1 Gallon dwc, first grow without soil
- Thread starter GrassBurner
- Start date
GrassBurner
Well-Known Member
It seems to be between 68-71. At night I don't do anything, but during the day I've been putting a frozen 20 oz bottle in the res.
@J232, I forgot to answer your question about adding anything for root protection. Right now, I'm just running the Aqua Flakes A/B, and a product by the same company (h&g) called Multizen. Honestly I'm not sure what it does, bottle says it helps plants uptake nutrients. My buddy that runs aqua flakes runs it, and recommended it.
I did purchase a lb of pool shock before I got started in dwc. Do my roots look like they need it? I haven't felt any slime, but they have a very subtle tint to them. The picture makes them appear darker than they are, im not sure what I'm looking for. Should I expect roots that are crazy white, like a freshly cleaned Hollywood smile?
Would you recommend I run the pool shock as a precautionary measure?
GrassBurner
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the info! Sounds like I need to set 4 times a day/night to check temps, for a week or two, and see if I'm getting any major fluctuations. I seem to check it in the morning, and the evening. So between the hottest part of day at lights on, and the coolest time in the middle of the night, I could have a bigger swing in temperature.
J232
Well-Known Member
Im not sure on feed strength, I have used the flora trio at twice the ec as I am currently with flora nova. What I do or have been doing is, start lower and watch the ec, water level and ph (like that chart). If the plants are eating well you should see the water drop and the ec drop a bit every day or 2. It’s easier to fix under fed plants then over fed imo and things happen quick in hydro.
I switched to hydro and went with a larger volume of water, I can only reference the stability of my ph but I assume 10 gallons is enough to keep it stable for days.
Hot rooms will make a plant drink more and take more nutrients up, if they are drinking fast, keep the feed lower to prevent tox or burning. I wouldn’t worry so much about the color of the roots, more the texture of them. If they are kinda smooth and sticking/clumping together, there might be a problem. The slightest light leak can cause a lot of issues, cover those pinholes even. I use a chiller set at 65f and settled on peroxide when needed, without my chiller I would lose the room fast. Yes if you’re able to run sterile I would recommend that for simplicity and I would introduce that sooner then later as another safeguard to higher res temps. I would not count on it to protect high temps though.
GrassBurner
Well-Known Member
Did a little more reading about Multi Zen. Found a decent description.
House & Garden’s Multi Zen is renowned by growers in Holland for its ability to push plants to their true potential.
House & Garden has formulated Multi Zen specifically to help you achieve maximum potential harvest after harvest. Multi Zen’s unique formulation helps to aid in the break down of nutrients making them more readily available within the root zone.
Multi Zen is a highly concentrated growth additive and its unique formulation helps to increase flower sites and thicken stalks. House & Garden maintains their own nutrient manufacturing facility as well as their own laboratories where they continually test each batch of fertilizer they produce. This ensures that gardeners employing House & Garden receive high quality, consistent products.
As with all products from House & Garden, Multi Zen is highly concentrated. This exclusive formulation helps to promote healthy and beneficial microorganisms, providing support for bigger, heavier harvests. To ensure a consistent quality and experience, Multi Zen is produced using only pharmaceutical and/or food grade ingredients in small batches.
Many growers find Multi Zen particularly useful for their mother plants, as it helps to break down nutrients and root material that can build up in the growing media. We recommend using Multi Zen on mother plants once every 2 weeks to a month, depending on how many excess nutrients and plant materials may be present in the medium.
Application:
Multi Zen should be used from early on in the vegetative stage and throughout the first three weeks of flowering at a rate of 3.8 ml per gallon. Do not use Multi Zen in conjunction with hydrogen peroxide, chlorine based sterilizers, or water conditioners that can potentially harm the active ingredients present in Multi Zen. Multi Zen can be used in conjunction with any existing nutrient formula.
Sounds like it has stuff to help keep the roots healthy?
House & Garden’s Multi Zen is renowned by growers in Holland for its ability to push plants to their true potential.
House & Garden has formulated Multi Zen specifically to help you achieve maximum potential harvest after harvest. Multi Zen’s unique formulation helps to aid in the break down of nutrients making them more readily available within the root zone.
Multi Zen is a highly concentrated growth additive and its unique formulation helps to increase flower sites and thicken stalks. House & Garden maintains their own nutrient manufacturing facility as well as their own laboratories where they continually test each batch of fertilizer they produce. This ensures that gardeners employing House & Garden receive high quality, consistent products.
As with all products from House & Garden, Multi Zen is highly concentrated. This exclusive formulation helps to promote healthy and beneficial microorganisms, providing support for bigger, heavier harvests. To ensure a consistent quality and experience, Multi Zen is produced using only pharmaceutical and/or food grade ingredients in small batches.
Many growers find Multi Zen particularly useful for their mother plants, as it helps to break down nutrients and root material that can build up in the growing media. We recommend using Multi Zen on mother plants once every 2 weeks to a month, depending on how many excess nutrients and plant materials may be present in the medium.
Application:
Multi Zen should be used from early on in the vegetative stage and throughout the first three weeks of flowering at a rate of 3.8 ml per gallon. Do not use Multi Zen in conjunction with hydrogen peroxide, chlorine based sterilizers, or water conditioners that can potentially harm the active ingredients present in Multi Zen. Multi Zen can be used in conjunction with any existing nutrient formula.
Sounds like it has stuff to help keep the roots healthy?
J232
Well-Known Member
Sounds like enzymes of sorts, sterile would counter act that and wouldn’t be compatible. You will probably end up trying different things over time.
GrassBurner
Well-Known Member
Yeah im definitely not buying anything else! My buddy has been growing for a long time, he uses the aqua flakes and multi zen. He's run everything, and said the a/b and mz are the only things he recommends in their line 
I appreciate the heads up, great looking roots!
I appreciate the heads up, great looking roots!
GrassBurner
Well-Known Member
That green mesh keep air stones from getting clogged?
GrassBurner
Well-Known Member
Got some excellent growth the last couple days 
GrassBurner
Well-Known Member
The plant in dwc has just about caught up Maybe it took a little while to get adjusted to the new nutes.
Maybe it took a little while to get adjusted to the new nutes.
GrassBurner
Well-Known Member
Tied her down today. Took some cuttings, gonna flip the tent tomorrow. This tote worked great with my sips height wise, was able to get a pretty even canopy across the tent.
GrassBurner
Well-Known Member
My girl was looking a little rough this evening. Been busy the last couple of days and haven't paid her any attention. pH was up to 7.0 Water was down about 3/4 of a gallon, ppm's were down to about 600 from around 875. Topped her off with some fresh water/nutes and new frozen water bottle. EC is between 1.1 - 1.2.
GrassBurner
Well-Known Member
Another milestone day, first pump failure 
Completely my fault, managed to spill water near the air pump, and naturally it sucked it in. Switched over to a powerhead pump with aerator tube on it.
Just a cheap Aqua-Tech unit from Walmart, cost around $25. Seems to move a decent amount of water, hopefully it isn't too much. Will moving water effect the root structure negatively?
Completely my fault, managed to spill water near the air pump, and naturally it sucked it in. Switched over to a powerhead pump with aerator tube on it. Just a cheap Aqua-Tech unit from Walmart, cost around $25. Seems to move a decent amount of water, hopefully it isn't too much. Will moving water effect the root structure negatively?
Wastei
Well-Known Member
Bigger volume of water = a stable system with less work in the long run. That system will be a nightmare to operate with that small water volume/reservoir size. I wish you all the best of luck though! Cheers! 
Edit: Just saw you decided to use the whole tote after some persuasion.
Edit: Just saw you decided to use the whole tote after some persuasion.
Hollatchaboy
Well-Known Member
Why not just use the tote for your res?I'm not sure if this is deep water culture, shallow water culture, kratky, or something elseI've got (2) 1 Gallon plastic Mason jars, 2 air stones and pump, and jacks 321.
Didn't want to drop a whole lot of money, but I've always thought it would be cool to try a non soil grow. Picked up a Grey 10 gallon storage tote, to keep light out of my jars, and to have somewhere to put a frozen bottle to try to keep the reservoirs cool. Might grab a cheap fabric cooler, and set the jars in it, with a frozen bottle. Probably have one laying around here somewhere.
Here is the initial setup, minus air hoses. Gonna put the holes for them right about where I want the max fill level to be (an inch below the bottom of the net cup), so I can just unscrew the top, dump the jar, and not have an air line to fiddle with.
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Anyone that has run anything similar have any advice? I searched through forums, found a guy growing in a jar, but his plants turned out male so he scrapped the grow I believe. Any glaring problems you see with my setup? I'm looking forward to a new challenge.
From what I have been reading, I'm going to be topping these off quite a bit. I did pick up a middle of the road pen and some calibration fluid. Im planning to swap the reservoirs once a week with fresh nutrients. My well water comes out at 425ppms. Sounds a little high to me, I'm guessing calcium. Lots of limestone in my part of the country, clogs my shower and sink faucets up every few months.
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I've got a couple fem Doughlato seeds from Archive I'm gonna grow. Not trying to grow monsters, just want to try something new to me. Thanks for any advice
Edit: I just noticed that too. Lol