DWC Lower the water level during flowering?

[dogstick]

I was reading up that it was good to lower the water level in the res to allow more air to the roots. Do any of you guys out here follow that? I really have not thought about that but came across it and seems like a good idea. Big Ups.

 

[Closet Farmer]

Re: DWC Lower the water level during flowering ?

Hello Dogstick,

Where did you read that?

I want to hear what others say as I am in flowering stage now too!

I do know that Roseman likes to let his roots air out some times. I have tried that and it seems to work good.

 

[HardDrive]

Re: DWC Lower the water level during flowering ?

Why not add a higher volume pump is air is a problem?

 

[dogstick]

Re: DWC Lower the water level during flowering ?

I have been reading guys lowering the water by 50% in flowering stage to allow more air to the roots. Any of you guys use this techinque?

 

[Chkn915]

Re: DWC Lower the water level during flowering ?

I wouldnt suggest it unless your running the drip line, the air in between the netpot and the water becomes stagnant and invites disease. Its happened to me wait till the roots are well established or use a drip line, either way in flowering your plant can start to use more than a gallon a day!

 

[dogstick]

Re: DWC Lower the water level during flowering ?

I wouldnt suggest it unless your running the drip line, the air in between the netpot and the water becomes stagnant and invites disease. Its happened to me wait till the roots are well established or use a drip line, either way in flowering your plant can start to use more than a gallon a day!

Yea I am not to worried about that cause I am running the rainforest. It is a aero/dwc combo. Cant find too much on the lowering the water and seems know one round here does. Thanks bro

 

[Showtime]

Re: DWC Lower the water level during flowering ?

I grew an AK48 and an unknown sativa in a 18 gallon bubble setup and as soon as the majority of the roots were below the net pots i lowered the water level. during flowering i lowered it even more to about half way down the res. i didn't experience any problems and the grow was a big success as i got about 7 Zs off the 2 plants. although i did have a maintenance hole in the lid where air could circulate freely so i don't know about stagnant air. Good luck

 

[dogstick]

Re: DWC Lower the water level during flowering ?

Nice Showtime great to hear. I think I am going to give that a whirl, only issue I have heard people running into so far is having concentrated nutes in the rez when the water level goes down after the plants suck it up. We will see, seems like its worked for those that have tried it.

 

[dankluvr]

Re: DWC Lower the water level during flowering ?

Leave it be, aero systems have lower nutrient levels than straight dwc, already. I grew in a Rainforest 36 last run, ran 3 plants, in flower added 2 to 3 gals. per day! No issues. This run, I am running a dual-dwc/aero set up. I have an 18 gal. res., but only fill up to 6 gals.. Just cycle your timer to do a ratio of 3-4 off to 1 on! These time cycles were dialed in over the last few grows, with a lot of help from awesome people who help in this and other forums. Thanks for all who aid in the cause! dankluvr

 

[dogstick]

Re: DWC Lower the water level during flowering ?

Yo Dank when you did a run in the RF did you run your pump 24/7? I hear most people do but think I might turn it down a bit. Thanks

 

[PetFlora]

Re: DWC Lower the water level during flowering ?

So much disinformation to dig through.

Unless your system is d2w during flower you are going to have serious issues. Female plants in flower act much like their human counterparts. They go through HUGE body chemistry swings. Not only does their diet change radically, they dump serious toxins as waste.

These waste products are eliminated through the roots. If you are recirculating them back to your rez, they WILL contaminate it BIG TIME. This precisely why so many DWC crops fail 2-4 weeks into bloom.

As soon as I learned about this, I converted to d2w. I monitored my runoff pH to confirm. WOW. It sky rockets. D2W is probaly not necessary during veg, but have to be ready to convert once you flip.

I have a complete high pressure aero journal with LEDs on IC

 

[YardDog35]

Re: DWC Lower the water level during flowering ?

I wouldnt suggest it unless your running the drip line, the air in between the netpot and the water becomes stagnant and invites disease. Its happened to me wait till the roots are well established or use a drip line, either way in flowering your plant can start to use more than a gallon a day!

How does the air in between the res water and net pot become stagnant?
Example:I'm using a 15L a min air pump with 4 stones at the bottom of my res. Say there is 3" of air space between my net cup and water level. Where do you think the 15L a min. of air is going?? UP!

So much disinformation to dig through.

Unless your system is d2w during flower you are going to have serious issues. Female plants in flower act much like their human counterparts. They go through HUGE body chemistry swings. Not only does their diet change radically, they dump serious toxins as waste.

These waste products are eliminated through the roots. If you are recirculating them back to your rez, they WILL contaminate it BIG TIME. This precisely why so many DWC crops fail 2-4 weeks into bloom.

As soon as I learned about this, I converted to d2w. I monitored my runoff pH to confirm. WOW. It sky rockets. D2W is probaly not necessary during veg, but have to be ready to convert once you flip.

I have a complete high pressure aero journal with LEDs on IC

Are you saying DWC does not work? You should check into all the successful and completed DWC journals on here. I think you are giving off a little false information.


Back to the OP...if you're growing in dwc only I would say why not give it a shot. Although, in my opinion there should be enough bubbles coming from the bottom of the res that an air space does not make a difference.

Good luck to you!

 

[dogstick]

Re: DWC Lower the water level during flowering ?

I have been lowering the rez level and have noticed a huge change in water consumption. They have been drinking twice as much so I think this is a good thing having the roots available to more air.

 

[TorturedSoul]

The following is, of course, only my opinion:

If you have enough DO in your solution, it's a non-issue. Really. I mean, don't get me wrong - I understand what PetFlora is talking about as far as the processes of the plants, and there is truth in his words. But I've never been a fan of drain-to-waste systems for various reasons and therefore always went back to recirculating. Have had grows both ways. In DWC, have tried to keep the reservoir full to act as a buffer - even though I was trying to buffer with a "flawed" environment. Have also topped it off and let it drop (a few times, it dropped enough that there was not much more than a coffee cup's worth of liquid that drained out, lol). And, have been at pains to make sure that the level of solution didn't reach the bottom of the cups after roots had extended into the reservoir. Have changed reservoirs rigorously and regularly. Have done so "when I had the time." Have had a couple of grows where I changed it regularly but not often. Topped of the reservoir with water. Topped off the reservoir with mild nutrient solution after trying to guestimate what they had actually used. Gotten in a hurry and just eyeballed the mixture. Broken my pH meter during the 3rd or 4th week of vegetative part of the cycle and replaced it after harvest. Taught my (then) wife how to use pH and EC meter, the importance of doing so, et cetera and then quietly laughed because she just didn't seem to feel like testing and measuring and been mildly surprised when her garden did quite well. Only to ask her how often she changed/rinsed her reservoir and been met with a dumb look and, "Change? What do you mean? You told me to make sure I flushed at the end. You didn't tell me anything about dumping what was in there during the grow."

There were varying degrees of success with each method. (And also with other methods that I've tried.)

But my point is that they were ALL successful. No failed grows. No miserable harvests.

I have slowly learned that many things are important - but not as important as we worry that they are. I wonder if the reason that half the complete newbies have at least acceptable first harvests is because they haven't learned enough to worry about correcting every little thing. (But I do feel that the reason the other half DON'T have acceptable harvests is because they do attempt to correct every little thing, lol.)

Draw a line through all of the possible things/conditions/methods that connects an ungerminated seed to a successful harvest and I agree that that's a well-defined line. But I also feel that you can wander a little from the path that that line maps out with no noticeable detriment (notice I said noticeable instead of measurable), and that you can wander a little bit more and still have an acceptable, albeit imperfect, harvest. Wander too far, of course, and you might have trouble finding your way to that destination called harvest - or find that the bridge is out.

Again, I feel that having plenty of DO in your solution at all times (and having the solution mixed constantly) is far more important than the level that you keep that solution at. If the solution is poorly oxygenated and stagnant, it really doesn't matter what level it is at - you'll likely have plants that end up looking like a plant that is grown in heavy, muddy soil that is kept too wet at all times; poor growth, a likelihood of root rot and malignant anaerobic microbial activity, and a poor harvest - if you make it that far.

I used to do a lot of experimenting both way back when I sold and later when I only gave it to those who could use it for health reasons. I kept pretty good records most of the time so that if I later thought of a different way to do a thing I'd be able to refer to them to see which was best results-wise. Unfortunately, the ex- trashed most of them. Just another reason to be glad that she IS an ex-, lol, but as reasons go it's far down on the list. Still, I wish I'd been able to salvage all of them. The only real experiment I've got going on right now is how long can a clone be kept alive with far too little light, practically no nutrients, and water "whenever I wander by and happen to think of it." Started out trying to ascertain whether or not a "mother chamber," even a very simple one, was actually required to keep a strain alive long enough to get through a grow/harvest. Well, actually it started out as a joke if I'm honest about it. Took one more cutting than I needed and managed to drop it between the couch and the end-table & didn't see it until the next day. It was so wilted that I started to throw it away but then decided to dump a little perlite (and maybe a tablespoon or two of vermiculite) into an 8-ounce Styrofoam cup and see if it would live long enough to grow roots. Within a couple of hours it had stood up so I gave it a couple doses of Olivia's Cloning Solution over the next week or so. A couple of months later I gave it a very light mix of Dutch Nutrient Formula A&B. At some point over the Summer I had a little extra liquid seaweed mix left over and gave that to it. Last month (thereabouts) I gave it some fortified GH Flora that I hadn't used all of for another project (waste not, want not). In a couple of months that clone will have a birthday. For a present I plan on transplanting it into a DWC. Or a semi-soiless mix in a 2-gal. bucket. Or... maybe a 12 ounce Styrofoam cup, LMFAO. Whichever way I end up going, I'll switch it to a better light than the 23-watt CFL that's above the medicine cabinet it's sitting on in my spare bathroom. I figure it will have earned an upgrade.

At that point, the thing will probably thumb it's nose at me and drop dead in spite (or from shock?).

Rambling again....

 

[dogstick]

TS- I hear ya to each there own. With my system system though I could only lower water a gallon or two with out worrying if my pump was going to burn out by the water getting to low. I have only done a few grows in this system and trying to dial it in. I too have tried to keep the rez level above the cups at all times and have had a good harvest. This time was just as good with lowering the water but still ending up with scraggle cause of 2 many plants in a my room.
Hard to judge only time with the same strains would really tell but as with most of us we get burned on blazing the same shit no matter how dank it is. I defently believe that keeping the level at least an inch or 2 below the cups after the roots have dropped in the rez rather than keeping the level above is far superior but then again that is just my opinion.

 

[dogstick]

So urbangarden mag had this to say about the dwc levels in flowering

Q: What are the potentialities for plant steering using water level / amount of root zone exposed to the air?

A: With water as their growing media, growers can tailor nutrient solution parameters more specifically. Provoking plant responses such as essential oil production, fruiting and flowering are better manipulated when the substrate can be dialed in. For example, higher exposure of the root zone to atmospheric oxygen can help trigger a plant to increase oil production as a means to conserve water, and can also apply mild root stresses that are often interpreted by the plant as reproductive cues. While higher water levels can cause plants to focus more energy on vegetative production, particularly fan leaves, which in turn speeds transpiration and photosynthetic potential.

AND WATER TEMP IN DWC

Q: What is the ideal water temperature for DWC systems?

A: We've observed that no matter the ambient air temperature, plant roots tend to do best at 62—68°F (17—20°C). Above 72°F (21°C) the solutions dissolved oxygen (DO) holding potential quickly diminishes and below 60°F (16°C) plants tend to slow their metabolism in response to what is perceived as changing seasons. This said, growers could aid in fruit/flower ripening by reducing water temps toward the end of the reproductive cycle. Being able to dial in each zone of the plant (Leaf/Root) specifically often leads to an amplification of plant productivity.