1st time hydro help???

so iv done a few grows in soil and now got 2 places to grow so was wanting to do 1 hydro as been told about much better yields and was wanting to put a wilma big 4 pot in my 4x4 tent with 600hps cooltube and 6inch extraction...

this will just be to learn as im already starting a soil grow in my 3x3 closet under 400mh in veg 10 seeds in there..

so i was just wondering about medium and feeding schedule and if there are much maintainance as will be in another house and was only planning on going once a day but can go a few as its only a 20 min bike ride...

heres a few pics of the dry weight of my plant i chopped on monday i still have 2 hanging and 1 to chop

I would do a simple dwc, deep water culture, a bucket with a airstone in it. Just search DCW, and feeding depends on what nutes u use. I love DWC, can get monster plants! And I use rockwool in hydroton pebbles

Damn looks good man how did you get all them tops on that last pictures z did you just keep fimming them or topping them ?

What strain is that in our photos?

dwc like vapedup was saying start with little on no ppm in water put nutes in dont go over 300 ppm for first week or two then increase by 100 or so then ph the water take it to about 5.5 keep water temp around 66 degres if possable air around 76 degress and watch it grow. it will out grow the ones in soil so keep eye on it as far as the distance of the light and becarfull of the nutes theres no buffer like theirs in soil

Ok lads cheers am gona do a bit more reading about it like, the strain is big bud and no fimming or topping just lst through veg and first couple weeks flower. Can I get 4 pot dwc set up with 1 resivour or would it be better 1 each but more work

Look into ebb and flow, or flood and drain too. I think they are easier to maintain but I'm biased.

I think I'm gona chose between a 4 pot dwc bubbler or 4 big pot wilma probs the dwc when a do a bit more reading

Hey budolskie.

Check out the link in my sig.

It was my first run in the wilma4. Back before hot fuzz took it away.

Its pretty simple to use as long as you test pH and EC.



J

Ok m8 cheers, been looking more into bubbler now with 1 resivour to check, that's what put me off dwc thinking I would need to sort 4 feeds out every time But with bubbler it's just 1 what u guys recommend bubbler or wilma?
Like what is best yield, most work dwc has no medium that's a plus

5 gallon pales with bubbleponics is the way to go

- you can get roots that weigh the size of a small dog
- just need rockwool in a mesh pot, no other medium needed
- One reservoir to nurse (hook all the pales together to drain to a lower reservoir with water being pumped back to each pale)

If you go this route then i have one piece of advice from experience, have 2 airstones in each pale with each one hooked up to a seperate pump(ex ; 2 airpumps both feeding half the airstones in 2-3 pales). If you have the resources, have them even hooked to seperate breaker then your power consumers like your lights and heaters/coolers.

The reason i stress these precautions instead of having 1 pump take care of 1-2 pales alone is if it ever fails/burnsout or your breaker goes then in no time you will have root wrought. No one wants to deal with that. Its the one real draw back of bubble

I was looking at the rdwc 4 pots bubblers for around £80 on eBay I'm just on iPod now I will get sum links up later on to what I'm after buying

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251229132867?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649&autorefresh=true

here is what i have been looking at to buy

if you want to do a diy its a lot cheaper. Most of that can be bought at a hardware store, plus in that set you still need to buy pumps.

Shopping List
5x - 5 gallon pales with lids -$25 (Canadian)
5x - 1/4in Hose fittings to pale with seals - $8
10ft - 1/4in black plastic hose - $5
3x - 1/4in Tees - $3
5x - 1i/4n valves - $10
10ft - airhose $10
10x - Airstones(2 for each pale and resovoire) $20
4 - Meshpot $6 (at grow store) or cheaper you can buy plastic pots with big lips and drill holes into them till there swiss cheese


Thats $87 or 65 Euros for all of the same stuff plus it will allow you to make it more custom for your room.

But if you did go DIY then i would upgrade the resoviore to a shallow yet wide container. You want it lower then valves coming off the pales to let them drain and circulate

Others things you need is a water pump to feed back into top of pales to get the nice recycling affect, at least 2 airpumps for protection of one failing. Possibly a heater or a cooler for your water (depending on climate)

So I thinking about wilma as it will only be 1 res to look after

Also decide if you will work with beneficials and organic materials (b1, extracts or additives derived from kelp or organic materials which can decompose in the system) or if you will go 100% sterile with inorganic materials as the 2 do not mix well together and can cause problems.

I favor an inorganic and sterile system using an ebb and flow or a RDWC (recirculating deep water culture) system.

I was looking a rdwc but it is more res to look after

woops and i guess for you it would be 58 pounds

Wilma

pros;
-It is a lot more compact and tidy (space to walk around your woman)
- Less work to prepare
Cons;
-Plants will have less space between each other to grow
-Plants will have to be trained away from each other to efficiently take up all of what the 600watt light can give in a 4x4 (you will to provide support)
-stand higher, giving you less room to grow vertically
- more cleaning involved due to those grow medium pebbles


4 Pot DWC system

Pros;
- Spread nicely in 4x4 room
- Customizable
- Can make automated with modifications
- Dont have to replace or clean medium after each grow (other than rockwool)

Cons;
-Modifications parts cost
-Less room to walk around


When i say modifications i mean you easily can make it into a one resoirvore solution. You just need to make the 5th "filling" pale lower than the mary jane pales.
-Put the planting pales on some kind of secure stand
-exchange the "filler" pale with a more shallow container with about 20-30 litres minimum(allowing you not to have to put the plants so high to gravity feed down)
-Buy a cheap submersible water pump and have water lines go into the bottom of each pale
-have the water drain at the your water level you would like to keep in the pales.

Oh and for your Ph/EC monitor i would also suggest this one
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6-in-1-Digital-LCD-Monitor-Meter-Water-Quality-Tester-EC-CF-TDS-ppm-PH-C-F-/190797963662?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item2c6c71e18e

it also includes temperatureso your PH is adjusted accordingly. Temperature is something you will also need to watch out for if you decide to use the Wilma since you cant put the resovoir outside of the grow room


I just ordered one, just sick of walking into my grow room grabbing each sperate monitor and dipping them in 2 resovoirs.... so much work with the button pressing and such lol i like to make it easy.

I prefer the rdwc like that I can make run off one res just a bit complicated I plan on doing lst aswell in this hydro as I been doing with soil grows I think a will but that 6 in 1 aswell to save dipping loads meters in every day