Whats the best Hydro method for Commercial Grow?

legallyflying

legallyflying

Well-Known Member
200-400 plants? I'm guessing those would be pretty small plants. If they were medium sized plants I would say DWC with a central reservoir.

with that many plants your almost certainly looking at a SOG and most sogs I know about use hydroton.. or lots of rock wool.

Either way, you shouldn't use the terms 200-4-- plants and easy to clean, cycle and maintain in the same sentence.
Nothing about that many plants is easy, nor clean.
 
waterdawg

waterdawg

Well-Known Member
SOG flood and drain with rockwool IMO. She'd be a bitch cleaning out the pebbles would it not, when done I mean? And yes lots of work lol.
 
panhead

panhead

Well-Known Member
It just so happens your question is exactly what i do.

Without a doubt flood n drain sog using 4ft x 8ft flood tables ,for mold reasons ya dont want to overpack the table so istick with 50 clones per table ,5 rows with 10
plants per row is perfect.

Now for which medium ,fuck rockwool ,its quirky to get right & in large op's it can be a nightmare , i use sponge plugs for clones & 5 inch net pots ,for several yrs i just used hydroton or other stone type mediums to fill the net pots & i stress NO MEDIUM INSIDE THE FLOOD TABLE for several reasons, number 1 its not needed unless you want massive root systems ,which btw lead to bigger yeilds so why not fill the table with medium right ?

On top of weighing a 1,000 fukin lbs having 32 sq feet of exposed wet surface plays hell with humidity levels ,then somebodys gotta clean all that shit between grows, so ya got 2 sensible choices ,run the flood table empty & only fill the net pots or use rockwool , both suck because either way you get small root systems from light pruning the exposed roots which leads to smaller yeilds, covered flood tables are the ticket because they keep a moist mold free enviroment that blocks all light from the root zone, not to mention the quickest clean up after harvest ,it takes me approx 1 hour to clean & restock a 50 plant table , turn around time using this method is so fast ya pull 6 harvests per table in 12 months ,average yeildin a 4ft x 8ft 50 plant table is 4 to 5 lbs.

Now for lighting ,big ass 1,000 watters are not the best choice ,others will argue that but they will still be wrong ,with sog extra deep light penetration isnt needed since the finished plants are only 2ft high from 6 to 8 inch clones, 600 watters are a much better choice vs 1,000's for several reasons ,asny benifit the 1,000 has in penetration or light spread is iost due to radient heat , the 1,000's need to be 10 t0 12 from the canopy whereas the smaller & cooler 600's can ride the canopy so close cola tops can touch the glass everywhere except the area directly under the last 2 inches of the bulb tip with zero burn or light poisioning/yellowing of the leaves.

For light set up i use 3 600 watters each a 32 inch x 36 inch hood, This way nearly 100% of the table is directly under a reflector, the entire table is a sweet spot,

For cooling i use dual vortex type 6 inch fans in a push pull configuration ,one fan pulling directly from a can filter then sending its output thru all 3 lights & the 2nd fan pulling air from the end of the light chain, i process the hot exhaust further by venting to a dump room thats highly ozonated then vented outdoors but that is purely overkill due to pennitentary paranoia .

Covered tables are made by botanicare or you can use a standard flood table & cover the top with white panda plastic & cut evenly spaced holes using a e empty net pot as a guide, the plastic cover takes a white to make but its worth making, after harvest ithrow away all net pots & the hydroton making clean up a snap.

In my time on this site ive yet to see a more productive method of sog & that was from the guy who mentored me ,if you allready can grow via hydroponics then you will easily go over the over glorified 1 gram per watt ratio.
 
legallyflying

legallyflying

Well-Known Member
Sounds like you have it nailed. I had a 4 x 8 table filled with hydroton once.. ughhh. You must have a massive sheet of roots and net pots etc to deal with at the end that is for sure. so no vermiculite or anything in the table huh? At any rate, it sounds like you have it pimped out for sure.

I wish I could run SOG but I am in a med state so its SCROG for me. I am starting a new room in three weeks with two rows of 7 600's. Looking forward to it! Its going to be RDWC under screens.

Thanks for the info, +rep.
 
L

Lucius Vorenus

Well-Known Member
panhead said:
It just so happens your question is exactly what i do.

Without a doubt flood n drain sog using 4ft x 8ft flood tables ,for mold reasons ya dont want to overpack the table so istick with 50 clones per table ,5 rows with 10
plants per row is perfect.

Now for which medium ,fuck rockwool ,its quirky to get right & in large op's it can be a nightmare , i use sponge plugs for clones & 5 inch net pots ,for several yrs i just used hydroton or other stone type mediums to fill the net pots & i stress NO MEDIUM INSIDE THE FLOOD TABLE for several reasons, number 1 its not needed unless you want massive root systems ,which btw lead to bigger yeilds so why not fill the table with medium right ?

On top of weighing a 1,000 fukin lbs having 32 sq feet of exposed wet surface plays hell with humidity levels ,then somebodys gotta clean all that shit between grows, so ya got 2 sensible choices ,run the flood table empty & only fill the net pots or use rockwool , both suck because either way you get small root systems from light pruning the exposed roots which leads to smaller yeilds, covered flood tables are the ticket because they keep a moist mold free enviroment that blocks all light from the root zone, not to mention the quickest clean up after harvest ,it takes me approx 1 hour to clean & restock a 50 plant table , turn around time using this method is so fast ya pull 6 harvests per table in 12 months ,average yeildin a 4ft x 8ft 50 plant table is 4 to 5 lbs.

Now for lighting ,big ass 1,000 watters are not the best choice ,others will argue that but they will still be wrong ,with sog extra deep light penetration isnt needed since the finished plants are only 2ft high from 6 to 8 inch clones, 600 watters are a much better choice vs 1,000's for several reasons ,asny benifit the 1,000 has in penetration or light spread is iost due to radient heat , the 1,000's need to be 10 t0 12 from the canopy whereas the smaller & cooler 600's can ride the canopy so close cola tops can touch the glass everywhere except the area directly under the last 2 inches of the bulb tip with zero burn or light poisioning/yellowing of the leaves.

For light set up i use 3 600 watters each a 32 inch x 36 inch hood, This way nearly 100% of the table is directly under a reflector, the entire table is a sweet spot,

For cooling i use dual vortex type 6 inch fans in a push pull configuration ,one fan pulling directly from a can filter then sending its output thru all 3 lights & the 2nd fan pulling air from the end of the light chain, i process the hot exhaust further by venting to a dump room thats highly ozonated then vented outdoors but that is purely overkill due to pennitentary paranoia .

Covered tables are made by botanicare or you can use a standard flood table & cover the top with white panda plastic & cut evenly spaced holes using a e empty net pot as a guide, the plastic cover takes a white to make but its worth making, after harvest ithrow away all net pots & the hydroton making clean up a snap.

In my time on this site ive yet to see a more productive method of sog & that was from the guy who mentored me ,if you allready can grow via hydroponics then you will easily go over the over glorified 1 gram per watt ratio.
Click to expand...
This is very interesting and actually right along the lines of what ive been thinking about. A couple questions if you don't mind

1. Do you have a photo by chance of how you setup the table?

2. Do you run an airstone in your res or just use the airation from the returning water?

3. What size netpots and what is going in them? Just rockwool or just plug into Hydroton?

Thanks in advance. Great post BTW. I like the way you think. Other than the 600's. But that's only because we currently run 16 1000's and I don't want to have to buy 600's :eyesmoke:

We currently do top feed in Promix
 
panhead

panhead

Well-Known Member
Legalflying , hows it been brother, my wife was real sick for the past few months so i couldnt find time for rui so im a bit out of touch,did ya ever get that chiller finished ? Anyhow my tables are 100% empty other than the net pots ,as long as the root mass stays moist it rolls right up in a big sheet, after that i spray the table down with 30%h202 mixed with half water & wipe out with a sponge, cleanup is lickety split. I dont have the spare time to clean the used hydroton & netpots so i toss it all out & replace with new pots n rocks,

Lucius ,first off i'll address the pics, i used to post lotsa pics most of which can still be viewed at photobucket under panheadxxx's albums or in my old threads, a technology change left me dumbfounded on how to post pics,i will try n get my son to help me post a few pics when he visits tonight or tomorrow.

Im 60 yrs old & keeping up with all the changes is frustrating.

Now for the shit i can answer, i run all 5 inch net pots & for several yrs filled them from top to bottom with hydroton but i modified how i pack my clones in the net pot. I now use natural sponge in the pot along with hydroton,i take the clone plug & wedge it snug in the pot with chunks of sponge & fill the remaining space in the pot with hydroton , the chunks of sponge retain moisture better than clay pellets & keep the plants alive & healthy in the event of total pump failure.

The plastic lid also keeps the root mass moist between flood cycles which are a 15 minute flood every hour until about 5 weeks in,even durring lights off i flood that often, at the 5 week mark blight & powdery mildew become concerns,when the buds begin to crowd the canopy will retain moisture if i flood every hour ,flooding then gets cut to 15 minutes every 2 hrs lights on & 15 minutes every 4 hours lights off,flood durring lights off helps build root mass in the early weeks then about half way in becomes for the sole purpose of keeping the root mass moist.

My rez's all have airstones in them but just enough air to keep the water moving at all times,i use the airstones mainly to keep the rez fresh longer as standing nutrient heavy water stagnates rather quickly,too much airation will cause iron fall out within the nutes so i dont go nuts airaiting.
 
L

Lucius Vorenus

Well-Known Member
panhead said:
Legalflying , hows it been brother, my wife was real sick for the past few months so i couldnt find time for rui so im a bit out of touch,did ya ever get that chiller finished ? Anyhow my tables are 100% empty other than the net pots ,as long as the root mass stays moist it rolls right up in a big sheet, after that i spray the table down with 30%h202 mixed with half water & wipe out with a sponge, cleanup is lickety split. I dont have the spare time to clean the used hydroton & netpots so i toss it all out & replace with new pots n rocks,

Lucius ,first off i'll address the pics, i used to post lotsa pics most of which can still be viewed at photobucket under panheadxxx's albums or in my old threads, a technology change left me dumbfounded on how to post pics,i will try n get my son to help me post a few pics when he visits tonight or tomorrow.

Im 60 yrs old & keeping up with all the changes is frustrating.

Now for the shit i can answer, i run all 5 inch net pots & for several yrs filled them from top to bottom with hydroton but i modified how i pack my clones in the net pot. I now use natural sponge in the pot along with hydroton,i take the clone plug & wedge it snug in the pot with chunks of sponge & fill the remaining space in the pot with hydroton , the chunks of sponge retain moisture better than clay pellets & keep the plants alive & healthy in the event of total pump failure.

The plastic lid also keeps the root mass moist between flood cycles which are a 15 minute flood every hour until about 5 weeks in,even durring lights off i flood that often, at the 5 week mark blight & powdery mildew become concerns,when the buds begin to crowd the canopy will retain moisture if i flood every hour ,flooding then gets cut to 15 minutes every 2 hrs lights on & 15 minutes every 4 hours lights off,flood durring lights off helps build root mass in the early weeks then about half way in becomes for the sole purpose of keeping the root mass moist.

My rez's all have airstones in them but just enough air to keep the water moving at all times,i use the airstones mainly to keep the rez fresh longer as standing nutrient heavy water stagnates rather quickly,too much airation will cause iron fall out within the nutes so i dont go nuts airaiting.
Click to expand...
Thanks man.

I find that when i use airstones in a res with nutes in it i get great PH fluctuations, you dont find that?

this next run im going to try just coco in cloth pots in the drain table, im curious to see if that would be suffice and it would eliminate the need for the white sheet over the table
 
legallyflying

legallyflying

Well-Known Member
It must been awhile as the chiller has been working beautifully for about 6 months. But yeah, been working without a hitch. It has been so cold lately that I recently just placed the chiller reservoir outside and have been pumping cold water through my rez coils from it.

Saves me a little on the power bill. Here are some pics of the chiller and the stainless coils in the RES.








0211_UC_0002.JPG0211_UC_0000.JPG
 
R

RobTheViking420

Member
Top drip feed DTW. Get a few injectors from Dosmatic or Dosatron. A Little Giant ABS-1 for your waste nutrient and any A/C or dehueys run off. You could run the whole grow with 1 20-40 gallon res.
 
L

Lucius Vorenus

Well-Known Member
RobTheViking420 said:
Top drip feed DTW. Get a few injectors from Dosmatic or Dosatron. A Little Giant ABS-1 for your waste nutrient and any A/C or dehueys run off. You could run the whole grow with 1 20-40 gallon res.
Click to expand...
Why is that easier when you have to repot, transplant from small coco to large coco etc. It seems the tradeoff would be simply cleaning out a resevoir for each grow table.

Its probably a toss up.

We currently to the DTW and are gonna go back o a zero runoff method since our Sunshine takes too long to dry out
 
Moon Goblin

Moon Goblin

Active Member
this guy kills it with a giant flood table and a reusable medium.
[video=youtube;mZekotQEVSM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZekotQEVSM&list=UU4iRqSoCvN1nKQQ4qGwiwVQ[/video]
 
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