Playing with DWC

[Geosojda]

Well i decided that growing 8 months out of the year just wasn't enough so i start to dabble in hydro. After much research i decided that the easiest way to start was to use DWC in a simple tupperware tub. Here is a pic of my first tub with both cutting from this years plants and new seedlings. Light is just a T8, planning on upgrading to a MH soon.

I also pulled with Choc Hab plant from the garden and plopped it into a bucket hydro, wasn't really sure what i wanted to do with this plant at the time.

So here we are a couple of weeks later, got some new growth happening and i am starting to lose the cuttings and replace them with seedlings. Also had some algea growing so i tried to stop the light from penetrating with foil.

Fast forward a couple of weeks and these pics were taken today. I added another tub, which i spray painted the top and sides black to help with the light penetration. Also covered the top of the first tub with foil to hopefully control the algae growth. The plants on the left side are thai sun and everything else are super hots with the exception of a couple zavory (nagabon, white bhut, choc bhut, Butch T) i still have one cutting growing that seems to be doing well. The tub on the left uses solo cup with holes and the right i'm using 3" net pots.

Here is a pic of my lighting setup. I picked up 5 high bay MH for 50$, heck of a deal. SO i re-wired to 110 and retrofitted it to made a remote ballast and picked up a cheap reflector online and this is what i got! IT work great, grow has exploded since i upgraded to this over the T8.

Oh, and here is the Choc Hab, i think i'm going to do a hydro bonchi style with it. Its got some really nice new grow right near the fork in the main stem.

So i'm going to try and keep this updated over the winter with what i have learned through this process, the main goal is to get a feel for hydro in general and scale up to a larger system for next season.

 

[Edgie]

Nice! I love DWC setups.I transplanted a seedling to a DWC bucket, recently. With-in 2 weeks the plant has doubled in size and there are roots EVERYWHERE! Good luck with your grow.

 

[spongey600]

nice setup! did the foil reduce the algea? you could also get all black air lines and that will help! i had clear on mine till after 7 days there was algea so i swtched to all black and have not had any algea at all! i even let mine got 14 days between nute change and nothing was wrong except Ph was a little high.

GOOD LUCK

Eric

 

[Geosojda]

Well here we are 14 days after the last pic was taken and things are taking over! I gotta start think where to move these plants now

The largest plants are Thai Sun and the rest are C.Chinense. The thais are gonna have to move the are starting to block out the other plants.

These guys are all younger plants and Chinense too

And here is the choc hab thats got some sort of curled leaf problem...not sure but it still looks pretty good.

all in all things are going well with the DWC, i've got another 4 400w MHs waiting to be set up so the thai with probably have a new home before the next update

 

[Geosojda]

HOW TO CONVERT A HIGH BAY HID LIGHT TO A GROW LIGHT WITH REMOTE BALLAST
DISCLAIMER: Do not attempt this if you are not familiar with electrical setups and wiring. I am not responsible for any damage you may cause in this process. SO with that out of the way


So basically you can save a bunch of money by converting a high bay HID (MH in this case) to a grow light with a remote ballast for convenience. I just picked up 5 high bay MH's for 50$ off craigslist and here is how i converted them.

First off this is what you will start with

BEFORE YOU BUY THE LIGHT MAKE SURE IT IS A MULTITAP LIGHT!
You can tell this buy looking at the label on the light, if there is a range on voltages like here.......then you have a multi-tap light, where is says PRI VOLTS, it lists the voltages this light can be used on. In my case i will be using it on 120v since it will be running off standard household outlets.

Now to wire your light you will need to open this portion of the light

Like this

You will see a bunch of wires labeled with the voltages listed on the label mentioned above. Make sure the 120v wire is connected to the BLACK HOT WIRE that is running out the top of the light. you can see it here by my middle finger.


Next thing i did was cut the end off of a medium to heavy duty extension cord, exposed the wires and connected the wire from the light. Don't just wrap these together and tape them, connect them properly with wire nuts or equivalent.

Now you have power to your light. If you don't want to make a remote ballast you are done!!!

 

[Geosojda]

NOW ONTO THE REMOTE BALLAST

Here is the light reflector/bulb socket i will be using for this light.

FIrst thing is to chop this plug off

now remove the light reflector and bulb socket from the light seen here

Here is what you are left with

Here is what you will need to connect the ballast to the bulbsocket/light reflector, don't skimp get the heavy duty plugs

Connect a ground wire from the plug to the body of the ballast

Now connect the wires from the old bulb socket to the new plug

Take the wire from the light reflector/socket that you chopped earlier and wire it into the other side of the plug (its the black wire)

Thats pretty much all there is to it

 

[Geosojda]

Oh yea and i had to modify the system a bit because these thai plants where getting too big!

Here is the new setup

 

[bushwhackxj]

great looking plants..... looks like you're on your way to growing some amazing peppers indoors while a lot of people envy you i do however have one thing to add. Are those metal buckets you've used for the new DWC added in your last pic? It may be the just the pic deceiving me, but if they are i suggest your first modification is to replace them with plastic. Unfortunately no matter the way the metal is treated, i suspect it will only harm plants. and because of the DWC and all the air pumped around, combined with nutrients... only creates a corrosion farm bucket.

once again though, holy cow... you're grow is looking amazingly healthy. Keep up the great peppers. Cheers

 

[Geosojda]

great looking plants..... looks like you're on your way to growing some amazing peppers indoors while a lot of people envy you i do however have one thing to add. Are those metal buckets you've used for the new DWC added in your last pic? It may be the just the pic deceiving me, but if they are i suggest your first modification is to replace them with plastic. Unfortunately no matter the way the metal is treated, i suspect it will only harm plants. and because of the DWC and all the air pumped around, combined with nutrients... only creates a corrosion farm bucket.

once again though, holy cow... you're grow is looking amazingly healthy. Keep up the great peppers. Cheers

thanks bush,
those buckets are gray plastic, they were the best color i found for blocking the light

 

[megahurts]

What is your tub height? 18Gal tubs with lots of water in them are heavy. I thought that you'd want at least 12in of height for good root development so I may end up using the "full water bottle" displacement technique to help with solution changes and tub relocations. Is there a down side to using a 10Gal tub or are you planning to take these plants outside? I also notice that your pumps are sitting on bubble wrap. Is this for the noise? I have the same kind and its a little loud.

Did you split up the growing plants in the tub to the small buckets because of the individual plant sizes?

I had 5 Bhut Jolokia growing outside with very little success this year. They were from seeds that are second generation from the ones I grew last year. I had given away all my extra seeds because I thought if I could get just a couple pods from these, it would be more than enough. 4 were in the ground and one was in a 5Gal planter and when a cold snap of ~30deg F hit a few weeks ago, they all appeared to have died. I took the bucketed one inside and put it under a light and heat and its started to grow leaves again. I'm thinking its going to come back with a vengence. It looks like the damn Charlie Brown Christmas Tree (just a stick aming straight up) I'm planning on cloning this for a 5 plant site but I am unsure what size resevoir and pots to use yet.

I wish this site's search functions worked better.

Great progress. I dont mean to thread hijack.

MHz

 

[megahurts]

whoops, doubletap...

 

[Geosojda]

What is your tub height? 18Gal tubs with lots of water in them are heavy. I thought that you'd want at least 12in of height for good root development so I may end up using the "full water bottle" displacement technique to help with solution changes and tub relocations. Is there a down side to using a 10Gal tub or are you planning to take these plants outside? I also notice that your pumps are sitting on bubble wrap. Is this for the noise? I have the same kind and its a little loud.

Did you split up the growing plants in the tub to the small buckets because of the individual plant sizes?

I had 5 Bhut Jolokia growing outside with very little success this year. They were from seeds that are second generation from the ones I grew last year. I had given away all my extra seeds because I thought if I could get just a couple pods from these, it would be more than enough. 4 were in the ground and one was in a 5Gal planter and when a cold snap of ~30deg F hit a few weeks ago, they all appeared to have died. I took the bucketed one inside and put it under a light and heat and its started to grow leaves again. I'm thinking its going to come back with a vengence. It looks like the damn Charlie Brown Christmas Tree (just a stick aming straight up) I'm planning on cloning this for a 5 plant site but I am unsure what size resevoir and pots to use yet.

I wish this site's search functions worked better.

Great progress. I dont mean to thread hijack.

MHz

The tubs are probably only about 6inches deep or so, i'm a little strapped for space so these are what i'm going with, plus the lid size is standard so i can just lift them up and put them in a deeper res. if needed. Once they get a little bigger i'm sure i'll relocate them. For the res changes i installed a valve near the bottom of the tub so i just mostly drain them from there and they are easy to handle after that.

THe pumps are on bubble wrap to help with noise, help a little.

I did split those plants up because of their size unfortunatly there was a disaster a week ago, so most of those are dead lol....

For clones i started out in a very small res, ~0.5 gal to get them going, them transplanted to larger system.

UPDATE!
Well, i had a disaster over the thanksgiving weekend.......i won't go into details but i lost 3 plants, luckly they were only Thai sun plants so i'm not too brken up over it. SO here is what i have left.
There are
-2x Choc Bhut
-2x White Bhut
-2x Naga Bon
-2x Zavory
-1x Butch T
-1X Wasp
-1x Thai Sun
-1x mystery clone

Tub number 1

Tub number 2

Tube number 3

Bunch of flowers on the mystery clone, still has not set any pods yet, got to work on that......

Roots!

IF anyone was wondering here are the nuts i am using

 

[TheFanMan]

looks good so far.