I think if you grew cannabis, you could probably trade that for a hell of a lot more regular old veggies than you'd ever want.

If you look at the cost of commercial nutrients, lighting, equip, and electricity, it's pretty obvious that almost everything hydro related out there is only financially viable with cannabis. In other words, if you grew lettuce or tomatoes at home hydroponically, the value of your crop would be considerably less than what you invested in it, whereas with cannabis, a grow room can easily buy your whole house.

A lot of people on here don't like to say that, they don't want to come off as capitalists. But capitalism isn't the problem, it's artificial manipulation of the free market through the merger of government power with the private sector, (the US federal reserve of course being a private bank too) that's what has led to the 1% vs 99% thing, and the huge income and wealth inequalities we have today, way I see it. A very parasitic, competitive society where people step on each other just to get a leg up, full of infighting instead of enlightenment, is what I see as the NWO's goal to create. People so busy arguing over stupid shit with each other and struggling to survive that they can't ever stop and question, and never see the puppet masters.

You don't come off as a capitalist, and I totally get where your coming from. The math speaks for itself, and your right, it turns out to be some pretty expensive lettuce in the end.

Since your obviously in the know about the new world order, and the way things are going in this world, I"m sure you can see my concern, and yearning to become as self sufficient as possible. This includes being able to grow food for my family hydroponically and otherwise.

While cannabis is a valuable crop, your not going to be able to feed your family with it unless you are involved in a trading situation, something I'm not comfortable with. Yes, I have trust issues and realize that I would serve my family better if not behind bars!

I don't know if you have paid attention to the news lately, but the "solar maximum" predictions for 2012-2013 are manifesting as predicted. Recent solar flares have thus far not damaged anything, but I am one of those people who believe that it will cause a severe disruption in our lives, such as getting electricity to our homes.

This is why I have a solar power setup that is grounded and protected by a faraday cage, so if a big CME occurs, I'll at least still have power enough to run my hydroponics setup. It's not huge or anything, but it will provide "some" food if need be.

I'm actually disabled and submitting my application for medical marijuana soon myself. I haven't smoked it since I was a kid, but the intense pain I suffer which no amount of morphine seems to kill has driven me to try anything. I guess that is a whole different discussion thread though.

So, there "may" be the possibility of me growing cannabis in the hydroponic setup in the future, but not until I'm legally allowed to.

My main fear is that by applying for a medical marijuana permit,your opening yourself up to police scrutiny and harassment. The last thing I need are those guys poking around in my life constantly and giving me more stress.

Does that happen if you apply?

No info is given out unless a formal request is applied for by federal or local police. You must under suspision for them to check your name or addy.

So Ive been told by HC

Vaper

growing veggies hydroponically outdoors or in a hot house is a cost effective way to go. I grew tomatoes in the back yard one year hydro and had thousands of tomatoes in very short time. But indoor, I would agree with Harvey, the cost is not worth the effort.

In the winter time, the hydroponic is going to grow my veggies, but in the summer, I have an organic garden in the back yard that will produce most of my produce.

I am excited to get plants started early this year and get a good yield when I transplant into my outdoor garden once the weather is good enough!!

I always try to keep up with what's going on in the world, but I have a healthy skepticism for what you'd call the "news". I think sometimes the truth does shine through though, like when Dan Rather said on 9/11 while watching the collapse of wtc 7, the steel and concrete building on the trade center complex that collapsed without being hit by anything, "For the third time today, it's reminiscent of those pictures we've all seen too much on television before, where a building was deliberately destroyed by well placed dynamite to knock it down."
I bet those people behind www.newamericancentury.org sure were pissed when he said that! hahaha.

But back to what you were saying, you're worried about solar flares disrupting power and infrastructure, but then you plan on them not disrupting your own solar panels? How would that work? I thought that a solar flare produces an intense burst of electromagnetic radiation across the spectrum, but I don't really know the theory behind that, or the theory behind solar flares disrupting anything either. Most of what I've read about solar flares seems to emphasize their possible danger to satellites, astronauts, and missions to other planets, and only offhandedly mentions minor temporary inconveniences caused here on earth.

Random question, what would exposure to a welding arc (wide electromagnetic spectrum radiation, including ionizing UVC and possibly even shorter wave, right?) do to a solar panel?

I'll go on record right now and say that if I had to, I'd bet most of the solar flare stuff you hear on the "news" is fear mongering, like y2k was. I knew people who stockpiled food and water for that back then, no joke. (As if their bank account not having 4 digits for the year was going to prevent them from being able to buy food or water.) I believe I can prove 9/11 was controlled demolition by analysis of one specific picture, and I'd bet my very life on it, but that does not necessarily affect my belief in all the other conspiracies. I've just researched the hell out of 9/11. I'm not saying you're wrong about solar flares being able to disrupt power transmission, I'm just trying to keep it all in perspective. I know that "the powers that be" want to keep people fearful of anything and everything, you remember the white house color terror alerts after 9/11? Talk about fear mongering.


Okay, so now for the hydro system you were actually talking about. I was high when I read this before, hahaha, but it seemed like what you were describing would be basically a mediumless flood and drain system. I have hypothesized about that multiple times on here, but have never built a system like that, due to the problems created by moving that volume of water around. I have done soil, hempy buckets, chilled aero/nft in 6" pvc tubes, and DWC in 60 gallon tubs. I have written quite a bit about all of this, and if you want, you could find a few of my old threads and probably take a big shortcut on the learning curve, if you do decide to get into hydro.

I totally understand your skepticism regarding the solar maximum thing, after all, there are SO many doomsday scenarios out there one couldn't possible prepare for ALL of them!

I think people are not sensible and easily get carried away with these fears, hope I don't come across like that.

The world has been on the verge of self imploding for decades, nothing is new...lol. Thank the politicians and greed of the Illuminati for that.

the only reason I give any real weight to the solar maximum thing is because it happened in my lifetime already once, and took down the whole Quebec hydro grid in the 80's, which took quite some time to repair, and also, because it was on record back around the turn of the century the last time we had a really big CME that it was so intense, telegraph wires actually burst into flames and telegraph stations actually burned down!

Normally, an unprotected solar panel setup would be destroyed along with everything else electronic, but I am "hoping" that being protected by a Faraday cage will protect my gear and electronic devices.

A Faraday cage is basically just like it sounds, a cage made of a conductive metal built around whatever your trying to protect, which is grounded, so that if any kind of energetic particles or electrons are fired at it from the sun or any other electrical source the electricity will be captured by the cage, and diverted to ground, thus saving the goodies you have in the cage from exposure to the electricity.

I have no proof that my setup will be spared in such an event, but there is a very good chance it will be, so much of a good chance that I felt it worthwhile to spend the money on the setup.

I've worked with tesla coils and other very high voltage experiments before and have built many Faraday cages, and they never let me down yet, so I'm hoping that will do the trick.

I'm one of those people who believe that we should all have plenty of food and water stored at all times anyhow, what good is money in the bank if you have no food water and shelter and for whatever reason couldn't obtain those things?

The fact that there are scientists out there that are concerned about the same things that I am just makes me a bit more diligent about being prepared, no fear of doomsday, no conspiracy theories, just good old fashioned "ant and grasshopper" mentality.

BTW, I also thought that Y2K stuff was all a bunch of BS myself, and lo and behold, I was right....LOL I worked in an electronic manufacturing lab at the time and laughed at some of my coworker engineers who thought their software wouldn't work after new years. I didn't befriend them that way, haha.

The more I read about the hydro system I've built, the more I realize that it can be used in several different ways, as an ebb and flow, as a nutrient film type, as aeroponic, it just depends on how the water is applied and removed from the PVC tube.

That's what confused me to begin with.

I guess my main question at this point other than nutrients would be about having the water running full time instead of being on a timer, until I get one that is. Would the plants croak because of over watering, or will that depend on my growing medium?

I think I'm going to have to break down and buy some hydroton, apparently its the best thing when mixed in combination with coconut fiber. What do you think??

I'm going to send in my application for medical cannabis next week, including to grow my own, then, maybe I can get off this damn morphine.


BTW, the use of military grade thermite and a huge pile of melted steel beams kinda gave it away that 9/11 was an inside job demolition. It's hard to believe they actually got away with that.
I just read in the news that it was exposed that hundreds of the victims bodies were just dumped in a landfill with the rest of the rubble. That pretty much says it all.

I suppose I could figure out the whole faraday cage thing with a little research, but I am feeling pretty lazy right now, haha. To me it seems like a screen on a microwave door. Way I understand it, the holes in the screen only block electromagnetic radiation of a certain wavelength. That's why you can see through it, but not get microwaved through it too. So that's what I was getting at with the faraday cage for solar panels, since you obviously can't block them from receiving the wavelengths they use, or they wouldn't work, what do you block them from? How would that work? What is it about a solar flare that actually causes damage, is it a spike of differents wavelengths of high energy, or a spike of energy in the wavelengths equipment normally sees, or what? That's kind of why I asked about what a welding arc does to a solar panel.

As far as growing cannabis, if you do decide to do it, I have no idea if you should do it legally or not. I know the government and the private industry that has merged with them have financial incentives to go against growers. I remember watching this thing saying how the DEA is profitable enterpise, that the money they get from asset seizures is far greater than all of their expenditures, or operating budget. Just like how all the new cop cars around here are more and more incognito, they don't want to discourage us from breaking the law by being visible, they want us to break the law so they can catch us and profit..and they think we're too dumb to see it.


As far as grow mediums in hydro, I prefer no medium whatsoever. I prefer neoprenes to seal the stalks to the system, (tubes, dwc lid, etc) although the neoprenes can only support small plants, like clones. I then use something like chicken wire above the plants. They quickly grow through the screen, and as they fill out, the screen holds them up. Done ideally, after pruning about 2 weeks into flowering, there is no canopy below the screen, only a few thick stalks.