First indoor grow with Hydro set up

[J_O_E_Y]

First off the area I have to work with is 10x11x4 1/2 concrete storage space with a small window and electricity available. Would this be enough room to split it in half and have growing and flowering sides?

The lighting im going to be using is fluresent lights with a cool and warm set up for the growing side. I have many of those so I can pretty much line the whole ceiling up with those. For the flowering side im going to buy a 600w HPS ballast system. The HPS lighting will be on a moving rod system so it can go back and forth to all the plants.

Now I have been trying to research some hydroponic systems and I have questions about using net pots and dripper systems. For the flowering side, could I put the plant and roots in a net pot and then bury that net pot in a medium (most likely some kind of pebbles) and have it rigged so that the pump pumps water all the way to about 2 inches lower than the top of the medium? Then once it reaches that the pump turns off and it drains back down. Could I just not use net pots and just throw the plant with roots in the medium and bury it? Would a dripper system be just as good or should I do it through pumps with a line going to the bottom of the planter? Now for the growing side would it be easiest to just use drippers? For clones could I just use rockwool as a medium and for my mothers the pebbles?

Another question I have is since I do not have that much height is there some way that I can rig up pumps or something so that I can have the planter drain efficiently by having the planter lower than the resevoir? Usually you just have it above the resevoir but I wanna try and conserve height.

If you could help me out in desiging a system that would be awesome. Thanks in advance and happy toking!

Joey

 

[King Bud]

Your room is 4.5 feet high?

A good way to conserve height is to find a shallow, but large enough, reservoir. Raise the planter just above this.

I've never heard of a system where the planter is below the reservoir water level.

Take a look at stoney's system. It's a flood and drain system. No pots are used, just a large planter filled with expanded clay pebbles, or other hydro medium.

In your case, you'd probably want a smaller system, since you won't be growing plants nearly as tall.

I would recommend using only 'cool' fluorescents for your vegetation room. The plants use much more blue in this stage, so I think the warm fluorescents would be inefficient. You want more red in flowering.

I don't know how to use light movers.. but if you're splitting that room, you'll probably want more than half for the flowering side. The veg room need not be too large, especially with height as an issue.

I don't think a 600 watt hps would be best for such a short room. I don't have experience with HID, but I think it'd be easier to control the heat with several smaller ones. You'd also be able to grow the plants a bit higher.

I'd wait to hear what some others have to say about this before buying any lights.

One thing you might want to consider is how you'll be harvesting. If that's the only place you can work in, as far as where you can trim and dry, you might be setting yourself up for a hunchback.

Goodluck!

 

[J_O_E_Y]

Your room is 4.5 feet high?

A good way to conserve height is to find a shallow, but large enough, reservoir. Raise the planter just above this.

I've never heard of a system where the planter is below the reservoir water level.

Take a look at stoney's system. It's a flood and drain system. No pots are used, just a large planter filled with expanded clay pebbles, or other hydro medium.

In your case, you'd probably want a smaller system, since you won't be growing plants nearly as tall.

I would recommend using only 'cool' fluorescents for your vegetation room. The plants use much more blue in this stage, so I think the warm fluorescents would be inefficient. You want more red in flowering.

I don't know how to use light movers.. but if you're splitting that room, you'll probably want more than half for the flowering side. The veg room need not be too large, especially with height as an issue.

I don't think a 600 watt hps would be best for such a short room. I don't have experience with HID, but I think it'd be easier to control the heat with several smaller ones. You'd also be able to grow the plants a bit higher.

I'd wait to hear what some others have to say about this before buying any lights.

One thing you might want to consider is how you'll be harvesting. If that's the only place you can work in, as far as where you can trim and dry, you might be setting yourself up for a hunchback.

Goodluck!

If we really wanted to we could take the work room and make a set up there which we measured out its like 10 by 15 by 10 or something like that. We might just do this but it would be awesome to just have to be able to use this storage area as its completely concealed and out of the way.

 

[J_O_E_Y]

Stony when the pump turns off does the excess water go through the feed line and back into the resevoir? Also how do not get floodwith all the pvc going upward (atleast that is what it looks like from the pics). I would think that with no incline all the water would just build up in the planter and flood everywhere. Am i just seeing things does it really go down hill?

Do you use this system for both growing and flowering? What do you do with clones? Whats your process on that? What kind of pump do you use in your set up? Could I make this in to a 6-8 planter set up? Just by attaching more pvc and maybe add a more powerful pump?

THANKS!

-Joey

 

[King Bud]

when the pump turns off does the excess water go through the feed line and back into the resevoir

yep

Am i just seeing things does it really go down hill

yea, all the lines should flow downhill

Stoney bud has a couple journals about his grows. Search around for those.

 

[J_O_E_Y]

Is there a certain distance that the reservoir needs to be to the planters? Cause if not I figured out a way I could do this. I could just have all the planters on the ground in the storage area then have the tubing go down out the little window to the workshop onto the ground (bout 5 feet down) to a reservoir on the ground in the work shop (or lifted up on something if need be. Could I do this?

 

[J_O_E_Y]

http://cgi.ebay.com/400-watt-HPS-MH...0964268QQihZ008QQcategoryZ42225QQcmdZViewItem would this be a good purchase for a 400 w hps lighting system? Is that the type of bulb I want?

 

[King Bud]

I could just have all the planters on the ground in the storage area then have the tubing go down out the little window to the workshop onto the ground (bout 5 feet down) to a reservoir on the ground in the work shop (or lifted up on something if need be. Could I do this?

I'm a little fuzzy minded atm :bong2:, but as far as I can picture it, seems like it'd work. You'd have to compensate with a larger pump, since you'd be lifting water 5 feet up.. the flow rate really drops for every foot you go up.

Those are the type of bulbs you want.. MH (more blue spectrum) is for vegetation, HPS (more red) is for flowering.. and that ballast is switchable.
:aok: