Hey diesel... nice little write up. I can tell you've been thinking about this. First of all, I don't totally understand the DMC thing. Is there a separation in the bucket between the part filled with perlite and the 'rez'. I stopped for a few minutes to think about this DMC thing and I think it sounds pretty cool. So is the point of having the media in there so that the roots spread out instead of just hang? And where did you hear about this? I googled it and couldn't find anything. Lol, got to the wikipedia article for Drum & Bass, haha. So the pump takes the water up, it falls down the tube and hits a 'bottom' making it aerated, then flows out the outlet hole into the top of the media where it runs down through and back to the bottom. Is that close? I know that's now what you are asking about, but it has me interested.
Not sure that it matters at all, but those screens were 28" wide. And the casey grew to about 40" tall. I guess the plants were a little wider than the screen so yeah, about 36 inches wide, and a tiny bit taller than 36". You are correct in that the ends of the branches were where all the weight came from. I was explaining this to someone and realized what I sorta did with those plants was lollipop each branch. I cut all secondary branches off the main ones growing out the stem. So all that stuff in the middle are popcorn buds.
I don't think the topping bit would work out too well. In my eyes it would just be too crowded. I think the way to make the topping work out the best would be to train it like this:
but I that doesn't seem like it would work too well. Just not the best use of space. In the pic I drew a circle (or whatever you wanna call it) where the problems would be. There would be a lot of big buds there, and if you cut one of the branches short you would lose a lot of herb from it. So my vote would be the christmas tree action.
I'll get back to the training, but first I think 2-400's would be better than 1-600. I've always been of the opinion that there is no way you can do bare bulbs in such a small space... but... my buddy dezracer has a 1000w bare bulb in a 40" x 40" tent and it's doing fine. I know you are planning on a cool tube, but you might give it a run with the bulbs bare and see what the temps are. Maybe the bottom one bare and the top cool tubed??? Not sure, but I would love to get rid of my glass if I could. I don't think it's possible, but I'm going to see what the temps get up to when I get my 1000w bulb back. Is there any way you would go for 2-600's? That might be the ticket. Those sixes are so efficient. Either way, I vote for 2 lights over 1. Better spread. Plus you can make one MH if you feel so inclined.
You going to get digital balasts or magnetic? And what kinda bulbs you looking at? Are you gonna post pics when things get going?Ok back to training. I have thought about this alot, not sure if it's even do-able... but if you could pull it off you would be a legend. It's hard to discribe so I'm going to make a bunch of shitty pics. I'm so glad we have similar artistic abilities, ha
So I drew some stuff... here's what I think would work good. Take all the main branches, meaning the ones coming from the stalk, and train them like I did... menorah style. Then take the secondary branches, the ones growing from the main branches and pull them back, then forward so that their tips are at the screen level. And what I would do is totally strip the main branches of budsites, except for the ends and the branches growing off them. Then for the secondary branches totally strip them, except for the ends. Then you would have the outline of big buds, and the center would be full of big buds as well. It would probably look like frankenstein during veg and into the beginning of flower, but once everything budded up it would be grenade size buds over the whole entire screen.
Not sure if you get what I mean.
The first pic is a top view if you only cut the secondary branches from the back of the screen, but let everything else grow. The second pic there is a top view and a front view. It makes sense to me, lol.
EDIT: I think a 100 gal/ hour pump would work for each bucket, sure. I don't think it could hurt to get bigger ones though, lol. Oh, and how does it get spread out over the top of the pot?
peace