Experience with tray growing?

[Lemmongrass]

Hey MP, so I'm lookin into doing hydro once this soil crop is pulled, but i really dont like the broken down nature of many bucket setups. im a very big fan of K.I.S.S. and with 20 buckets, thats a FK ton of 1-3 foot bits of tube to leak!

As a result ive kind of got my heart set on using 2 3'x4' trays about 4" off the ground. You know the big expensive plastic hydrotrays that are several inches deep.

If i used one of these how could i work in 20ish plants each? do i just root some clones in rockwool, space them out on the tray, and fill it with hydrotron? is that basically it? do you normally just fill it up like that with medium or do i also have to buy square buckets for it? would i have problems with algae?

If i was to build this, should i run a drip/sprayer to each one, or should i make it a big flood chamber and fill it every couple hours?

thanks

 

[KeepsTen]

Disclaimer: my growing experience is from reading, and about 10 days for my plants, so pretty much none... But ive been doing a lot of reading.

Ive got a 4'x2' tray of that sort, and right now, ive got 9 plants in there in 6''x6'' rockwool cubes. I could probably at least double that, so you should be fine about room. Not really sure how much room there needs to be between the plants though, itd be tight with that set up.

Ive got mine on a drip system, if you wanted to use hydroton, I saw someone's set up where they were in the starter rockwool cubes, then he filled the whole tray with hydroton, flooded it, then let it drain back.

 

[Lemmongrass]

^^^the last bit is exactly what i was thinking id do. is there enough space in a 4x3x6" table for 20 sets of roots?

 

[KeepsTen]

Well, I guess itd depend on how big you want your plants... Ive heard that you need at the least, 1'x1' for a plant. 4x3 would only be 12sqft. You dont want to do fewer, bigger plants? I was thinking I could do as many as 8 on my table, but I may just stick to 4 or 6, and get em bigger. I think itd be way easier to manage.

 

[Shasta]

well looks like 4x4's are whats around locally.well im not too fond of indica high but i may grow some shorties for this setup i dunno. my plants now are halfway to being 5'x2' plants in flower but i dont plan to grow them this big again... lol.

if i keep it to 1sqf/plant i could do 16 which is close enough to 20. i would be able to plant 32 in small cubes then select the 16 best i guess. unless i go with some autos and try something stupid like 32 on one table.

Edit: sorry on gf sn. also, since my big plants turned into a canopy starved sea of green under my 1kw anyway this time i plan on scroging whatever i put in the tray next time.

 

[TURKEYNECK]

^^^the last bit is exactly what i was thinking id do. is there enough space in a 4x3x6" table for 20 sets of roots?

The problem you are going to have here is that the plants will become extremely unstable when the table floods and hydroton gets loose and floats, you need to somehow anchor the plants.. what did you mean 4" off the floor? the res HAS to be BELOW your tray, or you WILL flood your room.

 

[NewbieG]

From what I've heard. With SOG/ SCROG you want 1 plant/sq. ft. because when they get bigger they need the space or you'll end up with more stem than bud. I bet you could maybe get away with another 1 or 2 plants though...

In addition. I would suggest keeping them short. From the reading I've done and the people I've talked to, 10 to 12 inches seems to be best to start flowering. After there growth spurt making them between 2 and a half to three feet, you trim all lower offshoots NOT the leaves, and harvest a single large cola from each plant. I've seen people keep lower flowers and harvest long colars, and I've seen people trim EVERYTHING but the cola and just stuff more plants in the space, but the 1 plant/ sq. ft seems to be the tried and true method Sea of Green and what growing authorities say to do. Hope this helps.

 

[Lemmongrass]

they would float even if the table was filled with hydrotron?

 

[TURKEYNECK]

they would float even if the table was filled with hydrotron?

In the starter cubes...yes, for sure. Even a few of my 4" cubes wound up tilted in the last few weeks of flower.. Im using starter cubes in square pots this go-round.. That hydroton was hell to clean outta the tray..
pix in my sig...

 

[Lemmongrass]

hmm. so would it be worth the extra $40 in buckets to use them?

 

[TURKEYNECK]

hmm. so would it be worth the extra $40 in buckets to use them?

$40 in buckets? Im sure you can find them much cheaper than that..check yer local nursery
you're ganna need a whole lotta healthy clones...I hope your on your A game.

 

[KeepsTen]

Why not try using the netted pots for em, then filling the rest of the tray with whatever youd like. I think that would make it a lot easier to handle, and you could move em without worry about pulling roots.