They don't call it death without cause for no reason. DWC can be tricky if water gets warm or nasties take over. Unless you've got the ability to lose a whole crop I'd experiment before doing a whole room of something. Ebb and Flow is much more forgiving in my opinion. Might want to checkout Ebb buckets such as the multiflow or CAP ebb n'gro. Less likely for warm water to cause much harm.
Hey FlowerFarmer, (or anyone else) dumb question but do you know if filling the bucket with a medium is important with ebb and flow? I've done large plants in 6" net pots of hydroton in 5 gallon buckets, DWC, but don't know if I could do the same except flood and drain instead of DWC. In examples like you mention, and most significantly in DHF's past tree setup, it seems the buckets are filled with a medium instead of just an anchoring net pot.
Death without cause... yea, I had two years of .5-2.5lb plants, until the last few runs involving some plants randomly dying, others yielding poorly, mixed with a few that would be perfectly healthy. No clue. In haste I have been able to switch to coco thanks to the info posted by yourself and others here.
too much on my plate..things never getting done when needed, etc..pair that with a bit of laziness/procrastination (and lack of RO water reserves for when needing to flush) and you've got a recipe subpar gardens..
It's a slight comfort to hear other growers also have gardens affected by being too busy and sometimes lazy, but seeing your "subpar" results in terms of pounds per month and gpw makes me feel rather pathetic in comparison, lol. I only spent 4 hours in my small growroom today but feel totally exhausted.