Need help with DWC nutrients

HydroDipper420

New Member
so before we get too far I'll explain a few things to avoid a bunch of questions. Im growing in Maine where Medical Marijuana is legal. 6 plants per person and I'll be growing for two 2 people, myself and my roommate, so I plan on growing 12 plants using the DWC and ScrOG method, all indoors. These to me seem to be the most effective for the space, budget and time I have. I will grow 4-5 different strains with 2 strains per setup.

So I'll use (for 2 plants)
- (2) 5 gallon buckets (veg) and (2) 10 gallon buckets for full veg and bloom
-2 air large air stones per bucket
-1 water pump for both buckets
-plastic mesh pot
- Hydroton for my medium
- Rapid rooters for the clones

I am doing it this way so I can grow multiple strains and adjust nutrients as needed for each individual strain instead of running 1 water pump for my entire setup.

I've heard really good things about General Hydroponics and the Flora series which is more than likely what I will use. My big question to anyone who uses Hydroponics is do you use all 3 products throughout the entire lifecycle or no? Also anybody who had experience with DWC feel free to shoot me some tips and advice on anything you've learned.

Thanks guys
 

Major Blazer

Well-Known Member
I am guessing you meant 4-5 strains with 2 PLANTS per setup?

If time and space are issues, you should reconsider ScrOG growing completely. It takes forever, and each plant takes up loads of space. A more efficient setup would be a perpetual ebb/flow, NFT, or multiple site totes and DWC even.

As for your nutrients, a 3 part is a 3 part for the most part. The nice thing about going GH, especially when you're new to this, is that with so many other GH users, you can find a lot of info online for your strain/setup/conditions/etc. And if you plan to go Lucas, loads of info. That said, about using all 3...depends. If you go the Lucas route, you'll only need Micro and Bloom. If you go the manufacturers suggested route, you'll use all 3. Personally I went with Blue Planet Nutrients - in the 1 gal trio you'll save about 30% on nutrient costs. I may try CX nutrients next go around since a couple of their supplements have saved/improved my grow and they seem totally legit.
 

Peele

Member
You use all 3 parts throughout the grow but in different amounts of each depending on the stage of your plants (I've attached the label for you to see). The plants I'm growing seem to only like about half of what's on the label but your plants will let you know if you are feeding them too much or too little when you monitor ppm. Hope this helps.
 

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HydroDipper420

New Member
MAJOR- Yes the same strain in 2 different circulating buckets. So they'll be using the same nutrients and water. As for space and time...I have pretty much an unlimited amount of space for the amount of plants I'll be growing. 2 spare bedrooms plus a large basement. I'm going to dedicate 4'x4' to EACH plant and expect about 4 months from clone to harvest. So time and space isn't an issue especially if I can yield 6 ounces per plant. I don't think that's unrealistic but feel free to correct me if that's wrong considering I've seen it done quite a bit. As far as nutrients I've heard endless positive comments on GH and don't mind spending the extra money however I do plan on having a "test plant" eventually that I will be trying different nutrients, lights, training etc so I'll keep those in mind for sure! Let me know how the CX works out man
PEELE- Thanks for that label man and I appreciate the info on cutting back than what's suggested on the label. I've read that a couple times. But do u mind me asking what strain/strains your growing? and how can you tell whether or not their getting enough nutrients through ppm? I know about nute burn on leaves and the purpling of stems but haven't read about how to tell through ppm yet.

Also any random advice you guys have on root health, pest control, signs of danger etc feel free to let me know. I have much more reading to do but I'll take as MUCH info as I can get for my first grow
 

Peele

Member
I don't know the strain other than it's qush (free but high quality seeds). I wish I knew because so far it's growing short and bushy despite my newbie efforts to kill it off.

Nutrients have been the most frustrating to figure out but I finally read on here from a couple people how to determine if your over or under feeding. Let's say you just gave your plants a fresh bucket of nutrients and you take a ppm reading. If the ppm goes up the next time you take a reading then you are giving your plants too many nutrients, if it goes down you are not giving them enough. Search around and you'll find other more experienced people talking about it.

pH - check it constantly and adjust ... very very very important :shock: Good meters are your best friend.
 
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HydroDipper420

New Member
Oh man good to know! Hahahaha I love the "efforts to kill it off" lmfao. Okay so I have fresh nutrients in there (ppm at 3-400) we'll say.... Next day or two later my ppm goes down (now at 250-350)...add more nutrients. That would make sense because it would be sucking them right the fuck up. Good to know, kinda common sense now that I think of it.

If I remember correctly in watching a video, after a week this guys ppm went from 600 or so and dropped to about 350 or so by the end of the week. So expect nutes to drop in half roughly by the end of the week? Again if I remember correctly he had just started flowering. I will also be supplementing with other nutrients during watering. Not just the GH trio. So I'll prolly have to pay REAL close attention to my plants then.

And then vise versa for over feeding. ppm is at 3-400 Monday and then Wednesday their at 450-500 ppm I would want to back off. Doesn't make sense to me why they would be releasing nutes back into the water tho. Plants are trying to purge maybe? I'll do some more reading for sure tho. HUGE help man. Have you grown before or did you jump right into hydro like myself?

Also if you have extended experience and TO ANYONE READING THIS THREAD what can I expect to see and or what should I shoot for ppm for seedling, veg, full veg, transition and flower? Keep in mind I'll probably be starting with clones. I'll save seeds for when I'm more comfortable. (Clones are harder to fuck up compared to seeds as far as I know)
 

Peele

Member
Yeah once it's explained to you a light bulb goes on. You'll want to check pH and nutes frequently. I check at least once a day with this being my first grow. Good luck with everything!
 

Major Blazer

Well-Known Member
Nutrients have been the most frustrating to figure out but I finally read on here from a couple people how to determine if your over or under feeding. Let's say you just gave your plants a fresh bucket of nutrients and you take a ppm reading. If the ppm goes up the next time you take a reading then you are giving your plants too many nutrients, if it goes down you are not giving them enough.
It is a good general rule of thumb however, if your plants are locked out for something else (say pH) then it is not an accurate indicator. But yes, read your meters and your plants, they speak the troof.
 

Major Blazer

Well-Known Member
Oh man good to know! Hahahaha I love the "efforts to kill it off" lmfao. Okay so I have fresh nutrients in there (ppm at 3-400) we'll say.... Next day or two later my ppm goes down (now at 250-350)...add more nutrients. That would make sense because it would be sucking them right the fuck up. Good to know, kinda common sense now that I think of it.
Yes an no, sometimes you'll want to just top off with fresh water. But it is a good gauge as to what your plants are doing.

If I remember correctly in watching a video, after a week this guys ppm went from 600 or so and dropped to about 350 or so by the end of the week. So expect nutes to drop in half roughly by the end of the week? Again if I remember correctly he had just started flowering. I will also be supplementing with other nutrients during watering. Not just the GH trio. So I'll prolly have to pay REAL close attention to my plants then.
You may want to chill on the supplements. There are plenty of commercial growers who rely on lucas only formula of GH and get damn good results. Your plants dont need supplements and it makes it really difficult to determine what they need more or less of when there are a dozen nutrients being mixed into your water. Also for the expectations - don't have any. Every strain is different and will react to the seemingly infinite number of variables differently. Some plants love higher doses, some do not. Lighting and age of plant make a huge difference as well. Right now I have two girls about half way through their 2nd week of flower cycle and their roots fill the bucket. You cannot compare their current feed rate to what it was a month ago or a month from now.

And then vise versa for over feeding. ppm is at 3-400 Monday and then Wednesday their at 450-500 ppm I would want to back off. Doesn't make sense to me why they would be releasing nutes back into the water tho. Plants are trying to purge maybe? I'll do some more reading for sure tho. HUGE help man. Have you grown before or did you jump right into hydro like myself?
Think clearly - if you have a plant sitting in 1 gallon of water with 100ppm and in one week, you see the ppm rise to 150. Well sure the nutrient concentration has gone up 50% but guess what, your water level is half way down. So now you know that your plant is nutrient locked. Why? Because it drank 50% of the water but zero percent of the nutrients thereby raising the ppm by 50%, or 50ppm. The plant is not releasing nutrients, its just simply not consuming them. None of those numbers have any relevance except to make for easy math but hopefully you get the idea.

I will tell you that I jumped right into hydro years ago when a company called stealth hydro had all inclusive kits with 2 part feed and a bubbleponics system. I killed my first plant to pythium bc i ignored res temps for the most part. The 2nd plant was a success in that I could smoke the buds but the yield was complete shit. Then i had a couple good runs all things considered and took a break for a while. Now I'm running with my first photoperiod plants, started from seed and cloned for the first time, and made my own RDWC system with ScrOG. I have learned a little each time and would probably have failed this go around had it not been for past experience, which more than anything taught me the value of patience.

Also if you have extended experience and TO ANYONE READING THIS THREAD what can I expect to see and or what should I shoot for ppm for seedling, veg, full veg, transition and flower? Keep in mind I'll probably be starting with clones. I'll save seeds for when I'm more comfortable. (Clones are harder to fuck up compared to seeds as far as I know)
Again - too many variables. First off people will school you about using ppm as a reference since to calculate ppm, there is no international standard and because of that, one meter may read 500 ppm while another reads 400 ppm and neither are wrong, just different math. EC is considered to be more universal bc all PPM calculations are based off of it. But to over simplify and generalize, if you're running DWC, straight tap water (assuming non hard conditions apply) for seedling, vegging clones prob below 200, full veg around 400, and in flower, up and up as time passes. DWC doesn't require the high concentrations other hydro setups do b/c the nutrients are so readily available to the plant. Think about a 5 gal bucket FULL of roots compared to a rockwool cube.

Crawl before you walk. Start really small. Grab a clone from your source, drop it in a bucket with an airstone from wally world and veg it under cfl. Use only a base 2 part or 3 part nutrient solution. Buy a solid pH meter and EC/TDS/PPM meter - journal the changes. If you make it to flower, switch out the bulb or for a little more fun, add a bobo LED or something. You'll spend almost nothing but the knowledge gained will be invaluable and you can repurpose all that stuff.
 
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shorelineOG

Well-Known Member
Oh man good to know! Hahahaha I love the "efforts to kill it off" lmfao. Okay so I have fresh nutrients in there (ppm at 3-400) we'll say.... Next day or two later my ppm goes down (now at 250-350)...add more nutrients. That would make sense because it would be sucking them right the fuck up. Good to know, kinda common sense now that I think of it.

If I remember correctly in watching a video, after a week this guys ppm went from 600 or so and dropped to about 350 or so by the end of the week. So expect nutes to drop in half roughly by the end of the week? Again if I remember correctly he had just started flowering. I will also be supplementing with other nutrients during watering. Not just the GH trio. So I'll prolly have to pay REAL close attention to my plants then.

And then vise versa for over feeding. ppm is at 3-400 Monday and then Wednesday their at 450-500 ppm I would want to back off. Doesn't make sense to me why they would be releasing nutes back into the water tho. Plants are trying to purge maybe? I'll do some more reading for sure tho. HUGE help man. Have you grown before or did you jump right into hydro like myself?

Also if you have extended experience and TO ANYONE READING THIS THREAD what can I expect to see and or what should I shoot for ppm for seedling, veg, full veg, transition and flower? Keep in mind I'll probably be starting with clones. I'll save seeds for when I'm more comfortable. (Clones are harder to fuck up compared to seeds as far as I know)
I have been growing hydro and never check ppm. Use dynagro or botanicare pure blend and cal mag. I use tap water also. Top off with water in between reservoir changes. Use a base nutrient no additives and learn to read the plants, every strain is different. you can start off with a weak solution and add more nutrient as needed. I know so many people that rely on meters and ignore plants. PH drifts a lot and that's okay, you can also have PH at 7.5 and plants are just fine. Hydro is super easy, if you stay basic.
 

HydroDipper420

New Member
All you guys have been a huge help. So all in all I'll pay more attention to my plants than numbers. Obviously keeping the numbers in check as I increase/decrease. Is a 10 gallon tote too big for my plants? I was going to use a 10 gallon tote and (after double checkin my space availability) use a 3x3 ScrOG net for each plant. I don't want to worry about root bound plants. I'd like those roots to get plenty of space even if it means adding more nutrients (to keep ppm up) and more water. Double air stones for each bucket. Etc. I will MOST DEFINITELY be checking my plants every day. I want to be able to jump on any issues as soon as I see anything out of the ordinary and correct it as soon as possible. I will most definitely get a ppm, ph, thermometers. I have about 2 grand to spend so I plan on getting the best I can to start with. 2 1000 watt mh/hps, the best hoods with good venting and filter. Quality nutes, stones, everything. And for 6 plants 2 G's is realistic with wiggle room.
Can I avoid getting a filter if I'm not worried about the smell? Also do I have to vent outside or can I circulate back into the room? I assume re-circulation would bring my temps up a little but as long as I'm between 70-80 I'll be happy. I've done quite a bit of research on all the extras so I'm semi-comfortable with everything except nutrients. But I'll continue to research and ask questions as I go on. So far you guys have been very helpful.
 
hey buddy, I'm from maine too. I live up in the county.
Personally I use the ph perfect nutes.
a 10 gallon bucket per plant is in the small side, I'd go with a 14 gal tub.
Personally I use 18 gallon totes, growing one or two in a tote.
Remember sometimes, less can be more.
one plant grown in dwc in a good sized tote can yield close to a lb.
How many lights do you have for those 10 plants?
For reference, the most I'll put under a 1000 watt light is four plants.
Sometimes I'll only grow one or two and this works out great for me.
Ten would be too many.
 

medicalMonster

Well-Known Member
I read the answers. I would look elsewhere for help. Their are very very bad and un educated people here. Alot of internet growers too with no experience.

Jorge Cervantes has great dvds. Things like ph pen, ppm, etc are all fundamentals. If you dont have then your a low end hobbyist. Which is fine. But know you are a low end nobody grower.

Wow bad fucking answers. Please dl or buy some real info, and read more from known growers.

This isnt a shot to you, its to help you because Im reading answers that will fuck you up SOOOOOO bad in hydro. Like... wtf
 

twistedwords

Well-Known Member
Why do you need 10 gallon buckets for DWC? You really only need around 2.0 gallons of water in any DWC setup, in the bucket and 3.5 to 5 gallon buckets are just fine for indoors, outdoors is different. To answer your question yes you can grow many different types of strains in the DWC system, but the only challenge is some strains require more nutrients than others so you might see your PPM drop off and have to stay on top of it more than you would with just a single strain. Lastly, different strains flower times are different so you might end up with cutting down some earlier than others.
 

shorelineOG

Well-Known Member
Why do you need 10 gallon buckets for DWC? You really only need around 2.0 gallons of water in any DWC setup, in the bucket and 3.5 to 5 gallon buckets are just fine for indoors, outdoors is different. To answer your question yes you can grow many different types of strains in the DWC system, but the only challenge is some strains require more nutrients than others so you might see your PPM drop off and have to stay on top of it more than you would with just a single strain. Lastly, different strains flower times are different so you might end up with cutting down some earlier than others.
I use five gallon buckets indoor and my bigger plants drink almost a gallon of water a day.
 

Major Blazer

Well-Known Member
All you guys have been a huge help. So all in all I'll pay more attention to my plants than numbers. Obviously keeping the numbers in check as I increase/decrease. Is a 10 gallon tote too big for my plants? I was going to use a 10 gallon tote and (after double checkin my space availability) use a 3x3 ScrOG net for each plant. I don't want to worry about root bound plants. I'd like those roots to get plenty of space even if it means adding more nutrients (to keep ppm up) and more water. Double air stones for each bucket. Etc. I will MOST DEFINITELY be checking my plants every day. I want to be able to jump on any issues as soon as I see anything out of the ordinary and correct it as soon as possible. I will most definitely get a ppm, ph, thermometers. I have about 2 grand to spend so I plan on getting the best I can to start with. 2 1000 watt mh/hps, the best hoods with good venting and filter. Quality nutes, stones, everything. And for 6 plants 2 G's is realistic with wiggle room.
Can I avoid getting a filter if I'm not worried about the smell? Also do I have to vent outside or can I circulate back into the room? I assume re-circulation would bring my temps up a little but as long as I'm between 70-80 I'll be happy. I've done quite a bit of research on all the extras so I'm semi-comfortable with everything except nutrients. But I'll continue to research and ask questions as I go on. So far you guys have been very helpful.
10gal totes are fine - more stability for sure which is awesome when they start drinking a gal + per day.

Nutrients are the easiest thing to understand. Basic 2 and 3 parts are pretty much all the same for the purposes of this thread. Add less when plant is young, add more as it needs, adjust ratios in flower. Add cal mag if you use 100% ro.
 
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