Hydro, Soil Or Coco. 10k Sq Ft And The Choice Is Yours

[DGP]

Ok, so say you were asked for advice on a large commercial for profit grow. You gave said advice and then got pulled into help design the facility. Then comes the decision point, your growing for a market that is slowly commoditizing as supplies increase and the price looks fairly stable into the near future, but wait, even though your still in shock, now they want you to be one of the senior growers. Wait you say, how the F did I get here? Oh and how do I want it to run? RDWC hydro, organic soil or coco?

What would you do knowing the design is closely coupled to success and your ass is on the line to produce as well?

Thanks in advance,

Dee

 

[heisen]

I'm partial to rdwc but on a scale that big I would go coco.chillers and maintenance on rdwc is gonna be expensive as shit.
Maybe do top drip in rockwool on big ass flood tables.do a 2 node flip on a shot load of cuts.if I had that much floor space I would go 1000 watt cmh nanolux on 5 foot centers and do some rockwool tables and do another section of rdwc in big ass totes.grow some trees up in there.

 

[Ar.BsG]

Im not as experienced as the swell fella above.in that being said coco sounds good , I like organic soil myself .on the other hand rdwc on a large scale would probaly be hectic for a first time mega grow .

 

[heisen]

Yeah 6 inch rockwool cubes and 2 week old clones flipped straight to flower on big ass tables.
Under 1000w de cmh

 

[stemznseedz]

I love Coco but if I scaled to 10k sq ft some form of recirculating hydro with a medium that bugs don't like makes far more sense than coco or organic soil.

 

[Ar.BsG]

That's is if your a highly experienced in rdwc.

 

[heisen]

I love Coco but if I scaled to 10k sq ft some form of recirculating hydro with a medium that bugs don't like makes far more sense than coco or organic soil.

just the ro filters alone to pump 2000 gallons Plus a day are gonna be super expensive.

 

[Ar.BsG]

Go with coco or you could invest a little for the long fun and make you own organic compost on a large scale like company's would save money in the long run bc you could use the old soil and plant matter in the compost as a fert.

 

[stemznseedz]

just the ro filters alone to pump 2000 gallons Plus a day are gonna be super expensive.

yeah, dtw would be pretty silly. if you can afford to properly outfit a 10k sq ft room you can afford whatever you need to properly test your recirculating system so you can precisely add back what's needed and not waste all that money on water usage, filtering the water, sewage and nutrients.

 

[PhatNuggz]

expensive is relative. RO membrane replacement frequency depends on incoming water TDS

 

[DGP]

Thanks to those who responded. I wish there were more responses since I like to see all the various opinions positive and negative.

There are a lot of things to consider. It looks like the water source there doesn't need RO processing. Of course I am partial to UC RDWC but am open to all data.

Currently I am running two UC RDWC test systems and I have never seen performance like this. The maintenance has been really low as well since the system with a top off reservoir pretty much takes care of itself. I keep the top off with the exact nute concentration that the system has in it so the only maintenance is pruning, water changes (when needed) and other small tasks.

After running these systems about 3 cycles through, I find the system to be really low maintenance. I have an easy drain system hooked to the outside to a dry well and then I have a garden hose (and 15ppm water) in the grow for refilling the top off. It has been one of the easiest systems to maintain I have ever used so I a not sure why some people have said hydro would be high maintenance.

I was thinking soil would be high maintenance because each pot has different watering timing and it would therefore be likely someone would be doing nothing but watering all the time but since I am not currently a soil grower I am not sure how bad it would be. I have a friend who ran a 12,000 sq ft grow and they ran their asses off watering and running a soil grow. In fact it was so much work he and the other staff quite. One of the big challenges is figuring out th labor requirements for the budget. How many people we need seems highly dependent on the grow style.

Dee

 

[stutter]

I vote recirculating coco or rockwool cubes, I have grown in all mediums and find for simplicity coco is hard to beat and when your going large scale and you cant afford for anything to go wrong simplicity is key.

 

[DGP]

I vote recirculating coco or rockwool cubes, I have grown in all mediums and find for simplicity coco is hard to beat and when your going large scale and you cant afford for anything to go wrong simplicity is key.

Yeah simple is good. When you say recirculating coco do you mean the system automatically waters a couple times a day and the reservoir recaptures the runoff?

How do you keep debris out of the system, are there special filters? I have only done soil and various forms of hydro like top feed drip, top return and undercurrent

Thanks,

Dee

 

[heisen]

Yeah simple is good. When you say recirculating coco do you mean the system automatically waters a couple times a day and the reservoir recaptures the runoff?

How do you keep debris out of the system, are there special filters? I have only done soil and various forms of hydro like top feed drip, top return and undercurrent

Thanks,

Dee

Big flood tables in rockwool blocks is how I would roll.hard to screw that up.

 

[stutter]

Yeah simple is good. When you say recirculating coco do you mean the system automatically waters a couple times a day and the reservoir recaptures the runoff?

How do you keep debris out of the system, are there special filters? I have only done soil and various forms of hydro like top feed drip, top return and undercurrent

Thanks,

Dee

lots of different ways to skin a cat but flood and drain tables with fabric pots is an easy way to go about it, very reliable.

 

[stutter]

Big flood tables in rockwool blocks is how I would roll.hard to screw that up.

its also one of the easiest clean ups and swap overs after chop

 

[heisen]

lots of different ways to skin a cat but flood and drain tables with fabric pots is an easy way to go about it, very reliable.

I agree with filters on the return lines to catch all the crap,keep the reservoirs clean and use bennies in that shit.pretty bullet proof setup.can do big ass sea or greens,second or third node flips.

 

[DGP]

I agree with filters on the return lines to catch all the crap,keep the reservoirs clean and use bennies in that shit.pretty bullet proof setup.can do big ass sea or greens,second or third node flips.

Sounds like a good way to go if your doing SOG or smaller faster flip schedules. I am thinking there would have to be a million clones on hand at any given time:).

Dee

 

[tweedy]

Whatever medium you feel most comfortable in is the most important aspect. There are a lot of ways to do it but the biggest thing to remember is this:
They are expecting you to bring skills and the ability to rebound quick if something fucks up or they will find someone else.

A lot of people got hired and fired very quickly in Washington because they could not deliver on that scale in foreign mediums.

Just out of curiosity what state are you going to be working in? Best of luck to you!

 

[heisen]

Sounds like a good way to go if your doing SOG or smaller faster flip schedules. I am thinking there would have to be a million clones on hand at any given time:).

Dee

clones are easy as hell to make from big vegged out moms.not like your gonna be sprouting a bunch of seeds and waiting for alternating nodes.no way in hell.put your veg moms in totes in dwc and have big pallet shelves setup with quantum boards for propagating cuts.thats how I would roll.rows of humidity domes and rooted cuts going straight to flood tables and flipped.you could feed the cuts under quantum boards right into the trays they sit in till they hit the second nodes.than move straight to the blocks under 12 12.your turn around and clean up would be rediculous.8 week strains back to back.
Run some good cuts like ecsd,purple punch,a dub,gorilla glue,thin mints,Tropicana cookies.

Find you a breeder to be a tester and run you like 1000 seeds and find some bad ass moms in there to keep and brand as your own.