Okaaaay,
Seedlings spent first 3 weeks in 4" rockwool cubes under fluros, these were not actual grow fluros though, just a couple of little desklamp fluros that I liberated from work. Seemed to do the trick though as seedling were healthy and on their 3rd/4th sets of leaves before being moved to the DWC described.
From there they were moved straight to the HID which is a Lucagrow lamp. I know SonTAgrow are better for spectrum but at the moment $$$ dictate that I use what I already have, also the Lucagrow lamps are reknowned for maintaining their lumen output for majority of their life. I must say that node length is very short and branching is rampant (the healthiest is on it's 8th/9th set of leaves with branching at each node and is only about 10cm high). As far as branching goes I kind of put that down to nitrozyme solution that we add during vegetative stage, though only at 5-10% of the recomended dose as it is very strong stuff and it is in addition to the growth technology grow solution.
I have grown plants to completion in the saucer method you described (big pots with large saucers, need to water about once a day when plants are large) and must say that the results were quite pleasing despite that many people poopoo growing that way.
The DWC plants are in 4" rockwool on a base of expanded clay with more clay around the rockwool cubes and a layer on top too.
The flood and drain system is done using the dutch pots method. The reason I chose this is because I run separate grow/bloom areas. With the pots you can grow big plants due to available root space place plus when moving plants from grow area to bloom area you just have to lift out the inner pots. Grow area is under a 1000 metal halide while the bloom area is under two 600 high pressure sodiums (lucagrow again due to maintained lumen output). All clones are started in 4" rockwool under fluros and are grown in expanded clay. With this system I grow six plants at a time (ie 6 in grow 6 in bloom and rotate) cause between the two of us plus friends we go through a hell of alot of smoke.
As the whole setup is pretty much new, (finally decided to get serious
) I can't give ya a good comparison of the two different methods yet. Also because I have a few different strains it is hard to compare growth rates. My final aim is to develope a strain that works best in the conditions I am using (At the moment one of the clone strains is a real winner (clones easy, branches profusely and starts budding way early) and the seedlings look mighty nice too (covered in visible trichomes while only babies)).
I guess the proof will be in the final yield and quality though and that is still 3-4 weeks away for the first set of clones that went through and way longer for the DWC setup as babies aren't showing signs of maturity yet. I'm actually hoping that one of the seedling is male so we can use the pollen for getting some seeds out of the clones we were given (this would further aid in the development of the Phantom Special strain also
).....
enuff of my ramblings
Phantom
Ghost Who Smokes