SOG question

Im about to start a SOG setup and I have a question. I have to hand water the babies cause i have no room for anysort of automation. i picked up 6" RW cubes and have four side by side in a tray. i dont want to put just the RW in the tray cause im afraid of algea forming on the bottom of the tray. i was wonderin if i could put about 2" of lava rock on the bottom and place the RW on top of that. would the roots grow together and fight with eachother? There wont be any veg time, once the clones root, they r going straight into flowering light sch. any help would be great! Thanks in advance! :jointsmile:

id go with soil if you dont have a timed pump. i think the RW is going to drain too fast unless you have time to water 2-3 times a day. idk man, if your using clones the whole proccess shouldnt take more than 2-3 months so the roots shouldnt have time to fuck with eachother too bad as long as the cubes are 6" apart. the rocks should stop the algea tho, keep a good eye on it and you should be alright. PEACE!

The roots will be fine. I water once a day, I could water once every few days if I felt like it. Check out my grow in the link in my signature. These are in tiny rockwool croûtons in 5 1/2 inch pots. I usually grow in 6 inch rockwool cubes. You can place 4 in a cubic foot. So in other words right next to each other. I have done it with a coco mat underneath and without. It did not make a difference. I usually veg 1-2 weeks. Redwhit is right, it will be kind of a pain to hand water. You can build a system really easy. Why aren't you?
You can make a gravity one with a bucket and a tube or a pump one. Check out my grow for some ideas. peace

I've never had a problem watering once every two or three days with large RW cubes and slabs. Really you shouldn't have any problem setting up a reservoir underneath and running a constant recycling drip system if you really needed to, but otherwise make sure the bottom inch of the cubes is in the lava rock or whatever you use for a base substrate so the roots have a space to hide from the light.

Thanks for the input! I thought of ways to make it a lil eaiser on me, but have come up with nothing. Im going to have 2 shelves, one above the other and couldnt come up with a way to automate the top shelf a long with the bottom. Any ideas? I just got my beans in today....some early girl, lemon skunk, big bud, cole train, sharks breath and rocklock...i only paid for the BB and EG! Attitude seeds are the shit! they hooked me up with all the other beans...now i have reserves! :D

A res on the bottom shelve and a tray on the top shelve?
All you need is a pump. They are 10$

So to feed both trays, i would need 2 pumps right? i was thinking about doin that but Im worried about drainage of the top shelf.....since im going to have a light mounted under the top shelf to shine on the bottom i cant have the waterlines go straight up and down, do you think this would be a problem? It def would be nice to not have to make sure i watered them daily if it was automated. I have a 2x4x6 tent in the closet and was going to seperate it into two levels. My mothers are in a 2x2x4 cab. As money is always an issue i cant afford to have 2 seperate ebb and flow tables, but if i had 1 rez than that would save me some $$$

Lets try to think it threw.
One res and one pump:
we have the pump in the res going to the top tray. The drain on the top tray going to the bottom tray. The drain on the bottom tray going to the res. Now when the pump turns off the top res drains back threw the pump to the res. So the top tray is not a problem. The bottom tray will now stay full since it does not have the pump to drain threw. It will stay flooded up to the drain. This is a problem. Unless we can figure a way around this you will need two pumps. You are right. Working around the light is easy though.
To fix the problem you could have a second drain in the bottom tray that is just a smaller hole. With no rise on it. The tray will still fill up as long as the drain from the top is larger than this small hole. Still have a second drain on the bottom tray with rise.
Here is just an idea.

You can build it with stuff you find at a hardware store. A rubbermaid res. Even buy the trays there. You can always upgrade to a nicer tray and reservoir in the future.

I like ur idea! Ive looked in home depot, lowes...etc and the only trays I can find are at my local (well, not so local....about a 1.5hr drive) hydro shop. Im def gonna set it up like u drew though, i dunno why i didnt think about that! :thumbsup:

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Originally Posted by Jpizzl3

I like ur idea! Ive looked in home depot, lowes...etc and the only trays I can find are at my local (well, not so local....about a 1.5hr drive) hydro shop. Im def gonna set it up like u drew though, i dunno why i didnt think about that! :thumbsup:

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Just a thought.
One of my buddies cobbled together an E&F system. For trays, he uses the drain pans that go under hot water heaters. They work well,.. but they are round. :upsidedow

Make sure to think it threw first. You might want to change a few things on my design. Making sure the second drain on the bottom tray works right will take some playing with. I guess as long as it is small it will work. If you do build it will you post a picture?

You are going to need a fairly strong pump to make it up to the top tray. Keep that in mind. Do not get a super cheap one.

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Originally Posted by demoreal

Make sure to think it threw first. You might want to change a few things on my design. Making sure the second drain on the bottom tray works right will take some playing with. I guess as long as it is small it will work. If you do build it will you post a picture?

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Yea, I plan on doin a grow log:thumbsup:. Hey lemme ask you this as well, how well do you think T5's would work in this setup?

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Originally Posted by Jpizzl3

Im about to start a SOG setup and I have a question. I have to hand water the babies cause i have no room for anysort of automation. i picked up 6" RW cubes and have four side by side in a tray. i dont want to put just the RW in the tray cause im afraid of algea forming on the bottom of the tray. i was wonderin if i could put about 2" of lava rock on the bottom and place the RW on top of that. would the roots grow together and fight with eachother? There wont be any veg time, once the clones root, they r going straight into flowering light sch. any help would be great! Thanks in advance! :jointsmile:

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sounds like you're someone who could really benefit from growing in coco. do a little searching and reading and i think you'll find coco is a great medium. here's a cut and paste job from g. low's book, "integral hydroponics."


COCO COIR
is a product derived from the husks of the coconut.
Visually it looks like peat.
It's air capacity is about 30%.
Coir is most suited as a run to waste medium.
Coir can become saturated and it is not truly inert medium.
This means that the nutrient will change over a short period (due to the nutrient collecting micro and macro elements as it passes through the coir.
Coir tends to release potassium and to withold calcium.
For this reason it is desirable to use a nutrient that is blended specifically for coir.
Coir has a remarkable capacity to protect the plants root system in times of heat.
It also tends to promote vigorous and healthy root development.
Plant growth tends to be very consistant with coir.
Coir is very tolerant of over and under watering, which makes it a very forgiving growing medium.
Coir has a very strong cation exchange ability, which means it can hold and release nutrient elements based on the plants needs.
Coir tends to retain nutrient salts. because of this, less nutrient (lower ec) is required.
On a less positive note, coir can also contain high levels of sodium (salt)....
If your growing in coir be aware that this can be a potential problem.
Either purchase a pre-flushed coir product or flush ph (5.5-6.0) stabilised water through the coir prior to use.
Measure the ec of the water and then measure the ec of the run off.
When they are the same, it is ready for use.
Large amounts of potassium are naturally present in coir.
Potassium competes with calcium and magnesium... buffering and plant nutrition needs to compensate for this!!
For this reason there are several nutrients that are specifically formulated with the coco coir's unique characteristics in mind.
By using a nutrient specifically formulated for the coir based system, you are ensuring that your plants are receiving the best possible nutritient package.

I use rockwool. Try growing with all mediums. There is no best medium. (except organic soil)
(I see why you said that... because of the algae.) I use plastic covers on the top of my rockwool. If you do not you do get bad algae. The algae has never done any harm to me.


T5's would work good. Not as good as a HPS. The T'5s would really help with heat issues. The T5's would look good in your setup. LED's are nice but pricey. I would do some research before getting lights. I love my HPS. Most people do start out with T5's or cfl's.

said great, not best.

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Originally Posted by Bongojaz

said great, not best.

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Your right.
You were recommending it since it has no algae problems. I never used it but I want to try it out.
my bad sorry Bongojaz.

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Originally Posted by demoreal

Your right.
You were recommending it since it has no algae problems. I never used it but I want to try it out.

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i've never tried cubes myself. i grow in coco only these days. i use 15-20% perlite, and i almost always get some algae on the perlite.