HELP! DWC growers Please Help!!!

[SinsemillaScientist]

I am three weeks away (hopefully) from the electric restoration of my home, I had old cloth lines which as most of you know are one of the largest fire hazards in an out of date home. But with that soon to be aside I have done some very serious thinking, may have been medicated. I am starting fresh from coir and moving to bubbleponics. I absolutely love the idea, complete control, above average growth, and extreme potency, all of which I favor. I have all of my equipment ordered and most will be shipped before I even get the chance to set up. With that in mind I will be running a ten gallon tote with two large airstones the drip manifold with pump and piping. Also air conditioner and dehumidifier for later in bloom, I will be using a small 2'x2'x5' tent, a 500w mh/has combo . As well as carbon scrubber with 6" fan system, any tips, comments, ideas, or kind thoughts are greatly appreciated, again I've never done this but absolutely love the idea, I hope to here from a lot of you fabulous folks!

[IanHale]

Only tip I have is a chiller for you reservoir.

im currently trying to scrape together enough loot to buy 6 of these https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B073V...d_i=B073VJJKXR

[GanjaGed]

I gotta ask, and I'm not trying to be an asshole. How is it so many people need a chiller in DWC? I mean unless you have 80+ in the tent/room the res shouldn't be to hot. Even with a part time submerged pump for drip it shouldn't be more than the room temp and usually a few degrees less. At least that's been my experience. Without a drip pump my tent runs 78 or so at the highest and the res stays at 2-3 degrees below, so I avg around 75 and the res 72-73 avg.

I guess I can see it if one is running hot temps and light with CO2 needing to chill, or live in an area where keeping it down below 80 isn't possible.

Like I said, not trying to be a jerk, it's something I honestly don't understand and don't see the need, but even if I don't see the need now, or ever, I'd like to understand.

[GanjaGed]

I'm moving from DWC to Flood & Drain, myself, though I didn't set up a drip on the DWC.

Thoughts:

On my grow I'm actually seeing slower growth than soil, I have both mediums in this grow and all are clones from the same mother which is also flowering. It wasn't really noticeable until flower and the DWC started flower showing almost 2 weeks behind the soils and remains about 2 weeks behind in bud development. Now take that with a salt mine because there are several reasons particular to my grow that may have caused this, but it honestly did catch me by surprise.

If you're using RO water make sure to check your PH and PPM as you add each nute/additive. If you're running to get a feel for what does what. I've been pretty much able to eliminate any PH up/down by taking readings and adding a bit of nutes to the res, also just plain RO.

While I do suggest changing the res the first grow or so just to get in the groove and avoid any issues, I do prefer not changing every week. I schedule changes for any major shift in nutes, especially stopping any, so like 1 at veg, 1 at 12/12 switch, and one deep in flower when ppms are being lowered. Beyond that I do a change when they've drank an equivalent of the res and brought it back down to the pump or the ppms/PH gets whacked. I'll also change if I'm noticing anything that seems related to the solution. Once you get the hang of it's really nice and allows you to give the plant what it needs.

I personally despised Hydroguard etc. It always leaves some nasty residue and I'm just not a fan. Having said that I do keep a bottle on hand in case root rot were to show up but luckily I haven't had that issue yet. I am becoming a big proponent of H2O2 though and I'll probably use that as a preventative treatment in the F&D. I'm using it now as a leaf spray and a germination solution with apparent success. No WPM and all seeds cracked, so far, lol. I also am not sure what, if any, part the LED UV has in helping stop all that stuff.

Leave a nice air space between the water level and the bottom of the netpot. I'm not sure the mechanics behind it but it did seem to make a difference in overall plant vigor. I leave about a 3-4" gap.


A lot of that is my grow specific I suppose but it's what I know

I think you'll enjoy it I did for the most part, but being limited to the netpot, etc, wasn't what I'm looking to do but I fully intend to revisit DWC again.

Best of luck and looking forward to the grow!

[Burny]

You are probably getting slower growth in dwc because of not changing out, Your soil plants are getting flushed when you water by not changing out your dwc regularly It is not getting flushed enough. I would say.

[GanjaGed]

Well, I do change it out more than 3 times. I only have 3 set time changes, actually usually 4. Everything other than those are dictated by the plant's or something going out of whack with the solution itself.

And again I said I don't think that's the problem, not that it wasn't. But if it was it should be a constant issue not just a specific 2 week period.

Beyond that, not changing on a 7-10 day schedule is not unheard of in hydro with no reported issues, now that's outside of cannabis growing but there are growers who follow the same basic idea and they don't have slow-down issues either.

All of that points to it being something else, at least to my mind, but again it's all a guess and not one that really concerns me much, just not what I expected to see. It's also possible that I'm misreading what happened and it's not that the DWC slowed down but that the soils accelerated. Which is possible now that we're talking about it since just before flower I switched the soils from Dynagro to GH because I was tired of mixing and dealing with 2 different nute companies and I was moved to GH for hydro.

I suppose the real test would be to run 2 res tanks and change one every 7 and run my schedule on the other and see if a difference occurs between the 2. I may actually do that with the F&D since I'm set up to run out of one res or different res's for the 2 trays. That would actually be a good side by side test.

[gbauto]

I generally change my solution every 2 weeks and it seems to work just fine.

[GanjaGed]

That's about what mine works out to, about 2-3 weeks. Though in veg it can extend to 4 weeks, depending, since there isn't a lot of change except increasing for the most part.

I'm probably gonna do a re-charge this Sunday. Res is trending down pretty hard. I'd like to wait another week for a scheduled change for lower PPM, but the plants and res are dictating differently and truth be told, they're the master of this relationship. At least until the sweet sweet end

If I was gonna run a set re-charge throughout the grow I'd do like you, every 2 weeks. Every week keeps it pretty safe but it's a waste of water and nutes, my opinion,

[alltatup]

SinsemillaScientist It sounds like a great setup to me! And if you have good AC going where you're growing, I agree with Burny: you may not need a chiller for your reservoir. I was told when I bought my grow box to get a window AC for my grow room and keep the temp at 70 during the hot weather. I neither wanted a window unit nor did I want to keep my house at 70 degrees, so I got a chiller for my reservoir. If you use Hydroguard and keep the temps decent in the room, you should be fine.

[Burny]

I'm not taking any chances on losing something like this over trying to save a couple of dollars on water and nutrients. My girls are more important than that.

[Burny]

Ppms can be comprised of any parts that doesn't mean that they are the right parts. When I go to the grocery store I usually eat the stuff I like the best first.

[Burny]

I added over 2 gallons of nutrient solution a day to the plan in the picture.. I always top off with nutrient solution not water.

[GanjaGed]

That's just it, all else isn't the same, there's an entire history of testing and abuse with those poor plants. They were never really meant to be harvested, that just developed over time as life situations changed.

I do like the idea of a mini flush.

As I said before I suggest switching every week, it's beyond doubt easier and safer. My preference is to not do so. As long as one is producing what they need at a quality they like, it's all good in my book. I put together a system that works for me, it does what I need it to on many different fronts beyond just the weed. This grow started off as a proof on concept putting together research and getting plants from clone to harvest upgrading from a couple sterlite tubs stacked together to a full blown tent. I can't even guess how many clones died as I practiced each skill in them, from cloning to manifolding and ScrOG to playing with nutrient ratios.

They may have had a lag at switch and still be that timeframe behind, which means they aren't still slow but as far as density, trich production etc. They're way ahead of the soil plants.

But anyways I just like to talk about how different people do things and learn new interesting ideas like the mini flush. I just wish the DWC didn't feel so limiting to me, which is what has spured me to go F&D. I think it's just something about having the plants in containers that works best for me, I don't really know, I'm just glad that DWC transitions so easily to F&D. lol

[Burny]

Everyone definitely does things differently. There is someone on here trying to grow using the kratky method(I think that is right) where you never change out. I'm kinda curious as to how that will go.

[GanjaGed]

yea I saw that. Not familiar with it but it seems pretty extreme, to say the least.

[GanjaGed]

Though it would be a good addition to the thread

[intergalactic_harvester]

hi folks!
im mid bloom on my 2nd dwc grow.
5×5×7 tent, 1000w hps for bloom, ac ducted to intake, light cooling fan pass thru. carbon scrubber recycles inside tent.

dwc is a strange beast. anyone can set it up, and if ur a quick intuitive thinker even a new grower can get from a to b successfully. but getting true dwc results takes time to get a feel for how plants will behave in the system. you need to learn how to read ur plants and act decisively with any issues and training techniques.
by observing results of my actions in the tent i am learning to achieve and maintain the rapid growth associated with dwc and get awesome potency and ridiculous weights for a new grower.
my first run was a freakin juggling act from hell, but still managed to get over 2 lbs of badass night time smoke. emphasis on night time.
this 2nd run has been a breeze system wise, and im expecting similar weight and potency, only this time IM DOING THE STEERING!!!
i do not use a chiller. the only time i chilled down my reservoirs was to help speed up a root rot recovery, and frozen water bottles are enough for that. if your environment is set up anywhere near properly, ur res temps will always be less than average tent temps. cool air flowing around the res takes care of that.
also, i only use tap water. ppms are quite low here, so the only bitch i have is the ph buffers they love to throw in there. takes a day or 2 to stabilize.

i am a new grower on my 2nd grow. the magic and mystery of propagating great medical cannabis is rapidly being replaced by science for me. because it works. much more reliably than all the spells and potions and miracle combinations flying around out there.
jesus i ramble. and on the verge of rant... best finish now, lol.

DWC is awesome in concept. im just finding that it will take a.year or more of back to back grows to truly get a handle on absolute control of the system and get the most from my grows. just not one of those things you try out once or twice, lol.

[alltatup]

Well-spoken, harvester!! An intensive, hands-on learning process with good observation skills.

I alternate between feeling both things about this plant: the science and the mystery of growing cannabis. Then smoking it.

[intergalactic_harvester]

YES!!! Smoking it! hehe