Planning my next grow

Deep water culture is perfect for basements without a water chiller, which adds needless complexity.
Provide as much water volume for each plant as you can using a single tank or a reservoir so that you don't go crazy adjusting multiple buckets.
And keep the humidity high for fast, healthy growth.

 

As for coco you don’t need to water multiple times a day. You can do once a day sometimes get away with every other depending on plant and pot size.
What lights do you grow with?

 

Promix HP hydro fed in fabric pots. I like promix. It's similar to coco but behaves a little more like soil. It's a good intro to hydro but super simple. Feed the promix just like a DWC plant.

 

If you can afford quantum boards get them.
I have 3 260w kits in my 5x5 and a 320w kit in my 4x2.
They’re amazing.

 

Yea if you can swing it id definately try a DWC setup. The growth is quite a bit faster and you can control much more with feedings and what nutrients your plants will take in. Ive had next to no problems in my first run, in 6th week of flower right now. Ive learned alot about mixing my nutes and finding good ratios of each nutrient.

I never go by recomended nute schedules an all that shit anymore. I give my girls exactly what they need when they need it. Just call me the plant whisperer.

 

This was my starter DWC setup. Still rocking the same buckets and net pots. Had to replace my air pump after a year and switched to black air lines/higher quality airstones but this setup is worth every dollar for a starter DWC.

They're high quality black buckets. Really nice 6" net pot lids. Pretty much everything you need except nutrients, and testing equip for ph/ppm. Too many people try to start DWC in colored plastic containers and don't realize they still leak light. You need heavy black plastic on your res or it has to be thickly covered/painted. Light will get through anything thin if you put it in a room with a high end grow light.
Bubble Brothers 6 Pot DWC System | HTG Supply

 

If you're more after lower maintiance than a full on independent bucket system you can easily convert this to an RDWC with some careful piping, another res, and a pump.

 

Hey man, I'm in Ma too. These temps are a bitch. Had my 5 plants in veg freeze the other night. My pots were frozen solid. I'm such a dumb ass. I knew this was coming and should have planned better.

 

14 degrees tonight with a full moon. Had to put a heater in the water pump shed to get it running the last two mornings. My exhaust fan on low the flower room temp was 72 degrees today. Plants still look great though.

 

I like 100-200gph per bucket. Currently running a 1050gph pump between 4 buckets with 2 stones in one bucket because the original got lazy late in the grow. The second stone bounced the roots right back.

 

I'm still waiting for someone to post some rival roots in the hydro section. The roots in this round of my DWC plants are the best I've ever seen. The buckets are completely filled. When the water is topped off the roots float up almost to the rim. I have dead dried roots stuck to the rim of the bucket.

 

It's a good method for automation if you're going for that. I do daily top offs on the buckets and weekly water changes. Bucket DWC without any circulation is super simple you just can't ignore a plant for more then a day.

I use a placeholder bucket for water changes. I just put the plant on the placeholder and take off with the res bucket. I dump it in the tub, restock it with nutes and bring it back. It only takes a few minutes a plant once you have it down. I have no pumps to worry about, no nozzles to clog, no return lines to get plugged with roots, ect.

 

I'm switching from a top drip DWC system (12 gal usable volume) to a bigger single tank (30 gal usable) deep water culture system. The main reason is to get more root space.
The downsides to drip are that it can splash seedlings, tubes can clog, and there's extra complexity.
There are at least two benefits to top drip:
(1) It increases aeration of the reservoir. My old drip system came without air stones, and worked as well as when I added a couple later.
(2) It helps water young plants before the roots reach the reservoir.

I don't think that water running down along the roots in the space between water surface and grow medium does much, but I could be wrong.

 

I think it's too much complication as well. I've completely negated the 2nd listed advantage of top feed by simply leaving my clones to root a little extra long. I drill a hole in the bottom of the net pot and dangle the roots in the res when I transplant. There is literally no waiting period for the plant to grow through the net pot. It takes a week off of veg time easy. Circ pumps do reduce the need for airstones but I would rather have airstones. Less chance of leaks or failures.