Hybrid Hydro. Critiques Needed! - Shallow Pond Culture

It ain't built yet, hell it aint even invented yet. so you're gonna have to let my words wrap around your cranium and construct a mental picture in that brain of yours. Bear with me a minute here.

I'm dubbing this idea SPC


I propose to grow plants in a DWC type setup, but in only about 1 inch of water

Call me crazy. Call me insane... or Call me a genious! Cmon' Im ready for it!

I'm going to create a shallow pond. Probably 6x8 feet. Using 1x6's to reinforce the edges, making a frame, I'll then line it with pond liner.....

There will be 4 maybe 5 PVC recirculation pipes evenly spaced running the long way about 6" above the bottom, with 1/8" holes drilled in them at 1 foot intervals. Water will be recirculated through these pipes at a minimum of 600gph. Maximum of 1200. (Depends on the # of holes)

Also an additional 1200 gph pump will pull water out to a 2 foot waterfall dropping into a separate 5gal bucket. and dumping back into the system on the opposite side (to not disturb roots)

There will be no need for airstones in this setup. between the waterfall and the pvc recirculation there will be plenty of dissolved oxygen.

Initially I was thinking I'd suspend the plants in some kind of lid, but now I'm thinking that the net pots will probably sit directly on the pond liner. I'll use somewhat larger net pots to lift the base of the plant above the water level and keep the plants stable. ... Obviously I'll drape a layer of panda plastic over the top to stop algea growth.

As far as I can see this method would have several merits over traditional bucket style DWC. Aside from allowing you to pack 100's of plants in a SOG environment - its much easier system to construct. If you've ever tried to network 15 - 25 buckets together you'll know how much of a pain in the ass it is. I'm sure smokin' could vouch for that

Also it will be easy to clean. Scrub down the pond liner with a bleach brush and start again. Buckets & rubbermaids are so hard to clean.

Further. a 10x15 piece of pond liner is like 70 bucks. If you've ever bought ebb & flow trays and/or NFT trays that will seem VERY appealing ;D Even buckets put a pretty big dent in your pocketbook once your finished networking them.


SPC © 2007, afterburner Ltd.

This idea is free; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Marijuana Gowing Foundation;

This grow method is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.



-burner

Right. Shallow Pond Culture. I thought about putting this in the theories forum. But eh. Its a hydro method? It ain't no theory. This will work. Just want someone to point out my stupidities. And yes I will be constructing this. Right in this here thread.

Yall know I love to try new stuff Means I get big failures. and hopefully I'll be smoking the rewards rather than pulling my hair out this time. I'm ready for the risk though.

I did a search and didn't come up with much, so it seems this is a new idea. Apparently I just invented it So its mine SPC ®


Crap, lost my lighter. Oh, whew ok. <light>joint</light>
./ wait, let me tell you why i want to do this now...

I want to do DWC. BUT I dont like growing trees. Sorry! I know i know trees are great, but they're a waste of time if you're going for efficiency.

SOG is where its at IMO. No vegging process rules! Its like you veg on your mother plant prior to even cloning! Shaves off a good 20- 30 days before harvest.

DWC isnt well suited to sog. Buckets wont work. Rubbermaids are a serious pain! You have to pack them close together and that means craploads of water. We're, talking like 180 + gallons of water to fill up a 50 square foot SOG growroom. My last design was initially going to be DWC, as you can see I converted it to aero. mostly just because there was too much water (among other reasons) Sigh. Okay. So now you see why I dont want to use DWC.

According to my calculations a 3" 6x8 foot pond is about 90 gallons of water. Just about perfect

Compared to buckets in a simmilar area. You could probably fit about 15 in the same space... Which is only about 50-70 gallons of water, so if you think about it. Roots have the tendancy to naturally grow outward anyway there should actually be more room for root growth in this setup as compared to buckets.

I would like to use NFT, but nutriculture trays are impossible to find around here in the states, and not only that, they're pretty pricey for the size of room I want to fill up.

Anyone forsee any problems? I sure cant But we wont know till I try huh

-burner

ah AB at times i feel like im looking into a mirror

you have the same cab as me, same fan, and very similar thoughts. I too have thought the same of DWC and think sog is very efficent and will someday turn to that(once i do 1-4 grows with my crazy biosystem adn get soem trees, however i do have a 1k for my trees in my cab)

your setup seems like a large one container drip bucket thingy i got goind minus the water fall and whatnot.

I do like your ideas and where there headed, my thoughts were if the roots were going to have enough room, in DWC they go crazy but how your going to have them suspended i think that will do.

As for your waterfall there are some other very interesting options you can explore that will give you DO and much much more. I havent yet put one into my system but im currently researching extensivly and will add one to my next grow in 3-4 weeks. its just a beefed up trickle filter really, and if your going organic it will add lots of BB and even then if your not going organic it should give you BB and more DO than you need if its done right.
check out this thread if this interests you and if you havent seen it already......they dont seem too complicated to make.
Bioponics

Hi snwbrdr Good to see yah bro. Thanks for the reply.

We do think on the same lines dont we hehehe.
you might be interested in my bio-filter thread that I started but never finished here
I'd be sticking with chemical nutrients in this setup... Hmm But BB's are important there too.

Hmmmm... I'll have to read up on your thread a lil more

I bet just having the hydroton in all those net pots will serve as a sort of bio filter... in this setup. I hope

<passes bong to snwbrdr> </.>


-burner

hahah i love it, you will ahve to try my new one i jsut got tonight! 18" with a diffusser, man does that honey hash hit smooth from it

BB are great help indeed, and your medium will definatly give them a place to live if its underwater 24/7. and if they have plenty of DO.

but it sounds like your netpots might be above water, so thats why i was thining of a PCA/trickle/wet/dry filter combo of some sort. then you could get plenty of DO and BB and dont have to worry about your medium being covered. anywho def just some thoughts, each system made or created from this site has its own intentions and own creative mind pulling the levers so even if we are eriely on the same wavelenght yoru system will def be something i will be looking forward too.

18" diffuser! honey hash!!!! I'll be comin right over to your house as soon as i finish this post man!

hmm maybe you misread that part At first I was thinking that I'd suspend them above water, but now I'm thinking that I'll use larger net pots and put them directly onto the pond liner. Using enough hydroton to keep the base of the plant above the water level....

But maybe I should try and suspend them?

Any thoughts on this?

-burner

Sounds very interesting...a little like what I'm running except for the shallow
part...

I built a DWC 13.25" deep out of plywood...it is lined first with a heavy duty
tarp from Home Despot and then a layer of 6 mil panda plastic I had laying
around...I expect to just throw away my panda plastic and reline with no
cleaning...no buckets...it is still way lower height profile than buckets...and
has great volume for roots per plant because of the rectangular shape...

I made it in the shape of a long trough and just built a tower at one end to
contain my 18" waterfall splash which falls back into the trough...no separate
reservoir...no interconnections to create or to leak...

I recently added bubblers under each plant site and I am using beneficial
bacteria so I guess I would call my system a Bioponic Recirculating Stream
Waterfall Deep Bubbler Culture...I need to shorten that somehow

Is that new?

I think I might like to steal from your design, incorporate the piping and draw my
waterfall from them...and lower the profile of my design by a good 3-4", I was
worried about flow and clogging up my pump...but with the pipes well designed
I think it would prevent clogging...altogether...I am using 10" net pots and the
roots have 11+ gallons for space...probably way overkill...I plan on a long veg
cycle...so height means a lot to me...I need to figure out an elegant way to LST...

high bongshelter (cool name btw ) ... Steal away thats what this forum is for, sharing ideas

In a smaller setup, I recommend keeping 8-10 gallons of water at a minimum. In fact more water is better to a point. it keeps temperatures, pH and nutrients more stable.

Its just that once you need more than 2 rubbermaids things start to get inefficient in DWC. I've done successful sog with 15 plants, 1 rubbermaid 1 400w lamp in a small closet. and in that situation you actually want as much water as you can get. interestingly enough

Once you need 16 rubbermaids things change on yah. Suddenly 12" of water is WAY TOO MUCH!

but yeah, any ideas you can incorporate the better just thought i'd mention that, I like the sound of your custom dwc system thats awesome ! Glad to hear using a liner & frame is being done with success!

-burner

NOt a bad idea at all. The biggest thing in hydro that people for get is that hydroponics basicly means water working. If you can keep the water moving, it will work. I've done dwc, swc, drip, flood & drain, and now I've ended up in aeroponics. I like it the most for growing but using a wick method for cloning... Good luck...