Easy, cheap grow system

[F420]

:scratchin

 

These grow boxes are what I have used since switching to indoors growing.

I made these initially following the flood and drain principals, and stuck with these since.

 

They are cheap to make, easy to setup and maintain and they produce.

Most bits come from hardware shops.

 

So lets get growing then-

 

What you will need-

 

2 stacker storage crates,

 

Flood and drain componets-(mushroom and drain) I use the ones off the bigger flood and drain tables just to make sure nothing gets blocked,

 

Air pump, air stone and a one way valve prevents water going up the air line the wrong way.

 

Approx 500 - 600 litre water pump if you only fit the flood and drain. You will need a bigger pump depending on how many drain holes you put in.

make sure the top box fills with water correctly.

EG- too weak of pump or too many drains can make it drain faster than it fills up.

too strong of a pump and your going to overflow the top box.

I made more holes in this box than it had last time and Ive just had to use a stronger pump.

 

Sack of Clayballs- I use hydroton from Germany as its the most available brand.

 

Bleech or H202 or something that sterilses everthing, for cleaning.

 

H202 or pythoff etc for during the grow.

 

A+B nutrients,

Some nutriboost, all rounder, superthrive or similar type product,

Silica eg- SilikaMajic. (you dont NEED the thrive or silica it just helps).

 

EC metre eg- Truncheon (once again not required but helps).

 

PH tester- I prefer to use the Liquid Flairform tester. But I also have a Digital one just for checking in between times.

Ph adjusters.

 

and of course plants- I use clones as I know that they are females and taking plants out of this system can be a PIA as parts of the roots remain and it can cause them to start rotting.

 

Your stacker crates, plastic stackers or whatever-

http://www.shopngrow.com/files/files/dads_003__small_.jpg

[F420]

These are the flood and drain bits. they are off a flood and drain table but still works good in this setup.

 

The water comes out from the little drain and when the top box gets full of water it will start to drain from the top of the stalk.

 

The water is pumped up to the top box for 15 minutes and its repeated every 4 hours.

It only takes a few minutes to flood the top box and it spends the other 13 or so minutes washing out the old stale air and nutrients mix.

 

It then stops pumping and all of the water drains out of the top box.

 

In the pic is two setups. I have shown both of these to point out that they can look differently to what I use but it still operates on the same principal.

eg- water is pumped up the short bit and when the water level reaches the drain on the stalk it then starts to drain back to the bottom box.

This prevents the top box overflowing.

 

http://www.shopngrow.com/files/files/dads_004__small_.jpg

[F420]

Ok heres what to do-

 

Firstly get all the required stuff together.

Wash and sterilise everything.

 

The top box needs some holes put in it to mount the stalk and drain.

The easiest way to do this is by measuring out the hole placements and size with a permanant marker or similar.

Then you can either Drill the hole very carefully with a hole saw but this can break through the plastic before it drills through it.

A better option is what I do, and that to use a hot soldering iron to make the holes with the heat melting the plastic.

 

Also include a few holes so that theres no way the top box will hold water causing root rot. just an extra precaution.

 

http://www.shopngrow.com/files/files/dads_005__small_.jpg

 

Ok now where were we-

 

Ok now that the holes are made, its time to fit the componets to the box.

 

I put these as close to the centre as I can to make sure the roots evenly spread around everything and does not block the drain etc.

 

http://www.shopngrow.com/files/files/dads_007__small_.jpg

[F420]

this shows the bottom of the box,

You will see that there are two hoses???

 

Ok the short drain in the top box is connected to your water pump via the hose.

The other hose is connected to nothing at the bottom and the mushroom at the top of the box.

The only reason for the hose is to minimise the sounds of water draining back in to the bottom box. You can leave it off if noise isnt an issue and the movement of the water dropping on to the top of the bottom water will help airate it.

I prefer to use a airpump and section of hose. http://www.shopngrow.com/files/files/dads_008__small_.jpg

 

This is the airpump.

Its just a normal airpump designed for fishtanks.

I would have each line to an airstone with a non-return valve, however I only had one non-return valve when I set this up. Will fix it later.

 

The hose and tap you see coming out the side isnt needed. it was something I did for draining the res. its just as easy to use a little water pump to suck it out.

http://www.shopngrow.com/files/files/dads_009__small_.jpg

 

Ok next thing is to wash your clayballs, then place them in the top box.

and run more water through them, to make sure its running clear. I do this in my bathtub, then clean the bath afterwards as it leaves ahell of a mess.

 

Then run about 50 Litres through the top box again, but make this waters PH 5.5. Once again this isnt necessary and you can leave it out. but the water you just flushed it with has set the Ph higher around 7. so you want it to drop a little to around 5.5.

 

These settings are only what I use in these boxes-

 

ph 5.2 to 6.5 roughly, I prefer to let it wander rather than keep adjusting it all the time.

Truncheon- under 800ppm clones,

under 1680 veg,

under 1820 flower.

under 200ppm flush.

 

 

http://www.shopngrow.com/files/files/dads_010__small_.jpg

 

This is my veg box setup for a few weeks, then I just lift the lot out and put them in my flowering room.

hope thats helps someone.

 

Ferengi420 :smoke

[jackfrost]

looks good bro - no need to go to the hydro shop at all.

 

good clear pics, easy to following guide ----ready to grow some ganja

 

 

Jack

[Tom]

It's always good to see a description of a functional home made system, it shows new growers that you don't need expensive set-ups to grow good mj.

 

[pipeman]

some observations on your setup:

 

1. You don't need the non return valve if you position your air pump higher than your res. Hanging it off the wall or roof is an easy solution, and it looks like you got plenty of room to do that in there. If you got a noisy pump hanging it off rubber bands will help with that also.

 

2. It looks as if you got your ballast in a plastic box on the floor of your cupboard? Thats not the best spot for it ballasts are best positioned high clear of any flammable materials and also clear of anything you may drop or spill in your cupboard.

 

3. The res doesn't look to be lightproof the top box is just sitting loose on it with a gap in between? Thats not a good idea sitting under a HID.

 

4. Your light would be easier to adjust the height of if the chains are vertical and not on the diagonal as you've got them.

 

5. That light looks awefully close for those small clones (but pics can be deceiving). Is that what height you grew them out at or is that just the height you set for purposes of the pic?

 

So have you got any pics of what this system has grown? Those pics were taken 1/11/04, must be close to harvest now?

Edited January 11, 2005 by pipeman

[F420]

some observations on your setup:

 

1. You don't need the non return valve if you position your air pump higher than your res. Hanging it off the wall or roof is an easy solution, and it looks like you got plenty of room to do that in there. If you got a noisy pump hanging it off rubber bands will help with that also.

 

very true, however mine is a quiet pump and doesnt need to be strung up or anything, but for people with noisy pumps then that an awesome idea.

 

2. It looks as if you got your ballast in a plastic box on the floor of your cupboard? Thats not the best spot for it ballasts are best positioned high clear of any flammable materials and also clear of anything you may drop or spill in your cupboard.

 

yup this shows the ballast IN the grow box and also low.

I dont have much choice as the light or ballast is complete IE_ doesnt plug in to each other.

So i have no choice, but it is direcetly below the fan and the plastic box stops any water being able to get in to the ballast.

 

3. The res doesn't look to be lightproof the top box is just sitting loose on it with a gap in between? Thats not a good idea sitting under a HID.

 

No your right its not light proof, but there no need for it to be. Almost 3 years of using this system has never given me any problems.

Humidity stays low because the exhaust fan is always on.

 

4. Your light would be easier to adjust the height of if the chains are vertical and not on the diagonal as you've got them.

umm must be the pic because they are straight, there are two chains going in to the box and the 2 chains off the light are atta hed to that.

To lift the light I just move the links and tie them up again.

never been an issue.

5. That light looks awefully close for those small clones (but pics can be deceiving). Is that what height you grew them out at or is that just the height you set for purposes of the pic?

Thelight is set by using hand warmth, yes it was a little close in the pic but just afterwards I did lift the light a bit.

I normally use the warm hand technique.

 

So have you got any pics of what this system has grown? Those pics were taken 1/11/04, must be close to harvest now?

 

Sorry I just noticed that, they were actually taken on the 11/01/05 as I got the digicam for my xmas.

But I have had many harvests from these boxes, the plant that you see in the pic is what the look like today.

 

thanks for helping mate, Im always open to new ideas. :thumbsup

[F420]

oh heres a pic of a plant in the system. I use two of these, ones always in flower and the other is vegging.

[pipeman]

thanks for helping mate, Im always open to new ideas. :thumbsup

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no worries.