Noob to DWC Trying to Figure it all Out

[BIG BOY]

Alright here is the deal, (and please make any critiques or suggestions or corrections) i understand the basics of dwc, ebb&flow, aeroponics, etc. all but in my situation. i want to run dwc.

i am coming from soil.

my flower room is about 4.5'x5'x8.5 and usable grow space is about 3'x4'x8.5. has a 1k light and no temp problems, humidity is a lil high but not to bad (fluctuates from 50%-70%) i plan on running 6-8 plants with each to her own 5gal bucket. (suggestions 6,8,12??)

my veg space is tiny i have a small cab that is 30"x24"x32".
yea i know sux for me. i have just built and have not run yet it will have two 105 cfls for the moment and i will probably cool with big pc fans.

what i need an answer to is . . .

how should i veg??? i would like perpetual harvest being half of how ever many plants are in the flowering room once a month.

sorry for the long post here are some shoddy pics of some white rhino that has been treating me nice lately.

 

[FreezerBoy]

Until the plants prove otherwise, assume a stretch of 12-18 inches when you flip to 12/12. Allowing an inch or two clearance for the lamps, I'd flip when there's 20" of space left and note what happens.

I treat new methods like waffles. You get to throw the first one out. For a first shot, let learning be the goal and take what yield you get.

 

[jaw]

i wouldnt veg long, maybe 1-2 weeks and go lightly with nutes, and keep replacement airstones on hand, some go bad quickly and 2-3 days with no air is devastating to your plants, and i love hygrozyme with my dwc grows

 

[Pharma Geddon]

One BIG air pump, it'll cost plenty to get a quiet one. No airstones, the buggers keep clogging. I had good results with a Tee piece hot glued to the bottom of the bucket. Air line entry needs to be a hole at the top of the bucket and the line glued to the side or the roots try to swallow it, makes res changes difficult. There is a limit to how much oxygen the water can take but the good growth comes from the bubbles moving the nutrients through the roots to give a nft effect, so the more bubbles the better.

The better the veg lighting, the better the yield, I'd go for 24" T5s, they produce squat short plants.

I have to say that changing out 6+ buckets on a regular basis becomes a pita and heat waves become a thing of dread. I did bubblers like that for many years but after one try with hempy buckets I packed all my dwc stuff away. I also tried 11 litre square pots with 100% perlite and found it gave similar results.

Assuming you have somewhere else to clone you could get 4 hempy buckets in the veg space. 2 weeks for the roots to get established, 2 weeks of good growth, take cuts and it's into the flower room with them.

 

[BIG BOY]

Great replies guys. thanks

lets see here. . .

what do you guys think of this airpump for the flower room with 6-8 5gal buckets. . .?http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS/ctl3684/cp18279/si1378969/cl0/coralifesuperluftpumpsl65

and i might definetly try the tee in the bottom of the bucket with no airstone so its not to clog.

also if i wanted to make it recirculating with say a 18 gal rubbermaid what size of pump would you all suggest.

still need ideas on what type of setup to veg with so i can transfer to buckets in flower easily. for obvious reasons i cant use 5gal buckets in the vegt cab. i was thinking a tubbler but then roots will get tangled. i also thought about i miniature drip style with rockwool so i could really cram them in there. this is the only problem i really have because i am new to hydro and dont get how to veg on a smaller scale and then transport(easily) to a much larger scale. with soil i could just use grow bags and shove them in there and then transplant to 5gal to go into flower.

need to get started soon my flower room is almost empty except for the thunk that i just had to put in there.

thanks in advance

 

[BIG BOY]

One BIG air pump, it'll cost plenty to get a quiet one. No airstones, the buggers keep clogging. I had good results with a Tee piece hot glued to the bottom of the bucket. Air line entry needs to be a hole at the top of the bucket and the line glued to the side or the roots try to swallow it, makes res changes difficult. There is a limit to how much oxygen the water can take but the good growth comes from the bubbles moving the nutrients through the roots to give a nft effect, so the more bubbles the better.

The better the veg lighting, the better the yield, I'd go for 24" T5s, they produce squat short plants.

I have to say that changing out 6+ buckets on a regular basis becomes a pita and heat waves become a thing of dread. I did bubblers like that for many years but after one try with hempy buckets I packed all my dwc stuff away. I also tried 11 litre square pots with 100% perlite and found it gave similar results.

Assuming you have somewhere else to clone you could get 4 hempy buckets in the veg space. 2 weeks for the roots to get established, 2 weeks of good growth, take cuts and it's into the flower room with them.

more on these hempy buckets please . . .

 

[Pharma Geddon]

The hempy bucket is so simple that it confuses people lol. Regular 10 to 12 litre household bucket, a 7/16th inch hole in the side 2" from the bottom. fill with either perlite or a 75/25 perlite/vermiculite mix. Some good reports here from growers using them with coco.

Pour in full strength nutes, pH 6.0 to 6.2 every day until the roots hit the bottom, you'll know by the rapid growth. Make sure you get about 10% of it coming out the hole as run off. Clones will probably need weaker nutes for the first 2 weeks.

Once you have the rapid growth you can stop feeding every day although I do prefer to feed every day, no over watering problems and they get a bit of flush each time. Never a sign of root rot on any I've harvested.

No such thing as a perfect system, it's a matter of what hassles you can live with.

DWC pros:
With a big air pump it's just about impossible to kill the plants. (The one you're looking at is a good choice for the plants, won't be quiet though.) pH can be almost anywhere and still produce well. Very little media to dispose of after the grow.

Separate buckets:
Lets you learn a lot quickly by messing with nute strength and pH for each bucket. Easy to move buckets to a better spot.

Recirculating buckets:
Easier to keep cool, a fan blowing on the surface is usually enough if it does need cooling. Using the lucas formula and ro water makes it possible to do the entire grow on one res.

DWC cons:
Noise. Panic during heat waves. Until the canopy grows the light heats up the res if using a black plastic lid. pH swings like a drunken sailor, needs a HUGE res if you want pH stability. Any colour leaf you want except green lol. Big plants try to fall over, I've had bricks on the netpots to stop them.

Separate buckets:
Dragging buckets out to change the res. Getting trics in your hair as you lean into the jungle to top up the rear buckets. Can't tie the plants up as you need to move the buckets.

Recirculating buckets:
Risk of leaks. Control res takes up growing space unless outside the grow area. If 1 plant gets root rot, they've all got root rot. Difficult or impossible to move the buckets once the grow has started.

hempy bucket pros:
Easy to learn and do. Minimum of equipment, it's just a bucket with a hole in it. Doesn't look like hydro if busted. Choice of media, 100% perlite, perlite/vermiculite mix, coco, coco/perlite etc. 100% Fytocell worked ok for me and it's recyclable, will be using more in future grows. First grow had plants looking healthier than any I'd grown in dwc.

One more thing, they're SILENT!

hempy bucket cons:
About a week longer in veg for the same size plants as dwc. Uses more nutes as a lot simply goes to waste. The runoff is a pure pain in the butt until you get the drainage sorted. Either mop every day or have a dark green floor from the algae. Plants can fall over if you let the bucket get too dry as the medium itself weighs very little. Takes about a week for pH/EC problems to show.

 

[BIG BOY]

thanks a bunch Pharma Geddon on the hempy buckets but i think i may pass this go round.

anybody else with ideas for my veg situation and on the air pump i am looking at or what size pump i would need for recirculating about 6-8 buckets.?

any input will be much appreciated. thanks peoples

 

[G33k Speak]

I'd do the veg in the bigger room.

or you can do some veg in your small room, and the repot and finish the veg in the larger room.

If you're doing 5 gallon buckets, I'd say do a two veg in the bigger room and then flip em to 12/12.

 

[clowntown]

Before doing all that, look into buying a water chiller. A 1/10 HP should do the trick, but maybe a 1/4 - 1/3 HP to future-proof as they don't cost that much more than a 1/10 HP. DWC isn't that cheap to run successfully, IME. Unless you're already in a pretty cold environment that can stay cold.

 

[BIG BOY]

hey peeps thanks for the replies.

well the box i have built is going to eventually be a mother/clone box but for now it is going to be a veg box. i am lacking space for any other options at the moment unless i run something in the garage but it gets both really hot and really cold in my location so that would get expensive really fast on heating and cooling in the garage.

g33, i am wanting to do perpetual like harvest 3-4 plants a month every month so it would be hard to veg in the bigger room if i did i would only be able to harvest like every 3 months like i have been doing, i hate it that way, i run out way too soon.

clowntown, on the chiller i was looking at doing the diy posted somewhere on here with the water cooler/dispenser thing since i already have one wasting away in the garage that i never intend to use. i think that should be sufficient enough if it isnt i dont mind throwing some frozen 2 liters in there everyday that doesnt bother me too much, but i dont think temps are going to be much of a problem anyway my room always runs between 68-74f anyway so that would probably be ok unless the dwc equipment A(air pump(s), water pump) runs up the temp some but i have an ac vent in the room and when it cools off some i will be drawing in air from the crawlspace.

keep the ideas and comments coming please i need to make a decision and get this thing going asap, everyday i wait is one more day without some

 

[clowntown]

Is all that trouble worth it for a closet grow? DWC isn't cheap, any way you slice it or dice it. IMO, any gains you may obtain don't really offset the extra troubles. Just my , again... but after having run a 400w and 600w DWC in the past as my first grows...

 

[Pakalolovoodoo]

Dwc is easy just keep it simple

1 10 gallon rubbermaid
cover it in aluminum tape
3 plant nets
rock wool
seeds
1 10 dollar walmart airpump and a spare
airline
airstones
light of your choice grow space you can keep in the mid 70s
if not drop 1 litre frozen bottles of water in it

 

[clowntown]

You guys really keep your DWC rez's in the mid 70s and have no problems? Got any pics of your roots & rez? How'd they yield for ya?

I said DWC isn't cheap to run successfully, at least in my experience. Maybe we have a different definition of "successful"; maybe I just sucked (this is very possible, considering they were my first grows)?

 

[Pakalolovoodoo]

let me see if i can find my camera cable

 

[BIG BOY]

Is all that trouble worth it for a closet grow? DWC isn't cheap, any way you slice it or dice it. IMO, any gains you may obtain don't really offset the extra troubles. Just my , again... but after having run a 400w and 600w DWC in the past as my first grows...

what method would you suggest for my setup then? i have even considered flood and drain so i am open to ideas on that.

 

[clowntown]

If it has to be hydro, I would recommend E/F, top drip, or anything but DWC which is very sensitive to rez temperatures. If you can't get (and keep) it below 70F at all times, you're just asking for trouble... again, IMO/IME... (People with bio-buckets may tell you otherwise, but much above 70F and even they have problems.)

If you disagree, please chime in with your results: what temperatures did you maintain the rez at, how did the roots look, and how did they perform?

 

[Pakalolovoodoo]

ok here are some ok pics of current grow in cab temps have been as high as 95 due to weather and I am on top floor cooling done in rez only with 1 litre bottles hmm crap how do i link the pics i just added to my profile??????? brb

 

[Pakalolovoodoo]

clown just look at my gallery i dont know how to post pics but i just took these a 9:30 tonight I even woke my girls and one dude in the room....... dude is going to die tomorrow he just doesnt know it yet chop chop

 

[clowntown]

It's pretty hard to tell with the lighting and flash, but it certainly doesn't look like any sort of root rot. You say you're keeping the rez temps in the mid-70s? Or are you practicing something different than you're preaching? (i.e., you keep it <= 70F personally?)