Hydroponics Question and Answer NewGrowth Style

TheSalesman said:

I too would like to know what air pump is recommended for a 18 gallon res. I am just waiting on my seeds, but I got a pump rated for 20 gallon with a dual outlet going to two 1' airstones and a smaller pump rated at 15 gallons pushing a small 6" stone.

Not sure if that will be enough. If not, will attaching the stones to the side of the container do better?

Also, what do you recommend for preparing tap water. I've read leave it out for a week and maybe throw some peroxide in.

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The more air the better, I think you will be fine with what you have.

Tap water should be initially tested for Ph and total dissolved solids. Most tap water will work just fine. Some areas have highly chlorinated tap water.

I would just try it out unless you know you have bad water in your area.

polishfalcon420 said:

well I think Im going to give the dwc bubblponics a try when I get around to it. if you got any advice on nutes that would be great. have you ever used Iguana juice? is an all organic nute ok to use in this setup? if not what do you recommend I want to keep the mixing simple to start with. I dont really want to do something like add this much of this and that much of that o' and dont forget to add this too.

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I use Ionic brand nutrients and no additive except H2O2 and in some systems hygrozyme in place of H202. I have never tried Iguana Juice. My recommendation is to stick with what you are comfortable with.

doniawon said:

here are my plants after 4 days of burn and terrible growth using half the recomended dose of bushmaster IN the resivoire... now i need stretch master

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They don't look too bad, I see those mini leaves you were talking about.

stretch master, maybe they will sell that for outdoor growers when legalization comes around. Imagine a marijuana privacy hedge

hey new growth. have another question for you.
I have 30 plants on a 5'x20' table. each plant is in a 3gal bucket using hydroton. I have 3 1000 watt cool tubes with dual spectrum bulbs. I use a 35gal tub for water and nutes. I run water lines to each plant. water drains back to tub. now I have 2 plants that reached 18" the first 3 weeks of veg. I have been topping them weekly to let the others catch up. the others are between 12 and 15 inches, very healthy and bushy. it is now week 8 of veg, the 2 tall plants are at 20" and I do not want to top anymore. what would be causing the slow growth with the other plants, if there is no nute burn and all other things seem perfect? do I need to prune the plants to get them to grow taller? the stalks are thick and branches thick to. should I just turn them to flower or prune and wait till they catch up? I dont want to be impatient, but 8weeks of veg is nuts. the others came a week later and I have been slowing them to try and even things out. they would be close to 3' if I would have let them go. whats the deal.

any help would be fantastic thanks again. oh and they are all grand daddy purps if that helps, and running General hydro micro and grow with some super thrive H202 never any funk and change res once per week. have been keeping PH at 5.2-5.8 daily. was told to start at 5.2 and let it go up to 6.5 to allow for better absorption of N, P and mag. have not been doing this, but started today.
sorry for the length of the question. thanks.

Ramon66 said:

hey new growth. have another question for you.
I have 30 plants on a 5'x20' table. each plant is in a 3gal bucket using hydroton. I have 3 1000 watt cool tubes with dual spectrum bulbs. I use a 35gal tub for water and nutes. I run water lines to each plant. water drains back to tub. now I have 2 plants that reached 18" the first 3 weeks of veg. I have been topping them weekly to let the others catch up. the others are between 12 and 15 inches, very healthy and bushy. it is now week 8 of veg, the 2 tall plants are at 20" and I do not want to top anymore. what would be causing the slow growth with the other plants, if there is no nute burn and all other things seem perfect? do I need to prune the plants to get them to grow taller?

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Some plants just grow slower are they different strains? Have you sexed the plants yet? They should be showing pre-flowers by now, males grow taller and faster most of the time.

the stalks are thick and branches thick to. should I just turn them to flower or prune and wait till they catch up? I dont want to be impatient, but 8weeks of veg is nuts. the others came a week later and I have been slowing them to try and even things out. they would be close to 3' if I would have let them go. whats the deal.

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I would not prune during flower at all, just let them grow out some LST might be in order to help even out the canopy.

any help would be fantastic thanks again. oh and they are all grand daddy purps if that helps, and running General hydro micro and grow with some super thrive H202 never any funk and change res once per week. have been keeping PH at 5.2-5.8 daily. was told to start at 5.2 and let it go up to 6.5 to allow for better absorption of N, P and mag. have not been doing this, but started today.
sorry for the length of the question. thanks.

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It really sounds like you are doing great, don't be too hard on yourself nature runs its course.

yes they are all the same strain, but from different mothers. all female clones from a club near by. I went ahead and thinned them out so they get full light to all branches, and set my timers for 12/12
going to go ahead and flower. most ar 15" . if all goes well they should double in size. thanks for all the help.

Hey NewGrowth
I am starting to look into setting up an ebb/flow system. I will probably be doing continuous harvest SOG and using 4-15W/225 LED blue/red mixed spectrum lights and some t8 fluorescents. The questions I have are: how do you use nutrients in an ebb/flow system? do you ever give the plants straight water or is it always a nutrient solution before flushing? also when putting plants into an early flowering do you ever use veg nutes or just bloom nutes? what kind of nutes do you recomend for this type of sytem?
Sorry for so many questions but you seem to be the best person to ask.
-Peace

bonham1989 said:

Hey NewGrowth
I am starting to look into setting up an ebb/flow system. I will probably be doing continuous harvest SOG and using 4-15W/225 LED blue/red mixed spectrum lights and some t8 fluorescents.

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Cool LED's! I would like to see more of these grows.

The questions I have are: how do you use nutrients in an ebb/flow system?

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Same as any other hydro with some minor adjustments depending on the medium used. I just run nutrients and H202.

do you ever give the plants straight water or is it always a nutrient solution before flushing?

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This is medium dependent, I will flush rockwool with fresh water avery two weeks to prevent any salt build up. I have found this to be mostly unnecessary when using hydroton. Usually my final flush before harvest is only for a day or two unless I have been having problems.

also when putting plants into an early flowering do you ever use veg nutes or just bloom nutes?

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That is really dependent on the situation. Sometimes if flowering is rapid I will give them a little nitrogen boost early on. Late in flower I run strictly bloom nutes, sometimes in the last few weeks I will add a little Ionic Boost if flower formation is still vigorous.

what kind of nutes do you recomend for this type of sytem?

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Nutrients are a personal choice, I do not recommend "Organic" hydro however. I use Ionic for its low cost, two part, because I am comfortable using it, dissolves well, and has excellent Ph buffers.
My best advice would be to use what works well for you.

Sorry for so many questions but you seem to be the best person to ask.
-Peace

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Ask away! I'm happy to answer questions. Good luck! Send some pics of your LED buds my way

Thanks for all that good info. I'll be getting a camera soon and get pics of the L.E.D. bud. It has been working good with my soil set up so far.
Thanks again.
Peace

what kind of system and how many site to yield 6-8 lb i was thinking about using t8s for the whole life of of the plants i have a large room prob 12 ft. by 16 ft. and my concerns are if i would use 600w hps it would be pretty expensive to run and cooling would be a problem i have about 3k to build this room and system

6-8 lbs with t-8's.. lol..

doniawon said:

6-8 lbs with t-8's.. lol..

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really mature i ask a question and you post something pointless laughing like your something special, if you are something special then i think you might have responded with advice from experience but i really wasnt asking you was i.

sorry bro .. well i just spent 3000 and finished the set up today .. ill post some pics of my 3000 dollar set up.. im expecting 5.5 lbs.. maybe this will help you better.. i just couldnt imagine a t-8 set up doing much .. at all.. so i chuckled a bit.. watch for some pics tonight on here..you dont have to be special to grow weeds..

CannabisCloset said:

what kind of system and how many site to yield 6-8 lb i was thinking about using t8s for the whole life of of the plants i have a large room prob 12 ft. by 16 ft. and my concerns are if i would use 600w hps it would be pretty expensive to run and cooling would be a problem i have about 3k to build this room and system

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https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/174170-zeuss-how-grow-dope-q.html
Growing dope is pretty expensive, there are certain things you just can't skimp on (light, ventilation) but if you can figure out cheaper ways to do it with equal effectiveness, all the power to ya!!!






While i'm here,
Newgrowth, I'm currently doing ebb and flow in a 2x4 table (soon to be 2)
I'm going straight from my aerocloner to hydroton without using RW. currently i have 21 netpots on my table. However i've been told that these are the wrong pots for the job. I've yet to experience any difficultys but ominous warnings to confuse and confound me.
My question basically is, If i continue to grow in the netpots will i run into trouble with my roots coming into the light or will they just be air pruned without issue?
Using Holland secret 3 part at 1.4 EC as well as 35% H202 at about 3ml to the gallon. Under a cooltubed 1000.
Ignoring the almost dead ones (poorly rooted, never really had a chance) Does this look like problems waiting to happen?
The roots are starting to creep up the channels of the table, is it okay to leave it as so or should i do something about it?
maybe
-Take a piece of black and white poly and cutting holes for the plants lay it across the whole table.
or
-Fill in all the gaps with more hydroton.
-(god forbid) take some sciscors and snip the stray roots?

Thanks and peace to you.

Is a whiper 40 air pump enough for an 18 gallon dwc? Its hooked up to a tee with two 6" airstones.

CannabisCloset said:

what kind of system and how many site to yield 6-8 lb i was thinking about using t8s for the whole life of of the plants i have a large room prob 12 ft. by 16 ft. and my concerns are if i would use 600w hps it would be pretty expensive to run and cooling would be a problem i have about 3k to build this room and system

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I'm sure you could get 6-8lbs with t8's but it would probably end up costing you more in the long run. You would have to buy A LOT of t8's If you can't afford proper ventilation then you may want to scale down your ambitions a bit. With 3k you could easily set up a small perpetual harvest system running 1-2 air cooled 1000w HPS and have another space for mothers and clones under a smaller HID or flouros.
To put things into perspective estimate 1oz per plant so you would need to flower about 96 small plants. To do this under t8's would require quite a few of them. The lumen/watt output is much greater for HID's making them more efficient. Hope this helps with your planning, trust me there is a good reason growers use HID lighting.

SpruceZeus said:

https://www.rollitup.org/general-marijuana-growing/174170-zeuss-how-grow-dope-q.html
Growing dope is pretty expensive, there are certain things you just can't skimp on (light, ventilation) but if you can figure out cheaper ways to do it with equal effectiveness, all the power to ya!!!

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Thanks man I'll have to read more of your thread I really like your set-up. Your cost saving DIY stuff is great!

While i'm here,
Newgrowth, I'm currently doing ebb and flow in a 2x4 table (soon to be 2)
I'm going straight from my aerocloner to hydroton without using RW. currently i have 21 netpots on my table. However i've been told that these are the wrong pots for the job. I've yet to experience any difficultys but ominous warnings to confuse and confound me.
My question basically is, If i continue to grow in the netpots will i run into trouble with my roots coming into the light or will they just be air pruned without issue?

Click to expand...

They will probably prune themselves both because of light and drying.

Using Holland secret 3 part at 1.4 EC as well as 35% H202 at about 3ml to the gallon. Under a cooltubed 1000.
Ignoring the almost dead ones (poorly rooted, never really had a chance) Does this look like problems waiting to happen?
The roots are starting to creep up the channels of the table, is it okay to leave it as so or should i do something about it?
maybe
-Take a piece of black and white poly and cutting holes for the plants lay it across the whole table.
or
-Fill in all the gaps with more hydroton.
-(god forbid) take some sciscors and snip the stray roots?

Thanks and peace to you.

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The roots are going to migrate out of your pots, especially where they are protected from light and where moisture is trapped. I think you best option is to cover them with something like panda plastic. You could fill the gaps with more hydroton but from a practical standpoint hydroton is heavy and will need to be washed and sterilized between harvests. The poly will also help reflect light and make it easy to un-clog your drains if needed.
Next time just go with regular cheap nursery pots, the ones you have are more suited for a dutch bucket set-up.

Everything else looks awesome man good work.

hendry said:

Is a whiper 40 air pump enough for an 18 gallon dwc? Its hooked up to a tee with two 6" airstones.

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The more air the better, the surface of the water should be turbulent with bubbles.

my new 3000 dolla system.... hope she gets it done

Nice don you're gonna have some bucket monsters

NewGrowth said:

Nice don you're gonna have some bucket monsters

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during the last 2-3 weeks of flowering, should i be trying to achieve maximum nutes without strong nute burn? Would a high P-K be good? What are some tricks of the trade near harvest, to fatten up and really BOOM your flowers?

also i have heard of using brown sugar during the flush period. the molasses gives it a good taste i believe. Would you recommend this? How much brown sugar (if this is whats chosen) would you use per gallon?

These are the current nutes and dosages of them im using per gallon, WEEK 8 FLOWERING

25 ml of BC Boost/Bloom
3.0ml of MagiCal
3.0 ml of Thrive Alive B1 Red
20 ml of Botanicare Sweet
4 ml of Bloombastic


My "Recipe for Success" (bundle of nutrients package with directions guaranteed to grow your shit) suggests during the last 7 days flushing to do this: First 3 days = 2.5 ml of Magical and 40 ml of Botanicare Sweet. The next 4 days just straight pH adjusted water. These two products suggests a high amount of Magnesium, Sulfur, and Iron (Botanicare Sweet 0-0-0) and Calcium, Magnesium, and Iron (Magical 2-0-0).

Are these few ingredients the secret to increasing your bud flowers during late weeks of flowering??

motif said:

during the last 2-3 weeks of flowering, should i be trying to achieve maximum nutes without strong nute burn?

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You should always be trying for this. I don't think I would say "maximum" nutes though. You are looking really only to provide what the plant will use and avoid excess.

Would a high P-K be good? What are some tricks of the trade near harvest, to fatten up and really BOOM your flowers?

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There are different things being sold to "BOOM" flowers. I feel the majority of these products make exagerated claims. I'm sure some of these products do work but the only way to know would be to try them out yourself. I like to keep it very simple and just add Ionic Boost during the last three weeks. Rapid bud growth occurs during these weeks and the plant will often use the
"extra" P-K.

also i have heard of using brown sugar during the flush period. the molasses gives it a good taste i believe. Would you recommend this? How much brown sugar (if this is whats chosen) would you use per gallon?

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This is a myth. Molasses is an old gardening trick that has appeared on the pot scene for some reason. Molasses will increase soil bio-activity by providing "food" for microbes. It also provides a small amount of NPK. The effectiveness of Molasses becomes greatly reduced when using chemical fertilizers. It is a good addition to your organic garden or compost pile however.

In hydro using molasses is just asking for trouble. Would you put sugar in your gas tank? Think clogged up pumps not to mention all the food you would be providing for microbial growth.

Now for the taste part, I agree that organic soil grown pot has a better flavor. However I believe the average smoker could not tell the difference and there are many more factors that go into taste.

These are the current nutes and dosages of them im using per gallon, WEEK 8 FLOWERING

25 ml of BC Boost/Bloom
3.0ml of MagiCal
3.0 ml of Thrive Alive B1 Red
20 ml of Botanicare Sweet
4 ml of Bloombastic

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Wow that is a lot of stuff. Here are mine:

1,400 total PPM Ionic Bloom/Boost
1.7ml/L H202 35%

Uhh some Ph down and thats it . . . .

My "Recipe for Success" (bundle of nutrients package with directions guaranteed to grow your shit) suggests during the last 7 days flushing to do this: First 3 days = 2.5 ml of Magical and 40 ml of Botanicare Sweet. The next 4 days just straight pH adjusted water. These two products suggests a high amount of Magnesium, Sulfur, and Iron (Botanicare Sweet 0-0-0) and Calcium, Magnesium, and Iron (Magical 2-0-0).

Are these few ingredients the secret to increasing your bud flowers during late weeks of flowering??

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There are no secrets . . . Increased yield has more to do with genetics and growing conditions. I also factor in cost, why buy all that stuff when I can get the same results without it?

I would not recommend high Calcium, Mg, or Iron. These are called micronutrients for a reason adding too much will cause lockout.

Good luck

thanks for the input newgrowth, www.hidhut.com i got all those nutes plus lots more for only $29.95 ^_^

Hey new growth, i tried starting a thread to get my hydro questions answered but no such luck yet. Since you're offering up advice on anything hydro i thought that i'd just ask you the questions directly.


I am using DWCS.

Here's what i have:

• Tap Water, ph adjusted to 5.8 from 6.8

Powder Nutrients

• Potassium Nitrate (KNO3, 250g)
• Potassium Sulphate (K2SO4, 250g)
• Mono Potassium Phosphate (KH2PO4, 250g)
• Magnesium Sulphate (MgSO4, 250g)
• Plantex CSM+B (1.5% Magnesium (MG), 1.5% Magnesium (cheleted),0.10% Copper (Cu),7.0% Iron (Fe - cheleted), 2.0% Maganese (Mn - Cheleted), 0.06% Molybedenum (MO), 0.40% Zinc (Zn - cheleted), +B is an extra addition of Boron. Don't know how much.

The reason that i have these nutrients is because i also grow aquatic plants in my aquarium. It works great for them, they grow fast and lush. Also in the aquarium world potassium is the key to limiting algae growth. The fine details are a little fuzzy but it works by algae not using it and the plants using it very efficiently, thus the plants out compete the algae for nutrients. I follow PPS PRO a tried and true formula and dosing regimen with the nutrients.

So that brings me to my question, I got to thinking one day before i set up my hydro while researching nutrients and thought why not just use the nutrients i have for the aquarium? I mean they dissolve very readily in water, I probably have enough powder nutrients to fertilize a small pond, and they're made to limit algae growth, major perks right?

So, this is where i'm at, i don't know where to go from here. How much of each should i use? Are there any of the nutrients that i don't have to or need to use? How would you use these nutrients? I read somewhere that having more potassium in your nutrients will produce more males from seed than females, is that true? that Any help will be greatly appreciated

As a side note: I also have the water quality report for my area and would like to adjust the nutrient solution to work with the contents of the tap water but have no idea what to look for on it, like what the hell are chloramines... SUPER CHLORINE. Eventually after a few grows i am hoping to have the nutrients tailored to each strain i have trough testing but right now i'm mainly looking for a general hydroponic nutrient formula for veg and flower.