Was wondering if this would be a good Medium to grow in.

[smoke2die4]

So i am new to growing and want to make sure i got a good system running before i start planting. I was looking at Gold labels Special blend 80% hydroton and 20% coco mix and than i started to wonder if i could make the same kind of product without having to order it and wait. The only thing i want to change is instead of using coco is to use the groden grow cubes that are really small and mix it in with the hydroton. I will be running an Ebb and Grow system with this mix so i was wondering would this be a good mix and how often might I need to run the flood system to not over water my plants. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[BS]

High Man to

so have u done any growing before or is this gonna be your first?

I don't recommend mixing ur grodan with the pellets.. use the cubes to start clones and when the roots show from the medium place them in the hydroton.. I grow in stait hydroton pellets have a look in my jourmal if u like

 

[Green Knight]

I'd support BS on that; hydroton on its own is absolutely fine; just start the seed or cutting in a small rockwool cube and then surround it in a pot with the clay pebbles. Clay pebbles are also completely inert and pH neutral, plus you can easily reuse them again and again, just give them a wash between grows. Rockwool isn't as stable from a pH point of view (one of the reasons you need to soak it for 24hours in pH adjusted water before using) and it will be a ball ache to separate all the small cubes if you want to reuse your hydroton.
The only benefit I can see is the rockwool mixed in with hydroton will retain more water, but if you flood regularly your plant won't dry out, and it's pretty near impossible to overwater with clay pebbles as they allow plenty of oxygen in around the root ball.

 

[Green Knight]

Regarding how often to flood, a useful thread here mate. Consensus seems to be 3-4 times a day for 15 minutes each

Need help with Ebb and Grow bucket system

 

[big budda]

Hi smoke2die4

And welcome 2 the growers club

If this is you first grow ever which i think it is,as you said you are new to growing.
Then i would stay away from hydro systems,do your first grow in soil as it is much more forgiving that hydo.
When using an ebb system there are many factors that come into play like:

PH
EC
Nutrients levels
Water Pumps
Air pumps
Timers etc etc

And for a first timer a hydro system can be very very tricky,now im not trying to turn you off hydro im just saying that if this is your first ever grow you should prob go with a soil grow.
Do some research on hydro system get to no the ins and outs of it,there is lots on 420.

I hope this helps

 

[Green Knight]

You're right big budda, hydro is a bit more complicated, but I don't think it's massively so, it's just different. One of the things I like is you don't need to worry about plants drying out or anything, you have masses of control (so when you do get it dialled in you can get amzing results), and it's very clean. It takes a couple of weeks to get used to it, maintaining pH and stuff, but I honestly think even if you're a first timer you're likely to still get a good amount of bud (my first ever grow years ago I dived straight into hydro - it was a long, long way from perfect but I still got 12oz out of 1m2, so even with all the mistakes it was still worthwhile).

I'd say go for it smoke; dive in with the hydro- even if things go a bit wrong to start with you'll still get results that will make it more than worth it, and you'll have a lot of fun too, working it out and shit. And then when you do nail it with hydro......

 

[BS]

So where did smoke2die4 go?

 

[smoke2die4]

Thanks for all the replies i am just going to run hydroton by its self. And yes this is my first grow ever. i wanted to go with a hydroponic system because less mess to clean up and i am growing in an apartment with nosey people so i didnt want anyone wondering why i am carrying buckets of dirt out to the dump and such forth. With the hydro system i can just empty the water from the resivor into the bathtub and nobody will every know. . but i ran into a problem with a few of the clones i bought. Some of the came in dirt pots =( which i am wondering how to get these plants ready for my hydro system. They are Blue Dream and some Strawberry Cough i coulldnt find them anywhere that had them in the cubes.

 

[smoke2die4]

I also was wondering how well do the T5 light system work for growing? I am growing in a 8x4 tent and i tried to useing the 600 MH light that the guy gave me with the tent but wow it is putting off some massive heat my 2 fans, 1 inline fan and a squarell cage fan cant get my tent below 84 degrees. I am affraid to put my clones in there in the case of over heating them. so now i am thinking of going with some T5 lights. Do they work good for vegging and the blooming stages? Does each stage require differnt bulbs? And do they run cooler?

 

[WizHigh]

I also was wondering how well do the T5 light system work for growing? I am growing in a 8x4 tent and i tried to useing the 600 MH light that the guy gave me with the tent but wow it is putting off some massive heat my 2 fans, 1 inline fan and a squarell cage fan cant get my tent below 84 degrees. I am affraid to put my clones in there in the case of over heating them. so now i am thinking of going with some T5 lights. Do they work good for vegging and the blooming stages? Does each stage require differnt bulbs? And do they run cooler?

Hey Smoke, I have a set up using hydro & T5 High output. As for your first question about getting your clones out of first and ready for hydro is simple just be careful. Tilt the flower pot at a 80-90 degree angle and tap the bottom until the dirt gets loose and starts to slide out as a whole. Then run Luke warm water and just lightly run water over the dirt. It will start to slide off. Be careful around the roots but if some fall off it ok because it just encourages new root growth any way. Once you have most of the soil off and you see most of the roots place it in your net pots with your medium. My opinion on that is to use the coco coir with the pellets. Pellets alone I feel is to heavy on top of the roots. Me myself use "croutons" which is another coco product. Check it out if you will. I use it in my hydro system,

It lets oxygen get to your roots and also there's no salt build up. Any who. About the T5s how long and how many tubes does it hold? There great for veg. And if you plan on flowering just switch to the bloom. And since you have a MH just use that over top of the canopy during flowering and use the T5 on the side of the plants for side growth. Hope this helps. Good luck on the grow. Oh and T5s don't let off a lot of heat so you can have the light 5inches over top of the plants canopy

 

[smoke2die4]

Thank you for the advise. I might have to try the croutons. i was thinking about getting the 4ft 8 bulb or 16 bulb ones but i heard you get a smaller yeild if you use them for blooming. Is this true? i want to get two of them so i can grow in my whole tent. But i do have 2 1000watt switchable ballasts and 2 daystar reflectors with 6 inch cooling vents that i can conect to my inline fan. Would this be better to run the 1000watt ballast and run the inline fan to help keep the heat down? My main problem is the heat. I can either get 2 T5's to help keep the heat down or just use the money to get a air conditioner for the tent. i think i might just run the 1000 watt ballast with a MH bulbs and get the AC unit got to get something to take care of the heat might as well get the AC unit right? Would a 1000MH be too much light for 12 plants in a 4ftx4ft area?

 

[Green Knight]

I'm still pretty new to this myself but my understanding is the more light you can get whilst controlling the heat the better (within reason of course, there will be an upper limit where adding more light won't make a huge difference but will increase your heat issues and electricity bill without further massively increasing yield).

If you've got air cooled reflectors though you'll be able to extract the hot air from these without it really touching the inside of the tent, try getting one of these going.

Out of interest are you able to extract the hot air outside? If the hot air's not going outside and is being extracted into the room the tent's in, then bear in mind that as you extract the hot air this will heat the room the tent's in up, and this warm air will be brought back into the tent by the intakes. If the room's very large this will be less of a problem, but if it's quite small you may find the tent warming up over the day as the hot air gets recirculated (one of the issues I have as my grow cupboard's in a cupboard, and if I shut both doors the temps do rise). If you can extract outside you should be laughing though, and when it comes to flowering you can get your air cooled reflector going with an HPS and heat shouldn't be too much of a problem.

 

[smoke2die4]

Thank You Knight. Yeah i think i am just going to run the 1000 watt MH lights and inline venting system and see what happens with the temp. i am going to just vent it outside through a window so it doesnt heat up the room at least until it starts getting cold than i might just let it circulate the room since the heating here sucks. Thanks again for everyones help. Any ideal of how much it would cost electricity wise to run a 1000 watt ballast? I heard it isnt as bad as other people say but than i also heard it is alot?