Emily's Garden Hydroponic System

I wouldn't try to grow anything very big with it. It's a deep water culture system, and you'd be amazed at the speed of growth you can get if your air pump is pimp enough with a DWC system. I'm with Moose on the 12/12 thing. There's not enough room in the res for big roots, so you'll have to go fast turnaround/small yield a.k.a 12/12 (no veg period), but for less than $90 it's a good pre-fab system for the space you got, although you might want to invest in a second air pump just for good measure.
 
My I had a friend that used that. It did very well. Not much room for roots but he made it work. Ended up with 6 4 to 5 foot females. He grew Brainstorm Haze. I forget what seed company but they were at the Cannabis Cup last year and entered that strain and his grew true to form. Ended up with a decent yeild of about 8 ounces. wish I had some pics but he was paranoid about that so sorry. I think its a good starter system. It was his first time and he did great with it. But the down side I can see with it is not too much room for the root balls. His plants pretty much filled the entire reservoir with roots about a week into flower with i think about 4 weeks of veg. so 12/12 might be the way to go as John D'oh said. It finished good with some great smoke.
 
had a few heat problems but seems to be ok. cant get it under 80 degrees as soon as i get some pictures i will upload.
 
Since you're having temp problems (I'm assuming you're talking about water temps) you'll probably want to get some Hydroguard to guard against pythium and some Hydrogen Peroxide to replace the dissolved oxygen your water cannot hold at the higher temps.
 
its the air temp:)

a few questions,

first topping off, i read do it half strength. if i use 1 table spoon per gallon.... i should use 1/2 tablespoon per gallon with regular tap every other day. is this correct?

second ph, i keep seeing different readings. what is the exact range i should keep it?


also im going 12/12 any day .is there anything i should do like flushing before i change to bloom nuts?
 
not much of a hydro guy but i'll try to help. I'll tell you what my friend did..

topping off thats exactly what he did so seems you got it right.

When he switched to bloom ferts he rinsed out his reservoir the added the fresh water and ferts to it. He also cleaned it once a month and put fresh ferts/water into it. he did that when he changed to flowering because he vegged a month
 
I've seen probably 50 different growers try the emilies garden and about 10% liked it and the other 90% hated it. they all said it worked great when things were small but as roots and plants grew the system couldn't keep up. Small reservoirs are hard to control. PH fluctuation happens more frequently and faster with small reservoirs. the rule of thumb is 5gallons of solution per plant. IE...4 plants require a 20gallon reservoir. More is even better.
I would take the money the garden cost and buy one or two big rubber maid containers (30 gallon size is a nice one to get) from walmart or target or several other stores, a air pump and tubing and air diffuser (stone) and a razor blade knife. From a hydro store or online i would buy net pots (you can make your own with a regular container and a drill motor and drill bit but the net pots are less than a buck a piece and work better). I would buy 1 or 2 inch rockwool cubes or coco cups for planting germinated seeds into and then hydroton (expanded clay pellets) for once roots come through the cups or rockwool. Cut the right sized holes into the rubber maid lid, equally spaced (I recommend 4 plants maximum per container unless doing a SOG which I recommend you do 6 plants but cut a smaller hole on each end for accessing for testing and adding water and nutes) Cut the holes so that almost the entire net pot goes through the hole but enough stays out that it cannot fall through. Not even with a 3 or 4 foot tall plant in it. You glue down your air stone/s into the bottom of your rubber maid container. Add your air line and run it out through a notch you make in the reservoir lip so that the lines don't get pinched. Or you can drill small hole near the reservoir top but make sure the lid can still go on and seal either way. Hook it up to your air pump. It's best to put the air pump above the reservoir to prevent it from possibly siphoning out your reservoir into your room. It doesn't happen often but I have seen it before. You put your net pot into the hole and place a layer of hydroton into the net pot, add your rooted plant and fill around it with more hydroton. Be careful as roots are really delicate. Other mediums than hydroton will work as well. They make a fluffed out rockwool called rockwool chips and coco works too. I've even seen lava rocks used. Fill the reservoir with your nutrient solution measured out to the right strength and PH. Keep the solution right at the bottom of the net pots until quite a few of the roots grow out into the reservoir then you can allow a 1" drop called a air gap. Turn on your air pump. All the bubbles coming up pop when they reach the surface and this splashes on the medium and keeps it wet. This is what feeds the plants. Test your solution daily and change out your solution completely every two weeks. A small fountain pump or shop vac will make emptying the reservoir for bi-monthly change outs a lot easier as well.
Hope this helps someone. Total cost should be less than what the emlies garden is and will grow better plants.
 
you mentioned gluing the air stones to the bottom...what kind of glue do you use and is there no risk of the nutrients eating away at it and messing with the water? Thanks for any info, no your long ass paragraph did not go to waste, i actually read it :smokin:
 
you mentioned gluing the air stones to the bottom...what kind of glue do you use and is there no risk of the nutrients eating away at it and messing with the water? Thanks for any info, no your long ass paragraph did not go to waste, i actually read it :smokin:
sorry in the delay. I missed this one some how. Use aquarium sealant. it's non toxic and the nutes don't bother it.
There aren't clips in a rubber maid container. might be in the garden but we've determined she's not the best for our purposes already.
 
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