Hydroponics. How do you?

Hew all Happy New Year!

I was just wondering what your method of operation is and any great tips that I and others could use when growing hydroponically!

I will start out with this trick I use.

I do not use Rock wool or any thing like that my seeds, when sprouted and big enough for the net pots goes directly in to the net pot and is supported by the clay granulates.
I don't know if everyone uses rock wool when they start their seed but I never have.
I see pictures on the internet showing rock wool in the net pots then surround it by the clay pellets.
So the problem I had was getting the seed and tap root big enough for the net pot and clay pellets.
This is my little trick I use now.
I sprout my seeds in a sandwich bag and paper towel. (the easy part)
Getting the seed & tap root big enough for the net pot was the tricky part.
My solution and it works great, after my tap root is out (1/2 inch or more)
I take an Ice cream pail (4L) fill it with water and place a Styrofoam plate on top of the Ice cream pail.
The lip of the plate goes over the edge of the pail and the lower part of the plate touches the water.
I poke holes in the plate with a tooth pick and lower the tap root through the hole and in to the water and the seed won't fit through the hole.
When the seedling is ready to put in to the net pots you can just tear apart the Styrofoam plate and you don't damage the roots.
I use to cut the top off a water bottle and invert the top in to the bottle.
I would poke a hole in the bottle cap which worked great but getting the root out of the bottle cap was hard and I killed a few plants in the process.
So far the plates have worked great, no dead plants and no damaged to the roots.
The other great part is I put 1 seed per water bottle but you could put 100 seeds one the plate.

I'd love to hear any other Hydroponic Hacks!

 

[Simplicio]

Rapid Rooters are much easier.
If you want, it's even possible to start seeds in RRs in the hydro system by adjusting reservoir level to keep RRs moist, but not soaked.
The clay pellets can be also hand watered to keep RRs moist.

The biggest time saver for hydro is to use float valves.
A 2-container storage reservoir system equipped with a single float valve can supply several different plant vessels. See GH WaterFarm8.
A float valve installed in every grow vessel, which is then hooked to a large, external storage reservoir (no float valve) can save a lot of time and effort.

If a way to control pH is used, then such a system could be left completely alone for several days.
Figuring out the correct ppm for the storage reservoir at every growth stage for automation is also tricky.

 

[ob1]

Rapid Rooters are much easier.
If you want, it's even possible to start seeds in RRs in the hydro system by adjusting reservoir level to keep RRs moist, but not soaked.
The clay pellets can be also hand watered to keep RRs moist.

Thanks @Simplicio I just looked these up on google.
from the picture they kinda look look Peat pellets.
the float valves also sound like a great idea!
I only have 2 hydro grows under my belt and am now on my 3rd.
Things are going great but I have been topping up manually! I can see I will be looking in to float valves.
Thanks for the great info!

 

[Simplicio]

Thanks @Simplicio I just looked these up on google.
from the picture they kinda look look Peat pellets.
the float valves also sound like a great idea!
I only have 2 hydro grows under my belt and am now on my 3rd.
Things are going great but I have been topping up manually! I can see I will be looking in to float valves.
Thanks for the great info!

Yes, RapidRooters are peat moss cubes.
Careful with brand. A friend of mine got a cheap brand with nematode worms inside.

Hydro is great, but multiple plants can be a lot of work.
The float valves can help.

 

[ob1]

Yes, RapidRooters are peat moss cubes.
Careful with brand. A friend of mine got a cheap brand with nematode worms inside.

Hydro is great, but multiple plants can be a lot of work.
The float valves can help.

Well that's good to know if I ever go with peat pellets, but now that you told me that I like my method of going straight to net pots with clay even more (cut out the middle man or should I say worms)

The float valves on the other hand sounds great.
Work smarter not harder!!

 

[The Iconoclast]

While there are a few methods that all work for germinating, I think there is no doubt that the best method for the casual grower is to put a dry seed, i.e. not presoaked. Directly into an ezyplug, or similar. No need to pH balance the water just stand the plug in a bowl of water for a few minutes till it's soaked, the put the seed directly in pointy end down just a couple of millimetres below the surface and then break off a little wet crumb off the corner of the ezyplug and gently place it over the seed.

Put the plug in a small bowl, with a saucer or other lid on top and leave it in a warm place, and it will pop in 3 or 4 days.

Why do I say this is the best method? Because there is zero chance of damaging the roots or fine hairs and it's 100% guaranteed to work unless the seed itself is no good. So far I've never had a single seed not pop. There's no soaking no, transplanting and the roots go directly into the perfect cosy environment. The Eazy Plug will not dry out and will not hold more water than it needs.

When the seed pops you can then put the plug straight into soil or directly into expanded clay as I do. Eazy Plug is a better environment than rockwool as it cannot drown the root. You can also put a little drop or two of water on the seed if you like with no danger of overwetting.

As for hydro, or any plant for that matter, the key is a healthy root system. I prefer to have a large pot filled with clay pellets, which sits inside another pot. The roots go all through the clay, then they come out the bottom and go into the enclosing pot, which had a drain plug at about 2" off the bottom so a shallow pool of nutrient forms which the roots soak in. The advantage of this is that it eliminates any of the problems that can occur with a deep water culture. The roots get so much air this way that there is no need to aerate the water, and you just need a low power 8W pump to pump the reservoir back to the top.

I have put together a do it yourself tutorial on Shallow Water Culture in my sig (not actually up yet but coming soon), also I prefer to use the Nutrifield Pro Pots 15L pots but the DIY uses an ordinary 25 litre tub that you get from the hardware store. It worked well but it was a PITA as the Nutrifeild pots are less cumbersome. I do not use their ring, I prefer to use 1/2" tubing that I form into a ring and screw in little jets. In the pro pot system you can see the two main pots one inside the other, the bottom on is just a stand, you could use a milk crate but I like the stand. I like to have the reservoir by the side.

 

[ob1]

I have put together a do it yourself tutorial on Shallow Water Culture in my sig (not actually up yet but coming soon),

Sounds interesting!
When could we expect to see this tutorial?
Please feel free to add a link to it in my thread if you like.
It would be beneficial to all new growers to try several methods and then get serious about their grows.
this way the get a feel for what's out there and what works best for them.
I started in soil and settled for what I got (about 1/4oz dried per autoflower years later I tried DWC and my yield went way up (lowest so far 1oz dried with autoflower).
If I had explored other options early on, I would have saved a lot of effort for small yields.
On the other hand when I started growing it was all about getting high, now with different growing methods I find it's not (only) about getting high but this is a skill, a hobby and an art form.
my first hydro started in a plastic pop bottle because a seed didn't pop for me in soil and I dug around in the soil to remove it.
I never found the seed so I started a new seed in paper towel and when the tap root was out I put a little hole in the soil center of the pot and planted it.
it grew for a month then it happened! the lost seed decided to pop and I had a little seedling on the side of my pot.
I couldn't kill it and I couldn't leave it in the pot, it was too small for two plants.
So I pulled it out and washed the roots and into the pop bottle set up I made.
Even though it was a month younger, it passed my soil auto in not time and that's when I learned about hydro.
Just to clarify I did not do the whole grow in the pop bottle nor would I recommend it to anyone doing it in a pop bottle.
you plant will out grow a pop bottle really really fast!
Good luck to all!!

 

[The Iconoclast]

@ob1 well I started off in the early nineties knowing nothing, a friend had gotten hold of a clone of a supposed california orange bud that someone had smuggled into the country and showed me his set up, which looked very impressive to me at the time, he was using mercury vapour lamps, with strange looking bulbous plant. There were elaborate runways of water and valves and springs and levers it looked like a 19th century science experiment. He told me about re vegging, after the crop he would let the rootstock go again. The final product was some damp crappy looking weed, that still got you stoned.

Eventually he dropped me off two clones, basically just two little cuttings jammed straight into a large Rockwool cube, one died immediately. I went to my local hydro shop and got quite friendly with the owner who was more of a modern day hippie who like to breed his own crosses. First thing he did was clue me into expanded clay, the story gets a bit elaborate from then on. But back to my friend's clone, ended up filling a large 20L pot to the top with clay pellets stuck the 4" rock wool cube in the top then put that straight on top of a lidded 30 litre tub with a small pump bringing the reservoir back to top feed. I then placed a 400W Son-T-Agro in a chinamans hat reflector and positioned that directly over the clones about 18" away. Miraculously it did not die. Ended up with the most beautiful perfectly symmetrical plant I have ever seen, then or since.

It produced 8oz of the most perfect looking dried heads. It was so impressive that we did a photoshoot which was a mock up of a High Times cover of a Dutch lady in traditional folk garb, with blond plaits, holding a basket chock full of heads as if they were tulips. It looked pretty good, my gf dyed her hair blond especially. I got some quality information from my hydro shop and never looked back. My friend who only ever got about one to one and a half ordinary looking ounces was not happy even though I gave him two oz as a thanks. When I tried to share some information with him with the naive wonder that I had instead of being happy, he was sour and admonished me sarcastically with "oh you've grown one plant and now you're mr expert" To this very day, I find this to be a common attitude.

After a year or two I ended up purchasing a giant 800 litre tub with an industrial drainage tap fitted, filled it with 200 litres of nutrient and place 3 baskets of clay pellets in the top. This was supposed to be what I understood then to be an aeroponics set up where between the bottom of the baskets and the top of the nutrient was a warm humid space that had misting spraying in it and the roots came out of the baskets and became a feathery filament of roots, which eventually reached the nutrient. I had 5 son T's with lightweight reflectors, and a hugely overkill industrial extractor fan. It was all a bit ridiculous looking back but it was fun and learned a lot of stuff just by trial and error as there was no such thing as internets back then. Then I didn't do any growing for more than 20 years. Until I discovered Autos a couple of years ago.

This was like a miracle, plants that didn't need a dark cycle? What was this wizardry? So I set up something similar to what I knew which was a mini aeroponic with a small basket of pellets inside an empty container with sprayers, and then sitting on top of a reservoir. With a Viparspectra 700PAR. I thought I could get 8 oz, then it got a bit out of control, then it didn't look good and looked like I might only get an ounce, in the end I ended up with 13 top quality zips which sort of blew me away. I got overly carried away with pens and meters and dials and calculations. But then over the last couple of years, I have eliminated all the fat. I have trimmed the entire procedure down its most basic form absolute minimalist, and this is what I intend to show. No pH meters, no elaborate calculations, no additives no cal/mag no presoaking seeds, no air pumps, and no aeroponics, just a super simple tub of clay pellets. So I'll explaining it all in my current grow blog, hopefully within a week or so.

 

[ob1]

@ob1 well I started off in the early nineties knowing nothing, a friend had gotten hold of a clone of a supposed california orange bud that someone had smuggled into the country and showed me his set up, which looked very impressive to me at the time, he was using mercury vapour lamps, with strange looking bulbous plant. There were elaborate runways of water and valves and springs and levers it looked like a 19th century science experiment. He told me about re vegging, after the crop he would let the rootstock go again. The final product was some damp crappy looking weed, that still got you stoned.

Eventually he dropped me off two clones, basically just two little cuttings jammed straight into a large Rockwool cube, one died immediately. I went to my local hydro shop and got quite friendly with the owner who was more of a modern day hippie who like to breed his own crosses. First thing he did was clue me into expanded clay, the story gets a bit elaborate from then on. But back to my friend's clone, ended up filling a large 20L pot to the top with clay pellets stuck the 4" rock wool cube in the top then put that straight on top of a lidded 30 litre tub with a small pump bringing the reservoir back to top feed. I then placed a 400W Son-T-Agro in a chinamans hat reflector and positioned that directly over the clones about 18" away. Miraculously it did not die. Ended up with the most beautiful perfectly symmetrical plant I have ever seen, then or since.

It produced 8oz of the most perfect looking dried heads. It was so impressive that we did a photoshoot which was a mock up of a High Times cover of a Dutch lady in traditional folk garb, with blond plaits, holding a basket chock full of heads as if they were tulips. It looked pretty good, my gf dyed her hair blond especially. I got some quality information from my hydro shop and never looked back. My friend who only ever got about one to one and a half ordinary looking ounces was not happy even though I gave him two oz as a thanks. When I tried to share some information with him with the naive wonder that I had instead of being happy, he was sour and admonished me sarcastically with "oh you've grown one plant and now you're mr expert" To this very day, I find this to be a common attitude.

After a year or two I ended up purchasing a giant 800 litre tub with an industrial drainage tap fitted, filled it with 200 litres of nutrient and place 3 baskets of clay pellets in the top. This was supposed to be what I understood then to be an aeroponics set up where between the bottom of the baskets and the top of the nutrient was a warm humid space that had misting spraying in it and the roots came out of the baskets and became a feathery filament of roots, which eventually reached the nutrient. I had 5 son T's with lightweight reflectors, and a hugely overkill industrial extractor fan. It was all a bit ridiculous looking back but it was fun and learned a lot of stuff just by trial and error as there was no such thing as internets back then. Then I didn't do any growing for more than 20 years. Until I discovered Autos a couple of years ago.

This was like a miracle, plants that didn't need a dark cycle? What was this wizardry? So I set up something similar to what I knew which was a mini aeroponic with a small basket of pellets inside an empty container with sprayers, and then sitting on top of a reservoir. With a Viparspectra 700PAR. I thought I could get 8 oz, then it got a bit out of control, then it didn't look good and looked like I might only get an ounce, in the end I ended up with 13 top quality zips which sort of blew me away. I got overly carried away with pens and meters and dials and calculations. But then over the last couple of years, I have eliminated all the fat. I have trimmed the entire procedure down its most basic form absolute minimalist, and this is what I intend to show. No pH meters, no elaborate calculations, no additives no cal/mag no presoaking seeds, no air pumps, and no aeroponics, just a super simple tub of clay pellets. So I'll explaining it all in my current grow blog, hopefully within a week or so.

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Those are some beauties.
Thanks for sharing!
I'm looking forward to seeing your blog.
I know what you mean about peoples attitudes towards growing. My uncle was growing old school before I was born.
Fast forward 30 years I was growing as well but I could never give him any tips on growing.
some people are just happy with average and don't want to strive for excellence!

 

[The Iconoclast]

@ob1 howdy I have put some stuff up now on what I like to call Shallow Water Culture I'm having a bit of trouble working out the pagination system on the blog format. I prolly should have paid more attention to the instructions. But here's a direct link