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Habman's going Hydro!

habman said:
Should not be a prolem but the nutrient solutions will be damaged if frozen.
Click to expand...

Well the rest of the kit arrived yesterday and of course the nutrients were all frozen. I contacted Genhydro and here is the response they sent back.

They should be fine once they have thawed. They are 100% water soluble mineral nutrients with no organic/biological ingredients so the nutritional content will be unchanged. If you want to test them just dilute some in water and test the ppm or ec and you will have a good idea if it is still viable.

So we shall see. I added some flora gro to my plants that I'm wintering so we shall see if I see any improvements in growth. That should tell me for sure if the stuff is still good. (I have yet to get my test equipment)
 
Digital Ballast

Does anyone know whats the deal with digital ballast?

In the UK, Growell; one of the best know hydro stores, has dropped DB from their website and brochure because of problems with starting and radio interference (i think).

Any one else know any problems with DBs?

Also hadman, what is the size of room that your using the 400w system in?
 
NagaMad said:
Does anyone know whats the deal with digital ballast?

In the UK, Growell; one of the best know hydro stores, has dropped DB from their website and brochure because of problems with starting and radio interference (i think).

Any one else know any problems with DBs?

Also hadman, what is the size of room that your using the 400w system in?
Click to expand...

Digital ballast are more efficient then the old magnetic ballast.
They have a "smart chip" that detects and maintain a constant output.
They also have soft start which increases the lamp life.(The soft start is the problem with starting some lamps with some DB).
They can run both Metal Halide and HPS.
They run super quiet and relatively cool without a fan.

But .....
They cost a lot more.
They operate on a much higher frequency (some people have reported interference with some home items).
I've run it for more then a week now, it's in my grow room/home office and I have not noticed any interference whatsoever and my computer is about 4 feet away from the ballast.
Some ballast more then others (lumatek) have problems starting some HID lights and have high failure rate.
The high failure rate may not be a problem anymore.It's new technologie so the first ones are not perfect.


My grow space is ridiculous! 18" by 36" surrounded by mylar.:lol:
I have doubled my growing space to 18 X 80" but I need to modify my HID reflector so I can use the light for 18" x 80".

I'm running it with a 20$ GE Lucalox HPS lamp (It's not sold for growing plants, it's a street light HPS!).
GE_Lucalox.jpg




I got the ballast from bghydro
http://www.bghydro.com/BGH/Itemdesc.asp?ic=HLBADIGA04&eq=&Tp=
 
habman said:
My grow space is ridiculous! 18" by 36" surrounded by mylar.:onfire:
I have doubled my growing space to 18 X 80" but I need to modify my HID reflector so I can use the light for 18" x 80".

I'm running it with a 20$ GE Lucalox HPS lamp (It's not sold for growing plants, it's a street light HPS!).
GE_Lucalox.jpg
Click to expand...

Hi Habman

Thanks for the DB info, im currently considering in upgrading to HID lights, so not sure if to go with DBs or the normal ones.

How much heat does a normal 400w ballast out put?
My space is 6' x 9' x 6' (72" x 108" x 72")
[width x length x height]

Im thinking of an initial light set up of 2 x 400w systems or the aurora gemini system by canatronics; the ballast has the timer and contractor integrated and both lights run from the one ballast, so it helps in reducing the number of cables.

Any thoughts would be welcome and not just from Habman, everyones invited to give their 2 cents

thanks
Naga
 
Hi NagaMad,

2 X 4000watts is the right choice. You will get plenty of light.

My advice to you is go with your budget.
If money is not an issue the choice is easy : Digital Balast.
It's got many advantages over the old magnetic ballast.
But the fact that it's first generation some Digital Ballast are better then others.
I chose the Galaxy in most part because of what BGHydro had to say.But how much can you trust a seller?

If you go with a magnetic ballast be sure to chose the right one (MH or HPS).
Metal Halide is said to be the best light for crops that don't get external light.
You can always buy a conversion lamp but you will pay 20-30$ more and the light output will be a lot less.
In your case running a Metal Halide and and HPS would be optimal.

HPS lamps are generally all the same. The best ones have 10% extra blue and red but they are very expensive.
MH lamps you must select carefuly they are big diffrences between lamps.

The best HPS $/value lamp is Sylvania Gro-Lux but some people have reported unusual lamp burnouts.

Whatever you chose I'm sure you'll be growing monster crops again this year.
 
habman said:
Hi NagaMad,
MH lamps you must select carefuly they are big diffrences between lamps
Click to expand...

Avoid Venture MH lamps at all costs....the price is right but they burn out quickly and Venture does not honor their warranty.

Sylvania lamps have always been dependable for me with good lamp life.
 
Hydro results

Hi folks

i have a small set up in dundee, im studying here, and these were the results i got.

Plant in January
TD-PutintoSystem.jpg

TD-28Jan2007.jpg


Plant in February
TD-24Feb2007.jpg

DSC03925.jpg


To tell you the truth, i am a bit disappointed at the rate of growth; i would have thought that it would be a lot bigger since it was in hydro but then again i dont have my GrowRoom; man i miss it. I havent been able to control temp, air etc so maybe thats whats causing the lack of growth.

But on a positive note the plant has started to bud and as you can see there budding like crazy, 10 or so per node (i think thats correct).
 
If you're homebuilding a system....What water cycle do you use? What I mean is how often do you want your pump to turn on (for the "flood" or ebb system)? Hydo may be an option for me...
 
Dyce51 said:
If you're homebuilding a system....What water cycle do you use? What I mean is how often do you want your pump to turn on (for the "flood" or ebb system)? Hydo may be an option for me...
Click to expand...

I use 5 X 15min cycles with 16 hours light cycle.
 
Question for you guys, do I need to let my hydro system run for a bit before I add plants to it? If so how long should I run it?
 
P_Schneider said:
Question for you guys, do I need to let my hydro system run for a bit before I add plants to it? If so how long should I run it?
Click to expand...

yeah let run at least one day with only water.
Just to make sure everything is working ok and no leaks.
If you use Hydroton Rocks make sure to wash them before putting them in the hydro.These things contain alot of dust.
 
habman said:
yeah let run at least one day with only water.
Just to make sure everything is working ok and no leaks.
If you use Hydroton Rocks make sure to wash them before putting them in the hydro.These things contain alot of dust.
Click to expand...

Cool, thx
 
Well the hydro is up and running. nutrients are at around 600ppm, ph is around 6.1, and temp is 70.1. I broke open a Thai pod and squeezed a bunch of seeds directly into the hydrotron in one pot, planted my Numex BJ in another pot, and a twig that busted off of my mature Thai plant in a 3rd. So far nothing has died but I haven't had any new sprouts yet. The other 3 pots are for some Red Savinas but they need a week yet under the hothouse dome. So far so good. I will update pics this weekend.


*Edit*
Photo galleries updated
 
>>>>Well the hydro is up and running. nutrients are at around 600ppm, ph is around 6.1, and temp is 70.1.

Sounds perfect.

>>>> I broke open a Thai pod and squeezed a bunch of seeds directly into the hydrotron in one pot, planted my Numex BJ in another pot, and a twig that busted off of my mature Thai plant in a 3rd.

You seeded directly in hydroton?
I always start my seedlings in grodan cubes (my avatar is a grodan cube and no it's not a tomatoe it's a roccoto or is a cherry pepper...hmmm) Wait until you can see some roots come out of the cube and then put it in the hydro.
The great part of having the seedlings in grodan cube is if for any reason the pumps breaks down the plant will still have some water and food for at least a day or 2. Trust me things break down......

>>>>> So far nothing has died but I haven't had any new sprouts yet. The other 3 pots are for some Red Savinas but they need a week yet under the hothouse dome. So far so good. I will update pics this weekend.

Nice pics on your web site. I wish I was that organized.
 
Ok, I've been watching ppm and ph the last couple days and noticed that the ph is holding steady but the ppm has been creeping up. It's up to just under 800 now and I've had about an inch of evaporation.
My assumption is that the 2 little seedlings I have don't consume enough nutrients to keep pace with the evaporation and that's how it's getting out of balance.
My other assumption is that when I have full grown plants I will likely have the opposite problem, of nutrients being consumed and the ppm dropping.

Am I on the right track here?

Habman, thanks for the props.

*edit*
On the seeds thing, ya I just added them to see what would happen.
 
Well, i'm technically growing hydro now:shocked: I've got 5 plants in coco coir/perlite mix hand watering/feeding once a day 3ml/l Hesi coco nutrient pH'd to 5.8-6.0(I water until about 20% of what I fed has ran out the bottom to flush with every feeding and flush out anything built up so as to keep nute level/ec in the medium fairly constant). Plants were transplanted from the small pots i bought them in into 8" pots of coir on saturday, and never once showed any signs of transplant shock. Haven't shown much growth either, but when you transplant roots come first then a growth spurt. Overall they look very happy and green.

I've heard nothing but great things about coco coir. I love the fact that I can water it every day and not drown my plants. In fact, from what I've read the biggest mistake people make with coir is treating it like soil instead of like a hydro medium. If you water it, let it dry out, water it again you tend to get salt build up and have problems. But if you hand water every day and let a good bit run-off you can feed every watering and get the most hydroponic-like growth rates.

I had a hard time finding anything about growing in coco coir on the net at first. But I finally found a good source of info. Haha, and I know this might sound bad, but if you're ever interested in learning a whole lot about growing in coco or any other medium, the guys over at the some of the "herbal" cultivation boards have a wealth of guides and information about all types of hydroponic cultivation techniques. Judging from pictures they know what they're doing lol. But yeah, what works for one living plant can surely be customized to work for our more legal choice of vegetable :party:
 
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