Help from an experienced farmer needed

[farmer joe]

I am looking to build a flood and drain system large enough to use my 1000w conversion lighting. I am trying to find a thread that details the steps and equipment needed to build this system. I am not experienced with indoor at all but this outdoor season was to fun to stop now. I'm going' indoor for the winter. Flood and drain seems like a preferred method among alot of growers.
Any help would be great. I am going for a system that will utilize my 1000w lights. If anybody has a suggestion or prefered method of growing(flood and drain, dwc,etc...), I'm up for some tips.

 

[moggggys]

ouch , its a tough call fella , ok first why flood and drain i wonder , theres loads of other methods out there , flood and drain has its place of course but from a DIY its not really practicule due to water leaks , therefore buying a system is the prefered option but then if your buying the worlds your oyster , what irecommend for newer growers is DWC ( deep water culture as in bubblers ) or aqua/waterfarms due to the ease of use and self containment ,,,, no sep rez needed

have a looksee in google for waterfarms , your good for 9 under a 1000 or 4 aquafarms , a tip would be to not allow too much veg time as the plants seriously shoot up and outgrow with this grow style , yeilds are epic , well worth the initial investment

bubblers are also great to use and easy to build yourself

 

[poutpup07]

moggggs i agree

the dwc culture system with excellent reflection would be the best way to go here.....the flood and drain table would it be run to waste, run back to reservoir? really one can be built cheap enough with some 2 x 4 s or pvc piping as a frome and a kiddie pool to flood and drain i dunno i would check out the dwc those can be made with relative ease also
this probably didnt help any so sorry just making other viable options available to you.
pup

 

[hererisssh]

Gotta vote for dwc too. I like the idea of segregating strains to tailor nute schedules and it's easy to get a perpetual harvest going.

 

[farmer joe]

Thanks for the help. I was looking into DWC because it is so easy to build. I guess i just thought I could more yield form flood and drain. Now that I've researched a little more I see that heavy yields are expected with proper DWC techniques.
Moggggys, you said that I'm good for 9 under my 1000w lights?? Is that using 5 gallon or 2.5 gallon buckets?? Or does it matter. At how many weeks to you force flowering? I am not too concerned about height as long as they stay under 5 feet.
I will be growing northern lights and afghani from ontario seed bank.

 

[HolliHerb]

I have experimented with many hydro system.

DWC you will really need to look out for still water and temperatures. Pythium will take over in an instant if anything goes out of bounds.

Recirculating DWC is great, works just like DWC. Temps don't really matter anymore but still best to keep it low <70. the water is constantly recirculating so nothing can really take hold.

Ebb & Flow (flood and drain) Super system. If your doing the table method. You might lose out on some head room. 1' - 1.5'.

Multi-flow buckets (same as flood and drain just in buckets) A tad more expensive, Easy to set up. same concept as ebb & flow but I gain a good amount of head room. The same as say... a soil grower with pots. I use 2 gallon buckets and hydroton.
I am now growing with this method



Aeroponics. Growing using a jet/spray of water. This system is great as well, super rich oxygen avilable all the time for the roots. This technique is more for an advance hydro grower as using wrong nutrients can clog up the lines. It may be more of a fuss for someone not familiar with hydro.

If your doing hydro, By all means. Buy a TDS pen. Hopefully you already have a ph pen. This is very important as the plants will have access to nutrients 100% of the time, if anything is wrong. Than something will really really be wrong.

Hope this helps.

as for height. Expect your plants to stretch anywhere from 1' - 2' when put into flower. more strain dependent. indica dom would stretch less as sativas will stretch more. judge wisely. best to be shorter than too tall imo.

dcw is great but really really pay attention to your solution temperature. You do not want to fight an always losing battle. Pythium is hard to fight off... :headbang

 

[hererisssh]

I'm good for 9 under my 1000w lights??

I can't see where you could get more than 5 or 6 big plant under a 1000 watt footprint unless they were small, which defeats the purpose of DWC. The strains you're talking about will require a good deal of veggin to yield anything like you want. Top or LST to get a large canopy of branches and flower at 2 feet, you'll yield well.

HolliHerb brings up some excellent points re hydro. You ABSOLUTELY need a battery op PH tester and be religious about cleanliness. Lots can go wrong real fast in hydro if you're not keeping up. That said, you don't need to be a scientist either, anyone can do it with a little coaching (there's lots of coaches around ;) ).

I would target 4-6 z plants staggered so you're taking one down every two weeks. Would 1/2 lb/month do it for ya?

 

[farmer joe]

Thanks guys. I'm gonna look into recirculating DWC systems too. If anybody knows a good thread or link for this type of info I'd be grateful. I'm off to learn... Thanks again.

 

[hererisssh]

You might want to check out the General Hydro Waterfarm 8 pack, other than that, icmag.com has loads of recirc DWC tutes in their hydro section. Bring your questions back here bro.