First E & F, how's it lookin vets?

[basementbotany]

how am i doing for my first hydro grow? my roots sit in a little puddle of water under my pots, is this ok? the bottom of my plant tray does not have ridges, it is just flat, and holds a little puddle under each pot. btw, it is an e & f.[attachment=o175038]

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basementbotany Reviewed by basementbotany on 01-20-2008. First E & F, how's it lookin vets? how am i doing for my first hydro grow? my roots sit in a little puddle of water under my pots, is this ok? the bottom of my plant tray does not have ridges, it is just flat, and holds a little puddle under each pot. btw, it is an e & f. Rating: 5

[dejayou30]

My bins hold a little less than a 1/4" of water in them and I have had some problems that may or may not be related to that. The thing I find is that a lot of slime and nutrient deposts build up in there and make the roots all slimy and nasty which probably isn't good for the plants. My veg bins drain completely but my flowering ones hold some water so I try to clean them out after 4 weeks and again before the final flush during every flower cycle.

[basementbotany]

well my tray doesn't hold water at all, just under the pots. it drains very well except for that. i thought about taking a refridgerator shelf and putting it in the bottom of my tray so that the pots don't sit directly in that litlle puddle. just don't know if it would hurt the pH since it is a metal shelf. Any other thoughts i could do with that would be much appreciated.

[basementbotany]

updated pics.
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[stinkyattic]

You don't want ANY standing water. Tilt your entire tray by sliding a piece of heavy plywood and a couple 2x4s under there so that it drops an inch or two from back to drain. Puddles lead to slime, rot, and yes oh yes the disgusting fungus gnats. Blech.
If you can, swap out the black plastic with a sheet of panda film white side up to both reflect mroe light and keep the inside from heating up. Heat + standing water= slime and gnats much faster than without the added heat! Just like an oven, baking up yoru next batch of disgustingness.

[basementbotany]

thanks stinkyattic, yeah i kind of figured the black plastic would generate to much heat to my roots, it was just temporary until i found something more suitable. what is this panda film, and is it something i can buy at the hydro store, or like a lowes/home depot type place? also, need to set up a flower room for under $300. Actually call it about $175 since i have to buy a 360w HPS bulb for my lamp. Any helpers that can help me do this, would like it to be an ebb & flow, but if you can think of something cheaper let me know and i'll run with that. PLEASE, I NEED YOUR HELP, plan to flower in a just about 2 weeks.

[stinkyattic]

In the grow log section there's a thread of mine called stinky's adventures in noob hydro or something and there's a parts/prices list in there somewhere.
You can easily modify that system to ebb n flow but the containerized NFT shown is quite forgiving. And you can get away with a MUCH smaller reservoir... nice if you are upstairs or away from your water source. I designed it with help from the hydro shop guy to be CHEAP, easy to build AND decommission, fit in the trunk of a small car, and be hard to screw up.
Panda Film is a hydro shop item.
At minimum you'll need tubing, a pump, a res, pots, media, nutes, and a catch tray. You can use a underbed storage bin for a catch tray (not the wheeled type!) and a 5 gallon pail for a res if you go NFT but you'll need something much larger for ebb n flow.
With a containerized NFT you depend on the POTS to provide lightproofing- you can put your whole net thing into a gallon pot with ore hydroton, plop it on a catch tray, and away you go.
I have been very happy with Canna Aqua nutes as being super noob friendly and giving a lovely tasting product. My buddy doesn't even flush his, lol, and it's the best herb I have personally ever seen/smoked. He's been growing... a year. lol~

[basementbotany]

i believe i'm just going to build the same system i already have, it's pretty simple, very few things to go wrong with my system. easy to change the resevoir, no moving parts except air and water pump. it's pretty idiot proof. anyways, plants are doing great, just lst'd them tonight. will post pics tomorrow. Stinkattic, was wondering something, if i were to buy some of them very small airstones from like wal-mart, and carefully sealed them in the plant tray around where the pots would be sitting, and set the air pump to come on for the 15 mins. the water pump is on, would this be much more beneficial to my plants oxygen uptake than just filling and draining and only having any oxystone in the resevoir?

[stinkyattic]

Stinkattic, was wondering something, if i were to buy some of them very small airstones from like wal-mart, and carefully sealed them in the plant tray around where the pots would be sitting, and set the air pump to come on for the 15 mins. the water pump is on, would this be much more beneficial to my plants oxygen uptake than just filling and draining and only having any oxystone in the resevoir?

I have never seen this done but it is a GREAT idea! I like it a lot. How much additional benefit it would have is a big question but you would be then running a hybrid DWC/ebb n flow system- And that is super neat. Extra O2 delivery to the roots is always a good thing!

Edit, turn on your rep, smartypants!

[basementbotany]

rep? SA, also love the idea in your noob hydro thread about running 3 flowering tables, thought about setting up 2 of them, and doing weeks 1-4 and 4-Harvest. i believe i will need to have bud coming in every 4 weeks with the size system i have, not sure if i'll pull more than 2-4 oz per harvest. smoke about 2 oz's per month, share 2-4 oz's a month with close friends/family. will eventually upgrade my whole setup, just need some quality smoke for now.