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Well I've been planing to set up a batch of leaf lettuce for a few weeks and last night I finally took the first step. I phed my rockwool cubes and started a few seeds.

For the first run or 2 I'm planning on using a little tote and putting 3 small net pots in it. Just a simple little DWC. The next thing I plan on setting up is a Ebb and Flow system. I had a pump, reservoir, tray, and some rockwool cubes given to me. So I just have to figure out how to get that all set up and get some money for it but, I figured I'd share my plan with you guys see if anyone has any input.
I'll get some pictures up soon enough.

Excellent! Enjoy the batch and keep notes. They really helped my learning curve.

Did you make the DWC's yourself? How about lighting?

Best of success!

Yes, I made the DWC out of a small tote with holes on the lid for the net pots.
As for the lights I'll just be using a Walmart grow light till I can afford a HO T5.
They are already cracked open and have little roots coming out I'm so excited to see them already going so fast. The package said 3-7 days before sprouts appear.

Excellent. Cheap and productive is the way to go!!!!

Save your money on those grow lights. You can just get a 2' or 4' shop light and put in the 6500k bulbs for vegetative growth. When it comes time to flower I will switch out half the bulbs for the 3000k ish bulbs to give them a little more red light. I grew two cherry tomato plants, two black zebra tomato plants and a black cherry tomato plant with those shop lights. They did quite well.

Well I got one given to me. lol So I'm not going to complain.


This is the set up I have for my rockwool cubes to germinate and sprout until I can get them in the DWC. The water is ph'ed to 5.7 and has 2 small air stones underneath the cubes.

[url=https://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/827/rockwool.jpg/][img]https://img827.imageshack.us/img827/2083/rockwool.th.jpg[/img][/url]



Here's where I plan to put my lettuce once they get big enough for me to put them in the net pots. I know it's small but, I want to start small until I get the hang of it and get everything finely tuned.

[url=https://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/36/dwcy.jpg/][img]https://img36.imageshack.us/img36/9828/dwcy.th.jpg[/img][/url]

One question for you veteran hydroponic vegetable growers.
How do you flush your veggies before you harvest?
Do you run a flushing agent every week, two, just before each harvest, or not at all?

You don't have to worry about flushing unless you plan on smoking your crop. ;(

You don't have to worry about flushing unless you plan on smoking your crop. ;(

That's sort of weird. I would've figured you'd be more worried about things your actually consuming not something your inhaling.

That's what I was thinking but after tons of research that's what I found out. I can tell you that my sungold cherry tomatoes were absolutely amazing straight off the vine with no flush.

Do you get bad salt build ups on the roots and reservoir? That was part of the reason I asked about flushing.

No salt buildups. I use ro'd water and botanicare nutes and some aquashield. I change it all out approx every two weeks. Top it off with nutrient solution every couple days.

Where do you get the RO water. I wish I had money to get my own RO filter but, thats not happening unless I win the lotto.

Meijer. $.29 per gallon. I believe it is a Culligan filtration DIY station.

I rented my RO System for years, it was less than $20 a month! Just a thought...

hgs wrote:I rented my RO System for years, it was less than $20 a month! Just a thought...

Where did you rent it from?

Lately I've been having troubles keeping my ph down. I mixed my nutes two nights ago and phed it to 5.8 and I went down yesterday morning and the ph was 6.4. Any ideas on why it jumped so high over night?

The only thing I can think of is are you using a 2 part or 3 part nutrient system? I purchased a two part then only used the grow but it needed both parts to stabalize the PH buffers. My PH kept rising till I used both parts. I did not read the whole post so I don't know which kind of nutes you are using. Good luck!

I'm using floranova and running it at ~300 ppm

I liked your idea TCHarris32 on using shop light for the grow lights. It looks like an easier less expensive way to achieve the same results.

I think when lights are sold as a "grow light" it gives many retailers an opportunity to increase the price because it is a "specialty item.

Thank you for a good suggestion!