My DIY single site dwc under $50

[YardDog35]

Hey all, new around here and wanted to share this with my new found friends.

A little background on this. I stepped into hydroponics about 3 weeks ago after seeing great results and reading great threads that made it sound like something I could do.

Bought a Waterfarm from my local hydro shop for a great deal. Also bought a tetra whisper air pump and air stone to make it a true Deep Water Culture set up.

My problem after I set it all up was I had 1 know female AK 48 and one bagseed germinated and ready to plant. I thought if the bagseed is male I would have a mess trying to get it out of the Waterfarm without disturbing the AK.

So off to Home Depot I went to see what I could put together for the AK.

Bought a container $1.88
Plastic paint for the container $4.98
6" pot liner on sale 11 cents

Traced a circle and cut it a little smaller with my Dremel

Checked for fit

And after a lot of coats and the whole can of paint

Here is where the cost can vary, I bought a Tetra Whisper for a 60 gallon tank with a round air stone. Pump was $30 at petsmart and the stone was $6. In hindsight I would have done this a little differently. The air pump is great and quiet but I found better ones at my hydro shop with a 1 year warranty and there are a few more I have read about since, so its worth shopping around. Also the round air stone works good but after a few weeks it has started making bigger bubbles from a little clogging. Cleaned it with no luck. I found some ceramic air stones at Petsmart and love them, lots of fine bubbles.

Bubbles!!

I had some hydroton and grodan on hand so that will affect cost slightly also.
Everything soaking in 5.4 ph water

Holes poked in the pot liner. A black mesh pot would have worked better but for 11 cents...

Since I am not running a water pump I need the water level high enough to keep things damp until roots hit the good stuff.

Filled up and ready to go

And finally nestled in her new home

The res holds 2 gallons at the level I need to keep some splash on the bottom of the pot. Everything is working good as of today.

Here she is on the December 20th, a little cutie

And as of today 15 days later

She is starting to smell great! And a little bit of root porn for all you pervs haha

I love growing with bubbles, growth is awesome

Thanks for checking out my DIY everyone, it is simple to do and does not cost too much.

Later, YD

 

[TheAnswer1776]

Nice homemade setup brother! That is some good growth too. Keep us updated, I am interested to see how it turns out.

 

[YardDog35]

Thanks bro! Its just a simple set up but effective.

My grow is here: My DWC Deep Water Culture

Thanks for the interest! I'm watching your new thread bro, looks like its going to be a good one!

 

[Roseman]

yarddog,

where are you? did ya desert this thread??

 

[YardDog35]

yarddog,

where are you? did ya desert this thread??

I'm still here bro. Been updating on my grow thread.

I do have a question and I'm sure your the man to answer it Roseman.

This DIY has been working great for my girl, my concern is the depth. Does the depth matter at all? There is a giant root ball forming now as they have ran out of room to grow down.

Will that ultimately lead to stunted growth? They have plenty of room to grow outwards.

Here are some shots of her in the DIY, she is 32 days old in these pics.

 

[Roseman]

YardDog, you can have that tank just FULL of roots and as long as they are in the water with airstones, they will be fine. The problem of ROOT BOUND is bad in soil, but there is really no such thing in Hydro. AND, you can cut up to half those roots off with no consequence, if you had a smaller tank.

 

[YardDog35]

EDIT:​

I suggest only using a quality net pot for the DIY. The pot liner is very flimsy once the plant gets larger (something I should have realized). I had to cut out the pot liner and transplant into a net pot with bottom cut out...a nightmare to say the least.

Sorry for the bad information from the beginning but, its all a learning experience right!

YD

 

[Roseman]

Man, I've seen several DIY grow cups made from plastic cups. I even once saw someone, her name was Kind Princess, she used those little square pint baskets they sell strawberries in, and used drive way gravel for hydroton and a piece of kitchen sponge for a rockwool cube. AND SHE GOT A HARVEST too.

 

[YardDog35]

The problem I had was the sides were starting to cave in a little, the liner was getting close to just falling through the lid from the weight of the plant.

 

[Roseman]

YardDog, do you have a source for real grow cups?