So my job exposes me to lots of folks who normally tend to have alot of stuff they don't need or don't want... Whilst doing a job for a cilent I happened apon this:

This person had All of GH's 3 part nutes and probably one of the oldest TDS meters I've seen I was considering hooking up a couple of solar pannels to it and setting it up outside.. I aint got got no room in my grow for this... I read an article where somone did this on a smaller scale, but it was a DWC type setup and the pump was smaller..

BTW I wouldn't be growin canna init as it would be OUTSIDE.. but should it prove itself I could always make it fit in the room...

r u in a conservatory there, rig it up with some little cuttings and let it run, c wot happens

That's where I found it, it's not at my place... plus the room its in is in an unoccupied house, and it would appear that if someone were to start a grow there they would have to give the place a proper scrubbing.. plus the folks who own the house stop in every few weeks to check on it (the house, not the hydro kit ) I got the impression that the owner filled it up with perlite and never used it.. The GH nutes weren't even opened... The person also had a bunch of manual hydro pots lying around...

OK it looks like I might get the green flag to go over there and pick that unit up.. I did plug it in the other day just to see if the pump worked and its all good.. I re-read the article about solar powering a hydro pump.. It seems do-able... What should I grow.. I already got a food plot in my backyard.. Do they have supermodel seeds?
I'm guessing I'll end up with more veggies of some sort.. But as I said earlier if this thing works then a canna/solar hydro/outdoor grow maybe in my future My gawd what have ya'll done to my fragile little mind...

go for it, let us know what your gonna put in it

Pick'n it up this Saturday... Whats the shelf life of unopened nutes?... I would suspect that these have been sitting around since the late eighties...

mkay this badboy to be is at my house and it's time to go shoppn... I plan on hitting a few places today to get a solar powered fountain pump to replace the exhisting one... I don't think I'll get away with cutting the power line and wiring it up to a small solar pannel, just don't think it'll workout well.. So I figured it would be better to get a pump designed to run off a solar pannel vs. the original idea... I'll start upping pics as progress grows on!!!!!

That's a cool find - a little bit of home hydro history..

¿Does anyone know what these are called, or anything at all about them?

I dunno a thing about it other than I originally thought it was a sit-and-spin (childhood toy great for inducing vomiting) when I first saw it


E2A: I'll give it a good look over when I clean it out and see if i can find a name or something on it..

Well I went through it and all over it and couldn't find anything like a manufactureer or anything.. I did find an old pamplet , and manual for a hydro farm kit in all this stuff but it's deffinately not a hydro farm, or atleast not the one for the manual I got...

On antoher note: I was gonna set this thing up with just hydroton in the planter pods and dump all the perlite in there leaving nothing... What are yalls thoughts.. Should I pack it up with perlite again, or will I be OK with just the hydroton ? Remeber its not life or death cause it aint canna... well this time round...

Still no dice on a solar powered pump.... YET!!!! I will find one locally...

Found a pump, but its gonna be a pain in ther arse to get it... I may end up leaving it plugged in for the time being for the sake of gettn it going while the weathers good... Gonna germ steak tomatoes and some bell pepers for it... maybe next year before I can get it solar powered will see the pump isn't that pricey, it's just gonna be a haul to go buy it, and they don't ship!!! FFS who in their right mind runs a business and doesn't ship!!! rant over... back to work...

ta heck with it I'm gonna get a pump online... Was kinda hopn to save a buck locally since it's not for canna, but I'd be better off to get a proper solar pump than to half-arse my way into it.. that way I can't chalk a bad run upto improper gear... I'd probably give up on it if that were the case... so I'll pull the trigger on a decent solar pump, that comes with ni-cad batts for cloudy days and works into the dark hours... ya'll know i'm gonna end up trying a run with canna on this eventually...

You could probably build a solar-powered pump from available bits quite easily, I would have thought - the pump itself, solar panels, batteries (Li-Ion batteries would be better than NiCds, and they're quite cheap now - or maybe even a Lead Acid car/truck battery :yep) and inverter would be the bulk of the parts you would need, I reckon.

Scribbs you have too much faith in my mechanical ability... I did look into that end of it and am afraid I'll end up having a whole chitload of pannels tied into something that will be stuck in one spot... If I decide to grow canna in it I wanna be able to move it around without messing up any of its components...My DIY jobs normally are fine unless I have to move them and then I find myself back at the hardware store reupping... It's just a trend that I've noticed with MY DIY jobs

So I'm having trouble with the vendor getting the pump... apparently I set off a red flag with them when I used the word hydroponic!!! I would up the emails and bitch about the auction site, but it won't get me anywhere with this but I will say I feel this person has decided to call my payment a deposite that was forfited based on what they pressume my intended purpose was for it... So they have decided to refuse my business and retain my so called "deposite" based on me asking quite simply," Can I use this pump to power a hydroponic water garden?" anyway short story long they have threatend to hand my info over ...blah... blah... blah... cha. cha. cah.. if i continue to pursue this issue any further... well i'm not gonna sit on my fuggn hands and have money extorted from me because I wanna grow tomatoes in this... not even 55 bucks.... so I'm sending an attourney up his ass but the cost on that well fuck it... it's the principal of it all... I may be plugging this thing in now because I'm wasting my money on attourneys AGAIN!!!

That is unbelievable Podgy. Surely they cant do that?
Daylight robbery in my book. All this grief over something you found - tough luck mate.
Go get 'em .

Shrimper

It's a pretty low blow in my book, and if I can give this person some grief over it maybe they'll think twice about trying to grab a person by the short-&-curlies just for the sake of 55 bucks... I did talk with te attourney today about it, he said he's issued certified letters and filed a notice in the state the guy has his business setup in.. So whatevers gonna happen with it is already in-the-wind...

Now back to the toy... I'm gonna have to plug it in at this point but next year maybe it'll be refitted, or I may start on regular power and jump over to solar by late august... For now my budget has gotten a bit tight b/c of all the I'm gonna go look at some more seeds today I have a pack of tomatoes, but all ready got one on the grow, as well as red bell pepper, and some sweet peppers, and corn, and beans and peas oh my...I have to get some more perlite and several of those plastic hydro cup thingys... then I'm ready for take off.. I'll go ahead and get the seeds (whatever they end up being) on the go in peat pods, and hopefully by early next week will be off to the races..

Been getting cussed out on the phone by the guy this morning... I'm doing nothing but laghing at him.. BTW I'm gettn my money back ...

will get this old girl set up and on the grow here shortly... I was supposed to buy some seed for it yesterday, but I ended up dealing with the solar pump issue til this morning...

You said hydroponic and he said hes keeping your deposit? Very strange.

Well, I guess the age of litigation is alive and well in the good ole US.

¿How can he possibly cuss you out, and what the hell has he had to say for himself, anyway?

Am most curious what a jerk like that is blaating on about.

Anything he could to keep the topic off him ripping me off... It was a "shake down" plain and simple the guy redefined the nature of my payment after completing a tansaction by refering to my payment as the "deposite"... The guy figured I was growing dope and thought he could sucker punch me... Little did he know that half the time I go the the hydro shop to buy gear its with the attourney that wrote him the letter and filed the notices with his local court... Don't go messin with a country boy


OK I did get the seeds on the go... Got a tomatoe plant, a jalapeno, Okra (which I'm told will be a mistake as one seed only puts out three okra!!) a sweet pepper plant, and well I said I wasn't gonna grow canna init, but after all the trouble with the pump I might as well.. I would only grow one in there, and I'm still not sure if I will but like I said after the four days of crap I figure why the heck not..

OK I've been reading in the forums, and if I swing it right the one canna plant might be a grafted plant I was thinking I wanted to do two plants and hide them behind the rest of the stuff in the hydro kit but I got stuck on which one's I would put in there... If I can get a couple of clones to take to a graft I might be able to have three plants in one slot... It will all depend on the time left for the summer months.. By next week this thing should be operational and waiting for a canna plant...

- Interesting stuff, Podgy - s'always nice to see someone doing something different. ¿Keep us posted on what'a'g'wan, won't you?

Top result there. There's too many peeps who try to take advantage if they think you can't have a comeback as you might get arrested.

Look forward to seeing some fat old jalapeno's growing in there

Thx for stopn by scribbs and Jim jim... The grafting idea came from another thread that I was reading up on here (UK420 ACCEPT NO SUBSTITUTES !!!)... But I think it would be intresting to flower one out and see what happens..The only thing thats holding me up is harvest in my room, and I don't know time-wise if its gonna be a do-able thing for the outside... I have a hardened off clone I was gonna take to my outdoor spot, but I think I may hold on to it and use it for the "root stick" ,but will see a better option may present itself... I will be doing a grafting experiment regardless of time for out door budding.... Laters

Been reading up on grafting and there's no way it will take in time to drop in this unit (8 weeks atleast), so it'll be an ongoing experiment in my diary and we'll see If I can get it to go, maybe next year... I'm still sneaking a canna plant in this thing though Think I may end up doing the one that has the most sativa expressed in it... Not big nuggz, but one helluva crack plant...

Since I am gonna grow a canna plant in this thing I figure I may as well go ahead and reup on nutes for the system... I wanted to play around with some organic stuff this time so will see what I come up with It will more than likely come from the G.H. organic line.. The 3-part I've been using from them fro the past 9 months has been excelent and I would suspect the same of their other stuff...holler out if any one thinks otherwise!!!

The veggie seeds have popped so its looking like early next week this unit will be in operation!!! Finally... I'm gonna set it up in my backyard at the base of the chemney.. The canna plant will be in the back with the other plants hopefully providing it some cover.. My backyard is pretty much private withe a wall of 20 yr old cyprusses going down the prpoperty lines of my neghbors so the sides are covered...

The backyard is wide open to a greenbelt which is over 200ft away from the hydro unit so to spot canna from 200' ft away throught a hopefully well developed veggie garden should be pretty hard to do with the naked eye (A huge sweetgum tree will help to obscure the view too, don't worry there's still plenty of direct sunlight in the spot)... The only concearn now is odor, but with the plant I wanna use it shouldn't be a problem...

Laters

Next post should have photos of setup and things should be getting intresting

Getting supplies has been harder to do than I would prefer, but I'm still waiting for some of the seeds to pop too here are the plants..Also I got all the gear for setting up just waitn on the sprouts to get grown... and I bought a few tomatoe plants to make sure I had some extra to cover anything that didn't take... I'm gonna have to build a cage around this thing for the tomatoes.. and I'm still kinda trying to make sure a bunch of top heavy plants won't interfere with resi changes..sorry crap pic but we aint lookn at canna..

Gonna get to scrubbn on this tub this weekend and get her filled up with fresh perlite and set her in motion... I was gonna put an air pump in the main resi but figured if ther other pump is constantly recirculating it won't be necessary... Doesn't look like there are gonna be any probs with resi changes either, but I suspect some weather proofing will be in order I think I got that covered so to speak... I will give the old nutes a go but I'm not expecting them to do anything and will have fresh nutes in the wind shortly... Damn economic stimulus check where the fugg are you I got canna supplies to buy seeds to order and a subby to get.... How's that for stimulating the economy G-dub you fugger !!!!

beans have poped and I got the "water garden" out side now... "water garden" is the generic term I've decided to use around any one that asks about it as I've had a bit of bad luck calling it a hydrophonic setup... But I'll be adding the nutes THIS week, and some of the plants.. I had considered germing a sourbubble jack x here seed but I think I'd be rolling the dice this far into the season, and not knowing the sex to boot, I'm gonna have to crank out a clone... Regardless there will be a canna plant init, even if the timing is off I should be able to get something out of it...

Bout F'n time huh?

So finally got some plants in her... Her are three "big boy" tomatoe sprouts should be intresting to watch as I've got three others planted in mud too Currently I'm running the resivoir at 0.7 ec and the P.H. is 5.9 I gonna be sticking to canna rules and numbers here so unless anyone here thinks it should be different.... Lemme know I plan to up the ec in a few weeks after everything gets settled in...

Better pic of it... Checked up on everything last night E.C. @ 0.7 and P.H. was @ 6.0 I suspect the change came from rain water.. we had a bit of rian and I haven't really done anything to weatherproof the unit... I had suspected this would be an issue, but feel pretty good about the ideas I've got for stopping the water from getting in and diluting the resivoir... And yes the ideas are better than the trash bag and a bunch of sticks to hold it down... Now if I add a little duct tape to it, it'll be a finished product...(redneckgenuity) But yes more than likely I'll use some form of tape and plastic over the plant pods and the seams on the unit are the trickier part... Weatherstriping tape would be perfect short of it being a great place for nasty stuff to fester... I'll get it figured out eventually, but it will probably be more tape and plastic.. Laters for now..

Nother pic of three 'mater plants... I've been brainstorming on the weather proofing and will be working on it tonight.. Gonna do the duct tape and plastic idea Box off each planteer site too Not trying to make it air tight of course, but rather trying to keep out the outside elements... In about the next three weeks I'll be heading to my hydro shop to re-up on gear for my room.. when I'm there I'm gonna deal directly with them for a solar powered pump... So we may not get a full season solar powered but we may get a bit of a solar powered show just yet... By then the other sprouts should be more than ready to get into this, and I may even have a clone ready for it!!!

Had a sprout tragedy, the cloner box in my grow room was too hot for them and they got cooked... I'm gonna soak some bean plant seeds and getem popped and in there, they pop quick and get settled fast shoulda done them from the start .. Should have her filled out with one open spot for the canna by the middle of next week...

PH...has been going through the floor @ 3.5 last night, I may have to swap out the resi and get a leg up on weather proofing... was adjusted and at 5.8 at last test, but It will undoubtedly be through the floor again by tonight...

E.C. @ 0.9

Outside Air Temps Highs of 89F - Lows in the upper sixties...

Rh outside not sure but in my area this time of year it normally gets into the 60-90%

Anyways ya'll hang in there this will hopefully work out .....

Beans are popping and I managed to save a sprout from the tray I cooked, so I think I got this thing filled up now, but I have noticed some problems with the water temps, and am wondering If I'm heading for trouble... Everytime I check the water my pen dislays the temp @ 29.something C EC is at 1.4, and PH 6.0 The tomatoes look great short of wanting more light... I'll be on that shortly... Gotta rigg up my climbing gear and get into the trees with a chainsaw... (sounds like fun, but it isn't especially as you get older... Always wonder if its my turn to win a darwin award when I get up into the tress like this ) I'll be doing alot of work on her the next few weeks, and hopefully will have a solar pump in it in the next two weeks... Going to my hydro shop for it this time around

Got pounded last night by rain and hail ... It took its toll on everything I got outside roses food plot!!!can't wait to see my clones that are out ... the plants are alive just sideways, I lost the additional sprout I put in, or it looks like its a gonner, but this morning I dropped a corn sprout, Black bean sprout, and green bean sprout... the water resi has been solid for me p.h. 5.9 and the E.C. is still holding at 1.4 haven't made any adjustments in several days.. I have been considering a few ideas for cooling of the resivoir, and even if I do it passivley (meaning no elctricity) I think I can shave 5 degress celcius of that 29C I get at each check..

They coming on strong... I'll be away for a few though and my roommate is gonna try and look after all my room and this for me... Dunno how long it will be, but I won't be away permantly!!! here's a pic of'em as of yesterday...When I get back I will get on to solar powering this thing up...

Hey podgy.. Growing fast mate!

Looking a lot better than my outdoor tomatoes anyway!
And mine are at least twice as old...

Hope all stays well while your away dude.. I'm sure your mate will keep things sound!

All the best.. Stonehenge

your ecogrower is working out fine m8, have you got the solar stuff sorted yet

S.H. thanks vato

Leroy:
Not yet, I'm planning on it when I get back from my trip... I still haven't gotten a check that my government is sending out to home owners, and on principle I was gonna spend it all on gear for my room, and this setup, and give a donation to "mother U.K."

I do have some empty spots in the unit, and instead of having plastic over it I decide to just put pebbles in there, figured the unit could breathe better that way, also the higher water temps don't seem to be as troublesome vs, these things being in DWC I suspect the water loses some heat as it filters through the perlite to the roots.. oh and E.C. 1.4 and P.H. 6.0

I'm gonna drop a planter cage around her today and hope that while I'm away everything will be OK... My roommate is gonna look after things for me while I'm gone, so bear with me this project is in abit of a holding pattern... along with my room

Been away for a few, but all is well with the unit, and I WILL be MOVING forward on the solar pump... so stay tuned peeps...

Here's a pic of her in a cage She hasn't been getting the attention she deserves and with all the crap goin on in my world now she be getting my undivided attention for most of the summer...

So I lied the water garden didn't get my undivide attention sorry this summers been sort of a wash with this thing but I did snap a pic of it... With everything else going to shit in my world I couldn't move forward on converting this to solar power... Had to spend alot of money on probation crap and treatment classe not to mention the renovation of the growroom... So no I didn't get this done and UK420 I appologize, but I had to keep my eye on the prize and that's my growroom... but next summer LOOK out and I won't post anymore about til I get some converson pics up on here I promise, that might begin around x-mas time.... Based on the results I got off the tomatoe test I'd say this thing could be real promising with a go at cannabis...

Cool - I'll bet you could grow quite a few pretty monstrous plants in that thing if you set it up just right - I remember as a total n00b my first DWC that had 8 holes in the bucket lid with 8 really small net pots in it - ¡I ended up over-vegging the plants (all 8 of them) and they grew into 6 foot monsters with stems like a baby's arm! Looked dead funny, these huge mutant weed plants emanating from these 8 tiny net pots with rockwool and hydroton pebbles in them.

It was a bitch to change the nute solution and to move around, though - I remember that all too well...

Sounds a little like the DWC tubs I was messing with in my last grow got to the point I was scared to open the lids as I was worried I'd snap a stem... which happened once or twice