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staggered harvest from a RDWC....Can it be done??

Desert Hydro

Active member
Veteran
im not new to hydro, nor am i near as new as this profile states so i dont want to come off as a noob lol. been around for a while under a diff screen name but i dropped off when they started targeting mmj patients and what not...... anyways

im building a RDWC system like the under current system using 9 five gallon bucket sites and my question is are there any nutes that are versatile enough to run just base nutes with no additives(besides calmag) with different stages of flower in the system.

keeping in mind there will only be two stages a few weeks apart. figure i'll harvest 5 one month then 4 the next and rotate out.

the K.I.S.S. method comes to mind. i know they use only maxibloom for all stages but im not sure if the concentration changes with age into flowering. Im thinking CNS17 or similar.

im running house and garden now but i dont think it will work as well for one reason. you use the same base nutes for veg and flower. its the flowering additives given at certain times that would throw it all off and without them its just simply grow nutes not flower.

oh and there will be CO2 running so they should be able to handle the nutes a little better i think.
 

Desert Hydro

Active member
Veteran
i know how threads with no pics dont get as many responses lol so here are the bitches waiting to go into their new home. ebb and flow with the full h and g line of nutes.
3 pure AK47 and 3 white widow X big bud. both are from female seed company

still waiting to get ahold of some sweet tooth.......................it never seems to be in stock..... :(
 

PGW

Member
The only way that I've seen this to be done well is to use GH Flora series nutes so that you can tweak the recipe as needed by following Lucas principles. With Lucas and all the calculations that he developed, you can do a little math and know how much bloom or micro to add back to bring the PPM's back up to where you want them.

One approach would be to run.....say.....1200PPM for most of flower. Then as your preparing to harvest the first set of buckets, you could let the PPM drop off for several days by just adding back water. Then harvest, and drop in your new plants. Once the new plants are established and growing well, you can pull out the Lucas calculations again and use the math to predictably raise the PPM back up to 1200 or near 1200PPM and await harvest number two.


Just one idea on how you could run it...........
 

Homebrewer

Active member
Veteran
I'd recommend an NPK ratio of 1-2-2 and floranova bloom offers such a ratio. That's enough nitrogen to keep your plants green and enough phosphorus and potassium to drive flower production. Given the fact that you're staggering harvests, I'd run your EC at or a little above 1.0. You don't need to flush when feeding at those levels and you'll be surprised how much you'll yield when you're not feeding like an a-hole.
 

Desert Hydro

Active member
Veteran
ive heard good things about flora nova. i might check them out. or i might see about a second tent where i can get them started flowering in an ebb and flow and move them over. i dunno. i'd rather not mess up a good thing by trying to do something inefficeint like turn an RDWC into a staggered harvest lol.

decisions, decisions.....anyways, another quick Q. my tent is 4"9" X 4'9". i have multiple lumatek 600's. should i run two 600's, a 400 and a 600 or two 400's. i think 1200w is a bit much for that tent lol but i dont want airy bud. i honestly think dual 400's with CO2 would be legit but id rather have some lighting input. plus i can run dual spectrum if i want to. one HPS and one MH and get a nice even mix
 

farmari

Member
im building a RDWC system like the under current system using 9 five gallon bucket sites and my question is are there any nutes that are versatile enough to run just base nutes with no additives(besides calmag) with different stages of flower in the system.

I thought most nutes were able to do that. Could anyone chime in? I've been doing staggered harvest RDWC for a year, without any additives, (besides GH PH Down) without much trouble. EC around 0.8-1.2
 

St3ve

Member
I would say yes no problem. I only run base nutes at about 850-950ppm (.7) from end of veg until harvest and pull solid numbers.

Only thing I would do is do a full water change at least every two weeks.
 

avant gardener

Member
Veteran
run lucas.
the ratio (0-5-10 or 0-8-16, grow-micro-bloom) stays the same for veg and flower. you use the lower strength under fluorescents and the stronger under HID.

flushing is still going to be an issue.
i've got rdwc. the buckets are tied together with 1 1/4" PVC.
when i want to isolate a single bucket or a line, i just throw slip caps on the ends of the pipes.
i don't usually stagger grows, but this helps when some of them finish a bit sooner than others.
 

ajc0k

Active member
Maybe build 2 systems with 2 different controllers, do half at a time. .All at once sounds like a PITA.
 
E

ekomsi

anything can be done if you do the research and planning before hand. A lot of growers some very experienced some not so much will say there is no need to flush if the right EC is given to the plants throughout its life.

I flush personally but Im sure sometime in the future I might not.
 

Desert Hydro

Active member
Veteran
i think im just gonna skip the staggered harvest to save on complications. id rather not sacrifice yield just to stagger them. what i may do is slide in some SOG style single cola plants around the edges as a bumper crop. time to bust out the coco and blumats! lol
 

Sqydro

Member
you can run a EC of 1.2 in RDWC like i have and you dont even need to flush at all i had to take some down due to unforseen circumstances before and they tasted no dofferent after a cure, if u really wanted you could have a big 84L tub with holes for ur net pots cut out and have a small pump flooming inside it and a ec of 1.0 and leave them in it for a week that way they will flush them selfs just top off each day in water and ur system is free??

oh and i run canna aqua range, ph stable and cheap n easy and uive had buds like this under 1200w

picture.php

picture.php
 

nuggetsgalore

New member
you can run a EC of 1.2 in RDWC like i have and you dont even need to flush at all i had to take some down due to unforseen circumstances before and they tasted no dofferent after a cure, if u really wanted you could have a big 84L tub with holes for ur net pots cut out and have a small pump flooming inside it and a ec of 1.0 and leave them in it for a week that way they will flush them selfs just top off each day in water and ur system is free??

oh and i run canna aqua range, ph stable and cheap n easy and uive had buds like this under 1200w

View Image
View Image


are you diluting the nutes at all or using full recommended dosages?
 
Re: lighting in the tent. I run a 600 stacked on top of a 600 in a 54" x 54" tent and I fight temps. No problem if I dim one bulb down to 400.
 

avant gardener

Member
Veteran
you can run a EC of 1.2 in RDWC like i have and you dont even need to flush at all

picture.php


well they certainly are BIG flowers.
congrats on that.
size doesn't equate to quality though.
case in point: big bud. i wouldn't smoke that dreck with your lungs.

anyway if you're not flushing in hydro, you're gonna taste those chemmy nutes. maybe the low ppm mitigates that a bit, but you're still smoking fertilizer dude.
 

Sqydro

Member
not diluted and i dont follow a ec chart just run a rc if 1.0 in veg and 1.2 in flower, al la heath robinson he achievs sick results this way, i still flush this way, but if u wanted to flush in RDWC but keep it perp depending on space and what have u, could u not have a few stand alone buckets for such things? just a thought
 

Sqydro

Member
View Image

well they certainly are BIG flowers.
congrats on that.
size doesn't equate to quality though.
case in point: big bud. i wouldn't smoke that dreck with your lungs.

anyway if you're not flushing in hydro, you're gonna taste those chemmy nutes. maybe the low ppm mitigates that a bit, but you're still smoking fertilizer dude.

do u find a difference in quality from big and small buds? im going sog next hopefully some sort of stadium grow so il be able to test this out alot better, hipe u got what u wanted OP
 
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