Hydroponics made simple, By MimbresValley

[MimbresValley]

Greetings, If any fellow NMMJ patient needs help, feel free to contact me here. (my yahoo sign in is listed under the about me/contact info.)

There are many types of hydroponics, I will be touching on DWC today.
DWC, also known as Deep Water Culture, & Death Without Cause. lol

I will be demonstrating a very simple, and cheap hydroponic setup geared towards personal growers who do not need huge harvests, and also need a low initial cost.

If this is your first time doing hydroponics, I recommend only doing one or two plants with this technique until you have a successful harvest.

Soil/soiless mix is not as productive or fast, but the media acts as a buffer for the roots, and will provide a little room for mistakes, this type of hydroponics one mistake and your plants can be dead quicker than you would ever think, but if you follow my advice you shouldn't ever have any problems.

MimbresValley Reviewed by MimbresValley on 10-28-2010. Hydroponics made simple, By MimbresValley Greetings, If any fellow NMMJ patient needs help, feel free to contact me here. (my yahoo sign in is listed under the about me/contact info.) There are many types of hydroponics, I will be touching on DWC today. DWC, also known as Deep Water Culture, & Death Without Cause. lol I will be demonstrating a very simple, and cheap hydroponic setup geared towards personal growers who do not need huge harvests, and also need a low initial cost. If this is your first time doing hydroponics, I Rating: 5

[MimbresValley]

The method I have used for sprouting seeds is pretty simple, I take the seeds, put them in a cup, add some water, let them set for about 6 hours in a warm dark place(78degrees is ideal)
I then lay them in a damp paper towel, by the next day the taproot has emerged, and the plant can either be put into soil/soiless mix.

If planting in rockwool/sure to grow, I generally skip the paper towel and put them right into the rockwool before the taproot has emerged after they have soaked for the 6 hours.

Suretogrow has a netrual ph, rockwool needs to be rinsed very well under water, then left overnight in a 5.5 ph solution to offset its high ph.

Rockwool and suretogrow are similar looking medias, but both have different techniques that are needed for sucess, for instance rockwool is a wicking media, and suretogrow is not. If you are ineterested in some of the finer nuances between stg, and rockwool, feel free to contact me on yahoo.

I prefer working with rockwool, so I will only be adding a tutorial for that, STG is a little to flimsy for my liking.

Rockwool comes in various sizes, for seeds you start them in the 1.5x1.5 starter cubes, and you can transplant them into whatever media you choose to use(expanded clay, lava rock, gravel, etc...)

If you are going to be placing the 1.5 starters into a larger rockwool cube, the ones pictures are 6"x6"x6" then i recommend putting the 1.5 started in the larger block from the get go, this way you can save yourself transplant shock.
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[shmedy]

Death Without Cause. Ha thats a good one. btw nice post.

[MimbresValley]

Haha Yeah Shmedly
This setup is a very cheap and very simple setup, perfect for fellow PPL growers in NM who want to be 100% in compliance with the medical cannabis law, or anyone for that matter looking for a simple setup.

You can almost treat this as soil grow in the sense when the plants get larger, they will drink upwards of 3 gallons a day. this setup you basically hand water each day to top of the water levels.

A more elaborate system can be built to simplify the work, but these stand alone buckets do have their place in a garden, and have sucj benefits such as allowing a perpetual harvest, if one plant somehow gets sick, the others wont be infected, you can run sativa, indicas with different flowering times.
Since I run 100% legal under NM state laws, I had been running a perceptual harvest in the past, generally yielding about 4(sometimes as high as five, or low as 3.5oz)ounces average every three weeks off one plant, so one plant goes into flower, three weeks later another, three weeks another. etc..

This allowed me to spread out trimming & harvests, and by the time Im just running out of meds, another plant is finishing curing..
But since im growing out new strains I will be reverting back to 4 plants at a time tell I find a phenotype I like. Then back to the perpetual harvest.






So in these pictures, you can see a simple 5gallon bucket,

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you can't notice but the bucket you see I have wrapped it with duct tape,
this is to prevent any light from leaking into the reservoir where the roots are contained, light can cause algae growth as well as problems with nutrients.

Online or from a hydroponic store you can buy 8 inch net pot lids that snap right onto a standard five gallon bucket, as seen in my larger plants, these plants were taken from clone, I didnt have any spare 8in net pot lids, so I made this setup for a new strain I am going to be growing out.
I just used a simple 3.5" hole saw and drilled out a 5 gallon bucket lid, then popped in a 3.5" netcup,(make sure to find the right taper, or the netpot will fall through the hole you drill)


As I mentioned rockwool is a wicking media, this means it should not sit directly in water, as you can see in this picture the water lever comes up right to the bottom of the net pot, I then add a layer of expanded clay, this way the rockwool is not directly sitting in water.


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If using clones in rockwool follow the same procedure, the expanded clay should just be getting misted from the air bubbling up through the water.

Some folks recommended leaving an air gap between the netpot and the water, I prefer to have as little of gap as possible, as I have found when there is a gap rope roots develop which have no purpose other than stabilizing the plant,(at least from my understanding)

[MimbresValley]

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[MimbresValley]

Here is the 5 gallon net put lids that go right on the 5 gallon bucket, they provide better support for larger plants, same concept as the 3.5 net pot.
The smaller pot allows you to run more water in the system. I usually only use the larger ones, but I lent out a few to some fellow patients that needed to get up and going, so im using some of the 3.5" ones. Use what you got to save costs.:rastasmoke:

[MimbresValley]

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Notice the yellow on the outside edges of the leaves, that is a MG deficiency, which is a very common problem when running RO water, I actually am running tap, but this strain just loves the MG.
I ran out of Cal Mag during this round, Ordered Cal-Mag over 5 weeks ago still have not gotten my order, every time I call they say its on backorder, but their websites lists having tons in stock.:wtf: Would never order from them again, wormsway is hands down my fav place to order from.
In a pinch you can use epsom salts which isn't really ideal, but I had to start in the mean time until my order arrives.:hippy:

[medical420mama]

That is pretty much what my set up is, right now though i have a 6or 7 gal storage bin that i am using just to get them started. I am able to put 6 of those little net pots in there and then i have 5 gall buckets like you and the big net pots that they will be moved to once the get bigger. Thats pretty cool we are doing it the same way.

[MimbresValley]

By the way BGHydro are the ones running me around on my order.

Now for all you paranoid tokers out there, here is an interesting article to digest. :stoned:
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Google Green Merchant
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GRAND RAPIDS -- Longtime Press sports columnist David Mayo, accused of growing marijuana in his Northeast Side home, was targeted for investigation after police tracked shipping invoices of a company that advertises in "High Times" magazine, court records showed.
Armed with that information, police sought utility bills, which showed Mayo's electric use was more than twice that of his neighbors.
Police also put his home under surveillance and determined he did not bring his trash to the curb, which is common among marijuana growers, police said.
Investigators in early January also noted a "large amount of mold" under the eaves on the outside of his house, which suggested to them strong grow lights were being used inside the residence, heating the room where marijuana was being grown, and causing condensation on the exterior.
The allegations were contained in search-warrant affidavits made public this week.
Sheriff's Lt. Kevin Kelley confirmed police based the investigation on items shipped by companies that advertised in "High Times" and other pro-marijuana publications.
Courtesy Photo
Evidence: Authorities found Mason jars filled with marijuana buds inside David Mayo's house on Fuller Avenue NE in Plainfideld Township.
Mayo bought, "on 11 occasions, hydroponic growing equipment that is specialized in indoor marijuana growing," according to sheriff's Detective Sgt. Todd Butler, who said local authorities received information from the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program, a project of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
"Operation Green Thumb has access to shipping invoices from suppliers who advertise their indoor marijuana-growing equipment in magazines such as 'High Times.' David Mayo bought his hydroponic equipment from one of the suppliers that do, in fact, advertise in this (manner)."
Mayo's lawyer, Bruce Block, could not be reached for comment, but earlier said he was reviewing police information to determine whether he should challenge the reason officers had probable cause to enter Mayo's Fuller Avenue NE house Jan. 19.
Mayo is suspended from The Press pending the legal outcome. He awaits trial on charges of growing from 20 to 200 plants, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years in prison, and a high-court misdemeanor charge of maintaining a drug house. Prosecutors have offered to reduce charges to a four-year felony if he pleads guilty.
Police say 71 marijuana plants and 32 ounces of packaged marijuana were found in the home.
Mayo's wife, Denise, awaits trial on charges of marijuana possession and maintaining a drug house.
Both are free on personal recognizance bonds.

[MimbresValley]

That is pretty much what my set up is, right now though i have a 6or 7 gal storage bin that i am using just to get them started. I am able to put 6 of those little net pots in there and then i have 5 gall buckets like you and the big net pots that they will be moved to once the get bigger. Thats pretty cool we are doing it the same way.

I am here to help, you got any questions we can chat on yahoo, or give me a ring.:thumbsup: