The road to DWC - ups, downs, info, failure, success, guidance....

NorwegianChili

NorwegianChili

Banned
So guys, Im starting my DWC growth for the winter for the first time next week. I got all the equipment needed. Now I need your input on what to do and what to not do. 
 
I guess I need PH up and PH down (organic), but what is the preferable PH on peppers? Can I relate to all the articles and videos for Pot? 8 - 8.5?
PH 5 - 6.5 
 
Nutes. I got seaweed extract, biobact, what else should I get in liquid organic form? 
 
GH Floragro, Micro, Bloom
 
How often do I need to clean out the bucket, add nutes and change water? 
 
After harvest, rince bucket or once every 45 days. Add PH adjusted water and nutes continuously. If you love your plants, every week, if you love them but don't spoil them, every 14th days. Measure nutritions with PPM/EC. Aprox 500 - 750ppm as a base
 
How often should I measure PH? 
 
Every day if you love your plants, every second to third, or every week
 
Adding soil grown plants to DWC, just clean throughly with water until roots are clean and set them in the netpot?
 
Yes
 
And how does the plant´s respond to soil again next spring?
 
Well 
 
ph should be 5.5 - 6.5, like pot..
i doubt seaweed extract will work? not sure but since its organic
good luck and dont worry to much about it,
mine is growing really fast and i dont check ph anymore,
did a res change and the roots came nasty brown, guess to high ec+
so now i only top off, didn't check ph at all for a month now :rolleyes: , still growing
never needed ph+, depends on tapwater and nutes
 
grtz
 
Ok!
 
Seaweed extract is a good source of organic nutes to DWC after what I´ve read. I will also buy some H2O2 + to keep healthy root culture. Keep suggestions, tips and answers roll in :)
 
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PH 5 - 6.5 
 
NorwegianChili said:
Adding soil grown plants to DWC, just clean throughly with water until roots are clean and set them in the netpot?
 
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I'm relatively new to hydro myself but I can answer this one with confidence: yes.
 
When I did this I wasn't sure if I should have the roots hanging or not so I just left the root bundle in my media.  The roots seek the water and I found out it probably didn't matter.  If you leave about 3cm or so of space between the bottom of the net pots and the water level you should get quick root extension, they will seek the water.  I had a ton of tentacles just days after doing this. 
 
You can see the dark roots here in the bottom of my "net pot" where I didn't quite clean all the soil off them, and the new roots at the bottom.  I just basically set it in the pot and made it stand straight with the pebbles.  This is only after 12 days.
 
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Ok when I run dwc buckets here is how I run them. Mix your nutes in the bucket and adjust pH to 5.5-6 and put the plant in making sure your water is about 1" below the net pot. The bubbles will splash water and the roots will seek out the source. Check your bucket every day and replace whatever is gone with plain pH water. Do this until you have replace the original amount with just pH water. Now mix a fresh batch of nutes and start over. I only clean my buckets about every 3rd batch if needed. You can get stuff called hygrozyme and it will keep your nute solution clean and the roots happy. Don't worry about adjusting the pH every day with organics its a loosing battle because they break down constantly and the pH fluctuates constantly. Just worry about the fresh water your replacing.
 
Ok ok, love your answers guys!!!

So I did setup one DWC after I came home from some beers and dinner. Will do the final 4 tomorrow. I added water, nutes, H202 and made the PH to 5.7! Washed the LONG thick roots of a Jamacian HiLo Yellow and added it with stones around. Well, after reading a lot before the answers here, I added water about 2 OVER the netpot. Bad or not bad?

You say check water every day. Guys in cropshop say every 14 day. Just add PH water and nutes every 14 day. Clean every 30 day. And these guys grow pot. Agree, no agree??

Further. I found out ecological was difficult with DWC. And my tent can fit 5 x20L hydro pots, and two 20cm (3.8) L soil pots.
 
You don't want the water up in the net pot keep it 1" below so the roots grow down into the water. If you have it up in the net pot the roots won't grow down. If you only check the water every 14 days the plant will be dead. Some of mine can drink a gallon of water a day.
 
Ok, Ill poor some out tomorrow! They have water indicator and refill hose on the side. Thanks bro!
 
Ill see how much they drink. So the water you put in, you PH balance it first. And the Nutes added every week or 14 days? 

Jamaician HiLo Yellow. The roots were insane long, let the water root hang down, rest as a twirl under the stone. Thanks for your fast replies brothers! 
 
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Let's say your bucket holds 4 gallons of solution when its 1" under the net pot. Once you have replaced that 4 gallons with fresh pH water by topping off mix up another batch of fresh solution with your nutes and do it all over again.

Yea pH your water first then add it to your bucket.
 
rebelgrower3 said:
You don't want the water up in the net pot keep it 1" below so the roots grow down into the water. If you have it up in the net pot the roots won't grow down. If you only check the water every 14 days the plant will be dead. Some of mine can drink a gallon of water a day.
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QFT
 
 
NorwegianChili said:
so adding PH water, until the whole water is "changed" add more nutes.. ok
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That is definitely one way to do it, another is to change the nutes every 10-14 days regardless and yet another is to monitor nute strength. . 
 
Once you have full sized plants though, they drink so much darn water that you will refill a rez every 4-5 days. You probably don't need to change the nutes that much though. Over the summer, I just monitored the nute strength and changed nutes when the concentration got down to 300ppm or so. I start around 900 +/-
That usually worked out to be every 10 days or so. 
Also, with full size plants, maintenance of each one can get to be a pain in the butt after a while. Try it for a while and pretty soon you will be trying to figure out how to hook them all up together so they share a common reservoir. 
 
yeah pretty cool setup indeed, nice waterleveltube :P  i schould make one for my bucket
 
rebelgrower3 said:
Don't worry about adjusting the pH every day with organics its a loosing battle because they break down constantly and the pH fluctuates constantly
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was thinking the same today at work, lol
i doubt organic is as sufficient as mineral in dwc, 
i still like growing in dirt more than hydro but hey, its another game
 
hooks and support will be usefull to when they get bigger
Jeff H said:
 
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thats a tasmanianhabanero i got in there now
 
Today I added the rest of my buckets, measured nutritions, PH and added the selected plants. In my small tent 75x75x180cm. The real pain in the ass was cleaning all the roots and removing the peat! I managed to get 5 20L DWC systems and 4 soil pots. The soil plants are Yolo Wonder, Aji Habanero, Fatalii and plant from some seeds from one THP member in Australia. The DWC plants are Thai Demon, African Naga, (sprout) Goat Weed, Jamaican HiLo Yellow and another Thai I got in Thailand. Thats a fair mix. I reduced the lightning to one bulb due to the problem with ventilation and heat. I want it as silent as can be, so no loud fans. If not Ill add the other bulb and reflector and find a work around on the heat. Then I guess its just to wait and see how it works out! 
 
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Great setup!

You are on the right track!

I've been growing hydroponically for a decent amount of time and wish to share some of my experience.

Where to start....

lets start with PH (pondus hydrogenii).

5.8-6.3 is the range that your plants tissue will uptake the nutrients in proper levels for good healthy growth. Close control to those parameters will yield healthy plants that want to grow.

You will experience root rot with too high or low PH. If the plants were mine, I would monitor PH EVERYDAY.

EC (electrical conductivity), TDS (total dissolved solids).

I like to use EC to measure my nutrients but TDS will work as well.

Long term crops are generally fed at 1.5-2 EC. Short term 1-1.2.

Problem with measuring TDS. manufactures all use a different resolution number come to there PPM calculation. Running 1.5 EC can be 750 PPM on some tools while it can be 1050 PPM on others.

Generally you will not see root rot from high EC, not sure who wrote that.. High EC will burn your plants and can also stop growth by locking up nutrient uptake.

Low EC will give you a deficiency in elements and slow growth.

Speaking of deficiency, that GH flora series is good stuff! I see in your picture you only have "floragro". That is one of the three part nutrient base. You need micro and bloom also.. Without those two, you eventually run in to problems.

look in to a gravity feed DWC reservoir/controller. You will do a lot less work trying to maintain nutrient and ph levels.

You should prepare all your water a day before doing a flush.

I will add nutrients and h2o2 to a tub and let it sit a day with air stones running to remove the chlorine and to let the PH buffers settle. on flush day, balance your PH so you do not shock your plants. Then add in to the reservoir for your dwc system.

hope this helps!

Cheers!


One other thing!

Root rot in DWC is usually found in systems with not enough oxygen at the root zone.

if you experience rot with ph nailed at 5.8-6.3 you are most likely not using a big enough air pump or not enough stones.

If you have good air injection, prefect ph and still have rot. Your temperature is too high in the reservoir. High temperature (72+) will starve your plant of oxygen also.
 
Good info theliveculture.
 
 
Generally you will not see root rot from high EC, not sure who wrote that.. High EC will burn your plants and can also stop growth by locking up nutrient uptake.
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take special note of this comment. Peppers don't like or really need a lot of nutes. If you go a little too high, you will nute burn your plants or get nute lockout- specifically calcium which causes problems because calcium isn't a mobile nutrient. Shoot for 50-75% of what the label says to use for peppers.
 
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