First run at SOG...

[fred-g-sanford]

Hi All,

I used to surf the old CW and OG boards and soak up as much information as possible. After reading for months and months, it seems to me that Ebb/Flow SOG seems like the method for me. Besides peparing clones, it seems pretty straight forward and very rewarding in weight/time management.

I am so glad to have found this site, as it is great to see familar names of folks who's posts I followed in the past (Lucas, GG, etc...). Plus, it seems most are focused on helping others instead of the bitch session most of the other boards have become.

OK on to my plan of attack:

First run (though I grew two different times DWC last year, it was a success for what little time I invested)

- 22"x22", crammed with (15) 5.25 Kord pots, using Hydroton
- 20 gal. Res. with power head keeping everything nice and mixed up + DO
- Flooded for 2 mins, every 2 hrs lights on. Need suggestions on night times
- 400w HPS in CoolTube bathing my girls in approx. 100 watts/sq foot
- 6" Vortex pulling thru Can50 and pushing thru light and exiting HomeBox
- All inside HomeBox XL (4x4x7)
- FNB using newly read GG method of splitting nutes between weeks of bloom
- I will start with a plan of 8 weeks and learn from the strain's first run
- Humic acid and Silica Blast
- RO Water
- Bagseed that is confirmed female, looks to be mostly Indicia

How does this sound to everyone so far?

I blew a mother up and took many clones to choose from. Bubble cloned using homemade cloner. Piece of cake so far.

I took cuts that had more than one tip and leaves. They are fully rooted and most are about 6" tall.
Should I have taken micro mini single tipped pieces and vegged them to 5-6" tall? I have a 10 lamp 4' T8 Daylight tube setup for vegging if needed.

What do you suggest for night irrigation?

[fred-g-sanford]

[quote=GrowGreen]Hey Fred, loved the show...

Don

[Jake Blues]

you might think about the flood times.i`m not the best to say this but,i set my timers for 10 mins of flood after the water has got to drain level.i still do it on 2 hours.it just seems 2 mins is a little lacking.if your starting from seed i have found that only 3 feed cycles a day till they get the roots going,makes a happier
plant.
i would setup some kind of backup for top off.my setup is similar and the top is 2-3 gals every 2 days when flowering.there are some varibles to how much your top off will be,you`ll just have to see what it does.
watch that hyrotron if it`s not clean it give some trouble.

peace jake

[fred-g-sanford]

Thanks for the response Jake. From what I understand, one only really needs to run the water pump until it reaches your desired level and then it is safe to shut the pump down. Besides, it takes longer to drain, at least in my setup.

Are you using a float valve or a float switch setup? I am afraid to use a valve as it would "enable" everytime I flood the tray, thus topping the res. everytime I flood and eventually overfilling the res. With the Float Switch scenario's I found, there are two switches. One to activate the entry of more water, and then one to stop the flow after it reaches the point of the res. being full.

Thanks for the Hydroton advice. I ran a water hose thru the bag for 30+ mins a few different times. So, hopefully it is clean enough. If not, live and learn....

its best to dump the hydroton into a tub fill with water and then scoop it out with a strainer or your hands. youll see a bunch of crap in the bottom that would otherwise clog your pump.

[fred-g-sanford]

joe6pack, thanks I will try that next time. Too late now

Old Toby, agreed. Your comments make perfect sense. My current settings seem to work with my pump/tray combo as it only takes a minute to fill the entire tray to the desired level, so I figure 2-3 minutes should be more than enough.

The plants are responding to the couple day veg period and seem to be at home in there new environment. I just setup the timer for 12/12 and disabled waterings during the dark period. Let the fun begin...

Anyone try small lava rocks vs hydroton? I can get the lava very cheap at Wal-Mart and it would save me trips to the Hydro shop in the future.

[Carpet Muncher]

first of all, with that setup i'm calling you MiniGG.. MiniMe to you GG. lol jfwy!

Quote:

Originally Posted by fred-g-sanford

I am afraid to use a valve as it would "enable" everytime I flood the tray, thus topping the res. everytime I flood and eventually overfilling the res.

i've thought about that too but never asked. here's what i'm figuring though, if you use the smaller valve, 1/8th inch, the flow rate is slow enough that i think the amount obsorbed by the medium will exceed the amount able to flow in during 'low tide'.

the other thing you can do is cheat by bending the float the appropriate amount below the water line. (to be determine by trial an error.) the arm is designed to bend, so it won't hurt anything.

just make sure you attach it above the water line.

[fred-g-sanford]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carpet Muncher

first of all, with that setup i'm calling you MiniGG.. MiniMe to you GG. lol jfwy!

i've thought about that too but never asked. here's what i'm figuring though, if you use the smaller valve, 1/8th inch, the flow rate is slow enough that i think the amount obsorbed by the medium will exceed the amount able to flow in during 'low tide'.

the other thing you can do is cheat by bending the float the appropriate amount below the water line. (to be determine by trial an error.) the arm is designed to bend, so it won't hurt anything.

just make sure you attach it above the water line.

Yeah I hope to get half (mini) as good of an outcome as what I saw GG do on the old boards!

Funny you should mention those ideas. I was thinking along the same lines. I will mess around with the bent float idea tomorrow and see what I can come up with. I asked about this at the Hydro shop, but they looked at me like I was crazy; thankfully there is the community. I may have enough time to try the 1/8 hose as well. I guess if I test how much water is topped during the complete flood/drain cycle, I can estimate the amount of RO added to the res. each day. I like the bent float valve idea best though

[Carpet Muncher]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fred-g-sanford

Yeah I hope to get half (mini) as good of an outcome as what I saw GG do on the old boards!

you and me both, brother.

to clarify about the 1/8" tubing.. around here float valves come in 2 sizes. 1/8" and bigger.. around 3/8, but i'm not sure.

thought.. a bigger pump/faster fill might do the trick?

how much is missing from your res after a f/d cycle? i wonder how much it varies thoughout the 60 days?

what are you going to top off with.. water or 33%?

lava rock would work fine, (i've never worked with hydroton) but you'll probably have to spend more time removing the roots to reuse it.


GG.. he's using clones.

[fred-g-sanford]

My shop has two types of float, gravity and pressure. Pressure is 1/4" and Gravity is 1/2" or 5/8" I can't remember. I don't have time to play around with the system today or tomorrow My table currently fills for 3 mins. and drains in about 1.5 mins. I can back the fill time down to a min. if needed though. I don't know how much is retained in the rocks after a flood yet, I haven't tested it. See, my table sits on my res currently, so it isn't the most user friendly. I need to get a table stand built asap while the girls are still little. I'm using clones as well, mine are from a bagseed mother I grew. Last night was the first 12 hr dark period for them and they look to have flipped their internal switch, as they are about an 1" taller already. I will use RO for top-offs. I am trying to follow GG's new routine or splitting nutes between weeks of bloom and adding that amount each week. For instance FNB calls for 8ml/gal @ 20gal res. = 160ml total. 160ml / 8 (guess) weeks = 20 ml of nutes added per week. I trust in GG's work and methods, so we'll see if this works for me. If not then I may dump res. and switch to the more conventional Lucas formula of 33% with addbacks at 33%, metering TDS along the way. I am going to try and get a digital camera this weekend to post a few pics. More to come...

[chodo]

Put a ball valve inline with the float valve and cut flow way down that way even if it runs for 15 minutes it is not a big deal... this way it still can fill ALL day for what it is using up. SOG though doesn't use as much water as other systems... its the most efficient thing I've done.

[tumbleweed420]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fred-g-sanford

Hi All,

I used to surf the old CW and OG boards and soak up as much information as possible. After reading for months and months, it seems to me that Ebb/Flow SOG seems like the method for me. Besides peparing clones, it seems pretty straight forward and very rewarding in weight/time management.

I am so glad to have found this site, as it is great to see familar names of folks who's posts I followed in the past (Lucas, GG, etc...). Plus, it seems most are focused on helping others instead of the bitch session most of the other boards have become.

OK on to my plan of attack:

First run (though I grew two different times DWC last year, it was a success for what little time I invested)

- 22"x22", crammed with (15) 5.25 Kord pots, using Hydroton
- 20 gal. Res. with power head keeping everything nice and mixed up + DO
- Flooded for 2 mins, every 2 hrs lights on. Need suggestions on night times
- 400w HPS in CoolTube bathing my girls in approx. 100 watts/sq foot
- 6" Vortex pulling thru Can50 and pushing thru light and exiting HomeBox
- All inside HomeBox XL (4x4x7)
- FNB using newly read GG method of splitting nutes between weeks of bloom
- I will start with a plan of 8 weeks and learn from the strain's first run
- Humic acid and Silica Blast
- RO Water
- Bagseed that is confirmed female, looks to be mostly Indicia

How does this sound to everyone so far?

I blew a mother up and took many clones to choose from. Bubble cloned using homemade cloner. Piece of cake so far.

I took cuts that had more than one tip and leaves. They are fully rooted and most are about 6" tall.
Should I have taken micro mini single tipped pieces and vegged them to 5-6" tall? I have a 10 lamp 4' T8 Daylight tube setup for vegging if needed.

What do you suggest for night irrigation?

forgive me, what does sog mean? and scrog mean.

[tumbleweed420]

what is sea of green mean? sog and also,scrog mean?forgive my ignorance....

[Green Supreme]

Both are methods for creating a levels canopy. Sea of green uses lots of similar height plants. Scrog uses fewer plants but ties the branches down at an equal height. Sorta thing. Peace GS

[DrScrog]

Heres a few pics of both metohods )