am considering going hydro

whats the height of your space? if its 6' or less i would go with 3 gal buckets. if you have a typical 8' ceiling, then use 5gal buckets. i run a 3x3x8 space with a 600w hps, i'm going with 3 5gal bucket dwc scrog next go round. if you dont plan on any LST, FIM, or topping i think you could fit 6 buckets in a 3x3

ShOrTbUs said:

whats the height of your space? if its 6' or less i would go with 3 gal buckets. if you have a typical 8' ceiling, then use 5gal buckets. i run a 3x3x8 space with a 600w hps, i'm going with 3 5gal bucket dwc scrog next go round. if you dont plan on any LST, FIM, or topping i think you could fit 6 buckets in a 3x3

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my hight is 6'7" to the top i could possable shorten my lights chains to hold the lights around six feet thats the most i could get . whats the average height a plant grows reom what i read a five gallon buck is around 15" high or am i wrong, which should give give me five feet before the plant touches the light .all i can say is i hope its enough room cause its all i got.

I think that you will be fine with a 6'7" ceiling and 5 gal buckets. During late flowering, a plant can suck up a lot of water. A 3 gal bucket just does not hold enough nute solution. I have a 7.5' ceiling, but have my light hung about 1-1/2 foot from the ceiling. I do not move my light--I raise and lower my plants.

Yeah,,you will be better off using 5 gallon buckets. 3 Gallon buckets are a pain in the arse.

5 gal bucket is 14.5" high, the air cooled reflector is 10", & with a 600w hps you have to keep the tops 8-9inches from the bottom of the light. so your looking at a max of a 3' 7" plant. i vegged my NL for 5 weeks they are 4' tall, and NL is supposed to be a short bushy strain. very indoor friendly

that accually gives me just enough room, i forgot to mention too everyone that i use the dimond series L.E.D. grow lights the plants can actually brush up against the light i do apoligize for not mentioning the light earlyer.

ohh, well gl with your grow

i am just collecting info for my first time growing with hydro just to not struggle so much like i did with the grow i have at the moment in soil i did not know how to prepare and i had to keep making changes to keep my plants alive, thanks to all of you here at marijuana passion for all the great advice you gave me just cause you knew what i was doing wrong simple by me explaining what i was seeing and doing. and i learned from that, i should collect everything i can ahead of time so i don't struggle so much when i do get started with it .thanks

That is a very wise decision. You shouldn't have any trouble keeping your plants lower than your max heighth if you do some training while they are young.

I recommend that you start by topping her when she gets to about 6-7 leaf nodes high. Then when she has recovered and is growing 2 colas, wait until they are spitting out their 3rd-4th nodes and then FIM them. That will cause all of the lower branches to come shooting up. These 2 things will slow the upward progress by a week or more while they continue to mature. Then if you really want to control the upward growth, you can either tie down all of the major branches and cut off the minor branches or supercrop the major branches. This will not only slow the upward growth, but will open up the plant for better light penetration.

hushpuppy the topping i understand but the femming i don't i thought femmimg was another method of topping.

Yes and no. Fimming is definitely topping but its done a little differently to confuse the plant. It was actually discovered accidentally by a guy who was trying to top his plants. He missed the cut and only trimmed the top 2/3 of the growing "bulb" that is the very top of the plant(and the next group of leaves) as it grows out of the stem below. What he discovered is by only taking part of that "bulb", the plant continues to try to grow it out while at the same time trying to heal the damage, and dispursing the growth hormones to lower secondayr branches. This results in multiple "top main colas".

Why this is important is because the plant is engineered by nature to try to get its biggest and best flowers as high as possible for the best pollination and seed dispersal. If the top main cola(Bud, flower pod) is damaged or removed, the plant will respond by trying to move the next viable cola ahead of the damaged one so that a healthy cola can be pushed to the top. If the whole top cola is removed, the plant will move the next available which is the 2 lower secondary growths.

For some reason, when the top isn't completely removed, the plant gets confused and tries to push as many secondary growths up as it has. This results in as many as 6-10 "top main colas" that will be "trophy buds" because the plant will focus the most of its energy on those buds.

If you Fim your plants, then after about 10 days of growth you will see all of these new colas "exploding" upward, when that occurs, trim off any lower shoots that are emerging on or near the main stem. Then tie each one of the main colas and bend them over horizontally or diagonally to cause them to spread out some. This will open the plant up and allow more light to penetrate to all of the fan leaves, and the coming buds

PS: For you trying to keep your plants low when growing from seeds, this training process not only maximises the bud growth potential of each plant, it also takes up time and slows the vertical growth of the plant which will keep it short until it reaches sexual maturity and you can flip it to flower.

I forgot that I had this sad drawing of where to cut for the FIM method. I most often use my fingernails for this as I am able to feel the lower part of the "bulb" for trimming it. If you don't cut it short enough, it will not work correctly, and if you trim it too short then it will be like topping. I push some of the leaves back so that I can get to the center bulb and then between my thum and forefinger I feel the little bulb and use my nails to slice the upper 2/3 of the bulb so that I leave the lower part to grow out.

If done right, you will see the explosive growth of the secondary branches, and the trimmed bulb will also grow but with deformed leaves. Don't worry about the deformed leaves as that will not hurt the plant.

Glad to see you are going to make your own. Way cheaper.

I do not top at all. Fimming is so much less stressful and you do not lose weeks of growth.

finning does sound alot better and much easier to achieve that drawing HP put up explains it perfect i will give it a try on my next grow sometime aeound feb

skullcandy said:

i am looking for a system that can house four plants from start to finish. if you have any suggests as to where to find one online, as for diy it would have to be sturdy enough to use for awhile without having to replace which is why i am thinking of buying one.also i think since i don't really understand how they work buying one sounds way easyer

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Hey there skullcandy I use 15 gallon totes that can be used from start to finish DIY and they work very well.i still use 5 gallon buckets to but i prefer the totes less tubing and splitting and u don't need as mainy airstones,i put 5 per tote and so far so good everyone has there own opinion and not everything works the same for everyone,I've had good results no matter what I used but so far the totes made things a lot easier for me and my dwc system.if I have 20 plants I only need 4 totes 4 airstones if I do 20 in 5 gallon buckets I need 20 buckets twenty airstones and I gotta water 20 buckets.id rather water 4 totes every few days then half to water 20 buckets that's jmo I hope this helps if u have any question just ask,if I'd like to see how I grow check out my journals happy growing.PS

I also seen a post saying homemade net pots work but not as well,I have to disagree I have plants in both and I see no difference,u can visit my journals to see for yourself,I also seen post about roots tangling yes it will happen with totes but it shouldn't be a problem when growing outdoors in soil your plants get tangled with plants weeds and whatever else grows in the soil plants gotta servive and we all know the strongest survive.jmo I hope it all works out all I can say is try it yourself,and have fun.PS

And for the topping fimming listing scrog they all work great,your just gonna end up doing what's best for u,I've always topped my plants not all the time but I do In fact the 5 unknown clones I got going been topped and are growing fine,just make sure to have fun with your grow and try not to worry to much,one thing that's for sure whatever hydro system unpick u will have a blast.PS

aright cool i will keep that in mind, i am already enjoying it, can't wait tilll det to try and i have decided on the DWC i hope i can keep up with it.to atlest where they survive and give some smokeable buds

skullcandy said:

aright cool i will keep that in mind, i am already enjoying it, can't wait tilll det to try and i have decided on the DWC i hope i can keep up with it.to atlest where they survive and give some smokeable buds

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Cool dwc is great what type of nutrient do u plan on using.I started of useing cutting edge solutions it works great.