Prawn Connery
Well-Known Member
I switched from DWC to coco about 14 years ago. There are pros and cons to each.
DWC is faster and produces mostly waste nutrient solution. It is a little harder to manage nutrients as water provides no buffer. It is also sensitive to ambient temperatures, unless you run reservoir coolers and heaters. Ideally you want to maintain your reservoir at around 15-20C, but your plants like to be a little warmer. There is a trade-off off between lower temperatures, which dissolve more oxygen, and warmer temperatures, which stimulate root and plant growth. Reservoir temperatures over 25C can promote anaerobic pathogens, such as pythium (root rot) as oxygen falls out of suspension. Below 15C, your plants start to stunt as transpiration of nutrient slows.
When I grew in apartments, I liked the convenience of DWC, as all I needed to do was dump my reservoir every couple of weeks, and bin my plant waste and small amounts of rockwool. I reused my hydroton.
Coco was a revelation in some ways, as it offered much faster growth than soil - it is hydro, after all - but with some of the benefits of soil, such as nutrient buffering and resistance to temperature - a big plus in a hot environment, or under hot HID lamps. Coco can be reused several times, though it does break down eventually and loses is aeration ability as it becomes denser - and it must be flushed after each grow. It can also be recycled into your outside vege garden.
DWC can be a bit noisy if you have a decent air pump - which you will need. Coco is pretty much silent and can be auto watered. The more you water coco - as long as you have good drainage - the faster the growth, as you introduce fresh, oxygenated nutrient solution into the root zone with each watering.
Many people believe run-to-waste coco wastes a lot of nutrient, but in reality if you grow DWC you are dumping your reservoir at least every two weeks. Run-to-waste is very easy to manage, as it flushes the roots zone as it adds fresh nutrient, meaning salt build-up is slower and nutrient ratios remain for the most part optimum (though salts will build up over time, especially near the surface where there is evaporation). In DWC, you never really know what is in your reservoir. A TDS or EC meter will only tell you the amount of dissolved salts - but wont' tell you what those salts are.
Coco attracts bugs - especial fungus gnats - which DWC doesn't (at least, not so much at the root zone - you can still get fungus gnats in DWC, believe it or not). DWC also needs some sort of support, like a large hydroton basket or tie-ups to support the branches and main stem. Coco is generally self -supporting.
Another great advantage of coco is that if an pump breaks in DWC and you don't catch it, you can eventually lose a crop to root rot. If you have a recirculating hydro system and a water pump breaks, you can lose a crop in a day to dehydration. Coco will retain moisture for up to a few days, depending on plant and pot size, and can save your crop in the event of a timer or auto pump failure.
I don't keep mother plants - I perpetually clone - but if I were, I would most definitely keep them in coco pots instead of DWC.
DWC is faster and produces mostly waste nutrient solution. It is a little harder to manage nutrients as water provides no buffer. It is also sensitive to ambient temperatures, unless you run reservoir coolers and heaters. Ideally you want to maintain your reservoir at around 15-20C, but your plants like to be a little warmer. There is a trade-off off between lower temperatures, which dissolve more oxygen, and warmer temperatures, which stimulate root and plant growth. Reservoir temperatures over 25C can promote anaerobic pathogens, such as pythium (root rot) as oxygen falls out of suspension. Below 15C, your plants start to stunt as transpiration of nutrient slows.
When I grew in apartments, I liked the convenience of DWC, as all I needed to do was dump my reservoir every couple of weeks, and bin my plant waste and small amounts of rockwool. I reused my hydroton.
Coco was a revelation in some ways, as it offered much faster growth than soil - it is hydro, after all - but with some of the benefits of soil, such as nutrient buffering and resistance to temperature - a big plus in a hot environment, or under hot HID lamps. Coco can be reused several times, though it does break down eventually and loses is aeration ability as it becomes denser - and it must be flushed after each grow. It can also be recycled into your outside vege garden.
DWC can be a bit noisy if you have a decent air pump - which you will need. Coco is pretty much silent and can be auto watered. The more you water coco - as long as you have good drainage - the faster the growth, as you introduce fresh, oxygenated nutrient solution into the root zone with each watering.
Many people believe run-to-waste coco wastes a lot of nutrient, but in reality if you grow DWC you are dumping your reservoir at least every two weeks. Run-to-waste is very easy to manage, as it flushes the roots zone as it adds fresh nutrient, meaning salt build-up is slower and nutrient ratios remain for the most part optimum (though salts will build up over time, especially near the surface where there is evaporation). In DWC, you never really know what is in your reservoir. A TDS or EC meter will only tell you the amount of dissolved salts - but wont' tell you what those salts are.
Coco attracts bugs - especial fungus gnats - which DWC doesn't (at least, not so much at the root zone - you can still get fungus gnats in DWC, believe it or not). DWC also needs some sort of support, like a large hydroton basket or tie-ups to support the branches and main stem. Coco is generally self -supporting.
Another great advantage of coco is that if an pump breaks in DWC and you don't catch it, you can eventually lose a crop to root rot. If you have a recirculating hydro system and a water pump breaks, you can lose a crop in a day to dehydration. Coco will retain moisture for up to a few days, depending on plant and pot size, and can save your crop in the event of a timer or auto pump failure.
I don't keep mother plants - I perpetually clone - but if I were, I would most definitely keep them in coco pots instead of DWC.
