New hydrosystem questions.

[SmokeStar21]

Hey I just bought one of those hydrofarm complete water systems. I just bought one bucket becuase I wanted to see how it worked. (http://www.hydroponics.net/i/214122) It only has as 2 gallon growing chamber and a 2.5 gallon water reservoir. Would this be big enough to grow MJ plants that will end up being like 5 feet tall. When I was using soil I had to switch from 2 gallon pots to 5 gallon ones when they were only a couple feet tall. The plants will be using hydroton as the soiless medium. Hey I have another unrelated question. I am growing in 5 gallon soil. How long do you think it will take until I can harvest. They have been set to 12/12 since jan 6.

 

[Hick]

hey 'star, moved this over to the hydro forum. Hopefully stoney will spot it . He's hydro wise.

 

[Stoney Bud]

Hey I just bought one of those hydrofarm complete water systems. I just bought one bucket becuase I wanted to see how it worked. (http://www.hydroponics.net/i/214122) It only has as 2 gallon growing chamber and a 2.5 gallon water reservoir. Would this be big enough to grow MJ plants that will end up being like 5 feet tall. When I was using soil I had to switch from 2 gallon pots to 5 gallon ones when they were only a couple feet tall. The plants will be using hydroton as the soiless medium. Hey I have another unrelated question. I am growing in 5 gallon soil. How long do you think it will take until I can harvest. They have been set to 12/12 since jan 6.

Hey SmokeStar21, I don't think I'd try to let a plant reach any taller than 3 feet before you flower it in any drip system. In flowering, the plant will need much more root mass than that unit can grow.

For that size unit, I'd put only one plant in it, use LST and flower when the plant is about 24 inches tall. By the time you harvest, the plant should be about 3 to 4 feet tall and will max out on bud and potency.

That looks like a nice little unit. It will grow much more weed than any one person can smoke. You should be able to get about three or four ounces each two months if you also grow some clones. If not, you're looking at 4 months between crops.

 

[SmokeStar21]

thanks stoney

 

[Eggman]

Stoney, I don't want to do it, but i'm going to add to wht you said.

Make sure you've got a 1000 HPS or even 600 and mylar the shit outof your area. What happens is; your plants will develop a canopy and your light, if it's less than a 6 will only penetrate about 14 inches deep. If you mayle, you can get a lot of extra light bouncing around. But, the plants have to be far enough from the walls to let light get really low.

What I just did was... my light wasn't penetrating deep enough so. I shoved a 6 inch wide, 18 inch long glass (pyrex) tube down the middle of my plants. This opened up a 6 inch hole and really got the light to the low parts of the plants. Eventually, I started using about 3 of these and it increased my yeild from about 2 oz's per plant, to 3 per plant (wet). When I mylared the b-jesus out of everything I had in the cabinet, hardly any of the lower leaves fell and I was getting about 3.5 or more per plant. This is wet weight.

 

[SmokeStar21]

Hey eggman where do you get those glass pyrex tubes

 

[Eggman]

Smoke, it's a nightmare. I went through 4 places. I found one in New Jersey. You have to call around. It's a custom size. But, I ended up getting an okay deal. I got one 6 x 15 piece for 92 bucks ( i know it's a lot) then I got a 6x24 piece for the same price.

I've been doing this for a long time, so when I harvest, I get more stuff. The glass alone was about 250 bucks. Just by clear plastic tube for 10 bucks. you can get 10 feet cheap.

 

[SmokeStar21]

Where would you find clear plastic tubes. Sorry to bother you but I wouldn't even know where to start

 

[Mutt]

Hey smoke: I seen them on Ebay a lot. also Pyrex has a website. just google it. After reading this post I went looking myself, you have to do some huntin but they are there. I can't give youa link because I didn't save em. I spent 2 hours looking and found some though.

 

[Stoney Bud]

Stoney, I don't want to do it, but i'm going to add to wht you said.

Make sure you've got a 1000 HPS or even 600 and mylar the shit outof your area. What happens is; your plants will develop a canopy and your light, if it's less than a 6 will only penetrate about 14 inches deep. If you mayle, you can get a lot of extra light bouncing around. But, the plants have to be far enough from the walls to let light get really low.

What I just did was... my light wasn't penetrating deep enough so. I shoved a 6 inch wide, 18 inch long glass (pyrex) tube down the middle of my plants. This opened up a 6 inch hole and really got the light to the low parts of the plants. Eventually, I started using about 3 of these and it increased my yeild from about 2 oz's per plant, to 3 per plant (wet). When I mylared the b-jesus out of everything I had in the cabinet, hardly any of the lower leaves fell and I was getting about 3.5 or more per plant. This is wet weight.

Hey Eggman, you can save yourself a lot of money by thinking in a different manner. When the plants go into flower and start filling out, each square inch of space available to the top light will support plant growth at it's best. MJ plants create a hormone in the topmost parts of the plant. This is what creates the larger buds at the top of the flowering branches.

On a good "Kola", you can get as much as a full oz from one branch under perfect hydroponic conditions. Each top will take up about the same amount of space as your glass tubes.

By using the tubes, you're actually decreasing your yield, not increasing it. You've used the space of three plant tops, or an ounce and a half of bud that you won't have now.

The lower level lighting has never shown a realistic increase in yield. No matter where you put your side lighting, you could have used LST to train more branches to that same space and increase your top buds again.

Hey, don't feel bad. To a person who is unfamiliar with the advanced methods of growing MJ, side and interior lighting sounds like it would work. It doesn't. The side buds are smaller and have less potency than the topmost buds. The plants natural thing is to grow the top faster and bigger.

Save your money and LST more to increase your branch count. Max those branches out. The more tips available to the top light, the more top buds you'll have. Forget about side lighting. It's a waste of good space and costs more unnecessary money.

 

[Eggman]

Am I allowed to respectfully disagree? Clearly the plant yielded more with the light shining throughout the plants. Unless with each generation of a plant, the yeild gets better. This bud in this picture was 37 grams wet. It left my hands at 27 grams. EAch top bud was similar. Harvests before using the glass tube were never that good. Id' have to say that because the glass is clear, the top got the same light.. 6 inches between plants wont really take much light. The bottom
buds" sucked, but they were good enough to make a lot of hash and cookies.

We'll see next harvest with this bigger room I built. One side I'll use the tube, the other, I wont. Although, this room has lots of room between the plants.

When I grew outside the entire plant grew strong buds. Not just the top. I'll look harder next time and come back with a educated guess.

 

[Stoney Bud]

Am I allowed to respectfully disagree? Clearly the plant yielded more with the light shining throughout the plants. Unless with each generation of a plant, the yeild gets better. This bud in this picture was 37 grams wet. It left my hands at 27 grams. EAch top bud was similar. Harvests before using the glass tube were never that good. Id' have to say that because the glass is clear, the top got the same light.. 6 inches between plants wont really take much light. The bottom
buds" sucked, but they were good enough to make a lot of hash and cookies.

We'll see next harvest with this bigger room I built. One side I'll use the tube, the other, I wont. Although, this room has lots of room between the plants.

When I grew outside the entire plant grew strong buds. Not just the top. I'll look harder next time and come back with a educated guess.

Hey Eggman, I think you and I are "looking" at two different setups.

From your first post, I thought you meant you were taking the cylinder and putting it length wise from the top to the base of the plant. I see in the pic, that you've put it across the top of the plant, just closer because of the cooled cylinder.

If you're using the clear air cooled cylinder to bring the light closer to the top of the plant, then yes, it will help dramatically.

If you're "shoving the light down the middle" of your plants from top to base, then I've got to reinstate that you are wasting your time for the same reasons that I outlined to you before.

The interior branches of MJ just simply don't grow buds worth a damn. The plants energy should be concentrated on the growing tips to maximize your yield. Let me make myself clear by what I mean when I say Tips. I mean the very tip of each branch. No matter if the branch comes from the base or the top of the plant. Each tip of each branch is where the plants growth hormones are used to it's maximum.

When I refer to the Interior buds, I'm talking about the buds that form lower on each branch below the tips of the branches.

If you keep the tips of the branches all as even as possible within an inch of each other, this hormone that in nature goes only to the tallest tip of the tallest branch, will be used in ALL of the tips. This is where LST really pays off.

Of course, there are many, many factors involved in yield. Light being only one.

Perhaps if you described your use of the cylinders to me again, I will understand what it is you're doing.

Either way, good luck to you. I'm not here to argue with you, I'm only spreading what I've learned the hard way to those who might not fall down the same holes I did. Sometimes, I don't explain what I mean properly. Keep at me until I make it clear to you.

If someone gives you directions you don't understand, the directions become meaningless. I'll try to explain what I mean better to you if you can fill me in on specifically how you place your "Interior" lighting.

 

[Eggman]

It's the wrong pict man... I'm sorry.. I didn't know how to delete it. After that huge post, I feel like a jerk. Although, the cylinder that you see, is the same as what I use. You were correct, I do run the cylinder vert.

If you have a flat canopy, and all the leaves are getting enough light, then slip a tube down the middle, you're not really taking much light from the canopy. The leaves from the canopy are against the glass tube and still get light. I'm sure it's not as much, but the leaves taht usually yellow and drop off, from the botton, grow into micro buds that are great for hash. At the same time, it gives some more light in the middle as well.