Stinky's Crash Course in "nOOb Hydro"... Welcome to the Darkside

[stinkyattic]

Wow.....what a pathetic soul that is. Could we have less of a genuine life?

*Sniff* I tried... but Life didn't want anything to do with me...

Anyway... heh heh...

Here's the wrap-up... and I'm going to post this info as the first post in a new log...

What has Stinky learned from her crash course?

-Minimize plumbing= excessive on the small scale
The idea of the manifold-style plumbing might be important to equalize pressure in a larger-scale system, but in a little one like this, it was WAY overkill and ended up tangling, there were more spots to leak, and yes, the operator could easily shift it by mistake and end up with a spill.
I have resolved this by building a more streamlined emitter out of flexi.
The easy way to make flexi uncurl when it has been sold in rolled-up bundles is to put a few cups of water in the bottom of a wok set on low heat with a wire rack across it, and steam it until it softens. Take a bulldog clip and hang it by one end from the ceiling. I know you guys all have ceiling hooks, lol!!!
The new emitter is a single piece of 1/2" flexi with a half-dozen small holes cut in it with an X-Acto, and 1/4" T- fittings punched into it, and folded over at one end to seal. The thing took me 10 minutes to make... so much for plumbing being too hard for a n00b... :wtf:
The individual courses to the plants are 1/4" flexi where one side is longer than the other so I can secure the main line OVER one trough and even if the connections suck and it drips, it's dripping into the plants, not on the floor.

-Pre-treat your hydroton before adding live plants to the system if you care about them remaining live plants. Running the system empty for a week allows time to troubleshoot plumbing, inpsect for clogs, and monitor the res pH until it stabilizes.

-Cornucopia is not as forgiving as a n00b without an EC meter needs and I am now going to stick with Canna Aqua (yay, it's buffered!) since as someone above pointed out I'm completely full of shit and don't know a thing about hydro. I'll return to it at a later date when I have proper meters... lol

-More frequent res changes might be in order, and a more stable temperature is an absolute necessity!

On the PLUS side...

-The aeration from the action of the waterfall was fabulous
-The bud development was actually superior to my soil-grown plants coming out of the same room during that same time period
-It was as compact as hoped for
-It was dirt-ass cheap to build
-That $15 'ECO' pump is a champ; the res ran dry innumerable times and it is still working magnificently
-It fits beautifully under $16 worth of Home DePOT shop lights for those of you who would be vegging in it for a little while
-I saw no evidence that any plants were rootbound to the point of unhappiness at harvest time even though the roots were DEFINITELY a big clump of rootiness
-Despite gross operator negligence, the freakin' thing WORKED

That was quite a learning experience that's fo sho. See ya in the next log!

[Weedhound]

It'll work better your next time too.....

[melodious fellow]

That shit was the funniest shit I have read in a week.

The punch line:

"When I begin my first grow"

HAHAHAHAHAHA :rastasmoke:

[d4twamp]

Hey Stinky, I thank you for all your time and effort here...

And keep brushin of them haters, can't believe that fool said "when I start my first grow" lol absolutly ridiculous. I'm still a noob but have learned so much from your posts as well as Weedhounds just keep it up

later, D:S5:

[stinkyattic]

Hey cool~ good timing on the bump too; the big chunk of white plastic mentioned at the end of the Donkey Dick thread has just found a new spot... some cuttings have just grown some new feets... Stink's stocked up on a fresh supply of Canna juice... heh heh heh...

[FlyGuyOU]

dang this thread got feisty, but stink im wondering how do you go about putting seeds in hydroton? i was thinking maybe of putting the sprouts in a dixie cup of perilite first and then into the hydroton? is that smart? or should i just carefully place the sprout in amongst the balls? im just starting a constant flow hydro...

[d4twamp]

Fly guy, you gotta germ them seeds 1st then put them into your choice of rooter plug/oasis cube/ rockwool or you might be able to root them in perlite like you said and then go into the net pot w/hydroton like you would transplant a rooted clone from an ez cloner...just make sure they are well rooted then they can go in your constant flow system

D:S5:

[FlyGuyOU]

right on, obviously rooter plugs would be preferred, i just havent been able to find any in my town...ima check out tractor supply today if they have anything i'd need...

[stinkyattic]

Wanna hear something funny? I have heard mutterings of growers using- NOT KIDDING- fibreglass insulation as a medium. I'd treat it exactly as rockwool, soaking it in quite a large excess of water set to pH 6.0.

I've never used the shit but would be interested to see someone run an experiment with bagseed to see if you can get seedlings to survive the requisite ~10-14 days or so from germ to the time when they are rooty enough to go into the hydroton. Actually, a little plug of fiberglass in a net pot of hydroton, hand-watered until they root enough to go into your automated system.

Chances are there's some fibreglass poking out of the cracks atop your basement sills... lol... you on;y need a tiny piece. Who's up for an experiment?

[d4twamp]

my best wishes on YOUR new experiment Stinky...
btw I just got HT's oct issue and was wondering which brown bag was the Stinkster masked by...lol...props again on the nuggs n juggs 4th place win...the thing with the juggs is " you've seen one you've seen em all " but I could look at, and sample, different strains of NUGGS and never feel like it's the same stuff I've seen before..

thanks keep doing what you do

D:S5: