couple newbie dwc questions

will a gallon of each flora bloom micro and gro be enough nutrients for 12 plants beginning to harvest?

also shouldnt my buckets be as close together as possible? in every dwc bucket grow they are spaced out somewhat. my veg light is a t5 12 bulb 4x3 foot. so this is approx the exact footprint of the 12 5 gallong buckets. is the answer that surrounding them in reflective material allows me to space them out and still get maximum lumens?

thanks

You should put reflective material around them to maximize the light hitting the plant. The ladies will be cramped in a 4x3 space I am cramped with 2 plants in a 3'x3' space but some train their plants or do a SCROG. May not want to top if your growing that many? Good question on nutes 1Q has lasted me 3 months now for 3 plants

thanks any other tips?

Make sure you have good ventilation of hot hair not just air movement, you need to remove the hot air somehow.

Keep T-5's close to the plants (inches) with HID you want to increase that because of the heat they generate I think rule of thumb is around 10-18" most say 18" but I keep mine a little closer because I have fans blowing on bulb and great air movement out of the tent.

Check PH daily, lower temps of buckets using frozen water bottles (I do this daily) keep a bunch in the freezer.

Go slow don't rush adding nutrients your plants I'd say from seed 1-2 weeks without any nutrients, once you have the first set of TRUE leaves not the baby leaves that come out you can add a tiny bit of nutrients each week slowly add a bit more until you hit full strength. You should be able to flower after 1 month to 6 weeks some go 12/12 from seed keeping plants short, perhaps this is what you should do considering your space restrictions.

Make sure you have adequate room to work around the plants you don't want not be able to access your back plant or one stuck in the middle... For this reason many choose a recirculating DWC which hooks all your buckets up to a control reservoir so you only have to check one bucket and the rest all run off the main reservoir. Lowering temps is easier because you can put 2L frozen bottles in and drop temps, PH the reservoir when needed empty and change nutrients etc.

Do your research before you start post up any questions good group of helpful people here, we all help each other no question is stupid some come on with it!

thanks weedler space is not really an issue i was just wondering if my 12 bulb t5 would not work as well if i spaced out the plants to wider than the footprint of the lamp

Yes this will lose their effectiveness but how tall are you going to veg your plants? If around a foot then go for it what are you flowering under?

khakiman said:

thanks weedler space is not really an issue i was just wondering if my 12 bulb t5 would not work as well if i spaced out the plants to wider than the footprint of the lamp

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Thats a huge T5 dude I can Veg 6 plants in 5 gallon sport coolers with a 6 bulb 30,000 Lumen T5, 12 should be perfect for what you got. but yeah that space is gonna get massed cramped i use a old small walk in closet thats 6' x' 5' x 8' high and i am only flowering 4 ( One runt grew gonna use her for hash and keeping one mother for clones) anyways the 4 plants are cramped I even took out the portable AC now that its cool .