TFDS Top Feed Drip System

[Far East Buds]

So I have been growing for well 7 months or so perpetually and have harvested a few times now. I was gifted a top feed system and decided to play with it for some of my veg plants. I use hydroton and DWC now. I am interested as I am switching plants around alot and nothing in the tubs but roots sounds exciting to me. I have had some air stone tangle issues the way i run things an in Veg especially it would be very beneficial. If I can get this system running good there I'd like to switch to it in flower as well. I like the benefits and there are draw backs but minimial for me. Really just flushing I would still use DWC. Or have a separate set up for flushing some day.

Anyway some of my questions

Should I run it 24-7 Drip? I am recycling the 13 gal res.

If not then how long is too long for the roots to sit breathing?

It will have 1 inch or so in the bottom of the tub that will always be there but fresh as it drains. Will that hurt it? Do the roots completely have to be exposed?

Does this method work effectively like DWC does? Better ? Worse? Peoples thoughts?


Thanks in advance!!


FE

 

[Far East Buds]

Anyone?

 

[BuddroGreen]

Is this a RDWC (recirculating top drip through hydroton) or a top drip to waste like for Coco?

I run GH waterfarms which are RDWC...the drip ring sits on top of the hydroton in the top grow container and runs down through the roots into the bottom reservoir and gets pumped back up to the drip ring to do all over again. I run my RDWC 24/7 with a few air stones in the bottom reservoir, as long as the reservoir has running air stones the roots should be fine sitting in the water, just like DWC.

Yes, it works just like DWC, only difference is that you are recycling the water through the system from top to bottom, and yes you can grow some big plants, the RDWC takes off faster from rooted seedling/clone since the water is keeping the top hydroton wet, so the roots take off faster and will be hanging in the reservoir before you know it.

Grown in a GH top drip waterfarm RDWC, got 12 zips dry off her.

 

[Far East Buds]

Is this a RDWC (recirculating top drip through hydroton) or a top drip to waste like for Coco?

I run GH waterfarms which are RDWC...the drip ring sits on top of the hydroton in the top grow container and runs down through the roots into the bottom reservoir and gets pumped back up to the drip ring to do all over again. I run my RDWC 24/7 with a few air stones in the bottom reservoir, as long as the reservoir has running air stones the roots should be fine sitting in the water, just like DWC.

Yes, it works just like DWC, only difference is that you are recycling the water through the system from top to bottom, and yes you can grow some big plants, the RDWC takes off faster from rooted seedling/clone since the water is keeping the top hydroton wet, so the roots take off faster and will be hanging in the reservoir before you know it.

Grown in a GH top drip waterfarm RDWC, got 12 zips dry off her.

Thank you BG for responding!
Yes recirculating is what I am playing with. 13 Gal Res with hoses to plants.. the plants are in Hydroton in 5 inch net pots and those are in rubbermaid short tubs (11 gal) gravity back to the res. The tubs keep a small amount in the bottom of the tubs as they don't completely drain. I run an air stone in the res to keep it all stimulated. I had drippers but removed them because i was told they are mostly to slow it down for erosion in soil issue's etc. I was told other than the nute mix of course and increasing to multiple drips per tub, dripping for flower is fine. So I will have to test it out

Thanks again for responding

FE

 

[VladimirPutin]

Full time drip is for water loving plants, like lettuce
Now if it's cannabis we're growin', you will need to let the roots have "breathe" time.

Nobody can tell you what times to set on your system. Each system is different. I started out 15 on and 1 hour off and it sucked, everything was too wet for cannabis.. Once you find the sweet spot though, it will fly straight and you'll be happy.

Vlad

 

[Far East Buds]

Thanks Vlad!
Glad you stumbled across this
So far I am running 15 min on and 15 min off. Things are looking pretty good. They are thriving.
One plant even perked up some that had some droop to it.

I'll get it dialed in

FE

 

[VladimirPutin]

How has progress been with your TFDS?

I gave up : ( I don't have classy substrate available here like hydroton :surrender:

I did see a cool Flood and Drain shallow res setup that caught my eye. The guy placed a fibrous membrane at the bottom which served as the substrate. It was very light and porous, almost like those reusable paper towels

I'm going to give it a go. I am not giving up on hydro, just on airstones and huge airpumps.

Vlad

 

[Far East Buds]

How has progress been with your TFDS?

I gave up : ( I don't have classy substrate available here like hydroton :surrender:

I did see a cool Flood and Drain shallow res setup that caught my eye. The guy placed a fibrous membrane at the bottom which served as the substrate. It was very light and porous, almost like those reusable paper towels

I'm going to give it a go. I am not giving up on hydro, just on airstones and huge airpumps.

Vlad

Things are progressing nicely. Spent some time with the Hydro shop guy cause the GH nutes will start to clog stuff so I am going to switch to cutting edge nutes. No more DWC except for flushing from here on out. I am finishing my DWC's now but will put stuff in top feed for all future stuff. I just like the simplicity and flexibilty it gives me so far.

Thanks for asking!



FE

 

[Lazarus13]

Are you still doing 15 on/15 off? Everything i read told me to let it drip 24/7 until the roots hit the reservoir but to keep the drip off to the side of the netpot a bit so the moisture wicks through the hydroton. I've just started this top-fed dwc and i don't want to screw it up before i really get started. So far the seedlings look like they are enjoying it but i don't want to dig through the pebbles to check on the roots because i don't want to damage them.

 

[Far East Buds]

Are you still doing 15 on/15 off? Everything i read told me to let it drip 24/7 until the roots hit the reservoir but to keep the drip off to the side of the netpot a bit so the moisture wicks through the hydroton. I've just started this top-fed dwc and i don't want to screw it up before i really get started. So far the seedlings look like they are enjoying it but i don't want to dig through the pebbles to check on the roots because i don't want to damage them.

Yah the less you mess with the roots better when they are young. I have played quite a bit with timing and currently for a bout a week now it has been 15 on and 1 hour off. They just looked like over watering but I could have been wrong. But I do have to say with how quick those seeds popped roots in the netpots and stuff that it is working very well. Everything on drip in veg is doing great. I run it different in flower i forget exactly but i dont feed them in lights out. I am not sure if i am doing it right but it does appear to be working so that usually says alot.

Thanks Laz for stopping by..

FE

 

[Lazarus13]

this is the beginning of my root system on a lady that is only 8 days from her seed casing cracking open. I tossed her in the hydroton and covered it with a reflective, insulated circle. This is running the drip 24/7.

 

[Papageno]

yeah um I say no to the 24 hour drip. At best it slows growth. You don't want the medium wet you want it at best moist but preferably a little time dry in between. If the seed was dropped directly in the pellets then it may mean you need to run it a lot more frequently but if you are using Rock wool or peat plugs for the rooting then you can run the drip way down as they will retain water a long time. And waiting for those to dry out takes much longer.

 

[Far East Buds]

yeah um I say no to the 24 hour drip. At best it slows growth. You don't want the medium wet you want it at best moist but preferably a little time dry in between. If the seed was dropped directly in the pellets then it may mean you need to run it a lot more frequently but if you are using Rock wool or peat plugs for the rooting then you can run the drip way down as they will retain water a long time. And waiting for those to dry out takes much longer.

Thank you VI for confirming it as i knew there was a reason I didn't run it 24-7. I am pretty sure it was from your info. And yes my hydroton will dump water if i tilt it even after not running for hours. Those little clay pebbles do hold the water. When i was running 24-7 some of my larger veg plants seem to wilt but I was new to top feed so to be sure I cut back the drip and probably it got corrected for other reasons as well but it helped. Thanks VI (may need a thanks VI macro soon)

FE

 

[Far East Buds]

this is the beginning of my root system on a lady that is only 8 days from her seed casing cracking open. I tossed her in the hydroton and covered it with a reflective, insulated circle. This is running the drip 24/7.

Yah I think the seedlings and very small veg plants may like it (24-7) until the roots get longer but I am not sure it is necessary. I had base of stem rot issues with rockwool awhile ago so I worry about too much moisture personally. My fault completely but still... So we get these things in our heads to avoid and for me it is overwatering...

That plant looks excellent for a week... damn! I really dont know if I had roots after a week cause I didnt look. I wasnt expecting them to explode quite that fast. One of the two they are coming out in all directions.. many many roots. Top feed on new started plants is very very impressive!

Looking good Laz! thank you for stopping by.. I have really good info shared by Village on my perpetual thread. Definitely worth a read if you haven't already....



FE

 

[Lazarus13]

I do pop the seeds into just hydroton as soon as they crack and when i had the pump turned off for even a brief period the seedlings looked terrible. Thats why I've been running the pump 24/7. I was worried about base rot even tho the guide i read said 24 hr top feed was ok. I have my drip turned way down so it is very slow and I had only planned on running it non-stop until the roots have spread out a little then play with the timer to see what looks like it works best. Thanks for confirming that this may be a suitable plan of action.
Stay green...

 

[Far East Buds]

I do pop the seeds into just hydroton as soon as they crack and when i had the pump turned off for even a brief period the seedlings looked terrible. Thats why I've been running the pump 24/7. I was worried about base rot even tho the guide i read said 24 hr top feed was ok. I have my drip turned way down so it is very slow and I had only planned on running it non-stop until the roots have spread out a little then play with the timer to see what looks like it works best. Thanks for confirming that this may be a suitable plan of action.
Stay green...

It is a tough one... when I started top feed half the info said hydroton was 24-7 and half had it timed... The reason I went away from full was that the hydroton seemed to hold the water more than i thought. The top area dries up but maybe 1-2 pebble layers down it still seemed soaked even hours later....But I have been all over the place.. but haven't touched it in awhile and things are really growing in veg.

Just popped a sad looking lst'd shoot into hydroton to see if it will take as a clone... Curious.. Nothing different just top feed in veg drip with the rest... scraped it a little and drove it down in... lol

 

[Papageno]

I did seeds direct in medium and I don't like the results for just these reasons. Too hard to control and the sprout doesn't always come up nicely. So I use a peat plug now and I am much happier.

 

[Lazarus13]

Yeah, the only reason i went straight to hydroton instead of peat plugs/rapid rooters/rockwool is because i didn't have any and have been out of medicine for a while, so i decided to just work with what i had. lol I'm going to look into one of those options next time around. You had mentioned people you knew that managed to never have to change out the rez... How does that work? Is it just being really good at the balancing act of nutes/pH/temps/oxygenation and getting to know your system? Any tips for a noob? Sorry to jack your thread FE. If you would like me to take this discussion somewhere else I'd be more than happy.

 

[Papageno]

experience , experience...and a dash of experience.


Knowledge is great. I can explain it to you...but until you have a few grows under your belt it wont sink in.

Go check out this thread. I have explained almost everything you need to know to do a DWC grow. This guy has documented everything and is following my advice to the letter. His grow is great.

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

 

[Far East Buds]

experience , experience...and a dash of experience.


Knowledge is great. I can explain it to you...but until you have a few grows under your belt it wont sink in.

Go check out this thread. I have explained almost everything you need to know to do a DWC grow. This guy has documented everything and is following my advice to the letter. His grow is great.

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

Yes it is really good.. I have to reread some parts as it takes a reading or two to even get it all to sink in... And I am still trying to do the PH down diluting thing but struggling a little... any how I do plan to get back into it and reread some sections...

Thank you Kindly.!!