growpotsmoke
Active Member
how long will my plants last if the power goes out in a DWC setup?? meaning no air stone running.sorry if this is a stupid question
if my power goes out???
- Thread starter growpotsmoke
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Mcgician
Well-Known Member
Let me be the first to say, that's not a stupid question. A really good one actually. A lot better than someone asking if it's ok to rip farts around their plants...lol. I've never done DWC growing myself, but so long as the plants have adequate water, they should live for at least a couple days. They may go into shock and show signs of stress which you may have to nurse them back from, but they should probably live. Aeroflow setups are easily the most vulnerable to power outages though.
NeoAnarchist
Well-Known Member
idk man, my power went out for a couple hours, seems like they could live for maybe 6hrs tops, after that id think it would start to look more overwatered, cuz the lack of air in it.
trayne
Active Member
well i can tell ya!
i just went campin a few weeks ago. i had a bin of 20 babies and a res of 4 girls all about 1' 2" tall with great strong root masses. now i was tryin to get the res low in the girls so i can change to 222 without wasting nutes. and i didnt have an ac yet. i left for camping and my god it was the hottest its been this year. 110. i was gone for a day n half.
when i came back i went n looked at my plants. the res was horrible. the plants loooked like a sog and were soo full it was awsome. now they were just stems n all the plants were leaning over brown n nasty. this happend cuz they drank the rest of the water n it also reached 96 in the room. NOT GOOD.
my babies, well, they had water. but dummmy me forgot to plug the air hoses back onto the pump after i moved a few plants...... about 8 had roots that were makin it to the water and 1 had good size mass that i shouldve moved too but i didnt think it was ready yet. the rest were clones that hadnt rooted yet. it also got to about 95 in there.
now presently i through out all the babies sept the good sized one he did survive n didnt wilt too much. and the four in the res well i threw one of those away. he was just too dead. but all the others are living good again. def arent as lush as before but are alive n healthy again. took about 3 weeks for them to recover tho. heres some pics of before i left and after i got back. and now
so all in all if your plants have goood size n roots n your air pump goes out. dont panic you have a few days to go get one before it starts dying, n id say the smaller the plant the less time you have. if you completley run out of water it will immediatly start dying, think about when you pull a plant or weed out of the ground and you put it in the pile and keep goin. in only 5 minutes the plant is goin to look completely different . and wilted . but if you can get to it quick enough you can nurse them back like i did.
i just went campin a few weeks ago. i had a bin of 20 babies and a res of 4 girls all about 1' 2" tall with great strong root masses. now i was tryin to get the res low in the girls so i can change to 222 without wasting nutes. and i didnt have an ac yet. i left for camping and my god it was the hottest its been this year. 110. i was gone for a day n half.
when i came back i went n looked at my plants. the res was horrible. the plants loooked like a sog and were soo full it was awsome. now they were just stems n all the plants were leaning over brown n nasty. this happend cuz they drank the rest of the water n it also reached 96 in the room. NOT GOOD.
my babies, well, they had water. but dummmy me forgot to plug the air hoses back onto the pump after i moved a few plants...... about 8 had roots that were makin it to the water and 1 had good size mass that i shouldve moved too but i didnt think it was ready yet. the rest were clones that hadnt rooted yet. it also got to about 95 in there.
now presently i through out all the babies sept the good sized one he did survive n didnt wilt too much. and the four in the res well i threw one of those away. he was just too dead. but all the others are living good again. def arent as lush as before but are alive n healthy again. took about 3 weeks for them to recover tho. heres some pics of before i left and after i got back. and now
so all in all if your plants have goood size n roots n your air pump goes out. dont panic you have a few days to go get one before it starts dying, n id say the smaller the plant the less time you have. if you completley run out of water it will immediatly start dying, think about when you pull a plant or weed out of the ground and you put it in the pile and keep goin. in only 5 minutes the plant is goin to look completely different . and wilted . but if you can get to it quick enough you can nurse them back like i did.
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growpotsmoke
Active Member
thank you all so much for the info so far.
kindone
Active Member
you can buy battery powered aerators at target for like 8 bucks , along with some battery powered flood lights I would think you could keep them alive on life support for a few days even a week. I am sure I will find out eventually as I am now growing in water and every few years a good storm will take my power out for few days
henleyhaze
Well-Known Member
well let me tell you my personal experience. I somehow removed the air hose from the pump on night right before I went to bed I woke up for my morning check and they were droopy as all hell could be and falling over I reconnected the air pump hose and the roots had already turned to a nasty brown. they died.... during a power outtage I acutally lift the plants up out of the water and pour a cup of res water through the roots about every 10 minutes. if it's gonna be out for a while I have a generator at my work I go steal lol
Mr. Gone
Active Member
I imagine an uninterruptible power supply or one of those self contained car battery chargers could power just the air pump for quite some time. The dual outlet walmart air pump only runs 6W or so; even a small UPS could run that for hours, maybe days, and it would kick in automagically in a blackout. You might still have some stress depending on how the light cycle is interrupted, but the plant would be much healthier if the reservoir is still being oxygenated.