that

 

[mytwhyt]

A tomato cage can be made to support a scrog screen. Do not bend the wire at the weld, it will almost always break, bend 1/2 inch above the weld..

 

[KoolaidMan]

Check out my post on a SCROG build I did for buckets that allows you to lift out the plant with it.

SCROG idea for DWC

While browsing tons of threads I have seen many people asking how to SCROG a DWC bucket and some people posting ideas. Here is something I came up with using 1/2” pvc. Only thing left to do is place some metal grid panel on top for the “net”. This attaches to the lid and allows you to lift the...

www.rollitup.org