My first post and my first grow!

[Farmall]

If your looking to use a system similar to the one in that YouTube video, it is a simple assembly with cheap plastic plumbing parts from Home Depot. The tubing quality is important as the first roll I bought was 50’ of twists and kinks and was pure crap. They Hydrofarm stuff was excellent.

One key element is to use black hose to reduce light exposure to nutrient rich water which will grow algae easily under gro-lights. 2” airstones and a 4” one for the reservoir or more if you want. Oxygenated water is very important. If you notice how long the tube is in the reservoir to his pump, you can eliminate the likelihood of that hose kinking or folding by just running the hose through the reservoir like his 6 returns. What’s one more hole and the pump is submerged anyway.

The 1/4” airline is also available in black and anything you don’t feel like looking for in retail stores, Amazon. The larger bucket attachments are call bulkhead fittings and for the hoses, threaded hose barb fittings.

[NickyChicks]

Thanks! I think I'll set my pump on a timer, seems like either way is ok. Yeah I have a pH meter but I don't have a TDS meter, ordering one right now.

[NickyChicks]

Thanks for your comment! I'm definitely going to check out your thread. That's pretty interesting that the plants without top feed are doing just as well as the ones with, I was under the impression the top feed would grow faster. The pressure I have it at should be ok then, it's pretty much a slight trickle. I do have an exhaust fan pulling air through my light setup and I have a couple of small fans to circulate air in the tent. I didn't even think of putting the ballast outside of the tent, that's a good idea!

[dphipps1020]

Welcome to the forum. I started with a system similar to this and I kept my pump on all the time. Pretty much everything has already been mentioned. If you don't have a pH meter and a TDS meter you should invest in one. They're fairly inexpensive and they'll make your life so much easier. Happy growing!

[DingusKhan]

Farmall shared this, it sound like exactly what your after.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1Eg-XesZGU&feature=youtu.be

[DingusKhan]

Hi NickyChicks, welcome! And congrats for jumping on in at the beginning.

At risk of getting dismissed right off the bat, probably the best advise most new growers get is to slow down, maybe reduce the number of plants that you're going to be taking care of in your first grow. There's going to be plenty to learn, some of which will be critical to getting your first grow to harvest whether you're growing 1 plant or 9.

The best thing you could do to ensure that growing is a long term hobby for you is to actually succeed at harvesting your first grow. And the best way to do that is start with 1 or maybe 2 plants, I would recommend in individual buckets or larger bins. That way if one of them gets root rot, it doesn't kill both plants, etc etc.

Having said that, you only need a little, just enough pressure to provide a slow trickle into each cup. You can have them run constantly, or you can cycle them on for 5 to 10 minutes per hour, just enough to wet the root plug, hydroton pellets, and let a little rinse down your roots. But like Tersky said, you don't need top feed once your roots are hanging in your water. I would go farther to say that you don't need top feed at all.

On my thread (light the grow gher), you can see that I have a grow bucket with top feed going next to a tote bin with no top feed. The seeds are different strains, but were sprouted on the same day. The sprouts with no top feed are just as big as the ones with no top feed. The roots aren't even touching the water. The bubbles are splashing the outside of the cup and the water is wicking into the rooter plug, and they are just as happy as the one getting fed. The roots are hanging down and will be in the water in another day or two.

If you're going to have additional reservoirs circulating into your DWC, you can keep them outside the tent and run the hoses in through the sleeves. That way, your big reservoir won't get hot sitting under the lights, also you can give your plants more room for better light penetration and airflow. By the way, if you don't have a couple of fans blowing inside your tent as well as a big fan to extract the heat from your light setup, you will need one.

Also, if your light's ballast isn't attached to the light fixture itself, you can place that outside your tent as well to reduce heat inside. I set mine on top with my tent exhaust fan blowing at it to keep it cooler.

[NickyChicks]

Thanks! I will probably get 2 more resevoirs because I definitely want to fill the space and I don't want to spend longer in veg.

[Tersky]

I've never done top fed so i cant answer those questions but i assume you could let it run 24/7 until the roots reach the water level.

You could grow more than one plant in a res but i have found that doing single plants in a res works best for me. I found that having plants too close in the same res can actually cause them to root into each other. Sometimes this doesn't effect the plants but sometimes they can strangle each other off so i actually have had better success with buckets. That said it's not that it cant be done, just keep them separated and it should be fine. Another reason i like keeping them separate is if one plant gets sick it is less likely to infect the other plants.

With a veg time of 5 weeks you could fit probably at least 6-9 plants in a 4x4 if they were in 5 gal pots (i have 4 with room for more in a 3x3) however with the 2 10 gal res i wouldnt do that. I would grow one plant in each and veg till they fill the tent horizontally. It will add to veg time but a 10 gal res would be small imo for 2 or more plant root systems per res and if you want to fill the tent you will need extra time to do so.

[JohnEmad]

Welcome to the GWE forum. Plenty of answers from experienced growers and all around helpful people. I am not the best to answer your question but many can.
They put up with all my questions and helped me all through my 1st grows.

[NickyChicks]

Hey everyone! This is my first post and I want to start by saying hello and I'm glad to be part of this community. I'm getting ready to start my first grow and even though I've read a lot of the articles on the GWE website, I still have lots of questions. I have zero experience growing other than an outdoor vegetable garden. All of the information I've gathered so far is from what I've read on the website and a handful of posts here. Please let me know if I'm heading in the right direction!

My setup is a 4x4x6.5 tent, iPower 600w HPS/MH, (2)10gal reservoirs for top fed DWC. GH Trio, hydroguard.

I haven't even started the grow but I am just about ready. I finished setting up the top feed, how much pressure do I want the feed lines to the net pots to have? Also is it going to be ok to run the pump constantly or should I have it on a timer to only run periperiodically?

I bought quite a few different seeds from seedsman, all feminized. If I plan to use 2 reservoirs am I only going to be able to grow 2 strains or would I be able to grow 2 different strains in the same reservoir?

How many plants can I grow per reservoir without crowding my grow space? I want to switch the plants to 12/12 after 5 weeks and I also would like to try some plant training.

I definitely have more questions but I'll ask as I go and I'm sure some of them will get answered before I ask.
Thanks!!