Soil grower. Convince me.

futurebanjo

futurebanjo

Well-Known Member
Modern Selections said:
DWC sucks. Ph swings, changing out buckets of water with finding a way to support plants while bucket change etc.

Simple flood and drain table. Res, tray, net pots, hydroton. Change res once a week. Most minimal amount of work in growing.View attachment 5333599
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Lovely pic, looks awesome!

bUT...

changing out buckets of water with finding a way to support plants while bucket change etc.

You can just use a hose and a pump to drain out the rez, and flip it backwards to re-fill...you can just leave the plants in situ.

That's what I do..I have a bath tub in the next room, so i drain it all out into that, down the drain. Then I fill the bath tub up, and balance the new water/feed in the tub before pumping it back into the rez.
 
J

Jonesfamily7715

Well-Known Member
I couldn't get dwc right till I was introduced to hydrogaurd, then I found that garden friendly fungicide for. Way cheaper only use maxi series now days
 
senorthc

senorthc

Member
Honestly recommend coco/perlite, fabric or airpots. feed 1-2x daily, 10-20% run off, you can get some good growth at a fraction of the price and hassle. IF you really want to use a res consider drip irrigation or autopots,

I had been wanting to try rdwc after my first dwc run, I hate the fact that I cannot leave a trellis, and having to move her entirely when changing the res 2x a week.. I could either cough up the money for a hydrabucket, meh, or build my own recirculating system for my 3x3, and honestly I think it would be more of a pain in the ass, considering the potential problems that are carried along with it. and my grow environment.
 
P

phantom grower

Active Member
ProPheT 216 said:
No pests, no flushing, complete control over what your plants have immediate access to. If you mess up just change your res out. No cost of soil or clean up and removal of soil. Faster veg growth.
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All of these are some great benefits but there are some drawbacks of course.
From my experience, DWC was very tedious. I found myself making constant adjustments to the pH and having to constantly worry about my res temps, unpredictable swings in pH so I could never predict where it was going to go, and when.
I loved DWC because it gave me complete control, but I also learned that it is damn hard to have all of that control and it required daily maintenance. But again, this is just from my experience in dwc.
I'm now growing in rockwool and even tho it has come with its own challenges, I don't need that daily work, the way that dwc required
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
Growth rate and yield are great, but for the pain in the ass it creates, it isn't worth it for me. Power outage worries gave me anxiety. Noisier, in some cases, creates more heat, constant cleaning and calibrating pH probe. Don't get me wrong, It's cool to watch, but soil is so much easier, imo.
 
futurebanjo

futurebanjo

Well-Known Member
It really depends on the style of hydro, once you get it dialled in you can really get 'a feel for it' and in veg espesialy, I can let mine go a week without really doing anything other than checking the water for PH&EC just to confirm nothing much has changed and taking corrective action if it goes too far in any direction.

I'm also a heathen, as I don't chnage my res out at all apart from when switchng to bloom ferts from veg ferts, or unless something goes really wrong.
 
Rahz

Rahz

Well-Known Member
MintyDreadlocks said:
I've had thoughts of DWC swimming through my head. I've done soil for the last 10 years and thinking about changing things up. Tell me what I'm missing out on and why I'd like DWC more than soil.
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DWC is great but between grows you need to get as close to sterilizing everything as possible. Sanitizing isn't enough. Bleach and scrub the crap out of everything. Otherwise at some point you will get an infection.
 
marzig

marzig

Well-Known Member
senorthc said:
I had been wanting to try rdwc after my first dwc run, I hate the fact that I cannot leave a trellis, and having to move her entirely when changing the res 2x a week.. I could either cough up the money for a hydrabucket, meh, or build my own recirculating system for my 3x3, and honestly I think it would be more of a pain in the ass, considering the potential problems that are carried along with it. and my grow environment.
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I converted my 2 Hydrobucket DWC to RDWC recently. It's in a 2x4 tent and everything is in a 2x8 closet. I made frames that mount to the Hydrobucket lids to attach nets or support rods to for each plant. This way I can rotate each plant on it's bucket independently to work on them. With the cooler reservoir the total capacity is 20 gal. The flat spots on the buckets make mounting the 2" bulkheads a snap.

In the future I'm planning on upgrading to a 4x4 or 5x5 tent in an extra bedroom. Then I'll have room to add 2 more buckets and use a larger res and make access easier

For me anyway, RDWC has been a total game changer.

DWC to RDWC conversion

Technically it should work. , but the chiller could restrict flow a bit. Even though it has 3/4" inlet\outlet fittings, the internal coil could have smaller channels. inside than that. You would only be using one pump, instead of 2 if you put the chiller on it's own loop. You would definitely...
www.rollitup.org
 
yummy fur

yummy fur

Well-Known Member
There is also Shallow Water Culture too. Where the roots come out of the net pot into an enclosing pot with a small pool of water that overflows into a res. This also allows the roots to absorb the shallow pool and sit. Using the Nutrifield Pro Pots.
 
S

sgtac33

Member
Rahz said:
DWC is great but between grows you need to get as close to sterilizing everything as possible. Sanitizing isn't enough. Bleach and scrub the crap out of everything. Otherwise at some point you will get an infection.
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I just use my pressure cleaner to rinse the bins out never use bleach or scrub the bins and never had any sterilizing issues in all my years of growing hydro.
 
S

sgtac33

Member
Hollatchaboy said:
Growth rate and yield are great, but for the pain in the ass it creates, it isn't worth it for me. Power outage worries gave me anxiety. Noisier, in some cases, creates more heat, constant cleaning and calibrating pH probe. Don't get me wrong, It's cool to watch, but soil is so much easier, imo.
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For me it's the total opposite. IMO soil is way more work and takes too long to get desired results. As far as power outage you generally have a good 24 hours before things start going south and it really doesn't cause more heat.
 
S

sgtac33

Member
futurebanjo said:
It really depends on the style of hydro, once you get it dialled in you can really get 'a feel for it' and in veg espesialy, I can let mine go a week without really doing anything other than checking the water for PH&EC just to confirm nothing much has changed and taking corrective action if it goes too far in any direction.

I'm also a heathen, as I don't chnage my res out at all apart from when switchng to bloom ferts from veg ferts, or unless something goes really wrong.
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Exactly. I have my set up where I don't have to touch anything for a week at a time as well. Love it!!!!
 
Hollatchaboy

Hollatchaboy

Well-Known Member
sgtac33 said:
For me it's the total opposite. IMO soil is way more work and takes too long to get desired results. As far as power outage you generally have a good 24 hours before things start going south and it really doesn't cause more heat.
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What's work about adding just water every couple days, and some top dress every couple weeks?

Faster growth rate is accomplished by using a sip. (Makes watering even easier as well). No pH'ing needed. No pH probe calibrating. No measuring nutes.

24 hours, depending on how much D.O. is in the nutrient solution.

Air and water pumps add considerable heat. Just ask my res. Lol
 
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