I'm a newb to DWC need help with watering.

JSB99

Well-Known Member
I actually got root rot and made some Bennies tea and saved them hahaha haha
Aw man, that sucks! Every disaster has the opportunity to be learned from. At this point, you should never get root rot again, because you've experienced what it can do, and you'll learn all about avoiding it in the future. I never concerned myself with spider-mites, until I had an entire grow decimated by them. Now, I check my leaves almost daily. I actually caught an early infestation a few weeks ago and was able to rid my grow from them.

As far as root rot, I haven't had the displeasure of experiencing that. But there are steps I take to avoid it. First, I keep my reservoir at 70 degrees or below. I do this without a chiller by using a large amount of water (up to 60 gallons), I use a small fan to chill the water via "evaporative cooling", and I use a powerful air pump and big air stones to get dissolved oxygen to the entire root structures, not just the outside.

Take a look at my current build (link below). You'll see how I've set things up to avoid a number of issues.

Best of luck!
 
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Texas2326

Active Member
Hi guys, I’ve just started dwc and my ppms out of the tap are about 300 so after canna nutes I bumped it up to 375 now I have burnt tips and slo growth. Is it the ppms? My ph is 5.9, my light is 250 my/hps at almost 2 feet away. Can anyone help me figure this out please? She’s suffering!!!!
 

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Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
Hi guys, I’ve just started dwc and my ppms out of the tap are about 300 so after canna nutes I bumped it up to 375 now I have burnt tips and slo growth. Is it the ppms? My ph is 5.9, my light is 250 my/hps at almost 2 feet away. Can anyone help me figure this out please? She’s suffering!!!!
To much water IMO, your drowning it. I water once or twice a day until roots are established. Is your water level higher than bottom of net pot?
 

Jypsy Dog

Well-Known Member

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
I am about 350 ppm for seedlings and no issues but again it’s dying do to over watering and either hand water once a day or set up timer and pump till you get bigger roots
 

Texas2326

Active Member
I am about 350 ppm for seedlings and no issues but again it’s dying do to over watering and either hand water once a day or set up timer and pump till you get bigger roots
Thank you, I’ve set a timer for 30 min 4 times a day. I’ll lower it down to 15 min 4 times a day. Does that sound about right?
Thanks again budley
 

Texas2326

Active Member
I am about 350 ppm for seedlings and no issues but again it’s dying do to over watering and either hand water once a day or set up timer and pump till you get bigger roots
Oh and yes my water level is an inch above the bottom of the pot. But I have about 2 1/2 inches of clay pebbles under the root root plug
 

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
Oh and yes my water level is an inch above the bottom of the pot. But I have about 2 1/2 inches of clay pebbles under the root root plug
So are you DWC but too feeding? Not getting what you mean by timer? Again I water once or maybe twice a day, well actually flood as I run suspended net pots. My whole thinking is just treat them as you would a soil based plant till you get roots so moist but not soaking cube, I do not run DWC so I’m not sure how that actually works re water level but I do know that if the rooting cube is always soaked you’ll have issues like you have.
 

Texas2326

Active Member
So are you DWC but too feeding? Not getting what you mean by timer? Again I water once or maybe twice a day, well actually flood as I run suspended net pots. My whole thinking is just treat them as you would a soil based plant till you get roots so moist but not soaking cube, I do not run DWC so I’m not sure how that actually works re water level but I do know that if the rooting cube is always soaked you’ll have issues like you have.
I have a dripping system that recirculates the reservoir water. A water pump pushes water with the nutes thru a round tube. The pump is on a timer to moisten the media(clay pebble)four times a day. This has also been my first time using a rooting cube but there shouldn’t be much to it anyway. Thanks
 

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
I have a dripping system that recirculates the reservoir water. A water pump pushes water with the nutes thru a round tube. The pump is on a timer to moisten the media(clay pebble)four times a day. This has also been my first time using a rooting cube but there shouldn’t be much to it anyway. Thanks
Ok got ya, yes I would cut to twice a day and see what happens you can also get your ph down a bit although that’s not your issue at this point I don’t think.
 

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
Hi guys, I’ve just started dwc and my ppms out of the tap are about 300 so after canna nutes I bumped it up to 375 now I have burnt tips and slo growth. Is it the ppms? My ph is 5.9, my light is 250 my/hps at almost 2 feet away. Can anyone help me figure this out please? She’s suffering!!!!
Canna waz HOT imo

That was a bit much id knock that in half :)
 

Budley Doright

Well-Known Member
Ya I’m not sure that’s causing his issues though. I’m sure lowering at this point would not harm them at all. Keep in mind his water is 300 and that could be mostly mag and cal which if true is gonna cause different issues lol. I’m pretty sure what he is experiencing is excess water drowning the roots but I could be way wrong as I certainly am not a hydro expert, actually far from it lol. I just put some seedlings in RW (remembered how much I hate the little sponges lol). soaked them for a couple of days, rinsed and squeezed out the water, after 16 hours of sitting under the lights they were still moist with a slight drying of the tops. I don’t run drip setups but I’m sure it’s the same really for any new seedling. It scared the hell out of me to finally shut the pumps off and only cycle sparingly but the plants did much better :). Again I don’t think lowering EC is a bad thing just not the cause of blotching IMO.
 

Cold$moke

Well-Known Member
But im no tweaker just natural insomnia.

Or i smoke too much sativa and it keeps me wired lol im in bed now just cant sleep cause im on here :)
 

Texas2326

Active Member
Hello fellow green thumbs. Yall were both right, the root never made it down to the reservoir. Too many nutes and too much water. My ppms being sooo high are going to be a problem for the initial life stage of my little one. Now I’m going a different route, ( clones )This only means having to learn an extra amount of info on top of dwc. I’ve found some bottle water with a ppm of 99 but the ph is 8. Now I’ve got a new issue that terrifies me. Transplanting a rooted clone into clay pebbles. I have a 16.5L pot on an 80L reservoir yet still only think I know what to do. So the water will be right up to under the pot, I’ll put one inch of hydroton, put the tip of the root there and fill around it.
 
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