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root size in dwc

spongey600

spongey600

Hello, i will post pics tonight but i have 2 plants a brain starin and douglah i put the dwc in august. The douglah is small but its roots are good.size the brainstrain is much taller with a smaller root system. Any ideas on why or how to get the brainstrain roots larger? They are out on my balcny so it might be cooler weather. I wanted to check with the experts
 
i ain't no expert,
and do not have much experiments with deep water
do the moruga roots seem to have found the reservoir yet?
if they done did you might try some great white or other mychorrizacigal (sp.?)
beneficial symbiotic crap
 
try this link for more on the benefecal crap
http://www.plant-success.com/

{i do not know if bene- fecal is a word either}
 
yeah, both plants roots are out of the basket, its just that they dont seem to be getting any bigger but the plant is getting bigger. i might try that stuff and see what happens this weeeknd
 
It's hard to tell without looking at the pictures. I know with the DWC I have played with, the root mass has changed from time to time which Im attritubing to water changes moving them around and pulling them up to check on everything. At times the root mass has been long and thin and others smaller and very dense. One thing to consider without having them outdoors is if the buckets are getting any direct light. Especially with the black buckets the plastic will certainly heat up enough to warm the water temp inside. Warm water temps can certainly have an effect on how the plant is able to take in water and nutes.

-J
 
Personally having a temp at 78 is on the higher end of things. I have only done indoor DWC and always been able to maintain a 68-70 degree water temp so I have no clue how to lower the water temp with an outdoor setup in single buckets. Might want to play around with introducing ice cubes into the res. to see if that could effectively lower the temp for a number of hours before it shoots back up again. Or you could always put a small pump inside to keep the water agitated at all times and that should bring and keep the temps down and also it will keep the nutes mixed into the water.

-J
 
you might try to shade the reservoir with something?
maybe you can use the pepper plants or barbeque for
keeping the rez made in the shade
i don't know; run what you brung?
 
benzo said:
Just use ice water bottles 2-3 times a day has worked for me in the past
Click to expand...
i thought about this but will be hard with the hours i work as i work 0800-1700 i guess i could put one in the morning, when i get home and see how that helps
i will report back what i try and what the results are


update; got home and tested the temps and 2 buckets were 32C and the 3rd non black one was 27C so i am going to experiment with ways to keep the water cooler, i have hidden the pump in a shaded area and i places a ice pack under it to feed it COLD air for now till the water bottles freeze, and then tomorrow morning i will add those to the buckets and see what happens
 
ok, time to report back. i got some of that black and white sided plastic from the hydro store(for free, give them some seeds awhile back) and wrapped it around the buckets leaving a little space for air travel, and well i got home at 530 tested the temps and they are 21,22,20 degrees celcius so right on the high side of ideal temps! yesterday they aere 32C so far this is working i will see again tomorrow, also the roots to the "brain moruga" were nice and white as yesterday they were a brown(root rot) look so good news! hopefully in a week or so i will update with a nice picture of bigger roots! i will update this for the next few days so you all know its working! i also have ice bottles just in case for rapid cooling but hoping they will not be needed!
 
Guillo1 said:
can you post a pic of your roots?
Click to expand...
here are the foliage pics and root pics. i just added Hydrogen peroxide to the buckets to help with avoiding root rot.
DOUGLAH foliage
IMG_3110.jpg

here are the roots
IMG_3118.jpg

Brain strain
IMG_3111.jpg

here are the roots
IMG_3119.jpg
 
dude those roots don't look good at all, especially the ones on the Brain Strain. I hope you figure out whats wrong with them. I wouldn't know what is wrong cuase I'm too new at this.

Here is a picture of the roots on my plants. Again they have only been on the hydro for a little over 1 month. Roots are over 20" long
20120226_160540.jpg

20120226_160506.jpg
 
I don't think you are getting enough air into your water. The thing I always hated about DWC was that those cheap air stones worked fine for a week or so, then they got all clogged up and stopped producing nice fine bubbles. You may want to consider getting a bigger air pump as well, get the biggest one you can find/afford. I used to run 6 DWC buckets and I ran 4 air stones to each bucket to be sure that there would always be enough air in the water.
 
fireface said:
I don't think you are getting enough air into your water. The thing I always hated about DWC was that those cheap air stones worked fine for a week or so, then they got all clogged up and stopped producing nice fine bubbles. You may want to consider getting a bigger air pump as well, get the biggest one you can find/afford. I used to run 6 DWC buckets and I ran 4 air stones to each bucket to be sure that there would always be enough air in the water.
Click to expand...

I agree.

You can try using Hydrogen peroxide, check online for the correct amount. Hydrogen peroxide makes happy roots. :cool:
 
here is what i think the issue was, the air pump was in the sun so it was pumping hot air into the buckets and the water temp was 85+ so the dissolved oxygen in the water was lowered and in return was starting to rot the roots, i am also growing outdoors so its tough to alter what nature wants to do. but i have got the water temps in check so i am thinking that in return the roots will start to grow as will the plant. i check the airstone bubbles daily when i check the Ph. and i have multiple stones so i swap them each nute change and clean the used ones for the next round. the last few days they seem to look happy and the temps are 18-21C.
 
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