Clone and Recirculating Questions...

[jimbojones5678]

I'm setting up a duel chamber affair with side by side veg/flower areas,

area 1x1x2.8.

600hps china in each (not bought yet so can be altered - maybe a 400HPS would be better in the veg???), clay/per 30/70,

recirculating system same as Luke Skywalkers a simple recirculating hydro setup,

250mm extraction each chamber and intake fans

Truncheon meter, digital ph meter, H202, Digital thermometer, CO2 filter, small oscillating fan.

 

Can I ask your advice on some things...

 

1. What is the optimal PH of the fresh water from the top tank in the recirculating system? (Is it about 5.8 for hydro as compared to soil about 6.4?)

 

2. Should I germinate seeds in the rockwool straight under the HPS or start them on another source of light such as fluros?

 

3. After I pick a mother and take clones should these be put in the veg chamber under a HPS and if so is a 600W ok or would a 400W be better? What height should it be started at and gradually decrease to?

 

4. Is running a identical recirculating system in the veg chamber a good idea? I would run it at 2-3 times a day with downgraded/optimal nutes. (as soon as they have sufficient roots)

 

5. In an area of this size 1x1x2.8 which will be scrogged, what size pots should I be finishing with? 4x15" or 9x12" or less?

 

6. In regards to the pond pump...how many l/min should I be aiming for? I understand the pump height needed is to be at least 10% greater than the rise in question.

 

7. What size inlet fans (for the fresh stuff!) am I aiming for?

 

 

Jimbo

Edited January 30, 2007 by jimbojones5678

[WantDaChronic]

1. What is the optimal PH of the fresh water from the top tank in the recirculating system? (Is it about 5.8 for hydro as compared to soil about 6.4?)

i only use the one tank for my recirculating system and i keep the pH at around 5.6 - 5.8

 

2. Should I germinate seeds in the rockwool straight under the HPS or start them on another source of light such as fluros?

i start my seeds in my clone chamber and treat them like i would clones. ie. when a root pops out the bottom of the cube, thats when they get moved and not a moment before.

 

3. After I pick a mother and take clones should these be put in the veg chamber under a HPS and if so is a 600W ok or would a 400W be better? What height should it be started at and gradually decrease to?

while a MH light would be better, a HPS will still do a good job and the same applies to the different wattages, 600w would be better, but a 400w will still do a good job

 

4. Is running a identical recirculating system in the veg chamber a good idea? I would run it at 2-3 times a day with downgraded/optimal nutes. (as soon as they have sufficient roots)

i think its a good idea as it will allow you to simply move the plants from the vege chamber into the flowering chamber, but i would keep the vege chamber a fair bit smaller than the flowering room as the plants wont get nearly as big...

 

5. In an area of this size 1x1x2.8 which will be scrogged, what size pots should I be finishing with? 4x15" or 9x12" or less?

i have never measured a pot in anything other than litres so i would aim for a minimum of a 35L pot, but since you only have a limited space i wouldnt buy a pot more than 45cm in diameter.

 

6. In regards to the pond pump...how many l/min should I be aiming for?

depends on the amount of plants you are going to be watering, but just say you are going to have 4 plants in 40L pots that get watered 3 times a day. what you need to do is work out how much water the pots could hold which would be 4 x 40 = 160. so now that you know you need to put out 160L per feed, you just times that by 60 to get 9600. that 9600L pump would put out the 160L in 60 seconds which is far too extreme for a personal or even most commercial grows and since most people aim for 2-3 minute waterings, you just need to divide the 9600 by 2 or 3 to get the pump size you'll require

[jimbojones5678]

Thanks for that. I get all that except for the pump bit...By your calculations I would be running 53lts through each time - that sounds way too much.

I was under the impression that you should run only about 20% of the total volume through each watering - just enough to flush the salts etc and wet the root ball.

[WantDaChronic]

while it is a little bit of an over kill, imo its always better to have too much water going to the plants in a hydro setup than not enough...

 

oh and i just checked out the pump i have been using and it puts out 2000L an hour. i have only been using it for the first 3 weeks of vege in 1.1L pots and only using 5 plants maximum at a time...when my next batch of clones root i'll be using a bigger tray, more plants and will probably have to move upto the next size pump i have which is like 4800L per hour

 

while it sounds excessive when you think of pumps like that, from my experience they actually put out water a lot slower than what you'd expect and even if you cant handle the thought of pumping that much water out at once, all you need to do is get a smaller pump and let it run longer

[jimbojones5678]

Thanks bro,

 

It does sound like a lot of water but I get what you say.

 

If anyone else wants to post what their pumps push l/hr that would be kool...