Prepping my first DWC questions

[Indiva710]

So no nutrients? Just table water and they are off to the races?

You had a cloner with plants in it for a month?

I use nutes at 350-400ppm uc roots when I refill it and pH at 5.6 is what I put it at and I don't touch it just top off with what I just said and that is it.....And I do use r/o water...The cloner I use is in the pic as the clones In it are the same age and strain just diff plants...

 

[Indiva710]

So the theory I believe the Mason jar is working so well without airpump or anything for d.o in the water and the plants still alive and healthy and thriving actually the key is the air layer for the roots and filling it 3/4 or so full maybe a lil less...As the roots are feeding and are taking up oxygen too which is why they aren't suffocated and dead by now is my guess....As like most dwc buckets that uses airstones people will put the water line to the bottom of the net pot or like 1/4 in only and thats why they have a issue w/o air stones so I believe the air layer can be the key to it working so well without d.o..And the uc roots/h2o2 I switch up could be why no algae issues I'm not totally sure..As I did it for a experiment I planned on failing actually so alot more testing to do now on it as I'm shocked too...Which is one of the things I love about growing as you can do what you want as there's more than one way to skin a cat.....

 

[Barney86]

Ya I agree on pumps and all however for a cloner the pumps are tiny so watts isn't a issue...The cloner I'm using is a superponics cloner which is a dwc cloner with top feed..So I have used it with airstones and without and just run the top fed x3 a day and it works however running the air stones they do grow much faster of course but sometimes thats not what your needing so no air stones helps with that...Or do what I did with the Mason jar method as I've been running it like that for less than 2 weeks but so far so good and zero issues with doing it that way esp with the clear jar and the roots but zero algae so I'm gna keep it going and see how it does as I may use it again in the future esp how easy it is and u don't have to use a 3in net pot u can use a root riot and cut a hole in the lid if not too or a cloner...I am going to be building a new cloner which will be lpa setup I'm also thinking about doing a fogponics cloner or even a hybrid of the two actually and see how I like it the fogponics should work out lovely for clones and seeds and even in veg possibly until I put them in my rdwc veg tent.. as with 300ppm the fogger should work out great at low ppm as the issue with them is they like to pretty much eat some of the ppm which is why they don't work too well in bloom as they have too many issues clogging etc but with cloning and pre veg even I think they will work greAt

Haha fuck me mate that's awesome!!
I can't believe that works!
I've always wondered if I could just stick a root riot into the top of a vodka bottle with a hole drilled at top and bottom for feeding/emptying (bottom would obviously be plugged)
Apparently I can....
Hmm.. No drill but got lots of seeds and plenty shit lying about to make something vaguely creative.
It's a bit late now but I'll pop an auto tomorrow into something similar and see what happens.
Wouldn't mind a wee bonzai experiment, it's been a while

 

[Stltoed]

Haha fuck me mate that's awesome!!
I can't believe that works!
I've always wondered if I could just stick a root riot into the top of a vodka bottle with a hole drilled at top and bottom for feeding/emptying (bottom would obviously be plugged)
Apparently I can....
Hmm.. No drill but got lots of seeds and plenty shit lying about to make something vaguely creative.
It's a bit late now but I'll pop an auto tomorrow into something similar and see what happens.
Wouldn't mind a wee bonzai experiment, it's been a while

... but you must leave the vodka in the bottle.

A avocado seed or a sweet potato will start like like indiva was saying, but they will need to be planted eventually. You have to consider both the size of the seed of an avocado and the size of a sweet potato to start with, both are hundreds of times larger so they have a lot to give to the growing plant.
I grow in RDWC. My tanks are completely dark. I use a root inoculant, and nutrients. They wouldnt last very long at all without root care or nutrients. I've grown seedlings in clear cups and everyone would flip out, "your roots are gonna turn green and stroke out from the light" but by the time the roots are that advanced it's time to put them in the ground.

Personally I think you may run into problems later. If you plan on growing a plant to fruition in a Mason jar I would expect your problems to compound. First your probably gonna need a larger jar shortly. Your plant wont grow. You will have every deficiency you could possibly imagine. It probably wont flower much, if at all.

Your adding peroxide to the water is your saving grace. I'm sure that's why your plants arent tits up. The peroxide is adding dissolved oxygen, and killing algae. maybe you can figure out how long a given measurement will last before percipitating out of the jar. I understand a lot of it goes back to water. But if you are using high test peroxide anything around 30% you may want to dilute it a bit. I wish you luck on this...

 

[Barney86]

I doubt it'll yield much trying to finish a plant like that. I believe its called the kripky/kratky method or something similar. Seen folk talking about recently.
I'll try it anyway though. Lots of things aren't supposed to work but still do.
I'll change it out every few days and give it a bleaching if needs be.
Running out of growing myths to bust and it keeps me entertained lol.
Don't care if it turns out tiny, my favourite ever blunt came from a plant that yielded 2 grams. She was minted lol. I'll try find a pic...

 

[Canuckush]

That's the one, kratky, but supposed to be an air tight lid so the roots get oxygen as the water level drops.

 

[Stltoed]

I doubt it'll yield much trying to finish a plant like that. I believe its called the kripky/kratky method or something similar. Seen folk talking about recently.
I'll try it anyway though. Lots of things aren't supposed to work but still do.
I'll change it out every few days and give it a bleaching if needs be.
Running out of growing myths to bust and it keeps me entertained lol.
Don't care if it turns out tiny, my favourite ever blunt came from a plant that yielded 2 grams. She was minted lol. I'll try find a pic...

I'm with you on finding new stuff out.

Story...
I bought a chiller. It showed up broken. It was obvious this thing was chooched. It sounded like a box of mason jars. The weather was over 100 degrees a bit less than 40C (and I had seedlings that needed a home now. In a last minute act of desperation I cut two holes in my res lid one of which held a 6 inch inline fan. The other hole was an exhaust. I found my water went from 82 to 67 overnight. I really cant explain why, I dont really care, but I grow in a shed in Southern California without a chiller.

20190609_200740.jpg

• Stltoed
• Jun 9, 2019

 

[Barney86]

I'm with you on finding new stuff out.

Story...
I bought a chiller. It showed up broken. It was obvious this thing was chooched. It sounded like a box of mason jars. The weather was over 100 degrees a bit less than 40C (and I had seedlings that needed a home now. In a last minute act of desperation I cut two holes in my res lid one of which held a 6 inch inline fan. The other hole was an exhaust. I found my water went from 82 to 67 overnight. I really cant explain why, I dont really care, but I grow in a shed in Southern California without a chiller.

20190609_200740.jpg

• Stltoed
• Jun 9, 2019

Neccesity is the mother of all invention mate. Some things are just meant to be.
I've got nutes by growth technology that for some mysterious reason I can feed to coco at ph7 during veg and they're happy as can be.
No idea why. I use the gt nutes in reservoirs also and they sure as hell don't behave like that in just water. Stresses them out in no time if I don't bring it down to range.
Absolutely stumped why it works but I'm not complaining. Once less thing to worry about

 

[Indiva710]

I'm not going to flower the plant in the Mason jar as it didn't meet my needs I do not like the growth patterns of that seed or clone which is in the Mason jar... Also I have actually only used uc roots no h2o2 for the clones ...As I can use h2o2 if need be which it would be a few drops only in the Mason jar...I will keep the clone in the Mason jar as long as I can so until it dies pretty much and go from there...And I would only flower a male plant in a 500ml Mason jar like I'm using.... And it would be about the height flowered the clone is now maybe a lil taller...
Plus like I said this was a experiment that I figured it would of failed And died by now however it hasn't so I'll keep it going as long as I can as my cabinet is a cloner/pre veg tent and sometimes a veg tent until I move them to my grow room with my veg and bloom tents as veg is 4.5x4.5 and bloom 8x4 rdwc for both 4 sites each I have a current culture 8gal for veg that I upgraded has a full drain setup I built all PVC no elbows on the system as I can clean every inside inch of it ..Has a alita60 air pump x2 pop can size air stones per bucket ..hlg qb LEDs 4000k 120w each 288 v2 x4 and 3500k qb132 v1 x4 60w ea for side lighting
Bloom is x4 27gal totes 3in PVC waterfall setup x2 350gph pumps.. Hlg 320w xl v1 x4 2850k and I have my meizhi 300w blurple I was using both switches for the stretch and now it's the red LEDs bloom switch only doing Emerson effect now...1st grow with both these new setups so will see how it turns out....Ya I run sterile in all my setups I just don't see the point in using Bennie's in a hydro setup period..But that's just IMO

 

[Stltoed]

Neccesity is the mother of all invention mate. Some things are just meant to be.
I've got nutes by growth technology that for some mysterious reason I can feed to coco at ph7 during veg and they're happy as can be.
No idea why. I use the gt nutes in reservoirs also and they sure as hell don't behave like that in just water. Stresses them out in no time if I don't bring it down to range.
Absolutely stumped why it works but I'm not complaining. Once less thing to worry about

Nice!

 

[Indiva710]

I'm with you on finding new stuff out.

Story...
I bought a chiller. It showed up broken. It was obvious this thing was chooched. It sounded like a box of mason jars. The weather was over 100 degrees a bit less than 40C (and I had seedlings that needed a home now. In a last minute act of desperation I cut two holes in my res lid one of which held a 6 inch inline fan. The other hole was an exhaust. I found my water went from 82 to 67 overnight. I really cant explain why, I dont really care, but I grow in a shed in Southern California without a chiller.

20190609_200740.jpg

• Stltoed
• Jun 9, 2019

I thought about giving that a try actually with my veg tent as the water stays about 71-72 and I do have a chiller for bloom that I keep it at 70-71 and I do not run ac so I'm gna give the pc fan I have a try for bloom and see what kind of temps I can get with a fan instead the chiller as I'm all about efficiency and the 3amps the chiller does would be nice not to have to run although it only turns on 2-3x a day but any lil bit helps and a pc fan that does a few watts only would be a lot better than the chiller...As long as I could keep the temps stable...As my grow room is in my basement plus I run bloom 7pm-7am for in the summer and so far so good day temps 75-78.....
I am surprised that those cheap ass booster fans can cool your setup that much which is awesome...I may try a Aquarium fan instead of a booster fan as they are a lot smaller and they have a clamp so I can easily mount it to my lid and will try it for veg epicenter too although I didn't have any issues with my water temps being that high in veg and although 68 is best for d.o and I wouldn't mind having it at that I also went 5 weeks in veg without a res change even and I was still issue free although it did get a lil cloudy although I wasn't going to flush the system when I was flipping the plants to bloom which is why I waited didn't want to waste 30gal plus nutes for a day or 2 ....

 

[Stltoed]

I thought about giving that a try actually with my veg tent as the water stays about 71-72 and I do have a chiller for bloom that I keep it at 70-71 and I do not run ac so I'm gna give the pc fan I have a try for bloom and see what kind of temps I can get with a fan instead the chiller as I'm all about efficiency and the 3amps the chiller does would be nice not to have to run although it only turns on 2-3x a day but any lil bit helps and a pc fan that does a few watts only would be a lot better than the chiller...As long as I could keep the temps stable...As my grow room is in my basement plus I run bloom 7pm-7am for in the summer and so far so good day temps 75-78.....
I am surprised that those cheap ass booster fans can cool your setup that much which is awesome...I may try a Aquarium fan instead of a booster fan as they are a lot smaller and they have a clamp so I can easily mount it to my lid and will try it for veg epicenter too although I didn't have any issues with my water temps being that high in veg and although 68 is best for d.o and I wouldn't mind having it at that I also went 5 weeks in veg without a res change even and I was still issue free although it did get a lil cloudy although I wasn't going to flush the system when I was flipping the plants to bloom which is why I waited didn't want to waste 30gal plus nutes for a day or 2 ....

Really. You've heard of using a fan to cool res. water?

 

[Indiva710]

Yes yes I have and thought about doing it in my next veg setup and see how it goes as I would love to delete my chiller and make $700 off the two I have so of course....Why are you so shocked that someone else knows about using fans to cool water.....

 

[Stltoed]

Yes yes I have and thought about doing it in my next veg setup and see how it goes as I would love to delete my chiller and make $700 off the two I have so of course....Why are you so shocked that someone else knows about using fans to cool water.....

I'm not surprised at all that you've seen it

 

[Herby Paisley]

Hey Canuckush I live in Canada too and I have used those rapid rooter peat moss ones you can buy at Canadian tire... 50 in a tray for $20 bucks and then I use aquarium pebble grade rock around the rooter in a net pot, and I have had no problems yet and its been my 2nd grow using them and its the system I have my current girls on now in my avatar pic , cool part about aquarim stones like hydroton you can reuse them just wash them up after every grow. The stones act as a substrate and the plug is like earth allowing the seed to grow and making it easily transferable, if you want to put them in dirt and grow out side instead...

 

[Canuckush]

Hey Canuckush I live in Canada too and I have used those rapid rooter peat moss ones you can buy at Canadian tire... 50 in a tray for $20 bucks and then I use aquarium pebble grade rock around the rooter in a net pot, and I have had no problems yet and its been my 2nd grow using them and its the system I have my current girls on now in my avatar pic , cool part about aquarim stones like hydroton you can reuse them just wash them up after every grow. The stones act as a substrate and the plug is like earth allowing the seed to grow and making it easily transferable, if you want to put them in dirt and grow out side instead...

Thanks for the info! That's a nice plant you had there!

 

[Herby Paisley]

No problem always like to help out a fellow Canuck when I see one on here!

...lol

 

[multiVortex]

So the theory I believe the Mason jar is working so well without airpump or anything for d.o in the water and the plants still alive and healthy and thriving actually the key is the air layer for the roots and filling it 3/4 or so full maybe a lil less...As the roots are feeding and are taking up oxygen too which is why they aren't suffocated and dead by now is my guess....As like most dwc buckets that uses airstones people will put the water line to the bottom of the net pot or like 1/4 in only and thats why they have a issue w/o air stones so I believe the air layer can be the key to it working so well without d.o..And the uc roots/h2o2 I switch up could be why no algae issues I'm not totally sure..As I did it for a experiment I planned on failing actually so alot more testing to do now on it as I'm shocked too...Which is one of the things I love about growing as you can do what you want as there's more than one way to skin a cat.....

If the jar were large enough, you would be able to go full through flower. You're right that the air gap is the key. It's also one of the pieces of the puzzle with the "earth box" brand of grow boxes. They're a combination of a non-aerated hydro and sub-irrigated planter. The concept works a treat on tomatoes, peppers, and other plants. No reason it wouldn't work on cannabis as well.

The really interesting part is you're not seeing any algae growth. Whatever you're doing with it, it's working and a great experiment to read about.

 

[Indiva710]

If the jar were large enough, you would be able to go full through flower. You're right that the air gap is the key. It's also one of the pieces of the puzzle with the "earth box" brand of grow boxes. They're a combination of a non-aerated hydro and sub-irrigated planter. The concept works a treat on tomatoes, peppers, and other plants. No reason it wouldn't work on cannabis as well.

The really interesting part is you're not seeing any algae growth. Whatever you're doing with it, it's working and a great experiment to read about.

Ya I'm at week 3 in the Mason jar no algae or anything still growing just fine which is awesome ya I could use like a 1gal Mason jar but any container would work for that matter and just put a lid on it which I'm definitely going to do more testing on this I might even start a new thread on it entirely actually....
Ya ive seen those earth boxes I was going to get one for my outdoor veggies and might get one for next year actually...Or I might try like a forum of a hempy bucket...

So for my experiment I did the full hydroton in the pitcher and I have done the same thing for both the pitcher and Mason jar and the pitcher I changed the water today and it was so nasty smell wise due to it being anoxic is my guess but the Mason jar isn't like that it smells like carrots like how the root zone smells to me so not too sure why... Although moving forward I will be doing the Mason jar way as in with the air gap and not having the hydroton with the air gap....
Got my new cloner made it will hold 4.5gal about it is a lpa aero Cloner and when my new fogger gets here I will be testing that out in here too having a bihydro setup lpa/fogponics which both will be running on timers and seeing how that works...glad my new cloner fits in with my old one still as that one is more for seeds but I can use the cloner for both just use a root riot cubes and netpots

 

[multiVortex]

So for my experiment I did the full hydroton in the pitcher and I have done the same thing for both the pitcher and Mason jar and the pitcher I changed the water today and it was so nasty smell wise due to it being anoxic is my guess but the Mason jar isn't like that it smells like carrots like how the root zone smells to me so not too sure why.

I had that exact same issue when I first started up my sub-irrigated rail box planter. I built a rail box planter that's about 8ft long, 1ft wide, and 16in tall. It is lined with some pond liner, and has corrugated drain tile in the bottom to make space for the water reservoir. Overflow pipe allows for about 1in of air space in the pipe. I have a fill pipe connected through the drain tile, etc. (Effectively the same setup overall as an earth box, just DIY.)

First time I go to refill it wasn't great. It was a little off on the smell of the water. Second time it was pure stank. Definitely were anaerobic conditions going on in there. So I solved that with a solar powered air pump. Runs like crazy during the day, obviously isn't running during the night. That fixed it right up and haven't had a problem since.

I took the same "earth box" concept and applied it to a bucket. I cut 3 pieces of 3in PVC to an 8in length, and put it in the bottom of a bucket. Drill 1/2in hole for small overflow pipe, at the 6.5in mark which makes for a 1.5in gap. Take a second bucket, drill 1/8in or 1/4in holes in a kind of star pattern across the bottom, drill 1in hole to one side (fill pipe), then cut hole in center for a basket/tube that reaches the bottom of the bucket for the wicking material. I used another 10in section of 3in PVC, with a cap on the bottom end and several 1/8in holes spread around in the bottom 1/3 of the tube. Filled it with t-shirt rags about 2/3 full, then wet them down real good. Add the fill pipe, and make it about a ft taller than the edge of the top bucket for easy filling. Take the lid for a bucket, cut a hole in the center for the plant to grow through, drill a 1in hole for the fill pipe to go through, then cut the lid in half. Add your plant, put some black plastic, mulch or sand around the base of the plant; enough to be about 1in wider then the hole for the plant. Add the top, and let it grow grow grow.

I use a few of those for extra tomato plants on my deck, to supplement the ones in my garden. Works well for toms, peppers, just about anything, really, if you want to adapt it to suit. You can even pick up multiple lids and customize for different plant types. Even can work planting from seed.

When I started doing that about 10 years ago, I just used straight water to fill the bucket. I would add various amounts of blood/bone meal, and some other stuff like that to the potting mix when I mixed it all up. Works good, but may need supplemented after a couple months with a heavy feeder. Since then I've switched to nutrient water instead of adding in more to the potting mix. I'll use nute water 2-3 times a week, and fill with plain water in between.

You can also build out of other containers, even a rectangular box similar to an earth box. A little pvc and some netting, now you have a trellis for cukes, peas, whatever.

I do recommend sand as a top dressing though. Keeps the mites/gnats/fruit flies/etc out of the dirt.


OK, that was slightly off topic in terms of plant, but definitely an interesting way to grow. I'm still trying to figure a way to do that style in a grow tent, but haven't yet.