Easy drain system for flood hydro systems

Al B. Fuct said:

Feminised seeds are not a 100% sure thing. You'll get about 80% female at very best. This means that if you try to ScrOG from seed, at least some of the plants you will painstakingly wind around your screen will be male. Bad, bad, bad. For SoG & ScrOG, you need to establish a known female mother and do cuttings from that to feed your flowering area.

Drip systems are prone to nutrient salts clogging their dripper apertures unless cleaned frequently- at least every 2 days. Use an old toothbrush- or even a new one. A clogged dripper can mean a dead plant. This is the main reason why I use a flood system.

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the reason i was thinking scrog is becoz of the space between each pod 12 inchs..it sounds horrible to cut the male out but with early detection can i not safely remove it? what cud i do other wise

turfsire said:

the reason i was thinking scrog is becoz of the space between each pod 12 inchs..it sounds horrible to cut the male out but with early detection can i not safely remove it? what cud i do other wise

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If you don't use cuttings from a known female in a ScrOG, you're potentially wasting a lot of time and energy.

Moreover, seedlings need to be raised to sexual maturity (vegged 6-8wks) before you can flower them anyway, male or female- so you can give up in the idea of ScrOG from seed.

turfsire said:

the reason i was thinking scrog is becoz of the space between each pod 12 inchs..it sounds horrible to cut the male out but with early detection can i not safely remove it? what cud i do other wise

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u can cut the stem in half wait a few hours till its wilted and then it will just pull right now with out pulling on the other plants then trash that sucker...

blonddie07 said:

u can cut the stem in half wait a few hours till its wilted and then it will just pull right now with out pulling on the other plants then trash that sucker...

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ill just have watch them close when flowering..i think scrog would be the way to go only for the a male or 2..thanks

Al B. Fuct said:

Sounds like you need to put in 2 plants to flower every 2 weeks. You'll have 8 plants in flower at any given time. A 400HPS will do ya.

Running multiple tanks allows you to tailor nute mixes to the various stages of plant development. I use a potassium-phosphorus additive for 1 week only in week 3 of flowering. This would be complicated if I only had a single reservoir running all plants. However, it's not really practical to run separate nute tanks for a grow as small as you propose. You may end up hand-watering your wk3 plants if you use a PK additive for that week.

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I hadn't thought of that, thanks. I am using the Aqua valve self watering system at the moment. This comes in two pot expandable modules, and they send a 40 litre res with each module. I may get another two modules (for the inevitable second tent and 400watt light) This should allow me to have Four seperate nutrient solutions. These would be GH 3 part (which is really 4). I would then have one tank of early veg nutes, one of early flower, one of late flower and one tank of Flora ripen. A big advantage of this system is that when you have mixed and balanced, the numbers do not change. any left over nutes will go into the hydro tank for my Chilli's-they do not seem to care what they get!
The self build systems I want to try after I have built my personal up to a level I am comfortable with.

Big Al. Thanks for the info. It has been awhile since that post. I went ahead and bought a used 2x4 tray and ran with it. It worked OK. After some thought that elusive LOGIC managed to kick in.

Thanks Again JDAWG

cool.

Even a 2nd-hand plastic tray is better than homemade in this instance. However, that tray you bought was retired from service for some reason... usually it's due to small cracks. Some trays are not as UV proof as they should be- UV from HPS lighting will make non-UV stabilised plastics brittle after a year or two.

hey al hope you are feeling better.

i have darn near duplicated your set-up as per your ENTIRE 2 week harvest thread. wow what an awesome read!!! any hoo since there wasnt any info on the type of tubing until i read this thread i bought clear vinyl tubing and have developed a bit of a mold issue inside the tubing. all of wich could have been avoided if i had just cleaned the tub out every 2 weeks like you said to but of course i didnt and i pushed the boundaries and stretched it to 5-6 weeks b-4 it caught up with me. the plants are doing wonderful but the tub and inside tubing are icky. so i'll clean em today then i'll be good and clean em out on the 2 week schedule. do you think i'll be ok with the clear or is that a nono?

CaliGurl said:

Do you have a thread with the full construction of your hydro set up?
thanks
~Cali Gurl~

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i have some basic system plans here they are
Simply Hydroponics - Free Water Culture
Simply Hydroponics - Free Ebb&Flow
Simply Hydroponics - Hand Water Bucket
what part of cali you live in?

bugsrnme said:

do you think i'll be ok with the clear or is that a nono?

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Nono on clear tubing, for sure. As you found, the light passing through the material facilitates algae growth.

Just use sections of standard garden hose.

Hey Albfuct,
I based my grow around yours =)
Your the best!

heh thanks, CG. Hope that doesn't mean your grow is Fuct.

great to see you back al...you feeling better now? thought you were a goner

thanks mon.

I'm a bit better but still not on full steam. I may kill a few people with dirty looks this morning just to see if my super powers have been restored.

And the vacation...?? VV

Ya how was your vacation, From the ciggerete box from your thread, I think THAILAND?

I went to Fiji.

'Course, you say to yourself, "wot kinda moron goes on holiday in a country which has been taken over in a military COUP, ferfuxsake?" I guess it all depends on what your idea of relaxation is.

I stayed out of Suva, that's for sure. Flew in to Nadi and straight out again over to Vanua Levu, stayed at Jean-Michel Cousteau's joint near Savusavu. That little puddlejumper flight to the smaller island was en-ter-TAIN-ing. Not.

Funny thing is, all the Fijians think the coup is a good thing. PM Laisenia Qarase was thought to be favouring expat Indian and Chinese business owners over the interests of the indigenous folk. And really, the expats run all the businesses, employ a few Fijians and pay them next to nothing, so I can see their point, though people on the outside think that the Fijians are just being racist. Not the case. These folks really are put upon by foreigners. If I'd known more about the situation, I'd not have booked in to stay at the resort. Next time I go, I'll be staying with some absolutely wonderful people I met in Savusavu and paying them for a bed and travel instead of feeding the big money interests.

Got a question for ya,
Im in week 3 of flowering. I cut everything on the lower 1/3
Should i be cutting ALL the branches? even the ones that are high up on the plant?
I tried asking this ealier but nobody reall had an anwser, SO i drew a picture to help! I am not a artist =)

Just clip off the branches that get longer than about an inch or so, on the lower 1/3 of the plant. If others above that point threaten to get longer than an inch or so, clip them too.

I do two passes of branch pruning for each batch, once at the end of wk1 and again at the end of wk 3 to catch any that want to get long. This rather aggressive pruning method is best suited to a grow where you have a 'capacity house.' It is intended to prevent crowding when you have every square inch of lighted space filled, as well as reduce manicuring work on poorly productive lower branch buds. However, if you have a small number of plants, you may only want to do one pass of pruning at the end of wk1.

Ok i understand now, Thanks a bunch!