Questions about dwc and autos

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DoubleD5374

Member
So I just purchased my first dwc 8 site system . It’s the active aqua root spa . I have several questions .
How full should my buckets be ? They’re 5 gallons a piece . I’m growing these strains :
420 fast buds gorilla zkittlez , blueberry zkittlez , purple lemonade , purple punch

Rqs Royal runtz , Titan f1

Ilgm grand daddy purps , wedding cake , and banana kush .

My plan was to transplant to 3 inch grodan blocks , surrounded by hydroton . I’ve been running the emerald harvest nutrient lineup , but I’m thinking of switching to the advanced nutrients ph balanced nutrients .

Also this is in a tent that hovers around 80-88 degrees . It’s a gorilla 16x8 tent , with eight fluence spydr 2i lights , and supplementary cali light works uvb for mid to late flowering .

I’m switching some to dwc because of the 30% higher yield claims . I want to maximize the yield as well as maximize terpene profile , thc content , trichomes etc .


Any advice on this endeavor is greatly appreaciated . How do I keep my nutes cool in the buckets- what ppm and ph for these autos ? I’m a soil grower so
This stuff is intimidating to me
 
Drop That Sound

Drop That Sound

Well-Known Member
Keep the water level just under the net pot, once you have roots down in the water. Might have to ride high for a little bit (maybe an inch above the bottom, up into the pebbles) after transplanting small plants. The netpot lids are pretty big in those buckets, so you can't fit a whole lot of nutrient solution either, maybe 3 gallons + at the most. The bubbles popping will mist the roots, but not until they drop down (because all the hydroton will block it for a bit), which takes longer with bigger netpots to fill in, so keep a good eye until they do. I like to pull the taproots down through the netpots when I plant them initially, and prefer small 3-4 inch ones myself. That way Its ready to go.

You'll be much better off if you save up for some uniseal seal bulkheads for your round buckets, and plumb the whole system together into a RDWC system instead. Then, you can do all the maintenance from one res/bucket, mounted remotely outside of the hot tent, further helping to keep it cool. Instead of manually dealing with 8 individual buckets, that will all be at different nutrient/ph/water levels. Still cool to setup and run a bunch of single sites, but you'll learn it becomes quite the chore over time. Maybe not so much with autos though, I wouldn't know.. I usually go big.

I start out around 300PPM for small plants, and then stick to around 500 or so all the way though veg, no matter how long. Even monsters that are 8 ft wide under the nets. Then, depending on the strain, flower at around 7-850 PPM at the most, after they've stretched at some point. I stay as close to PH 5.8 as possible, which is easy with good buffered base nutes, and a steady clean tap water supply.. I don't mess around with additives either, and that helps to keep things more stable. You might need chemicals like pool shock to help keep the system sterilized, being in such small capacity containers & in a hot tent. I wouldn't bother with beneficial like hydrogaurd, etc. Just use chlorine.. Chiller is kind of out of the question until you start recirculating.

There's some good charts out there on how to read your plants in a DWC system, know what the main levels mean, and help to dial it in. Here's one:

1683173851625.png
 
D

DoubleD5374

Member
Drop That Sound said:
Keep the water level just under the net pot, once you have roots down in the water. Might have to ride high for a little bit (maybe an inch above the bottom, up into the pebbles) after transplanting small plants. The netpot lids are pretty big in those buckets, so you can't fit a whole lot of nutrient solution either, maybe 3 gallons + at the most. The bubbles popping will mist the roots, but not until they drop down (because all the hydroton will block it for a bit), which takes longer with bigger netpots to fill in, so keep a good eye until they do. I like to pull the taproots down through the netpots when I plant them initially, and prefer small 3-4 inch ones myself. That way Its ready to go.

You'll be much better off if you save up for some uniseal seal bulkheads for your round buckets, and plumb the whole system together into a RDWC system instead. Then, you can do all the maintenance from one res/bucket, mounted remotely outside of the hot tent, further helping to keep it cool. Instead of manually dealing with 8 individual buckets, that will all be at different nutrient/ph/water levels. Still cool to setup and run a bunch of single sites, but you'll learn it becomes quite the chore over time. Maybe not so much with autos though, I wouldn't know.. I usually go big.

I start out around 300PPM for small plants, and then stick to around 500 or so all the way though veg, no matter how long. Even monsters that are 8 ft wide under the nets. Then, depending on the strain, flower at around 7-850 PPM at the most, after they've stretched at some point. I stay as close to PH 5.8 as possible, which is easy with good buffered base nutes, and a steady clean tap water supply.. I don't mess around with additives either, and that helps to keep things more stable. You might need chemicals like pool shock to help keep the system sterilized, being in such small capacity containers & in a hot tent. I wouldn't bother with beneficial like hydrogaurd, etc. Just use chlorine.. Chiller is kind of out of the question until you start recirculating.

There's some good charts out there on how to read your plants in a DWC system, know what the main levels mean, and help to dial it in. Here's one:

View attachment 5287614
Click to expand...

Super helpful man , tyvm!! I have a pro grow 2.0 ebb and flow also , that is 24 site with 5 gallon pots , controller and 55 gallon reservoir . I ran it for a bit but the frequent reservoir changes , and several leaks , irritated me back to soil “I will say the clones I ran in it were growing rapidly “

Is there a write up on how to build a rdwc setup ? I have 75 6” netpot lids as well as several hundred buckets !
 
Drop That Sound

Drop That Sound

Well-Known Member
There's a ton of video's and write ups on DIY rdwc systems. Out of all of them, I prefer the undercurrent type, with large manifolds and bulkheads, at least 2".
 
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