MintyDreadlocks
Well-Known Member
I've had thoughts of DWC swimming through my head. I've done soil for the last 10 years and thinking about changing things up. Tell me what I'm missing out on and why I'd like DWC more than soil.
Soil grower. Convince me.
- Thread starter MintyDreadlocks
- Start date
ProPheT 216
Well-Known Member
No pests, no flushing, complete control over what your plants have immediate access to. If you mess up just change your res out. No cost of soil or clean up and removal of soil. Faster veg growth.
Fangthane
Well-Known Member
I'm a mediocre grower in a shitty area with very little control over my environment. On the average, I probably get 2-3oz per plant in soil. This year, I did my first DWC grow pretty much on a whim. Even with little idea what I was doing and large pH swings every week, I still ended up with around 19oz from only 2 plants in a 5x5 under a 480watt QB. Anyone who already has their shit together with soil growing should be able to absolutely kill it with DWC. The growth rate is fucking ridiculous.
calvin.m16
Well-Known Member
Your mostly missing out on yield and free time cause you will be spending time mixing nutrients and filling water. Other than that, more yield in DWC/Soilless.
Benefits of soil are less frequent watering, no mixing of nutrients other than maybe some amendments a couple times in the plants life. Organic if your into the theories behind it being safer/healthier.
I'm literally in the process of testing some super soil to see how it performs so I can get away from mixing barrels of nutrient water. But that said, unless the quality blows my wig back I'm not changing to soil if it doesn't perform the same as coco with maxibloom.
Benefits of soil are less frequent watering, no mixing of nutrients other than maybe some amendments a couple times in the plants life. Organic if your into the theories behind it being safer/healthier.
I'm literally in the process of testing some super soil to see how it performs so I can get away from mixing barrels of nutrient water. But that said, unless the quality blows my wig back I'm not changing to soil if it doesn't perform the same as coco with maxibloom.
Are you only using MaxiBloom in coco throughout the entire grow? Have you ever used the 3-part or MaxiGro during veg and did you notice any change in the speed of growth during veg? How easily does it dissolve in water?
calvin.m16
Well-Known Member
Dissolves easy into water if you mix straight into your primary watering source, don't listen to people that say to heat up the water or something, it dissolves well, just stir it strong a couple times and viola. Even in cold water it dissolves just sometimes you gotta stir a lot and be patient (3-5 mins).
I use MaxiBloom for flower in veg I have been running CYCO Grow A&B with no additives, just the 2 part, they are just some really basic base nutes that I don't have to pH at all and never have problems with. Cyco for bloom needs a lot of additives which is why I use maxibloom during the production stage of the plants life. If CYCO wasn't so expensive I would run that line in flower and veg tbh, best quality and yields I ever got was with CYCOs products but if your someone that doesn't want 6 bottles (like me) then you will use maxibloom and some Armor Si in flower and keep things simple.
p.s Not all Silica are the same, some potassium silicate products are extremely diluted or don't contain much actual silicate. Armor Si has the most that I have found, so it has the highest pH UP strength. 10% I believe. I buy it in 10 liter (2.5 gal) jugs for $60 OTD at my nearby grow shop.
Cool man, thanks for elaborating. Yeah, I use Calimagic, Armor Si, Flora 3-part, Defguard, and pH Down, so 7 bottles and by far the 3-part is the most annoying, so thinking of switching to MaxiBloom, as I hear some use it throughout the entire grow cycle, but I'm getting great results with what I'm doing now. I also like the couple shakes and move on aspect of bottles, but there's just too many of them so I think I will try the Maxi line. Thanks.
calvin.m16
Well-Known Member
No Problem. If your using ph down right now you could probably use maxibloom without armor si if your pH doesn't go too low after mixing. I would buy a small bag at least just to try it. As long as you keep your pH around 6 you will not go back to using the 3 part. You can still use calimagic and other additives if you choose or your specific situation requires. I know I use KoolBloom Dry in mid/late bloom to really jack the plants up with phosphorus and potassium but you need to apply that stuff at very low strength and monitor plants to see how they take it by checking leaves etc. The point here though is you can run maxibloom without that and still get more than average results, it's not going to disappoint you just using it like some nutrient lines 1 part or base nutrient line will.
These are on week 4 of bloom with just maxibloom and armor si. So anyone saying you can't get big buds with just maxibloom are doing it wrong.
Drop That Sound
Well-Known Member
Setup a single DWC container for really cheap. Just a bucket (or dark plastic tote, etc), lid, small air pump, air stone, some tubing. Stick a plant (my first DWC I washed the roots off a clone) in the netpot\s with some hydtroton, and toss it under a light with nutrient solution just below the pot. Or set it right along side your other plants. Watch how it grows compared to them. Thats all it took for me. I'm pretty sure you will be convinced more by the plants than what anyone says! That's the best way, is to just do it. I never went back, and was constantly blown away by the growth rates and yields for a long time. Still am sometimes. DWC 4 life! (and coco sometimes, but that's for growers who can't really afford to run a chiller, or who live in hotter climates.. making it the best choice IMO, otherwise i don't see how they could not choose DWC..)..
amneziaHaze
Well-Known Member
Never over water or underwater
1 nute to rule them all.
More flowers per plant
Take a hose to your grow tent instead of bags of soil.
Clean hands
Pests cant lay eggs inside the substrate.
Handle Higher temps because plant is allways hidrated
Know exactly whats inside your substrate.
All the roots have access to all the food
Faster growth
Smaller container(for a bigger plant)
No smell( dirt smells nice but some nutes smell like shit maybe not a plus or maybe yea haha)
Mistakes are easily noticed with ph and ppm change.easily change the whole substrate
Coldnasty
Well-Known Member
Don’t
You can turn it on a dime with .09 cents change!
ie quick to fix mistakes
amneziaHaze
Well-Known Member
Allsoo root porn!
medidedicated
Well-Known Member
If I had dirt skills I would use them. At least for an extra tent of plants somewhere for its low maintenence. I do dtw coco but it is some work up front and to maintain it but I get green growth all the way through and did not require much skill.
I tried dirt and have two plants I am finishing up and they both suffered bad. Wishing I knew what went wrong. Perhaps ph 8.3 out the tap and flushing due to runoff EC being 4.3. Not inoculating from the start and no kelp or fertilizer. Just am not figuring it out just yet.
With coco I just get amazing results just running dtw sterile and maxi bloom. Tap water, ph down. Thats it. Using large resivoirs to make it last longer and easier to maintain.
I tried dirt and have two plants I am finishing up and they both suffered bad. Wishing I knew what went wrong. Perhaps ph 8.3 out the tap and flushing due to runoff EC being 4.3. Not inoculating from the start and no kelp or fertilizer. Just am not figuring it out just yet.
With coco I just get amazing results just running dtw sterile and maxi bloom. Tap water, ph down. Thats it. Using large resivoirs to make it last longer and easier to maintain.
amneziaHaze
Well-Known Member
dirt and water as equally hard. usually what i would say is dirt is for people that dont want to work on their plant every day. and water is for people that want to play with the plant every day
yummy fur
Well-Known Member
hydro is just so much fucken easier. However rather than DWC I prefer an SWC with an external reservoir
Modern Selections
Well-Known Member
DWC sucks. Ph swings, changing out buckets of water with finding a way to support plants while bucket change etc.
Simple flood and drain table. Res, tray, net pots, hydroton. Change res once a week. Most minimal amount of work in growing.
Simple flood and drain table. Res, tray, net pots, hydroton. Change res once a week. Most minimal amount of work in growing.
pegboy
Well-Known Member
Yes!!! I go old school ebb and flow with rockwool. Flush every week or so and change res about once a week. Super simple and extremely effective.
amneziaHaze
Well-Known Member
If you are growing in a tent its imposible.table has to be above the reservoir taking out a shit tone of space
Also you are waisting a shit tone of nutes if you change res every week. Dwc is less space and you can go a whole grow with no nute change