First attempt at DWC. Advice please!

My setup is:
4x4x1.5 feet
5g bucket
24in fluorescent lighting
Air pump & tubing
Hydroton
Ph down

Unfortunately I don't have too many seeds or good ones at that. I probably should have thought of that before leaving California... Texas doesn't have good weed to get seeds from. Basically what I've done is sprouted the seedling in the rockwool and put it in the net-pop with the hydroton around it. I've checked the ph which is between 5.5 and 6. I haven't yet been able to get a digital meter nor the nutrients. Do I have to have the air pump running even though the root isn't anywhere near touching the water... Seeing as how it's only been a few days since it sprouted. What are the the best nutrients at a moderate price? What else do I need besides a ph meter? How can I tell if it's going to be a female or male plant? Is the water supposed to get a bit thick? Advice, suggestions and opinions would greatly be appreciated.

I'm tired of this dirt weed out here! Miss that danky, frosty and sticky ass og I'd get at the dispensaries.

u need to talk to my bro https://www.rollitup.org/members/hellraizer30-34155.html
he can get u set up

You can rais water where it almost touching. and i would suggest ph meter and EC/PPM meter as well and temp meter. u want to keep the water temp nice a cool i suggest 60-65 F and in your grow area u want 75-78 F temp hits 80 u need to work on keeping the room cooler. Then Nuts i would go with sensi grow and bloom and then aquashield and ca/lmag + . Ph up and down. think that is a good line to start on and u can add additvies slowely to the mix. and the more bubbles the better

WcoastTokin said:

My setup is:
4x4x1.5 feet
5g bucket
24in fluorescent lighting
Air pump & tubing
Hydroton
Ph down

Unfortunately I don't have too many seeds or good ones at that. I probably should have thought of that before leaving California... Texas doesn't have good weed to get seeds from. Basically what I've done is sprouted the seedling in the rockwool and put it in the net-pop with the hydroton around it. I've checked the ph which is between 5.5 and 6. I haven't yet been able to get a digital meter nor the nutrients. Do I have to have the air pump running even though the root isn't anywhere near touching the water... Seeing as how it's only been a few days since it sprouted. What are the the best nutrients at a moderate price? What else do I need besides a ph meter? How can I tell if it's going to be a female or male plant? Is the water supposed to get a bit thick? Advice, suggestions and opinions would greatly be appreciated.

I'm tired of this dirt weed out here! Miss that danky, frosty and sticky ass og I'd get at the dispensaries.

Click to expand...

Attitude is a good source for seeds.

You should run the air pump constantly it keeps your water from becoming stagnant and keeps a lot of pathogens out. And the spray that comes off the water surface is what actually gets water to your plant. Unless you're using a waterfarm kit.

Heard good things about cutting edge which is cheap. Ionic is cheap. Gh flora series. Get some calmag and some sort of pathogen control like h2o2 or teas. If your res conditions are good 60-66 you can use teas which supposedly are more foolproof than h2o2. The problem with h2o2 is that you need to apply it religiously every 3 days in order to prevent the bad bacteria outgrowing the good. Because h2o2 doesn't discriminate. It kills good and bad bacteria.

Definitely get a ph and EC meter. They're tools you use to "listen" to your plants as BBC says. Like that one.

Next time wait till your plant has a good deal of roots coming out the bottom of the RW and make sure the RW isn't getting too wet. I'm pumping like 10L/min into my buckets so I get tons of spray and in order to prevent my RW from soaking is lowering the water level a few inches from bottom of pots. Id try right under the pot to start though and if you find your RW saturated lower the water level.

It shouldn't ever get thick.

And you can tell when your plant is sexually mature and spits off either hairs or pollen sacks. Pollen sacks are bad! Unless you're a breeder. Think that answered it all.

Oh! Welcome to RIU!

I get mine from single seed center... Bit cheaper faster then attitude.

I get fast service from attitude. As early as 5 business days after ordering. 3 outta 5 order were that way. They are pricey ill give ya that. I live in the east coast...attitude might take longer to west coast

Thanks for all of your input guys!
Now I have a quick question.
I just checked the ph level in the water and it went from 5.5 to 7 by today. Is that normal after having put some root food?

firsttimeARE said:

I get fast service from attitude. As early as 5 business days after ordering. 3 outta 5 order were that way. They are pricey ill give ya that. I live in the east coast...attitude might take longer to west coast

Click to expand...

Ya I have used both with 3-5 days both.. single seed just seems to be lightning fast for me.. and they have more single seed selction then the tude.. I don't buy 10 or 15 seeds at at time

ph meters can be pretty finicky, usually they dont go up that much in a day. you can use tap water to check it, usually thats pretty constant ph.
but in general they do tend to creep up during veg and early flower. add a couple ml ph down to be safe.
i just add like 1-2 ml per gallon to the water i top my res off with and only have to check it once a week or so.

and i would raise the water level til its barely touching the bottom of the net pot, and let it lower as it evaporates and roots grow. air pump yes. also make sure no light is getting in your bucket, black ones are best, or line it with foil. change and clean your res completely before you start flower, but they can probably use the same veg nutrients for 3 weeks.

mufastaa said:

ph meters can be pretty finicky, usually they dont go up that much in a day. you can use tap water to check it, usually thats pretty constant ph.
but in general they do tend to creep up during veg and early flower. add a couple ml ph down to be safe.
i just add like 1-2 ml per gallon to the water i top my res off with and only have to check it once a week or so.

and i would raise the water level til its barely touching the bottom of the net pot, and let it lower as it evaporates and roots grow. air pump yes. also make sure no light is getting in your bucket, black ones are best, or line it with foil. change and clean your res completely before you start flower, but they can probably use the same veg nutrients for 3 weeks.

Click to expand...

Pfft.. I bought my Blue Labs over 2 years ago.. never store it in solution just use it. I bought calibration solution, but every check it is dead on.. you need to stop buying cheap ass meters if you want to be productive. I mean I used Hannah, Milwaukee etc.. until I said enough. $300 for BlueLabs is alot but PH/EC measuring now is super easy, fast and accurate. When it was slow, annoying and never sure if it was accurate with the others, plus they always needed calibration.

Don't bitch if you buy cheap and expect it to work like a better engineered instrument.

well if you have big pockets go for a trimeter. ph, ppm, and temp. constant display.

mine works fine for 20 bucks and i can check it whenever with tap water. + I hardly use it cause i know what im doing now.

mufastaa said:

well if you have big pockets go for a trimeter. ph, ppm, and temp. constant display.

mine works fine for 20 bucks and i can check it whenever with tap water. + I hardly use it cause i know what im doing now.

Click to expand...

Must be nice.. I am always learning.

BigBuddahCheese said:

Must be nice.. I am always learning.

Click to expand...

You can always learn more ^___^

Bigz2277 said:

You can always learn more ^___^

Click to expand...

amen
thats why we here to learn more and share it

+rep! Let's see some pictures my dude

Since I don't have a desktop I can only use my phone. I've tried plenty of times but it just won't let me... I wish there were a email I can mail them to!

Like evey good marijuana smoke I figured it out lol

Nice! It's easy as hell aint it? Would it be a bother if I asked to see the inside of your 5 gal bucket? With airstones turned off? I like the setup. I've been wanting to switch to flourescents also, CFLs put off light everywhere, with a hood on tubes it's directed to one place

Far too easy! Before actually doing it I thought it to be complicated. Lol yeah no doubt but it's dirty as fuck cause of the hydroton... I now know that I need to rinse them out first next time.