LabRat's Bubbler Tub Grow Method How-To

[OldMedUser]

Very nice... Thank you. Cant wait to get started on one.
One question.. In step 4, lower left hand corner of first tub. Was that a heater I saw ?

High Dowg and to the club!

No, that was no heater, that's my pH pen. I just hang it in there when I'm mixing up a new batch of nutes. I've never used a heater in the tubs as the nutes stay around 70F or lower on their own 'cept for summer.

C'ya l8r

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[Dowg]

Thanks for the warm welcome LabRat and the FAST reply.
LabRat, I ran across this site telling about nute. fogger and was woundering if you have ever heard of such a thing and if so, what do you think ? or is this over kill ?
This Nute. Fogger DIY can be found at technologygarden.net if you get a chance.
Thanks again.. Dowg

 

[OldMedUser]

Thanks for the warm welcome LabRat and the FAST reply.
LabRat, I ran across this site telling about nute. fogger and was woundering if you have ever heard of such a thing and if so, what do you think ? or is this over kill ?
This Nute. Fogger DIY can be found at technologygarden.net if you get a chance.
Thanks again.. Dowg

High Dowg.

I checked that out and I guess it would work. I checked out their DIY cloner as well and I have to tell you that both of those items wander way outside my KISS principle. I made my own cloner years ago along the same method as my tubs except I used a much smaller tub and cut a 12" airstone down to about 8" to fit. I just sealed the end with epoxy cement. I keep the water just below the ends of the cuttings and add a few drops of SuperThrive or very dilute nutes to the water. No cloning gels. For holding the cuttings in the lid I just drilled some 3/16" holes in rows and cut between four or five in-line so the plastic can be bent a little to extract the rooted clone for transplanting without damaging the roots. I plan on using it very soon to root some flowering cuttings and will take pics. If you need it I can take a few pics of the unit and up them tonite but if it's not a rush I will have better ones with the cuttings in place and the unit on. No plumbing, one small air pump, an air stone and tubing to hook it up and a $6 Rubbermaid tub. Simple and almost fool-proof and rooted almost everything in a week.

It looks like a great site for DIYers like me so thanks for that Dowg!

TTUL8R

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[OldMedUser]

Thanks for the warm welcome LabRat and the FAST reply.
LabRat, I ran across this site telling about nute. fogger and was woundering if you have ever heard of such a thing and if so, what do you think ? or is this over kill ?
This Nute. Fogger DIY can be found at technologygarden.net if you get a chance.
Thanks again.. Dowg

High Dowg.

I checked that out and I guess it would work. I checked out their DIY cloner as well and I have to tell you that both of those items wander way outside my KISS principle. I made my own cloner years ago along the same method as my tubs except I used a much smaller tub and cut a 12" airstone down to about 8" to fit. I just sealed the end with epoxy cement. I keep the water just below the ends of the cuttings and add a few drops of SuperThrive or very dilute nutes to the water. No cloning gels. For holding the cuttings in the lid I just drilled some 3/16" holes in rows and cut between four or five in-line so the plastic can be bent a little to extract the rooted clone for transplanting without damaging the roots. I plan on using it very soon to root some flowering cuttings and will take pics. If you need it I can take a few pics of the unit and up them tonite but if it's not a rush I will have better ones with the cuttings in place and the unit on. No plumbing, one small air pump, an air stone and tubing to hook it up and a $6 Rubbermaid tub. Simple and almost fool-proof and rooted almost everything in a week.

It looks like a great site for DIYers like me so thanks for that Dowg!

TTUL8R

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[Dowg]

Thanks for checking that out for me LabRat.
I'm in no hurry for a cloning set up yet for my seeds are just starting to pop.
I like your set up better. The idea of heating the nutes up to create a little "fogg". at some point there is going to be burnt nutes and I know I dont like my Bar-B-Q burnt. Looking forward to see your pix and thanks for the input, ya got me thinken.

 

[ol hippy]

LabRat, Try adding a water pump with a manifold that has 6 outlets, than add a small water hose to each pot. The water drips into your rockwool or whatever your using to hold your plant in the hydroton. It'l save you from hand watering. If you keep the water level about 2 inches below the pots it will encourage the roots to "chase" the water and grow much faster. After the roots reach the water remove the water pump and small lines...we've been using this tech for a while it's called Deep Water Culture...I'm new to this myself but it worked great on my first try ! I love your pics and info there are a bunch of use new guys on your site now that just moved here from another site. Looks like your already using this tech to a great end youself..+ rep for the great thread...

 

[OldMedUser]

LabRat, Try adding a water pump with a manifold that has 6 outlets, than add a small water hose to each pot. The water drips into your rockwool or whatever your using to hold your plant in the hydroton. It'l save you from hand watering. If you keep the water level about 2 inches below the pots it will encourage the roots to "chase" the water and grow much faster. After the roots reach the water remove the water pump and small lines...we've been using this tech for a while it's called Deep Water Culture...I'm new to this myself but it worked great on my first try ! I love your pics and info there are a bunch of use new guys on your site now that just moved here from another site. Looks like your already using this tech to a great end youself..+ rep for the great thread...

High ol hippy! and Merry Xmas.

I've got no problem getting roots to grow. Check out the last page on my grow journal. Adding a pump, drip lines etc goes against the KISS principle that governs my existence. I just hand water once a day for a couple of days then the roots are in the nutes. I make sure the plug's roots are sitting on the bottom of the net pot when I load the tub and the popping bubbles call the roots down. I'm sure the extra pump works fine but I've got by without it for years using this method and I'm getting set in my old fart ways I guess. lol

Thanks for the rep! I hope to be able to return the favour soon.

 

[ol hippy]

Sounds good Its nice not to need the extra pumps and hoses huh? I've got 4 clones I'm trying to root without the drip lines , the damn plants are getting taller and nice leave growth but no roots yet ! I think I'll change the res out and raise the water level so the bubbles start popping a little closer, maybe that'l get em growing ..I like it easy, just ask my girlfriend !!

 

[Dowg]

LabRat
Hope all is well with ya and you made it through faze one of the holidays.
Got a question fer ya LR. Have you ever had Black Flies / Nats hanging around your plants and if so, how do you get rid of them this side of napalm? There not bad yet, I just wanted to terminate them before they get outta hand. I think they came in with a pot of soil from this summer. Cider traps dont seam to work.

 

[OldMedUser]

LabRat
Hope all is well with ya and you made it through faze one of the holidays.
Got a question fer ya LR. Have you ever had Black Flies / Nats hanging around your plants and if so, how do you get rid of them this side of napalm? There not bad yet, I just wanted to terminate them before they get outta hand. I think they came in with a pot of soil from this summer. Cider traps dont seam to work.

High Dowg. Cider traps work great for fruit flies but not for much else AFAIK. First thing to do is identify the invaders, the formulate a plan of attack. You do have a magnifying glass or better yet a cheap 30X microscope from Radio Shack maybe?

Sounds like fungus gnats but you want to be sure. Take a small sample of the soil an inch under the surface and put it in a small shot glass of water. Stir it up a bit and let it settle then pour the liquid through a paper towel and examine the little bits with your mag glass or scope. If you see little translucent bugs with beady little eyes kicking around in there, bingo, fungus gnats. If not you need to identify the adults. Catch a couple and examine them while looking at pages you've googled about plant pests until you find out what the culprit is. At that time the pages will probably have info on hoe to nuke the buggers. Fungus gnats are the easiest, IMO, to get rid of as they breed in the soil as part of their life cycle. Water lightly from the bottom to keep the top couple of inches dry in soil grows and sprinkle the smoothed top of the soil with a light layer of Fungus Gnat Killer powder. Get rid of any extra soil in the grow room so there is no place for them to breed and they'll be gone in a week or so.


Hope that helps. C'ya.

 

[Dowg]

BINGO.. Fungus Gnats is what they are LabRat. I took all the soil out of the green house and washed it down with bleach water. As soon as the storm blows over i'll pick them up a little treat from the house of death.
Thank you LabRat.

 

[primebadboy]

hello labrat. great info. i am wondering though if you load up both of your tubs with their capacity 12 in the 12 hole unit and 4 in the 4 hole unit ,since the tubs are the same seize do you yeild the same with the 12 plants as you yeild with the four plants,,since the space used and the light provided is identical?

 

[OldMedUser]

High primebadboy and

After thinning and removing three hermies there is 14 plants in the 4-holer and 13 in the 12-holer. My last batch had 5 KaliMistX and 7 of these Kush and I got almost 3/4 lb. I'm hoping to break a pound this time as the plants are getting more attention this time. I was seriously depressed the last round and had a hard time dealing with everything so I'm amazed I got as much as I did. The plants would have died for sure if they were in soil or a more complicated hydro setup as I sometimes wouldn't even look in on them for days at a time. One tough plant I'll tell you what.

So my answer to your query is, I don't know. You'll just have to follow my grow journal and see what happens. 5 weeks into flower now with 4? to go.

Thanks for dropping by. C'ya L8r.

 

[Purple Goose]

H2O2 will oxidize any organic material good or bad. I don't use any bacteria or that in my bubblers so I couldn't tell you one way or the other.

I have read reports that lower doses can be used to water plants in soil to control algae and other unwanted growths without ill effects but I have no first hand knowledge of this.

AFAIK, beneficial bacteria are used to help break down organic material to a form the plant can use and to prevent nasty bacteria from taking hold. As hydro nutes are already in a form the plant can use and the H2O2 kills the bad bugs I fail to see the benefit of using beneficial bacteria in hydroponics.

I know a lot of stuff, but I don't know everything. At least some people have told me that. :0)

Actually beneficial bacteria does break down the waste mater but it leaves behind the nutrients that werent used up making them easier for uptake by the plant. I have checked out a lot of RDWC systems that make use of beneficial bateria and one special effect it has is no resevoir changes just add fresh water and nutrients as needed . And the size of the plants that you get out of RDWC over standard DWC is just amazing easy to get 4 ounces per plant with 30 days of veg.

 

[Roseman]

Very informative thread, very well done, and great pics!

 

[OldMedUser]

Roseman. It's nice to get confirmation from one with your experience and depth of understanding of DWC.

C'ya L8r.

 

[Doctor Who]

Hello! Labrat like your thread bro, what do you know about the coco fiber soilless mix, I am using it in a drip system I built to try out, see my journal for the pictures! never used this medium to grow with! have you any experience and tips that will help me out, I have a roadrunner and a la women in there, and they just sprouted.

Thanks in advance Bro.

Doctor Who

 

[OldMedUser]

Hello! Labrat like your thread bro, what do you know about the coco fiber soilless mix, I am using it in a drip system I built to try out, see my journal for the pictures! never used this medium to grow with! have you any experience and tips that will help me out, I have a roadrunner and a la women in there, and they just sprouted.

Thanks in advance Bro.

Doctor Who

I only used it once and didn't much like it. I've got a brick of it left over you want it? lol It stayed too wet for my liking and I always liked Pro-Mix peat based soil less mix with 20-30% coarse perlite. I can get a bail of that for $25 even way up here.

A lot of people swear by it so it must work pretty good. I would imagine you would use it the same way as pro-mix. I've never used a drip system either tho I have had friends that used them years ago. They were plagued with problems like algae, root rot and nute lock outs. All things that I know now how to prevent but as growers stumbling around in the dark back then there were a lot of disasters. lol

As you can see this type of growing really isn't my area of expertise. When I grow in dirt I'm usually hand watering hydro nutes in pro-mix. Last time I had 4" square pots, 12 to a disposable aluminum roasting pan and would flood the pans with nutes to save feeding time. Once a few plants started to wilt I'd water them. I always thought the stress would toughen them up. It worked tho.

That's about all I know about that.

Hope that was some help.

 

[Doctor Who]

I only used it once and didn't much like it. I've got a brick of it left over you want it? lol It stayed too wet for my liking and I always liked Pro-Mix peat based soil less mix with 20-30% coarse perlite. I can get a bail of that for $25 even way up here.

A lot of people swear by it so it must work pretty good. I would imagine you would use it the same way as pro-mix. I've never used a drip system either tho I have had friends that used them years ago. They were plagued with problems like algae, root rot and nute lock outs. All things that I know now how to prevent but as growers stumbling around in the dark back then there were a lot of disasters. lol

As you can see this type of growing really isn't my area of expertise. When I grow in dirt I'm usually hand watering hydro nutes in pro-mix. Last time I had 4" square pots, 12 to a disposable aluminum roasting pan and would flood the pans with nutes to save feeding time. Once a few plants started to wilt I'd water them. I always thought the stress would toughen them up. It worked tho.

That's about all I know about that.

Hope that was some help.

No! it's a help! news of future problems! this helps me make a desiccion before it's to late to make changes, and can if needed convert that system in to a bubble system or something in that area! but I think if you let the mix dry between waterings that would possibly prevent root rot, but I have had my doubts to! on this also, there is a small window before I am totally commited to this system, my only want if growing plants in a hydro system of any type is easy access to the res with out having to fart around with the plants, thats tha only thing that just doesn't click with me, I guess I could do a res tank with gav fed but can't where I have the room set up!

 

[OldMedUser]

Would a bubbler tub like mine work? I'm not sure what kind of grow area you have or any concerns you have about access to your rez/tubs and farting around with the plants.