So I am going to do a little test of some of the better growing techniques and medium combined into an all in one system.
So here's what I have.
2 gallon smart pot
Botanicare Coco
Perlite
Air pump
Raised Plastic Saucer
Wet-Vac (for sucking up drain to waste on flushes)
Advanced LEDs Diamond Series 100
Nutes (Complete Floranova Expert Drain to Waste line + extras) (Floranova bloom, Rapid Start, Liquid Koolbloom, Diamond Nectar, floralicious plus, floranectar, fox farm big bloom, hygrozyme, cal/mag, ph up/down if needed).
My goal is to utilize the simplicty of the hempy bucket style, with the air pruning of the smart pots, with the forgiving coco medium, and the excellent growth of dwc all in one.
Here's my setup.
I put 1.5 inches of perlite in the bottom of smart pot. I then fill the rest of the pot with coco and on top I put a tiny layer of perlite to keep moisture in the coco and to ease in watering from top.
Next, I will top feed until I get some drainage and will suck up the waste (I do this so I can remove the salt buildup).
Then I will fill the raised saucer up to the top of the perlite with my nutrient solution (I try to keep it around 900-1000ppms and pH of 5.8.
The excess nutriet solution will seep into the smart pot and rest in the perlite layer, just as it would in a hempy bucket. On my water feeds I like to give about 200ppm of big bloom and cal/mag.
Then I run two air tubes into my saucer and under my smart pot to get oxygen to the roots.
In theory this should keep me from having to water every day as the water from the pot will get wicked up through the perlite and into the coco. Also, with the limited amount of water in the saucer, I do not worry about algea forming from the light as it will get used up far too quickly for anything to grow.
Also, if for some reason my air pump dies or I lose power, I am not freaking out about getting root rot (Nightmare of DWC) since my roots are living in the coco and essentially my system then just turns into a coco smart pot/hempy bucket.
Lastly, if I need to adjust my water temperature in my saucer, I just toss in a few ices cubes as needed.
I've attached a pic of my current setup. Sorry about the crappy phone pic.
The plant is a dinafem critical jack and is about 20 days old from seed. I have fimmed the top and super cropped the entire stalk to the max so far. I like make bushes and then scrog them.
I plan on starting flowering in the next 7-10 days.
I just started the air pump today and will report back in a week on the progress.
For anyone that disses LED grows, I also attached a pic of my last grow which was an aghan kush ryder automatic that yielded over 2 ounces from one plant (pretty big yeild for an auto) grown under a 100W LED. I could have easily grown two plants in my space and in theory could easily achieve over 1 gram per watt.
Any feedback is much appreciated and stay tuned.
So here's what I have.
2 gallon smart pot
Botanicare Coco
Perlite
Air pump
Raised Plastic Saucer
Wet-Vac (for sucking up drain to waste on flushes)
Advanced LEDs Diamond Series 100
Nutes (Complete Floranova Expert Drain to Waste line + extras) (Floranova bloom, Rapid Start, Liquid Koolbloom, Diamond Nectar, floralicious plus, floranectar, fox farm big bloom, hygrozyme, cal/mag, ph up/down if needed).
My goal is to utilize the simplicty of the hempy bucket style, with the air pruning of the smart pots, with the forgiving coco medium, and the excellent growth of dwc all in one.
Here's my setup.
I put 1.5 inches of perlite in the bottom of smart pot. I then fill the rest of the pot with coco and on top I put a tiny layer of perlite to keep moisture in the coco and to ease in watering from top.
Next, I will top feed until I get some drainage and will suck up the waste (I do this so I can remove the salt buildup).
Then I will fill the raised saucer up to the top of the perlite with my nutrient solution (I try to keep it around 900-1000ppms and pH of 5.8.
The excess nutriet solution will seep into the smart pot and rest in the perlite layer, just as it would in a hempy bucket. On my water feeds I like to give about 200ppm of big bloom and cal/mag.
Then I run two air tubes into my saucer and under my smart pot to get oxygen to the roots.
In theory this should keep me from having to water every day as the water from the pot will get wicked up through the perlite and into the coco. Also, with the limited amount of water in the saucer, I do not worry about algea forming from the light as it will get used up far too quickly for anything to grow.
Also, if for some reason my air pump dies or I lose power, I am not freaking out about getting root rot (Nightmare of DWC) since my roots are living in the coco and essentially my system then just turns into a coco smart pot/hempy bucket.
Lastly, if I need to adjust my water temperature in my saucer, I just toss in a few ices cubes as needed.
I've attached a pic of my current setup. Sorry about the crappy phone pic.
The plant is a dinafem critical jack and is about 20 days old from seed. I have fimmed the top and super cropped the entire stalk to the max so far. I like make bushes and then scrog them.
I plan on starting flowering in the next 7-10 days.
I just started the air pump today and will report back in a week on the progress.
For anyone that disses LED grows, I also attached a pic of my last grow which was an aghan kush ryder automatic that yielded over 2 ounces from one plant (pretty big yeild for an auto) grown under a 100W LED. I could have easily grown two plants in my space and in theory could easily achieve over 1 gram per watt.
Any feedback is much appreciated and stay tuned.
