Need some help with my first design

[Tree Man MI]

Hello Everyone,

I want to start out with the details of my planned medical grow. I am in Michigan so I can have 12 plants to myself. This is the reason I'm having so much trouble with my initial plan to do RDWC. I've been growing on and off for over a decade with soil/outdoor guerrilla grows, but never hydro. I recently purchased my first home and have a little extra room in the basement that has a crappy stand up shower that needed to be taken out...as soon as I saw it my brain started bubbling (no pun intended). Who could ask for a better hydro setup?? A drain and water supply right in your room!

I want to run a perpetual harvest, therefore I came up with this idea: three plants in clone stage, three in veg, two sets of three in different flower stages. And since I'm limited by number of plants I want to get the greatest yield per plant. I've done a ton, and I'm talking like at least 80hrs, of research on hydro growing and after seeing results of RDWC, I made up my mind. I was going to do it. And naturally as my life goes, I'm going to DIY because those student loan companies pretty much take all of my money ...

The issue I'm running into is of course the separation of growing phases will require me to have three separate rdwc systems, each with its own water pump. Do the math and the $$$$ start adding up. Then after reading about problems with root clogging the return lines, leaking uniseals/bulkheads, and overflow issues with the RDWC I'm starting to back peddle towards something more simple.

I'm thinking of doing just flood tables now in order to reduce initial costs, but I don't know how the yield will stack up compared to RDWC. Regular single bucket DWC was considered, but I don't know about keeping my buckets cool enough without that water chiller or recirculating into a controller bucket.


So I guess my real question is WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?? I love the videos/pics I've seen of the insane bushes
In the rdwc so I haven't given up on it yet. I would like to know if I can get away with three smaller systems with small mag drive pumps and still keep costs/conditions under control. Or maybe do single buckets for the veg. Room and only RDWC in flower. And what's the real truth about uniseals vs. Bulkheads for piping the system? Can I go smaller than 2" PVC and use flexible hose instead without too many root clog issues?

Thanks in advance for any help. This site is a great resource.

[Special Branch]

10 plant rule on here m8, good luck with it tho

[galt]

Considering a relo to Oregon, so same plant number issues you have. In Oregon, 6 adult plants allowed, but you can aggregate 4 patients to get to 24. My plan is similar 4 stages. Seedlings/early veg, Late Veg, Early Flower, Late Flower on 4 week spacing. 4 months from planting to harvest (more or less). Each group has its own system to manage nutrients at different stages properly.

I am settling right now on a scrog, possibly using modified waterfarms. In the UK, they mave bigger ones called Aquafarms. Take a look at Grandad's diary "20 ounces". I plan to hook the waterfarms together (they sell a kit), and you end up with some of the advantages of RDWC without the need to balance flows so carefully. The kit looks like it will make nutrient management much easier. With the larger "inner buckets" of rocks, it looks possible to move plants until they go into the scrog at about 4 weeks. I also plan to stagger each crop, so will do smaller harvests every two weeks. I may do it via planting an 8 and 10 week strain together. I still need to think thru how to do the flush & finishing nutes in a mixed system.

I am also looking at modular scrogs for more flexibility and ease of managing them.

Lots to consider, and your state laws present timing challenges no one else has to think about.

[Phaeton]

Just on the logistics side.
I have a five plant perpetual, as in five plants in the budroom at a time with a plant coming out every two weeks.

The total plants equals nine at any given time.
Two clones (2 weeks apart), one transition clone to veg, one aggressive veg, and five in the budroom. Every two weeks a new clone is taken and all the plants get moved up a position with a harvest plant coming out of the budroom.
Three separate rooms and a year of trial and error to get all the lighting and timing details correct.
This is hempy buckets but still get a kilogram per month average yield. A high tech setup should beat that fairly easily.