First Grow DWC 600W HPS

Damn dwc first grow you are brave to try. I envy ya I wanna learn but it's alot to learn especially when I never tried indoor....I hope it works out for you

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Don't be scared I am on my first grow in dwc. Two tents four plants 1000watts of hid light total(600w and 400w). I have had great results and wouldn't change a thing if I could do it over with a different medium. The hardest part was understanding the nutrients, how to use them, when, which ones and why, what order to mix them in. Watching ppms and adjusting your nutrient mix accordingly based on plants nutrient consumption rate. If you do your research and have a good ppm/ph meter there is no reason to fear dwc. I don't have a chiller, don't use frozen water bottles, and don't have a fancy hydroponics system. I use hydrogaurd and a nice storage tote and have never had root rot problems. Good luck with your dwc! Here is a pic of my first grow super lemon skunks dwc "bubble bucket" 6.5 weeks into flower just to show you the results. I started the plants may 28.

 

I did DWC first grow. It was easy. I have a journal in the hyrdro journals section. I've cut down 2 plants out of 4 now.

I would recommend a cal/mag supplement. It's very important to big buds. I use calimagic. Plenty of air is important. Make sure you have at least 100-200gph of air per bucket and large airstones. I use hydroguard too but another guy turned me on to something called real growers recharge. I will be running this after I run out of hydroguard. Recharge has many times the ingredients and is highly reviewed. The other cool thing about recharge is it includes humic/floric acid which I add in a separate supplement. Silica is a good supplement to add to your routine. It is alkaline though and requires that it be added first to a nutrient mix then ph balanced then the rest of the nutrients go in.
Recharge Natural Soil Conditioner

Keeping your buckets cool is important. Some hackers freeze plastic water bottles when the light is off and throw them in every morning to keep the water cool.

You'll want a flush product for the end like flawless finish or florakleen.

 

So how do you know by ppms which nutrient is lacking?

 

Good question, I've found when I'm using the right nutrients at the right concentration my plants will eat almost all the nutrients out of my ro water. I top off my res then do a res changeout every14days to ensure that the plant has access to all the nutrients. And watch for deficiencies just like any other medium.

How do you know your plant needs more nitrogen when growing in soil? Your plant tells you. Same with hydroponics. Although the ppm gives you a way to monitor if nutrients are locked out if your plant doesn't want any nutrients or if it wants more nutrients.

This is just my experience, I'm not a master grower and have only been researching and growing for 4 months.

 

I'm intrested to hear the anwser to the above question too. I have a ph pen but don't think it does ppm.

I have a freshwater master test kit which tests ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Could this be used somehow or offer anything to water testing?

Or a recommendation to a low cost ppm pen.

Sorry op, I wish you all the best I will look at the venus fly trap anyone asks what I'm growing I can truthfully say venus fly traps lol. Which is a lie I have already used many times lol.

Good luck man.

 

This is the Ppm meter I use. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00H...=ppm+meter&dpPl=1&dpID=51ojEuATfmL&ref=plSrch

 

So you would just follow the instructions on amounts of fertilizer per gallon test the ppm and pH and adjust accordingly? Do you have a base ppm per fertilizer separate or do you just measure after all ingredients are mixed?

 

I do NOT follow the dosage on the bottle. That tends to be way to strong for dwc. The roots are always sitting in the resovoir with access to all nutrients at all times. I usually use a 1/4 of the recommended usage for most things. Stuff like hydrogaurd I use as recomended on the bottle. I've been following the Lucas formula(google it) for my base nutrient dosage schedule. Then as I add more supplements I tweak the levels so my plants arent getting too much of one nutrient. I know if I have found a good ratio when my ppm stay close to the same and my water level is dropping steadily. I check ppm after all nutrients are mixed in. As well as every day or every other day to monitor fluctuations in ppm and ph.

 

I got a lot of help with nutrients from @crankz as far as strength of nutrients, when to add them, and how to mix them. And direct questions you have @crankz will probably help you out.

 

I agree with Professorkhaos133. DO NOT FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON THE BOTTLE you will burn your plants. The recommended dosage on your bottle of nutrients is based on 1000w happy healthy grows. If you are using less light then you need to give her less nutrients. A 600w would use 33% less and a 400w 66% less nutrients. For guys starting out in hydro I would suggest these ROUGH guidelines.... if you are using a 600w that 600ppm be your max...400w light = 400ppm max. Remember that more nutrients does not give you a bigger yield. You can recover from not enough nutrients in days but if you over feed your plant it could take weeks or maybe never for her to recover.

C02 (carbon dioxide) + H20 (water) + LIGHT = C6H22O6 (sugar molecule) + O2 (oxygen)

Nutrients are not in the photosynthesis equation so do not get caught up thinking nutrients increase yield. Yield is based on light.

Use RO water and a cal mag product, it will save you headaches. Your tap water has high ppm levels of toxic salts and chlorine. Your tap water could already have 400ppm of dissolved solids in it and if you add nutrients to that then you just over feed your plant and it will burn. I hope this helped and did not confuse you. Good luck with your grow and thanks for sharing.

 

I don't think it can be stressed enough. Go light on the nutrients. I learned. That's the way to go in DWC. The roots are in the solution all the time. The nutrients are always available. As long as you have a minimal level the plants will continue to grow. A strong solution isn't necessarily going to grow your plants faster. All it does is put you in potential danger of getting burned. One of the things you'll learn is how much water you have to add to keep up levels once they get big and going hard. They can drink 1/2 gallon a day and if you get lazy about checking your water levels it's very easy to burn them. Usually they concentrate the nutrients as the level goes down and your ppm goes out of control. With 3.5 gallon buckets which is what I run you can only run max about 2 gallons of solution. I still think the 3.5's are better than 5 gallon because of the increased light distance in a tent. I like to max out my plants and need all the room I can get.

1/4 strength on the bottle to start and work your way up to half. This depends on the supplement. Things like hydroguard or humic/floric can be given at full strength.

 

Thanks for the help yall