Hydro shops said it couldn’t be done outdoors in Hawaii as the heat would fry the roots, so of course it made me want to try an outdoor DWC even more. So far, plants are thriving, roots are healthy, white, and plentiful. Water temps reach high 80’s at midday. Frozen water bottles are used to cool buckets as well as panda film. I have 3 Critical +2.0 and 2 Sunset Sherbet growing, but my main focus will be on only one Sunset Sherbet. Using Dyna-gro nutes per bottle directions. PH is usually around 5.8-6.1. Top off and add nutes every other filling. Direct sun about 8 hours a day. One 15 Watt Led bulb comes on when sun goes down and stays on til sunrise to keep her in veg. Neem oil twice a week to aid with pests. Plants are 35 days today.
Temp at midday before adding frozen bottles: 90 Temp 2 hours after adding frozen bottles: 80 Plants get direct sun from about 630am - 230pm, then the sun disappears behind the fence. I put the bottles in at 12:30 when the water temp was at 90 degrees. I removed the thawed water bottles at 230. The temp had dropped to at least 80.
I have seen people with makeshift DIY water chillers look into this high temps high chances of root rot
I’ve heard conflicting stories of high temps and root rot. Because I live in such a warm climate, I wanted to see if an outdoor DWC could actually thrive in these conditions or if I would have to invest in further equipment. If it turns out to be the latter, it may not be worth the added expense. Roots and water conditions are checked daily when the bottles are added. So far no sign of root rot, algae, or slime. Not to say that it won’t show up later.. but then again, this is just an experimental grow in Hawaii’s outdoor climate.
I always grow DWC and as long as you do your water changes and use something like hygrozyme and mycos should be good. SUBBED Sent from my SM-N950U using Grasscity Forum mobile app
She had a nice sprinkle of rain last night. Reservoir is a little less than half full. I’ll let them take in a bit more before I dilute it. ill be topping off again tonight with plain water. I seem to be filling water every 2 days so I have 10 gallon containers on order. I’d say she’s about 50% filled? Filled out a little more, not as much spread tho. But it’s only been two days since the last pic. Nice breezy day today. 82 degrees.
Day 40 update. She’s taking in at least a gallon or more a day. Had to upgrade from the 5 gallon bucket to 10 gallon tubs. Started a fresh batch of nutes to go with it. The water temps are amazing in these tubs. No more water bottles. Stays right around 85 degrees. There’s zero light leak. I had taken some clones previously, but they didn’t take. Grabbed a couple more today in hopes that these will make it. She seems to be on schedule for the flip. This Monday will make 6 weeks, at which time she’ll experience her first blackout night. Looking at a possible New Years harvest. Working on her single blackout box as she is the only plant ready for flowering. PVC and panda film.
Today’s the day. Trimmed her up a little. Removed the bigger fan leaves and cleaned up underneath. I was contemplating throwing all the girls into flower, but I decided to wait a few days or so. We’re expecting some stormy weather tonight. Threw a blackout box together and covered her for the evening. As long as the winds don’t pick up we’re golden. Day 1 of flip to 12/12.
Had 2nd thoughts yesterday about putting her into flower this early, but after looking at her this morning and all her bright new bud sites, I’m almost positive 6 weeks is just perfect. For her anyway. Her clones haven’t taken yet. Will probably pull a couple more today, just in case. Worried I may miss my window of opportunity to keep her genes alive. She is a beauty.
Well since I’ve stopped throwing frozen water bottles in the reservoirs I’ve noticed the plants slowed their growth. Read up on dissolved oxygen and found out that D.O. decreases as temps increase. Back to frozen water bottles to cool temps. Will be throwing the rest of the girls into flower next Monday. Ready or not, the next batch is growing quickly so into flower they go. Still crossing my fingers on the clones.
Hey man just wanted to offer my opinion, since I was dealing with 84 degree res temps. Definitely make sure you have extra airstones in the reservoir for the D.O. this will also keep water from sitting and gathering as much heat. You can also add a little fountain pump to draw cool water from the bottom and gently fountain on top of the reservoir water right under your net pots, this keeps water flowing and keeps it from collecting as much heat. I had to control the temp of the res after switching to flower, its stressful for the root zone to be above 80. I was able to the 2 above mentioned things and drop my temps to 75 during the hottest part of the light cycle (ambient room temps were 83-88) If temps arent controlled by then, you get a cheap mini fridge and have the water pump feed a tube from the bottom of the res into the side of the mini fridge and back out into the res to drop temps another 10 or so degrees. Lastly for best cooling on the hottest days, get a cheap probe chiller, or you can look up a tutorial on using the coil from the mini fridge to make a homemade chiller for the res.
Thanks for the advice! I did notice that once I stopped lowering the temps with frozen bottles, the growth slowed tremendously. I started bringing the temps back down around an hour before temps are the hottest at midday. After that, they get maybe an hour or two before the sun recedes behind the fencing. The plants all look fine and healthy as do the roots, but they definitely are showing signs of slowed growth.
Everyday I wake up to this sight. Then bend and tuck, bend and tuck. I’m running out of space along the edges. Removed LOTS more fan leaves today. It’s getting overcrowded. I’ll pull a bunch of large leaves and a couple days later the smaller ones will grow out and crowd it up again. I don’t want to cut any edges off so I keep stuffing em back in there. The rewards from this Scrog better be worth the work. I’ll probably stick with LST next Grow. If you look toward the lower left, one of the girls fell ill. Looks like root rot. She’s out of the line up. Pulled her plug today.