soil nutes in hydro?

bigbluegoo

Active Member
hey guys was wondering if I could use soil nutrients in a non-recirculating dwc? just bought humboldt countys own sample line up. probably enough for 1 plant. didn't want to go buy nutrients for a 1 plant dwc grow. have 4 plants total but other three are in soil. trying to get my feet wet with the hydro.
 

8thGenFarmer

Well-Known Member
Organic with sitting water, even with lots of aeration can be difficult. Root disease is hard to avoid. If you have your mind set on organic nutes, I'd recommend drain to waste.

Coco can be a good one to transition to from soil. You do all the feeding, like hydro. You can set up a Rez and water from it. It also can work well with organics. Coco actually has similar water holding capacity to rockwool.
 

Dr. Who

Well-Known Member
If there organic I probably wouldn't recommend it.
Organic with sitting water, even with lots of aeration can be difficult. Root disease is hard to avoid. If you have your mind set on organic nutes, I'd recommend drain to waste.

Coco can be a good one to transition to from soil. You do all the feeding, like hydro. You can set up a Rez and water from it. It also can work well with organics. Coco actually has similar water holding capacity to rockwool.

?? Why not ?? G&H makes an organic line that was used to run an organic hydro run and the result won a cup in the dam!

As long as you STRICTLY keep your res temp NO higher then 68F! You should be fine. RUN AIR in the buckets as you must for DWC anyway! You might put your pot on a foam board to insulate it from the floor (for sure if the floor runs over 68 deg F) !!

Keep your res NPK concentrations low at like = 2.5 - 2 - 3.5 in veg (aprox) and 3 - 4 - 5.5 for the first 4 weeks of bloom. At week 5 boost or supplement the PK with something like 0 - 9 - 7 or 0 - 9 - 9 and run this out!

You should do fine following the simple suggestions above, with organics and hydro.........It's just keep the roots cool and adjust the NPK values to hydro values.

You should feed using the 33% add back & dump rule!!!!

Start by filling the bucket with your properly pH'ed full strength (100%) nutrient solution. Keep exact track of how much you put in! Example: 3 gallons

As the level in the bucket drops and you have to add back......Use a 33% nutrient solution.

Make a gallon of 100% and add 2 gallons of water to that - pH it and viola! 33% solution! Or simply make a gallon and take out 1/3 of what you need and add 2/3 water to that and pH.

Keep exact track of how much you add back! Now the important part of that is... When the amount of add back reaches the amount you started with filling the bucket (Example - the 3 gallons)- Don't top it off!
DUMP the bucket and refill it with 100% solution!

Now start the whole add back 33% thing all over and repeat as needed! This will recycle the bucket and not let any reactions from the organics get started by them getting too old!
This also "balances" the nutrient being used with what your adding back - without "burning" your plant!

Check the pH every day. Start it at 5.7 - 5.8 and let it rise to 6.1 - 6.2 and then adjust it back down......Very critical you control this!

Good luck!
 
Last edited:

8thGenFarmer

Well-Known Member
?? Why not ?? G&H makes an organic line that was used to run an organic hydro run and the result won a cup in the dam!

As long as you STRICTLY keep your res temp NO higher then 68F! You should be fine. RUN AIR in the buckets as you must for DWC anyway! You might put your pot on a foam board to insulate it from the floor (for sure if the floor runs over 68 deg F) !!

Keep your res NPK concentrations low at like = 2.5 - 2 - 3.5 in veg (aprox) and 3 - 4 - 5.5 for the first 4 weeks of bloom. At week 5 boost or supplement the PK with something like 0 - 9 - 7 or 0 - 9 - 9 and run this out!

You should do fine following the simple suggestions above, with organics and hydro.........It's just keep the roots cool and adjust the NPK values to hydro values.

You should feed using the 33% add back & dump rule!!!!

Start by filling the bucket with your properly pH'ed full strength (100%) nutrient solution. Keep exact track of how much you put in! Example: 3 gallons

As the level in the bucket drops and you have to add back......Use a 33% nutrient solution.

Make a gallon of 100% and add 2 gallons of water to that - pH it and viola! 33% solution! Or simply make a gallon and take out 1/3 of what you need and add 2/3 water to that and pH.

Keep exact track of how much you add back! Now the important part of that is... When the amount of add back reaches the amount you started with filling the bucket (Example - the 3 gallons)- Don't top it off!
DUMP the bucket and refill it with 100% solution!

Now start the whole add back 33% thing all over and repeat as needed! This will recycle the bucket and not let any reactions from the organics get started by them getting too old!
This also "balances" the nutrient being used with what your adding back - without "burning" your plant!

Check the pH every day. Start it at 5.7 - 5.8 and let it rise to 6.1 - 6.2 and then adjust it back down......Very critical you control this!

Good luck!
Not saying it can't work. I just don't like organic buckets. Organic drain to waste works great. I tried organic buckets for about a year, when I placed the same project on a tray and ran drain to waste, my yield went up and my roots stayed healthier the whole time. Not staying impossible just more difficult. i bet the guy who won the cup it wasn't his first bucket run :)
 
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