Indoor HempyPlus, A simple hydro system from a simple guy

[teflondummy]

It was suggested to me to put a thread together detailing my grow method so here it is. I was a dedicated soil grower until I had a double whammy infestation of thrips and fungus gnats. I started looking at other options, hydro and soil less methods. At first I decided on using the hempy method of growing. I picked up my containers (small trashcans) from the dollar store. I drilled a hole about two inches from the bottom as most hempy guides recommend. When I looked at for a little while I felt like the roots would have to grow pretty far down to reach my reservoir.

 

[teflondummy]

I was already using airstones to bubble my water before use, a method that Full Duplex turned my on to. I figured I could just add an airstone to the bottom of each container and bubble the water and nutes at roots.

 

[teflondummy]

The first thing this allowed me to do was move my drain hole up creating a deeper water table. The roots do not have to travel as far to hit the oxygenated solution and I don't need to water as often.

 

[teflondummy]

I picked up two aquarium pumps, airline, T's, airstones, and a 4-way manifold from petsmart. I have both pumps running into the manifold and the airlines go out to individual cans from there. My reasoning for two pumps is in case one goes out the other is still running. I had a friend lose a DWC plant when his single pump died while he was in Vegas for a week. needless to say the plant died when the roots drowned.

 

[teflondummy]

Throughout the planning and execution of my set up I had decided to work with the things I could find close by. All the parts came from the pet store, Lowes, or Wal-Mart including my cabinet. I chose to use perlite because it is less dense than vermiculite and coco. This allows the air to move more freely and the airstones don't clog.

The most IMPORTANT thing to do when using perlite in this set up is to rinse it in a strainer thoroughly before using.

This rinses out the finer particles that if left in will form a thick clay like layer in the bottom of the container smothering the air supply.

 

[teflondummy]

When it is time to water I just pour until water starts to come out of the drain hole. It pulses out with the bubbling.
As for the feeding and watering schedule, I generally water every other day and add nutes once a week. I have had some larger plants that got nutes twice a week. Everything both nutes and water gets PH'd to around 6.0 before it is added. At around week 5 I give the container a flush with a couple of gallons of water an give it fresh bloom nutes.

 

[teflondummy]

I am using fox farms hydro nutrients and they seem to be working well in this application. I wanted to try hydro but I had limited space and a limited budget. I also wanted something that was modular in other words I wanted flexibility in plant arranging separate containers give me the freedom to move individual plants around my cabinet to make them fit tight like Tetris. It also allows me to fine tune the nutes for individual plants instead multiple plants in one reservoir that get the same thing whether they all need it or not.

 

[teflondummy]

I don't think I re-invented the wheel but I think I have found a simple, affordable, flexible method that work for me. After spending countless hours looking at different methods and looking at the pluses and minuses off each one I came up with this method. I hope I have answered most of the important question but I am stoned a lot and prone to forget a thing or two so If I left out anything ask me and I will fill in the blanks for you.

 

[AndyBotwin]

Brilliant stuff, TD. I'm seriously considering this method in the future. I'd give you more rep if I could!

 

[teflondummy]

Thank you Andy. rep or no rep it doesn't mater to me. I'm just happy to share ideas with like minded people.