• If you need help identifying a pepper, disease, or plant issue, please post in Identification.

soil mrgrowguy's 2014 DWC hydro and Soil comparison

 part 1



Indoor grow box made from an old dresser converted to a stealth box. Housing a 125watt fluoro grow light which does wonders for vegging.

DWC reservoir made from an extra plastic bin laying around which I painted to keep the light off of the roots and cut holes for the net pots which I bought at the local Hydro store.

Wide mix of conservatively added nutrients, based on FloraNova Grow and Bloom
 
I will make a part 2 after some time passes and a few hundred pictures later.

I moved the whole grow outdoors and all of the flowers are setting and growing pods. It was difficult to get the pods to set with only the grow light. Though I did get a few to set.
 
Update on the progress showing the direct comparison
 
IMG_8056-Copy_zps657716fa.jpg
IMG_8073-Copy_zps1c56af6e.jpg
IMG_8074-Copy_zps6f74d349.jpg
IMG_8087-Copy_zps0677b4d3.jpg
 
Good looking plants man. Btw how big is that blue dwc container with the Carolina reaper plant? And do you plan on growing them in there together forever?
 
xxkamikazexx said:
Good looking plants man. Btw how big is that blue dwc container with the Carolina reaper plant? And do you plan on growing them in there together forever?
 
Thanks!
 
It is about (sorry I'm at work) 30" wide x 15" long x 7-9" tall.
 
So far, I do not actually have a plan. I can easily take the net pots out and put them in a larger reservoir, or I can make a separate reservoir to feed into that one. It is large enough the roots will become a crazy bird's nest after a year or two, but so far there is more than enough room for months worth of growing.
 
Also, how well that plant does in bearing fruit may make me decide on doing something completely different.
 
So, not really sure what the future holds for those plants, but this year they will finish out in that blue bucket.
 
The only problem I would have in removing the net pots with the plants in them is damage to the roots, which shouldnt be enough to kill them if I do it early next winter (I live in Southern California so the winter weather here is nice, I do not need to "over-winter" them). We even had heat waves in January this year in the high 80's low 90's believe it or not.
 
But most likely, I will end up adding more hydro reservoirs and end up putting in a "main" reservoir to feed multiple buckets. We will see...
 
That hollowed out stump looks awesome!!! I'll check in from time to time. I just started my first dwc, dont really know what im doing but im givin it a whirl!!!
 
Nice grow so far. I don't know much about DWC, but won't the temps from being outside increase the water temp of the reservoir?

Neil
 
mrgrowguy said:
 
Thanks!
 
It is about (sorry I'm at work) 30" wide x 15" long x 7-9" tall.
 
So far, I do not actually have a plan. I can easily take the net pots out and put them in a larger reservoir, or I can make a separate reservoir to feed into that one. It is large enough the roots will become a crazy bird's nest after a year or two, but so far there is more than enough room for months worth of growing.
 
Also, how well that plant does in bearing fruit may make me decide on doing something completely different.
 
So, not really sure what the future holds for those plants, but this year they will finish out in that blue bucket.
 
The only problem I would have in removing the net pots with the plants in them is damage to the roots, which shouldnt be enough to kill them if I do it early next winter (I live in Southern California so the winter weather here is nice, I do not need to "over-winter" them). We even had heat waves in January this year in the high 80's low 90's believe it or not.
 
But most likely, I will end up adding more hydro reservoirs and end up putting in a "main" reservoir to feed multiple buckets. We will see...
I see, yeah I ask because I started my first grow during the winter in an aeroponic system here in Texas. I, like you, also didn't have a plan and just let time and their growth decide for me. My container is about half the size of yours though but the plant growth was pretty crazy for just three months; so much so that I ended up transplanting them to soil. 

Here's a couple pictures of my winter grow.
 
Picture of my five plants in early December.
ypeAFkF.jpg

 
 
Now a picture of them around two months in.
 
UztdKaY.jpg

 
 
At three months they had grown pretty big, even the main stem was really thick for my biggest plant( Bhut Jolokia Indian Carbon)
 
hjX3yrJ.jpg

 
That Bhut Jolokia transplanted into a giant pot with soil.
 
SdQFeo1.jpg

 
Along with the other four I had in that tiny container. Anyway, keep us updated man, I'd love to see your DWC results for this season.
 
8w8jEHv.jpg
 
Blister said:
Nice grow so far. I don't know much about DWC, but won't the temps from being outside increase the water temp of the reservoir?

Neil
 
So far I have been leaving my submersible aquarium heater in the reservoir to keep the temps up. Once it gets to summer time, then I may have to deal with it, though it actually doesn't get all that hot here in So. California. A summertime heatwave here gets to the mid 90's. A few days a year we may hit a triple digit, but that's super rare.
 
 
 
@ xxkamikazexx I see, those are some nice plants!Gotta love the trunk size on that one.
 
Did you have any shock issues transferring to the soil, say within two weeks after transplanting them?
 
I also super trimmed them and only left the top set of leaves after transplanting. My smallest plant did have some shock but very slight where a leaf had a scorched tip but that's about it. All the old growth has not grown much but there is tons of new growth below that on all the plants; they look like mad bushes now. The fist week after transplanting is when there was no visible progress though. I supposed that it was because they had the wrong type of roots and were instead growing soil roots. They picked up nicely at about two weeks after transplanting, along with that scotched leaf at around the third week.
 
Thank you! good to know in case I end up going that route. I will try to upkeep the DWC for now, but you never know... :)
 
I will try to get some pictures of the DWC Jalapenos that are growing. There are a lot of little pod starts on on of the Carolina Reaper plant, but the Jalapeno is the one that has the most. You can't see it in the pictures which I have taken so far, but the DWC Jalapeno plant has 20-30 very nice pods going, some already getting quite large.
 
One of the Trinidad Moruga Scorpions has a few, 3-5 pods started, and the Butch T has about 5 pods on it, but they are all small. The DWC is really doing SUPER well for the Jalapeno. Can't wait to get some fruit to set on the DWC TMS and CR.
 
thirdcoasttx said:
I'm really liking growing in dwc. Its amazing how fast things grow. Looking forward to seeing those pics.
Heck yea
 
Here are some pictures of the Jalapeno pods. I took these a few days before I promised them on my phone, so the quality is a little less, but you can still see a few of the pods. -- And a top view to see the width.
 
IMG_20140402_184554_371_zps3jygbgh6.jpg
IMG_20140402_184526_008_zpsfqbpz1us.jpg
IMG_20140402_184454_567_zpsv9rnvlxm.jpg
 
Ok, so I got a little ahead of myself and i figured, heck, i grew 'em, I can eat 'em when I want. So I snipped one of the DWC Jalapenos off and tried it. Keep in mind that I harvested these seeds from the best jalapeno plant I have in the ground from last year.
 
This pepper was the hottest, tastiest, and thickest walled peno I have ever had from my own grow. And it is likely the hottest one I have ever had even from commercial grows. I wish I snapped some pics, but the pod was definitely not mature and still had the thickest walls I have ever produced. They rivaled the thickness of full grown jalapenos from the super market.
 
The flavor was smooth but intense. Lots of flavor for a pod that would still have a good month before starting to ripen. You could see how young the pod was by the seeds, they were super white (full size) but not nearly fully developed.
 
The soil grow from the same harvested seeds does have a pod or two on it, but they are only about the length of a quarter, so I cannot yet compare them directly.
 
But I figured, I was so impressed with the result of my playing around that I would share the experience.
 
phew, that little guy was HOT!!! and delicious! --- for a jalapeno!
 
Back
Top