i have a few questions about dwc. 1. when starting with seeds do u sprout them first in something else then transfer them into the mesh pots? 2. how often does the solution in the buckets need to be changed?
1. I germinate seeds in cotton wool (tampaxes!) & let the roots grow right through like this -¬ This one has soil on top of cotton wool - just rinse it off. There's nothing stopping u planting seedlings from soil in dwc as there's no water pump / foggers to block up. Wash the soil out when u next change solution. When u have a healthy rootball u can pot the whole thing in clays. Fill the water just to the bottom of the net & within a week the roots will be submerged. The idea of this is that u can grow a tray of seedlings / clones & only transfer the strongest plants to dwc to save wasting your effort. 2. Start off with water for 1 week, then change it out to a weak feed. (do u have an EC meter??? - if not, get 1) I set ec at .06 - 0.8 for another week, then top up & increase to 1.0 U can increase by .1 / .2 every change without shocking the plant. Using canna vega, I set the ph & leave it alone for a week, check ec & adjust as necessary. Change out every 2 weeks. If ur out of town, set ur ph a little lower & they'll be ok for up to 2wks, then change out again. Up to u really, u could leave it longer, but u need to regularly flush out salts just like in soil. Get the best airstones & pump u can afford Use potassium silicate as ph+ (vita link silicone)