Good hydroponic plan?

Alright so I'm reaching the next step in my grow journey, and I have a few questions/ I want to see if this is a good plan, so I will lump all my questions here quickly and hopefully no one gets mad at me!

at the moment i have 5 unsexed plants which have been vegging in soil from seed (AK47/ or 48 and sourdiesel i think?) for 2 months (They've been growing pretty slow i guess but whatever, im new)


(Crappy closet set up pics (There are a few more cfls not shown in the pic).... and a close up of one)

Instead of just straight up flowering them, i was thinking I'd rather take a few clones from each, move those into a whole new system (grow them hydroponically), flower them and see their sex, get rid of any males from my original five soil plants, and keep the rest as mothers to clone for a while...

The clones would go into a hydroponic system (Because I honestly don't want to deal with finding loads of soil for loads of clones...) of most likely an NFT system or maybe the one (cant remember the name) where the the roots suspended in the nutrient solution get oxygenated by airpump bubbles... I lean towards NFT from what little I know about it because you dont need a grow medium (Is this true? can I just secure the main stem with some sort of clamp?)

So, is this a good plan so far? comments?

Now a little into the process of cloning for a second, I've heard many different theories on where to take clones. Some say you take a clone from near the top of the plant so that the light is more easily able to penetrate to the lower leaves, while others say you take the clone from near the bottom because then the plant can focus more energy on higher leaf growth... either way i probably have a lot of foliage down below not getting enough light so any thinning out of foliage by cloning is good for me. My plants have a lot of nodes and such, I just dont know where to take the clone from. I've done much research and everyone seems to do it differently and get by fine...

Alright, that's all that I can remember having questions about at the moment... Though I'm sure as i venture into this new-for-me realm of hydroponics, I will have many more questions and MUCH more to learn. Any suggestions/info/answers?

This is my first grow and I know there are probably many things I'm not doing even near perfect, but whatever, I'm not trying to be an expert or anything; This is merely a hobby purely for fun and myself.

Thanks a lot!

Take clones from wherever you find it most prudent. I take some from the top, some from the bottom. Whatever branch has 3-4 nodes on it is good. make sure you have a humidity dome or your clones are dead. Hit them with leaf feed a couple times a day. In 10-12 days you should have good roots. Follow the directions on the myriad of videos available on youtube on the subject and you'll do fine. Since you're using rooting hormone it doesn't matter at all if they come from the top or bottom of the plant. The bottom branches have more natural rooting hormone from what I understand but I take top and bottom cuts and try to make it so my canopy height is what I'm regulating. I don't clone all my cuttings, some I just toss.

My first 6 clones were done that way, they all lived.

Flowering a couple clones to determine sex is smart. Get them rooted in rock wool first, then toss in your flowering system whatever it might be and give it a couple weeks.

It's a good idea to find out the sex of your plants... are you going to upgrade your lighting for the flowering cycle? Where are you going to root your cuttings??
The hydroponic method you were reffering to is deep water culture (DWC), it's simpler then the nft method, and if you never grown hydroponically before you should try the dwc method... Good luck!

So if im trying to keep my mother height down, should I just taking cuttings from the tops if im using a rooting hormone? Also, how stressful for the plant is it to trim a plant down (Or which leaves can I cut, and which should i not? Anything I should know?)

sleeperls93 said:

... are you going to upgrade your lighting for the flowering cycle?

Click to expand...

I was thinkng about sticking with some 42 watt cfls, especially because I dont have good enough ventilation for something like an HPS

Oh also, I'm still wondering, how necessary is a grow medium? Why couldn't I just, say, get something to clamp with a firm hold on the main stem? (Im planning on keeping my clones very small, so could I do this and not be worried about support issues?)

And in the DWC method, how much bubbling is needed to oxygenate the roots of each plant enough?

Thanks for all the help

I use three 42 watt bulbs in my cabinet. I have the desire for HPS, just not the room. would turn my cab into an oven.
At it sits now, i have to use a 6 inch inline fan to cool the 42 watt bulbs. even when its 105 degrees outside, its never above 88 in there. I am 8 degrees over ambient temp. Naturally the winter time helps a bit when we have cool days. it runs 84 ish.

JP

You need something to support the plants in the baskets. I grow with a "rapid rooter" type plug and surround it with clay pellets. The action of the bubbles replenishes the o2 in the res. the bubbles move the water, and by that action you get gas exchange.

No one ever complains about having too much air in DWC. Just doesnt happen the plants love everything you throw at em within reason.

i use the water level to keep the plug moist until the plants reach the water. then you can back it off some. I keep about 3.5 gallons in my four gallon res once i have strong plants. the two air stones move the water quite nicely although i could use more i just have a dual port air pump.

JP

Ok thank you this is all very good info. I have just one more important question that hopefully someone can help me with... So after attempting to construct a hydroponic system, i quickly realized that the bubbling and other noises that it was making were not near discreet enough. This makes it very complicated for me because I want to move away from soil, but i can find no way to make it as stealth as my soil grow. Im wondering if maybe instead of having bubblers and pumps and all, maybe if I just kept my resevoir shallow enough, I could let the roots absorb all the water, then let them get some air, and then fill it up again? I know this may be tedious tending to this, but if its true that this is possible, I know I could set it up in a way where I could ALWAYS be there to tend for it when it needs it.

So basically, would this work? Are there any better non-soil completely stealth methods? If I were to do this, how long would I let it get air after all the water was absorbed before i added more water again? Is this stupid? Haha

Thanks!
-A truly gracias man

BlazingGlory said:

Ok thank you this is all very good info. I have just one more important question that hopefully someone can help me with... So after attempting to construct a hydroponic system, i quickly realized that the bubbling and other noises that it was making were not near discreet enough. This makes it very complicated for me because I want to move away from soil, but i can find no way to make it as stealth as my soil grow. Im wondering if maybe instead of having bubblers and pumps and all, maybe if I just kept my resevoir shallow enough, I could let the roots absorb all the water, then let them get some air, and then fill it up again? I know this may be tedious tending to this, but if its true that this is possible, I know I could set it up in a way where I could ALWAYS be there to tend for it when it needs it.

So basically, would this work? Are there any better non-soil completely stealth methods? If I were to do this, how long would I let it get air after all the water was absorbed before i added more water again? Is this stupid? Haha

Thanks!
-A truly gracias man

Click to expand...

You need an airsone with a pump obviously, or that water will get stagnant..

Definitely wouldn't start with an NFT if you are new to hydro.

Bubblers usually use a netpot filled with hydroton or rockwool on top of a bucket filled with water.
Just keep that water aerated and watch the pH.

If you really want to keep it stealth, then soil might be the way to go.

You could construct a hydro setup that is almost silent. A flood and drain or bubbler system can be made almost silent aside from the vibration of the pump. If that was too much I'm sure you could find a way to dampen the vibration. You definitely need to circulate the water to keep it from getting stagnant but it doesn't have to be splashing all over the place, although it doesn't hurt.