Hydroponic Gravity fed system almost harvest time

Any questions, Comments, Concerns:

I have three plants growing, one in soil, the other two in a Vertical Gravity fed system I built out of PVC pipe. It operorates as such; There is a 5 gallon res with a 150gph pump, which pumps the water too a opening in the pipe and gravity takes over. There are damns at the begining of every turn in the system to control the sulution level in the 6 in PVC pipe. I glued a air hose in the bottom of the pipe which oxygenates the system. The nets are slightly summurged in the water and the roots collect in the tube.
I use foxfam nuts
PH i keep 5.5 to 6.0
PPM currently 600
Temp: Tops 83 Room 78
2. 65 Watt cfl
1. 40 watt cfl
150 watt HPS

Almost harvest

Feel free to dicuss or ask questions

More Pics Of it

Lookin good man. Tempted to rig up a gravity driven hydro set-up like you've got going. Saw a guy who made huge octagonal ones with 1000w lights hanign in the center. Hydro scares me though lol - good job.

Gastanker said:

Lookin good man. Tempted to rig up a gravity driven hydro set-up like you've got going. Saw a guy who made huge octagonal ones with 1000w lights hanign in the center. Hydro scares me though lol - good job.

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Thats where i got my insperation from, I belive his "Name" is Heath Robinson.

I hope you do rig up one, in my experience so far it is the best system to grow good dense large buds. It combines several hydroponic designs and growing tech, into one.

Thanks keep watching for the harvest pics later next week

Please for the love of marijuana don't harvest next week.
That bud has at least 3 more weeks.
If i could i'd like to copy+paste something i wrote in another thread.

I'm personally of the opinion that 90% of the growers on this site (And probably in general) harvest too early. By letting the plants go a little longer you're ensuring that the've plumped as much as they're going to.
Despite popular opinion to the contrary(and don't fool yourself, the jury is still out on this one) Recent studies have shown ;contrary to what was previously believed, that THC itself (And its predecessor THC-A) are quite guilty of causing the confusion and drowsyness associated with burnout and other cannabinoids (our friend CBN, and a handful of others) to be the catylist (along with THC) to being 'high' rather than 'baked'
Regardless, whether or not theres any substance to the aforementioned study, its easy to get the high you want.
If you want a soaring 'cerebral' high: Get yourself a tropical sativa that contains a high level of THC-V and grow it until it is ripe.
If you want the narcotic couchlock stone, grow a rugged indica until its ripe.
Notice a pattern of growing it until its ripe? Its a really good rule to live by.
OF course we have to remember that there is more to a good high than just THC. At last count there are at least 66 cannabinoids, and we don't know what most of them do.


Now alot of people will tell you that you should harvest based on the colour of your trichomes. But (again, in my opinion) that is far too simplistic and there are too many variables to make that an effective strategy. I've made that point a million times before and i'm not going to re-hash it here, but rest assured there is more to the picture than just trich colour.


A ripe marijuana plant will be filled in, will have an amber tinge to the buds. The pistils should have browned (or orange-d) off and receded into the buds. The seed bracts should be swollen and the trichomes should be sticking straight out with bulbous ends. Also, because you're coming close to the end of plant's life cycle, the leaves should have yellowed off and started to die.


one of my plants, 3 days before chop-chop.


Another very important (imho) reason to let your plants mature is Terpenoid production. Terpenes are responsible for alot of the complex (And enjoyable) flavours that cannabis produces. Some of the most intense flavours are produced on the "downslope" of cannabis's life cycle. My personal experience with this came when i was growing GH cheese. One of the plants i harvested at 8 weeks and it tasted pretty nice and had pretty dense buds. The other i grew until about 9 1/2 weeks and it had most amazing, sour, skunky, delicious taste with rock hard buds.

Be patient. It will be worth it.

SpruceZeus; Thank you, but let me clairify what i ment by week. Im a firm believier that the buds arnt ready till there ready, and then add some time. I just use words like min or week to generalize time frames

Heres a diagram of the system i built Hopefully will help some people ,

Also if anyone can tell me what i can find in my home for an alternative to buying PH down. I am currently just adjusting my solution with water. Ph keeps lowering about a point a night would like to keep it more stable.
PPM level currently 350-450
Near the end stages of flowering

Getting closer and closer ... heres some recent pics

Howes the root system look to you guys Healthy ?

damn nice for a 150w and some cfls.