Tropf Blumat + Coco or Soil?

[MrTwister]

I have never run coco but I also never have messed around with the tropf blumat. I have a room that is just perfect and dialed -- and I don't live there (naturally) - it was set for aero but I ran soil and it pretty much runs itself, so I don't wan to trash it. Wanted to make a mom room out of it and see if I could automate the rest. It's a DTW room so it has a bilge and "worst case" I get some trashed moms out of the deal.

The two issues are automating nutrients and/or keeping bugs at bay. On the one hand I can keep a coco room with watering cones on a doser and pre-titrate to get it ph'ed and run the same thing until the moms get trashed - 4 months or so - and i'll just swap them with backups.. The problem is dealing with the doser/dosing wich is just a cash thing. I would probably be using 8.5" square pots because I've been around some operations and I think that they produce well for just about that long and then they can be replaced.

I usually pre-feed my soil but I'm pretty sure I will spend even a stuffed soil unless I use osmocote or something. Not sure but I'm leaning towards vigorous and consistent growth which puts coco up there. On the other hand I'll probably be around very sparsely to take cuts so I won't do much spraying. I usually have good results with healthy fast growing plants but I understand coco has gnat problems. I'm not sure if I'm asking for problems with coco and I should just stuff some soil/call it a day. I see a benefit to coco and the troph because I can run the plants hard until their demise. I see pre-fed soil slowing down- and from personal experience- vegging with aero particularly was insanely fast. I just can't stand tripping over all of the parts.

On the other hand I'm strongly considering OC+ and coco... after doing a bit more searching. Seems like almost cheating.

 

[bobby]

Do you have any specific questions? What are your priorities? Do you want safety? Ease of setup? Ease of automation?

If you're good at doing your due diligence, you can use any type of system and it will work out.

If you used soil successfully in the past, then why not simply do it again? This is the business of successful repetition, and changing 1 variable at a time.

 

[Smokey503ski]

How long do you plan on being away between visits?

I admit to being lazy and my room is set so I can be. Not trying to steer you away from your ideas. The way my room is set is by using 2 60 gallon drums plumbed together.
I do a feed to waste in coco. Feed 3 times a day for a minute each feeding. With the 120 gallon Res, its basically set it and forget it for a week.
I thought about doing what you are talking about but didn't see the need for the expense of blumats. Plus I have read they can be a pain in the ass also so I stayed with what has worked.

 

[dankworth]

How long do you plan on being away between visits?

I admit to being lazy and my room is set so I can be. Not trying to steer you away from your ideas. The way my room is set is by using 2 60 gallon drums plumbed together.
I do a feed to waste in coco. Feed 3 times a day for a minute each feeding. With the 120 gallon Res, its basically set it and forget it for a week.
I thought about doing what you are talking about but didn't see the need for the expense of blumats. Plus I have read they can be a pain in the ass also so I stayed with what has worked.

Smokey, how do you manage your res ph over the week? Show up and adjust periodically, or is it pretty self-stable?

Dude your avatar is king.

 

[Smokey503ski]

My PH and PPM'S stay the same all week. I have a small pump in the Res moving the water around so its not stagnant.
also have in each Res a air diffuser.
Using CNS17 nutes which is pretty stable. No other nutes used.
The water temps are stable at 70 degrees.
I like this setup because it is very user friendly. Only time I have had Ph swing is when I tried to use other finishers. That is why I just stick to the cns17 nutrients only.
This is the setup I help people setup and have quite a few running it and loving it.