DIY Rotary Garden Omega Garden Volksgarden Rotogro GIgrow Bonsia Bpod Odessy etc

[maxximus]

infrno,

i would get the volks to start because its cheap and your just learning. you don't know what your getting into yet, how much pruning, care, etc they're going to need, and if you can handle it.


if money is not as big a concern as quality, i think i would get a rotogro, i almost got one myself when i was deciding. i hear terrible things about the gi grow, and the bpod is more expensive with way less stuff. i never saw weeds so i dont know how sweet it looks, but i have seen a rotogro in action. its a nice unit.

It looks good, but I have heard from at least one person that his started a fire. The ballasts are in plastic, so you dont need too much going wrong with that and you are in trouble. Besides the ease of moving, and assembly, etc, of the Volksgarden. I would take two VGs over one roto any day.

If you really want one, may I suggest craigslist. I bet you can find your choice of them.

Cheers,
'Maxx

 

[mjanesjungle]

you two notice ant stretching when the plants are young not being able to slide them in close to the light like with the pvc prototype? i wonder why that feature never made it into the final version...

 

[WheeloFortune]

if your not aerating your res, over time a week or more the plant will use up more and more of the available oxygen. thats not good. even if there is enough left to support growth and your not flooding it so long that they will drown, if you lose 10% yeild, its worth it to run a 20 pump at a dollar of electrity per year. if you are trying to hide the sound, they make quiet aerotors that are not air pump/bubblers, or you could try one of those over the edge fish tank aerators.

i would not, not aerate my water. but people do it all the time and still get decent product/yield. those people would prob do better if they did though.

 

[WheeloFortune]

true maxx, volks has so many advantages, i am happy with my choice.

but if selling is your game, 2 volks wont output the same as a bigger unit. yeah, id rather have 4 volks in 2 tents than a big guy, makes perpetual a lot easier!!!

but 4 volks = 6k + lights, etc, etc.

 

[maxximus]

you two notice ant stretching when the plants are young not being able to slide them in close to the light like with the pvc prototype? i wonder why that feature never made it into the final version...

The cost of the watering system in the PVC model would be costly compared to what it is now, and it would not be easy if possible to use that present watering system with what you see in the PVC unit.

I think the diameter of 4 foot has a lot to do with keeping the stretching to a minimum.

Cheers,
Maxx

 

[mjanesjungle]

if your not aerating your res, over time a week or more the plant will use up more and more of the available oxygen. thats not good

If roots could ONLY get oxygen from water id agree with you, but since they get it from air i have to respectfully disagree. Again this is only even a question i posed because of the setup im working on and where it will be located.

"quiet aerators that are not air pump/bubblers" or "one of those over the edge fish tank aerators" interest me,.. ive never heard of either. Got any links to what you mean, or pics?

 

[WheeloFortune]

with the size plants you grow, i think the root space is fine. roots will show out the side of a cube but wont mak it far.

i doubled the root size on one of my LR2s to see if it makes a diff. that one is getting too big, but i can't say that its the rootspace that the cause.

you can see a pic of it in my last pic post, but i am warning you my webcam sux.
i am still experimenting rith root size, but i think the 3" is money.

 

[maxximus]

true maxx, volks has so many advantages, i am happy with my choice.

but if selling is your game, 2 volks wont output the same as a bigger unit. yeah, id rather have 4 volks in 2 tents than a big guy, makes perpetual a lot easier!!!

but 4 volks = 6k + lights, etc, etc.

How do you figure 2 volks wont output the same as one unit that is twice the length of a volks?

Cheers,
Maxx

 

[WheeloFortune]

you may be right, if you have a very aerated medium, you may not need ot aerate your res, but more oxygen in the water/medium, means more nute intake, since oxygen is how the plant transports the nutrients to the leaves/buds. this means better yeild. plus, how much oxygen gets into your medium? and how long does it take to get enough to help transprt nutes. you might only be losing a small percent of yeild, but why lose any if you don't have to?

if you have to , you have to.

 

[WheeloFortune]

max, i just compare 80 site to 320. plus with 4" medium, they have an extra inch of spacing between them.

 

[WheeloFortune]

well 312, not 320, but its 72" deep, volks is like 22" deep

 

[maxximus]

max, i just compare 80 site to 320. plus with 4" medium, they have an extra inch of spacing between them.

You might as well use that math of flat surface then. To me that s lie saying a propagation mat can produce 50 times what you can get from growing 1 plant per square foot, just cause you have that many more plants.

Cheers,
Maxx

 

[TorturedSoul]

understood, and if i had an omega id do it too, im doing something totally different though and the sound of air pumps/bubbles would be a dead give away coming from that area of a room and thus why i posed the question about not really needing it

I don't know how much noise the motor that turns one of these things makes, or the fans in the light... But I'd guess they would be louder than a good oxygenation device.

If roots could ONLY get oxygen from water id agree with you, but since they get it from air i have to respectfully disagree. Again this is only even a question i posed because of the setup im working on and where it will be located.

"quiet aerators that are not air pump/bubblers" or "one of those over the edge fish tank aerators" interest me,.. ive never heard of either. Got any links to what you mean, or pics?

I'm on my daily downturn so I'm probably not understanding things well, or putting my thoughts into words very well either. But...

I am wondering how much oxygen the roots can actually take up aside from what is in the "water."

Don't the roots stay damp at all times? If so then you've got a gas/air interface thing kicking. And one thing I learned was that - regardless of how many bubbles are coming up through your reservoir - the only good place for a body of liquid to get oxygen is at the surface and that generally when the surface is disturbed.

In other words... All of the airstones' bubbles rising don't really contribute any O2 (to speak of) when they are actually rising. What little bit of transference that takes place happens at the surface when the bubble "breaks."

Of course with several good bubblers producing a LOT of bubbles, there is a lot of surface action. And those aquarium pumps that I never can remember the name of that suck up water and spit it at the surface, they work pretty good for the same reason.

Now it may seem like I'm wandering - and I may be, lol - but with it understood that a liquid really needs surface agitation to transfer a gas (in this case O2) into itself...

Well, those damp roots that are spinning through the air are able to extract O2 from the liquid that has "adhered" to them, but that same liquid isn't going to be able to get more O2 from the air just by being carried through it on a root.

So I would take pains to oxygenate the reservoir as much as possible.

I would be especially concerned if my nitrogen source was ammonium-based because the roots are then doing extra work and using more O2. But (presumably) a good fertillizer's isn't. Either way, the more O2 available to the roots, the better.

 

[WheeloFortune]

hey, i just want to make one point

if my heart was set on a huge wheel (over 300 sites) i like the looks of the rotogro. i did a bit of research and it looked solid.

i have never used this unit before, nor any of the others, so i may be way off base, just giving an opinion. it could be a piece of crap.

the one unit i have used, i love. i will make sure to borrow a good camera for final pics.
i would recommend it to anyone who wants to grow this style. light, moveable, solid. not stainless steel or anything, but it looks well built for the long run. i would rather have a few of these than a big one, due to portablity.

as far as the shorter, denser, faster harvest claims. . . i still have yet to see real evidence of that.

having said that, i think that im going to get a lot of bud!!, way more than i have ever gotten before if you look at it per watt. i am hoping to top 1g/w with this style. that would double my old best efficiency. well worth the money.

for those of us who are not trying to conquer the world, the volksgarden is the cheapest, easiest, and funnest way for an average gardener like me to get better than professional g/w harvests. in my opinoin.

 

[WheeloFortune]

You might as well use that math of flat surface then. To me that s lie saying a propagation mat can produce 50 times what you can get from growing 1 plant per square foot, just cause you have that many more plants.

Cheers,
Maxx

this is not good logic. the quote you used said right in there that the are 4 inch RW not 3" which would actually give them better spacing.

in your analogy of the propagation you are condensing the space, its actually illustrating the point that i was making about them having an extra inch of breathing room due to the 4" medium.

 

[Propa Gator]

DO equilibrium varies inversly with temperature. My DIY DWC has no surface area. Net pots nest in precise holes in a styro sheet cut to fit. When the "platform" goes down, I water my res. Aeration is by airstone bubbles only. The floating micro garden of the babbler on. If I ever see root rot down in there, it might be too late, but the cure would be a chiller for more DO.

 

[Propa Gator]

WOF, you could sell shamwow to Vince. VG does what it does excellently, I'm convinced. DIM (do it myself) now, a couple a them puppies when I'm famous like Amos. In America, stuff happens because of money. Wouldn't work a lick if I won a big lottery. Suka says "I'm not quitting my job or changing my life over this money" lies.

 

[inferno420]

Thanks for the info on the pump i thought the plants had to go threw the water every 45 min too so if you only water 2 times a day then you probly wouldnt need a air pump allthough i would still use one i know if u turn the air pump off a bubbler set up then u can see some the leaves curl at the tips saying they got to much water after just 5-10 mins. But to each his own.

so u think u can describe your set up mj? vaguely like how many plants does it hold what kinda light ect.?

 

[TorturedSoul]

DO equilibrium varies inversly with temperature.

Too right.

WOF, you could sell shamwow to Vince.

I doubt that that guy will be on television pushing the old Shamwow after he got caught beating the daylights out of that hooker because she chomped down on his tongue and wouldn't let go a few weeks back in his hotel room lmfao. I guess the $750 just wasn't enough for whatever he was wanting. <INSERT MR. YUCK STICKER HERE!>

Wouldn't work a lick if I won a big lottery. Suka says "I'm not quitting my job or changing my life over this money" lies.

I've been poor and I've been... well, not rich certainly, but at a place where I knew that I was going to eat the next week. And I tried my best to work in every case. I suspect that I'd still be working if I hit the big one. Of course I'd be doing something I actually wanted to do instead of something that I hated, I wouldn't take corners on two wheels because I was terrified of being a minute late and getting sent home, and I'd be driving something completely different.

But I've seen people quit working (retire) and just sort of waste away and die. I don't think that's for me.

 

[Propa Gator]

I thought I saw Vinnie on replay recently. Some people you don't break out the bud, they get munchies bad, eat you outa house n home. Good point on meaningful work. Everyone should be lucky and do for a living what they would want to do if they had the wealth to do nothing. I would play more golf. Work till I drop is my standard expressed ambition. I serve a useful function, and enjoy rewards other than pay OTJ, but I'd rather be golfing. In Cali, not here in the swamp. Found a sweet pheno seed among uglies in an unlikely swag bag. This one might set me free. So far looking good, but must pass the bong test. I pine for the genetics everyone here seems to get OK.