Hydroponics Vegging Tent help. PICS!

[tangerine dream]

I am looking at a 8 plant cycle and am planning on vegging these 8 plants in a separate area to the flowering room, the easiest way for me to achieve this would be to complete the veg cycle in a tent. I was looking at something like the attached image (165 x 65 x 180cm).

This tent would be used to house the 8 plants only while vegging and possibly 2 mother plants. I was looking to use a HO 8 bulb T5 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HYDROPONI...rden_PlantsSeedsBulbs_JN&hash=item3f11614da4), and a 10 plant hydro system (something like http://www.hydrogrowersusa.com/en/products.php?id=645#.UaR2ddJazvk).

The attached images show how I plan to set up my flowering and veg room (the veg tent is the green box, with the 8 smaller plants [clones] and the 2 larger plants at either side [mothers], and the flowering room is the larger room with 2 entrances and 8 larger plants in it)

Do you think this is a viable set up, or do you think I need a bigger tent to fit all my clones and mothers in it or should I grow my mothers in a separate environment.

None of this is set in stone, so if anyone has any recommendations for other things other than the tent lay out (lights,hydro) then I fully open to criticism.

 

[tangerine dream]

Also I have been battling with buying a pre made hydroponics set up (similar to the one linked) or custom building my own. That way I can accommodate for my space and having mothers and veggers in the same area. It seems pretty straight forward making your own dripper system.

What are your guy's opinions on scratch built Hydro systems?

 

[pcduck]

Your veg area should be sufficient. I have at times have had 12 plants in 3 gallon containers in my 2'x4' tent. The biggest problem I have in veg is the difference in the height between mothers and clones and keeping the light as close as I like.

I am a diy grower, with that being said. Most times I am able to make what I want better then what I can buy them. I think? THG uses totes for clones then separates the clones from the tote when going into flower room. This allows for a smaller veg area

 

[tangerine dream]

Yea I was confident that the vegging plants would do their cycle fine in that area. I am just concerned about housing the mothers as well.

Do you think that the set up in the pics I have linked would accommodate for that? In my second post, that's the reservoir at the bottom.

 

[pcduck]

The set up will work.

Just going to be hard to keep light equal distance from plants.
I raise my clones up till their canopy is level with Mothers canopy.
I then remove my blocks of insulation(this is what I use to raise plants) to keep the canopy level. This is the biggest pain of keeping mothers and clones in same tent. The grower is either constantly trimming mothers or lowering their clones to keep level canopy.

 

[tangerine dream]

I see, yes. I didn't think about that, I could just put the veg plants on a platform, or have an adjustable table. That way I can always keep my veggers close to the lights. Is that the best light for this situation?

Any tips for making my own Hydro set up? Was thinking about using just regular pots, haven't even looked at using totes.

 

[pcduck]

I use a 4 bulb t-5 in my 2x4 tent and it works great for me.

10gal-15 gal tote 4 holes in top to place 3" netpots. Do not glue in netpots. Once clones are ready, remove netpot from lid, swish roots around to de-tangle, place in flower room.

 

[tangerine dream]

what grow medium do you use for that?

 

[Hushpuppy]

That will be an ideal light for vegging. I do my hydro a little different as I like to set my clones in their final pots so that when I am ready to move them to flower, I don't have to worry about detangling roots or transplanting them. I can just lift the pots, which are about 2liter, out of the cradle that I have them setting in, and move them to the totes in the flowering room. There are sooo many different ways that you can set up your hydro system with diy or manufactured hydro systems. My only complaint with the manufactured hydro systems is that you are locked into a certain style and size, but with the diy you can make it to fit your space and needs.

The mothers in the veg space will get to be a challenge for you as they get bigger. I do the same thing but on a larger scale. To keep the mothers from getting too big, I only use them for cuttings a couple times then I move them into flower and start new mothers from the next set of clones. If you do a perpetual harvest, you can take clones from clones without having mothers, but if you don't do perpetual harvest, I find it difficult to take clone from clone, and having the mothers gives me more freedom on scheduling. I hope this helps If you want to see how I do my hydro, check out my "stealth cabinet" grow journal at the bottom of my post here, and I am glad to answer any questions you have. Just PM me rather than asking in the journal as I don't check it real regular

 

[tangerine dream]

Well I will be moving the plants into the flowering room when ready, then while they are flowering, I will start the cloning process again.

So are you recommending that I make a new mother plant every cycle or every other cycle or what? Or are you saying that after a while of cloning I wouldn't even need a mother as I could take the clones from the plants just before I start flowering them?

 

[Hushpuppy]

I usually keep a mother plant for 2-4 cutting cycles then replace them. But I have 3 flowering tents on 3week rotation so that every 3wks I am harvesting and refilling a tent. This allows me to use a mother plant for cuttings several times before she gets too big and branchy for the space. How many times before you replace a mother will greatly depend on how long you go between taking cuttings, and how big the mother gets.

If you do a type of grow called a perpetual harvest where you only put 1-2 plants into the flowering room once each week until you have it full, then as each plant comes ready, you remove that plant and replace it with another plant in a continual process, you will be able to do clones from clones just before putting them into flowering as you stated. BUT, if you want to be able to harvest larger amounts at one time you will probably find it harder to do clone from clone. Or you can break up your flowering space so that you have 2, 3, or 4 distinct spaces of plants that are groups which are harvested at the same time, or you can put in and replace the whole flowering space at one time.

The problem with taking clones from clones if you aren't in perpetual harvest is if you have a 9wk flowering plant and you take cuttings just before placing it in flower, then give 2wks for rooting and 7 weeks vegging, your cuttings will be very large plants when they go into flower. For growing in tents, you don't want more than about 3-4weeks of veg so that the plants will stay smaller.

 

[tangerine dream]

So do all of your plants feed from the same reservoir when flowering? How do you flush your plants before cropping them?

 

[pcduck]

When my mothers get to big, I just cut her down to the height I want. Sometimes on purpose and sometimes by accident

 

[tangerine dream]

Sorry the question was about the perpetual harvest, if you have all different flowers at different stages in the flowering room then how do you give the right nutrients to the ones that have just started flowering while simultaneously flushing the ones that are just ready to be cropped?

Also wondering if anyone knows what sort of size storage containers I should be using for my hydroponics? I.e. the totes that the net pots are housed in. And also if anyone knows any good sites to get them off? Will probably end up getting them from a local shop though.

 

[pcduck]

I use a single 5 gallon bucket for each plant. One plant one bucket. No problem giving the individual plant what they need. If I was using totes with multiple plants I would put the plants on the same timeline together.

The size of the totes depends on your growing style and how much room you have.

 

[tangerine dream]

Yes, at first I am not going to do perpetual harvesting and they will all be on the same timeline. I have a separate flowering room to my veg room, and will be vegging and flowering 8 plants at a time. Was merely curious about the perpetual harvest method as it may be something that I will considering doing at a later date.

So I shouldn't worry too much about tote size as long as it fits in my growing area. I have 65 cm of width so I shouldn't have to worry too much. Was thinking about 2 plants per tote (except for the mothers) and having them all feed from 1 reservoir while vegging.

 

[tangerine dream]

Also PC I hear you use DWC for your hydro systems. How do you compare this against dripper systems? For a dripper system would I need an aeretor in each tote? or would just a pump in the reservoir achieve the same effect?

 

[Hushpuppy]

Yeah, I don't do perpetual harvest myself as I grow more commercially, so I need to be able to pull upwards of 20oz at a time. I have 3 flowering tents and each one is on its own resevoir so that all of the plants within are fed by the same tank. I use 18gal totes which I think is about 32liters. If you intend to grow smaller bushy plants then 2 plants per tote will work fine. I was doing that but I went to having just 1 per tote and allow them to get bigger as an experiment to see if I get better production with fewer, bigger plants, or many, smaller plants. The jury is still out on that.

I suspect that perpetual harvest is a bit easier when done in soil than in hydro. As far as flushing goes; when I need to flush my hydro stuff, I just drain all my tanks that I want to flush and then refil with fresh water and then run for 24hrs with just straight water, then dump that and refill with fresh nute solution. For final flush, That isn't as necessary as some think but it depends on several factors. I have found for me that I don't have a lot of time to do a quality cure on my product before it gets sold, so I either cut off the nutes and just refill with straight water for the last 10days, or I will drain the tanks and refill with just straight water for the last 5 days. This helps my smoke be smoother and cleaner tasting BUT it also eliminates some of the best natural flavors that can come through when doing a quality cure for quality smoke.

 

[pcduck]

tang, I cannot compare to drip system as I have not done it that way. With my DWC I have a commercial grade air pump and a large air stone in each bucket. If I was doing a drip with a recirculating rez with individual totes/buckets I would want air in rez and buckets/totes. No matter how you do it you can never get to much air.

 

[tangerine dream]

Yea I was just curious as to how that would be done with perpetual harvesting, thanks for the info though... Definitely something to look into.

When making your dripper system for your cabinet grow do you just have 1 pump? could you provide a parts list for it? As I have gotten myself confused with all the different types of Hydro systems.

If I'm not mistaken it requires 1 pump which pumps the nutrients from the reservoir to the netpots, this then flows into the tote, which should then flow back into the reservoir. Also a ario aeretor is used to oxygenate the water in the reservoir.

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