DWC - First time grower - Quick setup question

[piestasher]

I have a 4x4 tent coming and a 600w hps, my questions is for anyone with bucket DWC experience... How important is a resevoir i plan on having 5 plants. Thanks


Sent from my iPhone using 420

 

[Papageno]

That is not really the right questions. It is a different grow method once you link the buckets and run them together. It is for a different purpose and has some limitations associated with it. There are pros and cons to doing it both ways. In general linking them together can make things much easier but then you should be running clones of the same strain and age as they will all be running the same nute profile. Also you really wont be able to deal with them on an individual basis which is not a big deal if you know what you are doing.


The biggest issue is if you are running different strain seeds. Lets say you do everything perfect and have 2 different strains (or worse), 12 week blooming sativa and a 8 week blooming indica. So at 7 weeks when you need to shut off the nutes for the Indica do you do that and starve the Sativas and harvest them at 8 weeks? Or do you pull the indicas out of the system and run them in a second set of buckets for their final weeks? but that doesn't EVEN talk about during bloom when the nutes are ramping down fast you don't want to for the Sativas. You just can't run them in the same res together properly.

I will paste a chart below showing many enviro factors over the grow. It is a standard hydro chart so has a lot of good info for you. Look at the EC chart and understand that 2 different strains will elongate the number of weeks in that chart differently and one or both will suffer if run together in the same nute solution.


And lastly if you have never grown DWC there is a journal I would recommend you read through where this guy has documented his res and entire grow showing many things that newbs should understand. I explain everything you need to know about DWC at some point in there.




ClosetCase420's - RDWC - 600W MH/HPS - Wonder Woman - Grow Journal - 2015

 

[thebudking]

5 plants is too much for a 4x4, 5 plants will overgrow a 4x4 in no time. Start with one, learn to grow first. Keep things simple, use a base nutrient, cal-mag and a bloom booster in week 3 and 4, done. Village idiot is 100 percent right, I have been growing dwc from the start, I would never mix strains in a shared rez, you are asking for problems. Run one plant, research how to top your plants and set up a scrog, you will be amazed at what you can produce with a single 5 gal bucket, the right strain and a good scrog. Check out my journal in my sig.....

 

[piestasher]

I was planning on running all the same strain from seed. I do understand the issues of delegate requirements. I'm not sure how 1 plant is too big for 4x4 and 7 feet tall


Sent from my iPhone using 420

 

[piestasher]

I'm not growing scrog either, and I plan on way more then one plant incase one doesn't make it all the way due to a mess up. I'll be doing seperate buckets for now. Thanks guys.


Sent from my iPhone using 420

 

[piestasher]

The only issues I have with scrog... I wanted to run 5 plants straight up just so I can get a feel for the basic grow... I have never even seed marijuana non dried out with my own eyes ever. So it's a lot for me to learn. I was thinking of maybe Doing these straight up, then next run topping then next run scroging, is that a terrible idea?


Sent from my iPhone using 420

 

[thebudking]

You can run without a scrog, the issue will be when they get bigger, the colas will get heavy and fall all over themselves unless you use bamboo or a shit load of yoyos to hold everything up. You can also use round tomato trellis but I am not sure how well it would work in hydro, same as the bamboo. If you are not confident just running one plant, go with two but 5 is too many. A lot of what you will learn is trial and error, very few growers start with one method and stick with it long term. As you get more grows under your belt you may find that hydro is too much work or you end up with root rot alot or some other issue and deside to switch to coco or soil. Just get in there and do it, you may fail once or twice but you will learn and be a better grower for it. Just don't give up because a plant or two die, we have all had our failures.

 

[Papageno]

There is a lot to learn. It takes years. you wont learn half of what you need to know in 3 grows. Seriously. Even if you read ravenously... So just be patient.

The nicest benefit to a good scrog technique is (when done correctly) you can get a nice even canopy that allows for all the bud sites to mature evenly at the same time. If you grow them as you stated in a small micro garden with a single light you will have flowers at the top maturing much faster than the bottom. When running a single light source very close like that the distance from the light matters dramatically and you will see a big difference top to bottom. In a large professional grow there are many overlapping lights to help with this but it still happens some. This is all fine and you can harvest the top when it is ready and continue to grow the bottom out if you are in soil. If you are in Hydro if you run a week long flush then whack the plant and then add nutes you are likely to turn the plant hermaphroditic.

Anyway... Soil is a much better place to start learning from. There is a lot less to learn. Running a good soil blend will allow you to go all of the vegetative stage without adding and fertilizers. That help go a long way to prevent screwing up things.

Hydro is actually quite simple but I think a lot of things are obvious that i have to explain on here every time I log in. So for many people they go get a hydro setup and fail time and again and get frustrated. Heck there are many people who fail in soil in the beginning.

So I say don't over complicate things. Take baby steps. Learn how to grow in an indoor micro garden first. Get the temps and humidity regulation dialed and then you may consider stepping up the game...but usually there is no real need.


A 4x4 tent is only meant for a personal grow. Hydro has limited benefits and mainly, for a good grower, it is about getting a little bit more volume a year (but costs a lot more to operate and takes a lot more leg work). Once your are dialed in you will be making more than you will be able to use really and wont need the extra weed or hassle.

If you are doing it full time in a big space then it makes tons of sense. If you have a day job and are growing a small garden on the side just for yourself then doing hydro is a novelty thing. It is totally fun but a ton more work and cost. And when you are learning you don't need the extra headache. Wait until you know what you are doing then take on hydro I say.