Noob Question
- Thread starter OperaYak
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A dude in Michigan, a friend of mine from Australia, Martin Wiggett, started or created Deep Water Culture, ( he registered and trademarked the word) a sort of a DRIP and FLOW combined, but it is NOT a FLOW or STREAM of solid water, but a very slight trickle of half water and half bubbles or air, so the roots get a mix of both water, air and nutes to the root base, creating a way to start seeds in the cups and grow from seed more rapidly than any hydro system can deliver. We often see the word Deep Water Culture used as slang for a DWC with bubbling air stones, but it is not exactly the same.
Deep Water Culture uses a submersive water pump, that pumps water to an Irrigation Hub, also called an Irrigation Manifold, that divides the water into 6 streams, one to each grow cup and root base. It is the MOST rapid growing system available that I can find. I can get an average of one inch growth in height daily using the Bubleponics System in the Vegging Cycle. Yes, we actually have to raise the lights daily, everyday, to allow for new growth!
Here is their definition, more eloquently written:
The world’s first continuous plant feeding system, Deep Water Culture is a hybrid design that takes the best from both worlds of the Deep Water Culture (aka DWC, “bubbler”) and drip systems. Since the nutrient mix is highly oxygenated, Deep Water Culture converts its drip function to a constant feed flow directly to the inner roots. Without needing to take breaks to allow the root base to drain and absorb oxygen, plants in the Deep Water Culture system are able to deliver unparalleled growth energy.
This advantage is particularly pronounced during early vegetative phases when the plant’s root mass is still relatively small. Cuttings placed into the system experience no noticeable transplant shock and practically start growing immediately. In experiments measured against leading aeroponic systems, the Deep Water Culture design shaved, on average, four days from a two week growing cycle, a 30% growth rate increase over Aeroponics in the early vegetative stage; truly amazing. As the root mass of the respective plants grow larger, growth rate advantages were less evident, however, the plants in the Deep Water Culture planter maintained their 4-5 day lead over the aeroponic plants throughout the cycle.
In a series of stress tests, plants in the Deep Water Culture system performed remarkably when recovering from an over-fertilized condition. With almost the entire root mass destroyed, Deep Water Culture was able to revive 67% of the plants which started re-growing new roots and were able to complete their cycle. None of the other plants in the aeroponic products survived this stress test. The tests concluded that the Deep Water Culture system provided significant recovery advantages over other systems when it came to anything that stressed or killed that root mass.
Hub Feeding Ensures Consistency
The Deep Water Culture design is, ironically enough, one of the first hydroponic products to use real irrigation parts. This includes a hub feed system, where the main flow from the water pump is broken up into 6 smaller feeder tubes via a pressure regulating irrigation distributor. No other plant’s sites are thus dependant on any other as they would be in most drip systems that use T’ed designs. This also ensures identical feeding conditions at each site.
Deep Water Culture uses a submersive water pump, that pumps water to an Irrigation Hub, also called an Irrigation Manifold, that divides the water into 6 streams, one to each grow cup and root base. It is the MOST rapid growing system available that I can find. I can get an average of one inch growth in height daily using the Bubleponics System in the Vegging Cycle. Yes, we actually have to raise the lights daily, everyday, to allow for new growth!
Here is their definition, more eloquently written:
The world’s first continuous plant feeding system, Deep Water Culture is a hybrid design that takes the best from both worlds of the Deep Water Culture (aka DWC, “bubbler”) and drip systems. Since the nutrient mix is highly oxygenated, Deep Water Culture converts its drip function to a constant feed flow directly to the inner roots. Without needing to take breaks to allow the root base to drain and absorb oxygen, plants in the Deep Water Culture system are able to deliver unparalleled growth energy.
This advantage is particularly pronounced during early vegetative phases when the plant’s root mass is still relatively small. Cuttings placed into the system experience no noticeable transplant shock and practically start growing immediately. In experiments measured against leading aeroponic systems, the Deep Water Culture design shaved, on average, four days from a two week growing cycle, a 30% growth rate increase over Aeroponics in the early vegetative stage; truly amazing. As the root mass of the respective plants grow larger, growth rate advantages were less evident, however, the plants in the Deep Water Culture planter maintained their 4-5 day lead over the aeroponic plants throughout the cycle.
In a series of stress tests, plants in the Deep Water Culture system performed remarkably when recovering from an over-fertilized condition. With almost the entire root mass destroyed, Deep Water Culture was able to revive 67% of the plants which started re-growing new roots and were able to complete their cycle. None of the other plants in the aeroponic products survived this stress test. The tests concluded that the Deep Water Culture system provided significant recovery advantages over other systems when it came to anything that stressed or killed that root mass.
Hub Feeding Ensures Consistency
The Deep Water Culture design is, ironically enough, one of the first hydroponic products to use real irrigation parts. This includes a hub feed system, where the main flow from the water pump is broken up into 6 smaller feeder tubes via a pressure regulating irrigation distributor. No other plant’s sites are thus dependant on any other as they would be in most drip systems that use T’ed designs. This also ensures identical feeding conditions at each site.
jwb87
New Member
Do you really need to use the manifold pump system, or can you just raise the water level so the aquastone will keep the medium moist?? Probably a dumb question, just an aspiring DWC grower trying to learn what I can, tyvm!!!
PrairiePoet
Well-Known Member
If you could keep the water level that high all day long, yes. When plants are in the last four weeks of flowering, they can be drinking up to a gallon of water per day. I think that would make it a bit time consuming to do so.
Also, the pump in the res is another thing raising the res temps, though not much.
Prairie
jwb87
New Member
Good to know, guess Ill have to look into one then, any good reviews/suggestions on a good inside res pump w/ manifold then. Im looking to run 4 4" net pots HOPEFULLY in a 10gal tub, 18gal if users suggest it. (growing lowryders to start if it matters..)
