A Time to Harvest?

[The Hemp Goddess]

Still trying to decide on how many buckets. Largely depend on where I end up growing. I have a 5 x 5 tent (but not sure I got all the connectors when I moved, may have to construct a frame), a 4 x 4, and a 32" x 32". But I am considering using a bedroom. The bedroom is about 9 x 11. When I used a bedroom before, I made up moveable "walls" with PVC and panda film to keep the light contained and provide a reflective surface around the plants. I am thinking of a system with 6-9 buckets, plus the control bucket and res. I have done a lot of DWC, but no RDWC as I always did a perpetual harvest and had plants going in and out of the flowering room at different times. Then when I moved to Oregon and could grow outdoors, I started growing organic. I do have a love of water culture though and decided that I want to try a RDWC for my indoor winter grow. Dealing with individual buckets can be a PITA and I'm getting old, so looking to a good recircing system.

I am interested in hearing more about the uppercurrent and the hi-flow jet propulsion. Although I have seen systems with the waterfall effect, they looked different than what you have. Yeah, I am not interested in any of the cheaper systems on E-Bay or Amazon. I'm pretty handy, a retired master plumber, and I'd far rather construct a system myself. I figured that I can build something for around $400 or $500. I certainly welcome any advice and help you can give me.

 

[Volcano Buds]

Still trying to decide on how many buckets. Largely depend on where I end up growing. I have a 5 x 5 tent (but not sure I got all the connectors when I moved, may have to construct a frame), a 4 x 4, and a 32" x 32". But I am considering using a bedroom. The bedroom is about 9 x 11. When I used a bedroom before, I made up moveable "walls" with PVC and panda film to keep the light contained and provide a reflective surface around the plants. I am thinking of a system with 6-9 buckets, plus the control bucket and res. I have done a lot of DWC, but no RDWC as I always did a perpetual harvest and had plants going in and out of the flowering room at different times. Then when I moved to Oregon and could grow outdoors, I started growing organic. I do have a love of water culture though and decided that I want to try a RDWC for my indoor winter grow. Dealing with individual buckets can be a PITA and I'm getting old, so looking to a good recircing system.

I am interested in hearing more about the uppercurrent and the hi-flow jet propulsion. Although I have seen systems with the waterfall effect, they looked different than what you have. Yeah, I am not interested in any of the cheaper systems on E-Bay or Amazon. I'm pretty handy, a retired master plumber, and I'd far rather construct a system myself. I figured that I can build something for around $400 or $500. I certainly welcome any advice and help you can give me.

Wow HG, you’re not messing around and that’s a lot of work! I’m about to pull my boat out of the lake and clean it so I’ll be back in a few hours to follow up

 

[Aksarben]

Welcome!! Great lo0oking buds!!

 

[Volcano Buds]

Still trying to decide on how many buckets. Largely depend on where I end up growing. I have a 5 x 5 tent (but not sure I got all the connectors when I moved, may have to construct a frame), a 4 x 4, and a 32" x 32". But I am considering using a bedroom. The bedroom is about 9 x 11. When I used a bedroom before, I made up moveable "walls" with PVC and panda film to keep the light contained and provide a reflective surface around the plants. I am thinking of a system with 6-9 buckets, plus the control bucket and res. I have done a lot of DWC, but no RDWC as I always did a perpetual harvest and had plants going in and out of the flowering room at different times. Then when I moved to Oregon and could grow outdoors, I started growing organic. I do have a love of water culture though and decided that I want to try a RDWC for my indoor winter grow. Dealing with individual buckets can be a PITA and I'm getting old, so looking to a good recircing system.

I am interested in hearing more about the uppercurrent and the hi-flow jet propulsion. Although I have seen systems with the waterfall effect, they looked different than what you have. Yeah, I am not interested in any of the cheaper systems on E-Bay or Amazon. I'm pretty handy, a retired master plumber, and I'd far rather construct a system myself. I figured that I can build something for around $400 or $500. I certainly welcome any advice and help you can give me.

Well this should be a piece of cake with your background! I haven’t built anything bigger than a 5 bucket RDWC system, including the control station, but my guess is, it’s probably a little easier to maintain and Scrog compared to DWC. Plus, I travel a lot for work & I spend most summer weekends boating, so I built my system to be fail-safe and low maintenance. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still requires a fair amount of work, but I enjoy it...except for harvest time! It just took me 2 full days of not just trimming, but I disassembled both tents and everything inside them including lights, vent systems, both hydro systems, cleaned everything thoroughly and reassembled. Now I’ve already got 4 more plants scrogged and ready to transition to flower.

I’m more than happy to help with your new RDWC! I’ve saved info on almost every part I bought, mostly on Amazon. With your plumbing background, I bet we can also make some improvements and build one every bit as good as Current Culture or Alien. A friend of mine is a patent attorney and he just filed patents on my current designs because I’ve already had over a dozen requests from friends to build more.

Welcome!! Great lo0oking buds!!

Thank you Arsarben! I just weighed my dry harvest and it came out to 13oz total for 2 plants...I was hoping to get at least a pound, but I also likely over trimmed and manicured. Still a rookie so I guess I shouldn’t be too disappointed

 

[The Hemp Goddess]

You should be very proud of yourself--that is an amazing yield for a first grow. And I personally like my bud to be super manicured. You can save all those little sugary leaves you trim for edibles, tinctures, salves, etc. Leaf material smokes harsh.

 

[NENugs420]

Congrats man, looks great, love that you built your system yourself for your first grow and looks like you nailed it. I would love to learn more about RDWC, I currently grow in promix HPCC in a 4x4x8 gorilla tent but I just acquired more room so I'm going to go to a 5x9 for flower and use the 4x4 for veg. I'll follow along on this thread and learn all I can. Thanks!

 

[Volcano Buds]

Congrats man, looks great, love that you built your system yourself for your first grow and looks like you nailed it. I would love to learn more about RDWC, I currently grow in promix HPCC in a 4x4x8 gorilla tent but I just acquired more room so I'm going to go to a 5x9 for flower and use the 4x4 for veg. I'll follow along on this thread and learn all I can. Thanks!

Thanks NENugs,
I’ve got a perpetual set-up as well, but on a smaller scale. I grow 4 plants in Veg and 4 in flower. I actually just moved my veg plants over to my flower tent yesterday after just finishing my 1st harvest. It’s kinda crazy how some of you diehards are growing twice that amount and even more! I’m sure I’ll end up gradually up-sizing as well, now that I’m hooked on growing!

I’d be more than happy to help you with an RDWC build. I’ve never grown any other way, so I can’t say it’s superior to other methods, but with my back-up reservoir providing a constant water level, plus a good SCROG set-up, I can leave town for nearly a week before I start to worry about pH levels. And I just have to re-tuck the plants under the SCROG net & raise the lights by about 6-8 inches to avoid light burn while I’m gone.

Here’s a few pics of my second round grow setup I just move over to my flower tent yesterday. They’re growing so fast I could barely get them under the SCROG net and had to defoliate like a mo-fo! They’re an Indica dominant hybrid strain called Krishna Kush.

 

[NENugs420]

What is SCROG?

 

[Volcano Buds]

SCROG stands for screen of green. It’s a heavy duty net that goes across the entire canopy which is allows the grower to manually manipulate the plants growth outward or laterally as opposed to straight up. As the plants grow, I’ll move the branches and leaves around about twice a week to perfectly even out the canopy to maximize exposure to light. Combining SGROGGING with topping or fimming the plants can increase the number of cola sites and the overall yield substantially.

 

[NENugs420]

Word, that's cool, I've only used netting and hoped they don't grow into my lights. I'll have to try that out.

 

[SmokeRich211]

Sound great, get new skills, I also will try it my second growing.