Hydro growing mediums

[Yarndi Bear]

I would like to know which hydroponic method of growing grows mj in the fastest time? ie canna coco, perlite, bubbling buckets, aeroponics, ebb and flow...ect

Any advice would be much appreciated..thanx one and all.

[pipeman]

aeroponics is meant to be the fastest. and bubblers are meant to be faster than medium based hydro systems.

 

but really, any hydro system run right gives amazing growth and for a personal grow any system will perform well enough. The real question is what style suits your setup/growing method, how much can you spend and how much maintenance work you want.

[Tom]

The hydro medium is not the only thing to look at, you need to appraise the whole system, lighting, reflective surfaces, ventilation, nutrients, environment control, etc, etc., the benefits from hydro media types alone would be minimal.

[Luke Skywalker]

Yeah, I agree with both posts here, to a degree... Really, it's not the media that's determining the speed of your growth, but it's just one factor in the bunch... Get all the factors right, and you'll grow great pot... the stuff grows faster than practically any other plant on earth...

 

Aero and DWC are "supposed" to be faster and better, but I have as yet seen no comparisons directly with clones and identical grows. It's like comparing apples to oranges, they're both sweet, but it's really down to individual taste.

 

Personally? Expanded clay, Rockwool and Perlite. Great medias all. Perlite is a bit variable tho, make sure you get a good brand with chunky size... the bigger the better. I use "Waterworld" brand. Big, yellow 100l bags. Expanded clay is pretty much the same all around, but Rockwool differs a bit too. I prefer the Grodan Growool, but that's just my preference, there are few brands out there.

 

But yeah, it really totally depends on the other factors of the grow, everything is inter-related and needs to be withing certain ranges for good growth. You are Mother Nature, or God, however you want to look at it, so you really have to step up and take responsibility for everything.

[Guest weekprik]

myself and a few other growers done a comparison between,

flood and drain (ebb and flow),

Bubblers,

Turbo tanks,

Soil

 

then we done it again using ONLY organic hydro nutes.

 

our findings were this-

 

Bubblers were the fastest growing system, in both trials.

Turbo tanks were the next fastest,

then Flood and drain,

and lastly soil ( we tried 1 coco, and one potting mix/ perlite.

 

HOWEVER we found that the bubblers were noisey, and low yeild production compared to the others.

Turbo tanks were the highest yield,

Flood and drain seemed to take ages to finish but were the eaisest of the systems to run,

Soil was slow to grow and produced buds roughly the same size as the turbo tanks but the taste was far superior, and soil would be my choice over any system if I wasnt concerned about doing fast grows.

 

The organics in all these systems seemed to slow the grow down a little, and we had a few plant turn a purply colour,

the yield on the organic was less but yummy taste and we found that it seemed to keep us stoned for longer???

 

WP

 

ps- This was a comparison between about 6 of my circle of growers, so other variables may have come in to play as well, I plan to do a complete review and will hopefully have a reasonable camera by then, so I can capture it and post it here.

Edited October 29, 2003 by weekprik

[Rattdogg]

So far i have used two types of hydro, 45 litre bubblers and handwatered growool floc, i found the bubblers a little bit too finicky plus the need for extra power to run the airpumps and added noise are a turnoff for me and to make them work like they are sposed to you really need to use R.O.'d water in them.

 

Where as the hand watered rockwool floc is basic and easy to maintain as long as a regular flushing schedule is enforced, if you were to use the handwatered rockwool i would be setting it up for run to waste, would make flushing so much easier.

 

In saying that i found running the bubblers only consumed about 1/3 to 1/4 of the nutes/chemicals needed to run the rockwool/handwatered, also it's possible to leave the bubblers unattended for up to 3 days if need be, where as the handwatered rockwool needs watering at least once per day, hope this helps.

[white_cluster]

I swear them fucking OG CW retards must all be sponsored by someone.

 

I used to have a little respect for cannabis world until absolutely retarded bullshit never-grown-wanker advice like

you really need to use R.O.'d water in them.

, I swear these stupid fucks dont even grow.

I fucking bought one, thought I needed it, I needed it as much as anyone needs to fucking throw there money out the window. Fuck these stupid wankers, they probably got fucking RO filters cos they dunno what else is gonna make there crops half decent cos they are all fucking retards, using shitty OG and CW advice and failing miserably.

 

One of the main things I noticed from RO water was calcium and magnesium deficiencies, no improved growth no improved fucking nothing, it did fuck alot of things, took hours to do waterchanges.

 

The main thing about RO systems, which I find really ironic, is they are not meant for dirty water, When I questioned the RO guys why it stopped working after a month they told me my feed water was too dirty too begin with, Filters cost aroung 100 for the set of 6 and usually get replaced 6 months on average, 6 months on average my dick, my water started at between 280-420ppm, went down to no signal for a month or so, meaning well under 120ppm, but now its right on 420ppm, higher then before. You see it wasn't that dirty in the first place. I wouldn't consider one unless my water was over 280ppm. Also my RO filter was wasting aroung 10-15 ltrs per day. I know water is only around 80c a Kl but still waste is waste and Australians should not be wasting water.

For drinking water, than a water unit like in offices is the go, that water costs $3 for 15ltrs from petrol stations. Also running a pump through a brita water filter jug is a good one, just stick it above your res and run 13mm pipe with an overflow going back to the res, and more tube in the bottom of the jug. I'll have a camera in a few days to show.

 

If you have a serious water problem than I reccommend getting a small rainwater tank.

 

bubblers were noisey, and low yeild production compared to the others.

 

bubblers wont always give you the huge colas like alot of other mediums, but the veg time and overall bushiness of plants usually give you a nice dense cover of buds. The main thing about bubblers is they are not a SOG method, dont skimp on veg time and give them room, give them minimum of a 1 ft x 1 ft. But more is better. The point of most cannabis growing is too get things flowering ASAP, but with bubblers any extra Veg time will be greatly rewarded with extra buds, even if the plants seem too tall and the bottoms are getting light colured, keep on vegging till its dense from the top if root-room will allow. Big thick stems grow big thick buds.

I believe the Turbo Tank would have won out of the fact it used more plants, SOG is the highest yielding method by far, just not practical in Aus.

 

I can leave my bubblers for up to a week cos my raised res has another float valve in it and when I go away I connect another raised res to it. So I have 60ltr + 120ltr raised res to keep things topped up.

[pipeman]

Mate I reckon 420ppm base ec is pretty good. Thats what most people get in Australia from what I've read. In terms of nute deficiences what are you saying? You rely on the impurities for you plants to get a balanced feed? Doesn't seem right.

 

Yeah if you are serious about using a decent RO filter from what I've heard you should use it as a 2nd stage filter and put in bulk filters on your main water line which are replaced every 6 months, but are pretty cheap. How much all this costs I have no idea.

[Chev]

I'm thinking of trying out Dwc for my next grow, I have noticed growth wise, it does seem a little quicker and bushier than the plants in the re-circulating system. But I like my re-circ system, so we'll see. I use expanded clay for my medium, find it the easiest And with rockwool, I just use grodan brand now, most of the other ones I seem to get fall apart