Okay, apologies if this has appeared before. I work odd shifts, so I need a system that allows me to be away from it for three, maybe four days at a time. I looked at the Wilma system, but I'm worried that it places plants too close together. I'm pretty much settled on a coco system, after many years of soil in Bio. My biggest restriction is height, I have six foot in the loft from floor to bulb, so height is a real factor. I need a system that will allow automatic watering. I'm up for any amount of DIY,and I'm very keen on a bubbler sysem, but may not be able to afford it.

So, in a six foot long by three foot wide by six foot high space, what system would be best for me.

Best answer wins my eternal gratitude!

Well you might wanna think about training them girlies. Do a search on training and yil come up trumps

If you're an organic grower then why not stick with your compost and set-up a dripper system to feed the plants while you're away. That's got to be method that will give you the most headroom.

Do you want to go hydro this time?

organic would be your best bet , if you use 20liter square pots you could get 4 pots under 1 light..
maybe you could go for 3 lights in that space but good air-extraction will be needed !
these big pots would give you 3-4 days easily on a mature 4ft plant.....
Im an officer in the Army and Im away up to 5 days sometimes (Monday-Friday),water them Monday
morning (5:45am) before "lights off" and they get watered again Friday afternoon (6:10pm)

[attachmentid=120305]If you are worried about height restrictions just bend the tops down but dont wait until they reach the light, do it a day or two before switching lights to 12/12

Thanks for the replies guys, food for thought. I really want try a coco grow this time round, cos I don't want the hassle of mixing soil and carting it up into the loft etc. I also thought of the Wilma system, because even if I used a dripper system, I'd be worried about the timer packing in while I was away and flooding the loft and coming through the ceiling, so the idea of some kind of recirculating system appeals. I suppose if I set up a dripper system, with the pots in tray of some kind, and kept an eye on them so I knew exactly how long to set the timer for so they got just enough watering each time not to fill up the tray that might work. The problem with a pre built system like the Wilma is the height it adds to the grow overall. I'll give it some more thought.

Nft sounds the way to go then mate

Very good on height and a recirc system



Cos its a bad idea mate as you need to use the wet dry cycle for one and not all plants need watering at the same time plus organic feeds will block drippers in an instant

Plus you should feed organic food as soon as its mixed and not really store it mixed at all

Owd

Good luck with your grow Baba mate

If your planning on using a recirculating system i recently had great success by rigging up an external back res to automatically top up the plants res by using a toilet float valve...

they were left for 2 and a half weeks aside from a visit from a friend who came to check the house hadnt burned down... ended up coming back to a friggin jungle

basically the idea is, as the plants drink from the main resevior the water level lowers, as does the float on the valve which then opens and tops up the res with fresh nutes from the "back up res".

maybe this is completly useless to you, but it helped me loads

I reckon Owderbs on the money. I've just been checking out the Gro Tank NFT systems in the UK420 shop, and they could be just what I'm looking for. Thanks for all the replies.

I cant believe anyone would do loft gro wivout putting down pond liner first or similar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Me neither, I always do, but their not infallible, and rips and punctures do happen. Also, if you have enough water in your rez and the timer fails then it could overflow the liner.

One of nutricultures nft tanks, as said, prob the best bet.

Maybe try rockwool slabs in a wilma, as i'm gonna next time, will reduce the height issue, tho not as much as nft would. Just been looking into this as I have a wilma and have height issues are a problem. Put a post up a while ago about this and there are groweres out there doin this with good results, so give it a try!!!!!

If not, think the gt100 (or something like that) is the top seller in nft (1mx1m)