1st Grow. Dry run for Hydro setup

asaph said:

Hmm... If you are correct about the units you are measuring (meaning, you are in fact measuring TDS / PPM and not EC which is measured like this in μS) - then it's very surprising that your plants are not seriously burned, after getting 2000ish ppm, which is like... 3000 μS or 3.0EC. I grew most of the veg stage with ~1.0EC/~600-700PPM with very good results. But then again, your plants really don't seem burned at all. They are a bit small, I must break, and it seems that your oxygen levels are still to low in the res. What is the res temperature? water saturation levels will reduce drastically at temps higher than 25 celsius. I do recommend using hydrogen peroxide (H2o2) to try and relief this situation, and/or adding yet another air pump. You are using air stones connected to the pipes of the pumps, yes?

You have a nice amount of plants for a res this size and perhaps you should try and build another one to relieve some of the war on oxygen, but this last comment is no more than a hunch.

Try promoting root growth with a rooting accelerator added to your solution.

At any rate, it seems that perhaps DWC isn't the best solution for you. I'm not saying you should quit it, but if you can't fix those problems perhaps you should consider moving them to a hydroponic medium such as coco coir, which will give you hydroponic benefits but be much more helpful with root oxygenation and high temps. It's still a different method, but it might be worth the trouble.

No reason to panic, they are looking healthy and good. Try to improve conditions, wait another week and see where you stand in terms of growth, especially the roots.

(Note: I've never really done DWC so all my advice is to be taken with consideration thereof. Also, they really don't look that bad)

Click to expand...

asaph said:

Hmm... If you are correct about the units you are measuring (meaning, you are in fact measuring TDS / PPM and not EC which is measured like this in μS) - then it's very surprising that your plants are not seriously burned, after getting 2000ish ppm, which is like... 3000 μS or 3.0EC. I grew most of the veg stage with ~1.0EC/~600-700PPM with very good results. But then again, your plants really don't seem burned at all. They are a bit small, I must break, and it seems that your oxygen levels are still to low in the res. What is the res temperature? water saturation levels will reduce drastically at temps higher than 25 celsius. I do recommend using hydrogen peroxide (H2o2) to try and relief this situation, and/or adding yet another air pump. You are using air stones connected to the pipes of the pumps, yes?

You have a nice amount of plants for a res this size and perhaps you should try and build another one to relieve some of the war on oxygen, but this last comment is no more than a hunch.

Try promoting root growth with a rooting accelerator added to your solution.

At any rate, it seems that perhaps DWC isn't the best solution for you. I'm not saying you should quit it, but if you can't fix those problems perhaps you should consider moving them to a hydroponic medium such as coco coir, which will give you hydroponic benefits but be much more helpful with root oxygenation and high temps. It's still a different method, but it might be worth the trouble.

No reason to panic, they are looking healthy and good. Try to improve conditions, wait another week and see where you stand in terms of growth, especially the roots.

(Note: I've never really done DWC so all my advice is to be taken with consideration thereof. Also, they really don't look that bad)

Click to expand...

asaph said:

Also, I think that with DWC, you should not be looking at 'feeding' times, but rather at keeping a more or less steady level of nutrients which you choose according to growth stage (notice that because of past/present problems your plants are behind the normal growth chart/feeding schedule and should be maintained as plants in veg week 2-3), with ppm level staying between that and an acceptable level of maintenance (say, you want maintain 800ppm so you up to that level whenever it drops to say... 600). What do you feed them?

Click to expand...

goodpunk6 said:

I'm using my TDS meter which only measures PPM. I am totally amazed they are not burned!! However, as I type this, I've noticed that some of the lower foliage that is yellowing has some brown tips that are cracking to my touch. I guess I burned them.

The reservoir is almost always 68-69. I have never taken the water temperature with the lights off. I am using two 15 gallon pumps and 2 6' air stones to feed the 10 gallon tote. The 5 gallon bucket for the mother is being fed by a 20 gallon air pump and a 6' air stone. What I've noticed about the mother plant is that she always seems to get a little droopy at the end of the day. That picture just happened to be at that time. Is it really being caused by low oxygen? All I've got is 3% H2O2. Would that work? Yes, all air stones are properly connected to their own air pump.

I will be moving these little bad boys to a 6 site recirculating dwc bucket system. The tote will probably be used to flower sexing clones in the future. I'm convinced that once my PPM/PH issues are resolved that I can move on with dwc. I just read tons of posts to realize that I need to look for the water level and PPM level to work with each other. If the water goes down and the PPMs stay the same then thats the sweet spot. If the water goes down and the PPMs rise then their not eating the nutriets. If the PPMs go down and the water doesn't then you're force feeding your plants. Cool, huh?

I'll take a look at some rooting accelerators online.

Click to expand...

asaph said:

sounds like you know what you are doing then. I'm not sure about the levels, but basically it does sound true. Also if you say the droopiness is at the end of the day then I have that too sometimes. The others do look very good. I think you can stick to the EC/ppm values recommended and even lower than that and still get great results. If you burned your plants a bit don't worry about it, you know what to do, just empty and refill the res or just a part of it (to replace with clean water) if you're bummed about replacing it all.

btw I also use mostly just basic nutrients (HESI coco). I really need to keep it simple I add magnesium (epsom salt) when needed and lately I've been adding supervit too, but no more than that. Soon I will also start using pk 13/14 to boost flowering. I think the h2o2 can't hurt you when you use DWC cuz I think there's no beneficial bacteria there so you can try that. Your roots do look white and healthy. 3% is good, and more oxygen is always a blessing.

cheers and happy growing

Click to expand...