Am gonna grow in 20 gal totes, could have 3 or 4 plants in each tote. My question is to change the water I will have to lift top off tub with flowers and all and lift out the root mass too and then when I have replaced the water/nutrient solution just put everything back in and in place. Now is there a better way to do this as I was thinking it was not good for the roots to be exposed to light and this seems like an akward way to do things. One solution is to put some kind of drainage systems on the bottom of the container but I was not gonna do that so just wondering how folks are dealing with growing in the containers like I will be doing. Love and peace all...
You could drain the system if you like. In my hydro grow, i have 8x 5 gallon bubbler buckets recirculating to a 90L reservoir, when i change out my nutrients, i use a 1000lph water/nutes pump, with a 3 foot hose pipe on one end and a 15 foot pipe on the other. I suck up through the 3 foot pipe (easier on the pump). I put the 3 foot end into the rez, and the other in the toilet. I pump the waste nutrient solution down the toilet. I clean and fill a bath with water and switch the pump around and then pump the water from the bath into the rez. Theres a wee bit more to it than that, but thats giving you an idea.
Thanks john, good to see how you are doing things. I was hoping to not have to fix any sort of drainage to my containers. If I keep my set up real basic and just lift the top off to change water/nutrients is that ok, will roots get damaged by moving them around and exposing to light while I change water? Any one. If it has to be done I will connect all the tubs to a main res and then fill and empty from there but that will make things a wee bit more intricate. Let me know I just dont wanna do anything detrimental to my future grow.
Check out rumple4skins sticky at the top of the indoor page ( lets build a bubble bucket).You will learn a ton about dwc. Putting a drain in will only cost a few dollars and very little time now compared to the major pain in the ass you will be dealing with if you dont drain it
I use a 180 gph statuary pump (Lowes)in the res. attach to that a hose into a five gal bucket. about three or four trips to dump. Get same size tote to mix new nutes in. Take pump out of rez and put it into new mix. pump into rez. All can be done with only hands in rez. DON'T RUN PUMP WHILE DRY. I use an 18 gal tub and have the whole process down to about a half hour.
ding ding ding, we have a winner. rooster, spot on, I should have come up with that, all I need is a pump, thanks bro and thank you everyone for helping out