How To: 10oz per plant perpetual indoors

[TheCapn]

This is not the same pheno (not from the same mother plant) as the 20ouncer, but this ACE has really nice colors when it's done. It is not as heavy as a yield-er, but I still expect 12oz. Again, this is using method #1. Nothing but top fed from a reservoir, 6 gallon container. I Change the nutrients once a week, never go over 1000ppm. Using Heisenberg beneficial tea once a week. Water temp: 71-72F. Irrigated 5x a day for first 4 weeks of flower, now cut back to 3 times a day.

Let me know if you move forward with your plans to go hydro, I would like to see how you get on with it.

 

[DDCollect]

my math was off on the 6 per, I think I would start 6 per month, and harvest 6 per month. I can always increase my goals if I have it down

been working on your bending and topping methods, and seem to be doing well, hope to reach that 3 foot mark

 

[DDCollect]

trying to price this out now, have a good place for the superoot airpots? should I go even bigger?

net pots are fine til flowering right?

also, LED for vegging will be ok I assume, I have 12x 596w LED's that work great for vegging currently, not so much when I flower though, was thinking I could probably save some cost recycling those for just vegging and put 2 per light more than likely, the footprint is 6x8

 

[TheCapn]

>>why 600 watt? I was planning on going 1000?

If you already have 1k's and not worried about electricity bill then go for it. I will increase yield even more but it is not necessary. 600W is the most efficient light in terms of lumens.

>>I definitely am going to do the 2 mo veg, I have 1 mother from seed, was going to use an ezcloner (thats what I do for soil set up) but it looks like I need to have it in rockwool from the start, so I may just get 1 of those box domes I see.

You can use the cloner, then transplant into the rockwool grow cubes just like you do dirt. I like the rockwool blocks for cloning, just because they are convenient. Your ezcloner will be a bit faster producing roots.

>>my plan is to start with 6 veg, and every 2 weeks start 6 more, that way I would be able to have 6 to harvest every 2 weeks, and constantly stagger with 6 shifting in and out every 2 weeks.

I love it! I didn't do the math on that but it seems to me like you would need to do that once a month, instead of two weeks, in order to veg for 2 months?

>>my soil grow consisted of well over 60, but was yielding under 2 oz per/plant in sog. This seems so much more efficient and should be about the same amount of work.

I have never done SOG, but I read it will produce more under the same light. SCROG is fun, man. It is sofaking cool to grow these big chongers. I think you will find it is LESS work, but you will have to let me know. The cool thing is you don't have to worry about overwatering with the grow cubes.

>>>my current room is set up for CO2 in the flower room only, do you use co2 in both rooms. Sorry for all the questions
I don't use Co2. Again, I am envious. Since I only flower two - three plants at a time, it doesn't really make sense for me to add aircon, dehumidifier, co2, etc. I have drawn it out several times, and I just can't see me doing it. Sealing my room would be a real pain in the a$$. Plus, I really like the simplicity of how I have things now.

No prob on the questions. I have learned so much from these forums, I am happy to help. Plus, I still have so much to learn as well. I read at least an hour a night, and it seems I learn something new every day. The problem is I have to wade through 10 pages of BS to get to that one ounce of info where someone actually knows what they are talking about!

What strains are you growing?

 

[TheCapn]

trying to price this out now, have a good place for the superoot airpots? should I go even bigger?

net pots are fine til flowering right?

The 10" netpots are a little small in veg when the plant gets in the last two weeks. I would go with a 3.5 gal nursery pot. But the trick is to upgrade slowly. If you go straight to a big pot, the roots will grow to the pot and circle. Wait until the roots are pretty thick before moving up a size. A good place to get the superoots air pots is rogue hydroponics, assuming you are in the USA.

Here's a few pics, showing pot sizes compared to plant sizes. I try to stay small until I think the plant it on the edge of getting root bound. This builds up a mass of roots.

 

[TheCapn]

>>>I try to stay small until I think the plant it on the edge of getting root bound.

I shouldn't have said that. I see people growing plants 2ft tall in a solo cup. I'm a long way off from that. But you can see from the pics how I move them up in sizes.

 

[DDCollect]

primarily going to be doing Sour Diesel, I have a market for 3+lbs a mo for it, just havent even come close to producing it, thats why I have been exploring Hydro, need to meet my supply and demand before customers go elsewhere

 

[DDCollect]

ok so looks like you are going 10" netpots ---- 3.5 gallon nursery --- 5.8 gal airpots (flower)

oh also whats your opinion, about using 1 res/water pump per 6 plants? or should I do each seperate, either way works, could just have it more centralized for nutes and a timed sytem to flood 1 plant at a time

 

[trichomes]

great information! many thanks for sharing

 

[trichomes]

awesome grow/share! many thanks for this. i'm sub'd

 

[TheCapn]

ok so looks like you are going 10" netpots ---- 3.5 gallon nursery --- 5.8 gal airpots (flower)

oh also whats your opinion, about using 1 res/water pump per 6 plants? or should I do each seperate, either way works, could just have it more centralized for nutes and a timed sytem to flood 1 plant at a time

>>>ok so looks like you are going 10" netpots ---- 3.5 gallon nursery --- 5.8 gal airpots (flower)
Pretty much yes. Post 25 shows all the pots I use.

>>>oh also whats your opinion, about using 1 res/water pump per 6 plants? or should I do each seperate, either way works, could just have it more centralized for nutes and a timed sytem to flood 1 plant at a time

If feeding 6 large plants with one pump, I would use a 400gph pump, or two. You will want to be careful that all plants are getting watered well during irrigation time. For 6 plants, I would use at least the 27gal strong box / tough tote. In first month of flower, each plant will drink at least a gallon a day. So 27 gal should get you 4 days. If you do this, please take pics and start a journal, as I would be very interested in seeing this method happen on a large scale like you're talking.

 

[s1ingblade]

If I can get this method down and it blows my current ones away I will try to set-up a larger scale grow than I have been doing. The unknown is a bitch!

 

[wreched75]

Hey capn

Love what you done and read all your articles you are farming engineer!! Great work and thank you for
Putting the time and effort into posting this for us.

I just had a few questions on your write up. Just want to say this is my first grow so please take it easy on me haha. Newb here. I seen your drawing with the ebb and flow and then as I scrolled down I see the nursery pots go into the buckets with the flood and drain kit. Are you switching up mid way through veg with the bucket system? I got lost after seeing a new bucket hahahah sorry true newb here. With the bucket system I seem that they each have their own res, would it be possible to just have 1 res for 3 plants with the system you have? Or should they all be separate?

Thanks again capn and your efforts, simply stunning.

 

[AfricanGrower]

Hey Capn, first of all +reps for taking the time to put so much effort into helping those of us unfamiliar with hydro and sharing the basic techniques in order to produce enormous yields

I have just finished reading through all your articles and I am very convinced I will be trying a hydro grow this time around. I have always been looking for something or someone in this case to give me that extra push to jump into hydro from soil.

In the case of getting a 10oz behemoth I know a major part of the grow is in you 400w and 600w setup in respective to the veg and flower cycles. While knowing this, I have a slight problem of a monitored electric bill in the apartment I stay in. I have a $30 limit per month on my bill where the average rates are between 7-9 cents per kWh; I would be limited to around 333-428kWh per month, if my math is correct. So running a 400watt MH for 18hrs/day and a 600watt hps running 12hrs/day would roughly get me around 216kWh a month

My question, in your opinion, is whether this is a big risk or not, and if so would I be able to pull off a grow with similar yield using a similar amount of wattage through cfl's?

Any insight on this would be extremely helpful

 

[AfricanGrower]

>>>3. One 7-10 gallon reservoir (any container will work)

In the case of this would I be able to modify this by using a 210GPH or higher water pump in a 20 gallon reservoir to feed two plants? Maybe using a y-splitter for each bucket's fill tube? Only reason for this is space constraints

 

[TheCapn]

Hey capn

Love what you done and read all your articles you are farming engineer!! Great work and thank you for
Putting the time and effort into posting this for us.

I just had a few questions on your write up. Just want to say this is my first grow so please take it easy on me haha. Newb here. I seen your drawing with the ebb and flow and then as I scrolled down I see the nursery pots go into the buckets with the flood and drain kit. Are you switching up mid way through veg with the bucket system? I got lost after seeing a new bucket hahahah sorry true newb here. With the bucket system I seem that they each have their own res, would it be possible to just have 1 res for 3 plants with the system you have? Or should they all be separate?

Thanks again capn and your efforts, simply stunning.

Hi Wreched, thanks for your comments and welcome to the forum. I can see how this might have been a little confusing. For this growing method, let's review.

I'll talk about vegetative growth first:
You will want to go to the store and get a few sizes of regular nursery pots, from small, up to the 3.5 gallon pot. The 3.5 gal pot will be the one you flower in; it fits perfectly in side the 5 gallon bucket. Transplant up to a bigger size, when the pot starts to get root bound. This builds up a big root mass. If you start in the big pot, roots just go to the sides and bottom and then start circling. It is not really important how your irrigate your plants during vegetative growth. They only need to be watered once a day. You can hand water them, rig up a top feed system on a timer, or you can do flood and drain, like the diagram I showed. Normally, I either hand water once a day in the mornings, or I do the flood and drain system. When I hand water, I use fresh nutrient water and let the water drain to waste (I don't re-use the water again). Then seems to produce the fastest growth. The problem with F&D, is that it requires a big volume of water to fill up the flood tray. But the good part about F&D or the top feed hose system, is that you can leave your grow for a week at a time. Either way, don't make it complicated. Pretend the grow cubes are dirt. Grow your plants in it and water them generously once a day. After your seedlings get some size to them (about 8" tall) they will REALLY take off exponentially. Use a good growth formula at no more than 500ppm. For even better growth, use some kind of "mycos" or beneficial bacteria, and you will build up a healthy root mass that will literally grow inches a day. Here in this picture, you can see I'm just watering these by hand once a day. I have a little tray under the big pot and I let about 1/8" of water accumulate in the tray. I only do that when the plants are big and sucking in a lot of water per day. That is the 3.5 gal pot that fits inside the 5 gal bucket. In this picture to the left you an also see I have a plant sitting in a net pot, on a 5 gal bucket. I use the bucket to get the plant closer to the light.

Here is another picture where I've rigged up little top feed hoses from the hardware store. A water pump is turned on from a timer for 15 mins every morning.

You can do it any way you want. The goal is to saturate the rockwool grow cubes once a day.

Once your plant is in the 3.5 gal bucket and it's at least 30" in diameter, it's time to flower. Rig up your bucket with your input and output holes and test it out. Water pumps INTO the bottom, flows out the top.

About your reservoir question. Yes, you can run multiple plants from one res. However, if you are running monster 4ft x 4ft plants, you will need longer hoses, and you need to make sure the bucket drains back to the reservoir well. If it doesn't drain fast enough, your res will overflow. If you only have a 10gal res and you are using 5 gal buckets, you can use two water pumps and put them on separate timers (other wise you may not have enough water volume to fill buckets). This saves money on nutrients as well. Remember, big plants in flower will use a gallon a day. Good luck with it! I know it is a lot of information to take it at once. Even if you are a noob, if you follow these steps in this thread, there is no reason you shouldn't be able to pull off a 10oz plant. My record is 20oz using this method, with 12 oz being the norm.

 

[TheCapn]

Hey Capn, first of all +reps for taking the time to put so much effort into helping those of us unfamiliar with hydro and sharing the basic techniques in order to produce enormous yields

I have just finished reading through all your articles and I am very convinced I will be trying a hydro grow this time around. I have always been looking for something or someone in this case to give me that extra push to jump into hydro from soil.

In the case of getting a 10oz behemoth I know a major part of the grow is in you 400w and 600w setup in respective to the veg and flower cycles. While knowing this, I have a slight problem of a monitored electric bill in the apartment I stay in. I have a $30 limit per month on my bill where the average rates are between 7-9 cents per kWh; I would be limited to around 333-428kWh per month, if my math is correct. So running a 400watt MH for 18hrs/day and a 600watt hps running 12hrs/day would roughly get me around 216kWh a month

My question, in your opinion, is whether this is a big risk or not, and if so would I be able to pull off a grow with similar yield using a similar amount of wattage through cfl's?

Any insight on this would be extremely helpful

Yo AG, Thanks for the well written comments and questions. If this article doesn't convince someone to go from dirt to hydro, I don't know what would.

You can use the CFL's during vegetative growth (it might take a little longer). I have used 200W of T5 lighting in veg with no problem. But no, you won't get anything like this using CFL's in flower. If you are limited, I would go with something like this:

CFL or T5 in Vegetative growth: 200W x 18 hours x 30 days = 108kwh x .07/kwh = $7.56
HPS in flower: 400W x 12 hours x 30 days = 144kwh x .07/kwh = $10.08

That will leave you a little bit of electricity to take a shower and make your toast.

You should still be able to get 8 to 10oz, maybe more, with the 400W in flower.

>>> would I be able to modify this by using a 210GPH or higher water pump in a 20 gallon reservoir to feed two plants? Maybe using a y-splitter for each bucket's fill tube?

Yes you can do this, IF the two buckets are at the same height. I would stick with the smaller water pump, the 185gph will work for two buckets as well. Good luck and be sure to let me know if you do this. Most people don't have the patience to wait so long for the plants to get large before going to flower. But it's really that last 2-3 weeks where the plant grows so fast during veg. A couple weeks extra will literally double your yield per plant. PM's welcome.

 

[AfricanGrower]

Thanks for the response man, that really put things in a perspective

>>>CFL or T5 in Vegetative growth: 200W x 18 hours x 30 days = 108kwh x .07/kwh = $7.56
HPS in flower: 400W x 12 hours x 30 days = 144kwh x .07/kwh = $10.08
That will leave you a little bit of electricity to take a shower and make your toast.

Okay I just got off the phone with the my apartment leasing agent, and I was able to clarify a few things. I'm sharing an apartment with 2 other people (each with our own rooms, bath, and walk-in closet space which is where I plan to grow) and we each get charged $30/room with the rest of the living area (living room, kitchen, etc.) being accumulated by all three of us.

With this in account I think I can pull off a 400watt MH/HPS grow. I really don't want to sacrifice more veg time than I need to running CFL's or T5's. Since I have almost exactly 4 1/2 months to pull this off running MH would give me the perfect "2 month" veg period and then 2 1/2 months of flowering, right?

400W x 18Hrs x 30days=216kwh x .09/kwh= $19.44 <This would be the maximum I would use a month for the first two months. Eh, I think thats perfect for a shower! I'll make toast in my roommates room if worst comes to worst

>>>Yes you can do this, IF the two buckets are at the same height. I would stick with the smaller water pump, the 185gph will work for two buckets as well.

I only could find a 210 GPH pump that would deliver to my current address in time before I actually move-in to this apartment. You would stick to the smaller one for more efficiency or less noise?

Here is a list of products I'm going to order with your blessings

420 Magazine

 

[TheCapn]

AG, it sounds like a good plan. That is a sweet set up you are getting. I like the cool tube and the apollo bulb. The price is right too. I was thinking the smaller pump in case your bucket can't drain fast enough.

4.5 months is just enough time. Plant your seeds asap if you haven't already. I start my seeds in a wet paper towel (distilled water) and then put them in 1.5" rockwool blocks.

Watch those cheap portable meters. Some of them go out of calibration easily. Just check it frequently and you will be fine.

Are you starting from seed? If so, bag seed or something else?

 

[AfricanGrower]

Well with that specific pump, if you notice the dial on the front, it has an adjustable water flow rate which seems perfect for a "two plant/one res" system, no?

I ordered 10 Bubblelicious seeds from Nirvana yesterday will expect them within 2weeks! My latest expected time I would like to start germinating by would be August 24th, and hopefully start putting them into flowering by October 19th. I'm pushing for harvest by the end of December. Plausible right?