Second thoughts on DWC

PetFlora said:
Plants consume nutes AND water to grow.

When ppms go up that means your plants are drinking more water (what's left now has higher nute concentration), so simply add water to restore ppms. When ppms are lower, add a higher concentration of nutes to restore
Click to expand...

Thanks. So you advise topping up with both nutes and water between rez changes? I notice that the EC and the ppms go down gradually but I read to just top up with water until the next nute change, since topping up with nutes could lead to overfertilizing problems.
 
Keep in mind that plants in different stages need more of different elements and there will be a build up of the elements it doesn't need or is unable to use. By adding back nutes you are adding more of what they don't need and this builds up in res giving inaccurate readings.
 
You have to use common sense

IE if your rez is 3G and you start with 500ppm, and the next day it's down to 400 (20%), but water is only down ~ 2.5g, then add ~ 0.5g @ 600ppm. I'm sure there is a math calc that be done, but add slowly and check with your meter

Surfer Joe said:
Thanks. So you advise topping up with both nutes and water between rez changes? I notice that the EC and the ppms go down gradually but I read to just top up with water until the next nute change, since topping up with nutes could lead to overfertilizing problems.
Click to expand...
 
I ran into the "work load" issue as well with the 5 gal DWC system. The growth under proper lighting is just explosive. Currently my one plant I have going drinks a 5 gallon bucket dry in ~3 days and I'm still a month out from harvest. I'm making due with topping off the bucket with plain water as needed instead of going with a larger connected resovoir system for now due to space issues. The permanent grow room is under construction so soon I'll move up in size. So when I change nutrients I fill two buckets and add nutrients to one and the other is left plain, Once the plant has run through it's replacement bucket of plain water it gets new nutrients. Works out to about every 3-4 days. Not very expensive nutrient wise since its such a small amount of liquid. Certainly harder to keep that ph in check with such a small amount of water but the daily topping off of plain water helps.

My system I have under construction will use smaller buckets connected to a very large 55 gallon container. Should help control the size a bit, eliminate the daily topping off, dramatic ph fluctuations throughout the span of the day, etc., etc.
 
How long does it take to fill a new bucket with water and nutes? 5 mins, if that. How much do nutes cost? Really not that much for the return, I average $1.25 per dried ounce from veg to harvest. Switching out buckets only takes a couple of mins,what is so labor intensive about that? I have 40+ plants in flower at all times and most days I will only spend 10-20mins in flower room, but there are days I spent a couple of hours when I am harvesting or rotating systems. I guess what I am saying is that over the years and many, many harvests I have been able to make my grow work for me, not make more work for me.
 
Shew! No idea how you would only spend 20 min with that many plants! I'm guessing you are using a centralized rez or a couple even for all those plants? Or are you doing 40+ individual buckets? Just topping off 40 buckets would take some time, then correcting ph, etc. Do you have some pictures of your grow room maybe? I had to check the buckets twice a day near the end of flowering due to the speed the plant drank. The chemistry would change so fast it could go from a nice 5.8 to well below 5 in the span of 5 hours or so. So for me that was effort I wasn't expecting. Of course all these problems are since solved in my new grow room I'm building so I'm looking forward to a much more effortless grow soon. Having that bigger central reservoir will eliminate most of my actual "work".
 
esinohio said:
Shew! No idea how you would only spend 20 min with that many plants! I'm guessing you are using a centralized rez or a couple even for all those plants? Or are you doing 40+ individual buckets? Just topping off 40 buckets would take some time, then correcting ph, etc. Do you have some pictures of your grow room maybe? I had to check the buckets twice a day near the end of flowering due to the speed the plant drank. The chemistry would change so fast it could go from a nice 5.8 to well below 5 in the span of 5 hours or so. So for me that was effort I wasn't expecting. Of course all these problems are since solved in my new grow room I'm building so I'm looking forward to a much more effortless grow soon. Having that bigger central reservoir will eliminate most of my actual "work".
Click to expand...
I run aero and dwc. I have 4- 50gal RES's for aero and I run 6-8 dwc buckets along the sides. But I never top off a dwc bucket, ever. By using a 2" netpot and collar from clone to harvest I can get a full 5gal of nutes in the bucket. I check pH 2 days after a new res is started then i leave it alone. When it has about 1-1\2gal left I change it out with a fresh one. Your problem sounds like too big of a netpot and not enough room for nutes, this is working you, not you working it. You can see pics in my thread, my 3 stages of flower, in hydro. How easy can you move your buckets? By using the collars and no rocks and having the plant tied to the outer bucket lip I can pickup, move, tilt, whatever I need with no spills or plant even moving. And these are 2-1\2 to 6oz plants depending on strain.
 
Ahh makes much more sense now. See I started on the cheap side, the simple 5 gallon bucket setup. While that can work well I quickly found that expanding to larger RES's, like yours, has really solved all my problems. No topping off since it's all tied back to the central reservoir, no Ph'ing pains, etc., etc. Using a 6 inch netpot lid/top for the bucket currently, that is too big? At the plants biggest the 5 gallon bucket would hold roughly 3.5 gallons of water with the roots and all, would using the smaller netpot really make the plants root mass smaller in the 5 gallon bucket?

As for moving the whole plant that is easy. They get rotated every day as it is. Where I ran into problems was doing late stage bucket changes. Trying to lift that mass out and into the new bucket while not toppling it was hard. It was over 6 feet not including the bucket so maneuvering it between buckets could be difficult. So I learned the hard way that size control is important to "make the garden work for you" as you say :) But on my first try out I nabbed well over 8oz from an Auto ( I know I know.. I was young.. confused..) since the plant was such a monster. It's sister plant was slightly bigger and yielded roughly the same amount so I thought it was "normal" for the plants to get that big in DWC.
 
I said nothing about size control of plants. My plants easily hit 5-6' and yield 3.5-7oz. Netpot size does not limit root or plant size, its just there to hold the plant.
 
Superstoner like your tought process , I mean dwc sounds super easy with just devoting 15-20 mins a day. Threads like this make ppl way over think things imo
 
Great looking grow room setup. Too bad about the plants.
I wish I had a little more space to set up something for just a few plants.
Good luck next time.
 
Hey superstoner i got to know do u really have 40+ plants in buckets? are they all just individually set no recirculation? And its really ok to keep them topped up not too much work?
 
I guess I need to do some digging and find these 2" collars you are using. Mine are an easy 4-5" so that is a ton of wasted space. Roughly 3 gallons or 3.5 gallons is all I can fit after you give a small bit of clearance below the netpot so it's simply not possible with my setup. And since they drink an easy gallon a day, that is no room for error hence why I put the extra effort into topping them off. So far my photos have yielded over 7oz of dried/cured smoke so I'm guessing I'm doing something right or just extremely lucky as well as picking strains that yield well. I notice your totals are rising per post! ;-) Must be a typo... hehe.

By size control I had assumed you were clipping/FIM'ing etc since you were an experienced grower. I hadn't on my first few grows so that compounded moving problems when changing out buckets for sterile ones since in my grow area space was at a premium.
 
Right on brother, I did some leg work and found the setup you were mentioning. Certainly looks promising for that extra bit of nutrients in those buckets. I'll have to try some of them out in the new grow room that is slowly taking shape in my new home. Not a 40+ site room like yours but a modest 10 x 10 area. I can only imagine the smell and fresh air in that room of yours...
 
My combined veg/flower room is only 10x11, 6x10 for flower and 5x10 for veg/clone/drying. You could stand 2' from the door to flower room and not know it is there. No such thing as fresh air, a completely sealed room with no exhaust, plants don't need fresh air.
 
A question for all of you that say your dwc is using 1-2 gal per day. What is your room environment like? Does it have exhaust fans? Is humidity and temp controlled? I ask because even my biggest dwc plants(4-6oz+) can go days, even up to two weeks without emptying the 5gal res and they are healthy, happy plants with huge root masses. My room is completely sealed and very tightly controlled which keeps the plants from having to work overtime moving water. With rooms that use exhaust or constant air changes the plants will use much more water because of too much air flow and I was just wandering.
 
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