Indoor Growing Scrog

[Mongoose]

Rambling on ... I watched a YouTube video produced over 10 yrs ago, by a guy who built a 4' x 8' table with a custom tray,
similar to Botanicare trays. He was using an entire room of his house for a 'tent'. He lined the base of the tray with polyester batting,
the kind used to make blankets/quilts, then placed sprouting plants in 4" rockwool cubes on the polyester, then covered
the tray with panda film, stapled to the sides. He had a valve on the tray drain to ensure the entire bed was saturated
with nutrients before it drained to the reservoir below. Easy to guess the root mass he ended with. I cannot find this video
again for the life of me, I've tried many times. I just wish those Botanicare trays were a little less dear.

 

[420autoflower]

I think Autopotamus mentioned pot size in one of his recent YouTube channel videos -- that he's found that pot size, with AutoPots, doesn't make a big difference ... That he can get the same results from a ~2 gallon pot of coco as a ~4 gallon pot. Something like that. Who knows, but I suspect that optimized fertigation, from the top, or the bottom, changes the balance of 'more roots, more shoots'. I might play the adventurer with next grow: only one 4" cube, with my ad-hoc 1/2" slices in the drip tray, fertigate every hour for 5 mins, and see how that works out for me. I have found that letting the roots grow from the drip tray into the reservoir isn't necessarily a negative, the plants are at least OK with it, or maybe they like it, but how would I know for sure?

I like how you’re not afraid of experimenting and trying new things Mongoose. Theres a lot you can do with rockwool.
I think your roots like growing into the reservoir. They’re getting plenty of oxygen from up above so I don’t see why they wouldn’t.
The only disadvantage I see with the Autopots Autopotomus uses is the fact that you can’t elevate shorter plants to even out canopy.

Rambling on ... I watched a YouTube video produced over 10 yrs ago, by a guy who built a 4' x 8' table with a custom tray,
similar to Botanicare trays. He was using an entire room of his house for a 'tent'. He lined the base of the tray with polyester batting,
the kind used to make blankets/quilts, then placed sprouting plants in 4" rockwool cubes on the polyester, then covered
the tray with panda film, stapled to the sides. He had a valve on the tray drain to ensure the entire bed was saturated
with nutrients before it drained to the reservoir below. Easy to guess the root mass he ended with. I cannot find this video
again for the life of me, I've tried many times. I just wish those Botanicare trays were a little less dear.

I dabbled with that for a bit a few years ago and also built my own 4x8” ebb&flow tables out of plywood and 6mil visqueen but it wasn’t ideal for what I wanted to do back then. The plants are pretty much locked in the tray from sprout to harvest with that method and no option to move them around, boost them up to even out canopy, transfer them into different tents or take them out to defoliate. Great for growing SOG with clones but not the best for autos.

4

Thread 'Northern Lights in Hydroponics'

Feb 22, 2022

Here is an ebb and flow crop I harvested a couple months ago. 8 ILGM Northern Lights autos in 4x4x3” Grodan rockwool blocks sitting on a 24x48x3” flood&drain table with a 25 gallon reservoir underneath. The tray was covered with Panda film and clipped to the sides to create darkness so the roots would be able to grow out into the tray.

• 420autoflower
• Replies: 6
• Forum: Autoflower Genetics

• 
• 

 

[Drownomatic]

Roots look much bigger at one end of the table.

 

[420autoflower]

Atlas Seeds Tricross #1 and #2 (rescrogs).
Harvest day.
D98

 

[Sawney_bean]

Legend at work
You put masters to shame

 

[Mongoose]

I like how you’re not afraid of experimenting and trying new things Mongoose. Theres a lot you can do with rockwool.
I think your roots like growing into the reservoir. They’re getting plenty of oxygen from up above so I don’t see why they wouldn’t.
The only disadvantage I see with the Autopots Autopotomus uses is the fact that you can’t elevate shorter plants to even out canopy.

I dabbled with that for a bit a few years ago and also built my own 4x8” ebb&flow tables out of plywood and 6mil visqueen but it wasn’t ideal for what I wanted to do back then. The plants are pretty much locked in the tray from sprout to harvest with that method and no option to move them around, boost them up to even out canopy, transfer them into different tents or take them out to defoliate. Great for growing SOG with clones but not the best for autos.

4

Thread 'Northern Lights in Hydroponics'

Feb 22, 2022

Here is an ebb and flow crop I harvested a couple months ago. 8 ILGM Northern Lights autos in 4x4x3” Grodan rockwool blocks sitting on a 24x48x3” flood&drain table with a 25 gallon reservoir underneath. The tray was covered with Panda film and clipped to the sides to create darkness so the roots would be able to grow out into the tray.

• 420autoflower
• Replies: 6
• Forum: Autoflower Genetics

• 
• 

Thanks 420! Great to know that you tried that, and to learn the pros and cons, from you!

 

[Atulip]

I like how you’re not afraid of experimenting and trying new things Mongoose. Theres a lot you can do with rockwool.
I think your roots like growing into the reservoir. They’re getting plenty of oxygen from up above so I don’t see why they wouldn’t.
The only disadvantage I see with the Autopots Autopotomus uses is the fact that you can’t elevate shorter plants to even out canopy.

I dabbled with that for a bit a few years ago and also built my own 4x8” ebb&flow tables out of plywood and 6mil visqueen but it wasn’t ideal for what I wanted to do back then. The plants are pretty much locked in the tray from sprout to harvest with that method and no option to move them around, boost them up to even out canopy, transfer them into different tents or take them out to defoliate. Great for growing SOG with clones but not the best for autos.

4

Thread 'Northern Lights in Hydroponics'

Feb 22, 2022

Here is an ebb and flow crop I harvested a couple months ago. 8 ILGM Northern Lights autos in 4x4x3” Grodan rockwool blocks sitting on a 24x48x3” flood&drain table with a 25 gallon reservoir underneath. The tray was covered with Panda film and clipped to the sides to create darkness so the roots would be able to grow out into the tray.

• 420autoflower
• Replies: 6
• Forum: Autoflower Genetics

• 
• 

Tried something similar with autos. Pair of Mephisto Skywalker x Forum Stomper on a 2'x2' flood table with a makeshift lid in a 3 inch hydroton cups. I've had more success running photoperiods from the cloner to SoG on the table like this though.

Not my prettiest plants grown but they powered through my neglect. Still haven't grown any pounders, but I'll get there one day.

Beautiful ladies and informative as always @420autoflower

 

[420autoflower]

Sawney Beans White Gen 3
Day 47

 

[Drownomatic]

@420autoflower Do you discard the runoff, or does it get added back?

 

[420autoflower]

@420autoflower Do you discard the runoff, or does it get added back?

I’m running recirculating top fed systems so all the runoff drains back down into the reservoir.