Is damping off a common problem with top fed dwc? Ive only grown in soil so i thought i would try hydroponics. Ive already gone thru an order of nirvana seeds and the same thing keeps happening. They sprout and die. Never had this problem in soil, even with my very first grow. I followed the top fed dwc tutorial on growweedeasy.com to a tee and im pretty sure the problem is damping off. Should i get rid of the whole top fed part?
Possibly, its not ideal to get a sprout too wet thats why it could be damping off. if you're starting in a rockwool cube as seen by the tutorial I would ditch the top feed and hand feed the rockwool cube until your roots come in contact with the DWC. Anyways too much water tends to slow down root seeking growth. Roots tend to get lazy if they dont need to seek moisture.
Lets look at the basics first, 1 inch cube will not hold as much moisture as long as a 2 inch cube, so if you're using a bigger cube its simply stays wetter longer. With this in mind I like to use smaller cubes when using over DWC. I want roots to adventure out, a 2 inch cube actually holds quite a bit of roots. I only like to use 2 inch cubes for clones that will set for a long time in a tray.
You do not need to constantly need to flood RW.. especially from the top. when I water clones I water from the bottom if they are sitting the trays, roots feed from the tips.
Do not submerge RW in DWC.. in fact, I make sure I have a gap from the top of the solution, to the bottom of the netpot, of at least a 1/2 inch. In my opinion the gap is very important.
Lastly try a little bit of H202. It should help supress fungal activity, its use is an antifungal.
