4th grow First DWC

[Cali]

Just want to post my progress so far. I have grown 3 times before in soil, I feel I learned the basics but I have decided to go to DWC that way I get a feel of the difference in growing methods hands on. Don’t want to bore you guys so for now here is where I’m at.. Just one question should I put my seedling in the bucket already (Ihave a top drop system set up) or should I wait till it gets a bit bigger??

[Madman960]

I'm on my 1st grow and I a starting with DWC. I would wait til the Roots have time to develop or it will grow extremely slow. I know cause I just did that. Maybe if you had a small bucket and could upgrade later. I tried that too but was using rapid rooter plugs and couldn't find a way to get it to dry out so the Roots would search for water.

Happy growing.

Madman

[Cannabliss]

I'd wait a bit longer at least until you start seeing some roots coming out from under (or around) the rockwool. This assures she'll be nice and ready for the bucket with less shock. Welcome to the world of DWC.

[qwertyonion]

Oh, Im coming along for this ride. Subbed. So tempted to try a dwc of my own.

[alltatup]

Cali Good luck w/ this hydro grow! As soon as my seedling pops above ground, I put the Root Riot in the grow box under the lights. At this point I have to check it a lot more to keep it at the proper moisture with them lil roots growing.)

When the first roots emerge from the root riot, I fix up the 5-inch net pot with hydroton, put in the root riot, fill the reservoir with plain pH'd water (& Hydroguard), and make sure that the bubbles are creating moisture at the bottom of the net pot. Tryin to "entice" the roots to grow towards the bubbling water, but I don't want the water hitting the bottom of the net pot (that's too much).

As soon as I see roots emerging from net pots, I put an excruciatingly low amount of nutes in the reservoir for a week or two, depending on size of seedling and speed of root growth.

[Cali]

Thanks for your reply guys really appreciate it. Like I mentioned I have a top drop sulystem set up exactly like the dwc tutorial so I’m wondering, did I waste my time setting that up? according to the tutorial I should put it in the bucket already and let the water keep my media wet but seems like you guys are telling me to wait? I’m confused maybe I didn’t read it correctly I’ll go back and read it again..

[Cannabliss]

Cali Which tutorial are you speaking of? Can you provide the link to it?

I personally suggested waiting simply because I've had bad experiences just sticking the barely sprouted plant into the buckets right away. They're too young at that stage and there's a risk of drowning the roots (if fed too much from the top) even before they have a chance to develop a root system. I wait until a good amount of roots have come out from the rockwool and then and only then I transplant into buckets. I personally don't use top-drip systems. I just use the plain old DWC with clay pebbles. I manually feed her water the first 2 weeks or so after she sprouts while she's still in her humidity dome. I keep her there until she has a nice little root system going. I also use a small 2', 25W T5 for them during the seedling stage. Then I transplant her into the buckets. Gravity takes over and the roots eventually find their way down to the nutrient reservoir with the help of the air stones splashing some nutes onto the clay pebbles. Again, this is what I personally do and it's been working for me. Tutorials are awesome, and you could follow them step by step. If it works for you, great! But we're all giving you our personal experiences/preferences. Don't get confused my friend. Try the tutorial. It may end up working perfectly for you. Good luck with the growth.

[Cali]

It’s the tutorial on the GWE site. When you go on the main page it says tutorials click on it and a list pops up it’s the Bubbleponics tutorial.. Thanks for your reply I’m just wondering if I miss read it or maybe some people have better luck than others putting their seedlings in the dwc system..

[Cannabliss]

Yea I checked it out earlier. I see what you mean. I say try it out. I never used that particular bubbleponics system, so it could work out for you.

[Madman960]

What did you decide bud?

Happy growing.

Madman

[Cali]

I went with the top drip and so far no problems with it the roots are coming out the net pot already and getting big quick ( the roots) I just made the mistake of adding nutes early so I burned the seedling a bit and also I pulled on the stem by accident and almost cut it in half but luckily it made it although it did stunt the growth but now it’s seems like it’s taking off just added a quarter of the recommended dose of nutes cus it looked like it need some now I just have to wait and see how it reacts.. like you said the rockwool did stay wet a lot so what I did was put the top drip not touching the rockwool only soaking the hydroton and keeping my seedling moist because like you I also noticed that when it was too wet the roots didn’t search or grow but when I squeezed the water out the rockwool and just barely kept it moist the roots took off..

[Madman960]

Thanks for the update. Some things we just have to experience to fully understand. Glad you got it worked out. Big roots should make for big plants. Once your roots make it to the bottom of the hydroton, don't forget to remove the top drip.

Happy growing.

Madman

[RosettaStoned]

I wait as well. I sprout my seeds/root cutting in rockwool plugs, then when I see quite a few roots shooting through I transfer to a rockwool block. And again, I wait untill I see roots coming through the block. Then I put them in the net pots. One day later and the roots are three inches in the water in most cases, for me.

This too is my first grow and it's dwc. On my sixth week of flower on the first run

[Madman960]

Nice. How pleased are you with DWC? I find it very simple. Almost to simple but results are results.

Happy growing.

Madman

[RosettaStoned]

I like it, very fast growth with very little nutes! I'm using the Canna line so a little mixing but not hard by any means.

[NebulaHaze]

Cali How do they look so far?

[Cali]

NebulaHaze it looks like it’s growing good but it’s looking light green I added nutrients yesterday but I only added 1/8 of the strength because I was afraid of burning it like I did when it was just a week old.. now I’m thinking I should have done 1/4 strength because I don’t think it was enough. What do you think should I change the water again and add 1/4 strength? Also I only added enough nutrients for 2 gallons and I have 3 gallons of water in the bucket.

[NebulaHaze]

Overall it looks good! You could probably switch to half strength nutrients at this point. If you're worried about increasing nutrient levels too fast, instead of doing a whole reservoir change, you could only remove half the water. Or you could leave what's there and simply use the new nutrient water to top off as the water level gets lower. Those tactics help increase the nutrient levels more slowly. Just make sure to keep the pH between 5.5-6.5 and you should be good to go. As long as roots are healthy, hydro plants are surprisingly tough!

[Mr Pot]

Hey Nebula, do you have any tips for keeping pH in range in DWC? Never done it but sometimes when I keep my water with nutes they tend to decrease the pH a bit. Dunno if the movement of oxigen in the water can mantain pH.

[NebulaHaze]

The best thing to do is test the pH every day and adjust as necessary. It's normal for the pH to drift as the plants use up nutrients. If it's drifting a lot, it can help to make sure your reservoir is always full/topped off (a bigger amount of water has a more stable pH). It also can help to use tap water instead of filtered water because tap water contains more "stuff" which acts as a buffer.

[Cali]

NebulaHaze so yesterday I decided to go with the half strength nutrients. But today my seedling still looks the same. Do I have to give it more time to absorb the nutrients to be able to see a change in color? Because it’s lookong completely lime green ( new growth) being that it’s my first DWC I really don’t know how long it takes.. I’m following your nutrient schedule

[alltatup]

Cali, I think she looks great: you'll see the color change as she grows out. I only see super-dark leaves when I get to my max strength nutes in flower, but that's just me...

[NebulaHaze]

If you're using that nutrient schedule (the one you uploaded) you can actually follow it at full strength. It's already been cut in half so you don't have to do the math on your own

When I see your seedling in natural light, it looks like it's doing great. In fact, it already looks bigger than yesterday!