Sorry to hear about your back man. I was in the same boat a few years back, but luckily my herniated disk has healed to the point where a good dose of mmj keeps the throbbing down to a tingle in my toes. The neurologist told me that would never happen. So, hope you're back in gardening shape soon too! Don't listen to those docs.

1500w lights might be nice. I'd be worried about lifting that much weight though. An air cooled 1000w is my limit I think. I was surprised to find that the SS400w was about the same weight as my Blockbuster hoods too...

Yeah mine is ruptured too (L5-S1), I'm still waiting for a VA appointment to see the neurosurgeon, nothing else has helped. I'm probably going to decline surgery though which leaves me on morphine...and mmj when I figure out the details on my new system.

I doubt the 1500w hood+bulb would weigh much more than 1000w HPS system, the ballast might not even be much heavier. It would be better suited for growing "trees" which my back can't take anymore.

Week 3

Now we're getting to the good part! MJ is much prettier once it starts to flower.

This plant is going to fill up the light's footprint nicely at full flower, so I'm glad I didn't veg longer.




The HPS plant had a 1000w to itself for a week with good results.




HPS left, LED right.


HPS left, LED right. Note the difference in flower size.

I see a little nute burn on the hps plant but my eyes hurt looking at those. I hate to ask but can we get a pic with normal lighting?

Is it just me or is the HPS plant bushier with more, larger, flowers?

More pics?! I'm deleting all of my posts like Zonk. jk!

Yes the HPS plant is much fuller, has a deeper canopy, and much faster flower production. All of the things that we really expected from the 1000w.

I think I see what you're identifying as nute burn in the pics. It appears to be an optical illusion from the camera, but good eye! It's hard to tell under those yellow lights... lmk if you still see it here.

LED


LED flower


HPS - the Cascade Goo plant in the background has a cal/mag deficiency I think. Some strains get it in my system, others don't.


HPS flower

That'll teach me to help people...and ask for pictures. How dare I!

I don't see it in the new pictures, in the last post it was the bottom picture on the far left hand side, at about 8 o'clock, just to the left of a flower. If that's an optical illusion it's a good one.

Week 4

The LED plant is falling more behind every week now. Both flower and resin production appear to be drastically slower than the HPS plant.

LED


LED flower


HPS


HPS flower



Project X

I think I'll push my luck and request a picture of your root mass from your DWC (in normal lighting please) whenever you're doing your next update of course. Don't go out of your way.

Is there a reason that you use DWC and not RDWC or even a controller bucket? What are your water temps like after the lights have been on for 12 hours? How often are you having to fill your buckets?

I know it's mean, I not only ask for pictures but I even asked QUESTIONS! Who do I think I am? Oh the humanity!

I'll make my gf help me take rootball pics soon. She'll love that.

I like using single buckets for a few reasons. They make it pretty easy to move and rotate plants around for water changes, training, inspection, etc. They also isolate each plant so that if any problems arise in one reservoir, they don't spread to the rest of the garden through the substrate. I can also easily wash the buckets out every time I change the reservoir, which reduces the possibility of pathogens gaining a foothold. Additionally, there are no water pumps to fail or leaks to spring, and the complexity and cost of the system is greatly reduced.

As for water temps, I've never really measured! I had a hell of a time with root slime before I started using beneficial bacteria tea. Now I just keep a bucket of tea bubbling, and I pour about 12oz of it through the root zone of every plant after a bucket change. Haven't had a problem since I started this regime, with ambient room temps all the way up to 95 degrees. Higher than that, I've had roots turn into stew.

I keep a large separate reservoir stocked with nutrient solution. That way I can refill buckets as necessary, tossing the old water (drain to waste) and refilling with perfectly balanced nutrient solution. No rebalancing the nutrient solution, no introduction of pathogens from the plants back into the main reservoir. The down side is that a 10-12oz plant will require a bucket change every day, and a 22oz plant will require changes at least twice a day plus increased monitoring (I'm looking at you, Sour Kush).

With all of that said, I'm considering an upgrade to a DIY RDWC setup. If "Project X" works out I won't have to move plants around as much for training, so fixed positions won't be as tough to deal with. I also haven't had many (any?) issues with pathogens since I started using the bennie tea, so I'm getting ready to risk letting go of the isolation and washability that the buckets give me.

The giantess at week 7 - Sour Kush


Sour Kush at harvest - reservoir in background, you can see the fill hose at the bottom

When I started hydroponics I first tried ebb/flow but I quickly switched to DWC after a couple of years. Then I upgraded and added a controller bucket before finally switching to RDWC. My next system will be a hybrid RDWC system....I hope.

Mycorrhizae certainly helps as does lower temps. A simple controller bucket will at least make for fewer refills but a RDWC is even better. You can still move buckets, just use a flexible black 3/4" hose with quick disconnects and one or more shut-off valves. Alternatively you can simply lift the plants out of one bucket if you need to move it around. Clean-outs are only slightly more work and, yes, you would need a pump and maybe even a chiller if the mycorrhizae can't keep up.

Instead of pouring all of your old nutrients down a drain they can be used (diluted) for your lawn, houseplants, trees or even an outside vegetable garden. YMMV...

SCROG is just too much work, for me, but it would clearly eliminate the need to rotate plants, etc. I look forward to seeing how your experiment works though.