DWC Grows 'em too fast!

What a problem to have. My plants are outgrowing their cabinet before I can get them into flower. Coming up on 2 weeks and I should be changing their nutes, but I don't want them growing much bigger. I've got at least 2 weeks left on my batch in flower, maybe 3, and I don't want to have to build yet another cabinet right now.

Should I let them munch on what's left from the first nute soup or mix up another mild solution?

Here's 1 week ago...


Here's today...



There's no stretching going on...they are just thick and full and could probably go into flower right now but the room isn't available yet.

Any suggestions?

better view

Aero and dwc grow alot faster then most grows.I only veg about 10-12 days so you gotta plan for the accelerated speeds.You can pinch or top them and they will stop going up but will bush out. It will stop upward growth for a week or so

FilthyFletch said:

Aero and dwc grow alot faster then most grows.I only veg about 10-12 days so you gotta plan for the accelerated speeds.You can pinch or top them and they will stop going up but will bush out. It will stop upward growth for a week or so

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Thx Fletch. I just topped them yesterday so I hope they stop their upward growth. They are mere inches from the lights at their highest position.

I heard that DWC gave explosive growth, but jeeezus! I've never had plants look this good in such a short period of time. I planned on 3-4wks veg as opposed to 6-8.

I guess I'll change their nutes at week 3. If they get too big I'll have to harvest a bit earlier than I planned. The res is 26 gallons and I've only had to add 3 or 4 gallons of water in 12 days so the ppm should be within acceptable range. I'm guessing here, I don't have a meter yet.

Time to start planning a taller veg cabinet I guess...

I tend to figure my clones start at abouy 1-2 inches when rooted I put them in my aero setup for 10-12 days and they hit about 12-14 inches then I flower 5 weeks then 2 more weeks of letting smaller lower buds get some light and finish off the harvest

there is a product out there called "Bushmaster".
It kind of stunts vertical growth for a week or two, but they keep getting bushier....
GO VERY LIGHT - this is strong stuff...

Well, got the lights move up and out of the way. they were starting to crisp some leaves. I've cut back to 15/9 to also help slow 'em down. Next week I'll drop them to 12/12 and get a headstart on flowering.

Nice little jungle you got there and good luck with the grow space problem.

your plants look nice. with dwc your gonna need another cab for sure

love your system!! what ferts and clf wattages do you use

How long are you lighting them per day, because if your giving them 24/0 you can drop it down to 16-18 and they wont grow as quickly. Give you a little more time.

hi i just signed up and was checkin out your post. the first thing i can suggest is to switch lights if you have some economic flexability. tek 5's or some sort of lo profile cool electronic floresent bulbs. if you look around you will find single tube electronic fluoresents that dont have a reflector or hanging kits, they have a power cord at one end and another cord at the other so you can piggy back one to another. that will allow for another week or so if you attatch them to the cieling of your cabinet. as far as not having a ec or ppm device there is a rule of thumb. if you set your resivour up and watch its level, you will either loose water rapidly, slowly, or not much at all. if you are not losing much water your nutrient strength may be too high. if it is loosing water rapidly your plants are taking up alot of water because they are matabolizing quickley and need to transpire more water to take up the right amount of food. so it may be too low. if it seems you have not had to add water try diluting your solution, if you have to add water verry often up your solution concentration. i have personally seen what to much hydro solution....you will have saverely wilted plants and the the medium still wet. just like they have not been watered. the other thing that may save you from cutting your flower crop earley is..... if the plants are sitting on or above a resivour, remove the resivour and water by hand, that would give you several more inches.

Man I hate to flaunt my ignorance but wtf does DWC stand for?

Deep water culture.

A method of grow, where the main medium used for the roots is a nutrient solution, you prevent over watering by providing large quantities of air run through air stones to give and even spread of small bubbles.

ahhhhhhhh... I bought a system from Stealth Hydro but haven't used it yet. I need to get some nutes and one or two other things then I'll get it going. I just bought some Big Bud seeds from Nirvana about 2 minutes ago (linked to them from here; gotta support the team!). I grew some outdoors earlier this year; some of the bottom leaves started turning a little yellow and was told by someone that they needed nitrogen. I added some 5-1-1 and killed the crap out if them. I do have pix of one or two of the plants when they were doing really good. They were really bushy and I have no idea what strain. I just got 100 Blueberry seeds from Peak Seeds in BC also and about 20 of them are just popping the seed hulls today. That ought to make an awesome crop!! BTW, I highly reccommend Peak Seeds.

nongreenthumb said:

How long are you lighting them per day, because if your giving them 24/0 you can drop it down to 16-18 and they wont grow as quickly. Give you a little more time.

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Disagree. Longer light periods should give you denser plants. Less light should give you more elongated plants. They do stretch for light right? I'm just throwing this out there, I could be totally wrong.

Wassup guys.

I was able to make the cabinet a few inches taller today. It has a floating bottom so I jacked up the cab so I should be good until Monday.

The plants are on 15/9 right now. I'm seeing a little stretching since switching to that time but it was a welcomed stretch. It was so packed that little light was penetrating, now I've got a bunch of new lower growth. I can't describe how thick and populated this foliage is.

SmokerE said:

Disagree. Longer light periods should give you denser plants. Less light should give you more elongated plants. They do stretch for light right? I'm just throwing this out there, I could be totally wrong.

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you are right 100 percent 24 is the only way for high yeilds due to no streching

SmokerE said:

Disagree. Longer light periods should give you denser plants. Less light should give you more elongated plants. They do stretch for light right? I'm just throwing this out there, I could be totally wrong.

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bubblerking said:

you are right 100 percent 24 is the only way for high yeilds due to no streching

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Nice to see people read and check their facts.


http://www.softsecrets.nl/_public/SSUK2007-03.pdf

check that link out its a pdf, once it has loaded up ok, please select pages on the left hand side and then go to page 60. Read this article and then try again.

bubblerking said:

you are right 100 percent 24 is the only way for high yeilds due to no streching

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what you refer to as stretching is actually normal rate of growth. plants use the energy they get best on a 16 hour day light cycle because they store that light energy and do most of their growing in the 8 hour night. they dont stretch for light during dark periods, they build themselves then.
~example~
plants on 12/12 are flowering and making additional growth hormones within themselves,+ longer night for more time to used stored energy and grow,= plant getting way bigger during flowering.

but leaving lights on will make plants smaller and more bushy because they dont grow nearly as quicklly. I prefer to use the FIM method and leave them on for a 20 hour day period/4 hour night. Gives twice as many bud spots from the FIMming and nodes stay a half of what they would be on a 16/8 timer

anyone else agree with this?????