Nft Mind Blown Grow

[Oscarnft]

Hi Guys,ive been growing 30 +yrs in soil,mainly bio all mix and biobizz nutes,until recently.
My mate showed me his nft gro,so hooked was i,that ordered a gt205 a week later....
What follows is my (mind blow) NFT grow....

GT205 UNIT,
Shogun Nutrients..
PH and EC pens,(essential)

september 9th,2020........Popped 2 GG#4 seeds and 1 random Afgan skunk seeds on tissue to germinate.
built a frame from old tent poles,as from what ive read,plants lack support in nft.

12th september,all seeds in rockwool,(Grodan),cut a spare cube into 2"x1"x1" and popped seeds in.....
Stuck em under pop bottle tops and voila.Rockwool soaked in ph 5.5 for about an hour.

By the 15th they were off.....
So ive read all about air pruning ect,i just kept them in washing up bowl and fed them diluted 50/50 nutes.
PH 5.8 EC 0600.
Shogun Samuri soft water 2 part Grow.A + B
plants hardening off with fan and low light height.sing a KOSHCEAL 600,(60quid light)
21st september...

27th September,all plants into NFT,running pump once every few hours,
PH 5.9 EC 1104 PPM 0552.
Heights GG #1..100mm GG #2..55mm Afgan..70mm

Plants have gone wild growth wise,Now have fan for air movement.

Technicaly this is only day 14.

so now the boring bit,ive read all there is to read,and it all seemed a bit daunting,so i took what i thought was best from all the other stuff ive read.....
28th September,Fimmed Gorilla #1,also added another small fan.
After 1 week in nft,.,,,,amazing.

1st October.
ec down to 899. ph 6.3
added 1ltr water a+b....ph 5.6 ec 1340 Made new rockwool block covers to prevent Algae growth.
heights...GG #1..115mm GG #2..70mm Afgan..80mm
21.30...All 3 have rooted too matting in tank,And roots are going wild.

4th october 2020
Added 1 ltr water to tank,5ml of a+b...
EC 1210
PH 5.6.....
Fimmed Afgan skunk.Plant are thriving well...Lots of roots in tray.
21.30
Ec 1444
Ph 5.7 ...Also started using Cal_mag
In Kerno we are soft water so cal-mag needed
5/10/2020
Ec 1640 just inside range
Ph 6.6..
7/10/2020
Added 3ltrs water 4ml a+b
Ec 1550
Ph 5.9
8-10-2020
Added 3ltrs water,upped ec to 1466
Ph 6.2
Have moved fans up,and raised light to let them stretch a bit...
Pump it tank to mix nutes ect

i learnt the hard way,you add nutes and they say too give it a stir or wait an hour,did just that and ph and ec were all wrong,thru the roof,I had to drain 8 ltrs water out and refil and ph,d and ec up to max..So i dropped this 1000ltr per hour hydro pump in sump,only gets turned on when doing feeds ect...saves so much time,and less errors using too much or too little nutes....
9-10-2020
4 weeks old today.
roots looking loike this....

And plants ...on 11th october,(have pics leading up to this if anyone wants to view them...)
As plants are growing im just tucking the branches under top bar of frame.

you will see from pics,Im a 12volt guy,all extraction and air flow fans,are quality pc fans,been going for years,and work a treat.

homemade 12 psu,1 variable output for exaust fan,rest are air movement fans,running flat out...(looks messy but works,lol)
10-10-2
Checked levels
Ec 1489
Ph 6.5 added 2 drops ph down now at 6.0
Bugger just found out you can only add 10 pics......all plants were fimmed 14 days before flip
View attachment 2247066
Here we are today,25th October,Flipped too 12/12 cycle half grow and half bloom nutes after emptying tank and rinsing,(will explain this in a sec),on 21st......Mind Blown.,.....Just over 6 weeks old.
They say you should empty your tank ever week or 2,I did my first 14 days after plants were in NFT,then 14 days later,then left until 21st,bearing in mind,during the get to know nft,i did twice have to take 8 ltrs out and replace as i wasnt used to PH down,which brings me onto PH down,this gear will take a ph of 7 down to 6.5 with literaly 1 drop from a pipette in 20 ltrs of water...BE WARNED.Dont do what i did and rinse pipette in the tank,i went down to 5.0,(1st brown trouser moment).lol.So be really sparing with it,But your nutes ASO bring ph down,
So,i top up with water,usually 2ltrs minimum,every 2 days,EC get feed sorted,THEN ph......Im finding now,with the nutes im using,Ph rarely goes above 6.5,in which case 1 drop of ph down....
If your new like me to hydro growing,your aiming (they say)for 5.8 to 6.5......6 has been my perfect number,so aim for that.

When i said Rinsing the tank,Turn your main pump off..I read about peeps cutting roots off ect as they are in the tank.NAH,i always was me hands,turn grow light off,open outflow end of cover and gently pull the roots out and stick them up out of the way...Drain tank.with my spare pump,get a bowl of clean water and just flush Res.....Then take all that water out,(prop root end of tank up higher than pump end),Then refill tank,Feed EC,Then ph once settled pop roots back into tank....No harm done.
Thus far.All i can say is,I should have done this 10-15 years ago.
Hope this help someone,Its not as daunting as it seems when you read some posts out there....
I'll update again in a week...
Happy growing guys.xx

 

[Stormblessed]

Awesome grow, very informative, and that’s like the third time in 2 days I’ve seen nft, at the risk of sounding dumb, what does nft mean?

 

[Oscarnft]

NFT Nutrient Film Technique,Basicaly you have a continuous flow of nutrient rich water over bare roots,this allows roots to get more oxygen,and the nutes are specificaly tailored to what the plant needs,Directly,they feed when they want to.As long as your PH and EC,(electrical conductivity)or PPM,(parts per million,relates to amount of salts in your feed),Feed levels are correct,ive found you cant go wrong.this is my 1st grow,and after reading about it all over the web,it can look really complicated,but it isnt.And not as expensive as it used to be,£100 included my gt205 nft system,growdan rockwool cubes and grow and bloom feeds,My advice is give it a go.

 

[Oscarnft]

Here are a few pics,Leading up to today..
27-9-20

29-9-20

3-10-20

5-10-20

12-10-20

The rate of growth has blown me away. I can see a difference daily when I check on the grow.

 

[Oscarnft]

14-10-20

After seeing the results a few weeks in,i thought after this grow,i'd get the next size up nft system,then they started stretching,Theres no way i'd have room for all the vegatation.1 point to note,good extraction is required as humidity gets up into the 90s at times,the circulation pump keeps tank at about 22 deg C,leading to condensation in tank and root bed.The plants love it,so another 12v pc fan and filter are going in later this week,And in 2 weeks a 1000watt LED will be going in,So that will raise temp in grow,currently it sits at 21deg C constantly.I'd like it around 25 deg C.
From day 1 until i flipped,they were receiving 22 hours of light,and as you can see,loved it.Also,i,ve kept the grow light about 12",(300mm)from top of plants up until 2 weeks ago,now its at about 18"(460mm).No issues with plants and light height.

 

[Southerncough]

I once built a giant veggie NFT in my back yard about 10 years ago out of PVC pipe, and an old car tent frame and grew some crazy huge cucumbers, tomatoes and herbs. Was a lot of fun seeing such fast results, but also a lot of heartbreak when things went wrong.
Like when I came home to discover the tomato roots had clogged the pipe and water was spilling out of the upstream net pots onto the ground while all of the downstream plants were wilted....I'm sure the version you buy is a lot more reliable than the one I cobbled together out of scraps! Lol

 

[Oscarnft]

the gt205 and rest of the range use a flat bed shared by all the plants so no problems with clogging or blockages.im considering a much larger home made system when i have the room,this will be 1 or 2 surfaces shared by many plants.Nutriculture make expandable systems aswell,so im tempted to use their gt604,(1.5 mtrs by 0.5 mtr) trays.They retail at about £38 and will acomodate 3 to 7 plants,this with a cheap reservoir,(old loft header tank),and i have another 1000ltr ph submersible pump,i recon we will be golden....The flat surface,(which is grooved to ensure fluid spreading over whole surface)is essential..


from what I've read, guttering is fine for lettuce and other smaller plants, But Cannabis just throw roots out everywhere.

 

[Southerncough]

Agreed! That's so cool looking how the roots spread across the bottom!

 

[Stormblessed]

It does look really cool, and they get to intermingle down there, like in nature...kinda lol

 

[HunterHunt]

Looks good whats the difference in NFT and DWC that we all use? Its the same concept right? And as far as clogging you would have to make a root stop or they will still grow to the end of what ever you use no matter how big.

 

[Oscarnft]

The diffrence is with NFT,All of the root mass is on the top tray above the res,I only get a few stray roots dipping there toes in the Reservoir.In fact,the first time i rinsed tank,i just folded roots back on themselves,only done it twice thus far,this time i just let the longest drop back in the tank.
With DWC,your roots are heading straight down into your Res.where you have an air stone and air pump.
NFT has an air tube that connects to the pump,introducing air into fluid flowing over roots,that and about 20% of the roots on the tray are happy just taking air.The idea is to keep it all on top tray.The roots in the res are from the lowest 2 plants in the grow,and have been happy enough.If it aint broke...yada yada..
The reason i move the roots is just so they dont get un ph,d and ec,d water on the roots,could cause issues.Well,from what ive read.

The business end.

 

[HunterHunt]

Yea i gotcha. I do a top feed rockwool system. Same concept except my roots are in rockwool on top of my reservoir and get fed 15 mins - 6 times a day. We have perfected this method many years ago with amazing growth that beats all other methods. Pretty cool to see methods like this pop up that are not common around here.

 

[Oscarnft]

Its strange HunterNitro,NFT has been around for years,but i never really read much about it.from what i was reading 10+yrs ago,i just thought all Hydro was a FAF.But again,i wish id done this a long time ago.I guess what with nutes today,it really isnt all that complicated.What sort of EC do you run your nutes at?im currently running as close to 1800 to 1900 ec as i can,(Shogun Samuri a+b and boost oh and calmag,small maintenance dose),i think in 4 weeks time i can go too 2300 + 0152(water ec),but i dont see the point in forcing them.

 

[HunterHunt]

I run PPM around 600-1400 on the 500 scale. Yea no need to force them. Nutrients are there to feed the plant and they will only uptake what they need anyway. As long as they are healthy I dont push to much. During flower I will push a little until I see clawing or very little tip burn and I know thats the limit on that plant and back off a little.

 

[Oscarnft]

Hi All,been meaning to post an update for weeks now,but lots going on....
So,were at week 8,loads of things have changed,decided to empty my grow room,few boxes at back since i moved in couple yrs ago,contained vent covers and broken timeswitches,+3 boxes of coathangers i never knew i had,lol.

also put another pc fan and filter venting to front room,get cold in here,mayaswell use the heat.

and here she is a week or so ago.....comming on a treat.will do another update in a day or so...

xx

 

[HunterHunt]

You need more light!!!

 

[Oscarnft]

1000 watt going in next week.

 

[HunterHunt]

1000 true watt? What does it pull from the wall?

 

[Oscarnft]

Mars Hydro TS 1000 led...250 watt draw.

 

[Oscarnft]

quick update,week 3 of flowering,hitting them with all the nutes i can...

1000 Watt Mars led should be here tomoz....