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First Hydroponic setup - slow?
I just built a lean to type of drip system. It's a tremendous accomplishment as I am not a carpenter at all!
I started this in mid December. I'm using it from a 5 gallon bucket. The water is revers osmosis water to which I add Dave's Base Formula (4 TB) and Dave's GROW formula (4 TB) typically every 2 weeks. I have two 45 watt led panels about 18 inches or so above two of the rows. The mechanics sit next to a furnace so that the water is fairly warm during the day but most likely gets a bit cooler (68?) during the night. I'm Growing: Basil, Holy Basil, Dill, Cilantro and Tarragon The Tarragon is doing the best so far. I would have thought that the basil plants which I transplanted would have doubled in size by now. But they appear to be growing very slow as does the dill. So how do I approach this - what is the order of importance: water temp light fertilizer ?? Would I be better served if I purchased something like the 90 wt BloomBoss (UFO) (Amazon) ? |
#2
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Hello Gjn,
Glad you were able to post in the forum. Quote:
2. What is the water level in the tubes? 3. Is the water running 24/7, or on a timer? Quote:
2. How often do you do a complete nutrient change? Quote:
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Their all herbs, but they all have different environmental condition requirements (light, nutrient, temperatures). But looking at the pictures the basil plants are on the ends and not getting close direct light, dill is a lower light requirement plant than basil. led's don't work very well at a distance. Temperatures are likely a factor as well. Quote:
1. Water temp 1. Light 1. Fertilizer The chain is only as good as the weakest link. Neglect one of the links, and the chain breaks. Quote:
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The drastic light intensity drop off beyond 2 feet means that multiple light fixtures are needed. While LED manufactures boast (misrepresent) electricity cost savings using LED because their light fixtures use less wattage, the actual watt to watt ratio needed because of the light intensity drop and multiple lights needed means the actual wattage needed to grow your plants is much higher than LED manufactures lead you to believe. Therefore there is actually very little electrical cost savings if any, that is unless your growing small plants that don't get bigger than 10-12 inches tall. Even then, a LED panel or UFO wont grow many plants because the light drop off beyond 2 feet from the light source means the actual square footage of grow space is very small. Commercial operations using LED grow in rows, and usually use custom designed modular LED tubes or ropes the length of the rows to get even coverage. (Note) That's using good quality LED's only. With the popularity of LED's on the rise, and thousands of manufactures in china making LED's. Many manufactures are jumping on the bandwagon and producing low quality LED's as well, but selling them at high prices like good quality grow LED's. You can't tell the difference with the naked eye. So unless you have deep pockets, you really need to do your research on the manufacture if you plan to experiment using LED's. Last edited by GpsFrontier; 02-03-2016 at 11:50 PM. |
#3
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Yes, it took a while but I'm happy to be here!
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I dont know of any others, so I'm open to recommendations. I had been doing a total change about every 2-3 weeks. I read that a full water change doesnt need to happen. I'm using reverse osmosis water. About 1/2 gallon evaporates and I replace that. I add about 2 TB of each nutrient every week (that's about 1/2 of a 4 gallon dose). I have an air stone in the 5 gallon bucket to keep the water oxygenated. Quote:
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I'm open to suggestions. I'm just starting. Each tube is about 18 inches lower than the previous and there are currently 3 tubes. My gut is telling me that my problem is light, but I dont necessarily want to use 600 - 1200 watts 12 hours a day. In your opinion (and anyone else reading), what is the best light and the most economical? I'm extremely open to suggestions using the current lean-to Jerry |
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Hello Gjn,
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Think of it like this. Imagine getting a bowl of mixed vegetables to go with your dinner. But you don't like all the vegetables equality. So you pick out the ones you like, and leave the rest. Night after night you get the same bowl of mixed vegetables, except you don't dump out the ones you didn't eat. You just keep adding more of the same mixed vegetables until the bowl is full. Night after night you pick out the ones you don't like and leave the rest. It wouldn't be long before the bowl was full of the ones you didn't eat, and very few of the ones you actually eat. Slowly but surly the balance/ratio of mixed vegetables is thrown off because you never dumped them out, to the point there is nothing in the bowl but what you don't eat/use. In the case of hydroponic nutrients it's the same thing, this balance/ratio is thrown off to the point where the nutrients the plant uses most are depleted, and the ones they don't use reaches toxic levels. Quote:
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You could use florescent light as well, but I would recommend at least one 4 foot twin bulb T5 light fixture per row. More if you use T8's. However the electrical cost to use florescent's would be higher than HID. 6 T5 bulbs (52 watts ea) total 312 watts. Twice the wattage of HID. Even if you upped the 150 watt HID bulb to a 200 watt bulb your still using 1/3 less wattage/electricity than florescent. Here's an electricity cost calculator so you can estimate your monthly electrical bill. You can just estimate using the national average of 10 cents per kilowatt hour. Or if you want to be more exact, you can find the amount you pay right on your electric bill, just make sure to include the surcharges. Last edited by GpsFrontier; 02-04-2016 at 11:11 PM. |
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