My first attempt at DWC failed.

[Blue_Focus]

Jumping in with both feet. Read everything I could find. But I started before I was ready. I didn't know that you don't use organics in the water.

I also used tap water that was ran through a carbon filter first. I had to use a lot of PH down to bring it down and it would climb every day.

The water turned brown and stunk like sewage. My roots were brown and gooie. My baby hat turned a bright yellow no matter what I tried.

So I started over. This time I used RO water and Masterblend. I put 10 gallons of RO in a tub and mixed in Masterblend and the PH was perfect.

Only time will tell if she lives. I did trim off the dead roots and I put a dropper to feed the nutrient water from the top until new roots develop.

First photo is before and second is after. She's getting her color back and is growing again.

 

[2WorldsFrog]

Hydroponics is fun when you get it figured out. Stick with it, you'll get there.

 

[Spiderfarmerled]

good luck!

 

[futurebanjo]

good luck!

Yes run sterile, for sure until you get that dialled in - I'm not planning on changing from sterile any time soon, as it intrduces too many new variables to try and understand and difficult to measure, in my opinion.

- also water temperature - it needs to stay low enough to discourage any growth in the water but not so cold it affects the roots, about 18-20c is what you should aim for.

Also how much water capacity is in your system - more volume of water should result in more stable PH levels.

 

[OneHitDone]

Jumping in with both feet. Read everything I could find. But I started before I was ready. I didn't know that you don't use organics in the water.

I also used tap water that was ran through a carbon filter first. I had to use a lot of PH down to bring it down and it would climb every day.

The water turned brown and stunk like sewage. My roots were brown and gooie. My baby hat turned a bright yellow no matter what I tried.

So I started over. This time I used RO water and Masterblend. I put 10 gallons of RO in a tub and mixed in Masterblend and the PH was perfect.

Only time will tell if she lives. I did trim off the dead roots and I put a dropper to feed the nutrient water from the top until new roots develop.

First photo is before and second is after. She's getting her color back and is growing again.

Unless your tap water is super hard or high ppm dirty it probably isn't the issue. I would blame the organics.
After playing with dirt for a few years I am back to where my heart is - full hydro.
I use filtered tap water in my grow (less than 100ppm).
Buckets on the left don't even have air stones in them. They are Kratky buckets that I added a watering system to so they maintain a lower level of water after the plants initially drank them down. ✌

 

[Old Newbee]

That's one hell of a grow room. Good job one hit.

 

[Blue_Focus]

Unless your tap water is super hard or high ppm dirty it probably isn't the issue. I would blame the organics.
After playing with dirt for a few years I am back to where my heart is - full hydro.
I use filtered tap water in my grow (less than 100ppm).
Buckets on the left don't even have air stones in them. They are Kratky buckets that I added a watering system to so they maintain a lower level of water after the plants initially drank them down. ✌

View attachment 5449566

I solved my problem. I bought a new tub and put in 10 gallons of RO and used Masterblend formula. She came back to life and is doing great.

 

[Blue_Focus]

Unless your tap water is super hard or high ppm dirty it probably isn't the issue. I would blame the organics.
After playing with dirt for a few years I am back to where my heart is - full hydro.
I use filtered tap water in my grow (less than 100ppm).
Buckets on the left don't even have air stones in them. They are Kratky buckets that I added a watering system to so they maintain a lower level of water after the plants initially drank them down. ✌

View attachment 5449566

My tap water is around 26 hardness and after running through a 5 micron carbon filter I'm getting around 350+ ppm.

 

[Blue_Focus]

This how it's doing. Still alive.

 

[Old Newbee]

Your roots are looking real good blue. Like banjo said water temp is something to keep eye on. If it gets too warm you will run into root problems also air pump and stones. I got 2-2x4 air stones in each one of my 5 gal buckets just in case one gets plugged up or gets all tangled up in my roots. Im on my 1st dwc grow so I still have a lot to learn but there are a lot of good growers on here with much experience willing to help when needed. I've got a lot of help on here just reading a lot of posts. Here's a couple pics from the 19th day 50. The one with the dark leaves is a mephisto wedding and it is getting very frosted. The other is a mephisto alien triangle.

 

[Blue_Focus]

Well she was looking great until I ran out of water. So I refilled the tub and waited. All the upper parts died. But the lower survived. She looked hopeless but has sprung back and is doing great.

I didn't have any RO left so I used carbon filtered tap water.

I've also added a RO float to my tub. It won't run out of water now.

 

[Delps8]

Well she was looking great until I ran out of water. So I refilled the tub and waited. All the upper parts died. But the lower survived. She looked hopeless but has sprung back and is doing great.

I didn't have any RO left so I used carbon filtered tap water.

I've also added a RO float to my tub. It won't run out of water now.

Sorry to hear about the water problem but glad that you're fixing things!

Hydro has "a lot of moving parts" but, once it's set up, it's close to idiot proof*. While I did manage to poison one of my grows*, it took about two years (6± grows) to get to the point where I can spend < 10 mins a day in the tent.


*About a month into my Spring 2024 grow, the plant wasn't growing well and it looked like the area that was closest to the humidifier was…stunted.
I had been getting algae in the humidifier so I added "a little" H2O2. And a little more. And a little more. You know how it ends, right?
No algae in Hugh but mucked up the plant.

Spring 2024
View attachment 5455782


Fall 2024 (no H2O2) (I foolishly tried to grow two plants instead of one)

 

[CBee]

Hi, im doing a dwc grow for the 1st time, what nutrients are people using for their hydro grows? I have always done a grows in soil, thought I'd give hydro a go. Its just a personal grow so only 2 plants. Thankyou

 

[Delps8]

Hi, im doing a dwc grow for the 1st time, what nutrients are people using for their hydro grows? I have always done a grows in soil, thought I'd give hydro a go. Its just a personal grow so only 2 plants. Thankyou

I did one grow (2017) with Fox, did a few grows with Botanicare when I started up again in 2021, and then switched to Jacks 3-2-1 for RO when I got it through my head that ferts are the same 17 chemicals in roughly the same proportions, all of which will get the job done. Some ferts are premixed which is convenient since you just open and pour, but you're paying for the marketing and to deliver bottles of water to your front door.

Jacks 3-2-1 is a dry, two part fertilizer+Epsom salts. There's a good number of growers here who use it and quite a few message threads about it.

 

[cat shit]

I did one grow (2017) with Fox, did a few grows with Botanicare when I started up again in 2021, and then switched to Jacks 3-2-1 for RO when I got it through my head that ferts are the same 17 chemicals in roughly the same proportions, all of which will get the job done. Some ferts are premixed which is convenient since you just open and pour, but you're paying for the marketing and to deliver bottles of water to your front door.

Jacks 3-2-1 is a dry, two part fertilizer+Epsom salts. There's a good number of growers here who use it and quite a few message threads about it.

Jacks is unavailable in her majesties great Southern colonies. looks like a good simple fertilizer recepie I've tried a few different lines but for coco it's gh calimagic and canna coco a and b. I think canna has a good hydroponic line also. My grow partener featured in this picture is really pushing hard for us to switch to dwc time will tell.

 

[Delps8]

Jacks is unavailable in her majesties great Southern colonies. looks like a good simple fertilizer recepie I've tried a few different lines but for coco it's gh calimagic and canna coco a and b. I think canna has a good hydroponic line also. My grow partener featured in this picture is really pushing hard for us to switch to dwc time will tell.

The Canadians call it "deking" someone as in "that picture deked me".

Canna has a good reputation and, since it's a product line you should be able to get input from other growers if things go sideways.

Re switching to DWC—I've never grown in soil but I like DWC because there's no mystery to it in that, assuming you start with RO, it's only in the res if you put it there. The other issue is that DWC is very quick to respond so if you need to make a change, you can replace everything in the res/system very quickly.

My res is one "tub" that holds 28 gallons of nutes, which is unusually large, so it takes about an hour to mix the nutrients, pump out the res, and refill the res. Smaller systems can be "swapped" in just a few minutes.

After taking some time to work out how things work, hydro is very stable and very low maintenance. For the first couple of years I was growing, I was active mainly on another site where there weren't a lot of hydro growers so I had to bodge my way through things. RIU has a higher % of people who drown their plants so there's more expertise on tap here.

If you're "DWC curious", ask away. I'm happy to provide my tuppence, in case you haven't noticed.

 

[cat shit]

The Canadians call it "deking" someone as in "that picture deked me".

Canna has a good reputation and, since it's a product line you should be able to get input from other growers if things go sideways.

Re switching to DWC—I've never grown in soil but I like DWC because there's no mystery to it in that, assuming you start with RO, it's only in the res if you put it there. The other issue is that DWC is very quick to respond so if you need to make a change, you can replace everything in the res/system very quickly.

My res is one "tub" that holds 28 gallons of nutes, which is unusually large, so it takes about an hour to mix the nutrients, pump out the res, and refill the res. Smaller systems can be "swapped" in just a few minutes.

After taking some time to work out how things work, hydro is very stable and very low maintenance. For the first couple of years I was growing, I was active mainly on another site where there weren't a lot of hydro growers so I had to bodge my way through things. RIU has a higher % of people who drown their plants so there's more expertise on tap here.

If you're "DWC curious", ask away. I'm happy to provide my tuppence, in case you haven't noticed.

Oh your tuppence is duly noticed and appreciated!! I will definitely be switching to dwc in the near future maybe not ro water as my tap water comes out at around 40 ppm but I am on a coco perlite bender and have a ton of autoflower strains to burn through. I plan to start my clone photoperiod runs after I get tired of autoflowers which won't be long. Sourcing seed stock in the land of the young and the free is very frustrating as our customs seem to be very good at their jobs. I have an elderly gromie in south Carolina who I can place orders with and I have a few years worth of good usa genetics. Oops rattling on a bit happy growing from down under