[Harry Gypsna]

Hi, im in2 my 1st soil grow, but, i think i would like a go at hydroponics, i think the deep water culture "bubblers" are what i would like to have a go at, i will be following the instructions in the faq on og. What i am asking really is any1 who has any experience with dwc, just how does it go, is it a lot of hassle, is it worth the change, i am interested, i just want to hear some views and experiences i suppose.

You sound like me at first. I did soil, then I went to DWC. I myself did'nt like it. For 3 main reasons. First if your just gonna run one bucket and use Organic Nutes the sediment at the bottom builds up and does'nt circulate well. Second the PH is going to be hard to control since its only gonna be 3 - 4 gallons/12-16 liters of Nutes. The Third sort of will answer my problems but not if your using one bucket. You need a resevoir and at least a small scale bucket system. Like Krusty's. Since i dont have the space or patience to do that i cant deal with the DWC. I use NFT channels when I go Hydro with great success.

Blatant

[Harry Gypsna]

would that be set up the gutters set at an angle, with the plants every so far along there is a hole 4 a net pot, ive seen a friends dad growing like that about 10 yrs ago

Yah you got it. Except I use PVC pipe. Same shit different smell. Vegative growth is explosive.

Blatant

[syko2]

I to started in soil and switched to dwc. I have had a great experience...very easy no real problems.

Sorry Blatant had a bad experience but that's 1 grower.
...The problem with useing organics in hydroponic gardening is that it's unstable. Useing chemical nutrience is 100% better. Setament was coused by unproper air flow in the res but, all orgainc weather their nutrience or addatives will have some setament.

DWC is very simple I would start off with 1 bucket and add later on. 5 galon is perfered if you have room if not look into Swc (shallow Water calture). I use 2, 4, 5, 10, 15, 20 galon tubs/buckets for swc and dwc. Just rember these thing's and you'll be fine.

First of your nutrient is very inportant make sure it's a compleat nutrient. I use BC Technaflora (canabis only) and Hydroponic Speical (fruit's/vegies/flowers) as nutrients. I use BC Technaflora's addatives Thrive Alive B-1 Red and Awsome Blosoom....addatives like B-1, hummus and a bloom booster is recomended for stress, decomp and many others things and a booster is a P K booster for beter blooms.

H2o2 is used for higher Do leavels and extra added air plus help's decomp also used to clean tools, res and lid's.

Next, PH .......I use a $7 aquarium ph tester (Wal-Mart) thoe I am getting a Ph meter soon. Meters are best... PH buffers should be conpatable with your nutrience. PH 5.0 to 7.0 is safe mid 6.0's veg & mid to low 5.0's for flower. I use Pro-Down Ph buffer 12%(I think?)

Medium: NO Rock Wool.....Coco, grow rock's, lava rock's, packing penuts, marbels...all good choises. Keep your net pot submerged about 1 inch into the res water for 1 to 2 weeks then after roots grow out lowwer the water to below the net pot. This allows for a Aeroponic effect much more air for the root mass.

My biggest thing about growing is prevention. The larger your res the better thing's are for you and the plant's. Larger ammount's of water will allow the nutrient to be more stable and keep PH from shifting. Larger ammounts of water are harder to heat up also. Your nutrient needs to be aerated to keep Do leavels maxed. Do is Desolved Oxigen the higher the Do the more o2 the plants can get..more o2 meens more plant. Plus the higher the Do leavels are the less change of anarobic conditions.

Air pump and air stones are what I use to aerate and mix up my res. The smaller the air stones the more bubbles it will creat wich also will raise your Do leavels. 1" air stones ae what I use and 3" ones are fine. Sub pumps work great Bio no noise...., water fall efeect is 1 of the best ways to raise Do leavels.

Air temps should be around 55 to 80 these are safe 74 is almost perfect. Cooler temps will keep the nutrient (res) cool wich again allows for higher Do leavels.

PPM/Ec First know your water source. Tap can work I use it but hard water is very bad for plant's. Top off with plain water only or every other time. Conversions us .05 -- Euro .07....keep them low to start then bump up slowly over time. I dump, wash, refill my tubs every 7 to 10 day's. Help's alot IMO...Also flush alot Hear is a small weekly sample of what it looks like....

week 1 plain tap Tap water is 50 ppms us .5
week 2 200 ppms
week 3 dump, wash, refill add 400 ppms
week 4 600 ppms...

Their are plenty of systems you can build and run hydroponicly however they all revolve around the same basic princable..Light, nutrience, water, ph, cool temp's.

My 1st run I lost my grow to root rot; every one since has been great!!! Not problem free mind you lost 1 to bug's...thoe that's not hydroponic releated that's my falt. Have not lost 1 since.

Also on a side note DWC is great for cloneing....

Have fun growing and if you need anything feel free.........

[Harry Gypsna]

thanks, buyindg my kit on wednesday. found a dual outlet pump, there r 2 a small 1 and a big 1 at 9.99 (gbp) and 14.99 respectively. im getting the more powerful 1, going 2 use 1 bubble curtain wand and on the other outlet, a splitter, with 2 of the small airstones on it, am buying canna, nutes, both veg, and bloom, bought the soil versions too 4 the my soil grow now

[syko2]

sounds good and hope all goes well for you and the up comming grow......

[filter xp]

Syko pretty much summed it up for ya. Depending on your setup though, I would reccomend growing one or two plants at a time like this.

I had three separate 5 gal DWCs going with no reservoir, just all separate. Try changing three 5 gal buckets in a kitchen sink when you have a nute burn problem, not a fun or easy task. Unless you have pumps and all that of course.

Rather than have 3 plants going, I would reccomend growing ONE plant in a 5 gal DWC, FIM it a lot, make it very bushy in veg. Blast it with light, 600w or 1000 would be best results for this method.

Tree style - youll pull some weight trust me.

Just my .02 on DWC.

[friendlyfriend]

thanks to SYKO i am delving in uncharted territory for myself and hopping on his DWC bandwagon. the reason is because i recieved some clones in the mail and last time i tried to put em in perlite and had a disasterous result. And even though im too poor to afford any hydro nutes im hoping they will survive well with tap water for a while. Within 3 days a lil bit of the cuts are showing signs of roots growth. Freaking nutes are soo expensive... :( but this DWC adventure is turning into a fairy tale

so far dwc seems pretty easy, runs itself... just need to check it every once in a while for ph and tds.... haven't had any problems at all so far, just vegging for now tho, but the nutes that i'm using are "Advanced Nutrients - Sensi Grow" part A and part B, can get both for 24$ at midwest hydro... the stuff's sposed to be specially designed for growin herb, i believe it, and it looks like it so far in my room

THC