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420_247365

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Thought I'd say waddup :vap-leafy_wave:

I hope to be posting my first grow journal some point soon too. I'm converting a 120cm x 180cm x 60cm heavy duty shelving unit into a grow box. 2 x G240 LEDs for veg in addition to a 400HPS when I switch to flowering. I'll be using a DIY bubbleponics system, but I'm working on an idea of it as a top feed DWC. Tthe grow has to be super stealth, but I think I can put the water reservoir at the bottom, bubble air through it and roots, and continuously pump the water up and over too because I have an additional idea about substrate.

I make my own vermicompost - if anyone else does this, you must have noticed how well seeds take off in the rich compost. I thought it would be interesting to grow in soil/au naturale
while vegging plant and switch to hydro when flowering. I think it can be achieved by a soil pot on top of a hydro bucket. Roots grow down to the bottom of the soil pot, through a fibrous membrane, then into the hydro bucket.

Water from the reservoir will be pumped up into the soil pots during veg, then an airstone turned on in the res. when the roots get there.

Also planning to use "monster cropping" to setup a continuous grow.
 
Welcome to MP!

I don't think that your idea would quite work as written, but you can go from soil to hydro. I would only do it with part of your plants to see if it works for you though. On more than one occasion, for various reasons, I have taken soil plants, shook off as much dirt as I could easily get loose and then put them into a 6" net pot and stuck them in a DWC unit. The rest of the pot gets filled with a medium such as hydrotron. As I run separate buckets and have no water pumps, I figured that as the dirt sifted through into the water that I would clean the bucket and add hydrotron to take the place of the dirt. To my surprise a very small amount of dirt sifted through---but still way too much for a water pump. You would be forever cleaning the filter.

No reason to use a water pump at all. Just make individual DWC buckets. When I first "transplant" I water from the top until I see roots growing through the pot. I also keep the water level just slightly below the bottom of the net pot and make sure I have lots of bubbles. The problem that I see with your idea is that I just don't believe that the roots are going to grow through a fibrous membrane well. I don't even use peat pots as it is hard for roots to grow through those unless you slit the netting. also, even very small amounts of dirt will clog the water pump up. You would also want to do this about 2weeks before you plan to switch to 12/12 to give them time to recover before flowering them.

I do not make a practice of this, but you have an opportunity to do a test. Don't know how many plants you are planning on, but take part of them and do the hydro thing, leave the others in dirt and see how they compare. This will give you an excellent look at how this works. Don't put all your eggs in one basket though. This is a shock to the plant, and I don't do it often, but I have had amazingly good luck doing it.
 
Welcome to MP!

I have taken soil plants, shook off as much dirt as I could easily get loose and then put them into a 6" net pot and stuck them in a DWC unit. The rest of the pot gets filled with a medium such as hydrotron.

This is not what I mean, I agree that it shock the plants. I don't want to take them out of soil at any point. I want time it so that during veg the soil pot fills with roots, which pop out the bottom of the pot (and into a DWC) just before I want to switch to flowering.

The setup will be like:

------------


Soil


------------
Fibrous material
------------



DWC



------------

So I'd need a pump to suck up water from the DWC reservoir and into the soil (otherwise roots will die), but hoping the fibrous material keeps all the debri in the soil pot
 
I did understand what you want to do, but I don't think it will work and I offered an alternative that I believe will work. Roots are not going to grow through any membrane that I can think of and also contain the dirt. You cannot have any dirt at all if you are using a water pump. Any fiberous material that is going to let the roots grow through is also going to let dirt through. Dirt is going to clog up a water pump, so no water pump can be used. You would have to hand water from the top (just as you do soil grows) until the roots start growing through the pot. You also need far more holes in a pot than the ones that allow drainage for soil grows. Look at the net pots they use for DWC--you need a lot of places for the roots to grow through. The water level would be kept up to near the bottom of the pot with lots and lots of air bubbles to keep the air very moist.
 

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