New Plan, Opinions Welcome

[gbf4ever]

Some of you may have seen my last grow log. It didn't go too well. Main problems were 90+ degree temperatures(even at night sometimes), and lack of a pH tester for the first couple of weeks.

Some plants survived and are doing great now. Have a 40" bush and a slightly smaller plant flowering atm. Things are looking great. Few of my newer plants are around 12-14"s now. These will hopefully become my mothers. They will be kept in dirt but I'm converting to hydro. Purchased two 4' by 4' ebb and flow systems, one for my veg and one for my flowering room.

Plan to grow in 6" rockwool cubes in my veg room. I've considered switching to containerized with hydroton, but I'm worried they'll become potbound before they finish. Have an EZ clone I'll be using for cloning, and then am going to cut the rockwool cube open and "transplant" the rooted clone into it. Advantage of containerized would be less root stress as I could just float the hydroton and insert the clones. Any advice on which of these would be best is welcome. Lighting will be some 4 bulb 4' t5s.

When they are ready to flower(around 8-10" or so or when the roots start to grow out of the rockwool cubes too much) I'll be moving them to my flowering table, which will be a bed of hydroton. 4' by 4' table in a 5' by 5' tent. 2 600w hps with ac hoods over the table each with there own 360ish cfm fan. Have some goblin carbon filters ready also for smell control.

Using the advanced nutrient line of nutes. Going to follow the lucas formula for now. R0 water will be used(with calmag of course).

For heat control I've added a 6000btu air conditioner. Keeps the room nice and cool even with the hoods vented back into the room. Don't have a temperature controller yet, but plan to pick one up asap.

Was thinking about using CO2. Its a totally closed system. What would be the best co2 setup to use in a room like this? Dont know much about co2 at all. Probably wont worry about this till I get everything dialed in, but something to look into later down the line.

Any advice/questions/comments welcome. Plan to run into some problems as this is my first hydro grow, but would of course like to minimize this as much as possible.

Thanks to everyone who have helped me in other posts/my other log already. Really appreciate it.

[gbf4ever]

If I used 6" net pots filled with hydroton for my veg table. Would I be able to grow the clones to around 8-10" before the roots start to grow out of the pots to drastically. Or would 8" net pots be a better idea. Need to be able to move them to the flowering table when ready, so can't really bury the net pots in the veg table.

[stinkyattic]

Unless you are concerned with plant count, don't veg them that long to go into a hydro system (DWC is the prime exception to that rule, and if you operate under plant count restrictions, it is your best option). Give a week veg time after you take your rooted clones out of the EZ and put them in the media, then flip.
If you already have another table going for veg... dare I say... convert to a second flower area? Oh noes... :D Running SOG in ebb n flow you don't even need a veg area- just a mom/clone room. And you already have 2 lights...
For time to see roots outside pot- totally dependednt on strainf and treatment. IF you are concerned with light exposure, solid polypots are a way to avoid this, and keep your plants completely moveable throghout flower time. This can be helpful for keeping the canopy even. You also save $$ on hydroton, since less is used than in a bed, and it will be easier to clean the system, evcen during flower, since you can just take all the plants out and rinse off the media and the tray.
CO2 is cool, and you can run your room warmer (80-85 instead of 75-80) safely.

[gbf4ever]

If I vegged for a week, how many plants could I plan on fitting into a 4' by 4' table?

[stinkyattic]

Without CO2, 32 small plants flowered in 6" quart pots.
With CO2, try more like 16 or 25 in 1-2 gallon pots.
This is assuming a true SOG.

[gbf4ever]

Thanks for the help stinky, do you recommend the solid pots over the net? Can you run into problems with the plants becoming rootbound with the solid pots?

[stinkyattic]

If you want to sink your pots in a bed of HT, go for the net. Otherwise, my personal choice would be solid pots. The hydro shop guy suggested running beneficials like Serenade and SubCulture to help ensure that root rot never becomes a problem.

Yup, you sure can, which is why you should pick carefully and take into account strain vigor, richness of the atmosphere, and veg time. In an 8 week period, you can definitely get away with finishing a bit on the root bound side. I would say a quart for no veg time, a gallon for a week if that week is spent in the EZclone, 2 gallons for a good solid week in veg in the pots after they are out of the cloner. Be SO careful not to let the roots get too long, or risk damaging them in transplant
No matter what you do, take notes so you will be able to correct for plant vigor on the next crop.

[gbf4ever]

Decided to go containerized. Think I'm going to run 6" net pots. Veg clones for a soild week in those and bury them in a bed of hydroton in my flowering table. 5 rows of 5 plants sound good for this setup? Not going to be running co2 my first hydro grow. Once everything is dialed in I'll go ahead and add it. Absolutely love my ac. Just a little 6000 btu window unit and I can keep temps as low as 70 when its 100+ outside and my house is very poorly insulated. Have it set so it stays in the 76-77 range.

Picked up my tables today. I plan on running two flowering tables eventually. For now I'll just be using one for my little veg time and the other for flowering. Dont really have the room for a separate mother area atm. The tables I got are great. Really all I need to pick up now are some net pots and a few more large bags of hydroton and I'm ready to go. Have an electrician coming in to do some work on the inside lines so waiting till thats over to set everything up. Luckily my darkroom was taken down a few weeks ago(got a defective one with a ton of light leaks). Company I ordered it from replaced it right away though so no big deal.

I'll have to get some pic of my larger flowering plant. Let it grow way too big before flowering. Sitting at about 50" right now. Has just about stopped growing atm. Hopefully I'll get a decent little yield from it and the other plant I have flowering to hold me over till my first hydro harvest. Can't wait to try it, both of the plants are Hindu Kush.

What supplements should I look into getting? Have bloom and micro from AN and going to be running the lucas formula for now. Plan on picking up some Final Phase, but anything else I should pick up when I head to the hydro store?

[gbf4ever]

One more question. Going to be keeping my moms in Dirt. Is it ok to keep them in 1 gallon pots so they stay reasonably small? Will I run into any problems with this? Would 3 gallon pots be a better idea? Haven't kept mothers before any advice is welcome.

[stinkyattic]

It depends how large you plan to grow your moms. I keep foot tall moms in QUART pots but I regenerate them from clones frequently, and 'mow' them and remove branches when they get too tall. There is a thread on keeping bonsai mums somewhere that is a good read. I have not root-pruned mine yet but that would be part of doing it correctly. If you need a nice big mom with more than 6 tops, go for the 3 gallon pot.

[gbf4ever]

What size air stones/pumps should I use for my reservoirs? One is 40 and the other is 70 gallon. Would a good pump with a 48" air diffuser in the 70 and a 36" in the 40 work ok?

What types of other nutes/additives should I consider picking up. Only have calmag+ and AN bloom and micro atm. Superthrive and some b1 be a good idea, or maybe Liquid Karma instead? Don't want to overdo anything, but want to have anything I might need on hand ready to go. Already plan to pick up some final phase

[stinkyattic]

No superthrive in flower. Superthrive is a b vitamin supplement.
Good plan not to overthink it. Start with base + micro + calmag if your water source requires it, and add supplements when you gain confidence in your ability to diagnose or at least recognize the presence of problems.
You don't have a veg nute- this is because you don't really plan to veg, right? You'll still want one for your moms.
An air pump/stone rated for a fish tank maybe half the size of your res should be sufficient for what you are trying to do, which is simply keep your nutes aerated and mixed, and prevent unwanted chemical reactions.

[gbf4ever]

Have a small bottle of grow nutes for my moms. Lucas formula doesn't call for grow for the veg stage anyways(and They'll only be vegged for a week). Final phase a good idea, or should I wait on that too? Thanks for all the help SA

[gbf4ever]

How long do you wait before recycling your mothers? When my dirt moms are ready to recycle I may just grow the new ones in some solid pots in hydroton since my veg table will be clear most of the time(and when I'm using it only a small part of it will be covered). When they become root bound or grow too big I'll just recycle again.