9K Rockwool Drip

[1971]

Nice!

I'm assuming you are running 1000's. How far you running from the tops?

thank you :)

 

[MendoCruz]

I try for 14-18 inches. The lights are pinned to the ceiling and I let the plants grow up to them. I'm growing all new strains this round and I may have not flipped them soon enough. I did give them a good dose of MOAB on this res change to try and slow the upward growth.

 

[1971]

isn't moab super bad for plants?

 

[MendoCruz]

How so? Please share more of your thought on this.
It's not organic by any means and is bad for microbiology in high doses, but I don't use biologics in my rockwool set-up. I could see it being bad for the plants in high levels also. At the levels that I am using it, it does not seem to have any unhealthy effect on the plants.

 

[1971]

woops, I looked at the thread again and it wasn't mentioned. my bad :/

 

[MendoCruz]

Ah, you were thinking about Pac and diamonozide products.

 

[SuspectOnFoot]

Can anyone within this thread offer me some opinions on this issue

Rockwool. Drip? or flood and drain?

I am in the midst of setting up a large room and i am very familiar with flood and drain, but after joing these boards, drip has begun to seem mighty appealing.

any thoughts would be awesome!

and really nice work Mendo!!!

 

[Dirty White Boy]

Incredible grow! Super diggin it bro. MOAB is fine, try it out as a foliar, hehehe.

Suspect youll want to do drip for best results.

 

[SuspectOnFoot]

Hey dirty white boy! id love to hear why you think so. why would drip be superior to flood and drain? and why would the yield be better?

please elaborate. i would appreciate it greatly.

 

[1971]

I think what is nice about drip is that you can do a DTW meaning you don't need a huge reservoir and you can give the plants exactly what you'd want them to have. with flood and drain your reservoir is going to get out of balance fairly quickly.

i use pressure compensating emitters and have been really happy with my setup. i use a mix of .5 or 1gph emitters... 2 per plant and water about 6 or 7 minutes a day

 

[1971]

i'm not sure superior would be the best descriptor, as drip can bring different issues to the table. i have done both and do find drip way less time consuming. as for yield being better... that isn't necessarily an absolute. rather it depends on so many factors

 

[Dirty White Boy]

i'm not sure superior would be the best descriptor, as drip can bring different issues to the table. i have done both and do find drip way less time consuming. as for yield being better... that isn't necessarily an absolute. rather it depends on so many factors

Pretty much that, I was having too flood so constantly with larger plants in rock, that I just said f it tossed on some drippy drippy and certainly saw a boost in the plants, honestly though he is right I cant say outright that the drippers yeilded more per se, but the runs with drippers were certainly healthier and easier too deal with. Only thing that pissed me off was clogged drippers.

 

[sox]

just read through this, awesome grows MC keep it up!
Love & Light,
~Sox

 

[1971]

i found that running water through the tubes without the emitters on kept things from clogging along with using inline filters. the only organics i run in my system is humic acid and kelp.

 

[SuspectOnFoot]

thanks for your responses and for expanding. for real. its a big help.

the one and only drawback to drip for me has been the potential of clogging. i have used the pressure compensating drippers in the past when i was in soil and they are not to be trusted especially if youre going organic or mixing certain solubles into your nutrient solution. i have heard of more and more people using the spaghetti tubing (not sure if its 1/8 or 1/4) without any drip emitter, just a straight line and they say it works without fail. although this method bypasses any chance of clogging, i assume that this presents a different problem of regulating consistent flow to each plant, where the plants nearest the source of the pump are getting a stronger stream than the plants on the farthest away from the pump section of tubing. does anyone have experience with this or how they have solved this issue?

i realize that yield is a very subjective term and all things are relative. so i am not seeking an opinion if drip actually yields better, but i am under the impression that most people on this forum believe drip to create a healthier plant all around. i am really interested in this and am kind of kicking myself for doing flood and drain for so long. it certainly comes with a load of issues, especially when in rockwool. getting the time between waterings just right has been tough and battling algae growth and fungus knats, total pain in my ass. but i will say flooding and draining a 4x8 with a 100 gallon res and only having to change the water once a week has been an easy schedule, pretty low maintenance over all. but damn, after a couple years of doing that, every time i change the res its like im watching myself pour hundreds of dollars down the drain each week. it really adds up.

this is the whole new appeal of drip for me. i am imagining you actually go through way less water and thus save a lot more nutrients.


final question

favorite drip set up? size of pump and diameter of tubing?

trichomefan has a killer drip set up here

mendo obviously has a nice set as well

anyone else have any favorites?

im still trying to wrap my head around how to pull this off smoothly and nice and organized. any words to the wise?

 

[1971]

yeah, i don't see how you could run organics and use drip emitters and i don't see how just using tubing (1/4") wouldn't bring a whole bunch of other issues to the table.

i just think that improving yield comes from paying attention to your plants and genetics. i did flood and drain for years using grow rocks and was pretty happy with that setup. i do find that DTW easy really simple although i miss the pH drift i got with using a recirc type system.

have you thought about making your own nutrients or using something like Jack's? for a couple hundred dollars, you can have enough chemicals to make a years plus worth of nutrients. there is a bit of a learning curve but well worth it. using Jacks would be a good way to get your feet wet.

i currently use one 45 gal barrel that will hold about 3-4 days worth of watering. that goes to one 4x8 table and 5 3x3's for a total of maybe 70 plants?

with drip emitters, you don't need a large pump, rather one that will put out a decent amount of pressure. go too big and you end up having to throttle back the pump and risk burning it out sooner. i'm running a little giant 1/6hp 5-msp.

 

[freshgardens]

whats up meno! Killer room, my room looks very similar and am using green planet. There line up is the shit. DOnt feed them as heavy as you at week 5 right now am at 14 hydrofuel with my massive alsways the same as the bloom. With my water setup i cant really flush before nute change and from green planets video the finisher does not get rid of the salts. WOuld you recommned me flushing for 10 days in a 3 step process. First sugar and finisher for 3 days, then a flushing agent for 2-3 days then just straight ro for 3 days? Thoughts would be appreciated. thanks

 

[MendoCruz]

I've been mixing my nutes a little different the last two cycles. I run Hydrofuel bloom at 12ml/gal weeks one and two with Dutch Master Zone 1ml/gal. Week 3 I drop the HF down to 10 ml/gal, I leave it there through week 6. I add Massive, 20ml/gal, at week 3. I add finisher at 10 ml/gal during week 4. My flush goes like this. Week 6 I mix my tank as usual. on friday I top off with fresh water and continue topping off with fesh water till mid week 7. Then I drain my res and fill with fresh water to give the plants 3 days of fresh water. I quit using W-8 all together.

 

[Dr.Pepper]

great work in here.

thnx for posting.

 

[BCboys]

sick room bro. how did the hashplant turn out yieldwise?