Deep Water Culture Growing Q & A

[basementjungl]

Hello I have a question about budding. I switched to 12/12 lighting and i was wondering how to handle my nutrients. Do I put micro,veg and bloom all at once or just bloom or 2 of the 3. Any suggestions would be nice thank you

Short answer would be to follow the directions on the bottle or the nutrient calculator on the website.

If you're using the Lucas Formula you just use two of the three the whole time, but if you're using all three during veg, use all three during flowering.


Generally the directions on the bottles are stronger than you're going to want to use (they're always printed too strong) but keep the proportions the same. So if it's 2ml/gal of one, 3ml/gal of another, and 4ml/gal of the third, keep the same ratio even if you're running half strength (where it would be 1ml/gal, 1.5ml/gal, and 2ml/gal).


Think of it like this: A three part nutrient is called "Grow, Micro, and Bloom" or something similar. A two part nutrient is called "A and B", usually. The naming isn't important, but because the three parters have names that make sense instead of just A, B, C, we try to assign a purpose to each one.

It's actually just a three-way division of the macro and micro nutrients to allow the manufacturer to bottle them at far higher concentration than they can be mixed together. Try it sometime with a very small amount of each of the three - mix them together without diluting them. It forms useless chunks of crap that the plants can't use.

 

[Vaporeyes]

Heres a pic of the nasty stuff

Dont trip on the algae , yes it uses up some oxygen but not enough to choke out that rockwool..its ugly but youll be fine....find a company that makes rockwool and read up on their site if you dont feel comfortable with what im saying..

once your canopy fills in it will go by by...or you can cover it now...no biggie..and hygrozyme is not going to rid algae from the top of your rw..

on 2nd look that rock wool looks like its soaked?

peace!

 

[Troublesome2]

Thanks a ton vaporeyes. Im starting that res over it never recovered and iv got some seeds from some killer dank i want to try out. I might of had my pump turned up too high at the time of that pic... i didnt even know that it could be turned up or down but since then iv figured it out. Iv got another res that had some problems but is starting to pull through now. I was ignoring my PH and thats a no no iv figured out lol. Thanks a million for the advice though and i will keep it in mind for future refrence...which is what growing is all about, livin and learnin Im very determined to get this growing thing down... I WILL GET BETTER

 

[Vaporeyes]

np man......joined here completely blind coming in and have learned much here in the past year......as far as the pump goes whatever works for you as long as you dont over saturate. I use a turkey baster once a day until they are sipping on their own.

 

[Troublesome2]

Thankx vaporeyes I just read through your journal and WOW!! How tall did your plants get?? I only have room for about 5 ft of vertical growth. Not sure if im going to have to do some LSTing

 

[Vaporeyes]

Thankx vaporeyes I just read through your journal and WOW!! How tall did your plants get?? I only have room for about 5 ft of vertical growth. Not sure if im going to have to do some LSTing

they were about 4.5ft (to tall), i prefer 3-3.5ft max but that never seems to work out. 5ft max sounds like sog or scrog for you? what light are you using again?

 

[Troublesome2]

Right now there under a 8 light T5 24 hrs and will be going under a 600 watt HPS when ready

 

[Vaporeyes]

Right now there under a 8 light T5 24 hrs and will be going under a 600 watt HPS when ready

same as that journal....should work nicely for you...

 

[Troublesome2]

Just curious... On my last grow i started a cloner with a fogger in it... When i had it working it was AWESOME!!! The roots were just amazing! Now im growing down in my cellar and winter is coming. As of right now my temps are just about perfect but its not that cold. I do remember that it never gets too cold down there but maybe too cold to grow...(well too cold with the lights off) Now i was thinking that since my res's temp will prolly drop would it be a bad idea to try to run my fogger in there??? If i can control my water temp that, IMO, would work awesomely ????????????????

 

[Vaporeyes]

Just curious... On my last grow i started a cloner with a fogger in it... When i had it working it was AWESOME!!! The roots were just amazing! Now im growing down in my cellar and winter is coming. As of right now my temps are just about perfect but its not that cold. I do remember that it never gets too cold down there but maybe too cold to grow...(well too cold with the lights off) Now i was thinking that since my res's temp will prolly drop would it be a bad idea to try to run my fogger in there??? If i can control my water temp that, IMO, would work awesomely ????????????????

as long as its not to cold it will work fine, that fogger will heat the water up and the lights should add warmth up top...do you use a dome as well or just the fogger?

 

[Troublesome2]

Just the fogger

 

[Vaporeyes]

Just the fogger

might want to throw a dome over, for 5-6 $ its worth it....I use one of those mistic cloners (is that what your using?)with a dome and seems to be working better ( had a tendency to flop before i added the dome).

 

[Troublesome2]

Ok iv got a question about my roots and res... I keep getting slimey roots. Iv cut them 3 times... My plants are healthy but this root problem is drivin me crazy! Im a week into flower and dont have a huge root system. Im using my fogger but its on a timer its on a half hour every hour and a half. My Ph never goes above 7 and i adjust that daily. I use Hygrozyme with all my nutes. My res is completley covered with aluminum tape, top to bottom the lids got a double layer.

 

[VapedOutJoe]

What's your res temps? Most likely the issue. Get it under 70 in the res, use Hygrozyme. Be sure to change your res water 2-3 times a week until the slime goes away. Wash your res out with a small amount of bleach, like a half teaspoon to a gallon water, and be sure to rinse well, and dry before refilling. What is your water source, tap, well, etc. ?

 

[Troublesome2]

Im using tap ph'd to 5.5 and im not sure of my temps in my res but i can say its kinda cool to the touch id say its at room temp or a little less not sure though but i will get an aquarium temp strip for in there. Changin the res 3 times a week is going to kill my nutes and i cant afford new nutes yet...Oh well Ill be doing that because if thats what it takes thats what iv go to do.

 

[VapedOutJoe]

Definately get a res temp strip. I bet your water is 72, or higher since the hydrozyme isn't doing much to battle the slime. I had to do the res changing thing when I ran DWC because of my temps and it does SUCK!!! I ended up adding a larger bucket around the res and would fill that bucket up daily with ice bottles and insulate the top with towels. It dropped my res temps about 7 degrees, if I remember right, and all was good after that. I've seen people put ice bottle directly into the res a couple of times a day to keep temps down, and that worked for them. BUT doing that can cause minor issues with ice bottles touching roots.
Also, be sure to wash off the air stones when you do your res cleaning/refilling.
I would recommend trying to cool the res a bit, you might get away with not having to change it to many times before you get good results.

For DWC, I found the hardest issue to deal with was res temps. Good luck!

 

[VapedOutJoe]

Also, to add to that, run straight PH'd water with no nutes for the first couple of days. The plants won't mind if they are having root issues anyway. This will help in removing food for the slime to eat. And H2O2 will work, but I would keep with Hygro right now until the slime is gone. H2O2 for a couple of weeks after to be sure things stay cleat, then stop using those addative every watering, and maybe go to an every other watering.

 

[Troublesome2]

Awesome man thank you Ill get on it asap will get a strip tomorrow. And post the temp on here. Im not paticularly liking dwc because of all my rot problems but maybe ill get it worked out and i wont have to change setups.... I kinda like aeroponics seems simple after its built

 

[VapedOutJoe]

I just sub'd to your grow, so I can watch there, and here. It took me some time with DWC, once you get things dialed in, it's a great setup.
Aeroponics is a great method too. I personally think Aero is best for larger grows, many plants, but either way, it's an awesome method. I am pretty much all hydro right now, the soil grows seem complicated with all the mixes, and addatives, etc. I grow plenty of plants in soil, but not these plants.

 

[Troublesome2]

Sweat thanks man