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Thread: Trying DWC again

  1. #1

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    Smile Trying DWC again

    My seeds finally arrived last week after more than a month in transit from Europe (Durban Poison, Afghan, and they included free feminized AK47). They germinated in 2 days in rockwool cubes, in soaked-but-not-dripping rockwool in a clear plastic tote. Every single one germinated so I'm definitely happy with the seed shop's service. I made mini-DWC containers to keep the seedlings going in their rockwool/mini net pot setup, I'm just going to hand water them for now if they need it. My understanding is once the roots start poking out of the rockwool all around, it's ready for the big system... does that sound right?

    I'm using a 10 gallon tote for now, but I can swap everything into a 20 gallon tote if needed, and I have 2 spares. I definitely don't want everything getting root rot at the same time again.

    Set up like this, I only have about a gallon of water in the tote. I can keep an eye on it all day, but I'm thinking I'm going to change the reservoir every couple days to cut down on the chance of root rot. I've thought about getting a water filter, is it helpful? My tap water is excellent.

    There's a small aquarium pump feeding 1/2" tubing to the 8-way bubbler, which will have hoses going to 8 net pots (I have covers for the other holes, and will be using them to drop in ice bottles). This pump isn't great, I have a 585gph pump that's way too big, and a much smaller, nicer pump that should be arriving soon. But it's easy to take the lid on and off the tote, at least. The tote isn't as deep as it looks in the pics, there's only about a gallon of water in there. Any feedback is appreciated, especially regarding root rot... I did get some soil pots in case I lose the plants again, but I really want to try making DWC work.

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    Blue61 (03-08-20), GEORGE (03-08-20), Jingo (03-08-20)

  3. #2

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    Hey brother

    I really don't want to be negative, but the truth is I've never seen anybody have quality success with any of those totes that have multiple net pots in them.

    The first problem is plants never use nutrients at the same rates and trying to feed them all the same nutrients just won't work well.

    The second problem is if one plant gets sick they're all sick and their roots are all intertwined it's almost guaranteed set up for root rot, and if you've had that in the past you're going to get it again.

    You should have an individual pots for each and every plant and enough 02 being pushed into the pots to cause it bubble and almost boil. That's your number one way to avoid root rot.

    You should have some food grade hydrogen peroxide something between 30 and 40%. You need to put about 2 mil of that for US gallon into each reservoir.

    Here is what I advise, first get yourself some black 5 gallon buckets.



    Then get yourself some net pot lids fit right on top of the bucket.



    Get yourself a 40 l per minute air pump and use it only for two or three plants max.



    Use black plastic 1/4-in drip line for your air hoses. run them straight down through the top of the net pot dump in some clay pebbles and plant your plants in that.



    Black plastic will keep light from getting in and it's very stiff too being so if you accidentally set a bucket down on top one of your airlines you're not going to cut off their supply.

    Changing your system so that each and every bucket has its own feed will allow you to go 7 to 10 days without changing your reservoir early in your grow and you'll still be able to get three or four days later on.

    You can also modify tomato cages by drilling holes through the top of your net pot lids and pushing the cage down through and bending it, that will allow you to have something to train your plants against.



    Have a freezer full of 1L water bottles in case your reservoirs get too hot and then you can drop a frozen bottle in the reservoir during the hottest parts of your days.



    I firmly believe this is the very best way for a new grower to start off with deep water culture. If you order one extra bucket for each plant you can mix your new reservoir while your plant is sitting on the old bucket and you just pick up that lid and it moves everything, the air stone the roots everything up to your new reservoir and you just start right off and the way you go.





    J

    Last edited by Jingo; 03-08-20 at 10:48 AM.
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  5. #3

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    Thanks for all the info, I was hoping to save space with the tote method, and it seems like it'd fit better in a grow cabinet, but at this point I really do need to minimize the risk of root rot getting them all. I'll order the buckets and stuff right away and hopefully everything will stay healthy in the meantime. I thought I was adding a lot of air with one aquarium air pump per container, but at full blast with both ports those are still only about 1.2 liters per minute! I hadn't done the math.

    I do have 30% h2o2 coming this week thankfully, hopefully dosing with that and adding all the extra air will keep root rot away.

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  7. #4

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    Just getting bigger air pumps is going to make a difference for you, I hope you're able to keep the res temperatures within reason in a cabinet.



    J


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  9. #5

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    They'll be in the basement, which stays around 67 in summer but mostly under 60 in the winter. I'm mostly wanting cabinets so I can more easily move things around, but I might build a real grow room instead.

  10. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to Aaron_Spacemuseum For This Useful Post:

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