Ok, I'm switching from soil to hydro on my indoor setup and I had everything planned to go with 5 gallon recirculating dwc and when I went into the grow shop I was talking to the guy there and he basically told me nothing but bad stuff, and how people have tons of problems with dwc, the bubbles are gonna raise my Ph and a bunch of other stuff and he was trying to talk me into doing a flood and drain with buckets system with I think 2 or 2.5 gallon buckets. I told him I was vegging for a month and a half to 2 months and worried about size because I used 12 gallon pots for soil, and he said through this system size won't be an issue. I'm wanting to have 4 plants per 1000 watt and be able to pull at least a qp per plant. I want to believe him, it would be alot cheaper and easier but I'm definitely a little skeptical. So any advice is greatly appreciated.
Just finished my first hydro grow. I also use the flood & drain with 1000w hid. My grow is in a tent, so height is an issue. My pots are 3.5g and the guy at the hydro store was trying to tell me I should use at least 5g pots, I didn't see the need for the bigger size and I was right! During flowering the plants filled out to the top of the tent and I had a nice harvest. I veg my ladies a couple of weeks longer than most and I clip the main shoot at the fourth node. My harvest is still drying but I can gaurentee you I have at least 10oz per plant (probably12-14). 4 plants per 1000w is spot on. If you are growing in a tent or box 3.5g pots are fine. if you can take advantage of a lot more height then go with 5g pots. Good luck
Hey, thanks for the reply, that helps out alot. Heights not gonna be an issue for me since I'm using a bedroom with 8.5 foot ceilings, but I'm still planning on topping like you do and really trying to do more of a sea of green with maybe 4' max height. I just don't usually see the point of growing super tall plants except for a vertical grow I tried once. I end up trimming most of the stuff off the bottom that doesn't recieve light anyways. I was also wondering, how long do you veg your plants for to get that type of yield? And right now I'm debating using either cocoa or hydroton after starting in rockwool cubes. I should be getting in a bunch of different seeds from attitude some time this week as well. I went feminized for the first round on this grow just to cut off 2 months. What I got are as follows. DNA- lemon skunk 6 pack Serious seeds- warlock 6 pack DNA- limited collection purple LA 6 pack Barney farm- critical kush 5 pack 1 each freebies (feminized as well) Dinafem- super silver Dinafem- critical+automatic G13- gigabud Dinafem- white widow Dinafem- blue widow And 5 free regular serious seeds Kali bubb. Any comments on those appreciated as well.
Congrats on choosing to try hydro! It's a strange transition, but fun, and more simple than you think. Any popular hydro method will work fine for you, and you should clear 1.5lbs under a 1k light, even if things don't go as planned! Each method of growing hydroponically has it's own nuance, and it's your job to learn about your type of hydro. No matter which system, each method is easy to deal with. There's a lot to read and study about, and even more you'll learn from your own experience. I say use the hydro system you have already, but know a few tricks that are unique to DWC. 1) Temp! This is the Achilles heel (weakest link) in growing DWC!! 68F is ideal. If you can't keep it there or within a couple degrees, DWC isn't best for you, consider any hydro system where roots don't remain in the water all the time. 2) bubbles bubbles bubbles. 1-2 watt per gallon of air pump power. (5w air pump for a 5 gallon bucket is good!), and use a good stone. Getting oxygen to the roots is the key to hydroponics. 3) pH pH pH. ph can fluctuate from 5.5 - 6.5. If you just shoot for 5.8 at all times, you can't go wrong. (advanced techniques include varying pH within the range.) 4) Change your nutes once a week, and use a strength of 600-1200PPM of a commercial all in one nutrient. GH Flora series (or any of the popular copies) , GH Floranova, GH Maxi, or Dynagro. These offer everything your plants need in one or two bottles, ever. DWC is great, as long as you can deal with it's crutch (temps)
I veg mine for at least 8 weeks, but because I top mine usually twice I let the plants tell me when to switch to flower. With optimum growing conditions hydro's produce great yeilds. I think the biggest factor for high yeilds is light, many dont want to use 1000w due to the heat but we just went through a week long heat wave of 90*+ and my ladies are fine (basement grow no ac). The strain grown will also affect yeild. Original Past made a lot of good comments, keep your rez cooled with a chiller and airated, monitor your ph & ppm. My choice of nutes is the Lucas Formula(GH), it's cheap and easy and gives great results.
Thanks for all the replies. I bought the hydro system yesterday, for the firat grow im gonna be running 24 2.5gal buckets under 4 1k lights. plan on having a good chiller to keep my reservoir cool. And the nutrients that I was thinking about using is the canna line mainly due to the stability and how easy it's supposed to be to use. The only thing that concerns me now is my grow shop talked me into just throwing an extra pump into the reservoir rather than a big air pump to keep the Ph stable, I know original past comments alot on the dwc systems, so I just wanna clarify that I did switch my plans and this is a flood and drain system. So is running airstones continuously still as important, and is 68 degrees still a good number to target? And bid daddy, I had a root stimulate I was planning on using through veg. Do you continue use throughout the entire flowering cycle?
I run 3 air stones in my rez at all times. I keep my chiller set at 66*. I use Great White through my entire grow (benificial enzymes).
is there anything out there to cool a res. down a bit? i'm running an ebb & flow and all other conditions are good but res temp. seems to run around 77-82 degrees while my room temps are 80-85 in both veg and flower. my humidity is a bit high sometimes in bud at 55% or so but usually sits at 50%-53% in both veg and bud rooms, so would like to cool res down a bit and been using water bottles frozen but they melt so fast not really worth the effort. thanks ahead of time for the help!!!
First of all Matty, you shouldn't hi-jack someone elses thread, start your own. To answer your question, yes get yourself a chiller. They are available at all hydro shops or online. You should never let your rez temp get above 70*.
thank u and sorry about the ""thread jacking" i've never done this before and it was an accident. didn't mean to mess with anyone elses quesions. but i appreciate your help. i'll look for 1 i've only ever seen heaters but good to know there are coolers too.