Hydroponics at Home -- Questions -- DIY -- First Time -- Beginner

[NicoFrei]

Hey everyone,

Forgive my ignorance, I was planning on growing from home, likely even out of my bedroom, using a very small, simple, and cheap hydroponics set-up.

What I want most of all is simplicity at a low-cost, with little risk and as much bang for my buck as possible. I'm mostly interesting in quantity over quality. It's also important to me that I "do it myself," and build my set-up as much from scratch as is possible/practical. I am treating this as a learning experience, to learn about plants and home gardening techniques, as much as a means to get cheap pot.

So, I was considering an "ebb and flow" hydro method as it appears that this method is relatively straightforward and dynamic. I have a few questions about costs and equipment, any and all responses are much appreciated:

-Assuming I'm starting with absolutely no materials (other than a fan), but want to grow around five plants, what is the minimum investment I will likely need to make (how much money)? What are the best places to shop around, either online or otherwise? What basic materials are necessary?

-Can a small-scale hydro set-up work out of a medium sized bedroom, i.e. not in a closet or anything, but like taking up some space in my room?

-In terms of debates over the best kind of lights to use, I've seen people opt for different types of lights depending on the stage of plant growth (i.e. growing versus flowering stages). Is buying two kinds of lights necessary, if so, what do you recommend, and if not, what do you recommend?

-This is the most open-ended question, what is the ideal set-up considering all of the information I've given (I will gladly provide more info, I just couldn't think of anything to add)? Best materials? Best set-up? Lights? Media? Pots/containers? Fans? Chemicals/fertilizers? Seeds? Seed stores online? Tubes? Pumps? etc. etc. etc.

Thank you all for your time!

 

[Papageno]

Wow I think if you poke around the site a bit a lot of that is answered. But here are a few ideas...

Sounds like you have not grown before. Hydro is easy when you know a lot of things. But I mean a lot of things. Hydro is a great growing method for an operation that is not what it sounds like you are trying to do. I always recommend if you have space to try a few soil grows first for a lot of reasons. But that is your choice. Take a look at the Hempy bucket method. Many people who try it never go back to hydro.

As for hydro. I think DWC is easier and better for a beginner.

You should not start by saying I want to grow 5 plants how do I make that happen?. You should start by looking at your grow space and sizing the ventilation and lighting for optimal growing conditions. From there depending on how you grow you may not be able to fit 5 plants in there. I have Seen SCROGs done that 1 plant consumes an entire 1000W bulb. You can fill a 5x5 area with one plant if you do it right. In that same 5x5 area you can SOG and fit probably a few hundred plants. People looking for high speed turn maximizing the square footage usually do a SOG. People growing for themselves can get a pound a plant from a SCROG so a couple of plants a year is more than enough.

As for lights there is an entire sub forum on that with lots of great posts. I grew for years on just a single HPS but that can cause excess stretch during transition. I never minded as I had space. There is a lot of new stuff out there in LEDs that lots of people are doing well with but those have a much higher upfront cost for ones that work. To keep it cheap yes you can get a great product with just an HPS the entire time. The question you are asking is about MH vs. HPS bulbs. To keep it simple MH is more like summer light and HPS is more like fall light so you veg under MH and flower in the fall under a HPS light. But it grows Veg just fine under a HPS. If you want to do it the best way which will improve your total yield use more lights. Grow under 2 600W one MH one HPS. Or you can use a Dual Arc 1000W for veg (that's a single bulb that has a 400W MH and 600W HPS in one bulb) and 1000W HPS for Bloom. But that gets spendy paying for the lights. It is worth it because the most important thing is the lights and up to a certain point the more the better. 1000W gets hot so you have to keep it far away so 2 x 600W actually work the best when done correctly. If you know what you are doing with a single 400W HPS you can do very well. I wouldn't go any smaller, you are just wasting your time.

I can't really answer the last question because I still do not understand the room you are using. Is it a tent? Is it a full bed room in a house? What do you mean by "my bedroom". You can't successfully grow a reasonable plant like a house plant.


Best of luck!