Pipe Garden/NFT style

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

Hey there, I'm having a re-think about the dutch pot system I was going to assemble, I'm thinking a set of pipes would better use the limited space I have at present. Just 1200mm or so by a 1000mm.

 

If I make the holes close enough I could go with SOG and use every cm effectively, alternatively I could use it half pace if I wanted to and grow larger, slower.

 

My concern is I used a pipe system once (short period of time, maybe 6 months), and had no real probs. Then out of the blue , I had a plant die. I pulled it from the garden, and a few days later, another died, (rotting inside out).. This went on over a few weeks until no plants were left at all.

 

I'm fanatic about hygene, growing and in life in general, and I can't understand why this happened. I stopped the garden and set up a flood tabe in it's place and never went back. so I never resolved if I liked the system or not.

 

So of course what killed the plants last time is impossible to say, but are there any inherant problems with this style of garden that people can tell me about, so I can weight the pros and cons of this way or the dutch pot system.

 

I can't recall, do you use half strength nutes with nft?

Are there any decent tutorials that can be relied on as knowledgeable, which discuss running one of these?

 

It would certainly be the best use of space, just a bit unsure.

 

Any help would be great.

 

cheers

rob

[nitram]

Hi Robbie,

 

are there any inherant problems with this style of garden that people can tell me about, so I can weight the pros and cons of this way or the dutch pot system.

 

None comes to mind Robbie - but occassionally with da grower there may well be.

 

You've told us you have grown before so I doubt you have forgotten. Keep it simple, cheap & let nature do it's thing.

 

goodluck R

[loylty gets u nothing]

hey Robbie

i havent seen anything paticular that stands out here at OSA

personally im excited about this grow mate

usin pipes n all is a system i never tried

ill be watching intentively...

imo NFT aint much diff from DWC so id consider runnin me nutes at like no higher than 900ppm,but at first dependant on plant size id kick off around 300ppm

i wish u luck and all the best

happy growin

bil

[MongyMan]

Hi mate, were the pipes you used the rectangle ones specificaly for hydroponics or home made from round drainage pipe. I've used round 4" sewer pipe and never had a prob myself but I know that the reason Commercial farms moved to the rectangle profile was because of root problems caused by the roots tending to clump along the bottom of the round pipe, rather than spread out over a wide area like they can in a rectangle pipe, which makes it alot harder for the roots to recieve fresh oxygen and remain healthy.

[RobbieGanjaSeed]

They were just round sewrage type pipes. I just saw a grow in the thread "above" that's doing very close to what I have in mind. Not 100% sure yet, but like I said, it's going tobe the best way to get the small amount of space I have to work.

 

I'm sure it works fine in the right hands, the guy that turned me onto it was one of the original breeders of SPC strains. He supplied a huge part of the compassionate club's use in Canada at the time. he 2 rooms 10 metres sq of the pipes, all on the ground, nothing flash.

 

If stonedas was stilla roun dhe might still have pics that came from that set up, i've long lost mine.

It was pretty awe inspiring.

 

He grew in his "basement" in Canada, and at the same time we'd all be whinging here about the heat killing our plants, he's be running downstairs putting more heaters in his resivour to stop the nute stank turning into a block of ice.

 

Never stop to wonder what other people have to suffer hey.

 

cheers

rob

 

PS. The avatar I have is some mullum madness I grew about 15 years ago when I was young and sily. Sorry about the pic quality, it's way before digital cams. We recored it on Video, and I snapped a snap shot off the TV years back.

[nouseforaname]

hey rob,

The aero pipes your talking about were 10" sewer pipes with 1" (hole saw cut) holes along top.. there was a 12mm feed line running along the bottom of pipes with one or two spinner drippers per plant.. this was the major problem as they always block or clog up.. There was no end caps used on pipes and fans were allowed to blow thru them. Im pretty sure you will either need to use a table horse or hang the pipes with chains with a one degree difference so water will flow.. end of each pipe had a mop head to quieten draining water back to res.. The nutes were really low like 600 ppm upto 1200-1800 by finish.. I will see if anyone still have any cds lieing about with the pipe tute on it...

[nouseforaname]

hey,

Found this pic @ ozco site and hopefully have the old cds back sometime soon

[Al B. Fuct]

I've been considering a PVC pipe based aero system. I was thinking about using the biggest honkin' drain pipe I could get my hands on and capping the ends. Would feed nute soln into the big pipes from a res tank then put an overflow tube in the pipe to keep about 40-50mm of water in the pipe at all times, though the water pump would be moving it through the pipes all the time. Then I'd put some bubble curtains/airstones in the bottoms of the big pipes, driven by an air pump or two, submerged in the 40-50mm of nute soln in the pipe.

 

This would create a very fine, highly oxygenated mist inside the pipe but would eliminate clogging problems as one is not forcing a nute soln through a small sprayer aperture.

 

Just an idea.

Edited July 1, 2007 by Al B. Fuct