Object505
Pot Growing, Music Maker
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2007
- Messages
- 55
- Reaction score
- 2
This is my first grow and I have no experience at all. Luckily I my brother in law is also a medical marijuana patient and he has been giving me some good advice.
I can honestly say that building your own hydro system the first time is not the way to go. I have encounter problems and setbacks that cost me weeks if not months in the grow cycle.
Basically its like this.
I built my system out of.
1 inch PVC
2 liter Recycled Pepsi Bottles
A 5 Gallon Rubbermaid low profile plastic basin.
I great basin because it holds allot of water and its less then 7 inches high. I think its used for storing things under your bed.
10 Feet of plastic tubing
5 plastic elbows for tubing.
1 Water Pump
1 Air Pump and 1 foot long air stone.
This pump has two outputs on it so I use both of them in my basin.
This is my light. I found it at htgsupply.com for only $169.00 It's 400 watts and has both MH and HPS Bulbs. Its built very well.
5 Florescent grow lights from Wal-Mart. $8.50 each. I eventually replaced these lights and moved them to my cloning area. I replaced the lights with a MH/HPS 400 watt light I bought form HTGsupply.com. This 400 watt light with both MH and HPS cost only $169.00. The best price on the inter-net for grow lighting. They manufacture there own lights and fulfill there own warrantees. And so far I high recommend them for lighting.
Anyway moving on.
I saw pictures on the inter-net of hydro systems that were home built so I felt inspired and I wanted to build one of my own. Basically I did it from memory and I did it wrong. But my mistake turned into an advantage and Ill tell you how.
First off I put together my system by gluing the PVC pipes in a line with the PVC T's facing upward. I glued another short piece of PVC into the long pipe and that was where I planed to glue the cap of the Pepsi bottle.
The most difficult and trying part of this project was gluing the cap of the 2 liter bottle to the top of the PVC. You have to create a strong watertight seal that can withstand the eventual weight of the plant and the grow medium. I am still not totally sure how strong my bond is but I used enough 5 minuet epoxy to glue and elephant to this pipe. Hopefully it should hold for a long time.
The end result is actually very convenient and easy to maintain and work with. The Pepsi bottles are endless at my house and I have figured out how to convert them into tiny hydroponics pots independent of the rest of my system. But that’s another story.
As you can see in the picture I used the cap of the bottle to make the hydro pot removable. I also cut in half another 2littlr bottle to serve as the internal pot. I drilled lots of holes in it to make sure there is plenty of drainage.
The great thing about this system is you can control the drainage very easily. You can hydro in two ways with one system. You can only drill a few holds in the bottom of the bottle and then create a large hole towards the top of the bottle to serve as an overflow. In this way you can flood the grow medium completely when the water is running and if it gets too high it will just drain back into the basin.
You can drill lots of holes in the bottom of the bottle to make a pass-through type of hydro system. People say that the pass though method is superior because it provides more oxygen to the roots but I haven’t been working with this system long enough to find out.
I have been experimenting with pass-through and flood method of growing but they seem to be about the same so far. Pass-through is superior so far because there is no danger of overflow.
Again there are many pluses to growing in this type of system. The plastic 2 liter bottle can be used in SO MANY WAYS for hydroponics I can’t stress enough how useful these bottles have been to me in my gardening exploits.
You can even use the bottom half of the bottle to place on the top of the grow pot. It makes a nifty temporary greenhouse for tiny plants. And you can place your clones in this system as soon as they show roots. You have to make sure they don’t get cooked by the grow light.
My first clones..
When I started I was using vinegar to lower my PH and this stunted the growth of my plants for weeks. This was my biggest mistake. I should have used General Hydroponics PH down. Once I started using this my plants started to grow like crazy.
One of my first clones died because the vinegar damaged the root system beyond repair. I was heartbroken and I had a little funeral for her. She was killed by my inexperience. ANYWAY since then I have bought just about every chemical additive you can use in hydroponics and my plant is growing very well.
My plant has doubled in size and its much bigger then it is in this picture.
Although this method of hydroponics is definitely not less expensive then kits that are available. I learned allot about how these systems work and how they don’t work. And my system is very easily expandable and able to support as many plants as I have light to provide for them. I could easily sink another pump into the basin and add 10 more pots for very little investment.
Please check back for more pictures because my plants are more mature and I want to show them off.
This is my AK clone. Shes about half way though her life cycle.
Update May 14th. My plants are looking fantastic. All but one of my clones are looking healthy and great. My Mama plant is about 3 feet tall now. And I topped my AK48 and now I have 3 beautiful colas forming. I am getting excited to put this plant into flowering. I am trying to be patient so that I have high yeild. Any advice is welcome. I will post new photos of the plants today.
Object505
I can honestly say that building your own hydro system the first time is not the way to go. I have encounter problems and setbacks that cost me weeks if not months in the grow cycle.
Basically its like this.
I built my system out of.
1 inch PVC
2 liter Recycled Pepsi Bottles
A 5 Gallon Rubbermaid low profile plastic basin.
I great basin because it holds allot of water and its less then 7 inches high. I think its used for storing things under your bed.
10 Feet of plastic tubing
5 plastic elbows for tubing.
1 Water Pump
1 Air Pump and 1 foot long air stone.
This pump has two outputs on it so I use both of them in my basin.
This is my light. I found it at htgsupply.com for only $169.00 It's 400 watts and has both MH and HPS Bulbs. Its built very well.
5 Florescent grow lights from Wal-Mart. $8.50 each. I eventually replaced these lights and moved them to my cloning area. I replaced the lights with a MH/HPS 400 watt light I bought form HTGsupply.com. This 400 watt light with both MH and HPS cost only $169.00. The best price on the inter-net for grow lighting. They manufacture there own lights and fulfill there own warrantees. And so far I high recommend them for lighting.
Anyway moving on.
I saw pictures on the inter-net of hydro systems that were home built so I felt inspired and I wanted to build one of my own. Basically I did it from memory and I did it wrong. But my mistake turned into an advantage and Ill tell you how.
First off I put together my system by gluing the PVC pipes in a line with the PVC T's facing upward. I glued another short piece of PVC into the long pipe and that was where I planed to glue the cap of the Pepsi bottle.
The most difficult and trying part of this project was gluing the cap of the 2 liter bottle to the top of the PVC. You have to create a strong watertight seal that can withstand the eventual weight of the plant and the grow medium. I am still not totally sure how strong my bond is but I used enough 5 minuet epoxy to glue and elephant to this pipe. Hopefully it should hold for a long time.
The end result is actually very convenient and easy to maintain and work with. The Pepsi bottles are endless at my house and I have figured out how to convert them into tiny hydroponics pots independent of the rest of my system. But that’s another story.
As you can see in the picture I used the cap of the bottle to make the hydro pot removable. I also cut in half another 2littlr bottle to serve as the internal pot. I drilled lots of holes in it to make sure there is plenty of drainage.
The great thing about this system is you can control the drainage very easily. You can hydro in two ways with one system. You can only drill a few holds in the bottom of the bottle and then create a large hole towards the top of the bottle to serve as an overflow. In this way you can flood the grow medium completely when the water is running and if it gets too high it will just drain back into the basin.
You can drill lots of holes in the bottom of the bottle to make a pass-through type of hydro system. People say that the pass though method is superior because it provides more oxygen to the roots but I haven’t been working with this system long enough to find out.
I have been experimenting with pass-through and flood method of growing but they seem to be about the same so far. Pass-through is superior so far because there is no danger of overflow.
Again there are many pluses to growing in this type of system. The plastic 2 liter bottle can be used in SO MANY WAYS for hydroponics I can’t stress enough how useful these bottles have been to me in my gardening exploits.
You can even use the bottom half of the bottle to place on the top of the grow pot. It makes a nifty temporary greenhouse for tiny plants. And you can place your clones in this system as soon as they show roots. You have to make sure they don’t get cooked by the grow light.
My first clones..
When I started I was using vinegar to lower my PH and this stunted the growth of my plants for weeks. This was my biggest mistake. I should have used General Hydroponics PH down. Once I started using this my plants started to grow like crazy.
One of my first clones died because the vinegar damaged the root system beyond repair. I was heartbroken and I had a little funeral for her. She was killed by my inexperience. ANYWAY since then I have bought just about every chemical additive you can use in hydroponics and my plant is growing very well.
My plant has doubled in size and its much bigger then it is in this picture.
Although this method of hydroponics is definitely not less expensive then kits that are available. I learned allot about how these systems work and how they don’t work. And my system is very easily expandable and able to support as many plants as I have light to provide for them. I could easily sink another pump into the basin and add 10 more pots for very little investment.
Please check back for more pictures because my plants are more mature and I want to show them off.
This is my AK clone. Shes about half way though her life cycle.
Update May 14th. My plants are looking fantastic. All but one of my clones are looking healthy and great. My Mama plant is about 3 feet tall now. And I topped my AK48 and now I have 3 beautiful colas forming. I am getting excited to put this plant into flowering. I am trying to be patient so that I have high yeild. Any advice is welcome. I will post new photos of the plants today.
Object505
