Advice on best hydroponic set-up, for newbie

[Mdesportes]

Hi organic hydroponic pharmers,
I am a want-to-be indoor, small-scale , organic hydroponic pharmer. Would any of you have a moment to advise me on what company/products are the best and simplest and most effective. I will be buying the set-up as soon as I get a grow license in Tucson. Also, do you have any advise as to which plant types, names, strains, do best for a newbie. I should have my license by April 1, but would like to have everything in place, ready to plant.
Thank you sharing your knowledge and experience,
Margie

 

[ibTheMan]

If you aint grown in coco, this is the newest best stuff=http://cch2o.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=31&zenid=i24k50q69tkga2tahlesmc63s2

 

[sky high]

Why organic? In hydro the chemmies are your friend.

Gonna need a meter or two. pH and ppm or EC.

Gonna need a chiller

Seeds are plentiful on the Net. Check THCBay. Have fun "shopping".

why do you have to wait until April 1? I'd be firing that sucka up now. LOL.

good luck

s h

 

[black.lung]

hydro farms dwc with built in drip feed are among the cheapest dwc is widely recognised as the easyer to use and they produce monster plants/buds. organic nutes clog everything in gunk so chem nutes would be easy to use . there are 3 main brands 1 CANNA great results but expensive 2 ADVANCED NUTRIENTS also good easyer to use than canna 3 GENERAL HYDROPONICS have some excelent results and the cheapest .GH was my own choice . seeds there are many places on line to get them! thc bay on this site . attitude has a large range quick delivery and stealth delivery if needed . INDICA is the easyest to grow as sativas can be very sensative .so indica dom would be easyest quickest to grow . hope this has helped you good luck.

 

[black.lung]

if you do go down the organic route the BIO SEVIA is especially made organic/hydo nutes biogrow/biobloom would be nothing but a hastle as it clogs air stones really quickly you would have to replace them everyweek or so.

 

[Jmagpharmer]

hey md i feel the same about growin small scale do what i do grab an Emily's Garden , a 150w hps light and a nice fan , and grow the hell outa the little girls ...
good luck ,
Jmag

 

[stonedar]

earthboxes are a nice noob set up and you don't have to go to a hydro store. your local nursery should have them

 

[Original Grower]

blue lab are the bomb for ppm, temp and ph all in one.

dwc is maybe the easiest way to produce , and doesnt have many drawbacks.

bc northern lights sells great grow cabs if you dont want to set up a room or space. they are all in one plug and play.

id rock an ebb and gro from c.a.p. if you have the space time and money. flood and drain are organic nute friendly most of the time, peace, og

 

[motta-tokka]

I would suggest a minimum of 2 weeks research if your asking these questions. The single thread holy grail for noobs growing hydroponically does not really exist. In theory anything you see on forums can be applied at home in various forms. Realistically the variables involved is what will hinder your performance.

Videos are also a great method of picking up quick knowledge
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgjsF-xtQbE[/YOUTUBE]

 

[f1ydave]

The undercurrent is by far the best IMO.

 

[gudkarma]

imo easiest for a beginner ==> ebb & flow

simple system. minimal drama. cheap to build.

dwc is lots of work to be successful... and if you get lazy, you'll meet mr. root rot real quick.

better buy some cheap hand held meters... cause a tsp, a little of that, and some of this dont cut it.

finally, since i perscribe to the steril rez concept, going organic in hydro is 100% foolish and gonna bring ===> drama

simple. cheap. easy. ebb & flow

 

[Mr.Detroit]

I say rdwc with h & g nutes and aquashield it don't get easier then that you can make one in 2 hours for cheap and its easy... just make sure you silicone around every grommet, seal, and fitting where water could leak out... simple simple simple and very effective.

 

[kushluvr]

Do not do dwc!!!!

I am originally a ebb n flow grower, but the last seven months Ive been giving recirculating dwc a try and I've had a tough time. For example......

1. water temp has to be perfect...........65-69, ur gonna need a chiller/heater, chillers are $400/heaters $20
2. you need lots of air in the water...........pumps and stones and hose.......=$$$$$$$$
3. buckets, hose, fittings, (NEVER USE GLUE/SILICON).....MORE $$$$$$
4. if the power was to go out all the plants would suffer bad, if not die! no air in the water will suffocate the plants!!!!!!!!!!!!
5. If water is to hot=root rot, dead plants!
6. too cold= stunted, and will not grow
7.PH has to be darn perfect too(5.8) much higher or lower= fucked up looking plants, the leaves grow weird.


There's a few things I can think of off the top of my head, Im soooooo close to ripping all the shit out and going back to ebb n flow! thousands of $$$$ worth of shit. Im giving one room till tuesday, if i dont see some better progress by then, then its gone!


Ebb n flow......................

1 tray(depends on space you have to work with)
1 pump
1 reservoir
a few feet of hose
2 fittings
1 timer

thats it! soooooooooo simple! you fill the res with water, put in some nutes, check ph and ppms, set the timer for the amount of times it will fill the tray and feed the plants, 2-3 days later, put more water in the res(top it off), maybe a little nutes, check ph and ppms, and do it again and again till there done. super easy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Im really hating RDWC at the moment if you cant tell!

If someone here wants to help me start liking it and coach me a little, I would appreciate it too!

I live in Seattle, the weather is pretty fucking cold at the moment and my res keeps going below 65 (i have a heater??????) and my plants 6 wk in flowering too) lower arms are drooping over like their dying! too cold right! And Its not a weight issue, the buds on those arms are small, not big enough to cause this issue...............................?

hope this helps, sorry for the negativity, Im just stressed at the moment!

kush

 

[Bobby Smith]

What GK and Kushluvr said - E&F is the simplest by far, IMO.

It also requires the least equipment and is the simplest to "properly" setup (you can setup an airstone in a Homer Bucket but that's not a "proper" setup, IMO).

 

[tortuga1503]

E&F all the way over here. Sucks kush sorry to hear about the grow. I vote you trash all that shit and go back to e&f. Easy for me to say I`m not the one that spent the $$,but I have wasted plenty of money on shit and I just chalk it up as education cost LOL, pretty much what it is. I love simplicity,water temps not such a issue,ph not to much of a issue its good for a lil drift imo and you can grow great plants with some good none organic nutes ppm and ph meter. Spend your money on enviroment. That is the most important part of ANY grow room.

 

[Smokey503ski]

I am with the first poster about using Coco. Very forgiving.

DWC= Death Without Cause. Do not go that route for your first time.

I would do feed to waste in Coco. Simple, productive, not too much maintanence involved. Much safer than DWC.

I would save some money and go with a coco setup. After you have a few harvests under your belt and have enough weed for backup go with a different hydro setup.

i would not put all my trust in a hydro setup if you have no knowledge of growing in the first place. You are going to neeed to spend some cash just to get the basics for any Hydro setup.

 

[leadsled]

organic dro in coco

ebb and flow is simple yes.cheapest no
least amount of work, not if you flush weekly
conservative on water no.

Agree with smokey if you do not want to risk the chance of failure. no dwc.

he also made other great points about the cost. Now I also love to use dtw over ebb and flow and I love to use coco. But hey other methods work. My opinion is that ebb and flow generally creates excessive waste.

with salt buildup in ebb and flow, sometimes you actually have to flush 3x the volume through to get the salts out of rockwool. Then you have to waste even more water than that weekly res change out. (ok maybe longer on res change out for some people)

I care about conserving water. I do have to pay for water and the cost is more than then financial cost. All the waste has to go somewhere and unless you got a huge yard and even then.. from a organic standpoint, all that waste going into the ground. It is fucking shit up. Myself I do not want to contribute to that factor and that was another reason I moved away from ebb and flow.


cons to ebb and flow
normal to empty the res and flush once a week.
that uses more water and nutes
will have to keep on top of ph and monitor ph and ppm to avoid lockout.
need trays and res and stand to hold the trays, can be more $$ to start.
more salt buildup and does not perform as well as top drip (recirculating or dtw in my experience)

coco will be more forgiving.
rockwool is not too hard to start either. Seen lot of beginners succeed with both.

cost will be more for trays and pumps etc.

Cheap routes:
Can get a few containers of coco or rockwool croutons and handwater em.
Also simple and cheap is krusty buckets.

ebb and flow may work for you and it works for many. I feel it is good to know both points of view before you decide.

I know for a fact, The hydro store loves to sell ebb and flow systems the most.

Why? Good chance of success, lots of money to be made on equipment and long term incomes from the constant nutrients waste of the "lettuce farmers".

Lot of factors to decide what works best for you, the time you have, and your income. Also your impact on the earth. (current culture UC does have that going for it, but not so sure I agree on the beginner factor for a uc)

Hope that helps.

 

[beezleb878]

Hempybucket

 

[Smokey503ski]

Hempybucket

Exactly!!! Search this method. Very solid way of growing!

You need to look at a few things involved in any setup. Startup and possible failure of a system.

Here is a little story from my very first time growing...

I was taught by someone who knew there shit. I was tought to grow in a NFT setup made from rain gutters. It grew gigantic plants, too big almost. We had very fast growth this way.
I wish I took pics back then. We had a few of the stems got so big they pushed the 4" rockwool cubes out and bowed the gutters. This caused a massive leak.
I came home to my house and a new waterfall. There was water running down in the living room, half of my bedroom, and the kitchen. All the ceilings were basically raining.
Damage costs us about 10 grand to repair.

What I am trying to exlplain to is do your research in any setup you go with. Do not grow in a upstairs area unless you take caution in setting up properly. Expect to spend alot of money upfront. If you are going to do it, do things the right way.
Expect failure and be happy with what you get at first. Do not expect giant yeilds. If you do better than what you expect then try to go from there.
I see plenty of newbs at growing think they can grow like pros do. Some can and some can't. It does take practice to get going well. Also takes time to get where you need to be.

If money or plant counts are not a worry to you then you can play around. You can try out a few setups at once.
Try a Hempy Bucket and try a DWC single bucket setup and even try some soil if you like. This will help you learn real quick to which system works for you and your time.

Myself, I have 2 kids and do not have time like I used to. This is why I switched to Coco in a Feed to Waste. Much easier on me, I get great yeilds and costs less then my previous hydro setup.

Another thing you need to think about is how much nutes are you going to use in a grow. This can get VERY expensive real fast. That is why I recomend Feed to Waste, for me I save money on nutes by going this way.

I hope you do your research, and have patience when growing. Good luck!