TommyDumper
Member
I have been growing RDWC since I began 2 years ago. I run a sea of green, taking clones of my best plants and vegging in a 4x8 tent with a simple tray system.
My main room for flower is 14 feet deep with a door on one end in the basement with a low ceiling. I hand 3 Fluence 2p lights over 12 plants in 5 gallon buckets using clay pebbles in a typical active aqua flow and grow RDWC. My 55 gallon drum is separated from the grow room to keep the feeding water cool. I use a Saturn 5 controller to control everything and a single burner CO2 maker that goes on for 4 min off for 28 during the day I use House and Garden nutrients.
House and Garden Nutrients Aqua Flakes A and B
Drip Clean
Roots Excelerator Silver
Amino Treatment
Multi Zen
Nitrogen Boost
Bud XL
Shooting Powder
Great White Mycorrhizae
SLF-100
GH Floral Nectar
FoxFarm ChaChing
Last grow I had was in the middle of summer and I'm pretty sure my water temps were a bit high and I made it through but I'm pretty sure my roots were rotting and when I harvested I noticed many of my buckets had roots in the bottom clogging the screens, some worse than others. I also noticed aphids flying out of my clay pebbles in the buckets which tells me they were lunching on the root rot. at week 3 I defoliates and lollipopped and when I did I cleaned the buckets and cut off all the roots coming thru the holes in the buckets (probably shouldn't have done that so I will not do that this time.)
My plants were small when I transplanted to the flower tent so I continued to veg in the flower room for 3 weeks and got them. At first I was watering for 30 min or 2 click 5 times a day, 18 hours on. I quickly learned that was too much so I switched to 1 click, I did that for 4 or 5 days and went to 4 times a day. Last Friday I flipped to flower and watering 1 click or 15 min flood then drain 3 times a day. Last Friday I cleaned all of the buckets, some of which were clogged and my roots are all extending down below the holes in the buckets.
1 more thing. I lost the drain pump after 2 years in my brain bucket, last June and I h.ave not been able to get an exact replacement. I've since learned that "RDWC Pumps Matter"
But, Hydro Farm has not had replacement pumps in stock since then, hopefully they finally come in tomorrow. Anyway I have blown through 5 different pumps since. Apparently the normal pumps are faster that gravity and the switch triggers the pumps to run dry too long and eventually they die. So I've got that going for me which is nice. (Caddy Shack reference). I now have to babysit every feeding to make sure my buckets empty. I first learned this when I noticed my brain bucket about 1/2 full after a feeding. I had to shake my pump unplug and then re-plug it to get it going again. I tipped the brain bucket towards the pump until all of the water stopped flooding from the plants and everything returned back to the reservoir. I have to babysit this every time now until the new replacement pump arrives.
So my roots are stained and this always makes me nervous. the buckets have residue after feeding and my water temps are under control but my ph goes wacky after every feeding. it seems to creep up. I generally keep it between 5.8 and 6.2 but after a feeding it will jump to 6.7 for example. I stir the reservoir, check it again, add a bit to ph down (like 30ml to 50 gallon) and stir, my ph will plummet to 5.1. I have learned not to trust this and I walk away and come back hours later to retest, my ph is back to 6.2????
Could this be from temperature fluctuation? The res is like 19C or 66F and it feeds the plants in a room that's 82-86F, humidity under 55% and maybe the water temp goes up before returning making the ph go up. Or could it be something from the plants after they drink?
I just want to be re-assured that the plants are happy and I am doing everything I should. Hopefully this will begin a thread that helps others in the future.
My main room for flower is 14 feet deep with a door on one end in the basement with a low ceiling. I hand 3 Fluence 2p lights over 12 plants in 5 gallon buckets using clay pebbles in a typical active aqua flow and grow RDWC. My 55 gallon drum is separated from the grow room to keep the feeding water cool. I use a Saturn 5 controller to control everything and a single burner CO2 maker that goes on for 4 min off for 28 during the day I use House and Garden nutrients.
House and Garden Nutrients Aqua Flakes A and B
Drip Clean
Roots Excelerator Silver
Amino Treatment
Multi Zen
Nitrogen Boost
Bud XL
Shooting Powder
Great White Mycorrhizae
SLF-100
GH Floral Nectar
FoxFarm ChaChing
Last grow I had was in the middle of summer and I'm pretty sure my water temps were a bit high and I made it through but I'm pretty sure my roots were rotting and when I harvested I noticed many of my buckets had roots in the bottom clogging the screens, some worse than others. I also noticed aphids flying out of my clay pebbles in the buckets which tells me they were lunching on the root rot. at week 3 I defoliates and lollipopped and when I did I cleaned the buckets and cut off all the roots coming thru the holes in the buckets (probably shouldn't have done that so I will not do that this time.)
My plants were small when I transplanted to the flower tent so I continued to veg in the flower room for 3 weeks and got them. At first I was watering for 30 min or 2 click 5 times a day, 18 hours on. I quickly learned that was too much so I switched to 1 click, I did that for 4 or 5 days and went to 4 times a day. Last Friday I flipped to flower and watering 1 click or 15 min flood then drain 3 times a day. Last Friday I cleaned all of the buckets, some of which were clogged and my roots are all extending down below the holes in the buckets.
1 more thing. I lost the drain pump after 2 years in my brain bucket, last June and I h.ave not been able to get an exact replacement. I've since learned that "RDWC Pumps Matter"
But, Hydro Farm has not had replacement pumps in stock since then, hopefully they finally come in tomorrow. Anyway I have blown through 5 different pumps since. Apparently the normal pumps are faster that gravity and the switch triggers the pumps to run dry too long and eventually they die. So I've got that going for me which is nice. (Caddy Shack reference). I now have to babysit every feeding to make sure my buckets empty. I first learned this when I noticed my brain bucket about 1/2 full after a feeding. I had to shake my pump unplug and then re-plug it to get it going again. I tipped the brain bucket towards the pump until all of the water stopped flooding from the plants and everything returned back to the reservoir. I have to babysit this every time now until the new replacement pump arrives.So my roots are stained and this always makes me nervous. the buckets have residue after feeding and my water temps are under control but my ph goes wacky after every feeding. it seems to creep up. I generally keep it between 5.8 and 6.2 but after a feeding it will jump to 6.7 for example. I stir the reservoir, check it again, add a bit to ph down (like 30ml to 50 gallon) and stir, my ph will plummet to 5.1. I have learned not to trust this and I walk away and come back hours later to retest, my ph is back to 6.2????
Could this be from temperature fluctuation? The res is like 19C or 66F and it feeds the plants in a room that's 82-86F, humidity under 55% and maybe the water temp goes up before returning making the ph go up. Or could it be something from the plants after they drink?
I just want to be re-assured that the plants are happy and I am doing everything I should. Hopefully this will begin a thread that helps others in the future.
